US3865224A - Hand-held multiple-die embossing tool - Google Patents

Abstract

A hand-held tool for embossing large indicia on an elongated strip of embossable material. The tool has embossing means comprising male and female embossing dies, with the dies being arranged in concentric circular arrays and adapted to move perpendicular to the direction of travel of the embossable material in order to make both sets of dies available for embossing, and a tape guide interposed between the male and female dies having an aperture narrower than said dies so that when said dies are in the closed embossing position the dies and the tape guide are pressed firmly together and cooperate to grip the edges of the strip during embossing.

Description

Faust et al.

1 HAND-HELD MULTIPLE-DIE EMBOSSING TOOL [75] Inventors: Michael C. Faust; Thomas W.

Seabold, both of St. Paul, Minn.

[73] Assignee: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, St. Paul,

Minn.

[22] Filed: Oct. 12, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 406,111

. [52] US. Cl. 197/6.7, 101/29 [51] Int. Cl B4lj 1/30 [58] Field of Search 197/62, 6.6, 6.7; 101/18,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,263,790 8/1966 Bremer et a1. l97/6.7 3,263,791 8/1966 Pedersen et al. 197/67 3,280,954 10/1966 Bremer et a1. 197/6.7 3,389,772 6/1968 Sjogren et al 197/67 3,414,102 12/1968 Norvelle 197/67 1111 3,865,224 1451 Feb. 11, 1975 11/1970 Woodard 83/633 X 12/1972 Corte l97/6.7

[57] ABSTRACT A hand-held tool for embossing large indicia on an elongated strip of embossable material. The tool has embossing means comprising male and female embossing dies, with the dies being arranged in concentric circular arrays and adapted to move perpendicular to the direction of travel of the embossable material in order to make both sets of dies available for embossing, and a tape guide interposed between the male and female dies having an aperture narrower than said dies so that when said dies are in the closed embossing position the dies and the tape guide are pressed firmly together and cooperate to grip the edges of the strip during embossing.

3 Claims, 10 Drawing Figures 1 HAND-HELD MULTIPLE-DIE EMBOSSING TOOL BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates to embossing tools for embossing elongated strips. In one aspect, this invention relates to hand-held embossing tools useful for embossing wide, elongated, embossable strips.

2. Description of the Prior Art U.S. Pat. No. 3,280,954, issued to Bremmer et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 3,263,791, issued to Pedersen et al., disclose embossing tools having two or more sets of embossing dies at varying radii on an embossing dial which can be moved parallel to the direction of motion of the embossable material to allow selection of the desired dies. These tools utilized resilient members movable to engage the strip material and force it into the female dies formed on the movable dial. Sufficient pressure was available with the tablemodel to afford adequate embossing pressure to form /2 inch characters on inch embossing tape. For a hand held tool it is very difficult to obtain sufficient pressure to form one half inch characters without the use of mating dies on each side of the embossable material forming male and female dies as is described in copending application Ser. No. 406,l 1O filed Oct. 12, I973, inthe name of Curt A. Poulton and assigned to the same assignee as this application. The problem encountered however with large pairs of die elements on a shiftable dial was that the dies occassionally caught on the embossing material during shifting of the dial and in that the male die memher when placed through a guide during an embossing operation would catch and not separate from the strip material to permit the subsequent advance of the 'material when the embossing lever was released.

Another problem with embossing tools for wide strips is the strip will tend to deform during embossing causing the edges of the strip to warpor wrinkle damaging the appearance of the finished product.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The hand-held embossing tool of the present invention for embossing wide embossable strips on the order of one-half to three-fourth inch or more comprises an elongated body and means guiding and supporting an elongated strip of embossable material along a path, feed means for advancing strip material to an embossing station in response to actuating means and means to apply pressure to the embossing dies. The tool has embossing disks including an embossing dial mounted on the body having female embossing die elements and opposed male embossing dies with each male die being individually mounted on a flexible finger, said male dies having shoulders adjacent the dies and said die sets being arranged in concentric circular arrays. The dial is adapted to move perpendicular to the direction of travel of the elongated strip so that the desired array of embossing dies may becentered over the strip. A guide plate for carrying the elongatedstrip is interposed between the male and female dies prevents the strip from becoming entangled in the individual male dies. The tape guide has an aperture at the embossing station nar-. rower than the strips width but sufficiently wide to allow the male die to pass through so when the dies are in the embossing position the shoulder portion of the male die, the guide plate and the female die will be pressed firmly together securely holding the edges of the strip to prevent warping or wrinkling of the edges of the strip during embossing.

The embossing tape moves tangential to the embossing dial rather than through the center of the dial as in the prior art. Thus the characters on the embossing dial are rotated from the normal orientation where the tape passes through the center of the dial which brings the height of the characters in to a radial alignment. Because the width' of most characters is less than their height, more characters can be spaced on a given circumference allowing the embossing dial to be smaller than a comparable dial where the strip passes through the center of the dial for any given size of letter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING A further understanding of the invention may be had by reference to the following drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embossing tool constructed in accordance with this invention;

FIG. 2 is a top view of the embossing tool with parts broken away to show interior members;

FIG. 3 is a side view of the tool of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a longitudinal sectional view taken along the line 4-4 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a longitudinal sectional view taken along .the line 55 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a horizontal sectional view taken along the line 6-6 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 7 is a transverse sectional view taken along the line 7-7 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 8 is a transverse sectional view taken along the line 8-8 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 9 is a partial exploded perspective view showing a set of cut off dies; and

FIG. 10 is a cross sectional view showing the cut off dies in the cutting position.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A hand-held embossing tool according to this invention and generally designated by the reference numeral 20 includes a housing 22 adapted to hold a roll of embossable tape and having an embossing dial 24, with a plurality of complementary male and female embossing dies, rotatably mounted in said housing. The embossing dies are shown arranged in two concentric circular arrays. To emboss a character, embossing dial 24 is moved until the proper letter appears in a selector window 26 and trigger 28 is depressed bringing the selected embossing dies together applying pressure to the embossable strip. In addition, during embossing the feed means are actuated and will advance the strip material after the embossing dies separate.

The spacing between embossed characters can be controlled by dial 30 providing normal, condensed or expanded spacing allowing messages of different lengths and spacing to be formed by the same embossing tool. The embossable strip can be moved rapidly forward by means of knob 32 without actuating trigger 28, and if a substantial length of unembossed strip has been run out, the unembossed portion may be drawn back for embossing by opening atape hold down 34 and drawing the strip backwards by hand. The message being embossed is visible in viewing window 36 and the most recently embossed characters may be seen at viewing aperture 38 by withdrawing embossing dial 24 to uncover aperture 38.

In greater detail, trigger 28 is pivotably mounted on pin 40 to move into the handle and is returned to its normal extended position by spring 42 after the trigger is closed to emboss a character on the elongated strip. As trigger 28 is depressed during the embossing step pin 44, which normally holds arm 46 in the lower position, is moved upward and spring 48 pulls arm 46 upward. As arm 46 moves upward gear segment 50 attached to arm 46 engages and turns gear segment 52 secured to a drum rotatably mounted on shaft 51 until surface 54 engages a complementary stop 55 which limits the rotation of gear 52. The gear segment 52 is mounted on a drum which drives a tape drive roller 68 through a conventional spring clutch including a spring 53 on the drum to drive the shaft 51 and the feed roller 68. Spring 53 allows gear 52 to rotate without a similar rotation of shaft 51 during the triggers upward motion. As spring 42 forces embossing trigger 28 downward to the normal extended position, pin 44 pushing against rod 46 causes gear 50 to rotate counterclockwise turning shaft 51 and tape drive roller 68 attached to the shaft thereby advancing the embossable strip. The amount of rotation of gear 52, and thus spacing between characters can be controlled by turning knob 30 which moves complementary surface 55 and controls the distance gear 52 can rotate before surface 54 engages complementary'surface 55.

Trigger stop 56 will engage frame 58, providing a solid, bottomed out, feel which allows the user to know when trigger 28 has advanced far enough to clearly emboss a character on the embossable strip.

During operation tape from magazine 64 passes over roll 66 becoming visible through aperture 65 and passes between pressure roll 70 and drive roll 68 into a guide plate 71 where it is moved forward to embossing station 69. Pressure roller 70 is mounted in frame 72 pivotably attached to frame 41 of embossing tool on shaft 73. When it is desired to retract a portion of the embossable strip moving tape release button 34 down and back toward the rear of the tool causing cam surface 75 ofthe tape release button to push against the surface frame 72 moving the frame upward and releasing the pressure on the embossable strip allowing it to be withdrawn through aperture 65 manually.

As is shown most clearly in FIG. 2, the guide plate 71 is formed of a generally flat thin metal plate having a slotted aperture 76 formed therein and defining the embossing station. The aperture 76 is narrower than the width of the embossing strip and equal to the height of the tallest indicia formed on a male die. Strip guiding edges 77 are formed on the guide plate 71 and extend away from the strip supporting surface to contact and severely guide the strip across the center of the aperture 76. The edges 77 are spaced along the guide plate in advance of the aperture 76.

FIG. 7 shows an arrangement of embossing dies and a plunger suitable for embossing indicia. As shown, an outer set of male dies 82 and an inner set of male dies 84 are radially mounted on thin flexible arms 83 in concentric circular arrays and corresponding female dies are in a disk 86 the entire assembly being keyed soas to rotate as a unit on stud 85. The male dies 82 and 84 are formed with a plunger to mate the female die element and shoulders 92 are formed at each end of the male plunger increasing the height of the element. The

shoulders 92 permit the plunger to pass through the aperture 76 and engage the surface of the guide plate 71 opposite the strip. When the dies having the character to be embossed have been rotated to the embossing station, trigger 28 is depressed moving embossing plunger upward applying sufficient force to the male die 82 forcing it through the aperture 76, into the embossable strip and forcing the strip into the female die to produce a neat, clean character.

FIG. 6 shows generally a system for mounting embossing dial 24 on the frame of tool 20 which allows the embossing dial to be quickly and easily moved perpendicular to the direction of strip travel. When it is desired to use characters contained on the inner circular array of dies, button 88 is depressed retracting detent 86 from depression 87 allowing embossing disks and their embossing dies, and the stud 85, to be moved radially and perpendicular to the strips path so the inner set of dies are centered over plunger 80.

During embossing, guide plate 71 is moved upward by shoulders 92 of the embossing male die so that in the closed embossing position under the force of the plunger 80 the male die, guide plate, embossing strip and the female die are pressed firmly together. The

shoulders 92 on the male dies engage the guide plate at .the edges of the aperture 76 raising the guide plate to press against the embossable strip and the strip against under surface of the disk 86 to hold the edges of the embossable strip in position during embossing, thereby preventing deformation and warping.

A cut-off assembly suitable for mounting as part of embossing dial 24 is shown by FIGS. 9 and 10. Disk 86 has a recess 96 containing spring portion 98 and two knife blades 100 separated by a spacer 102. When the cut-off assembly is rotated to embossing station 69 and trigger 28 depressed plunger 80 will push anvil 97 mounted on arm 83 upward, the shoulders of anvil 97 pushing guide plate 71 upward against knives 100. A raised t-shaped portion 101 mounted on anvil 97 cooperates with guide plate 71 to exert sufficient pressure against knives 100 to sever the tape at its edges and across most of its width; however, the spaces 103, 105 will leave small portions of the liner of the strip mate rial unsevered or only partially severed allowing several messages to be embossed without separating individual messages from each other. This type of cut on an embossed strip is described in greater detail in US. Pat. No. 3,537,343 the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

Having thus described the present invention with reference to one embodiment of a machine constructed according to this invention, it will be readily understood that changes may be made in the machine without departing from the spirit or scope of this invention as defined by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A tool for embossing indicia in a wide elongated strip of embossable material, said too] including a body having embossing means at an embossing station, said embossing means comprising two sets of complementary male and female dies said sets being arrangedin concentric circular arrays, said female dies being formed on a rotatable disc, said male dies each comprising an element having a plunger with radially spaced ends, each plunger being positioned opposite and mating with an associated female die and having shoulders disposed one adjacent each end of said plunger, said elements being individually mounted on flexible fingers, said embossing means being mounted for movement perpendicular to the direction of travel of said elongated strip so that any selected die of any concentric array of embossing dies may be centered over the elongated strip, feed means for advancing the elongated strip to the embossing station, and a guide plate for carrying said elongated strip between said male and female dies past said embossing station, said guide plate having an aperture to receive said plungers and narrower than the width of said element with said shoulders engaging the guide plate adjacent the edges of said aperture whereby when said dies are in the closed embossing position, the dies, guide plate and elongated strip are pressed firmly together securely holding the edges of the elongated strip.

2. The tool of claim 1 wherein said feed means includes means for varying the space between centerlines of the embossed indicia to enable the embossing of strips with extended or condensed letters, said means for varying the spacing comprising a spring loaded gear segment which engages a complementary gear attached to said feed means said complementary gear having a stop surface which will engage an adjustable complementary stop surface on said tool whereby when said embossing dies are closed to the embossing position, said gear segment will turn said complementary gear a predetermined amount until said stop surfaces engage thereby determining the amount said feed means will advance said strip.

3. The tool of claim 1 having cut-off dies mounted on said embossing means, said cut-off dies comprising a male die member having a T-shaped anvil smaller than the aperture in said guide plate and a corresponding die on said disc said corresponding die having two knife blades arranged transversely to the length of said strip whereby when said cut-off dies are in the closed position the knives are pressed against the tape guide and the anvil whereby the edges of the strip and a substantial portion of the center of said strip are transversely severed.

Claims (3)

1. A tool for embossing indicia in a wide elongated strip of embossable material, said tool including a body having embossing means at an embossing station, said embossing means comprising two sets of complementary male and female dies said sets being arranged in concentric circular arrays, said female dies being formed on a rotatable disc, said male dies each comprising an element having a plunger with radially spaced ends, each plunger being positioned opposite and mating with an associated female die and having shoulders disposed one adjacent each end of said plunger, said elements being individually mounted on flexible fingers, said embossing means being mounted for movement perpendicular to the direction of travel of said elongated strip so that any selected die of any concentric array of embossing dies may be centered over the elongated strip, feed means for advancing the elongated strip to the embossing station, and a guide plate for carrying said elongated strip between said male and female dies past said embossing station, said guide plate having an aperture to receive said plungers and narrower than the width of said element with said shoulders engaging the guide plate adjacent the edges of said aperture whereby when said dies are in the closed embossing position, the dies, guide plate and elongated strip are pressed firmly together securely holding the edges of the elongated strip.

2. The tool of claim 1 wherein said feed means includes means for varying the space between centerlines of the embossed indicia to enable the embossing of strips with extended or condensed letters, said means for varying the spacing comprising a spring loaded gear segment which engages a Complementary gear attached to said feed means said complementary gear having a stop surface which will engage an adjustable complementary stop surface on said tool whereby when said embossing dies are closed to the embossing position, said gear segment will turn said complementary gear a predetermined amount until said stop surfaces engage thereby determining the amount said feed means will advance said strip.

3. The tool of claim 1 having cut-off dies mounted on said embossing means, said cut-off dies comprising a male die member having a T-shaped anvil smaller than the aperture in said guide plate and a corresponding die on said disc said corresponding die having two knife blades arranged transversely to the length of said strip whereby when said cut-off dies are in the closed position the knives are pressed against the tape guide and the anvil whereby the edges of the strip and a substantial portion of the center of said strip are transversely severed.

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