US3021940A - Line-unit dropping mechanism for linecasting machines - Google Patents

Description

Feb. 20, 1962 J. H. 5. FAN 3,021,940

LINE-UNIT DROPPING MECHANISM FOR LINECASTING MACHINES Filed June 29, 1960 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENIOR' Jason H. 8. Fan

BY M @210? ORNEY J. H. 5. FAN

Feb. 20, 1962 LINE-UNIT DROPPING MECHANISM FOR LINECASTING MACHINES 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 29, 1960 Jason H 8. Fan

Feb. 20, 1962 J, H. 5. FAN 3,021,940

LINE-UNIT DROPPING MECHANISM FOR LINECASTING MACHINES Filed June 29, 1960 5 Sheets-Sheet s 7 I I 56 50 F I G. 3 34 H6 & mnnn $7 v w 80 V, v 30 N INVENTOR.

Jason H. 5. Fan

BY WWQ Feb. 20, 1962 J. H. 5. FAN 3,

LINE-UNIT DROPPING MECHANISM FOR LINECASTING MACHINES Filed June 29, 1960 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTOR.

Jason H.S. Fan

BY wm Feb. 20, 1962 J. H. 5. FAN 3,021,940

I LINE-UNIT DROPPING MECHANISM FOR LINECASTING MACHINES Filed June 29, 1960 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENIOR.

Jason H. 8. Fan

3,021,940 LINE-UNIT DROPPING MECHANISM FOR LHNECASTING MACHINES Jason H. S. Fan, Huntington, N.Y., assignor to Fairchild Camera and Instrument Corporation, a corporation of Delaware Fiied June 29, 1960,Ser. No. 39,696 15 Claims. (Cl. 199-61) This invention relates'to improvements in type composing machines of the linecasting variety, which deliver integral one-line cast type units one after another to a galley or tray. More particularly, the present invention provides improvements in the construction or arrangement of a portion ofsuch machines which has come to be known as a horizontal rule/dropper, by the action of which the assembled column of type slugs is provided with interspersed horizontal rules, so that a column printed from the assembly will be provided with horizontal rules or lines interspersed as desired amongst the type slug impressions.

While the foregoing sufiiciently explains the origin of the name of the horizontal rule-dropper, it will be appreciated that the function of the rule-dropper is not in fact limited to the insertion of line-printing rules in the assembled galley of type. On the contrary, printing units of any desired kind can in a similar way be interspersed in the galley; for example, in the case of directory printing or the like, or in the case of mailing list composition, prefabricated slugs bearing the name of a city and state can be inserted in the galley composition in the same way. By extension, any desired relatively unchanging indicia in the form of a line unit can be introduced, one at a time, from a magazine suitably equipped to handle the range of slug sizes required.

The historical background of the invention is adequately given in prior U.S. Patents 2,801,734, Schuba, issued August 6, 1957, and 2,872,026, Larson, issued February 3, 1959, to which reference is made for such information. Briefly, devices of the type described in those patents include some form of magazine in which are stored a multiplicity of horizontal rule slugs in such a position that one of the rules at a time can be dropped a short distance from above, into the loading end of the galley tray of the linecasting machine, either under manual control as from the machines keyboard or under the control of coded information contained in a perforated tape or like medium in the case of record-controlled linecasting machines.

The devices of the prior patents mentioned above operate in a quite satisfactory manner subject to their inherent limitations, and it is therefore a principal object of the present invention to provide improved mechanism of the same general type having relative freedom from such limitations. Thus, it is a main object of the invention to provide an arrangement by which the range of printing units which can satisfactorily be dropped from the magazine by proper adjustment thereof, may include printing slugs of substantial thickness compared to mere rules.

A further object of the invention is to provide, in conjunction with a rule-dropper of the above type (using the name herein as generic to the dropping of other lineprinting units), means for the control of both the dropping rules and the incoming slugs from the conventional linecasting machine, at the point of assemblage onto the galley tray, whereby the possibility of mechanical interference between them is eliminated. In this connection, it will be understood that the conventional linecasting machine has normal provisions for maintaining, at the assembly end of the galley tray, adequate clearance for reception of a newly delivered slug, but that it is necessary to ensure in addition a clear path for reception of the dropped rule into the assembled position.

Still another object of the invention is to provide for the smoother control of type slugs sliding into the galley tray from the linecasting machine itself. In normal operation, such slugs may descend into the tray down an inclined chute with more or less violence, and may even bounce away from the tray flange. Mis-positioning of the last slug may easily interfere with the proper positioning of a rule (or the like) to be dropped there-' after, and the invention provides very simple arrangements to minimize this problem.

Yet another object of the invention is to provide a dropping mechanism of the type described, which can accommodate a considerable range in the heights of the rules or slugs to be dropped. The rules are ejected from their magazine by a reciprocable ejecting blade which operates on the upper or printing edge of the rule, which in the case of a hair-line rule may be relatively fragile. The adjustment for rule height permits positive and fast ejection even of such rules without the damage that might easily result if reliance were placed merely upon a fixed stroke of the ejector adequate for the rules of greatest height.

The invention accomplishes all of the foregoing objects in a simple and practical manner by a combination of features including an adjustment of the ejection-slot width to the precise value defined by the thickness of the units to be dropped, provision for ready interchange of ejector blades and for stroke adjustment, to accom-j modate changes in both widths and heights of the dropped units, and specialized slug and rule guiding and control adjuncts to ensure smooth and faultless operation of the mechanism.

A more complete understanding of the invention will be obtained from the following detailed specification of a preferred embodiment thereof, and modifications of that embodiment, taken in connection with the appended drawings, in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view'showing the apparatus of the invention installed upon a conventional linecasting machine, parts being omitted for greaterclarity.

FIGURE 2 is a side elevational view of the same.

FIGURE 3 is a top plan view of the dispensing or dropping mechanism alone.

' FIGURE 4 is a schematic fragmentary and enlarged sectional view of the ejector blade and the clampfor retaining an interchangeable ejecting insert thereon, the section plane being indicated in FIGURE 3 by the line 4-4 FIGURE 5 is a fragmentary top plan view of parts of the apparatus assembled, on a linecastingmachine, to show the positions of guiding and slug control portions thereof.

FIGURE 6 is a perspective view of a slug controlling deflector also forming a portion of the invention.

FIGURE 7 is a side view of a wedge piece shown in plan in FIGURE 5, looking in the direction of arrows 7-7 of FIGURE 5.

FIGURE 8 is a partial top plan view similar to FIG- URE 5 but showing a modified form of slug deflector in corporated as apart of the galley tray rather than the separate element of FIGURE 6, and also modified to illustrate a guide suitable for use with an alternate galley position.

FIGURE 9 is an enlarged view corresponding to the right-hand portion of FIGURE 2, but showing in perspec, tive a modified form of rule-thickness gauge control.

FIGURE 10 is a schematic perspective view of an alternate form of auxiliary nudger, operated mechanically from the linecasting machine. I FIGURE 11 is a similar view of a furtheralternate nudger, which is operated electrically from the machine controls.

Referring first to FIGURE 1 of the drawings, which illustrates the invention in its relation to the existing structure of a known type of linecasting machine, numeral designates the usual galley tray for the assembly of a stack 12 of type slugs, said tray normally having a slight downward tiltat its forward edge {at the right in FIG. 1), to maintain the slugs against the tray flange 14. The slugs themselves arrive at the tray via a delivery chute (not shown) from the machine mold equipment, being guided endwise in a standing position, onto the tray 10 by guide fingers such as 16.

The galley tray 10 is normally open at both ends, but at the end nearest the slug-arrival point (which is the far end in the machine as illustrated in FIG. 1) there'is disposed a movable stacker 'bar or nudger 18 which moves inward following the arrival of each slug to displace it laterally against the stack 12 and to thereby also displace the entire stack forwards (in the direction of the arrow) along flange 14 sufiiciently to clear the last slug from interfering with the arrival of the succeeding slug. A- stac'k follower 20 forms an end support for the slugs at the beginning end of the stack, and may typically be freely slidable along the flange 14 but sufiiciently massive to maintain its general end-defining position as it and the stack are urged along the galley tray a step at a time by nudger 18.

To ensure accurate stacking of the upstanding slugs, the amount of travel of nudger .18 isadjusted so as to be only s'lig'htly greater than the minimum necessary to leave the assembly position clear to receive the next slug, it being understood that the nudger and its drive arm 22 will retract after each of its pushing strokes. However, recollecting that the purpose of the rule-dropping adjunct is to drop a rule or like kind of line-unit into this same assembly positionQb'ut along a vertical path from above, some form of interference is virtually inevitable with the arrangement as so far described. a If the rule is dropped before the nudger has moved the last slug out of the assembly position, the rule will ,be prevented from dropping accurately into place, while if the rule (especially if a thick rule or an actual .type slug .unit) is dropped after the assembly position has been cleared,- its presence will interfere with the next slug arriving over the substantially horizontal (though tilted) path from the delivery chute. The present invention provides means for controlling the disposition of all of the slugs, rules or like line units which can arrive at the assemblyposition, whether from the mold chute of the jlinecasting machine or from the dropping device. However, the description of the arrangement and operation of these devices will better be understood after a description of the improved line unit dropping mechanism.

Rule dropping dispenser As generally shown in FIG. 1, the dispensing or dropping mechanism is mounted as a unit upon slide bars 24 on the machine frame, which permit it to be positioned for cooperation with either the lower part of the galley tray 10 (as shown in FIG. 1) or with the upper part, as well known in this art. In general, the dispenser corn prises a tray 26 adapted to contain a supply of the rules or similar line-units, and an end plate 28 forming a support for a vertically reciprocable back-stop blade 30, mostly hidden in FIG. 1. As shown, the dispenser is positioned so that as the rules or other units are dropped one at a time from the device, they will fall directly into the assembly position in tray10, beside the last slug of stack 12.

Turning now to FIGS. 2 and 3, the former of which is a side elevation of the dispenser partly in vertical sec-' tion, and also showing some of the slug control parts associated with the galley tray, it will be seen that the 40 extends between the side flanges 32 and 34, but terminates at its left-hand end sufficiently short of end plate 28 as to leave an aperture slot 37 for the downward passage of a rule or slug from the stack 38 thereof within tray 26. A sliding false bottom or floor plate 35 is also in the tray, and at its right-hand end is connected to a gauge plate 42. The distance of this gauge plate from the fixed bridging bar 36 thus determines the elfective slot opening width at the opposite end of the mechanism; that is, the distance from the left edge 44 of false bottom 35 to the nearer face of the vertically slidable guillotine blade 76 secured upon back stop plate 3@ as by rabbeis and guide blocks 48, 50 (see especially FIG. 3). The slot prevents ejection of more than one rule at a time.

The structure just described provides for accurate ad justment of the effective width of the discharge aperture slot at 37 in strict accordance with the thickness of the rules or slugs contained in stack 38; as shown, it is merely necessary to insert one or" the rules 52 between the bridging plate 36 (fixed to the frame of the tray 26) and the gauge plate 42, and then to tighten the clamp screws 54, 56, threaded in bridging plate 36, to establish the desired position of the other end 44 of the false bottom from the blade body 30, the length of false bottom 35 being predetermined accordingly.

A follower element 58 is arranged to slide within tray 26, its flange 60 being connected by screws 62 to a bracket 6 beneath bottom plate 40, said screws guiding the follower by virtue of lengthwise central slots 66 in the two bottoms "3S and 4ft. A tension spring 68 connects bracket 64 to a relatively fixed point as at angle bracket 7i) onbottom plate 4t), to urge the follower constantly against the stack 38.

A screw,72 threaded into the sliding back stop plate 3! passes through a slot in the end plate 28, and is connected by a spiral tension spring 74 to another screw fixed at the top of plate '28; the spring produces the upward return motion of the blade, which is however so limited in its extent as to render it impossible for the lower end of the blade 30 to be raised much beyond the level indicated in .FIG. 2, and in which position the blade itself forms the front stop for the stack isil of rules or similar line units in tray 26. To allow for a change in the dispensing stroke, as to accommodate rules of different vertical heights, and also to provide for dispens ing, dificrent thicknesses of such rules or line units, a changeable guillotine blade insert 76 is mounted on plate 30. For ease in removal and replacement of the insert, a clamp structure as illustrated in FIG. 4 is pro vided, including a horizontal clamp bar 78 having a cam edge for firmly engaging a corner of the insert 76 and urging it into seated condition in a recess 80 of blade 30.

At its upper portion, sliding plate 3% has secured thereto, as by screws 82, a yoke or fork 84 which cooperates with a roller 86 freely pivoted at an end of the drive arm 33 whose other end is secured in a slot 90 of the stub shaft 92 connected for rotation by the conventional rotary solenoid 94, otherwise well known in the art and described in the aforementioned Larson patent. The arm 88 is secured to shaft 92 by screws 96 passing through a slot 98 in said arm, permitting the effective radius of the arm, and hence the vertical throw of its roller 86, to be adjusted nicely to define the travel extent of the plate 30 and blade '76.

Energization of the solenoid 94 at the desired intervals may be accomplished by manual keyboard or pushbutton operation, or equally well under tape reader or other record control in the manner fully described in the prior patents mentioned above. The operational sequence, and the circuitry required, form no essential part of the present invention, and hence these details have not been shown herein. The solenoid 94 is suitably mounted upon a bracket 1G2 securely connected as by screws 100 to the framework of the dispenser mechanism;'e.g., to rear frame flange 32 as in FIG. 2. Bracket 102 may in turn be se cured to the support bars 24 (FIG. 1) which carry the dispenser as a whole upon the machine frame; bolts 104 ermit the location of the dispenser to be adjusted as desired to drop slugs or rules properly into the assembly position of the galley tray 10. A stripper finger 106 (FIG. 2) is secured to a fixed portion of the dispenser, as to guide 43 of FIG. 3, to prevent upward motion of the blade 36" or its insert from carrying with it the next line unit in the magazine.

Slug control FIG. 1 of the drawings shows the parts as arranged for the use of the lower portion of galley tray that is, the right-hand portion which terminates in flange or rail 14. Slugs issuing from the mold chute of the linecasting machine are ejected with considerable speed from between fingers 16, and depending upon the condition of the chute and the surface of tray 10, may arrive at the flange 14 with excessive violence; often suflicient to permit them to overturn or even to rebound out of position. The invention therefore provides a guiding and guard strip 11% mounted as by its struck-out flange tongue 112 upon the end of the nudger arm 22. This strip, as better shown in PEG. 5, presents a convex surface nearly tangent to the travel path of the slug sliding across tray 10 which directs it against the inclined deflector surface 114 of a deflector strip 116 whose upper end is secured to the dis penser mechanism; for example, as indicated in FIG. 3. The dispenser and the upper portion of strip 116 have been omitted from the schematic view of FIG. 5, as otherwise they would obscure the construction. However, the strip 116 is shown in its entirety in FIG. 6 of the drawings, including the guide surface 114 at its bottom end, the offset 118 to permit the strip to clear the galley flange 1e, and the securing tongue 126. The lower portion of this guide strip is also indicated in dash lines in FIG. 2. Angulation of the tongue 120, as at C, provides the desired inclination of the guide surface 114; an angle of 5 degrees is typical.

The inclination of portion 114 as indicated in FIG. 5 ensures that a slug arriving there from the chute will be deflected to the left or toward the facing slug already stacked against the follower 20. The intervening slugs have been omitted from FIG. 5, but are shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. To make certain that the entry paths to the assembly position are clear for the reception of a following slug (or dropped rule or like unit from the dispenser), the slug-supporting face of the follower 28 is given an inclination in both the horizontal and vertical directions. While this can be accomplished by suitable shaping of the face of the follower, it is illustrated in the drawings as resulting from the addition to the follower face of a wedge block 122 whose face is inclined at an angle A (FIG. 5) to the direction of the arrival path of slugs sliding across the tray 10, and is also inclined at an angle B (FIG. 7) to the vertical direction from which drop the units dispensed from above. Since nudger bar 22 (and guide strip 110) will urge each newly deposited slug against the stack whose lean is thus defined by wedge block 122, and will also move the entire stack to the left in FIG. 5 a distance at least equal to the slug thickness, this lean will provide a reliable clear path for the entry, into the assembly position, of either a laterally travelling slug or one dropped from a proper location above the tray 10. Angle A will typically be not less than 4 degrees and may be as large as 45 degrees, while angle B should be approximately 4 degrees to maintain the slugs against the stack.

To prevent rebound of especially fast slugs from the guide portion 114, a bumper strip 124 may be secured adjacent the chute fingers 16, as also shown in FIG. 5. The bumper may be of resilient strip material, and if desired its face 126 may be provided with a rubber or like facing 12$.

Arrangements similar to the foregoing may be provided in case only the upper portion of tray 10 is employed for galley assembly, as shown in FIG. 8 of the drawings. Thus, and as well understood by those familiar with con ventional linecasting machines, an auxiliary flange or rail 290 is positioned parallel to flange 14, and follower 26 is arranged to slide along this flange 200 as before, but considerably closer to the egress point of the slugs from fingers 16. Since all machines provided with doublewidth trays also provide duplicate nudgers, or at least a divided nudger arm to clear the auxiliary flange 200, the guide strip of the previous embodiment is merely replaced by the shorter and more highly curved convex guide 202, secured to the end of the nudger arm as by tongue 204. The operation is in all respects similar to that described above, except of course that the dropping dispenser will be relocated closer to the rear edge of the tray 16, as by sliding inwardly the bars 24 of FIG. 1

FIG. 8 also illustrates an alternate form of the inclined terminal slug guide earlier described. In this case, an inclined-face wedge 206 is shown as bolted to the end of flange 20%), to avoid the need for securing the strip 116 of FIG. 1 to the dispenser mechanism frame. The inclined face of wedge guide 206 operates in the same manner as already described.

For simplifying the operations incident to a change in the thickness of the slugs or line units to be dispensed from the dropping mechanism, especially where the inserted or dropped units will frequently be changed, the construction of FIG. 9 is advantageous. Here, the rear end of the tray 226 is provided with a bridging or end plate 236 as before, and the false bottom 235 has the flange or gauge bar 242. Pivoted as upon one of the clamp screws 25 i is a gauge wheel 250 formed with different radial strips whose axial thickness varies in correspondence with slug thicknesses; e.g., from one to six points. By loosening both of the clamp screws and rotating the wheel 250 to put the desired thickness strip in position between 236 and 242, the proper adjustment of the false bottom 235 (and hence of the width of the slug discharge slot at the other end of the dispenser) is obtained. The tightening of the clamp screws holds the wheel in position and of course also pulls the parts up to properly adjusted relationship.

It has been said above that in some installations the control of assembled slugs arriving at tray 1%} over the two supply or delivery channels may be improved by supplementing the action of nudger 22 (or nudger 262) with a further or auxiliary nudger operated in timed relation to the arrival of slugs over one of such channels. Ty ical forms of such auxiliary nudgers are shown in FIG- URES l0 and 11 of the drawings.

Thus in FIGURE 10, numeral 22' represents the body portion of the main or conventional nudger of the linecasting machine, the same being operated as already described in timed relation to the deposit in tray 10 of slugs from the machine mold. A secondary nudging blade 302 corresponding to blade 202 of FIGURE 8 is resiliently or pivotally mounted on nudger 22 to lie along its slug-contacting face, and arranged to be peri odically swung forward from that position by the action of reciprocating push pin 304 slidably mounted as in flanges 305, 3:28 of the nudger and provided with a restoring spring 310 lying between an enlarged rear end of the pin 304 and a bracket 312 on nudger 22. The reciprocative motion of pin 304 is in this case provided by a link bar 314 having at one end a cam follower roller 316 arranged to cooperate with a cam formation 318 on a part of the linecasting machine operating in properly phased relation to main nudger 22'. Motion of link bar 314 in the direction of the double-headed arrow 322 in FIGURE 10 thus operates pin 304 through the periodic pressure thereon of a roller 320 carried at the end of the link bar 314 and positioned to engage the rear of pin 3%. The timing is adjusted so that part 392 pushes a slug arriving over the channel in before a line unit, rule or slug is dropped from the dispenser. Thereupon, the nudger itself pushes the dropped unit as usual.

FIGURE 11 illustrates an electrically operated auxiliary nudger performing the same function. in this modifica tion, the auxiliary blade 492 is mounted as before, but is periodically urged away from the main nudger body by means of a solenoid magnet 494 whose armature 4% constitutes a push pin for blade 492. The spring 4:38 lying between the magnet and an end flange 41d of pin ii; operates to cause blade 492 to return to its retracted position when the magnet is de-energized. The control of magnet use to operate in properly timed relation to the slug or rule dropper is readily accomplished by suitable timing contacts in the supply circuit 412, the same being schematically represented in FIGURE 11 by the control 414.

Where an auxiliary nudger is employed, as above described, the action thereof will of course be properly timed so that the built-in nudging, which the typesetting machine normally accomplishes shortly after each slug is dropped from the supply channel to theigalley tray, will be supplemented by an auxiliary nudging action which follows shortly after the rule-dropping mechanism has dropped a rule (or equivalent lineunit from the dispenser) into the same galley tray. The sequence will thus be constituted by (l) the delivery ofa slug from the casting unit to the galley, (2) the action of the main nudger to clear the way for the dropping of a line unit from the dispenser, (3) the dropping of such lineunit, (4) the action of the auxiliarynudger,(Slthe delivery of the next slug from the casting machine, (6) the next operation of the main nudger, and so on. Obviously, the auxiliary nudging need be performed only when a line unit has in fact been dropped, but it can do no harm if performed on each machine (line) cycle, since its action in any case in which a line unit was not dispensed will merely be an idle one.

While the invention has been described herein in considerable detail and with reference to presently preferred embodiments, various changes can readily be made by those skilled in the art, and it is not intended to exclude from the spirit of the invention any such changes or variations as fall within the proper scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is: r

1. In a linecasting machine of the type including a galley tray, means for delivering upstanding line slugs endwiso in sequence to an assembly position on said tray, nudger means for sequentially displacing each newly delivered slug laterally of its delivery path to clear said path and thereby to add said slug to an assembled galley stack, a movable stack-end follower in said tray for estabiishing a standing position of the slugs forming said stack, and means for periodically dropping into said assembly position other line units from a magazine of such units; the improvement which comprises means on said follower establishing a leaning position for all of the slugs and line units assembled in said tray, which position is inclined at a small angle away from both the endwise arrival direction of said slugs and from the downward arrival direction of said units; whereby the action of said nudger means clears the access paths to said assembly position from both of said directions.

2. A linecasting machine in accordance with claim 1, in which the said means on said follower is constituted by the inclination of its slug-supporting face with respect to both of two perpendicular directions which are both perpendicular to the direction of travel of said follower.

3. A linecasting machine in accordance with claim 1, in which said follower includes a slug-supporting wedge whose supporting face is inclined to two directions both perpendicular to the travel direction of the follower.

' 4. A linecasting machine in accordance with claim u including means defining a slug impact-receiving surface at said assembly position, in substantial alignment with the arrival direction of said slugs, and inclined thereto to direct said slugs toward said follower.

5. A linecasting machine in accordance with claim 4, in which the means defining said impact-receiving surface comprises a deflector strip secured to and depending from said magazine. p

6. A 'linecasting machine in accordance with claim 4,

in which the means defining said impact-receiving surface comprises a wedge element secured on said galley tray.

' 7. An auxiliary line-unit dispensing mechanism for linecasting machines of the type having a slug assembly galley tray; said mechanism including a magazine for containing a stack of line units and comprising a tray having fixed side and end walls and a sliding door plate; one end wall of said tray and the adjacent edge of said floor plate defining between them a lineunit discharge aperture at one end of said magazine; a reciprocable blade device operable through a path across said end of the magazine to discharge individual line-units therefrom and through said aperture to said galley tray; and cooperative aperturegauging formations on the opposite end Wall of said tray and the opposite edge of said fioor plate, for establishing the width adjustment of said discharge aperture.

8. An auxiliary. line-unit dispensing mechanism for linecasting machines of the type having a slug assembly galley tray; said mechanism including a magazine for containing a stack of line units, means defining a line-unit discharge aperture at one end of said magazine, a reciprocable blade device operable through a path across said end of the magazine to discharge individual line units therefrom and through said aperture to said galley tray, means for adjusting the width of said discharge aperture, and means connected to said width-adjusting means for gauging the actual thickness of a discrete line-unit and for thereby automatically controlling the aperture width adjusting means.

9. A dispensing mechanism in accordance with claim 8, in which said gauging means includes a movable element having portions of thicknesses corresponding to a plurality of different line units, and means for selectively controlling said aperture width adjusting means in accordance with the selected position of said movable element.

10. In a linecasting machine having a'slug-receiving tray and means for delivering slugs to said tray selectively along two different slug-delivery channels, one substan tially perpendicular to said tray from above, and one substantially asymptotic to the plane of said tray, the improvement which comprises a bumper associated with said tray for receiving the impact of slugs arriving over said last-named channel and positioned to divert them laterally of then-arrival path by rebound action, and a reboundabsorbing device having a portion facing said bumper to resiliently intercept slugs rebounding from the latter.

11. A linecasting machine in accordance with claim 10, in which said rebound-absorbing device includes a slug guide strip forming a part of the terminus of said asymptotic channel, said strip having a bent end facing said bumper.

12. A linecasting machine in accordance with claim 11, in which said bent end of said guide strip has a resilient facing.

13. In a linecasting machine of the type including a galley tray, means for delivering upstanding line slugs endwise in sequence to an assembly position on said tray, nudger means for sequentially displacing each newly delivered slug laterally of its delivery path to clear said path and thereby to add said sing to an assembled galley stack,

. and means for periodically dropping into said assembly position other line units from a magazine of such units; the improvement which comprises auxiliary nudger means operating automatically upon the dropping into said assembly position of such another line unit for displacing 13, in which the auxiliary nudger means comprises an the latter unit laterally of its delivery path to clear the element mounted on said first-named nudger means and assembly position in preparation for the delivery thereto operable independently thereof.

of a following slug.

14. A linecasting machine in aecordance with claim 5 References Cited in the file Of this Patent 13, including means for operating said auxiliary nudger UNITED STATES PATENTS filmed relatwn to the Operatwn of Sam pp 2,180,410 Geissel NW 21, 1939 15. A linecasting machine in accordance with claim 2801'734 Schuba 1957

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