US1843964A - Paper folding mechanism - Google Patents

Description

Feb. 9, 1932. R. M. WOLFF ,9

PAPER FOLDING MECHANISM Filed Jam.v l9, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 avwwtoz Feb. 9, 1932. R. M. WOLFF PAPER FOLDING MECHANISM Filed Jan. 19, 1929 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 I 5 2 V. 4 6 0 4A 7 l e 3 3 7 3 2 3 G 3 42 5 .l 2 a 6 2 4 O u 3 9 w w w 4M \M. 4 \h\\\ o 6 U Q 2 5 7 a n. y a Q IRU H HH J 8 0 a 2 H 2 V G W a, 2 5 I 4 I! v F "m W 7 m M a 0 1. 2 L. 9 H 3. w 7 fi 6 W 4 2 w 4 e 5 5 4 4 FIGA.

Patented Feb. 9, 1932 stare rsneaa ROBERT MAXfWOLFF, OF BERLIfN, GERMANY, ASSIGNOR TO THE. TABULATING MA- CHINE COMPANY, OF END-IGOTT, NEVT YORK, A COBCEOBATION OF NEW JERSEY PAPER rornrne ivnicnnmsivr Application filed January 19, 1929, SeriaLNo. 333,713; and in Germany August 25, 1928.

In the art of accounting machines, especially in thetabulating machine art it is customary to print continuous record strips or sheets indicating items and. results derived from said items as for instance their totals, or differences and so on. Tabulating machines are controlled by perforated recordcardsbearing record data and thesecard's usually controlv accumulators and. a printing device; which records. upon; the aforesaid paper-sheet. the-individual data.v Fhe record sheet; is shifted one step for each entry and when the printing device is controlled by the accumulators-5. for example, when the group number of. the records running through the machine changes, the record sheet'will also receive the total of the items previously printed.

When. a large number of cards run through. the tabulator and the corresponding data has to be recorded on a continuous sheet or when unitary business transactions require recording of the data on a continuous sheet or if for. the convenience of the operator no. special attendance is given to the paper feed mechanism, the sheet will be continuously fed and" finally will become so long that handling of the same Every-inconvenient.

The present inventlon aims to store the L e printedrecord sheet in a very convenient form without severnig-thesheet and Without any particularattendance on the part of the operatorand it is the main purpose of the inf ventioir to. providea folding mechanism for accounting; machine, which mechanism meets all requirements mentioned in the preceding paragraph.

Another ob ect of the present invention. is to, provide means for actuatlng said foldlng mechanism in. accord with the paper feeding Other objects. and. advantages will: be here-- inafter set forth in the accompanying specification andclaims and shown in the-drawings.

which show byway of illustration what is now'consideredto be a preferred embodiment of: the invention;

Inthe; drawings: v 1

Fig. 1 is a side. view of a printing tabulat ing machine With its associated folding mechanism.v

Fig. 2- is: a side view of the. folding device,

Fig. 3 is a sectional. view of the folding device shown in Fig. 2, and

Fig. Lis a front view of'the foldingdevice according. to Fig; 2;. Y 4

In the accompanyingdrawings the tabulat-. in-g machine is generally designated by the referencenumeral 1.. As has been mentioned: thismachinehas a printing device comprisiing; up and downwardly moved. type carriers 2 which are under the control of perforated: record cards and are arrested in their printiing position during'their upward movement inaccordance with the respectiveindexr points. At'the end of the machine cycle-the typehammers are released and impel the type in printing position against the record sheet 49;. carried bythe platen roller 14:; therefore?. the item; represented on the controlling rec- 0rd card by means of perforations will be recorded upon the sheet 49 by printed numerals. The standard tabulat'ors: are pro vided "with an automatic shifting device for the platen 14, so as to shift the sheet 49" to the following line where the item represented on the following card passing-:througlr the. machine will be printed and so on.

A frame generally designatedbynumeral- 6,. carriesthe folding mechanism 3 and the paper sheet supply roll 4.. The frame 6 may be either individual as shown; in Fig, 1 or it. maybe firmly or detachably attached to the tabulating machine.

From the supplyroll 4, carriedby a pair of arms 50 fast on both sides of the'frame 6,

the sheet 4:9 is fed over an auxiliary roll 51' a feeding roll 5 carried by the frame, another auxiliary roll- 52 attached to arms 50-, over platen 14C and then to the folding mechanism over a guiding roll 53 provided at the upper ends of posts 54 which are fastened on both sides of the housing 3 of the folding mechanism.

The shaft 74 of the feeding roll 5 carries on one end a ratchet 10, for shifting the roller 5 and cooperating with a shifting pawl 9 which is pivoted to a lever 8. This lever is pivotally connected with the actuating rod 7 which in turn is connected with the upper arm of a bell crank lever 11. The bell crank lever 11 is pivoted at to the frame of the machine and its lower arm engages a finger 13, fixed to a shaft 56 which has its bearings .in the frame of the machine and reaches with its other end into the housing of the driving mechanism. A spring 12 normally tends to turn lever 11 in clockwise direction and holds the lever in engagement with finger 13. The upper arm of hell crank lever 11 has a slot 15 accommodating a bolt and nut 75 attached to the actuating rod 7. This arrangement is provided to obtain a settable connection between bell crank lever 11 and rod 7 in order to vary the shifting step of pawl 9 within certain limits and to adjust the same preferably in accordance with the shifting step of the feeding roll 14 of the tabulating machine. i

The shaft 56 cooperates with a cam member of the driving mechanism of the tabulator in such a way that the shaft and accordingly also the finger 13 provide a rocking movement in counterclockwise direction at the end of each machine cycle. It will be recognized that consequently also bell crank lever 11, rod 7 and lever 8 will be moved and that pawl 9 will shift roll 5 for an amount dependent on the adjustment of element 75 in slot 15 of lever 11. In the well known manner also the feeding mechanism of the tabulato-r for roll 14 will be actuated at the end of the machine cycle to feed the record sheet for one step to the next printing line. In order to hold sheet 49 tight towards roll 5, a pivoted element 7 8 may be provided.

After the record sheet 49 has been printed in the tabulator it will be fed over roll 53 to the folding device which will now be described more in detail.

The folding mechanism as illustrated in Figs. 2-4 comprises a casing 3 open at the top but having a cross rod 20 and a cross plate both supported at both ends by the side walls of the housing as willbe'seen from the drawings. A storing plate 18 is provided within the casing and pressure springs19, one being arranged in each of the four corners of the housing, cooperate through fastening blocks 57 with the lower side of plate 18 on the one hand and with the bottom plate 58 of the housing 3 on the other hand and tend to lift the plate 1811pwardly. In Fig. 3 is shown a folded record sheet 49 lying upon the plate 13and being pressed on the left side against the cross rod 20 and on the right side against the folding roller 33 and the folding element 34. Fast to the lower side of the plate 13 (Fig. 3) is an element 59 terminating in a handle 39. The element 59 has twoside lips 61 which pivotally carry a second handle 41, which on its rear end a lifting bar 40 connected with lever 41 by a pin which passes through the plate 18 (Fig. If it is necessary to remove the folded record sheet as shown in Fig. 3 from the housing, at first the sheet will be severed in any suitable manner, then handle 39 is depressed and handle 41 pressed towards handle 39. Thereby the r cord sheet bundle is released from pressure by rolls 33 and folding elements 34 and is also lifted from plate 18 by bar 40 so that it may be easily gripped and removed from the casing through slot 76 in the upper part of the front plate 64 of casing 3.

The front plate 64 carries a lug 62 on each side and the rear plate 65 carries lugs 62 at the same elevation. Lugs 63 are fastened to both side walls on the front and rear end of the same and are arranged below lugs 62. As will be recognized from the drawings on each side of the housing there are provided two rods 22 fastened to the aforesaid lugs. The one rod connects the upper front lug 62 with the lower rear lug 63 while the sec ond rod connects the lower front lug 63 and the upper rear lug 62. As has been mentioned on each of two opposite sides of the housing is provided such a pair of rods serving as rails for the folding carriage which will now be described.

The carriage consists principally of two parallelogram frames carrying on their upper part the folding elements which frames slide on the aforesaid rails 22 when folding operations take place. Each parallelogram frame comprises two vertical frame bars 23 loosely connected with each other by two links 24. The foot of each bar is pro vided with two pairs of rolls 25 engaging the rails 22 thus enabling sliding of the bars 23 along the rails and as the bars move in a horizontal direction the sloping rails 22 cause them to move vertically. The upper parts of two opposite bars 23 carry a shaft 32 fast to said bars. Each of the two shaft 32 carries loosely a plurality of folding rolls 33, each having folding elements 21 and 21 provided with knurled cylinders 34 which cooperate with the record sheet.

Bolts 29 which are fast to the side plates of the housing 3 carry on the outer side of the housing a toothed wheel 27. Similar bolts 29 are provided in the front part of the housing and carry a tooth-ed wheel 27.

Toothed wheels 27 and 27 mesh with a chain 28 one being provided on each side of the housing whereby wheels 27 and 27 are turned together when the supporting shaft of one of them is turned. The supporting shaft 7 I:

ice

of wheels 27- carries also toothed wheels: meshing with toothed wheels 67 fast-to aisliaft 85 which hasits: bearings in projections: 68 attached tothe' front plate 64 of" thehousing 3-. Attheright endof shaft (Fig. 4?) is fastened a coupling element 36; A1 toothed wheel 31 is loosely mountedi upon the shaft 35 andnormally pressed by means of'the loose and slidable element 37- and the pressure spring 38- towards the coupling element 36.

It will be recognizedthat thisarrangmeiit provides av frictional coupling between wheel 31 and the shaft 35. Wheel 31'. is-dr-i-ven by meansof a chain 69 (Fig. 1) meshing with a toothed: wheel- 7 Owhich: is provided upon the shaft 74 of the paper feeding mechanism; Therefore the shaft 35.will be turned in consequence of the aforesaid frictional coupling-in accord with shifting of the record sheet. The shaft 35 in turn coactswith the chain drive comprising chains 28 and wheels 27 and 27 which again effect shifting of the foldingcarriage; To the chains 28 is fastened a bolt 7-0 which carries-on both ends disks 26-fitting between the vertical: bars 23 of the folding carriage If therefore the chains28- are movedstepby step the disks 26 will move the folding carriage accordingly; In consequence of. the inclined arrangement of guiding railsfZQ the one set of bars23will have an ascending movement when the carriage isbeing shifted along'th'e rails in, one direction while the other set of opposite-bars 23will= descend and during the reversemove ment of the carriage the movements of the bars 23 will also'be inreverse direction. If therefore the carriage moves from the left to tlie right, the left foldingelements 21 will engage the. record sheet and press the same towards plate 18 or the sheet bundle 49 re sp'ectively. At the end of: this movement the guiding rolls 34 will: pass between the folded sheet andtheeross 60, pressing the plate 18" downwardly and sliding tllGTSCOYCl sheet below th'eplate 60. .Whenthen the carriage starts to move in opposite direction the foldi'ng; rolls 34-wil-l be removed below the plate while theedge of" the folded" sheet will be pressed toward said plate and so the sheet will be held inposition. During the step by stepmovement of the-carriage from theright to the left the folding element 21 and guiding rolls 34 respectively will be gradually lifted and disengaged from the record sheet but. in thesanie measurethe folding elements 21 will be lowered and'engagethe sheet from the opposite side. At the left terminal. the rolls 84 of elements 21 will slide the sheet between the bar 20 and plate 18 in a similar Way as this has been done at the right side. The carriage will then return again and the same operations will be repeated as long as the machine is running and the record sheet will be folded in a proper manner.

If for any reason the folding carriage should encounter some resistance or the rec-. ord sheet fed from the auxiliary roll 53: (Fig. 1 tothe folding mechanism should be too tightinofurther shifting of the-carriage will DRkGPliLC-Ba This is dueto the frictional coupling device comprising the toothed wheel 31 and the couplingelements 36 and 37 In case the carriage should be stopped, wheel 31 when; driven, by chain 69 (Fig. 1) will over come the pressure of springBS and therefore will; slide between the elements 36 andfi? without any. effect to shaft 35..

It is; often desirable to have the record sheet not only folded but pasted together on one side so as'to obtain a record in the form of a book. For this purpose there is provided in this machine. a pasting device-which is actuated by the folding carriage and which automatically paste one margin of the sheet after each foldingcycle, This pasting device comprises apaste reservoir 43 attached to the rear plate of the housing 3, apaste feedingrolle-r 44 and a pivotally mounted pasting; element.45.

The reservoir 43 being: filled; with paste bears in its side walls the shaft of roller 44 which, isspi'rally threaded over all its length which, as will be understood, corresponds to the. width ofthe record sheet. Ofcourse, also the reservoir and the pasting brush 45 are of corresponding length. The brush roller 45 gliding upon the feeding roller 44 is carried on both. ends by levers 71 pivoted with bolts 46-,to lips 72 fast tov the housing 3-. One of the levers 71 has a projecting arm 47. As the folding carriage ismoving to its extreme leftposition a lever 73 fast to the bar 23 will encounter through its roller 48 the lever 47 and therefore the pasting roller 45 will be turned in clockwise direction and finally will touclithe leftmargin of the most upper sheet.

ltwill be-noticed that each time the carriage is in. its left position the brush 45 will paste the upper. sheet and so all folded sheets will finally be, pasted together on the left side. It will be understood that spring means are providedto rock. th-epasting brush back to-its normal position when lever 47 is disengaged from lever 7 3 after pastingoperation.

, in order tofeed the brush. 45 with paste means may be provided to rotate the roller 44 continuously or step' by step; the spiral grooves of. the roller will then take the paste from the reservoir; and deliverit. to the pastingbrush 45 which in, turn pastesthe record sheet.

WVhilethere has been shown, and described andpointed out the fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a single modification it will be understood that variinthe form and details of the device-illustrat ed and in its operation may bemade-b-y those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. It is the intention therefore to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the following claims:

1. A folding mechanism for a printing accounting machine to fold the record sheet pre pared by said machine, said mechanism including a sheet receptacle and a reciprocally movable folding carriage, comprising a pair of parallelly guided carriers on opposite sides of said receptacle and cross rods carried by said carriers, said cross rods carrying folding elements facing each other, guiding bars for said pairs of parallelly guided carriers to provide alternate ascending and descending movement of said cross rods when said folding carriage is reciprocated so that alternately one of said folding elements engages the record sheet to fold it during a to or fro movement of the carriage.

2. A machine according to the preceding claim 1 characterized thereby that said folding carrier is reciprocated by means of disks coacting with parallelogram carriers, said disks being fastened to an endless chain driven step by step in accord with the record sheet feeding mechanism of the accounting machine.

3. A printing accounting machine preparing a record sheet, feeding means for said record sheet and folding means for the same, comprising a carrier for the folded sheet and a folding carriage, means to reciprocate said carriage relatively to said carrier, actuating means for said'reciprocating means, said actuating means being associated with the accounting machine and controlled in accord with said sheet feeding means and means to .electively adjust the feeding step of said folding carriage relatively to the feeding step of said sheet feeding means of the accounting machine.

l. A machine according to the preceding claim, 3, characterized thereby that said selective adjusting means include an actuating rod for said folding mechanism being connected by a settable pin and slot connection with an actuating lever of the accounting machine.

5. A printing accounting machine preparing a record sheet, a folding mechanism associated to said machine, feeding means for said record sheet, reciprocating folding means, driving means for said folding means and actuating means for said driving means, said actuating means being under the control of the accounting machine, and a frictional coupling device between said actuating means and said driving means to avoid positive driving of the folding means and stopping of the same when they encounter any abnormal resistance.

6. A printing accounting machine preparing a record sheet, feeding means for said record sheet and folding means for the same, means to actuate said folding means in. accord with said feeding means and means to periodically paste themargin of the folded record sheet.

7. A folding mechanism for a printing accounting machine to fold the record sheet prepared by said machine, said mechanism comprising a gripping frame for the folded sheet, a folding carriage cooperating with said frame, means to reciprocate said carriage for folding operations, a pasting device for pasting one margin of the folded record sheet, said pasting device being actuated by said folding carriage at one terminal of its reciprocating movement.

8. A machine as described in the preceding claim 7 wherein said pasting device consists of a reservoir for the paste, rotating paste feeding means, a pivotally mounted pasting element normally sliding upon said feeding means and rocked towards the record sheet through said folding carriage for pasting operation.

9. A folding mechanism for a record sheet prepared by a printing accounting machine, said mechanism including reciprocating folding elements, a storage casing hav ing an opening for inserting the record sheet, a plate in said casing pressed resiliently upward, bars across said opening and coacting with said upwardly pressed plate, and means associated with said reciprocating folding elements to slide the folded edges of the rec- 0rd sheet under said cross bars to be gripped by said plate.

10. A folding mechanism for a record sheet prepared by a printing accounting machine, said mechanism including reciprocating folding elements, a storage casing having an opening for inserting the record sheet, a plate in said casing pressed resiliently upward, bars across said opening and coacting with said upwardly pressed plate, means for folding and laying the record sheets under said bars to be gripped by said plate, hand operated means for lifting said record sheet from said plate, and a secondopening in said casing for withdrawing the folded record sheets.

11. In a folding mechanism for folding a record sheet in book form, feeding means for said record sheet and folding means for the same, means to actuate said folding means in accord with said feeding means, and means to paste one folded edge of the record sheet at each folding operation.

In testimony whereof I hereto affix my signature.

ROBERT MAX WOLFF.

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