GB755690A - Button feeding apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

755,690. Feeding buttons. BRONFMAN, B. June 15, 1954 [July 1, 1953], No. 17562/54. Class 117. [Also in Group VII] In apparatus for feeding shanked buttons from a hopper or container 11 to a position at which they are sewn to a garment &c. a pickup arm 22 which is swept through the container in a to-and-fro reciprocal motion comprises a portion with a longitudinal slot 43 which engages the shanks of buttons having an orientation coincident with that of the slot and lifts those buttons to bring their heads 11a into contact with an endless belt 44 moving continuously in a horizontal direction and holds them in contact with the belt for an interval during which they are moved along the slot in the arm and delivered from the container, the arm 22 being secured on a shaft carrying a gear wheel 42 which is driven by a gear 31 carried freely on a shaft 23 and associated with a slip-clutch 32-34 with a face plate 21 connected by a connecting rod 17 to a crank arm 16 having a chain- and-sprocket drive from an electric motor 10. The slip-clutch, which consists of two discs of resilient material 32, 33 with an interposed metal disc 34 mounted freely upon the shaft 23, is sandwiched between the gear wheel 31 and faceplate 21 under the pressure of a spring 41, and allows the arm 22 to be halted to hold the button heads in contact with the belt 44 while the face plate 21 completes its own reciprocal movement, the return movement of the faceplate being accompanied by movement of the arm away from the belt 44. The belt passes around end pulleys 46 one of which is secured on a driven shaft 45 geared to the motor 10.