US3816219A

US3816219A - Slide mounting machine

Info

Publication number: US3816219A
Application number: US00239473A
Authority: US
Inventors: R Hurlbut; D Lindsay; J Sproul
Original assignee: Eastman Kodak Co
Current assignee: Eastman Kodak Co
Priority date: 1972-03-30
Filing date: 1972-03-30
Publication date: 1974-06-11
Anticipated expiration: 1991-06-11
Also published as: DE2316076A1; CA988345A; JPS4910031A; JPS5631584B2; FR2178156B1; IT981688B; FR2178156A1; GB1408092A

Abstract

A machine for automatically chopping frames from an exposed and processed film strip, nesting them individually into an open, hinged plastic mount, closing the mount and riveting it closed, and finally discharging the finished mounts in stacks corresponding to customer''s orders which an operator can readily remove for packaging and return to the customer.

Description

United States Patent [191 Hurlbut et a1.

[ SLIDE MOUNTING MACHINE [75] Inventors: Russell G. llurlbut, Hilton; Donald J. Lindsay; John C. Sproul, both of Rochester, all of NY.

[73] Assignee: Eastman Kodak Company,

Rochester, NY.

[22] Filed: Mar, 30, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 239,473

[52] US. Cl 156/443, 156/108, 156/514, 156/521, 156/566, 156/567 [51] Int. Cl B32b 31/00 [58] Field of Search 156/566-57l, 156/363, 379, 527, 514, 108; 271/86, 88; 56/D1G. 15

[56] References Cited UNlTED STATES PATENTS 7/1962 Byers 156/572 X June 11, 1974 3,049,166 8/1962 Clark 156/D1G. 15 3,156,597 11/1964 Nadaline 156/514 X 3,190,784 6/1965 Heydon et a1. 156/514 X 3,284,270 1 H1966 Primary Examiner-Charles E. Van Horn Assistant Examiner-David A. Simmons Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Steve W. Gremban 5 7 ABSTRACT A machine for automatically chopping frames from an exposed and processed film strip, nesting them individually into an open, hinged plastic mount, closing the mount and riveting it closed, and finally discharging the finished mounts in stacks corresponding to customers orders which an operator can readily remove for packaging and return to the customer.

14 Claims, 23 Drawing Figures PATENTEmuumm v $816219 sum 02 av 10 PATENTEBJIII 1 1 m4 saw on Uf10 PA TENTEH Jill] I am sum as nr 10 PATENTHI I sum as av 10 PATENIEBJIIII 1 I914 sum 01 N10;

mtmimum um 3.816219 sum as or 1o PATENIEDZIIII H m slelslz 1 9 saw 10 0F 10 1 sum; MOUNTING MACHINE This invention relates to an automatic film mounting machine.

As is well known, such a film mount usually consists of a pair of apertured frames of cardboard or similar suitable material hinged together along one edge, and adapted to be folded together on the hinged edge with the transparency placed between them in registration with the windows. The interfaces of the pair of frames are provided with a heat-softenable or thermoplastic adhesive so that when the frames are brought together over the interposed transparency, the application of heat and pressure will cause the two frames to be secured together with the transparency in place.

The mounting of a film transparency includes the various steps of taking an open film mount from a source of supply, moving it into position for receiving the transparency, severing the transparency from the exposed and processed film strip, setting the severed transparency in place on one of the frames of the open mount, folding the other frame over the first mentioned frame and interposed transparency, and finally, heat pressing the two frames together with the transparency between them.

The primary object of the present invention is to provide an automatic film mounting machine which will perform these steps automatically using a special form of hinged film mount which is made of plastic and is riveted closed instead of being heat sealed closed.

A further object of the invention is to provide such a machine which requires only that an operator periodically replenish the supply of mounts and the roll of transparencies and will deliver the finished mounts in stacks corresponding to customers orders which the operator can readily remove for packaging and return to the customer.

The novel features considered characteristic of this invention are set forth with particularity in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its organization and its methods of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will best be understood from the following description when read in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an isometric front view of the film mounting machine with the components at the several operating stations shown schematically to illustrate the arrangement of the stations and the operations performed thereat;

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view of the machine with certain stations shown in FIG. 1 omitted and with the components at other stations shown in more detail;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged elevational view of an open film mount of the type this machine is adapted to handle;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing a completed slide mount with a film frame therein, and taken substan- FIG. 8 is an elevational view taken substantially on line 8-8 of FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 is an elevational end view of the mount transfer member at the loading station;

FIG. 10 is a sectional view taken substantially on line 10-10 of FIG. 9;

FIG. 1 1 is a sectional view taken substantially on line 11-11 of FIG. 7, but showing the pusher member for the stack of mounts in the supply hopper in a raised, or hopper loading position;

FIG. 12 is an enlarged front elevational view of the film loading station of the mounting machine, and showing the parts in a position where a film frame chopped from the end of the roll of film has been deposited in a slide mount;

FIG. 13 is a top plan view taken substantially on line 13-13 of FIG. 12, and showing how the film is engaged only at its edges when being fed across the bed knife and into the film transfer arm;

FIG. 14 is an enlarged top plan view of the film frame transfer guide;

FIG. 15 is a sectional view taken substantially on line 15-15 of FIG. 14;

FIG. 16 is an enlarged elevational detail of the mount sealing station;

FIG. 17 is an enlarged view taken substantially on line 17-17 of FIG. 16, and showing the face of the mount sealing tool;

FIG. 18 is an enlarged side elevational view of the unloading and stacking station, and showing how the finished mounts ejected from the turret are stacked in buckets carried by an indexible rotary table;

FIG. 19 is a front view of the turret per se, and showing the porting system thereof and the means for opening the clamps on the mount nests as said nests reach the mount loading and unloading stations;

FIG. 20 is an enlarged detail view of the nest opening means at the mount loading station, and taken substantially on line 20-20 of FIG. 19;

FIG. 21 is an enlarged detail view taken substantially on line 21-21 of FIG. 19, and showing the nest opening means at the mount unloading station;

FIG. 22 is an enlarged front view of the turret portion of the machine showing the mount folding mechanism, the vacuum and compressed air porting system, and with the turret and its mounting plate broken away to show the control mechanism for the turret indexing system; and

FIG. 23 is a side view of FIG. 22 with the turret face plate and everything ahead of it shown in section.

Inasmuch as this slide mounting mechanism is designed to handle a particular type of mount, a description of the mount per se will now be set forth to facilitate an understanding of the machine and its operation. This slide mount is shown in its open condition in FIG. 3 with a film frame located therein, and in its completed condition in FIG. 4. The mount M is molded from a suitable plastic material and comprises a bottom portion 10 and a cover portion 11 connected along one edge by an integral hinge 12. Each of the portions 10 and 11 have windows 13 and 13', respectively, which are brought into alignment when the cover portion 11 is hinged over on top of the bottom portion of 10, see FIG. 4. The bottom portion 10 is bounded by an upstanding flange 14 whose depth is substantially equal to the thickness of the cover portion so that when the cover is hinged into the bottom portion it lies within the upstanding flange 14 and is flush with the top thereof, see FIG. 4. The bottom portion 10 is provided with a rectangular recess 16 surrounding the window 13 in which a frame of film F is adapted to be seated as shown. This recess has a depth substantially equal to the thickness of the film. For sealing the mount closed, the bottom portion 10 has six upstanding pins 17 spaced along opposite edges of the film recess 16 which are adapted to extend through six correspondingly shaped holes 18 in the cover portion 11. These pins are slightly longer than the cover portion is thick and are peened or riveted over to seal the mount closed, see FIG. 4. A small aperture 20 in the cover portion 11 lines up with a frame number 21 imprinted on the margin of the film frame so as to identify what number exposure on a roll of a customers film the slide contains.

Referring particularly to FIGS. 1 and 2, the slide mounting machine consists basically of an eightposition or octagonal rotary indexer or turret 25 mounted vertically with the required working elements mounted peripherally in a percision relationship to the indexer. Sequentially, the working elements perform the tasks of feeding mounts to the indexer at a mount loading station, designated I; accurate film feeding, chopping and placing of the chopped film frame in the bottom of the mount at a film loading station, designated II; folding the mount closed as it moves between stations III and IV; sealing the mount closed at station V; imprinting the mount at identification station, designated VI; releasing the finished mount from the indexer in a manner that enables the operator to efficiently collect the mounts for packaging designated station VII and finally at station Vlll detecting the inadvertent presence of a mount on the indexer before it returns to the mounting loading station I. The turret or indexer 25 is indexed clockwise through a complete work cycle using a conventional eight-stop indexer with a dwell period of 90. The timing required to sequence the various working elements at the several stations is preferably obtained by the use of solenoids, a rotopulser and an electronic controller, e.g. a Dynapar Process Controller, whose output signals control solenoids rather than a complicated cam control system which could be used.

On each of the eight faces of the turret 25 there is located a mount nest 26 into which an open mount is loaded and is held while a film frame is located therein, the mount is sealed closed and the finished mount is ejected from the turret at station VII. In order to avoid duplicity the nests have been omitted from the faces of the turret 25 at stations IV and VI in FIG. 2. As most clearly shown in FIGS. and 6, each mount nest comprises a metal block having a flat bottom surface 27 that rests on the straight face of the turret, a raised central portion 28 the top of which is dimensioned to receive and seat the bottom portion of an open mount, open side up, and two extensions 29 on opposite sides of the central portion 28 which are lower than the central portion. The nests are properly located and fastened to the faces of the turret by locating dowels 30 and fastening bolts 31 engaging each of the two extensions 29 of the nests.

Centrally located in the top surface of the nest is a substantially rectangular raised portion 32 which extends into, but not completely through, the window 13 in the bottom portion 10 of a mount, when it is seated in the nest, to properly locate the mount in the nest. For applying vacuum to the face of the nest to hold a film frame after it is located in the bottom portion 10 of a mount fed in the nest, the nest block is provided with a bore 35 terminating in a smaller hole 36 opening into the center of the raised portion 32 of the nest. This bore 35 lines up with another bore 37 extending radially of the turret and which is ported to a source of a vacuum onto the rear face of the turret, shown at 37' in FIGS. 19 and 22, and as will be described hereinafter, during the time a nest is moving from station II through station V where the mount is sealed closed. A pair of cross grooves G in the exposed face of the raised portion 32 of the nest, and intersecting at the small vacuum hole 36, serve to spread the vacuum over the face of the raised portion 32 to hold a film frame flat in the bottom portion of the mount after it is deposited therein.

The bottom portion 10 of the mount is firmly held in the nest, after being deposited therein, by a pair of clamp members 38 which engage opposite sides of the mount. Each of these clamping members 38 comprises a member 39 pivoted at 40 to the nest block and having a clamping finger 41 fixed to the top thereof by bolts 42. These clamping members 38 are normally urged to a mount clamping position by compression springs 43 seated in bores 44' in the nest block and acting on the underside of the clamping means at a point to one side of the pivot point 40. When the clamping members 38 are in their closed position the nose 44 of the fingers 41 engage the top of the upstanding flange 14 on the bottom portion 10 of the mount to firmly hold the mount in the nest, see FIG. 6. It will be noticed, by reference to FIG. 6, that the clamping fingers 41 do not prevent the cover portion 11 of the mount from being folded down onto the bottom portion 10 to capture a film frame between the two.

For ejecting the finished mounts from the nests, when they reach the unloading station VII, each nest block includes two plungers 46 slidable in bores 47 and the reduced ends of which are pushed into the seat of the nest when compressed air is introduced behind them through bores 48 extending radially of the turret. Bushings 49 in the bores 47 limit the extent to which the plungers 46 may recede from the face of the nest and limit the stroke thereof necessary to eject a mount from the nest when the clamping means 38 is opened as will be hereinafter described. Bores 48 open onto the rear face of the turret as indicated at 48 in FIG. 19. Looking at FIGS. 19 and 22 it will be noted that the openings 48 leading to the bores 48 and the opening 37' leading to the bore 37 are concentrically arranged on the rear face of the turret 25 for porting purposes as will be fully I set forth hereinafter.

For indexing the turret 25 at a time, the turret is fixed on the end of a shaft of a commercially available eight-stop rotary indexer 56 mounted on a horizontal mounting plate 57, said indexer being driven through a gear reducer 58 integral therewith. An electric motor, clutch-brake combination 59 drives the gear reducer through a timing belt 60. The clutchbrake is not used during normal operation of the machine, i.e., once the start button is pushed the indexer will operate in a continuous mode. When the stop button is pushed the brake is applied and the clutch is disengaged, allowing the motor to run constantly.

Vacuum is delivered to the mount nests through a stationary delrin ring 61 held in face to face contact with the rear surface of the turret by three spring plungers 62 mounted on the stationary face plate 63 and spaced apart 120 around the turret. In FIG. 23 only one of these spring plungers is shown because of the relative spacing of the three of them. As clearly shown in FIG. 22, the face of the delrin ring 61 contacting the rear surface of the turret has an arcuate groove 64 therein which extends from the film loading station II to the sealing station V and which is on the same radius as the ports 37' in the rear face of the turret. Vacuum is applied to this groove from a vacuum source, not shown. Consequently, when a mount nest is indexed to the film loading station II vacuum is immediately applied to the face of the nest to hold the film chip in place in the mount therein, and vacuum is maintained on the film in the mount until it reaches the mount sealing station V where the mount is sealed closed. To be sure that a maximum amount of vacuum is applied to the mount nest at the film loading station, and is maintained throughout the length of the arcuate groove 64, a source of vacuum, not shown, should be connected to the groove at two or more points along its length, as indicated at 65 and 65' in FIG. 22, one of these points being located where the film is loaded in the mount to be sure that the film frame is properly seated in the mount after it is chopped from the film strip. Compressed air for actuating the plungers 46 to eject the completed mounts from the nest at station VII is supplied from a source, not shown, through an opening 67 and into an arcuate port 68 in the delrin ring 61 at station VII. This arcuate port 68 is on the same radius as the openings 48 in the rear face of the turret and is long enough to connect both openings 48 with the source of compressed air when the nest reaches the unloading station VII.

Having disclosed the overall operation of the machine, the structure for performing the operations at the several stations will now be specifically set forth. Referring particularly to FIGS. 7-11, the mount load ing station I comprises a horizontal channel shaped trough 70 in which a plurality of open mounts M are stacked one behind the other. The stack of mounts is normally urged forwardly of the trough by a pressure member 71 slidably mounted on rod 72 and urged toward the front of the trough by a negator type spring 73 extending from its case 74, around a pulley 75 and connected at 76 to a slider 77 behind the pressure member. The pusher member 71 is pivoted on the rod 72 or the slider 77 to move from a raised position, as shown in FIG. 11, to allow loading a stack of mounts into the trough, to a lowered position behind the stack of mounts.

The mounts are stripped from the forward end of the stack one at a time by a reciprocal stripper member 78 actuated by an air cylinder 79 which is in turn actuated by a solenoid, now shown. In FIG. 7, the stripper member 78 is shown in full-lines in the position it assumes after having stripped a mount from the trough 70, and in broken lines in the position it assumes when ready to engage the next mount in the trough. As shown in FIG. 8, when an open mount is stripped from the stack by the stripper 78 it is moved down into a holder 80 where it is held at its edges by four

spring fingers

81, 82, 83 and 84 with the bottom portion thereof substantially aligned with the mount nest 26 which has been indexed into the mount loading station I. After the clamp means 38 on the nest is opened by two solenoid operated arms 85, as shown in FIG. 7 and described in detail below, the mount is transferred from the holder to the nest by a reciprocating transfer mechanism. This transfer mechanism comprises a composite transfer member 87 mounted on a horizontal bar 88 connected to an air cylinder 89 preferably triggered by a solenoid, not shown. This composite transfer member 87 includes a rectangular hollow member 90 within which a mount locating member 91 is slidably mounted and normally urged forwardly of the hollow member 90 by a compression spring S so that its nose 92 extends beyond the front face 93 of the hollow member. The nose is in the form of a truncated pyramid with the forward end thereof being smaller than the window 13 in the bottom portion 10 of the mount and the base portion thereof forming a rectangular shoulder 94 dimensioned to fit the window 13 of the mount fairly snugly. As the transfer member moves forwardly towards the nest the nose 92 moves through the window in the bottom portion of the mount without engaging the margins of the window 13 therein. As it progresses to a position where a diagonal 95 thereon engages one of the cross grooves G in the face of the nest, it will align the mount accurately with the nest. At this time the mount is pushed against the face 93 of the hollow member 90 where it is held by vacuum fed to four ports 96 spaced around the face 93 of the hollow member through conduits 97 in the hollow member 90 from a vacuum source, not shown. After the mount is held against the face of the hollow member 90 and the nose 92 has abutted against the nest, continued movement of the transfer member causes the nose to be retracted into the hollow member 90 as the hollow member transfers the bottom portion 10 of the mount M to the nest in proper alignment for subsequent loading of a film frame therein. When the mount has been properly seated in the nest, the clamping means 38 closes to hold the mount in the nest and the composite transfer member 87 is retracted to its inoperative position shown in solid lines in FIG. 7. It is shown in its full mount transferring position by broken lines.

The means for opening the mount clamping means 38 on the mount nests when it reaches the mount loading station I is shown in FIGS. 19 and 20. It comprises a pair of vertically extending arms 85 fixed in spaced relation to a horizontal shaft 100 which is oscillated from an inoperative position to an operative position by energization of a rotary solenoid 101. The arms 85 terminate in rounded fingers 102 each of which is adapted to engage one of the two clamping members 38 of the nest and pivot them to an open position when thesolenoid 101 is energized, and to allow the clamping means to close when the solenoid is de-energized.

With the bottom portion 10 of an open mount M clamped in a nest 26, and with the cover portion 11 of the mount extending unsupported, horizontally and forwardly of the turret, the nest is moved to film loading station II when the turret is indexed where and at which station a film frame is chopped from the end of the film strip and deposited in the recess 16 in the bottom portion 10 of the mount. At the film loading station II, a strip of exposed and processed film F is fed from a supply roll- 105 around a guide roll 106 mounted on the end of a spring loaded tension arm 107, then successively between a pair of nip rolls 108 and a further guide roll 109 and onto the periphery of a toothed sprocket 110 having teeth spaced apart to engage perforations in the longitudinal margin of the film strip. The sprocket 110 is indexed by a suitable indexing mechanism not shown, to advance the film strip one frame at a time through a guide 111 and across a bed knife 112. The sprocket has eight teeth spaced around its periphery and is indexed once for each indexing of the turret by any one of several known conventional systems, not shown. Preferably, however, the primary source of power for the sprocket is a stepping electric motor which rotates one revolution each time it is started in response to an input signal and during said revolution indexes the sprocket to feed one film frame. Referring particularly to FIG. 13, it will be seen that the film guide 1 11 comprises a base plate 113 the surface of which is recessed at 114 to form a track having a depth substantially equalto the thickness of the film for edge guiding the film strip. Immediately adjacent the bed knife 112 the guide 111 is provided with film hold down plates 115 which overhang the edges of that portion of the track having an aperture 116 cut therein so that the film is confined only at its edges and the image area will not be scratched as it guides the film to and over the bed knife. A knife blade 117 attached to the slide 118 of an air cylinder 119 cooperates wiht the bed knife 112 to chop a frame of film from the end of the film strip.

A film frame transfer arm 120 guides the film after I it passes over the bed knife and directs it into the mount in the nest 26 where it is held by a vacuum after being cut from the film strip. This transfer arm 120 is pivoted to the face plate 63 at 121 to move between a lowered position shown in FIG. 12, where it deposits a cut-off film frame in the mount in the nest, and a raised position where it is in position to receive the end of the film strip as it is advanced across the bed knife 112 by the sprocket 110. The transfer arm 120 is connected to the knife slide 118 as indicated at 123 on .FIG. 12, so that the arm will be raised and lowered as the knife is actuated. As most clearly shown in FIGS. 14 and 15, the end of the transfer arm 120 facing the bed knife 112 is milled out to' provide a tunnel or chute 125 terminating in a downwardly inclined rear wall 126. As the film end is advanced into the tunnel or chute it rides on side rails 126 extending along the side walls and inclined wall of the tunnel which engage only the longitudinal margins of the film. The film end upon striking the inclined wall 126 is directed downwardly toward and against one wall of the film recess 16 in the mount in the nest. When the film frame advanced into the transfer arm 120 is chopped from the film strip by the knife 117 the transfer arm moves the chopped film frame down into the mount where it is held by vacuum. To assist the introduction of a film end into the tunnel, and to cause the chopped film frame to be properly aligned with the recess 16 in the mount, the side walls of the tunnel are tapered inwardly from the top to the bottom of the tunnel as shown at 127 in FIG. 14. A stop 28 fixed to the bottom of the transfer are, and extending transversely thereof, is adapted to engage the bottom of the mount and limit the downward travel of the transfer arm to its lowered position, see FIG. 12. Each of the lower edges of the transfer arm 120 is provided with three notches 129 to accommodate the six upstanding pins 17 in the bottom portion of the mount when the transfer arm is moved to its lowered position.

In moving from station II to the sealing station V the cover portion 1 1 of the mount in the nest engages, and is folded toward the bottom portion of the mount by, a folding rod 130. As most clearly shown in FIG. 23, this folding rod 130 is mounted on the face plate 63 by a bracket 131 and extends across the path of movement of the nests from a positionwhere it underlies the cover portion 11 of a mount leaving the film loading station II to a point where it overhangs and is close to the next 26 by the time the nest reaches the sealing station V. By the time the nest reaches station IV the cover portion 11 of the mount therein has been folded toward the nest beyond the vertical position. At this station a free running folding roll 135 mounted on the face plate 63 engages the hinge of the partly closed cover of the mount to crease it and thereby facilitate a complete closing of the mount by the folding bar 130.

By the time a nest 26 reaches the sealing station V the cover portion 11 of the mount has been folded down onto the body portion 10 of the mount and the six pins 17 on the body portion 10 have been pushed through the corresponding six holes 18 in the cover. At this station the mount is sealed closed by peening over the heads of the pins extending through the holes in the cover. Referring particularly to FIGS. 16 and 17, the mechanism for performing this peening or riveting operation comprises a staking head mounted on the end of the plunger 141 of an air cylinder 142 to move sharply into engagement with the mount, as shown in broken lines in FIG. 16, when the air cylinder is actuated and to move away from the mount, as shown in solid lines, when air is cut off from the air cylinder. The face of staking head 140, see FIG. 17, has six staking areas 143 which are oriented to engage the six pins 17 on the mount and peen them over to seal the mount closed. If the surface of the mount cover is provided with a roughened surface for decorative purposes, then the faces of the staking areas 143 may be roughened, asshown, so that the peened-over heads of the pins 17 will correspond in appearance to the remainder of the surface of the cover of the mount. In order to be sure that the cover 11 of the mount is completly closed before the pins are peenedover, the face of the staking head has a plurality of, four being shown, compressible pins 145 which normally extend slightly beyond the faces of, the staking areas 143. When the stacking head 140 is moved into engagement with the mount, these four compressible pins 145 engage the cover of the mounting head of the staking areas 143 and insure that the cover is folded flat against the bottom of the mount and the pins 17 extend fully through the holes 18, before the staking areas 143 engage and peen over the tops of the pins to seal the mount closed.

At station VI suitable information, such as the date, a code number, etc, is imprinted or embossed in the face of the mount by a stamp or die 147, as the case may be, mounted on the end of the plunger of an air cylinder 148 which is actuated each time the turret is indexed.

When the nest containing a completed mount reaches the unloading station VII the clamping means 38 is first opened to release the mount from the nest. As shown in FIGS. 19 and 21, this clamp release means is very similar to that located at station I and includes two arms 150 connected in spaced relation to a shaft 151 connected to a rotary solenoid 152. When the solenoid is energized the shaft 151 is oscillated causing turned-in fingers 153 on the ends of arms 150 to engage and pivot the clamping means 38 to their mount releasing position. At this time compressed air is ported into bores 48 of the turret causing plungers 141 to move radially outward of the turret 25 to eject the mount from the nest. As the mount is ejected from the nest it drops onto a downwardly inclined conveyor 155 which feeds the mount into the open top of the one of four buckets 156 carried on the top of an indexible table 157 which isin a collecting position below the conveyor. As shown in FIG. 18, each pocket 156 comprises four right angle posts 156 vertically arranged to receive and support the mounts at their comers in stacked relation. The bottom of the pockets are inclined as shown to facilitate stacking of the mounts as they leave the conveyor. The indexible table 157 is mounted atop an indexible mechanism of any suitable type, and indicated at 158, which will index the table 90 at a time to move the different pockets into a mount receiving position below the conveyor in succession. The pockets are designed to stack a customers order of mounts, usually 20-22, and are indexed into collecting position in response to a signal being fed into the indexing member 158 from a counter mechanism, not shown, controlled by the indexing of the turret 25. The pockets 156 have open side walls to allow the operator to readily reach in and remove a stack of slides from a pocket as the pocket reaches a position 180 from the collecting position so that the mounts can be packaged for return to the customer.

At station VII the nest is inspected to see if the mount has been removed therefrom at a station VI before it returns to mount loading station I. To this end, the nest is provided with a hole 160 which will be covered by a mount M when seated in the nest, see FIG. 5. At station VII there is a photocell detector, indicated at 161, see FIG. 22, and which consists of a light beam and a photocell block past which the hole 160 will pass as the turret is indexed. If there is a mount in the nest as it reaches the station it will block the hole 160 and cut the beam of light of the photocell detector which will in turn stop the machine so that the operator can remove the mount from the nest before the nest reaches mount loading station I. Each nest is also provided with a notch 163 which can be used at stations III or IV to cooperate with a photocell detector, not shown, in a like manner to detect if there is amount in the nest at these stations and for stopping the machine if there is not. A mount detector is required at one or the other of these last mentioned stations because it has been found that sometimes a mount, because of its stiffness and because it might be warped, will pop out of the nest after the film is loaded therein even though vacuum may be maintained on the film at these stations.

Although the proper timing of the different operating mechanisms of this machine could be accomplished by a mechanical cam bank, a simpler, and preferred, mode of control consists of a conventional digital process controller, not shown, which is basically a multipreset counter and can be described as a solid state electronic version of a mechanical cam bank. One such controller which is commercially available is the Dynapar Digital Process Controller. As shown in FIG. 22, when using such a controller a rotopulser 175 mechanically coupled at 176 to the turret indexer 56 turns 360 for every machine work cycle, and results in 360 counts (l 1 count) entering the controller. After the three hundred sixtieth count, the rotopulser generates a marker pulse to reset the counter to zero. The count is introduced into the rotopulser by a perforated scanning disc 177 which interupts a beam from a light 178 directed onto a photocell detector 179 on the rotopulser. In this machine twenty limit switch are used to select counts at which output pulses are desired. Each output count is independently adjustable in 0.001 second time increments with each output eventually controlling a solenoid valve or other machine function. The 20 outputs may also be manually switched on and off. Wired-in circuits are used to control groups of outputs, a built in electronic oscillator may be used (instead of the rotopulser) to enter counts and operate only desired machine functions without using the indexer. Of course, each of the operating members has a safety microswitch, not shown, associated therewith and connected into the controller which will prevent the operation of, or stop, the machine when, and if, any one of the operating members are not in, or returned to, their normal inoperative positions before the turret is indexed. For example, the turret should not be indexed while the mount transfermember 87 is placing a mount in the nest at station I, the film transfer member is depositing a film chip or frame in the mount at station II, etc.

This invention has been described with reference to particular embodiments thereof but it will be understood that variations and modifications may be effected within the spirit and scope of the invention.

We claim:

1. An automatic film mounting machine for mounting film transparencies which are arranged in connected relation on a roll of film in hinged film mounts movable from a flat open condition to a folded closed position comprising in combination,

(1) a rotatable polygonal turret;

(2) means for indexing said turret to move each face thereof successively through a series of work stations including a mount loading station, a film loading station, a mount sealing station and a mount unloading station;

(3) a mount receiving nest on each of said faces for seating one half of an open mount;

(4) a mount clamping means associated with each of said nests and movable between an open position, wherein it allows a mount to be placed in and removed from the nest, and a nonnally closed position, wherein it holds a mount in the nest;

(5) means at said mount loading station for opening said mount clamping means and then inserting one half of an open mount in the nest associated therewith and finally allowing the clamp means to close to hold the one half of the mount in said nest;

(6) means at said film loading station for inserting a film frame severed from said roll of film into the half of the mount clamped in a nest on said turret;

(7) means for holding the film frame in said open mount during movement of the mount to the mount sealing station;

(8) means for folding the unclamped half of the mount over onto the clamped half of the mount to enclose the film therebetween during the interval that the mount is moving from the loading station to the sealing station;

(9) means at the sealing station for sealing the two halves of the mount in face-to-face relation with the film frame held therebetween; and

(10) means at the mount unloading station for opening said clamping means and ejecting a completed film mount from the nest located at said station.

2. An automatic film mounting machine as defined in claim 1, including means for creasing the fold between the two halves of the mount prior to the time the mount is sealed closed.

3. An automatic film mounting machine as defined in claim 1, including means at said unloading station for collecting and stacking the completed mounts ejected from said turret.

4. An automatic film mounting machine as defined in claim 1, wherein the means at said film loading station for inserting a mount into a nest on the turret comprises a hopper holding a plurality of open mounts in stacked relation, means for stripping a mount from said stack and moving it in a track to a position wherein one half thereof is substantially in alignment with and spaced from a nest moved into said loading station; means for accurately aligning said mount with the nest at said loading station and then depositing it into said nest after the clamping means associated with the nest is moved to its open position.

5. An automatic film mounting machine as defined in claim 4, wherein said last mentioned means comprises a reciprocal transfer member movable from an inoperative position to an operative position, and during the first part of the movement thereof it aligns the mount with the nest at the loading station and then grabs hold of the mount to deposit it in said nest in proper alignment therewith and retracts to its inoperative position after the clamping means on the nest moves to its operative position.

6. An automatic film mounting machine as defined in claim 4, wherein said transfer member includes a tapered nose piece adapted to enter the window aperture in the half of the mount to be seated in said nest and accurately align the mount with said nest as it is moved into the mount aperture, said tapered nose slidably mounted within said transfer member to move relative to the face of said transfer member and spring loaded to normally extend beyond the face of said transfer member to engage the mount and then the nest before the face of the transfer member does and be retracted within the transfer member as it moves toward the nest after the tapered nose engages said nest; means for applying a vacuum to the face of said transfer member to hold an aligned mount thereon until it is deposited and clamped in said nest.

7. An automatic film mounting machine as defined in claim 1, wherein the means for inserting a film frame severed from said roll of film into the half of the mount clamped in a nest on said turret comprises a film track spaced from and in substantially parallel relation to a nest on said turret when moved to the mount loading station; a bed knife at the end of said film track; means for indexing a film strip from said roll a frame at a time across said bed knife as a nest is indexed to the film loading station; a film frame transfer arm mounted to move between a raised position, wherein it guides the film end after it passes over the bed knife and directs the leading end thereof into the mount in the nest, and a lowered position, wherein it deposits the cut film frame into said mount; a reciprocal knife cooperating with said bed knife to sever the advanced frame of the film.

8. An automatic film mounting machine as defined in claim 7, including means for applying vacuum to the mount nest to hold the cut film frame in said mount until the mount is folded over the film and sealed.

9. An automatic film mounting machine as defined in claim 7, wherein the film frame transfer arm is connected to the knife to be moved to its raised position when the knife is raised and to move to its lowered position when the knife is activated to sever the film frame from the roll of film.

10. An automatic film mounting machine as defined in claim 7, wherein the means for folding the unclamped half of the mount over onto the clamped half of the mount to enclose the film therebetween comprises a stationary, elongated folding bar which extends from a point below the unclamped half of the mount adjacent the film loading station upwardly and across the path of movement of said unclamped half of the mount to a point adjacent the mount sealing station.

11. An automatic film mounting machine as defined in claim 10, wherein said folding means includes a supplementary folding member located at a point intermediate the ends of said folding bar and arranged to applya force to the hinge of the semi-folded mount to fully close or square" the hinge to insure proper alignment of the mount halves when the mount is completely folded.

12. An automatic film mounting machine as defined in claim 1, wherein the mount is made of plastic and one half thereof includes upstanding pins which extend through corresponding holes of the other half of the mount when the mount is completely folded, and wherein said mount sealing means comprises a power operated reciprocal impact head for impacting the pins of the folded amount against the bottom of the mount nest to rivet the mount closed.

13. An automatic film mounting machine as defined in claim 12 wherein the mount engaging face of the impact head includes compressible buttons normally extending slightly beyond the face of the impact head and adapted to be compressed at least flush therewith to insure full mount closure before impact.

14. An automatic film mounting machine as defined in claim 3, wherein the means at said unloading station for collecting and stacking the completed mounts ejected from said turret comprises an indexable table, a plurality of mount receiving pockets arranged on said table to be indexed in succession to and from a mount receiving position at which a group of mounts is fed into one of said receptacles in stacked relation as they are ejected from said turret, the indexing of said table being timed so that each receptacle receives a given number of mounts.

Claims

1. An automatic film mounting machine for mounting film transparencies which are arranged in connected relation on a roll of film in hinged film mounts movable from a flat open condition to a folded closed position comprising in combination, (1) a rotatable polygonal turret; (2) means for indexing said turret to move each face thereof successively through a series of work stations including a mount loading station, a film loading station, a mount sealing station and a mount unloading station; (3) a mount receiving nest on each of said faces for seating one half of an open mount; (4) a mount clamping means associated with each of said nests and movable between an open position, wherein it allows a mount to be placed in and removed from the nest, and a normally closed position, wherein it holds a mount in the nest; (5) means at said mount loading station for opening said mount clamping means and then inserting one half of an open mount in the nest associated therewith and finally allowing the clamp means to close to hold the one half of the mount in said nest; (6) means at said film loading station for inserting a film frame severed from said roll of film into the half of the mount clamped in a nest on said turret; (7) means for holding the film frame in said open mount during movement of the mount to the mount sealing station; (8) means for folding the unclamped half of the mount over onto the clamped half of the mount to enclose the film therebetween during the interval that the mount is moving from the loading station to the sealing station; (9) means at the sealing station for sealing the two halves of the mount in face-to-face relation with the film frame held therebetween; and (10) means at the mount unloading station for opening said clamping means and ejecting a completed film mount from the nest located at said station.

11. An automatic film mounting machine as defined in claim 10, wherein said folding means includes a supplementary folding member located at a point intermediate the ends of said folding bar and arranged to apply a force to the hinge of the semi-folded mount to fully close or ''''square'''' the hinge to insure proper alignment of the mount halves when the mount is completely folded.