Union Paper Bag Mach Co. v. Advance Bag Co.

• Citation: 194 F. 126
• Decision Date: 03 January 1912
• Docket Number: 2,141.
• Parties: UNION PAPER BAG MACH. CO. et al. v. ADVANCE BAG CO.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (6th Circuit)

194 F. 126

UNION PAPER BAG MACH. CO. et al. v. ADVANCE BAG CO.

No. 2,141.

United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit.

January 3, 1912

[Copyrighted Material Omitted]

Appeal from the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of Ohio.

The following is the opinion of the Circuit Court by Sater District Judge:

Dulin's patent, No. 578,550, issued March 9, 1897, relates particularly to machinery to make what is known as the 'square satchel-bottom bag,' or bag made from a bellows-folded tube with a satchel bottom formed upon its end. The object of his invention is particularly to provide machinery whereby such a bag may be made with greater speed than had theretofore been practicable and to simplify the machinery employed in the manufacture of such bags. His invention, he declares, is entirely concerned with that portion of the paper bag machine by which a bellows-folded tube has its end spread out into the form known as the 'diamond fold,' which invention may be used with any convenient mechanism for forming the tubes or in folding the diamond in order to close the bottom of the bag. These declarations of his acquire importance in considering his specification and claims of combination.

The bag planks passing from the feed rolls A and A' shown in his drawings are delivered between the rolls B and B'. As they advance toward the latter rolls, the lower central gripper c closes down and engages the tab U2, being the lower edge of the blank. About that time the lifter D is made to riso, lifting the blank so that the upper edge or tab U3 will lie beneath the end of the gripper C, that it may be thereby more certainly caught by such gripper. As the rolls revolve C is made to close down, and thus secures the upper edge of the blank. As B and B' continue their rotation, the upper and lower edges of the blank being held by the grippers C and c, respectively, the mouth or the bellows-folded blank opens, and, shortly before the rolls have reached approximately the position shown at Fig. 8, the side grippers E E and e e engage the corners of the blank and grip them upon the resilient plates B5 B5, shown on the rolls B and B'. The side grippers are held in this closed position upon the blank until their rotation fully distends the bellows fold and brings it to a substantially straight line, as indicated at U10 in Fig. 18. The upper grippers E E are then rapidly withdrawn. The lower grippers are released later, as appears from Fig. 19. The central grippers, which hold the upper and lower edges of the blank respectively, release their hold as B and B' revolve. The upper part of the partially distended diamond is then held in place by a plate K and the wing folders M. These wing folders move in while the blank is distended, and engage the sides of the distended diamond before the side grippers release, and then rapidly close down, pressing the blank against B and B' and the plates N N.

The lower central gripper c and the lower side grippers e e retain their hold upon the bag until it has been engaged between the rolls B' and L. The blank is then drawn down from between the rolls B and B' passing through the rolls O O' and P P' between the wing folders M M and the plates N N. These rolls or pressing devices break down the final lines of the diamond fold, and deliver the diamond folded blank to a bottom forming mechanism. The transverse creaser I J engages and creases the blank as it is engaged by the side grippers. Of the creasing mechanism the patent recites:

'While it is convenient to place this transverse creasing device upon the rolls B B', the essential feature of its use is that some creasing device should be provided which will form the transverse crease at the point referred to some time in advance of the distension of the tube in the formation of the diamond fold, and any creasing device may be used for this purpose.'

The patentee states that the flattened faces B2 B3 on B and B' may be dispensed with. In that event, the grippers would work in connection with the rounded surface of the roll. He does not limit himself to a construction which necessarily retains the rolls B and B' as appears from the following:

'While I have shown and above described the central and side grippers, as well as the transverse creaser, as secured to the rolls B and B', it is obvious that these rolls, besides serving as supports for the grippers and creaser, serve merely as feed rolls; and it is also obvious that by providing any other convenient feeding apparatus the use of the rolls B B' as such could be dispensed with, the essential feature of my invention being the rotating and coacting device for distending the blank to the diamond form in the manner above described, and, as already stated, it is not essential that the transverse creaser should revolve on the same or approximately the same center or centers with the grippers, or, indeed, that it should be a revolving device at all.'

The right reserved to dispense with the rolls B B' is in one respect hazily expressed. It makes a difference whether the words 'as such' refer to rolls as the feeding apparatus, mentioned in the same sentence, as their antecedent, or to rolls as supports for the grippers and creaser and as serving as feeding devices, as stated in the preceding sentence. In view, however, of the conclusion reached, it is not necessary to determine the question thus suggested.

The claims alleged to be infringed are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7. They are all combination claims. The elements entering into the first are as follows:

(1) Rotating central upper gripper C, arranged to seize the top ply of the bag blank.

(2) Rotating lower central gripper c. This is arranged to seize the lower ply of the bag blank. These two grippers also operate to spread open the end of the blank.

(3) Rotating upper side grippers E E, which are so disposed as to enter the bellows fold of the blank and engage its upper ply.

(4) Rotating lower side grippers e e, which are so arranged as to enter the bellows fold of the blank and engage its lower ply. These four rotating side grippers spread out the blank in the plane of the bottom to be formed thereon.

(5) Mechanism for engaging and disengaging the grippers and the blank described.

(6) Mechanism for drawing the diamond-folded blank from the path of the grippers after they have released it.

The second claim adds to the first, 'a transverse creaser arranged to crease the blank on the line about which the diamond is spread open and at a time prior to the distension of the diamond fold.'

Claim 3 differs from the second only in that it provides that the transverse creaser shall be rotating.

The elements of claim 4 are as follows:

(1) Roll B, the upper diamond-forming roll.

(2) Roll B', the lower diamond-forming roll.

(3) The central gripper C on upper roll B.

(4) Central gripper c on lower roll B'.

(5) Side grippers E E on roll B.

(6) Side grippers e e on roll B'.

(7) Mechanism for operating the grippers.

Claim 5 adds to claim 4 'a creaser, arranged to crease the blank transversely on the line about which the diamond fold is opened, at a time prior to the distension of the diamond.'

Claim 7 adds to claim 4 the element of the lifter D arranged to lift 'the blank as it enters between the rolls so as to bring its upper ply to position to be engaged by the upper gripper.'

The above statements as to the elements of the several claims of combination accord with the evidence offered by both parties.

The operation of respondent's machine is sufficiently stated as follows:

As the bellows-folded paper tube advances over the former 53, 54 the upper ply is punched by the notch cutter. It is then slitted above and beneath by a rotary slitter. It next passes between two feeding and creasing rolls, 6, 10, the creases made extending inwardly from both outer edges of the ply toward the middle. The feeding and cutting rolls 16, 24, sever both plies of the blank to near the outer edge of such plies from the extremes of the curved transverse notch first made in the upper ply, leaving, however, the marginal edges unsevered, and also the lower ply unsevered for a short distance at its middle. The side tucks of the partially severed tube are slightly spread by stationary side plates 63, whose purpose is to facilitate the operation of rotary cutters 41, 47, which completely sever the tucked edges of the blank. The tube is now wholly severed except a narrow portion or tang at the middle of the lower ply. Upturning flanges 57 on the former 55 separate the leading end of the plies in such a way that the upper ply is lifted against the upper diamond-forming roll to permit the entrance of the upper duplex central grippers. These flanges open and hold open the advanced end of the bag tube in a position for the upper side to be caught by the grippers on the upper folds of the gripping cylinder. As the diamond-forming rolls advance, the upper grippers, which are in the form of jaws or pincers, operating in slots within rollers, close upon the tab or end of the upper ply and hold it, while the roll rotates, until they are released by the operation of mechanism within the roll. As the rolls revolve, the end of the blank distends by the upper edge of the blank being pulled forward by the grippers and the lower edge being pulled downward by the unsevered portion or tang of the under ply. At the proper time, as the tube is distended, upper and lower side grippers or claimps distend the interior triangles of the diamond fold, and, when the diamond is completed, they are mechanically retracted. As the diamond is drawn down, its upper half is folded, as it descends, against the body of the bag blank. The upper central gripper, as it...