US1194370A - Machine for finishing the edges of leather - Google Patents

Description

H. E. ENSLIN.

MACHINE FOR FINISHING THE EDGES- 0F LEATHER.

APPLICATION FILED NOV- I3, I913- ]I I 9%,3Yfi. Patented Aug. 15, 1916.

Z SHEETS-SHEET I- H. E. ENSLIN.

MACHINE FOR FINISHING THE EDG'ES OF'LEA'THER. APPLICATION FILED Nov. I3, I913.

l ,1 94,37. I Patented Aug. 15, 1916.

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HERBERT E. ENSLIN, OF MALDEN, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO UNITED SHOE MACHINERY COMPANY, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented ring. 15, rain.

Application filed November 13, 1913. Serial No. 800,793.

To aZZ w from it may concern:

Be it known that I, HERBERT E. ENsLIN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Maiden, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain Improvements in Machines for Finishing the Edges of Leather, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like reference characters on the drawings indicating like parts in the several figures.

This invention relates to a machine or apparatus for finishing the edges of pieces of leather such, for example, as are used in the manufacture of shoe uppers, welts, pocket books, etc, said machine being adapted to carry out the process which is set forth in United States Letters Patent to Halsey and Perkins No. 1,047,211, of December 17, 1912.

In carrying out this process it is very desirable that the shrinking agent be prevented from reaching the body portion of the leather and be restricted to the margin thereof. One feature of the invention comprises means for shrinking the margin of the piece of leather and means for protecting the body of the piece from the action of the shrinking means.

Another feature of the invention comprises means for causing the shrinking means to act upon the margin of a piece of leather, means for varying the length of time that said shrinking means acts upon a given portion of the margin, and means for simultaneously varying the intensity of the action of said shrinking means.

These and other features of the invention, including certain details of construction and combinations of parts will be described in connection with an illustrated machine and pointed out in the appended claims.

Referring now to the accompanying drawings,-Figure 1 is a perspective of an apparatus in which the present lnventlon is embodied; Figs. 2 and 3 are respectively an enlarged cross section and an enlarged perspective of a piece of leather which has been operated upon; Fig. 4 is anelevation of a portion of the apparatus; Fig. 5 1s an elevation of the electrically heated shrinking or searing tool shown in Figs. land 4; Fig. 6 is a cross section of the tool on the line 6--6 of Fig. 5; Fig. 7 isan elevation of a gas heated tool. which may be used in place of the electrically heated tool; and Fig. 8 is an enlarged section taken on the line S8 of Fig. 4: but with a piece of leather in place. This figure shows more particularly the relation of the edge gage to the shrinking tool.

It has been customary to finish the edges of pieces of leather by skiving, cementing and folding the margin so as to produce smooth and rounded edges where such edges are exposed to view in the finished article such as a shoe or a glove. According to the present invention, all of these operations are dispensed With, and instead the margin along one side of the edge to be finished is subjected to shrinkage by the application of a highly heated tool.

In the drawings, a piece of leather one edge of which has been finished by treat ment with a hot tool is shown in Figs. 2 and 3. With regard to the heat, any destructive temperature which is sufliciently high to sear and shrink the marginal portion of one side of the piece of leather, leaving it upon cooling in a hardened permanently shrunken condition will serve to carry out the process. The edge of the piece of leather shown in Figs. 2 and 3 has been finished by applying a hot tool to the margin of the flesh side and thereby causing the margin of the grain side to curl so that the finished edge presents the grain side of the leather to view.

The shrinking may be accomplished by applying the shrinking means to all portions of the margin of the leather simultaneously along the edge to be finished or by applying it progressively either by moving the tool or by moving the leather or by moving both the tool and the leather, the essential thing being merely to shrink the marginal portion on one side in the manner shown so as to draw or curl the edge of the leather toward the shrunken side. In the illustrative machine, however, the leather is fed past the shrinking means.

Whenleather is subjected to an intense heat it is more or less plastic, and though the shrinking and curling effect can be secured by simply searing the marginal portion of one side of the leather, a still more satisfactory result may be obtained by applying pressure to the plastic leather to mold it. The illustrative apparatus is, therefore, adapted first to apply heat to the margin to shrink it and then to mold or rub the shrunken margin.

The shrinking means chosen for illustration consists of a searing or scorching tool 1 in the form of a comparatively heavy platinum wire bent double, the ends being soldered into slots in the lower ends of two conducting rods 3 and 5 which are insuas a supporting and feeding member.

lated from each other and firmly held in a sleeve 7 of insulating material. The conducting rods terminate at their upper ends in outwardly turned fiat portions which have threaded posts to receive binding screws 9 by means of which conducting Wires or leadsll are attached. The tool 1 thus forms part of an electrical circuit and may be heated by passing a current of electricity through it.

The sleeve 7 is clamped in a two-part holder 13 by screws as shown in Figs. 1 and a so that it may be adjusted both vertically and angularly. In the illustrative machine the tool is held stationary in adjusted position while the leather is fed beneath it. The holder 13 is, therefore, provided with a stem 15' which in turn is adjustably clamped in position between plates 17 and 19 by means of screw bolts 21.

In order to guide the leather during the feeding movement and to lift or direct the margin thereof into position to be acted upon by the searing or shrinking tool, an 30 edge gage 20 has a resilient stem which is fastened to the plate 19 by means of a screw 23 (see Fig. 1). This edge gage is formed at its lower portion with a protruding lip which extends beneath the leather and lifts or directs themargin thereof upwardly toward the shrinking tool. When therefore the margin of the leather is drawn alongbeneath the tool this edge gage, in addition to its guiding function, acts after the manner of a plow and turns the margin of the leather upwardly as is shown in Fig. 8.

In order to feed the leather along and draw it beneath the shrinking tool, there is mounted upon the base of the machine a table 25 having an aperture to receive a bearing 26 upon which a turn table 27 isarranged to rotate, said turn table servgig 0.. operating with the turn table is a feed roller 29 held fast on one end of a shaft 31 to the other end of which is attached a pulley 33. This feed roller is frusto-conical in shape with its larger end located toward the rim of the turn table so that the edge of its outer end bears most heavily upon the leather, engaging it firmly at a single point and thus permitting the leather to be turned and guided by the operator as he may desire.

When the leather is under the hot tool it is rendered more or less plastic, and while the desired curling effect may be secured by simply scaring the back margin of the leather, a still more uniform and satisfactory finish may be secured by the employment of mechanical molding of the leather while plastic. There is accordingly provided a forming guide 35, which in the illustrated machine is integral with and rises above the turn table 27, said guide having a recessed face as shown to receive the edge of the leather. A further function of the feed roller will now be apparent since, owing to its shape, it acts not only to feed the leather but to crowd the edge thereof against the curved face of the forming guide. It will also be clear that this forming guide serves a second function; namely, to guide the leather after it leaves the shrinking tool. It should also be noted that the feed roller 29 rotates in a plane which makes an acute angle with a line from the shrinking tool to the active point of the roller so that the edge of the leather is crowded up to the edge gage 20 and forming guide 35.

It is very desirable that the heat be prevented from reaching the body portion of the leather and be restricted to the margin thereof, and to this end a guard 37 is provided with a forked end which straddles the. shrinking or searing tool 1. The stem of this guard is pivoted at 39 to one member of the two-part holder 13 and is nor mally urged downwardly by a spring 41, a handle 13 being provided which may be depressed to raise the lower forked end of the guard so as to permit the insertion of the piece of leather beneath it preparatory to the feeding of the leather past the tool.

Although the searing tool 1 and the edge gage 20 may, if desired, be adjusted vertically to provide for pieces of leather of different thickness, it is more satisfactory to adjust the turn table. The shaft 45 of the turn table is vertically movable in its bearing and rests upon the conical upper end of an enlarged head 19 of a screw 47 threaded into the base of the machine, the head -19 being readily accessible so that by turning it the shaft i5 and with it the turn table 27 may be raised and lowered. The lower surface of the edge gage 20 is held at all times by its resilient stem in contact with the turn table.

The shaft 15 has fast upon its lower end a pulley 51, and an endless belt 53 passes around this pulley, over two idle pulleys one of which is shown at 55 and around the pulley 38. The pulley 33'is provided on its rear face as viewed in Fig. 1 with a friction surface with which a small friction gear 57 cooperates, said gear being fast to a sleeve 59 which is slidable on the driving shaft 61 so as to vary the speed of rotation of the pulley 33 and hence the rate of feed of the leather. The sleeve 59 is splined to the driving shaft (31 which is provided with the usual driving pulley 62. A shifting fork 63 has pins which engage a grooved collar on the sleeve 59 to move it, and this fork is fast to a rock-shaft 65 which is connected by and arm (37 and a rod 69 to a treadle Tl so that when the toe of the treadle is de pressed the rate of feed of the leather is decreased and when. the heel of the treadle is depressed the rate of feed of the leather is increased.

in order to control the current of electrieitv and thereby the temperature of the shrinkin tool the current is passed through a resistance box 73 in which is pivoted a lever 75, the construction being such that when the end of said lever is lowered the resistance is increased. The particular construction of the resistance boX will not be described further since any suitable type may be used. The end of the lever 7 5 is connected with the arm 67 by a link 7 7 and pivots 79 and 81. It will thus be apparent that when the toe of the treadle is depressed to decrease the rate of feed of the leather the current will be decreased and the temperature of the shrinking or searing tool lowered, and that when the heel of the treadle is depressed the rate of feed will be increased and the temperature raised. This is a very desirable feature of the apparatus since different leathers require different treatment and since when curved margins such as those at the throats of Vamps are encountered and the rate of feed is deceased the temperature of the tool will be automatically lowered.

One of the possible modifications of the apparatus is illustrated in Fig. 7, wherein is shown a tool 85 which is adapted to be heated by gas conducted through a pipe 87. This tool may comprise a hollow platinum point such as is commonly used in pyrographic work provided with the usual aperture 89 and having located in its interior the usual platinum gauze partition. If this tool is used it will be held by the two part clamp 13 in the same manner in which the electrically heated tool is held.

In most cases the grain side of the leather lies downward and is curved upwardly by the shrinking which is produced on the flesh side, but the invention is in nowise limited to this procedure, since with leathers in which the flesh side is the finished side the reverse is true.

The operation of the apparatus is as follows: The guard is lifted and the piece of leather pushed beneath it and the shrinking tool until its edge contacts with the edge gage 20. The piece is then moved forward until it is engaged by the feed roller 29,

' the treadle having been manipulated to give the proper rate of feed and temperature of the tool. As the leather is fed. forward its edge is lifted by the lip of the gage 20 and directed upwardly into contact with the hot tool whereby the margin of the upper side is shrunk by being seared. This heat renders the leather temporarily plastic, and as the edge is crowded against the forming guide 35, said-edge is molded and given a more finished appearance. The margin of the under side is thus curled or drawn up until it is flush with or extends slightly above the upper side as shown in Figs. 2 and 8. Normally the feed roller acts to turn the leather about the forming guide 35, and this action is desirable when the margin of a concave curve such as that of the throat of a vamp is being operated upon. When a straight margin or a convexly curved margin is encountered, the operator guides the piece of leather in the proper direction, this being permitted as has been explained by the shape of the feed roller.

Although the invention has been set forth in connection with a particular apparatus it should be understood that the invention is not limited in the scope of its application to the particular apparatus shown and described.

The invention having thus been described, What is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. An apparatus of the class described comprising means for shrinking the margin of a piece of leather and means for protecting the body of the piece from the action of said shrinking means.

2. An apparatus of the class described comprising a highly heated shrinking tool adapted to act on the margin of a piece of leather and a guard arranged to protect the body of the piece and to restrict the heat to said margin.

3; An apparatus of the class described comprising a highly heated shrinking tool adapted to act upon the margin of a piece of leather and a guard mounted in proximity to said tool and adapted to protect the body of the piece and to restrict the heat to the margin.

4:. An apparatus of the class described comprising a shrinking means, mechanism for causing said shrinking means to act upon the margin of a piece of leather, means for varying the length of time that said shrinking means acts upon a given portion of leather, and means for simultaneously varying the intensity of the action of said shrinking means.

5. An apparatus of the class described comprising a heated tool, means for causing the tool to traverse the margin of a piece of leather to shrink it, means for varying the rate of traverse and means operated by the traverse varying means for correspondingly varying the shrinking effect of the tool.

6. An apparatus of the class described comprising a heated shrinking tool, means for feeding a piece of leather past said tool with its margin in contact therewith, means for varying the rate of feed, and means operated with the feed varying means for correspondingly varying the temperature of the tool.

7. An apparatus of the class described comprising a heating tool in the form of an electrical conductor, means for passing a current of electricity through said tool, means for feeding a piece of leather past said tool with its margin in contact therewith, means for varying the rate of feed, and means operated with the feed varying means for correspondingly controlling the current of electricity.

8. An apparatus of the class described,

- having, in combination, a highly heated tool, a guard arranged to protect the body of the leather being operated upon and to restrict the heat to the margin, and a plow for turning the margin of the leather toward the heated tool.

9. An apparatus of the class described comprising a highly heated shrinking tool adapted to act on the margin of the leather and a guard having a portion overlying the body of the piece and located at one side of said tool to protect the body of the leather from the action of the heat and to restrict said heat to said margin.

10. An apparatus of the class described comprising a highly heated shrinking tool adapted to act on the margin of the leather, and a yieldingly mounted guard having a portion overlying the body of the piece and located at one side of said tool to protect the body of the leather from the action of the heat and to restrict said heat to said margin.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

HERBERT E. ENSLIN.

WVitnesses FRED W. GUIBoRD, HERBERT W. KENWAY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C.

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