EP0078246A2

EP0078246A2 - Rotary head numbering machine to mark lengths on fabrics

Info

Publication number: EP0078246A2
Application number: EP82830270A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Silvio Pambianco
Original assignee: ELLESSE INTERNATIONAL SpA
Current assignee: ELLESSE INTERNATIONAL SpA
Priority date: 1981-10-27
Filing date: 1982-10-27
Publication date: 1983-05-04
Also published as: GR76751B; DK473282A; IT8124718A0; EP0078246A3

Abstract

The description is of a rotary head numbering machine to mark lengths on fabrics.

It is suitable to effect the aforesaid marking directly on the side edge or selvage of the fabric, particularly for long pieces of fabric.

The numbering head, in accordance with the invention, is able to overcome the problems of traditional machines which, by not permitting the printing of the length on the fabric, required the application of labels to indicate the , length which involve long and expensive operations and due to their thickness, cause a deformation of the piece which resulted in an impression on the fabric.

The numbering head (T) subject of this invention permits the length to be printed directly on the fabric (2) and for this purpose is equipped with at least three printing discs (10A, 10B, 10C) for the units, tens and hundreds respectively, capable of being positioned, by suitable control means (55,14) in the printing position synchronously with the rate of advancement of the fabric (2).

Description

The present invention concerns a rotary head numbering machine capable of stamping the lenght on pieces of fabric. More particularly the present invention has as its subject a numbering head which achieves stamping of the lenght directly on the side edge or selvage of the fabric. Machines capable of marking the length of the fabric are known, prior to suitable measurement of the fabric itself, that include a numerator stamp, which is updated as the fabric advances along the working surface, the aforesaid stamp periodically applies the length marking onto the labels which are progressively removed from a support strip wound on a spool. After the length marking has been impressed on the label, the latter is cut and applied to the fabric by further means specifically predisposed.
First of all these machines are extremely complex due to the presence of numerous operating units such as the stamping unit, the label feed station and the cutting and label applying means to the fabric.
These machines are therefore extremely expensive and require considerable maintenance.
Furthermore, these machines are not suitable to print the length directly onto the fabric, since the stamging unit does not follow the advancement movement of the fabric because it only has an orthogonal movement with respect to the fabric.
Therefore, stamping is found impossible since the numbers would be illegible. In order to use the stamping unit directly on the fabric it would be necessary to stop the fabric, to the detriment of accuracy and introducing dead times, or alternatively, to achieve stamping in a very short time so that contact with the fabric by the stamping unit is not affected by the speed of the latter. The latter alternative is obviously difficult to achieve due to technological limitations.
A further inconvenience of the machines for traditional marking originates from the fact that the stamping unit is subject to deposits and an accumulation of dust and fluff which by mixing with the stamping ink, rapidly jeopardise the proper operation of the stamping unit. Another problem of traditional machines consists in the fact that the numerous labels applied periodically to the fabric piece cause the fabric to swell when the piece is wound into a roll. This swelling is inevitably translated into an impression on the fabric which is not readily removed and which in some cases irreparably damages the fabric.
Other machines used to mark the length foresee the applio- ation of a small strip of paper on the end of the fabric piece, but this causes the considerable inconvenience of only providing the total length of the piece, hence forcing the user to measure the strips of fabric that are removed from the piece each time.
Now a numbering head has been invented and constitutes the subject of the present invention to mark the length on the fabric which makes it possible to eliminate all the problems of traditional machines.
Therefore, one of the main purposes of this invention consists of the realisation of a numbering head for fabrics by which it is possible to mark the length directly on the selvage of the fabric, thus eliminating the need for labels or similar solutions and of the relative equipment.
A further purpose of this invention consists of realising a numbering head which achieves marking in an extremely precise way without requiring the fabric to be stopped,so therefore it may advance continuously.
Another purpose of this invention is the realisation of a numbering head which achieves marking in a precise way independently of the speed or of the advancement speed changes of the fabric,since the movement of the aforesaid head is strictly co-related to the fabric speed following its possible variations.
Another purpose of the invention is that of realising a numbering head which is free from accummulations of dust, or fluff therefore making for reliable and long-lasting operation .
The numbering head,in accordance with the invention,for this purpose is characterised by the fact that it includes rotary support means of at least three stamping cylinders., these support means are connected to means which control their rotation, activated cyclicly by sensor means of the fabric advancement, the sensor means are capable of also activating the step-wise rotational control means of at least one of the aforesaid stamping cylinders for it to be up-dated to the quantity of fabric detected by the sensor means, the aforesaid printing cylinder being connected to the other cylinders via a kinematic motion transmission, there being provided clamping means for each one of the printing cylinders, which may be-de-activated elastically in contrast with the action of the activating means of the step-wise rotation of the cylinders, capable of maintaining the aforesaid cylinders in the position reached after each up-dating rotation, means are foreseen able to control stoppage of the rotation of the numbering head at the end of each marking operation. The characteristics and the advantages of the numbering head, according to the invention,will be obvious from the following detailed description of one of its non-limiting embodiment made with reference to the figures attached,of which:

FIGURE 1 is a schematic view of the equipment using the numbering head in accordance with the invention;
FIGURE la is a view indicating, in traversal cross-section, a detail of the equipment;
FIGURE 2 is a schematic front view indicating the numbering head in accordance with the invention;
FIGURE 3 is a side view of the numbering head in relation to the direction of arrow III of figure 2;
FIGURE 4 is a side view of the numbering head in relation to the direction of arrow IV of figure 2;
FIGURE 5 is a partial view of the numbering head in respect of section A-A of figure 3, the section being laid flat;
FIGURE 6 is a longitudinal section view of the numbering head showing the pneumatic drive means of the stamp cylinders;
FIGURE 7 is a transversal section view showing the means as detailed in figure 6.

The numbering head, in accordance with the invention, may operate indifferently using its own fabric advancement sensor, or may advantageously use means sensitive to the fabric advancement suitably modified, present in normal equipment which effect qualitative and quantitative control of fabrics in the final production stage of the latter. Solely for es- positive and representational convenience, reference will be made to the latter case, since the specific illustration and description of such means is not required. Now with special reference to figures 1 and 2 a description is made of the overall equipment to mark the length measurement on a fabric, an equipment which uses the numbering head according to the invention.
This equipment includes a work table 1, on which a fabric 2 slides in accordance with the direction of arrow F on which, in the final production phase, control of the quality and of the quantity is achieved in a known manner, not shown. The fabric 2, generally in a piece of considerable length, originates from supply means positioned above the upper edge of the table 1 and is transferred to take-up means located in correspondence to the lower edge of table 1. The supply means of the fabric 2 may be of any type, is known in its own right and therefore not shown. However, since the fabric 2 must advance over the table 1 in a perfectly stretched condition, these supply means will be equipped with braking means such as a clutch, or similar arrangementwhich will act in contrast with the means, also not shown, which control the return of the fabric 2 towards the take-up means, hence achieving the required tension of the fabric 2. The take-up means, although known in its own right, like the supply means, may simply consist of a cylinder on which the roll is arranged around which the piece will be wound, the said cylinder being made to rotate by motor means.
A transversal support bar 4 is foreseen in the upper part of the work table 1 on which a bracket 5 is fixed in a substantially central position that supports a known counter device of the metre lengths of fabric 6, known technically as a " metre - counter ", on the shaft 6a, of which a wheel 7 is keyed, the lower part of which is in contact with the fabric 2 and turns as the latter advances. In this way the quantity of fabric 2 which has passed beneath the metre-counter 6 on the work table 1 is displayed.
The numbering machine head, according to the present invention, is arranged, in the form illustrated, on the left side of figure 1 and is indicated by the letter T. The numbering machine head T is schematically shown in figure 2 and figures 3 to 7 show, in greater detail, the various component parts of the numbering machine head.
The numbering machine head, according to the invention, essentially consists of a pair of circular plates 8,9 which are connected between one another by a central shaft 41 to which they are fixed in a known manner.
The plates 8,9 are substantially parallel with one another and lie in a plane parallel to the side edge of the fabric 2. By now making special reference to figure 3, which is a side view of the numbering machine head in accordance with the direction of arrow III of figure 2, the said head includes three stamping cylinders 10A, 10 B and 10C, the rotational axes of which 8A, 8B and 8C are equidistant from the central shaft 41, which acts as the head support. In addition, as can be seen in particular in figure 5, the three stamping cylinders 10A, 10B and 10C are coplanar in an essentially parallel plane to that of plate 9.
The stamping cylinders 10A, 10B and 10C, as is seen from figure 3, partially project beyond the contour of plate 9 to permit stamping of the length measurement, in the area in which the said stamping will be made, they work together with a contrast roller 30. In fact, in figure 3 the fabric 2 advances, between the stamping cylinder 10A and the said roller 30. The latter is supported by a shaft 31, which is connected to known means, not shown, which control its rotation in synchronism with the advancement speed of the fabric 2.
Now by making special reference to figure 5, which shows in a transversal section, spread over a plane, the complex of the three stamping cylinders and the rotation drive mechanism, two further drive shafts 9A, 9B are interposed between the shafts 8A, 8B and 8C of the stamping cylinders, which at the appropriate moment, as will be clarified below, transmit a rotational movement from one stamping cylinder to the other. In this way transmission from the units cylinder 10A is achieved to the tens cylinder 10B and from the latter, to the hundreds cylinder 10C.
Transmission of the motion from the units cylinder 10A to the tens cylinder 10B is achieved in the following way. First of all it must be noted that a wheel 14, with a peripheric radial slit 14A, is keyed onto the shaft 8A of the units cylinder 10A which is crossed, in correspondence with the peripheric edge of the disc 14, by ten small pins 50 which, as can be seen in particular in figure 6, are equidistanced angularly between one another and lie on a circumference concentric to pin 8A. The presence of the wheel 14, associated with the units cylinder 10A makes it possible to achieve a trip rotation of cylinder 10A, in particular, for each advancement unit of the fabric 2 there is a rotation through one tenth of a revolution. This control is achieved via pneumatic means described below.
The rotation of the units cylinder 10A is transmitted to the tens cylinder 10B every time the units cylinder 10A has completed one full revolution, i.e. stamping of the first 9 metres length of fabric has been made and stamping of the tenth metre must be predisposed. For this purpose a first gear 12 is provided keyed onto the shaft 8A of the units cylinder 10 A which engages with a second gear 11 keyed onto the intermediate shaft 9A. The latter has a number of teeth equal to the number of the first gear 12, one of which indicated with 11a, is wider than the others and its width is sufficient to permit it to engage with a third gear 15 that has two teeth crowns, 15a and 15b respectively. The tooth 11a, with the greater gear width 11 engages, at every complete revolution of the units cylinder 10A, with the teething 15a controlling the rotation of the tens cylinder 10B through one tenth of a revolution. Analogously, the rotation drive, at every complete revolution of the tens cylinder 10B, of the hundreds cylinder 10C, occurs via a gear 21, keyed onto the intermediate shaft 9B which engages constantly with the teething 15b of the intermediate gear 15 and has one tooth wider than the others 21a, which periodically engages with the gear 22 keyed onto the shaft 8C onto which the hundreds cylinder 10C is keyed.
The connections described above permit control of the rotation through one tenth of a revolution of one stamping cylinder when the previous cylinder has completed one full revol - ution. In this way the hundreds cylinder 10C will be made to rotate though one tenth of a revolution when the tens cylinder 10B has completed a full revolution and, analogously, the tens cylinder 10B will rotate through one tenth of a revolution when the units cylinder 10A has completed one full revolution.
The mechanism that controls this rotation is the pneumatic mechanism which causes the wheel 14 to rotate and which is described below.
The said mechanism is represented in figures 6 and 7, in which for reasons of illustrative clarity the gears shown in figure 5 have not been represented. The mechanism in question includes a hook 51 which engages with the pins 50 and is fixed to the end of the stem 54 of a piston 55 controlled by compressed air. The piston 55 receives the control air from a small pipe 56 represented in figure 7, which is connected to the ends of an inlet nosepiece fitting 57 integral with the piston body 55 and to an outlet nosepiece fitting 58 through which the compressed air passes, originating from a supply station, not shown, through a rotary distributor of known type, not represented, which terminates in the shaft 41 that, as can be seen in figure 7, is internally hollow presenting a duct 59 which is in communication with the nosepiece fitting 58.
The head 60 ( fig.6 ) of the piston 55 slides inside a sleeve 61, which is hinged on a pin 52 the longitudinal axis of which is perpendicular to the direction of displacement of the head 60. A spring 53 connects the upper end of the sleeve 61 to one pin 62 of plate 8.
When compressed air reaches the inside of the piston 55 through the nosepiece fitting 57, the piston head 60 and therefore the stem 54 integral with it, rises towards the pin 52. The hook 51, engaged with one of the pins 50, causes the plate 14 to rotate in a clock-wise direction controlling its rotation through one tenth of a revolution. The hook 51 successively engages with the pin 50 adjacent to the previous one and to achieve this the piston 55 effects an angular displacement about the pin 52, the rotational direction of which is indicated by the arrow P of figure 6. Finally the spring 53 ensures the return of the piston 55 to its initial position where the hook 51 engages with a pin 50.
In figure 6, the reference 62 indicates one of two plates. integral with one another via a pin 63 fixed to the end plates 8 and 9 which guide the hook 51 during its movements. The reference 64 indicates a seal gasket integral with the piston body 55 on the side on which the stem 54 projects. The reference 65 indicates a spring capable of returning the stem 54 to the initial position when the action of the compressed air has stopped.
Finally the reference 66 ( fig.7 ) indicates a sleeve arranged on the shaft 8a which is foreseen to keep the wheel 14 in a fixed position against the units cylinder 10a. By now referring to figures 2 and 5, as well as to figure 4, which shows the numbering machine head T, seen in accordance with the direction of arrow IV of figure 2, the head consists of, from the plate 8 side, three pinions 13A, 13B, 13C arranged externally to the plate 8 and keyed onto the shafts 8A, 8B, 8C onto which the stamping cylinders 10A, 10B, 10C are keyed.
The pinions mentioned above each engage with a corresponding pin 56A, 56B and 56C foreseen at the end of levers 54A, 54B and 54C which are engaged at their other end on pins 55A, 55B and 55C foreseen on the plate 8. The pins 56A, 56B and and 56C engage between one tooth and the other of the pinions 13A, 13B and 13C held in position by a spring 57 which connects the said rods to fixed pins 58.
The function of the complex just described is therefore that of rendering the position of the stamping cylinders correct and stable. In fact each one of the pinions 13A, 13B and 13C has ten spaces between the teeth inside which the relative pin 56A, 56B and 56C positions itself in succession.
Taking as an example the rotation of the units cylinder 10A, when the piston 55 is activated, it causes the rotation of the wheel 14 through one tenth of a revolution and therefore of the cylinder 10A. Correspondingly the pinion 13A will rotate through one tenth of a revolution and the tooth 56A will position itself in a space between teeth to the successive space preventing further rotations of the cylinder 10A. This is thanks both to the action of the spring 57 which immediately returns the pin 56a into the space between the teeth of pinion 13A and by the fact that the action of the compressed air stops as soon as the said rotation of cylinder 10A has occurred.
Analogously to what has now been described for the units cylinder, the same occurs for the tens cylinder 10B and the hundreds cylinder 10C when the transmission and drive gears 11 and 21 control the rotation through one tenth of a revolution of the gears with which they are connected i.e. the gears 15 and 22. Therefore that described for the lever 54A will be repeated for the levers 54B and 54C.
By now making reference to figures 1 and 2 the numbering machine head T, in particular the shaft 41, is connected - via a reduction gear 70, to a motor 71 which controls the rotations of the head T. The rotation movement of the head T is intermittent and is controlled every time it is necessary to mark the length measurement.
The beginning and the end of each one of the rotations of the head T, as well as the operation of the piston 55 are controlled by suitable means described below in one of their illustrative realisative forms.
The means which control the operation of the piston 55 i.e.the internal transfer of compressed air include an initial micro-switch 72 operated by a cam 73 ( fig. la ) which is keyed onto the shaft 6a of the metre-counter 6 and which therefore rotates in accordance with the direction of arrow M.
The micro-switch 72 will be inserted in a known way on a control circuit of a solenoid valve pre-disposed between the compressed air supply source and the piston 55. At each operation of the micro-switch 72 there will be the introduction of a quantity of air into the piston 55 such as to make the wheel 14 complete one tenth of a revolution. The same cam 73 mentioned above, an instant after having operated the micro-switch 72, operates a second micro- switch 74 which inserts the control motor 71, therefore the numbering machine head T will be made to rotate so that the various stamping cylinders 10A, 10B, and 10C come into contact with the side edge of the fabric 2 stamping the length measurement on the fabric itself. The stamping ink is supplied to the stamping cylinders by a known inking unit 75 positioned above the stamping head T connected to support means, suitably supplied and not shown. Naturally the rotation speed of the numbering machine head k T will be in synchronism with the advancement speed of the fabric 2.
The means which control the end of each one of the rotations of the head T are made up ( fig.4 ) of a cam 76 foreseen on the edge of the plate 8 of the head T which is able to work together with a lever 77, fitted with a roller 78, and a micro-switch 79 which controls the electric supply to the reduction gear 71.
The operation of the equipment to mark the length measurements on a fabric piece, in particular that of the numbering machine head T according to the invention is as follows. First of all both the numbering machine head and the metre-counter device are zeroed, if markings of the length measurement of a piece of fabric have already been made.
The initial part of the piece of fabric is inserted on the work table, then the means that control the advance of the fabric on the table 1 are operated.
Advancement of the fabric 2 on the table 1 causes rotation of the wheel 7 of the metre-counter device 6, therefore simultaneously causing rotation of the cam 73 which will be positioned to operate the micro-switches 72 - 74 every time a unit quantity of fabric 2 has passed beneath the metre-counter device.
If, for example, the length of one metre has been selected as the unit quantity and, for every metre the wheel 7 completes one revolution, also the cam 73 must complete one revolution for every metre of fabric.
Therefore, it will be found that at the end of each revolution, when one metre of fabric has passed beneath the metre-counter device 6 the micro-switches 72, 74 will be activated in succession. At the start of the operation of the equipment, activation of the micro-switch 72 will control the piston 55 which will move the number 1 of the units cylinder 10A to the stamping position via rotation of wheel 14 through one tenth of a revolution.
The stamping cylinders 10B and 10C of the tens and hundreds remain stationary in this phase.
The control motor 71 will be activated, via the operation of the second micro-switch 74, following the positioning of the units cylinder 10A to the above mentioned position and rotation of the numbering machine head will occur which will affix the number 1 on the edge of the fabric 2.
Stopping of the numbering machine head T, at the end of stamping, will be achieved thanks to the action of the cam 76 on the micro-switch 79.
The cycle just described is repeated for each successive metre identically to the first one up to the nineth, the numbers from 1 to 9 will be marked in succession on the edge of the fabric for each length measurement.
To stamp the number 10 relative to the tenth metre a cycle identical to the ones described previously will again be completed, however taking into account the fact that the stamping cylinder 10A has completed nine trip rotations during which it has been followed by the transmission gear 11 thanks to the connection with the gear 12. At the tenth trip, corresponding to the stamping position of the number 0 on the units cylinder 10A, the wider tooth 11a of the gear 11 will engage with the driving gear 15 which will cause rotation of the tenths stamping cylinder 10B through one tenth of a revolution. The number 1 on this cylinder will be positioned for stamping in this way.
Rotation of the numbering machine head T through one revolution occurs as described previously and the number ₁0 is marked on the edge of the fabric.
At this stage, since the wider tooth 11a of the gear 11 has become freed from the gear 15 integral with the tens cylinder 10B, the successive operations of the piston 55 and therefore of the wheel 14, will involve only trip rotations of the units cylinder 10 A_j always through one tenth of a revolution, up to the marking of number 20 with a cycle identical to the one described previously.
At every metre, following the stamping cylinders operation, a control of the rotation of the numbering machine head will occur.
The operating cycles which have been described above are repeated identically in the passage from the tens cylinder 10B to the hundreds cylinder 10C, which will be made to rotate through one tenth of a revolution for every complete revolution of the tens cylinder 10B.
Obviously, the number of stamping cylinders and the relative drive mechanisms may be further increased until reaching, for example, a thousands cylinder. Furthermore, between the marking of one metre length and the successive marking a further mark may be foreseen to indicate any given supplementary information, for example, the packaging date of the piece, the name of the manufacturing company and similar data.
The numbers stamped on the fabric 2 by the numbering machine head, will be arranged, in accordance with the direction of advancement of the fabric, one beneath the other and they will be easily read by knowing the order in which they have been stamped. In any event it will be possible to fit one of the cylinders, for example, the units cylinder, with a suitable mark which is stamped simultaneously together with the number, a mark which will indicate the end of the number that indicates the length measurement, hence enabling the user to easily read the latter.
From the above description the advantages of the numbering machine head are obvious, in accordance with the invention, which may be used, as foreseen in the embodiment described above, combined with a known apparatus for the quantitative and qualitative control of pieces of fabric. Alternatively, it may be used singly having predisposed suitable control means which replace those of the above mentioned apparatus, i.e. in practice the metre-counter device.
In relation to this the cam 73 may be replaced with another equivalent device, even of an electronic type, for example, an impulse counter which, after a certain number of impulses, corresponding for example, to one metre, it transmits a first and a second signal to control the pneumatic means and the reduction gear.
One of the fundamental characteristics of the numbering machine head according to the invention consists of the fact that it always operates in synchronism with the advancement of the fabric.
In fact, operation of the numbering machine head occurs thanks to a means which depends on and is sensitive to the advancement speed of the fabric 2,i.e. the cam 73 which has a rotational speed equal to that of the wheel 7 of the metre-counter device 6. For each increase, or decrease of the fabric speed there is a corresponding increase, or decrease of the wheel 7 speed of the metre-counter device 6 and consequently the actions of the cam 73 on the micro-switches 72 and 74 will be more, or less frequent. Operation of the numbering machine head 7 therefore cannot under any circumstance prescind from the advancement speed of the fabric 2. In order to make the synchronism more secure the wheel 7 of the metre-counter device 6 may be fitted with a lining over the contact surface with the fabric 2, capable of providing a certain degree of friction on the fabric 2 to avoid slippage of the wheel 7 with respect to the fabric. Finally, it is obvious that the machine requires only a simple initial adjustment, after which its operation is completely automatic. In fact, it is only necessary at the beginning to adjust the position of the means which control the operation of the numbering machine head, which in the embodiment described, consists of the cam 73.
It is obvious that variations and/or changes may be made to the numbering machine head according to the invention, without departing from the scope of the invention.

Claims

1. Numbering machine head to mark the length measurement on the edge of a fabric, characterised by the fact of including rotary means 8,9 to support at least three stamping cylinders 10A, 10B, 10C, the said support means 8,9 being connected to control means 71 of their rotation, activated cyclically by sensor means 7 of the fabric advancement

2, the sensor means 7 being capable of also operating control means 55,14 of the step-wise rotation of at least one of the said stamping cylinders to up-date it to the quantity of fabric detected by the sensor means, the said stamping cylinder 10A being connected to the other cylinders, 10B, 10C via a drive kinematic motion 11,15,21" these being foreseen for each one of the stamping cylinders 10A, 10B, 10C, clamping means elastically de-activated in contrast with the action of the operating means of the step-wise rotation of the cylinders able to maintain the said cylinders in the position reached after each up-dating rotation, finally, means able to control stopping of the rotation of the numbering machine head are foreseen at the end of each marking operation.

2. Numbering machine head according to claim 1, characterised by the fact that the stamping cylinders 10A, 10B, 10C are each keyed onto a separate shaft 8A, 8B, 8C rotating on the said support means 8,9 the longitudinal axes of the said shafts being substantially parallel with one another and equidistant from the rotation axis of the support means 8,9.

3. Numbering machine head according to claims 1 and 2, characterised by the fact that the stamping cylinders 10A, 10B, 10C are essentially co-planar in a substantially perpendicular plane to the side edge of the fabric 2.

4. Numbering machine head according to claim 1, character-Lsed by the fact that a rotary cam 73 in synchronism with the advancement of the fabric 2 is associated with the said sensor means capable of operating control means 72 to insert the control means 71 of the rotation of the support means of the stamping cylinders.

5. Numbering machine head according to the claims 1 and 4 characterised by the fact that the said control means 72 for the activation of the control means 71 for the rotation of the support means of the stamping cylinders consists of a microswitch.

5. Numbering machine head according to claim 1, characterised by the fact that the control means of the step-wise rotation of one of the stamping cylinders 10A include a wheel 14 for up-dating keyed onto the shaft itself, on which the stamping cylinder 10A is keyed, the said wheel is made to rotate step-wise by a drawing mechanism operated pneumatically by means activated by the said sensor means.

7. Numbering machine head according to the claims 1 and 6, in which the said wheel 14 has a radial peripheric slit 14A crossed by transversal pins 50 with which a hook 51 of a piston 55 engages in succession, the latter receives compressed air from a supply station via means activated by the said sensor means.

8. Numbering machine head, according to the claims 1 and 7, characterised by the fact that the means to activate the piston 55 include a micro-switch 72, operated by the cam 73 associated with the sensor means, the said micro-switch acting on valve means arranged on the supply circuit of the piston 55.

9. Numbering machine head according to the claims 1 and 7 characterised by the fact that the said piston 55 receives compressed air via a rotating distributor.

Numbering machine head according to the claim 1, characterised by the fact that the drive kinematic motion from the first stamping cylinder 10A to the remaining stamping cylinders 10B, 10C includes, for each drive, a gear 11,21 having a tooth lla, 21a larger than the others capable of imparting a step-wise rotation to the gear with which it engages, each rotation occurring when the previous stamping cylinder has completed one full revolution.

11. Numbering machine head according to claim 1, characterised by the fact that the clamping means of the rotations of the stamping cylinders 10A, 10B, 10C, elastically de-activated, include a pinion 13A, 13B, 13C for each of the said cylinders keyed onto the same shaft of the stamping cylinder with which it is associated, a pin 56A, 56B, 56C of a lever oscillating on the support means 8 of the numbering machine head engages with the said pinion which is returned via a spring 57 to the engaging position of the pin in the space between two teeth following the pinion.

12. Numbering machine head according to claim 1, characterised by the fact that the means to control stopping of the rotation of the numbering machine head at the end of each marking operation include a projecting part 76 foreseen on the support means 8 of the numbering machine head which engages with the disconnecting means of the control motor 71.

13. Numbering machine head according to the claims 1 and 12, characterised by the fact that the said disconnecting means include a microswitch 79 capable of being operated by the projection 76.

14. Numbering machine head to mark the length measurement on the side edge of a piece of fabric, substantially as de - scribed above and represented in the figures attached.