Some of the box-makers who make a specialty of fine, small-size set-up boxes for the drug trade, jewelers, etc., have machines which score the blanks, and cut out the corner-pieces simultaneously. This device is for small work only, and its principal advantage is accuracy. When scoring and cornering small-size blanks separately, it is often difficult to have this scoring line in perfect alignment with the corners. On this special type of scoring and cutting machine it is necessary for the operator to feed one blank at a time. Cutting and creasing of this kind can also be done on cutting and creasing presses, with dies formed of steel cutting and creasing rules. This process will be explained in another article.
After the blanks have been cut, scored and the four corner-pieces removed, the blanks are then bent upwards on all four sides so as to put them in form for the staying machine operation. Several of the blanks can be bent partly into shape with one operation. The operator of the staying machine then takes each blank and properly shapes it into the form of a box as the stay paper is applied to each corner. The staying machine is equipped with a roll of narrow Kraft paper which is gummed on one side. The machine is also equipped with a water-pan and a roller which moistens the gummed paper as it passes along. The operator places one corner of the box in position on the machine; the head of the machine descends and affixes a strip of the stay paper on the outside corner of the box. The operator then turns the box in rapid succession while the machine “stays” the other three corners of the box. The cutting of the stay paper to the proper size is an automatic operation, and the device can be adjusted to cut off any length of stay paper. The stay paper placed on the outside corners of the box, holds the box together.
Power Corner-Staying Machine.
In the case of very small boxes and lids, the stay paper is attached by hand, although the machine is adapted to small-size as well as large-size boxes.