GB879477A - Improvements in or relating to bookbinding - Google Patents

Abstract

879,477. Bookbinding. GENERAL BINDING CORPORATION. Aug. 20, 1959, No. 28545/59. Class 16. A stack of punched sheets is bound to form a book by feeding a strip of plastic material toward and, around an arbour so that it passes through the holes in the sheets and the end overlaps the strip body, and heat is then applied to seal the end to the strip body. As shown, the binding element comprises a comblike blank 10, Fig. 1, of thermoplastic material such as a vinyl chloride or acetate; a cellulose acetate or butyrate, a vinyl resin, or a nylon compound having a back portion 11 and spaced fingers 12, the fingers being curled around an arbour 65, Fig. 8, and inserted through holes in a stack of sheets 13, Fig. 3, whereupon the ends of the fingers are sealed by dielectrical means to the back 11 of the binding element. The binding elements 10 are stacked in a container 33 and urged by a spring-pressed plate 40 towards a feeder plate 21 secured to the end of a piston rod 20 which is connected to a piston 19 in a cylinder 18 to which compressed air or other fluid is supplied to cause reciprocation of the feeder plate. The elements 10 are pushed one by one, with their fingers 12 foremost, by the feeder plate 21, the fingers being guided by a frame 47 to an anvil 25. The anvil 25 comprises a frame 55, Figs. 3 and 8, secured on the frame baseplate 16, and arms thereon carry an upper rear anvil 59 which is spaced from the frame 55 to define a slot 51 to receive the fingers 12 of a binding element. Bearing blocks 63 on each side of the frame 55 support the arbour 65 about which the fingers 12 are curled, and the anvil is completed by a slidably mounted portion 69 on which is pivotally mounted a top anvil portion 75. The portions 59, 69, 75 have arcuate inner faces spaced from the arbour 65, and the arbour is slotted at 80 to receive the stack of sheets 13 which is held between the portions 59, 75. The holes in the sheets 13 are engaged by arcuate fingers 85 on the anvil portion 75: these fingers are engaged in the sheets by first sliding back the portion 69, and swinging the portion 75 upwardly about its pivot 73. The means for sealing the binding elements 10 comprises electrodes 66 projecting through holes 58 in the frame 55, and the arbour 65 forms the other electrode. The electrodes 66 are carried on a bar secured to a piston 94 in a cylinder housing 91, so that when compressed air is admitted to the cylinder the probes are urged. towards the binding element 10 against the action of a spring. In modifications, the binding element can form a single strip or a number of separate strips, and can be fed by friction rollers or ratchet means to the anvil 25, the appropriate lengths of strip being cut off by a manually-operated knife immediately subsequent to the heat-sealing operation.