308,294. Burgerhout's Machinefabriek & Scheepswerf. March 21, 1928, [Convention date]. Associating-apparatits.-In a machine for insetting a supplement within a folded printed product a conveyer provided with a series of pairs of receiving-arms which are movable relatively to one another travels in a path including a product - feeding mechanism, supplement-feeding mechanism, and a delivery mechanism, the action being such that each pair of arms is opened to receive a product which is subsequently opened automatically to receive the supplement, the product being closed prior to its discharge to the delivery mechanism. The folded products 21, Fig. 3, are supported upon an inclined table 25 which has a lipped front edge 32 provided with gaps to enable the foremost product to be removed by fingers 26 upon the ends of cam-controlled levers carried by a rotating member, whereby the products are removed successively and carried horizontally between endless conveyer bands 23, 24 to a pair of receiving-arms 1, 2 of a rotary carrier. The arms 1 of the carrier, Fig. 2, are fixed and are arranged radially around a shaft 19 with their inner ends secured between a pair of discs 13, Fig. 8, by which they are secured to the shaft. The inner edges 12 of the arms 1 abut against each other and, by providing arcuate projections 18 at a short distance therefrom, a series of cells 80 are formed, having ports or apertures 14 in the portions 18. Each fixed arm carries a relatively movable arm 2 which pivots in a seating therein, about a tubular edge 16 provided with a slot or port 17. A spring 7 connected between the fixed arm and its associated movable arm tends to maintain the movable arm in the open position and hold its top edge against the top of the adjacent following fixed arm, the closing of the movable arm being effected and the opening movement thereof controlled by a lever 4 on its inner edge, which carries! a roller 5 coacting with the surface of a stationary cam 20. The movable arms are formed as hollow bodies with apertures 8 in their front plate, and an unperforated rear plate 3, and the fixed arm 1 has side flanges 10 and a recessed upper portion, 15 which, when the back plate 3 of a movable arm is held against it, co-operates therewith to form an enclosure. The arms are opened to receive between them a folded product 21 fed by the horizontal conveyer, and during further movement of the rotary carrier the movable arm is closed upon the product and the cell 80 associated with the closed arms is connected to an exhausting or vacuum apparatus. The sides of the printed product are thus drawn against the apertures in the faces of the arms 1, 2, so that when the movable arm is moved outwardly by its spring 7 the folded product is opened for the reception of its supplement 22. The supplement is fed from an inclined table by mechanism similar to the product-feeding mechanism, and is inserted within the product when the latter has been carried through 90‹ by the arms of the rotary carrier. Connection with the vacuum apparatus is established by providing one of the discs 13, Fig. 8. with a ring of perforations 91 coincident with the cells 80, and disposing on the outer side of the disc. a stationary valve 92 with a port 93' connected to a suction pipe 94. The movable arms 2 are supported on pivots 95 carried by the discs 13, the stationary cam 20 which effects their movement being on the end opposite to the valve 93. Delivery apparatus.-The assembled product and supplement are delivered at the end of the machine opposite to the product-feeding station, and are carried between endless conveyer belts 81, 82, Fig. 4, on to an endless delivery belt 83 which travels at less speed, thereby causing the products &c. to be stacked diagonally upon each other. The means for ejecting the products from between the now partly closed arms 1, 2 comprises a pair of star-shaped rotating members 90, one on each side of the machine, with arms which strike the back edge of the folded paper and push it forward between the belts 81, 82. Stopping, tripping and like arangements.-The machine is motor-driven and the main shaft 96, Fig. 5, carries a cone-clutch 79 controlled by the vacuum existing in the carrier arms and in a controlling-device in the supplement-feeding path. A shaft 76 is provided with an arm 78 which, when the shaft is turned anticlockwise, bears against the end of the clutch-casing 79<a> and disengages the clutch. The shaft is normally held against this turning action by a lever 75 connected to the bottom 74 of a piston 70 within a casing 72, the upper side of the piston being connected by a port 68, controlled by a piston-valve 58, to a vacuum duct 61. A duct 94 connects to the rotary carrier, as shown in Fig. 8, and a duct 54 connects to the interior of a stationary hollow shaft 52 disposed transversely to the path of the supplements. The shaft 52 carries a stationary sector with a radial bore connected to the interior of the shaft, and a roller on the shaft is geared to the supplement-feeding mechanism and provided at one end with a drum 47 formed with peripheral apertures which coincide successively with the radial bore of the sector, the arrangement being such that, during normal feeding, the supplements cover the coincident apertures and maintain the vacuum. When the vacuum is broken, either by the absence of a supplement or folded product the piston valve 58 is moved to the left and connects the upper side of the piston 12 to the atmosphere, whereupon the piston descends, turning the lever 75 anticlockwise and disengaging the cone-clutch.