Registration alignment device for embossing machine

Claim 1

In a character-forming device, a mechanism for selectively positioning and holding a pair of members which are relatively movable along a position path of travel in any one of a plurality of preselected positions, comprising a longitudinally extending rack having spaced teeth and grooves carried by one of said members and an engagement pawl carried by the other of said members, said members being relatively movable inwardly toward each other and outwardly away from each other on an engagement path of travel between a pawl engaged position and a pawl disengaged position to engage and disengage said engagement pawl with said rack in the grooves between the teeth, means for first driving said members in a longitudinal relative movement to a preliminary selected relationship, and thereafter while said members are longitudinally at rest driving said members in said inwardly direction, and positioning means for moving said rack from said preliminary selected relationship longitudinally from an interference position in which a tip of said engagement pawl is aligned with an end of a tooth of said rack to another position in which the tip of said engagement pawl is at least slightly offset relative to the end of the tooth of said rack, said positioning means including a sensing pawl carried by said other member and disposed inwardly of said engagement pawl in a spaced-apart relationship with said rack when said engagement pawl is at the disengaged position, said sensing pawl including a tip with a pair of cam side surfaces extending therefrom, actuator means for moving said sensing pawl and rack into engagement when said rack is in the interference position and for pressing a cam side surface of said sensing pawl against a tooth of said rack to move said rack longitudinally from the interference position to the other position solely under influence of a force applied to said rack by said sensing pawl, said actuator means being operable to move said engagement pawl and rack into engagement after movement of said rack from the interference position to the other position by said sensing pawl to precisely locate said rack at a preselected position