GB2253178A - Fastener attaching apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

A garment fastener attaching apparatus selectively feeds fasteners to attaching heads 81, 83 from hoppers (86, to 89) via vertical guide tracks (92 to 95) and horizontal guide grooves (96 to 99). Hydraulic cylinders (104 to 107) actuate push rods (100-103) to move fasteners from the guide tracks to the heads. The hoppers of a pair (86, 87) or (88, 89) are selectively rotated by a reversible electric motor (90, 91) through one-way clutches (215) and drive belts (205, 206), setting means (115) (Figs 5, 6 not shown) determining which hoppers are driven. <IMAGE>

Description

Title: Fastener Attaching Apparatus Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a fastener attaching apparatus, and more particularly to a fastener attaching apparatus for selectively feeding fasteners (which term is to be is understood as including male and female fasteners, attaching members thereof and mere ornamental fasteners) to attaching portions of the material of clothes or the like, and to a pusher system, transmission system and feed system for the fasteners.

Background to the Invention Heretofore, in attaching several fasteners to the material of clothes, one or more fasteners (eg female or male fasteners of snap fasteners, or the same with the attaching members thereof) are fed from one or more hoppers t a soothes attaching position between an upper and a lower mould via guide tracks or chutes, and are attached to the clothes at that position. In such a fastener attaching apparatus the number of fasteners capable of being fed is determined by the number of hoppers, and only fasteners within the hoppers can be supplied, so that if the type of fasteners is to be changed the content of the hoppers must be exchanged.

In order to overcome this problem, the present applicant has previously provided in Japanese Patent Application Publication No 55-49163 (1988) a fastener attaching apparatus with three hoppers method. In this apparatus three hoppers are enough since fasteners of one side (attaching members in this case) can be used in common with fasteners of the other side (female and male fasteners in this case), and when different attaching members are used an expansion to 4 hoppers can easily realized.

Figures 1-3 illustrate outlines oE the apparatus shown in the Publication described above, and Figure 4 illustrates a diagrammatic example of fasteners.

As is shown in Figure 1, snap fasteners are received in a receiving member formed between a rotating snap fastener receiver or hopper 1 and the vertical plane of a machine casing 2, and are fed to a guiding plate 4, a track connecting piece 5, a fastener feeding track 6 and finally to an attaching position of the material of clothes 7 (ie, the position of a cauking tool) through a direction regulating groove 3 formed at the outer circumferential plane facing the machine casing of the rotating hopper 1 with equal intervals. The rotating hopper is intermittently driven in the direction shown by the arrow, and fasteners which have fallen in a direction regulating groove 3 by gravitation, while said groove is at the vertical lowest position, are suquentially discharged into a guide groove 8. A screw 9 is adapted for fixing the track 6.

As is shown in Figure 2, three or more hoppers (three in the example of the figure) are used. The fasteners to be fed may, for example as shown in Figure 4, consist of male snap 11, a female snap 10 and attaching members 12, 13 (these are of the same size and form). Fixed to supporting structures 20 and 21 fixed to a base member (not illustrated) are L-shaped supporting frames 23 and 24, respectively, and on vertical portions 25 and 26 thereof are pivotally mounted horizontal shafts 31 and 33, respectively, which are driven from a power source by cranks 45 and 44, respectively. To the horizontal shaft 31 is fixed a hopper 27 like the one shown in Figure 1, and to the horizontal shaft 33 are fixed two hoppers 29 and 30.Corresponding to the fastener feeding track 6 in Figure 1, in Figure 2 a track 56 extends from the hopper 27 via a guide groove 28 toward a lower side (for a lower mould) of a position K, from the hoppers 29 and 30 extend tracks 57 and 58 via guide grooves 34 and 32 toward a common track 59, and the track 59 extends toward an upper side (for an upper mould) of the position K. Figure 3 shows the configuration of a meeting point of tracks 57 and 58, wherein a switching piece 60 is pivoted with a pivotally-mounted point 61 as a fulcrum to switch the upper and lower tracks. For example, the male fastener 11 is fed from the hopper 29, the female fastener 10 is fed from the hopper 30, and the attaching members 12 and 13 are fed from the common hopper 27.When the members 12 and 13 are different from e". eech rir'tbor hopper hopper be used in addition to the hopper 27. In this case, a structure similar to 57, 58 and 59 may be used instead of the track 56.

Referring to Figure 5, fasteners 76 and 77 coming to the position K are fed into an upper mould 74 and a lower mould 75, respectively, by push rods 72 and 73 fixed to a slide block 71 supported by a pair of guides 70.

A problem in the conventional apparatus described above is that when the track is switched in order to change the type of fasteners, a few or more fasteners used in the previous process have been stuffed within the track, hence the new operation cannot immediately be performed. It is necessary, therefore, to perform the switching at the track outlet, resulting in the complication of the mechanism. Furthermore, such a switching mechanism should be switched every time when the operation is changed, thus the promptness of the operation is lost.

Another problem is that the flexibility of the apparatus according to the prior art is poor. That is, it is desirable that the attaching operation of fasteners is capable selectively of manual feeding, semi-automatic feeding and the like as well as automatic feeding from the hoppers, but no fastener attaching apparatus capable of fulfilling this requirement has been provided.

In addition, in the prior art described above, when two or more hoppers are used, electric motors for rotating the shafts thereof are either provided for each hopper, or two hoppers are supported on a common rotatable shaft. In the former case, however, a plurality of motors are required, and in the into dse, an unnecessary hopper results in racing, so that powders are generated by abrasion due to the friction between the fastener and the hopper wall, resulting in the contamination of the interior of the hopper or the clothes at an excessively premature stage.

Further, in a type using a common shaft, the width of the apparatus becomes too large when three or more hoppers are required.

Furthermore, in conventional apparatus the power source is in general considerably far from the ram, so that as for a power transmission system a long link such as a link 64 is used; however, such a link should have a sufficiently large cross section so as not to be deformed by a pushing force for transmitting pushing force. Such a link is heavy in its weight and large in its inertia, hence the load of the power source should be large. Accordingly, the object of the miniaturization, lighter weight. and power saving, has been incapable of being achieved.

Accordingly the present invention seeks to provide an improved fastener attaching apparatus capable of the selection of tracks and/or the selection among automatic, semi-automatic and manual operations without including a special track-switc'ning mechanism, thus achieving a significant improvement in the operation efficiency.

The invention also aims to provide, in a fastener attaching apparatus using a plurality of hoppers, a hopper apparatus capable of selectively driving one or more selected hoppers with other hoppers being out of operation, and thereby mitigating the problem of powder generation.

It is a further aim of the present invention to improve the power transmission system to achieve the miniaturization, lighter weight and power saving of a fastener attaching apparatus.

Summary of the Invention According to the present invention there is provided a fastener attaching apparatus comprising a plurality of rotating hoppers as fastener supplying sources, guide tracks (chutes) extending from said hoppers toward lower positions, guide grooves horizontally extending via lower end outlets of said guide tracks toward an upper mould and a lower mould, push rods sliding in said guide grooves to push fasteners coming from said guide track outlets into said upper and lower moulds, each guide groove and associated push rod extending to one of the upper and lower moulds, and power sources associated with said push rods, wherein said hoppers are driven by reversible electric motor means via transmission means, and setting means whereby said electric motor means and transmission means selectively drive one or more of said hoppers by a selection of the setting means.

In a preferred example, two reversible motors and four rotating hoppers are used, and each of the reversible motors is coupled to a shaft of a pair of hoppers via transmission means. The transmission means are made to drive only one or a pair of hoppers which each motor associated by associating with the hopper shafts via unidirectional clutches. Accordingly, combinations of one of the hoppers for the upper mould, one of the hoppers for the lower mould or specific two hoppers for the upper and lower moulds become settable by the selection setting means.

With the present invention, the driving system of the hoppers in simplified, and at the same time the use with a high degree of flexibility becomes possible. Thus in the above preferred example describing the 4-hoppers system, it becomes possible to have totally manual operation by halting all hoppers, semi-automatic operation (one of the upper mould or the lower mould manually feeds fasteners) by using a single hopper in four ways utilizing the rotation of one motor in one direction,and the use of hoppers for the upper and lower moulds in four ways (totally automatic operation) by using both motors.

Brief Description of the Drawings Figure 1 is a front view illustrating the principle of a conventional known hopper apparatus; Figure 2 is a front view illustrating in partial cross section a fastener attaching apparatus according to the conventional multi-hopper method; Figure 3 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an example of a conventional fastener guide track switching mechanism; Figure 4 is a diagrammatic view of the fasteners to be attached by the known apparatus; Figure 5 is a schematic diagram of a conventional push melanism for feeding fasteners; Figure 6 is a side view of a first embodiment of a fastener attaching appáraWu. according to te present invention; Figure 7 is a front fiew of the same; Figure 8 is a plan view of the same;; Figure 9 is a side view illustrating in detail a principal part of the present invention; Figure 10 is a side view illustrating the halting position of a push rod and the control switch thereof; Figure 11 is a side view of a principal part according to a second embodiment; Figure 12 is a plan view illustrating a pin actuating means; Figure 13 is a side view illustrating one actuating condition according to this example; Figure 14 is a side view according to a third embodiment; Figure 15 is a side view illustrating one actuating condition; Figure 16 is a plan view partly in section of an embodiment of a hopper apparatus; and Figure 17 is a view seen from A-A in Figure 16.

Description of the Preferred Embodiments The present invention will now be described in detail, by way of example only, with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings.

(1) Summary of the Total Configuration Figures 6-8 illustrate an example of a fastener attaching apparatus by a 4-hopper method realising the present invention, wherein on a base 80 are provided a table 82 supporting a lower mould 81 and an upper frame 85 supporting a vertical ram 84 for an upper mould 83. Both faces of the base 80 consist of parallel vertical planes, and a portion of the upper frame 85 supports four hoppers 86, 87, 88 and 89 (similar to Figure 1) one pair on each side; the hoppers 86 and 87 are simultaneously reversely rotated by a motor 90 and a transmission means (not illustrated) as shown in the figures, and the hoppers 88 and 89 at another side are similarly reversely rotated by a motor 91 (Figure 8) and a transmission means (riot illustrated).

Extending downwardly from the hoppers 86, 87, 88 and 89 are fastener guide tracks 92, 93, 94 and 95, respectively, which are open to horizontal guide grooves 96, 97, 98 and 99, respectively, to form discharge outlets for the fasteners. To the guide grooves 96, 97, 98 and 99 are fitted push rods (to be described below) so as to horizontally slide, respectively, to push fasteners (a generic name for male and female snaps, and attaching members of the same) fed from the guide tracks 92-95 into the upper and lower mould, respectively.

(2) Push Rod Mechanism Figures 9 and 10 illustrate portions related to the main features of the present invention. To the guide grooves 96, 97, 98 and 99 are fitted push rods 100, 101, 102 and 103, respectively, rear portions of these push rods constitute pistons to be horizontally actuated by hydraulic cylinders 104, 105, 106 and 107, respectively.

On each push rod is formed a projection 110 contactable with an actuator 109 of an electric switch 108 (the drawings only show the ones for the push rod 102). The switch 108 operates when the respective push rods 100, 101, 102 and 103 retract and the front ends of these rods come to halting positions closing discharging outlets 111, 112, 113 and 114 of the guide tracks as shown in Figure 10, the switches acting to halt the push rods.

Each switch 108 is of a swing type, and is made to permit the passage of the actuating projection 110 past the switch 108 (see Figure 9) when the cylinder is forceably actuated. The cylinders 104, 105, 106 and 107 are made such that a pair consisting of an upper and a lower one is selectively set by an operation of buttons 115 of an operation board (see Figures 6 and 7), the selected cylinder, during operation, once retracts from the halting position described above and opens the discharging outlets of the guide tracks 111, 112, 113 and 114 to discharge fasteners (10-13), then advances and feeds fasteners into supporting recesses 116 and 117 of the moulds 81 and 83, then retracts and stops at the halting position by the switch 108, as described above. These operations may be performed by a suitable electric system.

(3) Power Transmission System for a Press Mechanism Referring to Figure 9, the ram 84 of the upper mould 83 is pivotally mounted to a link 118 at an upper end, and the link 118 is nivatalJv corinocted 'Zi ~ shat 121 te a lower end of a link 119 pivotally mounted to a fixed shaft 120 at an upper end. Thereby the links 118 and 119 produce an extensible toggle action, and are capable of moving the ram 84 up and down. That is, the pivotal connection shaft 121 of the links 118 and 119 is coupled to a front end of a lower leg 125 of a crank 124 pivotally mounted to a fixed shaft 123 by a long and slender metal rod link 122, and extends and contracts by rotation of the crank 124.

To a front end of an upper leg 126 of the crank 124 is coupled a long and slender metal rod 127, and another end of the metal rod 127 is coupled to an annular slide race 128. A circular shaft 129 is slidably fitted into this race, and the shaft 129 is fixed to a motor shaft 130 at an eccentric position. This motor is made to perform each down motion of the upper mould operated, eg by each pedal operation (under certain circumstances, the conjoint up motion of the lower mould is permitted). It will be noted that the motor is configured to be capable of operation only when the push rod is in a retracted position. When the motor operates, the power is capable of lowering the ram 84 only by the tension action of the metal rods 127 and 122.On the other hand, a pushing force is applied to the metal rods during the elevation of the ram, but the force is small, hence this link configuration is an excellent one.

(4) Hopper Mechanism It has already been described that the hoppers 86 and 87 are actuated by the motor 90, and the hoppers 88 and 89 are actuated by the motor 91 in the respective directions of the arrows. Hitherto, hoppers have been disposed along a same shaft as described in Figure 2. Such a disposition, however, results in a larger width of an apparatus, especially in the 4-hopper system. The present apparatus has a thinner configuration as illustrated in Figures 16 and 17. In these figures, two inner ends of respective output shaft 201 and 202 of the motors 90 and 91 are fixed pulleys, eg pulleys for V-belts 203 and 204, respectively, to transmit power to the hoppers 86, 87, 88 and 89 via endless V-belts 205 and 206. The hoppers 86, 87, 88 and 89 have shafts 207, 208, 209 and 210, respectively, and respective input ends have one-way clutches 211, 212, 213 and 214.As illustrated in Figure 17, the clutches are coupled so as to drive the hopper 86 anticlockwise, the hopper 87 clockwise, the hopper 88 clockwise and the hopper 89 anticlockwise when viewed from outside, others being uncoupled. For example, each clutch can consist of an inner ring 215 of a ratchet coupled to a hopper shaft and an outer ring 216 of a ratchet having a groove for the V-belt 205 or 206. Thus, the power produces the operation of one or more selected hoppers by the selection of the motors 90 and 91 and by the selection of the direction of rotation of the selected motor. In such a way, the selection and switching of the hoppers can be selectively attained by controlling only the motors.

Because of two motors and two directions, four selections of a single hopper, four selections of hoppers for the upper and lower moulds (the hoppers for the upper mould 2x the hoppers for the lower mould 2 = 4) and a total halting, that is nine selections in total become possible.

In such a way, the operations of a plurality of hoppers can be controlled by using reverse motors, and an arbitrary use of manual, semi-automatic and fullyautomatic operations can be realised by a simple switching. It will be noted that the selective setting of the motors can be performed by the operation buttons 115.

Thereby, the contamination of hoppers due to powder generation can be kept down to a minimum value.

Operation The operation of an apparatus with a configuration described above is as follows. It is assumed that the motor shaft 130 is halting in a position in Figure 9, in a halting position of the push rod. First, the upper and lower mould 83 and 81 are selected in accordance with the sort of fasteners, and set to a predetermined position.

Thereby the horizontal track grooves 96-99 are determined.

In an example of the figure, the upper mould 83 associates with the track groove 98, and the lower mould 81 associates with the track groove 99. The switch 115 (Figures 6 and 7) of the operation board is set to select a corresponding pair of upper and lower push rods and associated cylinders thereof. In an example of Figure 9, push rods are 102 and 103, and corresponding cylinders are 106 and 107, respectively.

The operation is initiated by the main switch in the operation board. Thereby the motors 90 and 91 are initiated to feed fasteners from the hoppers 86 to 89 into the guide tracks 92 to 95, and fasteners are fed to the lower end discharging outlets 111, 112, 113 and 114. The push rods 102 and 103 are initially at the halting positions (see Figure 10), but the selected cylinders (106 and 107 in the present example) being actuated simultaneously or sequentially with the initiation of the motors 90 and 91, commence to retract, and fasteners come from the discharging outlets 113 and 114 to the horizontal guide grooves 98 and 99, but are hindered by the push rods since other cylinders are in suspension.The hydraulic pressure of the cylinders 106 und 107 Is t;iii; .versed, and the push rods 102 and 103 push the fasteners (eg fasteners 12 and 10 of Figure 4) into recesses 117 and 116 of the upper and lower moulds 83 and 81, respectively, are then automatically reversed, and halt at the operation positions of the halting switches 108.

Then, by pressing a pedal (not illustrated) the motor shaft 130 starts operation and transmits a force consisting mainly of tension to the links 119 and 121, and thus the ram 84 descends and attaches the fasteners 10 and 12 to predetermined clothes or material inserted between the upper and lower moulds. The motor shaft eventually returns to the position illustrated in the figure, and thus one attaching cycle finishes.

When semi-automatic operation is required, before the initiation of the fastener attaching operation only one feeding system of, eg the hopper 88, the guide track 94 and the guide groove 98 can be operated, and fasteners can be manually supplied to the lower mould 81. The operation process will be apparent from what has already been described.

Furthermore, it is also possible to stop all the fastener feeding system to achieve manual feeding to both the upper and lower moulds.

Second Embodiment Another embodiment will now be described with reference to Figure 11. This figure is basically the same as the embodiment described above except that the number of power sources and feeding systems is different. That is, instead f the piston-cylinder-type power sources 104, 105, 106 and 107 illustrated in Figure 9, an actuating rod 200 pivotally mounted to the shaft 123 is used which actuates rear ends of the push rods 207 and 208 of the horizontal guide grooves 205 and 206 respectively bonded to the discharging outlets 203 and 204 of the guide tracks 201 and 202. Near an upper end of the actuating rod 200 is formed a slot 209, in which a pin 210 fixed to the swinging crank 124 actuated by tension link 127 of the power source is fitted to transmit power.To rear ends of the push rods 207 and 208 are fitted pins 211 and 212, retractable in the direction of their axes respectively, and to the actuating rod 200 are provided corresponding long and slender slots 213 and 214 to detachably receive the pins 211 and 212 therein.

Figure 12 is a plan view illustrating actuating means of the pins 211 and 212, and corresponds to the condition at the moment when halting position detecting means (108 and 109 shown in Figures 9 and 10) and a swinging-type detecting means 217 start operation, wherein the push rod 207 (or 208) closes the discharging outlet 203 (or 204) of the track 201 (or 202). At least a rear end portion of the pin 211 consists of a magnetic material, and in the push rods 207 and 208 is formed a recess 216, into which the pins 211 and 212 are movable in the direction of their axes, respectively. At the halting position of the push rods 207 and 208 is disposed an electromagnetic attraction actuator 215 at positions lining up with the pins 211 and 212, respectively.

The operation of this fastener attaching apparatus is almost the same as the first embodiment. With regard to the operation of the push rod, instead of a piston cylinder a power source common with the ram for the upper mould is used, and by the swinging lever 124 the actuating rod 200 is swung between the chain-dotted positions (somewhat rear from the halting position) in Figure 11, the push rods 207 and 208 horizontally move correspondingly, and when the halt switch 217 operates in the retracting storke, the actuating rod 200 halts. When actuating operation is required and the push rod 207 and/or 208 are required to be suspended, the corresponding electromagnetic attraction actuator 215 is actuated.

Figure 13 illustrates a case in which the push rod 208 is suspended. By the actuation of the actuator 215 the pin 211 or 212 (or both) are extracted. In such a way, eg like in Figure 13, automatic supply of fasteners to the upper mould 83 and manual supply (direct supply by hand) to the lower mould becomes possible. In addition, for actuating the push rod in suspension, only the cutting of the circuit of the actuator 215 during the suspension of the actuating rod is required.

Third Embodiment Figures 14 and 15 illustrate a third embodiment wherein the lower mould 81 is of the manual supply type, and the upper mould 83 is of both the automatic and manual supply type. Each member is the same as for the upper mould of the second embodiment, so that dashes (') are merely attached to numerals corresponding to those in Figures 1113, and further explanation will be omitted. The action of the push rod 207' in the present example is the same as that in the previous example.

Reference is hereby made to the common subject matter of co-pending parent Application No. 8818153.2 (Serial No.

2221182) relating to a fastener attaching apparatus with push rods slideable in guide grooves from hoppers; and of co-pending divisional Application No (Ref C516/S) relating to a fastener attaching apparatus incorporating a vertical arm driven by tension links.

Claims (4)

1. In a fastener attaching apparatus comprising a plurality of rotating hoppers as fastener supplying sources, guide tracks (chutes) extending from said hoppers toward lower positions, guide grooves horizontally extending via lower end outlets of said guide tracks toward an upper mould and a lower mould, push rods sliding in said guide grooves to push fasteners coming from said guide track outlets into said upper and lower moulds, each guide groove and associated push rod extending to one of the upper and lower moulds, and power sources associated with said push rods, wherein said hoppers are driven by reversible electric motor means via transmission means, and setting means whereby said electric motor means and transmission means selectively drive one or more of said hoppers by a selection of the setting means.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said plurality of hoppers comprise four hoppers formed in two pairs, the reversible clctric motor means comprises one electric motor for driving each pair of hoppers, and the transmission means comprises one transmission mechanism interposed between each pair of hoppers and the respective electric motor associated therewith.

3. Apparatus acording to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein said reversible electric motor means comprises a motor constituted to drive one hopper of a pair of hoppers associated therewith by rotation in one direction, and to drive the other hopper of the pair by rotation in the opposite direction.

4. Apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein the transmission means include one-way clutches for driving the associated hoppers via said clutches.