GB637035A - Improvements relating to appliances for opening letters - Google Patents

Abstract

637,035. Letter-opening appliances. HARGREAVES, R. F. Dec. 15, 1947, No. 32928. [Class 31 (i)] In a letter-opening appliance as described in Specification 621,186, the pivotally-mounted guide plate 21 and the turnable cylinder 12 carrying a helical knife 13 are provided with co-operating parts which maintain the guide plate spaced from a fixed knife 18 when the turnable knife 13 is in its out-of-action position so as to facilitate inserting an envelope to be cut, and which permit the guide plate to move toward the fixed knife during the turning of the turnable knife so as to grip the envelope during cutting. In one example, Figs. 2 and 7, the guide plate 21 is secured to a pair of upstanding arms 20 pivoted on bolts 19 and is urged towards the fixed blade 18 by a spring 22. When the turnable knife 13 and cylinder 12 are returned to the out-of-action position by springs 15, shoulders 143 on portions 142 of arms 14 which carry an operating bar 141 engage with depending ear pieces 211 carried at the ends of the guide plate 21 to move it away from the blade 18. This blade 18 is carried by a bar 16 which is biassed towards the turnable cylinder by springs 17. In a modification, Fig. 6, the guide plate 21 is centrally pivoted on pins 212 in bearings in the upper ends of brackets 11, and coiled springs 221 on the pins urge the lower end of the guide plate 21 towards the fixed blade 18 to grip the envelope during cutting.