US3031937A - Extended slotting mechanism - Google Patents

Description

May 1, 1962 H. B. GREENWOOD ETAL 3,031,937

EXTENDED SLOTTING MECHANISM 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Oct. 14, 1959 -L INVENTORS HenryB. Greenwood Joseph 0. Dan/r0, Jr.

y 1962 H. B. GREENWOOD ETAL 3,031,937

EXTENDED SLOTTING MECHANISM Filed Oct. 14. 1959 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS Henry 5. Greenwood Joseph 0. Dan/r0, J/f

Maw/U 31M ATTORNEY May 1, 1962 H. B. GREENWOOD ETAL 3,031,937

EXTENDED SLOTTING MECHANISM Filed Oct. l4. 1959 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 Pas/712m Position INVENTORS Henry B. Greenwoaa Joseph 0 Dan/r0, Jr

ATTORNEY May 1, 1962 H. B. GREENWOOD ETAL 3,031,937

EXTENDED SLOTTING MECHANISM Filed Oct. 1 4, 1959 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 3 I PM E :g

T m g, L" ig I! I i? t J aoi M j :l I 5 i WLJIL LWQ M g5 k E INVENTORS Henry 5 Greenwood Joseph 0. Dan/r0, Jr.

ATTORNEY May 1, 1962 H. B. GREENWOOD ETAL 3,031,937

EXTENDED SLOTTING MECHANISM 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Oct. 14, 1959 b EQRRGQ vm 8% 5% P363 ERR h mwmmk .511 h REE QEKQGSQGMQ Qm 1 E M h H H NN N b QQRGQQ BR 3% BR 5% BE 5% wmwumxb x t u vmmumxb IECRM m mmumx x t u 0 Qt S k S m w mm m WWO, a w A Z 6 0/ w MS H@ M B 3,031,937 EXTENDED SLUTTING MECHANISM Henry B. Greenwood and Joseph 0. Danko, Jr., Baltimore, Md., assignors, by me'sne assignments, to Samuel M. Langston Company, Camden, N.J., a corporation of New Jersey Filed Oct. 14, 1959, Ser. No. 846,278 Claims. (Cl. 93-58.2)

This invention relates generally to the manufacturing of paper products, and, more particularly, it pertains to sheet handling and cutting machines for making carton blanks.

Machines for printing, fold creasing, and cover flap slotting must be adjustable to accommodate the great many sizes of cartons which are to be blanked.

It is a primary object of this invention, therefore, to provide an arrangement for increasing the maximum sheet size handling capability of a carton blanking machine without increasing the overall dimensions thereof.

Another object of this invention is to provide a supplemental carton slotting knife disc mechanism for increasing the distance between cuts in a rotary slotter.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a simple shaft-displacing and gear-shifting arrangement for accommodating oversize slotting knife discs in cartonmaking rotary slotter machines.

To provide a feeding arrangement for an oversize carton blank slotter is another object of this invention.

These and other objects and advantages of this invention will become more readily apparent and understood from the following detailed specification and accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a printer-slotter machine incorporating features of this invention;

FIG. 2 is an isometric view of the gear train for the printer-slotter of FIG. 1 showing its relationship to the slotter and creaser members thereof;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the gear train in a horizonal plane, with the view being taken on line 3-3 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a partial showing of the gear train as seen inboard of the frame, a chain line indicating the shifting of the slotter gear from point C to point C about point D;

FIG. 5 is a top plan view of a two lobe feeder mechanism;

FIG. 6 is a side elevation of the two lobe feeder mechanism of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a carton blank as it would appear before entering the printer-slotter machine;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a carton blank after passing through the printer-slotter machine; and

FIG. 9 is a pair of operation cycle diagrams as provided in the two positions of the shift, together with a series of operation cycles of the reciprocating feed.

Referring first to FIGS. 7 and 8 of the drawings, as the paper board is ejected from a corrugating machine, cut to a sized blank 38 suitable for a corrugated carton, it is provided with transverse flap-forming creases X, as shown in FIG. 7. To produce a final carton blank 40 illustrated in FIG. 8, additional vertical folding creases Y, as well as slots Z and Z must also be added. Printing on the paper carton is usually applied during this operation of forming the slots Z and Z and creases Y.

The creases Y, the slots Z and Z and the printing are done on a printer-slotter machine as illustrated in FIG. 1. The printer-slotter machine 20 consists of three (3) basic sections, namely, a feeder section 22. a printer section 24, and a creaser-slotter section 26. These three sections, 22, 24, and 26, are gear driven, one to another, and receive motive power from a common belted motor 28 so as to operate in synchronism.

3,031,937 Patented May 1, 1962 ice The height of the carton lies in the direction of the feed flow of the blanks 38. This requires the slotting for the pairs of slots Z and Z at the top and bottom of the carton blank 38 to be done successively and is performed respectively by pairs of rotating blades 30 and 32 shown in FIG. 2. Each pair of blades 30 and 32 is adjustably mounted upon the periphery of a plurality of spaced knife disc assemblies 34. Without the skip feed mechanism, the longest carton blank which can be accommodated in the machine is the circumference of the head at the diameter at which the blades 30 and 32 cut the paper stock 38.

This invention is concerned with increasing this accommodation of the size of the carton blank without unduly expanding the size of the printer-slotter machine 26.

In FIG. 2, a carton blank 40 is shown having passed through the printer-slotter machine 20 in the direction of the carton blank feed arrows. In doing so, the carton blank 40 passes between male and female creaser rollers 42 and 44, respectively, to form the folding creases Y. The rollers 42 and 44 are rotated by shafts on centers A and G of a gear train 36 represented by a series of shaft centers A, B, C, E, and G shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3, while F is a shaft center for the idler gear also shown in the FIGS. 1, 2, and 3.

A slotter backing roller 46 rotated on shaft center E is driven at the same peripheral speed through an idler gear on shaft F from the shaft on center G.

Each knife disc assembly 34 consists of a small diameter disc 48 mounted on a shaft 52, and an auxiliary larger diameter annular disc 50 which may be bolted on, as shown best in FIG. 3. The rotating blades 30 and 32 for each knife disc assembly 34 can adjustably be mounted on either the disc 48 (with disc 50 removed) or on the disc 50 when it is used. The latter disc 50 is provided as an accessory for the purpose of increasing the maximum blade separation for longer carton slotting as has been related.

To accommodate each larger disc 50 and still permit its blades 30 and 32 to engage with its respective backing roller 46, the shaft 52 must be raised from a lower position to an upper position as designated in FIG. 3 wherein the shaft 52 moves from C to C as further shown by the double headed arrow in FIG. 2.

A gear 54 positioned on the shaft 52 then transfers its engagement with a gear 56 to a spur gear 58. This spur gear 58 rotates on a shaft center B and it is secured to an idler gear 60 which drives the gear train 36 from a power gear 62, as shown best in FIG. 2.

The gear shifting mechanism is shown in FIG. 3 and in diagram form in FIG. 4. This mechanism consists of eccentrically mounted journal 64 whose center of rotation is D, and which mounts, off-center, the shaft 52 in a bearing 66. A wrench shaft 68 having a pinion 72 is provided for rotating the eccentric journal 64 by means of a toothed flange 70 shifting the lower position of shaft 52 to the upper position as the bearing 66 is 05- cillated. This change in shaft center from C to C unmeshes the knife disc assembly drive gear 54 from the gear 56 and moves it to mesh with the spur gear 58. The drive ratio between the two positions is made one and one-half to one by suitable choice of gear ratios in the train 36.

The blades 3t) and 32 when mounted on the smaller diameter disc 48 or changed to mount on the larger annular disc 50, thus travel at the same peripheral speed.

For another reason which will now be related, the diameters of the discs 48 and 50 are related in the ratio of one and one-half to one (1 /24).

The feeder-printer section 22 illustrated in FIG. 1 is provided with a carton blank feeder 74 which pushes the lowermost of a stack of carton blanks 38 into engagement by the printer-slotter machine 20. The longer sized blanks 38 accommodated by the gear shift and use of the larger diameter annular disc 50 as has been described above would interfere with each other if they were fed by an unmodified feeder 74. Because the long carton blanks 38 take longer to traverse the machine 20 and since the feeder stroking rate is tied to the gear train which drives the creaser rollers, use is now made of a skip feed mechanism 76.

This skip feed mechanism 76 is the subject of U.S. Patent No. 2,705,143 entitled, Skip-Feed Mechanism, issued March 29, 1955, to Henry B. Greenwood, and is generally illustrated in FIGS. and 6. In timed relation to the movement of the operating parts of the printerslotter machine 20, the feed mechanism 76 reciprocates to feed the lowermost of a stack of sized blanks 38, not shown.

At each stroke of the feed mechanism 76, a toothed ratchet wheel 78 rotates one tooth. This ratchet wheel 78 rotates a shaft 80 which mounts a lobed cam 82. The lobed cam 82. is arranged to lift a reciprocating feed member 84 into engaging contact with the bottom sized blank 38. By proportioning the number of lobes of the lobed cam '82 with the number of teeth of the ratchet wheel 78, any ratio of reciprocating strokes to blank feed may be had.

In the present example, a six-toothed ratchet wheel 78 is used with a two-lobed cam 82. The result is a feed oneskip two schedule.

A series of operation cycles of the reciprocating feed mechanism 76 is indicated by the line 90 of the middle cycle diagram of FIG. 9. The to and fro movement on thrust-retract motion of the reciprocating feed mechanism 76 is indicated by directional arrows. The thrust arrows are identified by Roman numerals. For the skip feed mechanism 76 disclosed in the referenced patent, the longest carton blank 38 which can be accommodated by the printer-slotter machine 20 is indicated by the distance between slot pairs as depicted on line 92, and corresponds to the use of the lower gear shift or shaft center C and the omission of the larger diameter annular disc 50 shown in FIG. 2. Evenly numbered thrusts II, IV, etc. are skipped by the use of a ratchet tooth to cam lobe ratio of two-to-one in the feeder 74.

When this cam lobe ratio is changed to three-to-one, the thrusts will be on a feed oneskip two cycle and the larger diameter annular disc 50 may be employed with corresponding upper gear shift or shaft center C. The improvement in blank length handling is apparent from line 94 of FIG. 9 by the greater distance between slot pairs.

Obviously, many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachmgs. scope of the appended claims, the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described.

What is claimed is:

1. In a printer slotter machine, an adjustable and extendable slotting mechanism consisting of a pair of rotatable shafts mounted in a first relative parallel position, a plurality of spaced discs mounted on one shaft of said pair of shafts, spaced blades mounted on the periphery of each said disc, 2. corresponding number of slotter backing rollers mounted on the other shaft of said pair of shafts and spaced to correspond to said discs, each slotter backing roller being arranged to receive the blades of its respective disc, means having different speed drive increments for driving one shaft of said pair of shafts, means for coupling said pair of shafts together in said first relative parallel position of said pair of shafts for simultaneous rotation at one speed ratio therebetween, means for positioning said pair of shafts to a second relative parallel position, means for radially repositioning said blades on each said disc, said means for posi- -It is, therefore, to be understood that within the tioning said pair of shafts to said second relative parallel position being arranged to decouple said coupling means and to recouple said coupling means to said driving means so as to provide a different speed ratio of said pair of shafts relative therebetween in said second relative parallel position of said pair of shafts to correspond to a changed peripheral speed of said radially repositioned blades, a skip-feeding mechanism for feeding blanks to said adjustable and eXtendable slotting mechanism, and means coupled to said driving means for synchronizing said skip-feeding mechanism with the peripheral speed of said radially repositioned blades.

2. In the printer slotter machine as recited in claim 1, wherein said means for positioning said pair of shafts to a second relative parallel position includes a rotatable eccentric journal, and an element for rotating said rotatable eccentric journal.

3. In the printer slotter machine as recited in claim 1, wherein the means for radially repositioning said blades on each said disc consists of a concentrically arranged disc secured to its respective first mentioned disc.

4. In the printer slotter machine as recited in claim 3, and means for peripherally positioning said blades on said radially repositioning means.

5. In the printer slotter machine as recited in claim 1, and additionally a second pair of rotatable shafts spaced parallel to said first mentioned pair of rotatable shafts, said second pair of rotatable shafts having mutually engageable creaser rollers thereon for creasing said carton blank along predetermined lines.

6. In the printer slotter making machine as recited in claim 5, wherein said creaser rollers are spaced to correspond to said spaced discs of said one shaft of the first pair of shafts.

7. in the printer slotter machine as recited in claim 1, and means for changing the skip movement of said skipfeeding mechanism.

8. In combination, an adjustable and extendable slotting mechanism consisting of a pair of rotatable shafts mounted in a first relative parallel position, a plurality of spaced discs mounted on one shaft of said pair of shafts, spaced blades mounted on the periphery of each said disc, a corresponding number of slotter backing rollers mounted on the other shaft of said pair of shafts and spaced to correspond to said discs, each slotter backing roller being arranged to receive the blades of its respective disc, means having different speed drive increments for driving one shaft of said pair of shafts, means for coupling said pair of shafts together in said first relative parallel position of said pair of shafts for simultaneous rotation at one speed ratio therebetween, and means for positioning said pair of shafts to a second relative parallel position, said means for radially repositioning said pair of shafts of said second relative parallel position being arranged to decouple said coupling means and to recouple said coupling means to said driving means so as to provide a different speed ratio of said pair of shafts relative therebetween in said second relative parallel position of said pair of shafts to correspond to the changed peripheral speed of said radially repositioned blades.

9. In the combination as recited in claim 8, and additionally a skip-feeding mechanism for feeding blanks to said adjustable and extendable slotting mechanism, and means coupled to said driving means for synchronizing said skip-feeding mechanism with the peripheral speed of said radially repositioned blades.

10. In the combination as recited in claim 9, wherein said means for positioning said pair of shafts to a second relative parallel position includes a rotatable eccentric journal, and an element for rotating said rotatable eccentric journal.

11. In the combination as recited in claim 9, wherein the means for radially repositioning said blades on each said disc consists of a concentrically arranged disc secured to its respective first mentioned disc.

12. In the combination as recited in claim 9, and additionally a second pair of rotatable shafts spaced parallel to said first mentioned pair of rotatable shafts, said second pair of rotatable shafts having mutually engageable creaser rollers thereon for creasing said blank along predetermined lines.

13. In the combination as recited in claim 12, wherein said creaser rollers are spaced to correspond to said spaced discs of said one shaft of the first pair of shafts.

14. In the combination as recited in claim 9, and means for changing the skip movement of said skipfeeding mechanism.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Swift July 15, 1924 Sieg May 10, 1938 Greenwood Mar. 29, 1955 Teplitz Sept. 2, 1958

Images