Tag manufacturing apparatus

A machine for welding a tie to a tag body comprising:

• a machine frame having a work station at which a tag tie is welded to a tag body;
• a supply hopper mounted to said frame for holding a supply of tag bodies;
• first means movably positioned on said frame to remove tag bodies from said hopper and sequentially move individual tag bodies to said work station in a predetermined position;
• tag tie supply means;
• second means movably positioned on said frame to receive a tag tie from said tag tie supply means and move the tag tie into alignment with the tag body at said work station;
• and
• welding means movably positioned on said frame to weld a tag tie to a tag body at said work station, wherein said first, second and welding means lie substantially in a line and wherein said welding means is located between said first and second means such that tag bodies and tag ties are moved toward each other from opposite directions.

A machine for welding a tie to a tag body comprising:

• a machine frame having a work station at which a tag tie is welded to a tag body;
• a supply hopper mounted to said frame for holding a supply of tag bodies;
• first means movably positioned on said frame to remove tag bodies from said hopper and sequentially move individual tag bodies to said work station in a predetermined position wherein said first means includes means for releasably holding a tag body and means for advancing and retracting said holding means toward and away from said hopper to singulate tag bodies therefrom and wherein said first means further includes a tag body carriage to which said holding means and said advancing and retracting means are mounted, and means movably mounting said carriage to said frame for controlled movement between said hopper and said work station;
• tag tie supply means;
• second means movably positioned on said frame to receive a tag tie from said tag tie supply means and move the tag tie into alignment with the tag body at said work station, wherein said second means includes a slide movably mounted to said frame to travel between said work station and a position remote from said work station and toward said tag tie supply means, and clamp means mounted to said slide for selectively clamping a continuous supply of tag tie material for the stepwise advancement of tag tie material into said work station;
• and
• welding means movably positioned on said frame to weld a tag tie to a tag body at said work station.

A machine for attaching semi-rigid tag ties from a continuous supply of wire-like stock to relatively thin planar tag bodies comprising:

• a work station including means for securing a tag tie to a tag body;
• tag body supply means for singulating tag bodies from a stack of tag bodies and transferring singulated tag bodies into said work station;
• and
• tag tie supply means for sequentially stepwise advancing wire-like tag tie material into said work station in alignment with a tag body and in synchronism with the supply of tag bodies and for cutting the tie material to a predetermined length, wherein said work station is positioned intermediate said body supply means and said tie supply means and wherein said body supply means, said work station and said tie supply means lie substantially in a line.