Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
~ocket M-310
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Background of the Invention
Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the art of pinning
machines and knife assemblies.
Brief Descriptlon of the Prior Art
U.S. patent No. 1,667,810 to Kohnle dated May 1, 1928
discloses a pinning machine having a cam driven, spring-
containing plunger and a knife assembly having knife blades
84 and 87.
lo U.S. patent No. 2,438,118 to Flood et al dated
March 23, 194g discloses a pinning machine having a knife
assembly with a knife rigidly secured to a cam driven bell
crank lever rockable about a stud shaft. The plunger is driven
by adjustably connected levers, one of which carries a cam
follower received in a cam track and the other of which in
directly coupled to the plunger.
Summa~y~_ f the Invention
According to the invention, there is disclosed a
knife assembly in which a pair of fixed knives spaced apart by
a gap are cooperable with a movable knife which moves in the
gap. The movable knife is guided for movement in alignment with
the gap. The movable knife is floatingly or, loosely mounted so
that its movement is controlled by the guide means and not by
the mounting means. It is preferred that the guide means
be provided by an extension or tang on the movable knife, and
the tang is guided for movement in the gap. The movable
knife is preferably mounted in a movably mounted knife
holder having shaft or post means received in oversize holes
in the movable knife. The relationship between the holes
and the post means enables the movable knife to cant away
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Docket M-310
from the perpendicular with respect to the post means under
the control of the guide means. It is preferred to resiliently
hold the knife in the holder so that knife clatter is
obviated. The movable knife is removably mounted to the
holder so that a worn knife can be readily sharpened or
replaced.
It is another feature of the invention to provide
a pinning machine of the type having an anvil and a cooperable
plunger with an arrangement by which an operator can quic~ly
lo change over the machine to pin tags to various thicknesses
of merchandise. This is accomplished by changing the length
of the plunger so that when the plunger is actuated the
amount of clearance between the plunger and the anvil (when
the plunger and the anvil are in complete cooperation) can
be varied. In the preferred arrangement the operator simply
rotates one part of the plunger through 360 degrees to either
lengthen or shorten the plunger. If for example the length
of the plunger is set to pin tags to thin merchandise such as
delicate lingerie and it is now deeired to pin tags to thick
merchandise such as heavy denim jeans, then the plunger length
should be shortened by rotating one of the parts of the plunger
relative to another of the plunger parts, and vice versa. It
is preferred that the plunger parts be threadably adjustably
secured to each other so that rotation of the parts relative to
each other results in lengthening or shortening of the plunger.
It is also a feature that the plunger be lengthened or shortened
in stages. As an operator becomes familiar with the adjustment
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range of the plunger the opexator will know how t~ adju~t ~he
plunger ~uickly by determining from experience the nv~ber of
complete revolutions of the plunger that are required to
adjust from one thickness of merchandise to another. The
plunger parts are preferably rotated relative to each other
through 360 degrees so that a pin guide groove in the
upper end of the plunger is always correctly oriented relative
to a pin driver. It is prefexred to use a spring-urged detent
cooperable with a groove so that when the operator sense~
lo that the plunger has been brought to an initial or home position
the operator will know that the pin guide groove of the plunger
is correctly oriented. The plunger is guided for reciprocal
movement in a guide or barrel. It is preferable that the
upper part of the plunger is the xotatable part so that
the operator can adjust the plunger by manually grasping
and rotating that portion of the upper part of the plunger
which projects above the barrel.
Brief Description of the Drawings
FIGURE 1 is an exploded perspective diagrammatic view
of major components of a pinning machine incorporating the
invention;
FIGURE 2 iS an exploded perspective view of a knife
assembly o~ the machine;
FIGURE 3 is a side elevational view of the knife
assembly showing the movable knife in the non-cutting position;
FIGURE 4 is a sectional view taken along line 4--4
of FIGURE 3;
FIGURE S iS a side elevational view similar to
FIGURE 3 but showing the movable knife in the cutting
30 pOgition;
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~ocket M-311 10~870
FIGURE 6 is a view similar to FIGURE 5 but showing
components of the knife asse~bly moving relative to each
other upon the movable knife encountering excessive resistance;
and
FIGURE 7 is a sectional view taken along line 7--7 of
FIGURE 3;
FIGURE 8 is a front elevational view of a plunger
and barrel for the pinning machine;
FIGURE 9 is a top plan view of the plunger and
barrel shown in FIGURE 8;
FIGURE 10 is an enlarged sectional view taken
along line 10--10 of FIGURE 9;
FIGURE 11 is a right side elevational view of the
plunger shown in FIGURE 10; and
FIGURE 12 is an enlarged sectional view taken
along line 12--12 of FIGURE 11.
Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiment
With reference to FIGURE 1 in which there is shown
an exploded fragmentary view of a pinning machine generally
indicated at 20, the ~lachine 20 has an electric motor 21 for
driving a cam shaft 22 through a single revolution clutch 23.
The clutch 23 is tripped or cycled once by a manually operable
actuator or paddle Z4 which is shown to be coupled to the
clutch 23 as indicated by phantom lines 25. Cams 26, 27
and 28 are fixed to the shaft 22 and rotate through a
single revolution each time the clutch 23 is operated to drive
components of the machine 20 through a machine cycle. The
cam 26 drives a roller follower 29 carried by a pivotally
mounted lever generally indicated at 30. The lever 30
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includes a pair of arms 31 and 32 fixedly secured to a
sleeve 33. The arm 32 has a bifurcated portion 32'. The
sleeve 33 is pivotally mounted on a pivot 34. A barrel or
guide 35 mounts a plunger 36 for reciprocal movement. The
plunger 36 is coupled to the bifurcat~d portion 32' of the
arm 32. The plunger 36 is cooperable with the anvil 37 at a
pinning zone Z at which a tag T and merchandise (not shown) are
held in a bent orientation.
The cam 27 has a cam groove 38 which receives a
lo roller follower 39. The roller follower 39 is carried by a
pivotally mounted arm 40 mounted on a pivot 41. The arm 40
has a bifurcated portion 42 which receives a pin 43 carried
by a slide 44. The slide 44 is guided for reciprocal move-
ment on a guide 45. The slide 44 carries a feed finger 46
which is used to advance the tag T to the pinning zone Z.
The slide 44 carries an actuator 47 which contacts an actuated
member 48 to advance a feed claw 49. The feed claw 49
advances during each cycle of the cam machine to advance the
pin strip PS. The pin strip PS carries a plurality of pins P.
As the pin strip PS is advanced the leading pin P is
brought into a pin driving position relative to a pin driver 50.
The cam 28 drives a knife assembly or cutting
mechanism generally indicated at 51. The knife assembly is
shown to include a lever 52 pivotally mounted on a shaft 53
and carries a follower roller 53' driven by the cam 28. The
knife assembly 51 is also shown to include a knife holder or
lever 54 pivotally mounted on the shaft 53. The holder 54 has
a threaded bore 55. The lever 52 contains a hole 56. Head
57 of a bolt 58 bears against the lever 52 and the bolt 58
passes through the hole 56 and is threadably received in the
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threaded ~ore 55. A compression spring 59 is received about
the bolt 58 and bears at one end against the lever 52 and at
the other end against lever 54. With reference to FIGURE 2
the holder 54 is shown to have a pair of parallel posts or
studs 60. The posts 60 pass through enlarged or oversize
holes 61 in a movable knife 62. The knife 62 has a blade
portion 63, an extension or tang 64 and a shank portion 65
which contains the holes 61. Pairs of O-rings 66 recei~ed
on the posts 60 straddle the shank portion 65 adjacent the
lo holes 61. The posts 60 also extend through holes 67 in arm
68 of an angle-shaped bracket generally indicated at 69.
The bracket 69 also has an arm 70 with a pair of holes 71
which receive threaded fasteners 72 threadably received in
threaded holes 77 in body 78 of the holder 54. The holes 67
are axially aligned with the posts 60. There is a relatively
close fit between the posts 60 and the holes 67 so that
when the bracket 69 is in place both end portions
of the posts 60 are secured. The holes 61 are also axially
aligned with the posts 60 but are suffici.ently large in
dimension to enable the knife 62 to skew relative to the posts
60 as shown exaggeratedly in FIGURE 4. The knife 62 i5 shown
to be rsceived in a gap 79 between a spaced-apart pair of
knives 80 and 81. The tang or extension 64 is in guided
relationship with the end faces of the knife so that the
knife 62 is always guided by the tang 64 in alignment with
the gap 79. The O-rings 66 resiliently yield to allow the
guide 64 to control the position of the knife 62. As also
shown in FIGURE 4 the leg portion 68 is parallel to wall
82 of the holder 54, and the posts 60 are shown to be perpen-
dicular to the leg portion 68. The O-rings 66 are shown to
be under different states of compression in FIGURE 4. It
is readily apparent that the knife 62 can cant with respect
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to the perpendicular relative to the posts 60, in that the
knife 62 is loosely or floatingly mounted on the posts 60.
The holes 61 in the shank portion 65 of the knife 62 can be
of any desired shape for example they can be elongated
slots, so long as the knife 62 is permitted to func~ion in
the manner indicated above. By an alternative construction
(not shown) the knife 62 can be provided with integrally
formed posts or studs which can be floatingly or loosely
received in the holder to accomplish the same purpose
lo or the knife 62 can be mounted in the holder in any suitable
manner to accomplish the foregoing coaction. As is preferred
the knife 62 is a blanking knife which means that the knife
has opposed edges 62a and 62b which cooperate respectfully
with edges 80a and 81a of the respective knives 80 and 81,
although the invention is not limited to the use of a blanking
knife. The web W of tags T is provided with lands L disposed
between the ends of laterally aligned slots S. The cooperating
knives 62, 80 and 81 sever lands L between lateral aligned
slots S to provide rectangularly-shaped blanks or chad so
that the severed tag is rectangular and can be readily fed by
the feed finger 46. In the event the knife 62 encounters
undue resistance the spring 59 will yield as indicated in
FIGURE 6 to prevent damage to the machine 20.
With reference to FIGURE 8 the barrel 35 is shown
to have a barrel portion 120 cast integrally with a mounting
flange portion 121. The mounting flange portion 121 is secured
to the frame (not shown) of the machine 20 as by screws (not
shown). The plunger 36 is shown to include relatively
movable parts or components generally indicated at 122 and 123.
The part 122 is shown to include a tube 124, a plunger member
125 which extends into the tube 124 and is secured to the tube
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124 by a pin 126, a connector 127 having an internally threaded
bore 128, and a pin 129 secured to the connector 127 and having
ends 130 and 131 which extend through opposed elongated slots
132 and 133 in the tube 124. The connector 127 is slidably
received by the inside surfaces of the tube 124. The part 122
also includes compression spring 134 which bears at one
end of the plunger member 125 and at the other end against
the connector 127. The spring 134 is adapted to yield when
the plunger 36 encounters undue resistance at the pinning
zone Z. The tube 124, the plunger member 125, the pin 126,
the connector 127, the pin 129 and the spring 134 can be
considered to be one part or subassembly in that the part
122 is rotatable as unit relative to the part 123. The
part 123 is shown to include a connector 135 having a
clevis or clevis portion 136, a threaded portion 137 threadably
received in the threaded bore 128, and a detent 138 threadably
received by the connector 135. The detent 138 is shown in
detail in FIGURE 12. The detent 138 is threadably received
in a th~ough h~le 139 and is held in place by a plastic
locking member 140. The detent 138 includes a cavity
or recess 141 ~or receiving a compression spring 142, a
dish-shaped washer 143 and a ball 144. The ball 144 is shown
to cooperate with a longitudinally extending groove 145 in the
connector 127. The detent 138 and the groove 145 are so
positioned that guide groove 146 in the plunger member 125 i5
correctly oriented with respect to pin driver 50 when ball 144
cooperates with the groove 145. In t~e event the operator
desires to change the length of the plunger 36 for pinning
a tag T to a different thickness of merchandise, the operator
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grasps the portion of the plunger 36 which extends above
the barrel portion 120 and rotates it through 360 degrees cr
through a multiple of 360 degrees in either one direction or in
the opposite direction to either lengthen or shorten the plunger
36. When as for example a tag T is to be pinned to thick
merchandise the plunger 36 is rotated in the direction which will
shorten the plunger 36. In so doing the entire part 122
rotates relative to the part 123. The shortened plunger 36
will now rise to a final but lower level relative to the
lo anvil 37.
Other embodiments and modificat ons of this inven-
tion will suggest themselves to those skilled in the art, and
all such of these as come within the spirit of this invention
are included within its scope as best defined by the appended
claims.
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