Time delay for interleaving machine

Apparatus for feeding separate pieces of sheet material from a continuous supply thereof to individual articles travelling along a predetermined path and positioning a piece of sheet material under each article, said apparatus including conveying means for conveying articles sequentially along the predetermined path, means for feeding sheet material from a continuous supply thereof to a cutting station, cutting means at said cutting station operable by an electrical actuating circuit to cut pieces of sheet material from said continuous supply means for feeding said pieces of sheet material from said cutting station to said conveying means for entrainment between the underside of an article and said conveying means at a material positioning station, article sensing means adjacent said predetermined path before said material positioning station operable to sense the presence of an article passing said sensing means, feeding and cutting control means actuated by said article sensing means to cause the feed of sheet material to said cutting station to be commenced when said sensing means senses an article passing thereby and to be stopped when said sensing means senses that the article has passed thereby, said control means including a set electrical time delay device actuated by said article sensing means to set said electrical actuating circuit when an article is sensed by said article sensing means, said article sensing means ceasing actuation of said time delay device when said article has passed by said article sensing means, and said time delay device operating to cause said electrical actuating circuit to operate said cutting means to cut a piece of sheet material from the continuous supply a predetermined time after said sensing means ceases to actuate said control means to stop said feed means, the time delay being predetermined to ensure that feed of sheet material has actually stopped before said cutting means operates.