GB158940A - Improved construction of counting mechanism for envelope folding and other machines - Google Patents

Abstract

158,940. Brown, W., and Brown, G. Oct. 14, 1919. Envelopes, making.-Relates to a device for facilitating the counting in batches of finished articles issuing from a machine, particularly an envelope-making machine, and consists of means for automatically displacing at intervals one of the articles, say every twenty-fifth, the displacer being rendered inoperative should the passage of the article through the device be interrupted. As applied to an envelope-making machine, the device comprises a ratchet-wheel 3 having a number of teeth corresponding to the number of envelopes in the batch to be counted, say 25. The wheel is mounted in bearings adjacent to the receiving box 2 of the machine and is operated by a rocking-lever 5 which is oscillated by the spindle of one of the folders of the machine. A pawl 11 has a pivot 8 journaled in a slot in the lever 5 and pressed towards the forward end of the slot by a spring 9. The pawl has a nose-piece 12 capable of engaging a lug 13 secured to a shaft 14, and the shaft carries stops 15 which are moved by the top edges of the envelopes as they pass to the box 2. A frame 17 having arms 18 slides in guides adjacent to the ratchet-wheel and is controlled by a spring 19. A lever 20 pivoted to the frame 17 carries a spring 21 which has a lug 21a that projects into the path of a pin 16 on the face of the ratchet-wheel. In use, envelopes are received between the arms 18, whence they are pushed into the box 2. As each envelope passes it rocks the stops 15, thus removing the lug 13 from the path of the nose-piece 12 and allowing the ratchet-wheel to be moved through the space of one tooth. As the feed continues, the pin 16 strikes the lug 21<a> and lifts it, thus raising the lever 20 into the path of the tail end of the lever 5 so that the lever 20, and therefore the frame 17, is moved by the lever 5 against the action of the spring 19 and an envelope in the frame 20 is pushed out of line. In this way, every twenty-fifth envelope in the box 2 is indicated. Should the feed of envelopes fail, the stops 15 are not rocked and therefore the nose-piece 12 strikes the lug 13. The pin 8 then slides in its slot and the pawl 11 fails to move the ratchetwheel until the stops 15 are again moved by envelopes.