Untitled record

Application filed May 23,1890. Serial No. 352,830, (Nomodel,)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that' I, Milton S. Tracy, of Rocky Hill, in the county of Hartford and State of Connecticut, have invented certain 5 new and useful Improvements in Paper-Cutters, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to paper-cutters in which a roll of paper is held on a roller or mandrel the ends of which are journaled in io bearings in a supporting-frame, and in which a gravitating knife is employed which is guided by inclined slots formed in the supporting-frame, the arrangement being such that the edge of the knife rests upon the pe15 riphery of the roll of paper and accommo,dates itself automatically to the decreasing size of the roll as the latter becomes reduced, the knife being adapted to sever the paper when the free end of the latter is pulled di20 agonally against the edge of the knife. An example of a cutter of this class, above referred to, is shown in Letters Patent granted to F. W. Drosten June 21,1887, No. 365,334.

The present invention has for its object to 25 provide certain improvements in cutters of this class, whereby the automatic conformation of the knife to the periphery of the roll may be made more perfect and the binding of the knife in its guiding-slots prevented.

To these ends the invention consists in the improvements which I will now proceed to describe and claim.

In the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, Figure 1 represents 35 an end elevation of a paper-cutter embodying my invention. Fig. 2 represents a rear elevation of the same. Fig. 3 represents a perspective view of a portion of my gravitating knife. Figs. 4 and 5 represent a modifi40 cation.

The same letters of reference indicate the same parts in all the figures.

In the drawings, a a represent the end pieces of the supporting-frame, said pieces 45 being rigidly connected by any suitable means—^;as, for example, by base & and a top piece c, to which said end pieces a a are screwed.

d represents the roller or mandrel on which 50 the web of paper is wound in the form of the roll e. Said roller is provided with trunnions or gudgeons d', which are journaled in bearings formed'by the ends of the inclined slots /, formed in the end pieces a, said slots being open at their outer ends to permit the intro- 55 duction and removal of the gudgeons.

g represents the paper-cutting knife, which is provided at its ends with ears or lugs g', which are oblique or diagonal to the body of the blade, and are formed to slide in inclined 60 slots h, formed in the end pieces a. When the ears or lugs g' are in place in said slots, the under side of the blade rests upon the periphery of the paper roll e, the blade being adapted to rise and fall by means of the said 65 lugs and slots, so that when a new roll is put into the frame the blade may be raised so as to bear on the enlarged periphery of said roll, and as the roll becomes reduced by the removal of the paper the blade will fall auto- 70· matieally and remain in contact with the periphery of the roll until all the paper has been removed. It is important that the cuttingedge of the blade be in close contact with the periphery of the roll, so that the paper 75 may be severed satisfactorily by pulling outwardly and upwardly on the free end of the web.

It often happens that the periphery of the paper roll is eccentric to its axis of rotation, 80 so that as the roll rotates the knife is at times required to move upwardly in conforming to the eccentricity of the roll. It will be seen that the bearing of the knife against the roll only at or near the cutting-edge or outer end 85 of the knife causes the upward pressure exerted against the knife by the roll to tip the knife crosswise, and thus cause the ears or lugs at the ends of the knife to bind on the edges of the guiding-slots 7i, the portion of 90 the knife between the cutting-edge and the back acting as a lever. This difficulty has in many cases been so great as to prevent the rotation of the· roll when the eccentricity of the latter is somewhat marked. To obviate 95. this difficulty, I provide lugs or projections i i on the under surface of the knife at the back or rear edge thereof, said projections being formed to bear upon the periphery of the roll e, as shown in Fig. 1, so that the knife is 100 supported by the roll not only at its cuttingedge, but also at its back or inner edge. Said

451,685 projections are arranged substantially in lino with the ears if if at the ends of the blade. Hence the upward pressure of the roll when its periphery is eccentric is exerted on the 5 knife at both edges alike and in the direction of the movement of the ears cf g' in their guiding-slots. There is, therefore, no possibility of the knife being tipped and the ears or lugs g’ being caused to bind on the sides io of the slots h by such upward pressure.

To insure close contact between the cuttingedge of the blade and the periphery of the roll, I give the under side of the blade the bevel or inclination from the point 2, which 15 is back of the cutting-edge to the point 3, which is at the cutting-edge. The same result might be produced by giving the under side of the blade a slight concavity from its cutting-edge to its back or upper portion, the 20 object being to enable the under side of the blade to conform approximately to the periphery of the roll, so that the close contact of the cutting-edge with the periphery of the roll will be insured.

It is obvious that the knife may have but one lug i instead of two, and said lug may be at the central part of the knife or may extend along the greater portion of the length of the knife; or, if preferred, there may be more than 30 two lugs.

I do not limit myself to the employment of the ears gr'and slots 7zas the means for guiding the knife, but may use the knive having the lug or lugs i in connection with means 35 for guiding the knife, such as are shown in Figs. 4 and 5, the knife being provided with groove or slot y in each end to receive guiding tongues or ribs formed on the supportingframe. In any case, however, the means for 40 guiding the knife should be such as to permit only a substantially equal motion of both edges of the knife, and not a tipping motion or an upward swinging of the cutting-edge independently, so that when the paper is 45 pulled outwardly against the cutting-edge in . the operation of cutting the paper, the entire weight of the knife and the friction due to the contact of the ears g' with the sides of the slots or to the contact of the sides of the 50 grooves shown in Figs. 4 and 5, with the said guiding tongues or ribs, will be utilized in supporting the cutting-edge against the strain or pull exerted on it by the paper.