CA2947642C

CA2947642C - Container for receiving a balance-weight roller

Info

Publication number: CA2947642C
Application number: CA2947642A
Authority: CA
Inventors: Markus Vogler
Original assignee: Wegmann Automotive GmbH and Co KG
Current assignee: Wegmann Automotive GmbH and Co KG
Priority date: 2014-05-02
Filing date: 2015-04-24
Publication date: 2017-07-04
Anticipated expiration: 2035-04-24
Also published as: ES2597242T3; KR20160143870A; CN106414273A; US20170050813A1; CA2947642A1; RU2016147205A; BR112016025032A2; PL2939951T3; EP2939951B1; EP2939951A1; JP2017517446A; WO2015165828A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a container intended for receiving a strip that is studded with balance weights (4) and forms a belt (8) and intended for dispensing the same to a transporting and cutting-to-length mechanism. The container is formed as a casing (2) that is closed substantially on all sides and has two spaced-apart side walls, which receive the belt roller (6) between them, and also a peripheral wall (14), which connects the side walls to one another and has a dispensing opening (16) for the belt (8) to pass through. On the inner side of at least one of the side walls (10, 12) there is formed at least one restrainer (32, 34) that lies against the belt or the belt roller and spreads at an angle to prevent a return movement of the belt or the belt roller.

Description

CONTAINER FOR RECEIVING A BALANCE-WEIGHT ROLLER
Technical field The invention relates to a container for receiving a wound tape - hereinafter referred to as belt - being fitted with balancing weights and for dispensing the same to a transport and cutting-off mechanism, wherein the container is formed as substantially all-side closed cartridge with two spaced-apart sidewalls receiving the belt roll between them, as well as a circumferential wall connecting said sidewalls to each other and being provided with a dispensing opening for the passage of the belt.
Prior art Containers of the above described type serve on the one hand as transport container, but on the other hand also form, particularly for example in automatic balancing systems for large-scale manufacturing of automobiles, a magazine for holding and dispensing the bal-ancing weight belts to a transport and cutting-off mechanism, in which mechanism a belt portion being provided for balancing a wheel and being fitted with the required number of balancing weights is pulled out and cut-off for further processing. It has been found that, in particular with upright standing cartridges with a dispensing opening arranged in the upper region of said cartridge, when the belt end being outside of the cartridge is not held, the tape roll tends to rotate back against the advance rotational direction taking place when pulling-out a tape section, and draw back the free belt end into the cartridge, where it is generally not possible to bring the belt end to the surface again without open-ing the cartridge, i.e. possibly destroy it.

2 From EP 1 477 703 A2 and US 3 960 409, containers of the above-mentioned type with upright-standing cartridges are known in which, however, the dispensing opening is formed in the lower region of the cartridge, respectively, such that the above-described adverse effect does not occur. However, these containers have the disadvantage that the belt roll with its not inconsiderable weight presses on the free belt end guided to the dis-pense opening and presses said belt end against the lower circumferential wall, such that, especially in case of a still full tape roll, a considerable resistance against the conveying movement of the belt arises.
In DE 201 04 923 U1, a container of the above-mentioned type with a dispense opening in the upper region of the upright-standing cartridge is shown. Here, the belt end remains permanently clamped and held between two feed rollers during operation, i.e.
also after cutting-off, such that it cannot be pulled into the cartridge even in case of an eventual reverse rotation of the belt roll, at least during this phase of operation.
US 7,981,227 B1 discloses a cardboard for adhesive tapes. It has two gripping lugs which may be punched out.
Summary of the invention It is the object of the present invention to improve a cartridge of the above-mentioned type such that, regardless of its position and location in space, a sliding-back of the free belt end is reliably prevented in a simple manner, i.e. also without the belt end being held in a feed mechanism or the like.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a container with a rolled tape forming a belt and being fitted with balancing weights, the container being provided for dispensing the tape, wherein the container is formed as a substantially all-side closed cartridge with two spaced sidewalls receiving the belt roll between them, as well as with a circumferential wall connecting the sidewalls to one another and being 2a provided with a dispensing opening for the passage of the belt, characterized in that at least one brake tab is provided at the inner side of at least one of the sidewalls of the car-tridge, the brake tab being adjacent to the belt or the belt roll, respectively, and spread-ing diagonally against a rearward movement of the belt or rearward rotation of the belt roll.
In a preferred embodiment, a cartridge serves for receiving a tape being fitted with bal-ance weights - hereinafter referred to as belt. The tape is preferably wound up to a belt

3 roll, and may be fed to a (not illustrated) transport and cutting-off mechanism, or for manual sampling, in which a belt portion required for balancing a wheel is cut off and attached to the wheel. The balance weights preferably have an adhesive tape on the rear side, and more preferably a protective film on the outside of the adhesive tape. The car-tridge preferably comprises two spaced sidewalls receiving the belt roll between them.
Furthermore, a circumferential wall connecting the sidewalls to one another is provided which preferably consists of a plurality of circumferential wall portions, due to the prefer-ably cuboidal configuration of the cartridge.
Preferably at least one brake tab is provided at the inner side of at least one of the side-walls of the cartridge, said brake tab being adjacent to the belt or the belt roll, respective-ly, and spreading slanted against a rearward movement of the belt or rearward rotation of the belt roll.
Each of the brake tabs acts in a braking manner on the belt roll or the free belt end, re-spectively, independent of the weight distribution of the belt roll in the cartridge or of the location of the cartridge in space, respectively, in particular independent of whether the belt end is held by a downstream device, such that a retraction or falling back of this belt end into the cartridge is effectively avoided.
According to a preferred embodiment it is provided that two brake tabs are arranged at one of the sidewalls of the cartridge, said brake tabs lying substantially diametrally oppo-site to each other with relation to the axis of the belt roll and radially aligned to one an-other and being adjacent to a lateral side of the belt roll. In this way, substantially the entire diameter of the lateral side of the belt roll is used for braking the same. As shown in an exemplary embodiment, also the free belt end being partially unwound of the belt roll and being guided to the dispense opening may be held.

4 The cartridge is preferably made of a cardboard material, wherein the respective brake tab is formed by punching and folding out of the plane of the respective sidewall. Card-board material is easy to process, inexpensive and lightweight, such that it does not sig-nificantly contribute to the total weight of the belt roll and the associated container.
It is particularly preferred, if the cartridge is formed from a single cardboard blank com-prising a substantially rectangular base plane forming a first one of the sidewalls, surface segments adjacent to the outer edges of the base plane and forming the circumferential wall, and surface elements being adjacent to the outer edges of these surface segments and forming the second sidewall. The cartridge is then formed by folding and gluing the surface segments and surface elements in the known manner, as is shown in detail by way of the exemplary embodiment.
In order to keep the belt roll in the cartridge substantially central, it is further preferably provided that a circular cylinder, preferably a cardboard cylinder, having a thickness (height) substantially corresponding to the width of the belt is arranged centrally on the inside of the base plane, said cylinder serving as a hub for the belt roll.
This hub causes the belt roll to remain centered in the cartridge even with decreasing diameter of the belt roll, and not to rest on the lower circumferential wall, where it would cause significant friction increasing the extraction force of the belt.
According to a further embodiment it is provided that the base plane is slanted in the region of one of its corners, and that the dispensing opening for passage of the belt is formed in the associated surface segment for the circumferential wall. In this way, the belt can be moved substantially horizontally out of the cartridge without abutting on the circumferential wall, as shown in the embodiment.
A particularly advantageous embodiment of the cardboard blank provides that at each of the outer edges of two mutually opposing first surface segments for the circumferential wall, a surface element adjoins which complements with the respective other surface element to the second side wall, and that a brake tab is formed at each of these surface elements. A further surface element adjoins to one of the surface segments being in a right angle position to these first two surface segments, which further surface element covers the both first surface elements forming the second sidewall, and thus closes the openings generated when punching and folding out the brake tabs.
Brief Description of the drawings The invention is described below, without restricting the general inventive concept, by way of exemplary embodiments with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a finished cartridge fitted with a belt carrying balancing weights;
Fig. 2 shows a cardboard blank for the manufacturing of a cartridge; and Fig. 3A - 3F show folding instructions for the production of a cartridge from a cardboard blank.
Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiments The cartridge 2 as shown in Fig. 1 serves for receiving a tape fitted with balancing weights 4 - hereinafter referred to as belt 8 - which is wound up to a belt roll 6 and preferably is fed to a transport and cutting-off mechanism (not shown), or for manual sampling, in which a belt portion required for balancing a wheel is cut off and attached to the wheel.
The cartridge 2 has two spaced sidewalls 10 and 12 receiving the belt roll 6 there-between, of which only the sidewall 10 facing to the viewer can be seen in Fig. 1, as well as a circumferential wall interconnecting the sidewalls 10, 12, which as a whole is referred to with 14, and which consists of a plurality of circumferential wall portions 14a to 14e, due to the approximately cuboidal configuration of the cartridge 2.

As can be seen Fig. 1, one of the corners of the cartridge 2 is cut obliquely, wherein in the circumferential wall segment 14b forming this obliquely cut corner, a dispensing opening 16 is formed through which the belt 8 exits.
The belt roll 6 is centrally and rotatably supported on a hub 18 formed in the interior of the cartridge.
On the viewer-facing sidewall 10, two brake tabs 32, 34 are formed, which tabs spread slanted against the sides of the belt roll 6 opposite to a rotation direction of the belt roll 6 (the rotation direction being indicated with arrow 44), thus avoiding such rotation or slid-ing back of the belt 8 into the cartridge. The brake tab 32 may reach that far radially out-wards that even with a full belt roll the outermost winding, i.e. the already lifted belt end is held. Optionally, sliding back of the belt end is further reduced by the circumferential wall segment 14b being inclined downwards from the dispensing opening 16, since the weights adjoining the circumferential wall segment 14b preferably pull down here.
Fig. 2 shows a cardboard blank 20 with a base plane 22 forming a first one 12 of the side-walls, at the outer edges 24a to 24e of which the circumferential wall segments 14a to 14e adjoin.
A surface element 28 adjoins to the outer edge 26a of the circumferential wall segment 14a, which surface element forms the second side wall 10 together with surface element 30 being adjacent to the outer edge 26d of the circumferential wall segment 14d. A brake tab 32 or 34, respectively, is punched in each of the surface elements 28 and 30, such that these tabs can be folded around an associated folding edge, out of the plane of the asso-ciated surface element.
A circumferential wall segment 14b adjoins to the oblique outer edge 24b of the base plane 22, in which circumferential wall segment 14b a dispensing opening 36 is punched out.

The hub 18 is arranged on the base plane 22, which hub is formed, for example, of a circu-lar cardboard cylinder with a thickness substantially corresponding to the width of the belt 8.
A further surface element 38 adjoins to the outer edge 26c of the circumferential wall segment 14c, whose function will be explained with reference to Fig. 3.
The surface elements 40 or 42, respectively, which adjoin at the outer edge 26b of the circumferential wall segment 14b on the one hand and at the outer edge 26e of the cir-cumferential wall segment 14e on the other hand, are pure adhesive edges, as will also be explained with reference to Fig. 3.
Figs. 3A to 3F show an instruction how to fold a cardboard blank 20 according to Fig. 2 to a cartridge 2 according to Fig. 1, to glue it and to fit it with a belt roll 6.
In the first step (Fig. 3A) a belt roll 6 is mounted on the hub 18, the oblique circumferen-tial wall segment 14b is folded up and the belt end withdrawn from the belt roll 6 is threaded through the dispensing opening 36. The surface element 40 serving as the adhe-sive edge is folded such that it lies parallel to the plane of base plane 22.
In the next steps, the brake tabs 32, 34 formed in the surface elements 28, 30 are folded inwardly, such that they spread against a rearward rotation of the belt roll (according to arrow 44) after folding inwards the surface elements 28, 30; the surface elements 28, 30 are folded inwards such that the brake tabs rest on the belt roll 6 (Fig. 3B
to 3D).
In a further step, the covering strips arranged on the surface elements 38, 40 and 42 are peeled off, so that the subjacent adhesive layers are revealed, and thereafter the surface element 42 and the surface element 38 are successively folded onto the surface elements 28, 30 forming the second side wall, and are glued together. The cartridge 2 is now ready for use in a transport and cutting-off mechanism, wherein the belt roll 6 is prevented from rearward rotation and the belt end protruding from the dispense opening is pre-vented from sliding back into the cartridge by the brake tabs 32, 34. In order to addition-ally secure the belt end for a longer transport, it may be, for example, releasably glued to the circumferential wall segment 14c.

List of Reference Numbers 2 cartridge 4 balancing weights 6 belt roll 8 belt first sidewall 12 second sidewall 14 circumferential wall 14a-14e circumferential wall segments 16 dispense opening 18 hub cardboard blank 22 base plane 24a-24e outer edges 26a-26e outer edges 28 surface element surface element 32 brake tab 34 brake tab 36 dispensing opening 38 surface element surface element 42 surface element 44 arrow

Claims

10

1. A container (2) with a rolled tape forming a belt (8) and being fitted with balancing weights (4), the container being provided for dispensing said tape, wherein the container (2) is formed as a substantially all-side closed cartridge (2) with two spaced sidewalls (10, 12) receiving the belt roll (6) between them, as well as with a circumferential wall (14) connecting said sidewalls to one another and being provided with a dispensing opening (16) for the passage of the belt (8), characterized in that at least one brake tab (32, 34) is provided at the inner side of at least one of the sidewalls (10, 12) of the cartridge (2), said brake tab being adjacent to the belt (8) or the belt roll (6), respectively, and spreading diagonally against a rearward movement of the belt or rearward rotation of the belt roll.

2. The container according to claim 1, characterized in that two brake tabs (32, 34) are arranged at one of the sidewalls of the cartridge (2), said brake tabs (32, 34) lying substantially diametrally opposite and radially aligned to one another relative to the axis of the belt roll (6) and being adjacent to the lateral side of the belt roll (6).

3. The container according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the cartridge (2) is made of a cardboard material, and that the respective brake tab (32, 34) is formed by punching and folding out of the plane of the respective side wall.

4. The container according to claim 3, characterized in that the cartridge (2) is formed of a single cardboard blank (20), comprising a first (10) substantially rectangular base plane (22) forming the side walls, circumferential wall segments (14a to 14e) adjacent to the respective outer edges (24a to 24e) of the base plane and forming the circumferential wall, and surface elements (28, 30, 38) being adjacent to the outer edges (26a to 26e) of said circumferential wall segments and forming the second side wall (12).

5. The container according to claim 4, characterized in that a circular cardboard cylinder is arranged centrally on the inner side of the base plane (22), said cardboard cylinder serving as a hub (18) for the belt roll (6) and having a thickness (height) substantially corresponding to the width of the belt (8).

6. The container according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that the base plane (22) is beveled in the region of its corners, and that the dispense opening (36) for the passage of the belt (8) is formed in the associated circumferential wall segment (14b).

7. The container according to any one of claims 4 to 6, characterized in that a surface element (28, 30) is adjacent to each of the outer edges of two mutually opposing first circumferential wall segments (14a, 14d), which surface element complements with the respective other surface element (30, 28) to the second side wall (12), and that a brake tab (32, 34) is formed at each of these surface elements (28, 30).

8. The container according to claim 7, characterized in that a surface element (38) abuts to a circumferential wall segment (14c) being orthogonally to one of the two first circumferential wall segments (14a, 14d), which surface element (38) covers the both surface elements (28, 30) forming the second side wall.

9. The container according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that a circumferential wall segment (14b) is inclined downwardly from a dispensing opening (16) in order to further reduce a sliding-back of the belt (8).