US1853288A - Matrix delivery mechanism for slug casting machines - Google Patents

Description

April 12, 1932. v 5. J. SENNETT 1,853,288

MATRIX DELIVERY MECHANISM FOR SLUG CASTING MACHINES Filed July 20, 1929 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 April 12, 1932. s. J. SENNETT 1,853,288

MATRIX DELIVERY MECHANISM FOR SLUG CASTING MACHINES Filed July 20, 1929 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 April 12, 1932. 5. J. SENNETT MATRIX DELIVERY MECHANISM FOR SLUG CASTING MACHINES Filed July 20, 1929 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 m, J 8 a fi/MX/ v 2/ W A Z Z w 0 NU April 12, 1932. sQJ. SENNETT 1,853,288

MATRIX DELIVERY MECHANISM FOR SLUG CASTING MACHINES Filed July 20, 1929 4 Sheets-Sheei 4 Patented Apr. 12, 1932' until-an; STATES.

PAT EN 'I' @FFI-CEI syrvnssrnn a; seminar, or onrcaeo, ILLINOIS, nssrenonro "agreement-compan OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A oonron'n'rron or ILLINOIS MAT nix" DELIVERY Mnomrmsrr ron sane" ons'rnv'e mofimns- Application' filed. July 20, 1929.- Serial No. 379,702:

This invention relates to linotype machines and more particularly to matrix delivery mechanism by which the matrices or mats are delivered into the assembler of such a machine.

The principal object of the invention is to provide a device for delivering'the matrices directly into the assembler in such manner at-to prevent transpositions and other difficultiesheretofore experienced in the transfer of the mats in linotype'machines such as are ordinarily used inrnewspaper plants.

A further object is-the provision of an end-ofthedeliver mechanism,illustratin Y 5% the means by which the mats are positively delivered into the assembler;

Fig. 3 is a detail plan view taken on the line 3 3 of Fig.2-andillustrating the drive for the star wheel by which-the mats are transferred into the assembler, the'view illu'strating also the means employed for disconnecting said star wheel from the power and means" for manually turning said star wheel when so disconnected Fig. 4 is an elevational view of certain parts ofthe delivery-mechanism;

Fig. 5 is a detail plan and sectional view of the upper pulley and associated parts'of the delivery mechanism; and

Fig. 6 is adetailview of-the main driving pulleys-shown at the lowerright in Fig; l.

The machine shown in the drawings for purposes of illustration is for the most part a standard linotype machine such as is used in'large newspaper establishments and com-' prises a keyboard 21, the keys 22 of whi'c are adapted to controlthe release of matrices from guideways 23 of a magazine generally indicated at 24,-this part of the mechanism being of ordinary and wellkno'wn construction and therefore not being. illustrated in? detail. p

The matrices, or mats as they are commonly called, are directed, when released,onto a belt 25 which runs over" an upperflpull'ey 26 and lower pulley. 27', the upper pull'e'y'being driven from a suitable source of powerby means of a belt28 taking over a pulley 29 on a power shaft 31 and a pulley 32 on a shaft 33 which carries the pulley 26 pre, viously mentioned. As-clearly shown in Fig; 5, the shaft 33 is journaled in athreaded colf lar 34 which has a flange 35 at one 'end thereof and carries a nut 36 which serves to clamp said collar onto'a frame part 37 having an aperture 38 through which said-collar is, disposed, the flange 35 and nut 36 hearing against the opposite sides of said frame part 37 The pulleys 26 and 32 are respectively secured to the shaft 33by mea-ns'of set screws 39 and 41. The lower pulley 27 in the pres-- ent instance is loosely mountedon a shaft 42 which is journaled in a bearing, 43 in a frame part Hand carries at its inner end fixedand loose pulleys indicated respectively by the reference characters 45 and 46, these parts being shown in Fig. 3. v y 1 A star wheel 47 is provided beyond the lower pulley 27 for the purpose of transferring the mats, indicated by the reference character 48 in Fig. 2, into an assembler mechanism shown at 49 in Figs. 1 and 2. As is well known, the-row of mats assembledin this way is used to make a line slug and the slugs are later arranged in page f0rin,.but 0 this part of the machine is not illustrated since it forms no part of the presentinvention. v

Referringto Figs. 3 and 4, it Will'be noted that the star wheel 47 .is mounted ona shaft 9 gears consists of a gear 53 on said shaft: 7

meshing with an intermediate gear 54 loosely mounted on a fixed stud and meshing with a gear 56 which is fixed upon the shaft 42.

A belt 57 extending between a pulley 58 fixed upon the drive shaft 31 and pulleys and 46 upon the shaft 42 serves to drive said shaft, it being understood that the shaft is driven when the belt is upon the fixed pulley 45 and that when it is desired to disconnect the star wheel 47 from the drive, said belt may be shifted to the idle pulley 46, as shown in Fig. 3. A shifter mechanism is provided for this purpose consisting of a shaft 59 slidably mounted in a bearing 61 and having at one end a fork 62 through which the belt 57 runs, the opposite end of said shaft being provided with a hand wheel 63 by means of which it may be manually shifted from one position to the other as occasion may require. A hand Wheel 64 is also provided upon the shaft 42 so that the latter may be manually rotated to operate the star wheel 47 when said star wheel is disconnected from the power in the manner ust described.

In standard machines of this character, the pulley 27 forms the lower terminal of the course of travel of the belt 25, the mats being permitted to slide by gravity from the position of this pulley, as shown in the drawings, onto the star wheel 47 by means of which they are transferred into the assembler. A great deal of difiiculty has been experienced in the practical operation of the machines by reason of transposition of the mats due to the rather long, free fall from the point of leaving the belt to the point of contact with the star wheel. Such transpositions have been the cause not only of many inaccuracies but have resulted in a considerable loss of time, which, as will be readily recognized, is very serious in the production of newspapers where the time element is highly important. My invention overcomes this difficulty by providing positive delivery of the mats to the star wheel by which they are transferred into the assembler. This is accomplished by ex tending the course of travel of the conveyor belt 25 beyond the pulley 27 to a point adjacent the star wheel 47 so that the mats are engaged by said star wheel before leaving the conveyor belt, as is clearly shown in Fig. 2.

In the embodiment of the invention shown in the drawings, a roller 65 is provided just above and to the right of the star wheel, be-

ing mounted upon a stud 66 supported in the frame 44 and equipped with anti-friction devices 67 to facilitate the rotation of said roller. A guide 68 is provided between the roller 65 and the pulley 27 and said guide and roller are so located as to guide the belt in a proper course beyond the pulley 27 and back into contact with the under side of said pulley, as is shown in Fig. 2. It will of course be evident that other equivalent means might be provided for extending the travel of the belt such, for example, as placing an auxiliary belt over the regular one, with the auxiliary belt extended as is the single belt shown in the embodiment of the invention which I have chosen for purposes of illustration.

In order to provide a positive drive both for the conveyor belt 25 and the star wheel 47, I employ means for driving the upper pulley 26 as the positive drive for the belt, leaving the lower pulley 27 idle and providing a separate drive for the star wheel which can be connected or disconnected as desired by the mechanism shown in Fig. 3. Both these drives may be taken from a common power shaft if desired, as the shaft, 31, although it will be understood that any suitable source of power may be utilized according to the type of machine to which the invention is applied.

An important feature of the invention is that the improvement may be applied to existing machines with very slight change in the mechanism and at very slight cost either as to parts required or time necessary to install them. In the embodiment shown, for example, the device is so designed that the usual dowel pin holes in frame 44 may be used for attaching roller 65 so that the improvement may be applied directly to a standard machine without the need of drilling any special holes to effect its attachment. This is due to the fact that under the present practice, the guide unit which is interposed between star wheel 47 and lower pulley 27, consists of inner and outer guide rails 69 and 70 (Fig. 3), and a center piece (not shown), which is similar in shape to guide 68, with the difference that it is not cut away to provide space for roller 65. This guide unit is attached to the face of the machine by a threaded stud 71, an upper dowel pin 72, and a lower dowel pin, which, in the embodiment shown, is represented by stud 66 which carries roller 65. Under the present practice the frame part 44 of standard machines is formed with holes which are spaced to receive stud 66, threaded stud 71, and dowel pin 72. It is evident, therefore, that the invention may be employed in the standard guide unit which is now especially designed for linotype machines by merely changing slightly the shape of the center piece to make room for roller 65 which is then mounted directly upon the lower dowel pin. This unit may then be applied to the machine by making use of the holes which have already been drilled to receive the regular guide unit.

It is thought that the invention and many of its attendant advantages will be understood from the foregoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made in the form, construction and arrangement of the parts without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, or

sacrificing all of its material advantages, the construction hereinbefore described being merely a preferred embodiment thereof.

I claim:

1. In a linotype machine the combination of a matrix magazine, an assembler mechanism, means for releasing the matrices in desired order from said magazine, and gravity delivery mechanism comprising an inclined conveyor adapted to receive the matrices when released and a rotary transfer device for delivering said matrices into the assembler mechanism, the lower end of said conveyor being extended to a point sufficient near said transfer device to bring the matrices into engagement therewith before they leave the conveyor.

2. In a linotype machine the combination of a matrix magazine, an assembler mechanism, means for releasing the matrices in desired order from said magazine, and gravity delivery mechanism comprising an inclined conveyor adapted to receive the matrices when released and a transfer device comprising a star wheel for delivering said matrices into the assembler mechanism, the lower end of said conveyor being extended to a point sufliciently near said star wheel to bring the matrices into engagement therewith before they leave the conveyor.

3. In a linotype machine the combination of a matrix magazine, an assembler mechanism, means for releasing the matrices in desired order from said magazine, and gravity delivery mechanism comprising an inclined conveyor adapted to receive the matrices when released and a rotary transfer device for delivering said matrices into the assembler mechanism, the conveyor comprising upper and lower pulleys, a conveyor beltrunning over said pulleys, the lower pulley being disposed a substantial distance from said transfer device, and a. roller beyond said lower pulley and adjacent said transfer device, the

' belt being directed over saidroller to thererices into engagement therewith before they leave the conveyor.

4. In a linotype machine the combination of a matrix magazine, an assembler mechanism, means for releasing the matrices in desired order from said magazine, and gravity delivery mechanism comprising a conveyor adapted to receive the matrices when released and a rotary transfer device for delivering said matrices into the assembler mechanism, the conveyor comprising an inclined carrier belt beneath said magazine onto which the matrices are adapted tobe de livered when released from said magazine, upper and lower pulleys over which said belt is directed and means for extending the course of travel of the belt beyond the lower pulley to a point in close proximity to said transfer device.

5. In a linotype machine the combination of a matrix magazine, an assembler mechanism, means for releasing the matrices from said magazine, a gravity delivery mechanism comprising a carrier belt disposed beneath said magazine and adapted to receive the matrices when released from said magazine, upper and lower pulleys over which said belt runs, a rotary transfer device beyond the lower pulley adapted toreceive the matrices from said belt and to transfer the same into said assembler mechanisnnsaid belt being extended to a point suficiently near said transfer device to positively deliver the matrices thereto before they leave the belt, a source of power, means for driving the upper pulley from said source of power and means for driving said rotary transfer device also from said source of power, the lower pulley being idle.

6. In a linotype machine the combination of a matrix magazine, an assembler mechanism, means for releasing the matrices in desired order from said magazine, and gravity delivery mechanism comprising an inclined conveyor belt adapted to receive the matrices when released and a rotary transfer. device for delivering said matrices into the assembler mechanism, the lower end of said belt being positioned sufficiently near said transfer device to bring the matrices into engagement therewith before they leave the conveyor.

7. In a linotype machine the combination of a matrix magazine, an assembler mechanism, means for releasing the matrices in desired order from said magazine, and gravity delivery mechanism comprising an inclined conveyor adapted to receive the matrices when released and a rotary transfer device comprising a star wheel for delivering said matrices into the assembler mechanism, said conveyor comprising upper and lower Plll'. leys, a conveyor belt running over said pulleys, the lower pulley being disposed a substantial distance from said star wheel, and a roller beyond said lower pulley and adjacent said star wheel, the belt being directed over said roller to thereby extend the conveyor to a point sufficiently near said star. wheel to bring the matrices into engagement therewith before they leave the conveyor.

8. In a linotype machine the combination posed a substantial distance from said transfer device, a guide unit positioned between said transfer device and the lower pulley, said unit including a center piece and a pair of guide rails positioned on either side of the 5 center piece and in alignment with the conveyor belt, dowel pins for locating, said guide unit on the face plate of the machine, one of said pins being disposed adjacent said transfer device, and a roller on said last mentioned pin, said belt being directed over said roller to thereby extend the conveyor to a point sufficiently near said transfer device to ring the matrices into engagement therewith before they leave the conveyor. In Witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name to this specification.

SYLVESTER J. SENNETT.

Images