US2853840A - Coat hanger cover applying machine - Google Patents

Description

Sept. 30, 1958 Y AIL. MADSEN 2,853,840

COAT HANGER COVER APPLYING MACHINE Filed Aug. 24, 1956 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR Abner L Madsen BY WMQKK W ATTORNEY Sept. 30, 1958 A. L. MADSEN COAT HANGER COVER APPLYING MACHINE 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Aug. 24, 1956 E E: MN

NSF

INVENTOR Abner L. Madsen M ATTORNEY P 30, 1958 A. L. MADSEN 2,853,840

COAT HANGER COVER APPLYING MACHINE Filed Aug. 24, 1956 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 9 5 Fla 3 2/ INVENTOR 5' Q Abner L. Mbdsen BY Wait/190K ATTORNEY Sept. 30, 1958 A. L. MADSEN 2,853,840

COAT HANGER COVER APPLYING MACHINE Filed Aug. 24, 1956 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 FIG. 4

. .M r g 'INVENTOR Abner L. Mao'sen BY hAzVZ/W ATTORNEY p 30, 1953 A. L. MADSEN 2,853,840

COAT HANGER COVER APPLYING MACHINE Filed Aug. 24, 1956 s Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR Abner L. Madsen BY hyfu/f ATTORNEY United States Patent COAT HANGER COVER APPLYING MACHINE I Abner L. Madsen, Mundelein, Ill.

Application August 24, 1956, Serial No. 606,139 I 7 Claims. (Cl. 53-200) This invention relates to automatic cover applicators for ordinary'wire clothes hangers to render them useful in the safe handling of clean clothes.

In many of the better cleaning establishments where the ordinary-wire coat hangers are commonly used in the handling of the cleaned garments, a paper cover has been used over the hanger to protect the clothes from any dirt or rust on the hanger as well as to keep them from possible snagging on any rough spots that are occasionally found on parts of the wire that may come into contact with some delicate clothing materials. It has been customary to apply these paper covers, such as e. g. those shown in my prior Patent No. 2,566,232, to these hangers by hand. This becomes a tedious and time consuming process when a multitude of hangers are involved.

The present invention was devised to reduce the time and labor required for applying the covers to the hangers, as well as to minimize the cost.

I The object of this invention is to provide a machine for automatically applying the above type of covers to the common type of wire clothes hangers on amass production basis, starting with a continuous line of the clothes hangers and a stack of the die cut covers and ending with a line of covered hangers.

the bare wire hangers one at a time in the above machine, with a sensing device for controlling the paper cover feeding means whereby to feed a coveronly during the cycles of operation when a wire hanger has been started on its cycle through the machine. I I A further object is to provide electro-magnetic antijiggling means to aid in stabilizing the movement of each individual hanger against rebound from guide plates against which it is fed at the beginning of each cycle of operation.

A further object is to provide means for centering the.

hanger over the horizontally fed cover sheet, as the hanger is dropped thereover, with its horizontal wire'portion resting in a pair of release fingers just back of the corresponding edge of the cover and in line with a pair of resiliently pressed feed rollers positioned below the cover sheet, and means for then opening the release fingers and pushing the hanger down to fold the cover upwardly over said horizontal wire portion and start the hanger with the cover downwardly through these feed rollers into a lower station.

A further object is to provide means for feeding one cover sheet at a time from a stack horizontally into po sition against a back stop over said pair of pressure rollers in response to said sensing device whenever a hanger has been started on its cycle.

A further object is to provide a horizontally reciproa cating support for receiving the hanger in said lower station and, after it has been turned into its horizontal position and theupper corners of the cover simultaneous-' ly drawn over the slanting sides of the hanger, 'feeding its hook end between two laterally spacedside pairs of Another object is to devise a novel means for feeding T ice 2 horizontal pressure rollers to guide the sides of the hanger into and through these rollers whereby to fold, press and seal the cover corners over the inside surface of the intermediate portion of the cover.

A further object is to provide a flipper means for flipping the hanger over from its vertical position resting on said support to its horizontal position thereon prior to reciprocation of the support to feed the hanger into the two pairs of rollers, to provide centering means for centering the hanger against said flipper before the flipping operation, and to provide an opening in a wall through which the hanger is flipped, having slanting edges coextensive with the slanting hanger sides, whereby the upper corners of the cover are simultaneously drawn over the hanger sides and folded thereover by the pairs of pressure rollers as the hanger is fed horizontally therebetween by the reciprocating support.

A further object is to provide a collector rod with an elevated hook end for receiving the covered hangers as.

they emerge from said pairs of rollers.

A further object is to provide safety cut-off means for stopping the machine in the event of jamming of the flipper means due to accidental misalignment of the hanger with the opening through which it is flipped.

Other and more specific objects of this invention will become apparent in the following detailed description of a preferred form of construction of the machine as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the complete machine,

Fig.- 2 is a right side elevational view with part of the near side cover plates removed,

Fig. 3 is a left side elevational view of the rear por tion of the machine with the near side ofthe frame work removed to show the internal arrangement of parts,

Fig. 4 is a front elevational view of the machine,

Fig. 5 shows the flipper operating cam groove and lever mechanism on the left side of the machine.

Fig. 6 is an enlarged detail plan view of the driving gears for the hanger supply and guide rods,

Fig. 7 is an enlarged detail plan view of the lower centering means for the hanger at the flipper station.

Fig. 8 is an enlarged detail elevational view of the solenoid operated vacuum-breaking valve,

Fig. 9 is a schematic perspective view of the operating parts showing the path that the hanger and cover take in going through the machine,

Fig. 10 is a plan view of a cover sheet showing bands of pressure adhesive applied thereto to provide adhesion of the folded edge and upper corners when folded over the hanger wire and pressed between the respective pressure rollers, and I Fig; 11 is an elevational view of the hanger with the cover applied.

The machine illustrated in the drawings comprises a generally rectangular framework substantially closed on the sides and the lower portion of the front.

The'bare wire hangers 20 are hung over the upper of a pair of vertically spaced parallel shafts 21 and 22 extending from bearing supports 23 and 24 at the top rear of the machine to a slightly lower height near the front, to provide a slight incline for urging the hangers hanging on the smooth portion of. shaft 21 at the rear toward the helically grooved front portion 25, as the shafts 21 and 22 are continuously turned during operation of the machine, so that the hanger hooks may be picked up one at .each turn of the shaft by the tapered upper end of 'the thread forming the groove, and fed in the gandreleasing it after turning a further or more.

ShaftsZl and 22 are geared together for rotation in op-- t a posite 'direc'tionsby g'ears27' and 28, and are driven through bevel gears 29 and 30 by the'chainsprocket '31' on shaft 32.

Chain sprocket 31 isdriven by chain 33 from sprocket 34' on the drive shaft 35,--'-which is driven'by spr'oc'lt'et37; and chain 38 from the-sprocket 39 on shaft 40', which has"anothersprocke't' 4-1 and chain 42 for' driving the other operating partsof'the'machine in".timed" 'relation"' through successive, cycles of operation,"as-willibeirnore fully described hereinafter.

The vacuum and pressure air supply pump 36""foi" maintaining a source oftvacuum 43' and a source of'pres sure 44, is driven independently bymotor '45 througli' belt46 and'suitable'pulleys47 and 4 8 Thet'sourc'es '43: and '44are connected by suitable tubing" 49"and fl' with th'e' pap'er cover sheet feeding 'meansin'a we'll known manner" to assist in picking up the" cover sheets one'at' a time'atthe propertimesin the" cycles of operation "and' dropping them at'the entrance to'the fe'edi'convey'or 51 for conveyin each sheet horizontally forward, ever the roller shield 52 and 'upagainst the"backstopssgin'itime" for thehang'er to be droppedand fed downwardly to fold the edge of the covenover the horizontahportion'of'the wire hanger as it'passes'down through the vrollers "54" and 55.

The suction tubing 49 is connected through a manifold 56 for distributingthe vacuum, to the suction cups ofth'e' feeding mechanism for lifting the top cover sheet from the stack. A pivoted flap 57 is normally held resiliently in closed position over an aperture in the manifold 56 A solenoid 58 opens this aperture by. moving the flap.

05 of it, to break the suction and prevent feeding a cover sheet during a cycle when no coat hanger is fed bythe groove 25 of rod 21. The solenoid circuit is closed only. at the instant in any cycle when the cover feed suction cups would normally be picking up a. cover sheet, but nohanger has been released to operate the normally closed micro switch 59 to break the circuit.- Switch" 59 is-in serieswith micro-switch 60 which is-normally open and is closed cyclically by cam 61 only during the pick up Switches59 and 60, being in series, will close the solenoid circuit to period of the cover sheet feeding means.

operate and thus preventfeeding a cover sheet only when a hanger is'not started on its cycle through-the machine,-

shaft 40 which also drives the hanger feeding and proe-- essing means in timed cyclical-sequence.

However thisshaft 40 is driven by motor 63 through: a belt-E62, a suitable gear reduction 64 and friction clutch means 65 which will give at a predetermined overload torque to prevent damage. to the operating means 1 in 'case of q-jamming' at any'particular point in -the machine. The 'motor 63 may be providedwithan-automatically:adjustabledrive pulley 66" for adjusting'the speed of operation 'of the" machine bymovingthemotor on its base-to chang'e thedistance between pulleys 66 and 67 and thuse' change' ingthe etfective diameter of the pulley 66; This "pulley:

is of-well known construction, having;V"-groove formed-by opposed discs axially biased-toward :e'achf otherto-urge the- V-belt 62 radially outwardlyto take outf-ifs slack 'whenthe'motor is moved tobrin'g'the further a art. I a Referring: new""niore particularly" Fi .9; as'flte; rnadifiief'is operated," a hanger 2J0 normally'enrergesat the lower end of the groove 25 onto the tapered hooked end-26-.' In slidingdown the tapered endfl after leavingr the groove, the hanger dangles haphazardly until its hook reaches the hooked end of the taper and its lower horizontal wire portion approaches the front guide plate 68. At this time in the cycle of operations a normally open micro-switch 69 is operated by a cam on the shaft 70 to complete a circuit through-the stabilizing solenoid 71 which is mounted in an opening in the guide plate.68, flush with the rear surface thereof. The" solenoidi's thus energized and draws the hanger upagainst the rear surface of the plate and stops it from bouncing. around, so that'when the hook onthetapered endof'rodhas turned to release the-hanger and the solenoid has been a 'a level just above the pair of rollers 54 and 55. At this instantth'e centering 'jaws'75'iand 76are''svvi'n'ging in-- w'ardly against the cornersiof' the. wire loo'pjof thehangen while in the meantime a cover sheet 77 has beenfed" through the belt conveyor'slinto position withits forward'edge'over'the'pair' of rollers "54 and 55, up against the back-sto 53-.

The nextstep' in the cycle of operations is' the opening of the fingers'74 to "release'the' hanger, followed imm'e-L' diately by the partial roller 73 rolling against theiidle roller to resiliently (grasp the upper part of the hanger therebetwe'en and force itidownwa'rdly, causing its lower' horizontalportion to pick upthe cover sheet, creasing j itsed'ge andfolding it over this'horizontal wire portion as the" "roller-s54 amiss resiliently receive the combined hanger and cover, sealing the edge of the cover over at. the adhesive strip portions bypressing them together. As the'harige'r with the cover emerges from these rollers 54 and 55, it drops to the reciprocating support 78,,and is held in an upright position between-the back'ofKtl e' flipper 79 and the front of guide plate 80, as shown in. the schematic diagram of Fig. 9.

At this time another bare hanger may be'startedon its cycle as shown' in this figure, and a cover sheet. 77 'fed" through the belt conveyor 51; In this mannerthe co'veringtprocessmay be carried out in quick succession. on the hangers automatically and. continuously, as long as, a supply of bare hangers is maintained at the top of the. rodJ ZI and.the. finished, covered hangers. are periodically, withdrawn fromthe lower. rod 81. .T.

Immediately after the hanger: with th'e-cover isfdrOPPfl'd. to the support 78,1 a centering. pair of jaws 82, positioned near the toplof. the flipper,- .are operated 'to move-thehanger laterally into position, with its hook-shank aligned with the narrow neck portion of the flipper 79.

The flipper is then operated to turn the hanger down flat on the support..78 by pushing it through the opening in the guide, plate 80 with flexible triangular side flaps, extending from the angular sides of the opening so as to flex the upper corners of the cover sheet over the angular wire port-ions of-the hanger. Thus, when the support 78 is ,pulleys' closer 'to each other, and to permit'the v beltto ride "deeper in the groove by separating the discs further apa'rfand thus provide a smaller-eifective pulleydiafileter' wfienthe-motoris adjusted on its basei'tor'movethe-pulleys then moved back in its horizontal reciprocation, its lugs. 83 will push the hanger backward and the hanger sides in between the side pairs of rollers 84 which will receive them resiliently and press thesevupper corners of the cover sheet over the inner surface of the cover sheet as the rollers continue to pass the hanger therethrough, to firmly stick the contacting strips of adhesive on th'e coversheet together tohold the cover sheet folded in place. As the hanger emerges "from these side pairs of rollers, its hook end moves horizontally over the raised open end 'of the receiving rod 81, so thatit is caught in a hanging po-l sition thereby and slides downwardly thereon toward the "other hangers previously caught by the rod and gathered, at the rear lower end of the rod. The finished covered haug'ershave to be removed at intervals to,provi'de room forthe successive'accumulation of coveredhafige'fs during continuous operation of the machine:

The cover sheets 77 may be supplied in stacks, their I worm gear 07 and worm 88 for irreversible adjustment either by a manually operated hand wheel 89 or automatically through clutch 90 by bevel gears 91 from the machine power drive system to raise the table in response to a control switch 92 for operating the clutch 90 which is normally disconnected, into connected position. The control switch .92 which is snapped closed by a cam 93 on shaft 94 operated by level sensing lever 95'the outer end of which rests on'the top of the stack of cover;

sheets. When the stack is raised sufliciently the cam snaps the switch open to. disconnect the clutchuntil the top of the stack becomes too low again for proper feeding. Thus the level of the top of the stack is automatically kept within operative limits as the stack is reduced, until used up. The table 84 may be counterbalanced by weights on the free end of the chain 96 to "reduce the load on the adjusting mechanism, if desired.

The belt conveyor 51may be driven by belt 97 v from a large pulley 98 on shaft 99. Belt 97 drives small pulleys on conveyor shafts 100 and 101' in one direction for the lower set of rollers and shaft 102 in the opposite direction for the upper set of rollers to cause their adjacent conveyor belts to move in the feeding direction.

Shaft 99 is one of the cyclically operated shafts of the machine for driving the partial roller 73 and the microswitch earns 61 and 70, as well as the cam 103 for opening the fingers 74, and the two cam grooves 104 and 105 for operating the swinging centering jaws 75 and 76 respectively in proper timed relation as described. This shaft also carries a cam 106 for operating the bell crank 107 to close the lower centering jaws 82 through lever 108 and links 109 operating in a horizontal plane.

Drive chain 42 passes from drive sprocket 41 over sprocket 110 as shown in Fig. 2, then sprocket 111 on shaft 112 for driving the pairs of side rollers 84, then upwardly over sprocket 113 for driving shaft 99, then downwardly over idling sprocket 114 on the shaft 115 of roller 54, and back to sprocket 41. Roller 54 is driven from the shaft 116 of roller 55 by matching gears 117 on the two roller shafts. Shaft 116 has a sprocket 118 driven by chain 119 from a sprocket 120 on shaft 99 so as to drive the rollers 54 and 55 in the proper feed direction.

A companion sprocket fixed alongside of sprocket 110 is connected by chain 121 to a sprocket 122 on shaft 123 for operating roller arm 124 to operate the bell crank 125, the other arm of which is connected to the reciprocating support 78 by link 126.

Support 78 is cut-away at its rear end to move in the space between the side pairs of rollers 84. It is normally resiliently held in its forward position as shown in Fig. 3 by the axially extending expansion spring 127 and two side compression springs 128 mounted around guide bolts 129 on which the support 78 is slidably mounted. When in retracted or forward position the rear end of the support will not interfere with the dropping of the lower horizontal edge of the hanger as it swings down over the lower of the side pairs of rollers and its hook catches over the end of rod 81.

Shaft 112 extends through the left side of the machine frame and 'is provided with an eccentric groove cam 130, in which a pin in yoke arm 131 is guided by the yoke of the arm being saddled over the end of the shaft 112, thus moving the arm substantially axially to oscillate the arm 132 on the shaft 133 for turning the flipper through substantially 90 at the proper time as described. A spring 144 may be connected to the arm.132, as shown, to take up the play in one direction.

The shaft 133 includes a cross pin 134, in one portion of the shaft, resting in a V-groove of an axially biased collar 135 slidably keyed to an adjacent portion of the shaft for transmitting the torque between the portions during operation, so that if a hanger gets jammed between the flipper and other parts of the machine, the flipper or other parts will not break, because this safety joint will give. The pin will merely force the collar to slide axially on its keyway as it slips out of the V-groove.

The axial movement of the collar will operate a safety cut-off micro-switch 136 which breaks the power circuit and stops operation of the machine, so that the trouble may be taken care of before operation is resumed.

Bridge plates 137 and 138 at opposite ends of the belt conveyor 51 are for guiding the cover sheets over the spaces between the conveyor and the stack of, cover sheets at one end and the feed roller 55 at the other end.

A switch box 139 with starting and stopping push buttons 140 and 141 may be mounted at the top of the machine, as shown.

The suction and pressure cups 142 are operated in a well known manner to pick up the top cover sheet and move it into the conveyor 51 as already described, in cyclic cooperation with the feed of the hangers.

The cover sheets 77, as disclosed in my prior patent, are I provided with a coating of pressure type adhesive 143 applied in four strips on one side of a sheet as shown more specificallyinFig. 10. This type of adhesive will not stick even with the application of considerable pressure to any uncoated surfaces, but when pressed against similarly coated surfaces it will readily stick firmly thereto. Thus when the lower edge is folded over the horizontal wire portion of the hanger and pressed between the feed rollers the adhesive strips are pressed over each other and seal themselves together. Similarly when the upper corners are folded and pressed between the rollers, considerable portions of the adhesive strips are sealed together to hold the cover sheet firmly in place over the hanger frame as shown in Fig. 11.

Many obvious modifications in the form and arrangement of parts may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention, as defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A cover applying machine for wire coat hangers, comprising a hanger pole for receiving a supply of coat hangers of conventional wire construction, a table for receiving a stack of cover sheets having suitable adhesive coatings on their upper surfaces, and cyclically operated means including means for bringing together a cover sheet from the top of said stack and a hanger from 'the end of the said pole, means for properly aligning said hanger with respect to said sheet, means for folding an edge of the sheet over the horizontal wire portion of said hanger and pressing its adhesive portions to seal them together, means for folding the upper corners of said sheet over the angular side wire portions of said hanger and similarly sealing them to the inside surface of said sheet, and a raised open ended pole for receiving said covered hangers and accumulating them by sliding thereon toward its supported lower end, and sensing means for interrupting the bringing of a sheet in any cycle when a hanger is a not delivered from the end of the pole.

2. A cover applying, machine for wire coat hangers, comprising a hanger pole for receiving a supply of coat hangers of conventional Wire construction, a table for receiving a stack of cover sheets having suitable adhesive coatings on their upper surfaces, and cyclically operated means including means for bringing together a cover sheet from the top of said stack and a hanger from the end of the said pole, means for properly aligning said hanger with respect to said sheet, means for folding an edge of the sheet over the horizontal wire portion of said hanger and pressing its adhesive portions to seal them together, means for folding the upper corners of said sheet over the angular side wire portions of said hanger and similarlysealing them to the inside surface of said sheen and; a-rais'ed open ended pole for receiving saidcovered hangers and accumulating them bysli'ding thereon toward its Supported lower end, said means for bringing the sheet and hanger together comprising means for feeding said sheet forwardlyto a position against a stop,; and means for releasing a hanger from the end of said hanger pole directly over said sheet, said: aligning means including. cen:

teringpjaws 'atth'e outer corners. of the hanger. frame for centering it'wi'th respect to said sheet in case it fell off centerinfallihg' into the'fingers, andmeans for then opening said fingers and pushing said hanger down on said sheet;

4. A 'machine as'defin'ed in claim 3; said edge folding I means including a pair of rotating hard'rubher pressure rollers directly under said sheet I for receiving jth'e' horizontal wire portion of the frame -with'said edge ofthe sheet folded over it'to press and'seal said edge to the inside surface of said sheet as therihanger and sheet are fed through said rollers.

5-. A machine as defined iniclaim4, a flipper, a .yertical. 1

guide plate behind it, and a horizontally reciprocable supporfbelowthem for'receiving' 'said'hanger and partially I attached sheet on'the front of said support between the flipper and guide plate,imeans'. for: then. centeringjsaidT hanger andsheet Wkhlespeettosaiid, flipper, said guide plate'havinglan opening. corresponding substantially to the 0i1tline.of.saidl'1anger and havingv resiliently flexible flaps extending .from the angularsidjesof the opening, said upper corner folding means including means. for operating the' fiippento turn the hanger down on said support, the fiaps .drawing the upper corners of said sheet over the angular ,side'wireportions of said hanger, a pair of resiliently pressed rotating rollers on each sideof the hook portion of said'hanger, means for then reciprocating said support to start .said' hanger through said pairs of rollers, said-support having lugsjack of the straight edge of said hanger to push it for starting through said rollers, and an inclined "pole having its upper open end in position to =-receiye"th e hook portion ofthe hanger. as it emerges from said side. pairs of"rollers"forj sliding'ly accumulating said hangers towarditslower end.

6; Amachine' as defined in claimS, said flipper having a shaft with; maximum torque'safety release joint to prevent breakage ofparts; in case a hanger jamsithe flipper.

7 ma'chinefasdefined in claim 6, and" a safety microswitch operative'in response to such release of said joint tocut 'offthe'machine operation, whereby the trouble can be remedied beforeresuming operation.

References Cited-in .the file of this patent UNITED STATESyPATENTS-l 2,661 58'3 Siam-ions-et-"a1; Dec. 8, 1953

Images