23,141. Wright, R. H. July 21. Tying or knotting.-Relates to apparatus for automatically binding and tying packages, and of the type adapted to pass a number of binders round an article, and consists of a machine for passing one binder or more round a non-compressible article and for securing the ends of the binder or binders tightly on the article, the invention being shown applied to the wrapping- machine described in Specification 17,321/14. Fig. 1 is a plan of this machine, and Fig. 2 a central vertical section of its upper part. The article is moved upwards from the wrapping-mechanism on arms 371, which are subsequently withdrawn into a position in which it is held with its lower face level with the top plate 50 of the machine. Two cords a, b arc stretched at right-angles across the upward path of the article, and as it moves upwards, the cords are drawn from the supplies and are arranged across its upper face and down its sides and ends. The segment 458 is then operated to oscillate the ring 446, which, by means of cammembers 445, 448, 449, 450, and vertical pins 447 movable in radial slots in the top plate 50, moves four frames radially inwards, two of which 439, 440, diametrically opposed, are shown in Fig. 2. The frames carry bars 492, 493 with recessed ends which engage the cords and bunch them together at the centre of the lower face of the article as the frames move inwards, two additional arms 497, 498 with V-shaped ends also acting in the same way. Immediately before the frames reach their innermost positions, tension devices 479<1>, through which the cords pass, arc forced by the action of small arms 494 to grip the cords momentarily so as to enable them to be drawn tightly round the article. When the frames are in their innermost positions. the needle 481, through which the cord b passes round the article to the gripper 472, is arranged below the gripper and holds the cord in the slot 470, Fig. 13, so that. when the fingers 472, 474 are carried across the slot. the end of the cord which has been previously held by the finger 472 will be released and the cord immediately above the needle will be gripped by the finger 472, the finger 474 at the same time cutting the cord so as to sever from the supply section the part which snrrounds the article. The shaft 475 is oscillated to carry the fingers 472, 474 across the slot 470 by means of a reciprocating bar 499, which can also be moved laterally slightly by the spring-pressed pivoted members 506 and the head 501, so that one reciprocation of the bar carries the fingers in one direction across the slot and the next reciprocation in the opposite direction. The cord a is similarly treated by a similar construction. The severed parts of the cords are then in position to be seized by the knot-tying mechanism, shown in Figs. 2, 4, 9, and 10, carried by the frame 439. The cam 541 moves the head 520 inwards on the tube 523 until the recesses 556 in the grippers 518, 519 are opposite the cords, when the grippers are closed and, together with the head 520, rotated round the tube 523 by means of the mechanism 521, 526, 628, 532. As the cords are thus being laid in the groove 563, the head 520 is withdrawn slightly to permit the inner ends of the grippers to pass the portion of the cords which extends from the tube 523 upwards to the article, and, immediately afterwards, the grippers are suddenly moved forwards to cross the free ends of the cords round the loop formed on the tube 523 and to lay the ends across the end of the tube and in the recess 564 in the momentarily projecting end of the rod 524. The rod is then permitted to spring back into the tube so that the hook 525 grips the cord ends and securely holds them. The hook 588, Fig. 16, carried by the frame 440 is subsequently actuated on the upward movement of the arm 577 to engage a groove in the tube 523 at a point in the rear of the loop which has been laid on the tube. The frames 439, 440 are then moved outwards successively so that the hook 588 engages the loop in the cords, draws it off the end of the tube. and carries it upwards to the lower face of the article. A cam-groove 586 guides the arm 577 and the hook 588 to the centre of the lower face, and when the hook arrives there, the cords will have been drawn tight, and the rod 594 is then actuated to move the hook 588 downwards and the arm 591 upwards, thus stripping the loop from the hook and permitting the knot to be drawn tight. Immediately afterwards, the rod 524 is moved to allow the hook 525 to release the ends of the knot.