US3549099A

US3549099A - Automatic winding apparatus

Info

Publication number: US3549099A
Application number: US730497A
Authority: US
Inventors: Thomas J Hofbauer; Frank L Scholten
Original assignee: THOMAS J HOFBAUER
Current assignee: THOMAS J HOFBAUER
Priority date: 1968-05-20
Filing date: 1968-05-20
Publication date: 1970-12-22
Anticipated expiration: 1987-12-22

Description

United States Patent [72] Inventors ThomasJ. Hofbauer 2,664,250 12/1953 Friedman 242/75.5UX 48 Lake Trail E.; 2,930,536 3/1960 Stalhuth 242/25A ggx i j sgzgb Archung Road Primary Examiner-Nathan L. Mintz 1 pp No- 730,497 Attorney Andrew L. Bam

[22] Filed May 20,1968

[45] Patented Dec. 22, 1970 ABSTRACT: An apparatus is disclosed for automatically winding flexible material under substantially constant tension [54] ggm gggg gi APPARATUS sequentially on rotating multiple reels driven in unison by a g g variable speed motor. The speed of the motor is controlled by [52] U.S. CI..... 242/673 voltage control means responsive to the various positions of a [51] Int. Cl. B65h 17/02 pivoted arm responsive to the variations in tension of the flexi- [50] Field of Search 242/673, ble material. A measuring device over which the flexible 67.1,75.52 material passes intermittently activates a solenoid-operated spring-biased plunger on a slidable indexing carriage which is [56] References cued biased to movement but prevented from moving by the UNITED STATES PATENTS plunger sequentially engaging stops on a base frame to hold 2,658,695 11/1953 Atchason 242/78.1 the carriage in Place while each reel is being wouhd- A p 2,973,912 3/1961 Wilburn 242/25A biased pivoted guide arm on the carriage diverts the from 3,185,403 5/1965 Bean 242/673 each completed reel 19 the hex! adjacent reel p the 1,976,61 1 10/1934 Gulliksen 242/75.52x completion of each movement of the carriage- Q I 36 M1 "W l/m I F 2 PATENTEU DEC22 I970 SHEET 1 [IF 2 INVI'IN'I'UICS THOMAS J. HOFBAUER FRANK L. SCHOLTEN PATENTEDUEBEBIQM I 9549.099

sum

2 or 2 INVIUJ'W/ 1H5 THOMAS J. HOFBAUER FRANK L SCHOLTEN AUTOMATIC WINDING APPARATUS SUMMARY OF INVENTION The invention relates to winding apparatus including a plurality of reels rotating together for receiving flexible material. Control means are provided for controlling the speed of the motor so that the flexible material is wound on the reels under substantially constant tension. A measuring device is provided for intermittently activating a slidable indexing carriage which has means thereon for positioning the flexible material so that it is wound sequentially on each of the reels.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of Invention The present invention relates to automatic winding apparatus for sequentially winding flexible material on multiple reels.

2. Description of Prior Art Virtually all flexible materials, such as magnetic recording tape, etc., are stored on reels or similar devices. The winding process is accomplished on winding machines which have a large supply reel and a smaller reel which is to be wound or filled with tape. A significant loss in productive output is encountered when the machine is stopped to remove the wound reel and an empty reel is placed on the machine for the next winding. The usual method comprises stopping the machine, cutting the end of the tape which is attached to the tape being supplied by the supply reel, replacing the completed reel with an empty reel and rethreading the end of the tape from the supply reel to the hub of the empty reel and restarting the machine for the next cycle of winding. The down time experienced becomes significant when many reels are to be wound and when the winding portion of the cycle is short relative to the time necessary to reload. To alleviate the problem, many methods have been devised but all have required cutting and rethreading the tape. As can be readily understood, operating of such machines is time consuming and costly.

It is the object of this invention to provide an automatic winding system which will greatly simplify the process in that it permits the sequential winding of multiple reels without stopping the winding machine, thus eliminating the down time associated with changing the reels. The only time the machine needs to be stopped is when the supply reel needs to be replaced.

It is an additional object of the invention to provide a measuring device for periodically actuating an indexing mechanism to sequentially wind multiple reels.

It is a further object of the invention to provide for a device for controlling the speed of the motor driving the reels, the device being responsive to the tension of the tape as it is sup plied to the multiple reels. Additional improvement reside in the means for automatically stopping the motor when the -winding of the last reel of the multiple reels has been completed.

Other objects and features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. I is a perspective view of the automatic winding apparatus in association with a supply reel and recorder.

FIG. 2 is a sectional elevation takenon the line 2-2 of FIG. 3

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the automatic winding ap paratus.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary plan view showing the manner in which the flexible material is continuously wound.

The winding apparatus illustrated in the drawings is designed to wind audio tape on multiple reels rotating together and the description will be confined to that use. However, it will be obvious that the invention envisages the use of the apparatus for the winding of any flexible material, such as, line, ribbon, wire, film and similar material on multiple reels.

Ordinarily, the process of duplicating tape consists of playing a master tape (called a dubmaster) on a reading or playback machine (called a reader). The audio program from the dubmaster is amplified and fed into several recording machines (called slaves") which have supply reels of raw (blank) tape and empty reels on the take up side. As the raw tape passes the record heads on the slave, it is recorded with the program of the dubmaster and taken up on the empty reel. Each time the dubmaster has passed by the playback heads on the reader once, a copy is recorded on each slave in the system and the cycle is stopped for reloading, i.e., the dubmaster is rewound to the starting position and the finished copies on reels are removed from each slave and replaced by an empty reel which is threaded with the end of tape from the supply reel. The cycle is then repeated.

A typical program takes about 1 minute to record. However, the reload portion of the cycle also takes as much as 1 minute, thus it is obvious that generally, only 50 percent of ideal output is realized using this technique.

Earlier the inventors of this process had developed a method to obtain a significantly increased output of the duplicating equipment. This was done by developing a reader which enabled the dubmaster to be spliced into an endless loop. Instead of storing the dubmaster on a supply reel which was fed past the playback heads to a take up reel and then rewound, the master was stored in a basket in a serpentine wind. The tail end of the dubmaster was spliced to the head end such that when the end of the tape was reached, the beginning would follow through and continue the process for the next copies without stopping to rewind.

Since the reader was cycling the dubmaster continuously, the slaves were also run continuously. This was done by using a take up reel which was large enough to accept all of the tape on the supply reel. The process was stopped only when all of the tape on the supply reel was consumed. The recorded or finished reel comprised several copies of the dubmasters program or album all in series with one another and separated by a short blank passage or a special frequency tone which was also in the dubmaster. This large reel was then separated into individual copies in a subsequent operation. The result was a maximum use of the duplicating equipment, which controlled the plant capacity by adding less expensive equipment to separate the large reels into individual programs or albums.

, The present invention when used with the continuous loop dubmaster system will eliminate the need to separate the large reels in an operation subsequent to duplicating since the separating technique can take place as the tape is taken up in the recording operation.

A supply reel 1 contains the audio tape 2 to be sequentially wound on multiple reels. The tape may be prerecorded from the dubmaster or may pass through a recording head 3 to be recorded as it leaves the supply reel. The tape is driven by a driving roller 4 to the automatic winding apparatus 10.

The automatic winding apparatus 10 as illustrated in the drawings consists of the following principal parts which are carried on a base frame 16. A pretensioned pivoted control arm 12 with guide members 11 is secured to the frame. Rotation of the arm in the direction of travel of the tape is limited by stop member 5 which carries detents 6 which also act as guides for the tape. Rotation of the arm shaft 15 operates a control device 13 which regulates the voltage of a constant torque variable speed motor 14. The control device may consist of a potentiometer which controls the voltage of the motor in the usual manner. The shaft 15 is connected to the wiper arm of a potentiometer. Variations in the tension of the tape as it passes through guide members 11 and detents 6 causes the arm and the shaft to assume certain positions which varies the voltage to the motor and controls the speed of that motor. An alternate preferred embodiment of a control device 13 comprises an electric eye and a photocell having interposed therebetween a fixed piece of polarized material and a rotatable piece of polarized material which rotates with the shaft 15 of the control arm. The position of the arm thereby regulates the amount of light reaching the photocell, the output of which controls the voltage of the motor.

An indexing carriage l7 slidably mounted in the frame is of stops 20, best shown in FIG. 3. These stops are adjustable so as to conform to the spacing of the multiple reels 21. If it is desired to use reels of a different width to accommodate tape or other material of a different width, it is only necessary to adjust the stops so that they are positioned relative to the center of the appropriate reel. The stops may be on a threaded rod or may be on a smooth rod with compressible material :between each stop. Takeup nuts on the end of the rod compress the material between the stops so that the correct spacing is achieved.

The spring holds the end of the plunger 19 against a stop 20 until such time as the solenoid is actuated and pulls the plunger momentarily inward from the stop allowing the carriage 17 to be pulled by the weight 18 until the plunger engages the next stop.

A sensing device 22 controls the actuation of the plunger. As set forth above, each program on the tape 2 is separated by a blank or contains a frequency signal. In addition, in another embodiment the signal could consist of metallic contact material painted on or afiixed to the tape 2. The tape passes around this device which comprises a can like structure fitted over a recording head which is spaced on all sides from the interior of the can. This spacing acts as a mechanical filter. The recording head also acts as a wave length filter, the filtering being completely independent of the speed of the tape. When a frequency signal is used, the filter also integrates the signal on the tape with time by using the length of the tone as well as the frequency and the amplitude of the signal. The frequency signal, which also may be a void rather than a positive signal, is sensed through a filter network to actuate the solenoid which causes plunger 19 to momentarily withdraw from engagement with a stop.

' A cable 23 extends upward from the weight over a grooved idler pulley 24 and is affixed to one end of an L-shaped linkage 25 pivoted on the carriage and spring biased in the position shown in FIG. 3. The other end of the linkage is linked to a detent 26 which extends downwardly from a pivoted arcuately sword shaped guide arm 27 having guides thereon for the tape. The guide arm 27 is spring biased in the position as shown in solid lines in FIG. 2. When the carriage 17 slides to the next stop, the inertia of the weight 18 overcomes the spring tension of the linkage 25 and causes the end of the linkage toward the weight to be pivoted in that direction which causes the other end of the linkage to move inwardly away from the guide arm. This causes detent 26 to move in the same direction thereby momentarily pivoting the guide arm down between the flanges of an empty reel to be wound to initiate winding of the empty reel. In order to cause the arcuate guide arm 27 to pivot toward the hub of a reel 21 to force the tape into proper position when the carriage 17 shifts, other techniques can be used such as a linkage connected directly to the solenoid plunger 19 or the use of a companion solenoid plunger. The guide arm 27 is of such length that its end extends in to the reels and over the hub of the reels when it is in its downward position. The purpose of the shape and length of the guide arm is to make sure that the tape is=properly wound on the hub of the reel at the beginning of the cycle and that it cannot divert back to the previously wound reel. Once the winding has started to wind on,the hub of the empty reel, there is no danger of such diversion and the guide arm 27 assumes its normal position.

The multiple reels are clamped together on a rotatable shaft I 28b) stop

collars

29 and 30. The shaft is removably supported reels can be immediately inserted. Also, the inclined slots permits sets of reels of various diameters to be accommodated. The motor shaft 32 is connected to a rotatable shaft 33 on which there is a roller 34. The roller is in contact with the edge of the reels and drives the reels. When the supply reel 1 is emptied before all the reels 2] are wound, the motor 14 will continue to run and its speed will increase. To prevent the undesirable increase in speed, a switch is electrically connected to the motor to automatically shut it off.

In operation, the tape 2 is driven at a constant velocity to the winding apparatus through the guides 11 on the control arm 12. The position on the control arm is directly related to the tension of the tape as it leaves the guides on the arm. In order to maintain the tape as wound under substantially constant tension, the change in position of the control arm 12 varies the voltage of the motor 14 through an appropriate control device 13, such as described above. When the signal at the end of a program in the tape is transmitted, via the sensing device 22, through the filter network, it pulses the solenoid which causes the plunger 19 to momentarily retract from its normal spring-biased position engaging a stop 20. When the plunger 19 is retracted, the carriage 17 is urged by the weight 18 until the plunger engages the next stop. The stops 20' are positioned to correspond to the center to center distance between each reel 21. The tape then passes through the guides on the arcuate guide arm 27 to the appropriate reel. When the carriage 17 is stopped, the inertia of the weight 18 increases the tension in the cable 23 enough to overcome the counterbias of the spring in the linkage 25. This is a temporary force lasting only during deceleration of the weight, but it is long enough and great enough to cause the arcuate arm 27 to pivot downward fully into a reel to be wound and return to its normal position.

Referring to FIG. 4, it can be seen that as the tape is directed from one reel to the next during the shifting sequence, it will wrap around the hub of the empty reel because the reel is revolving. The part of the tape which wraps over the edge of the flange and connects to the hub will be pushed to the side as subsequent layers are wound in the process.

When the process is complete, i.e., all reels are full, the shaft carrying the reels is removed by lifting out of the slotted arbor. A new shaft with empty reels is then put in its place. The full reels are separated from each other when they are removed from the shaft.

We claim:

1. A winding apparatus for flexible material comprising:

multiple rotatable reels;

driving means for rotating said reels;

means for controlling the speed of rotation of said driving means;

a base having stops thereon;

a carriage slidably mounted on said base;

means for moving said carriage;

holding means for engaging said stops;

means for actuating said holding means so as to sequentially engage each said stop; and

guide means on said carriage for guiding flexible material sequentially on each multiple reel.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, in which said multiple reels are positioned on a shaft removably supported in an arbor.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1, in which said driving means is a variable speed motor.

4. Apparatus according to claim 1, in which said stops are adjustable.

5. Apparatus according to claim 1, in which said holding means is a solenoid-actuated plunger.

6. Apparatus according to claim 1, in which said guide means is pivoted and actuated by the inertia caused by the means for moving said carriage.

7. Apparatus according to claim 1, in which said guide means is actuated by the inertia caused by the means for moving said carriage.

cally stopping said driving means.

9. A winding apparatus for flexible material comprising a plurality of coaxially aligned reels, actuating means disposed on at least one predetermined portion of said flexible material, a drive unit for simultaneously rotating said reels, indexing means for transferring said flexible material onto said reels, and means responsive to the presence of said actuating means for effecting relative translational movement between said indexing means and said reels to sequentially wind said flexible material onto each of said reels.

10. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein said'flexible material is magnetic tape, and wherein said actuating means is a frequency signal applied to at least one predetermined portion of said tape.

11. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein said drive unit com prises a variable speed motor.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 further comprising means responsive to variations in tension of said flexible material for controlling the speed of said motor.

13. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein said indexing means includes guide means adapted to guide said flexible material onto said reels during said transfer, and means responsive to said relative translational movement for activating said guide means.

14 A winding apparatus for flexible material comprising a plurality of rotating reels, indexing means for transferring said flexible material onto said reels, means to effect relative translational movement between said reels and said indexing means, said indexing means including guide means to guide said flexible material onto said reels during said transfer, and means responsive to said relative translational movements for moving said guide means towards said reels.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein said flexible material is magnetic tape, and wherein said guide means is adapted to maintain a constant predetermined orientation of said tape during said transfer.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein said means for moving said guide means comprises a weight carried by said indexing means and a linkage means connected to said guide means and responsive to the relative changes in inertia between said weight and said indexing means for moving said guide means toward said reels.

17. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein said guide means is pivoted in a direction perpendicular to the direction of movement of said indexing means.

18. The apparatus of claim 14 further comprising means responsive to variations in tension of said flexible material before it is guided onto said reels for controlling the speed of rotation of said reels to wind said flexible material onto said reels at a constant tension.

19. The apparatus of claim 9 wherein said indexing means includes guide means to guide said flexible material onto said reels during said transfer, said guide means adapted to maintain a constant predetermined orientation of said tape during said transfer.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 further comprising means responsive to variations in tension of said flexible material before it is guided onto said reels for controlling the speed of rotation of said reels to wind said flexible material onto said reels at a constant tension.

21. A winding apparatus for flexible material comprising a plurality of reels, a variable speed drive unit for simultaneously rotating said reels, indexing means for transferring said materialonto said reels, actuating means disposed on at least one predetermined portion of said flexible material, means responsive to the presence of said actuating means for effecting relative translational movement between said indexing means and said reels to sequentially wind said flexible material on each of said reels, and means responsive to variations in tension of said flexible material before it is supplied to said reels for controlling the speed of said drive unit to supply said flexible material onto said reels at a constant tension.