DE102021120592B4 - Wire mat for wire brush production and process for producing corrugated wire semi-finished products for wire brush production - Google Patents

Abstract

Wire mat for wire brush production, comprising a plurality of corrugated metal wires, - wherein all corrugated wires have the same length and are aligned parallel to one another, - wherein the corrugated wires are arranged next to one another and one above the other in a mat and the mat has a width which corresponds to the length of the wires, - wherein the corrugated wires are evenly distributed in the mat, - wherein the corrugated wires are connected to one another transversely to their alignment and form a one-piece mat.

Description

The invention relates to a one-piece wire mat made of corrugated metal wires. The invention further relates to a method for producing corrugated wire semi-finished products, namely wire mats made of corrugated wire pieces. These wire semi-finished products are further processed into wire brushes.

Wire brushes are brushes with bristles made of fine wire that are used for paint stripping, derusting, polishing, grinding, roughening or other surface treatments. For this purpose, either corrugated, straightened or smooth brush wires are used as the trim material, with corrugated brush wire being the most popular. Depending on the desired application of the wire brush, the brush wire also differs in its thickness, strength, corrugation, length and material. Brush wires are made of a wide variety of materials, in particular stainless steel, steel, iron, brass, bronze, copper or nickel silver. The standard wire thicknesses range between 0.06 mm and 1.20 mm.

According to the current state of the art, the manufacturing process for corrugated brush wire includes the work steps described below. The manufacturing process begins with a smooth wire wound onto spools, which is manually placed on so-called pay-off stands. The individual wires are guided into a corrugation unit under tension. Depending on the tension, the wires are straightened using straightening units. In a corrugation device, the wires are corrugated as required. Corrugation devices using pins or gears are known, whereby the wires are corrugated once or twice. After the corrugation process, the wire is placed on a Scholl disc, where it is corrugated. This means that the wire is loosely wound onto the conical body of the Scholl disc from bottom to top. For further processing, the wire is manually lifted off the Scholl disc and temporarily stored on so-called wire stands. Before the corrugated wire is cut, it is cleaned, i.e. knots or twists in the wire are manually removed. The wire ring is then either cut open using a roller knife shear and manually cut to the desired length using a set stop. It is also known to pull the corrugated wire into a shrink tube, shrink it in it and then manually release the wire to length or chop it in a chipping press. Finally, the cut wire is placed in a wire bunker. After a collection of wires, i.e. when a certain bundle diameter is reached, the bundle is strapped with one or more silicone-containing rubbers and manually packed in boxes. The production process from corrugated wire to delivery to the brush maker therefore consists of numerous manual work steps, which takes up a lot of production time and personnel. The individual work steps require a great deal of manual skill, so the quality of the wire product depends on the skill of the personnel. Improvement is desirable here.

Brush wires in bundles are used as trimming material for technical brushes within machines, for example as roller, round, disc, brush, cup, cone or strip brushes. Strip brushes in particular are used in industry due to their versatile application possibilities. The trimming material, the brush wire bundles, are inserted and anchored in a U-shaped wire carrier, see EN 10 2018 105 230 A1 Due to the use of brush wire bundles for strip brush production, the brush density is not always completely homogeneous. An improvement is desired here.

For strip brushes with smooth plastic bristles, the production of mats from the documents US 5,762,404 A , US7,677,675 B2 and EN 29 02 013 A1 known. The smooth plastic bristles are collected to form a mat before being placed in a bristle carrier profile. They are then connected by weaving or the plastic bristles are fused or welded using a synthetic resin extruded onto the bristle collection. Processes for producing wire mats from corrugated wires are not known.

From the DE 2 144 822 A machine for producing corrugated brush wires is known. Either loose wire bundles or corrugated strands can be produced here, which again cause the aforementioned problems during further processing. The production of a wire mat is not described with this machine.

The DE 39 14 745 A1 describes a ring-shaped brush disk made of individual wires directed radially outwards and a machine for its manufacture. This brush disk cannot be used to manufacture wire brushes of different shapes.

The object of the present invention is to improve the manufacturing process for corrugated wire semi-finished products for wire brush production and to bring the corrugated brush wire for strip brushes into a delivery form that is easier to process.

This object is achieved with a wire mat according to claim 1. This flat wire mat has a large number of corrugated metal wires. The wires are of the same length and are aligned parallel to one another so that the wire ends each form a line. The wires are arranged in the wire mat both next to one another and one above the other, depending on the required density of the wire mat. The wires are connected to one another by one or more connecting seams perpendicular to their alignment and form a one-piece mat. The connection can be a force-fit connection, such as sewing, clamping or knotting, or it can be a material-fit connection, such as gluing or welding. In a preferred embodiment, the corrugated wires are sewn or glued, with a connecting seam extending centrally perpendicular to the alignment of the wires. Such a wire mat is inserted as a single piece into a known wire carrier during the manufacture of the strip brush and folded over by machine.

The wires in the wire mat are metal wires, for example made of stainless steel, steel, iron, brass, bronze, copper or nickel silver. Their strength is between 800 N/m² and 2600 N/m². The wires are corrugated. This can be a single corrugation or a double corrugation. The wires for the wire mat preferably have a length of 50 mm to 250 mm and a diameter of 0.06 mm to 0.8 mm.

Such a wire mat is preferably produced using the method according to the invention. This new method can be carried out in an automated system and is used to produce corrugated wire semi-finished products for wire brush production. Wire mats or bundles of corrugated wires can be produced using the new method.

• - Zuführen von blanken Draht,
• - Wellen des zugeführten blanken Drahts,
• - Schneiden des gewellten Drahts, nämlich Abtrennen von Drahtstücken vorgegebener Länge,
• - Sortieren der abgetrennten Drahtstücke,
• - Sammeln und Transportieren der sortierten Drahtstücke,
• - Konfektionieren der Drahtansammlungen zu Drahthalbfabrikaten.

The procedure includes the following steps:

• - Feeding of bare wire,
• - waves of the supplied bare wire,
• - Cutting the corrugated wire, namely cutting off pieces of wire of a predetermined length,
• - Sorting the cut wire pieces,
• - Collecting and transporting the sorted wire pieces,
• - Assembling the wire collections into semi-finished wire products.

The method according to the invention is described in detail below. One or more bare wires are fed from pay-off stands, preferably by means of an unwinding unit, to a corrugating unit for corrugation.

The corrugating unit consists of the actual corrugating module and a downstream intermediate buffer. After corrugating, the single or double corrugated wires go into an intermediate buffer in the corrugating unit. In order to avoid known problems with corrugating and quality losses due to tension fluctuations in the wire, a uniform, light tension is maintained between the unwinding unit and the intermediate buffer. To do this, the spools of the pay-off stands are provided with brakes on the one hand and the elements of the intermediate buffer are equipped with drives on the other hand so that sufficient tension can be exerted on the wire. In the simplest case, conventional spring brakes can be used for the spools of the pay-off stands. A braking effect is achieved by means of a spring that is pre-tensioned and placed on the axes of the pay-off spools. Magnetic brakes are used for finer adjustments.

If the tension between the unwinding unit and the intermediate buffer is too low, the wire will not be curled properly. If the tension is too high, the curl can be pulled out of the wire or the wire can break.

The corrugated wire is then fed into a cutting and sorting unit for cutting. The corrugated wire is cut automatically either individually or in bundles. The corrugated wire is cut to the desired length, with a constant tension preferably being maintained using a pull-off module. In particular, wire pieces of a preselected length, e.g. between 50 mm and 250 mm, are cut off. The cut wire pieces are then checked for defects and sorted and transferred to a downstream conveyor belt. During sorting, the corrugated wire pieces are aligned and placed on a conveyor belt.

Due to the depth of the corrugation in the wires, the wires can get caught when they are laid down on the conveyor belt. In order to untangle these wires and subsequently align them, the conveyor belt is provided with upwardly protruding spikes that pierce the laid down wires from below, or the wires are laid between these spikes for untanglement. As the conveyor belt moves along, these spikes become smaller and disappear completely at the end.

The deposited wire pieces are collected and transported on the conveyor belt, whereby the speed of the conveyor belt determines the density of the In addition, the deposited wires may be subjected to vibrations during transport on the conveyor belt, which increases or decreases the density of the wire accumulation depending on the speed of the conveyor belt.

After the corrugated, severed wire pieces are transferred to the conveyor belt, a wire mat is made from the wire accumulation.

According to the invention, the corrugated wire pieces on the conveyor belt are guided into a joining unit, where the deposited wire pieces of the wire collection are connected to form a wire mat and the wire mat is then wound up. The wire collection is transported in the conveying direction and preferably provided with a connecting seam in the middle. Edge-side connecting seams can also be provided for applications other than the strip brushes described above. The connection is made in particular by sewing and/or gluing or welding. When sewing, one or more seams next to each other can create the connection. When gluing, an adhesive is applied to the wire collection from below and/or above and a correspondingly wide connecting seam made of adhesive is created.

After a defined length, the wire mat is marked. For example, a sewn wire mat is provided with a backstitch or understitch. This marking shows the brush manufacturer the intended cutting point when unrolling and cutting a wire mat.

All process steps from the pay-off reel to the bundling and strapping unit or to the joining unit run automatically and at high speed. The speed is determined by the corrugation unit. Here, the speed is individually adjusted to the wires to be processed. Different wire diameters and wire materials as well as the type of corrugation, e.g. single or double corrugation, influence this process parameter.

The aforementioned process steps take place in a system at high speed, which significantly increases the production volume compared to previously known processes for producing bundles of corrugated wires. The steps take place automatically in the system, which increases quality because there are fewer subjective influencing factors. For the first time, the new process makes it possible to produce a wire mat in an automated production process. The new process can be used to process many conventional wire diameters, wires of different strengths and different materials into semi-finished wire products.

1. 1. Zuführeinheit mit Abspuleinheit und ggf. Richteinrichtung
2. 2. Welleinheit mit Wellmodul und Zwischenpuffer
3. 3. Schneid- und Sortiereinheit
4. 4. Förderband
5. 5. Konfektionierungseinheit mit einer Fügeeinheit zur Mattenherstellung

The new method is described below using an example. The method is carried out in an automated, universal system. This system comprises several modules, namely

1. 1. Feed unit with unwinding unit and, if necessary, straightening device
2. 2. Corrugation unit with corrugation module and intermediate buffer
3. 3. Cutting and sorting unit
4. 4. Conveyor belt
5. 5. Assembly unit with a joining unit for mat production

Feeding unit

One or more bare wires are fed in using a pay-off unit. For example, the individual bare wires are fed into the corrugation unit from up to six pay-off stands. Since, as already mentioned, a continuous, light tension is essential, the pay-off unit is designed with corrugations that include smooth-running hysteresis brakes in order to be able to brake the wire very precisely and controllably and to generate a constant wire tension.

In order to eliminate curvatures of the unwound wire, if necessary, the wire can, after unwinding, pass through a straightening device which has several rollers arranged on both sides of the wire before the wire is fed to the corrugating unit for corrugation.

Corrugated unit

The corrugation unit consists of the actual corrugation module and a downstream intermediate buffer. The corrugation module consists, for example, of one or more gear modules for single or double corrugation of the wire. It is also possible to pull wires around pins of a pin module for corrugation. It is possible to process wire diameters of 0.06 mm - 0.8 mm in the corrugation module. These differently dimensioned wires are also conventionally corrugated on different machines. In addition to various wire diameters, wires of different strengths and made of different materials can also be corrugated. The corrugation unit can be used in particular for strengths of 800 N/m², i.e. for wires made of soft non-ferrous metals, up to strengths of 2,600 N/m², i.e. for wires made of hard metal materials such as steel, iron, stainless steel. After corrugation, the corrugated wires go into an intermediate buffer of the Corrugation unit. The intermediate buffering is carried out via drive wheels and the wires are fed to the cutting and sorting unit without tension. With a simple corrugation of individual wires, sufficient tension constancy can be achieved by using a drive wheel as an intermediate buffer.

In a further embodiment of the present invention, a driven drive wheel is used as an intermediate buffer. Good tension consistency is then possible even with double corrugation of wires in the corrugation module. The corrugated wire is then fed via the drive wheel, for example by means of two Uhing drives, into the cutting and sorting unit for cutting.

Cutting and sorting unit

The task of the cutting module of the cutting and sorting unit is to cut the wire coming from the corrugating unit. In a preferred design, this is done in a high-speed cutting process with rotating knives. Several individual wires are cut to the desired length at the same time, e.g. up to six individual wires in up to six cutting modules. If a wire strand made up of several individual wires is obtained in the corrugating unit, it is also possible to cut such a wire strand to length in a cutting module. In the cutting module, i.e. during the cutting process, it is also important that the tension of the wire is kept constant, i.e. that it is constantly pulled and transported further. Otherwise, this would have a negative effect on the existing corrugation of the wires. A pull-off module is present in this unit for the pull during the cutting process. At high cutting speeds, the wire pieces are virtually knocked off, which can change the orientation of the severed wire pieces. The wire pieces then go to a sorting unit, where they are checked and aligned so that they can be placed in an orderly manner on a conveyor belt. Checking includes, for example, detecting wire breaks. To align the wire pieces, they are preferably placed in a shaft channel that has a wide opening at the entrance for the unsorted wire pieces and a narrow opening at the exit for the aligned wire deposit. The aligned wire pieces then go onto a conveyor belt, where they are transported to subsequent modules.

It is important to note that the speed of cutting, guiding and depositing must be based on the corrugation speed.

Conveyor belt

The wire is preferably transported on the conveyor belt using a toothed belt conveyor. The toothed belt conveyor has lateral guides in the direction of travel of the conveyor belt, which define gaps on the conveyor belt into which the wire pieces are laid down, in an orientation perpendicular to the direction of travel of the conveyor belt. As the conveyor belt progresses, the height of the guides decreases until they disappear completely. After laying down, a preferred device additionally shapes the individual laid down wire pieces using vibration, for example with lateral vibrating plates. The vibration creates a homogeneous wire accumulation without gaps on the conveyor belt. This homogeneous wire accumulation is fed either to the bundling and strapping unit or to the joining unit for mat production.

In one embodiment, the conveyor belt is designed as a belt conveyor for wire pieces of different lengths, in particular with lengths of approx. 50 mm to 250 mm. For this purpose, the belt conveyor has an adjustment device for the different lengths of the wire pieces. The conveyor belt has laterally movable limits depending on the desired length of the wire pieces. In addition, there are thin tips in the conveyor belt that reach into the deposited wire pieces from below and align them. As the conveyor belt runs, these tips sink downwards from the wire accumulation.

The density of the wire accumulation is adjusted by the speed of the conveyor belt. The slower the conveyor belt runs, the denser and thicker the wire accumulation becomes.

Joining unit

Since the corrugated wire pieces are to be further processed into a wire mat, in one embodiment of the invention a joining unit is used to produce the mat. This can be a sewing device, for example. The wire pieces in the form of the homogeneous wire collection are fed from the conveyor belt to the sewing unit and the individual wire pieces of the collection are connected to form a mat by sewing. The seam is preferably placed in the middle. The mat is then wound onto spools, e.g. plastic spools.

The sewing device enables different seam shapes to be set, for example a straight stitch with different stitch lengths or a zigzag stitch. The sewing device is electrically connected to the conveyor belt coupled and thus controlled analogously in terms of its speed and start-stop function. The sewing device is preferably arranged so that the wire accumulation passes under the sewing device without changing direction and a seam is created in the conveying direction of the conveyor belt during sewing. After a defined length of the seam, a backstitch or understitch is preferably made. This marks the separation point for cutting off the wire mat for a strip brush and prevents the seam from unraveling when cutting.

In addition, a layer of thin parchment paper can be placed on the finished sewn wire mat so that the corrugated wires do not get caught in each other when the wire mat is wound onto a spool. This also makes it easier for the brush maker to unwind the wire mat and turn it into strip brushes. On the other hand, the parchment paper can be added and sewn to the wire mat before sewing, which prevents the wire mat from pulling apart.

Claims (26)

Wire mat for wire brush production, comprising a plurality of corrugated metal wires, - all corrugated wires having the same length and aligned parallel to one another, - the corrugated wires being arranged next to one another and one above the other in a mat and the mat having a width which corresponds to the length of the wires, - the corrugated wires being evenly distributed in the mat, - the corrugated wires being connected to one another transversely to their alignment and forming a one-piece mat. Wire mat according to Claim 1 , characterized in that the corrugated wires are sewn together. Wire mat according to Claim 1 , characterized in that the corrugated wires are glued together. Wire mat according to Claim 1 , characterized in that the corrugated wires are connected to one another by a material-locking process. Wire mat according to one of the Claims 1 until 4 , characterized in that one or more connecting seams are present through the connection. Wire mat according to Claim 1 , characterized in that a connecting seam is provided which connects the wires centrally. Wire mat according to one of the Claims 1 until 6 , characterized in that the wires are single or double corrugated. Wire mat according to one of the Claims 1 until 7 , characterized in that the wires have a diameter of 0.06 mm to 0.8 mm. Wire mat according to one of the Claims 1 until 8th , characterized in that the wires have a length between 50 mm and 250 mm. Wire mat according to one of the Claims 1 until 9 , characterized in that the wires have a strength between 800 N/mm² and 2600 N/mm². Wire mat according to one of the Claims 1 until 10 , characterized in that the wires are made of stainless steel, steel, iron, brass, bronze, copper or nickel silver. Method for producing corrugated wire semi-finished products for wire brush production, comprising the following work steps: - feeding bare wire, - corrugating the supplied bare wire, - cutting the corrugated wire, namely separating wire pieces of a predetermined length, - sorting the separated wire pieces, - collecting and transporting the sorted wire pieces, - assembling the wire collections into wire semi-finished products - feeding the wire collection of corrugated and aligned wire pieces to a joining unit and creating a wire mat. Procedure according to Claim 12 characterized in that all process steps are carried out automatically in one system, whereby one bare wire or several bare wires are fed to the corrugating unit at the same time. Procedure according to Claim 12 or 13 , characterized in that the feeding of a bare wire is carried out by means of an unwinding unit to a corrugating unit, where the wire is corrugated in a corrugating module of the corrugating unit. Procedure according to Claim 14 , characterized in that the wire is in a uniform tension state between the unwinding unit equipped with a brake and an intermediate buffer of the corrugation unit located downstream of the corrugation module. Procedure according to Claim 15 , characterized in that a Scholl disc or a driven drive wheel is used as an intermediate buffer of the corrugating unit, which exerts an adjustable tension on the wire during corrugation. Procedure according to one of the Claims 12 until 16 , characterized in that the wire is single or double corrugated. Procedure according to one of the Claims 12 until 17 , characterized in that the bare wire passes through a straightening device before being inserted into the corrugated module, where the bare wire is straightened. Method according to one of the Claims 12 until 18 , characterized in that the cutting of the corrugated wire or the simultaneous cutting of the corrugated wires is carried out by means of rotating knives, whereby a constant tension is maintained by means of a pull-off module. Method according to one of the Claims 12 until 19 , characterized in that the separated corrugated wire pieces are checked for errors and sorted in a sorting unit, wherein the corrugated wire pieces are aligned during sorting. Procedure according to one of the Claims 12 until 20 , characterized in that the sorted wire pieces are deposited, collected and transported on a conveyor belt, namely aligned between lateral guides of the conveyor belt, whereby the speed of the conveyor belt determines the density of the wire accumulation. Procedure according to Claim 21 , characterized in that during transport from the conveyor belt, upwardly projecting tips engage between the deposited wire pieces and realign them. Procedure according to Claim 21 , characterized in that the wire pieces are subjected to vibrations during transport on the conveyor belt, whereby the density of the wire accumulation is distributed homogeneously. Method according to one of the Claims 12 until 23 , characterized in that the wire accumulation is provided with a connecting seam in the middle in the conveying direction, for example by sewing, gluing or welding. Procedure according to Claim 24 , characterized in that the wire mat is marked after a defined length in the conveying direction, preferably a sewn wire mat is provided with a back or understitch. Method according to one of the Claims 12 until 24 , characterized in that the wire mat is wound up, wherein preferably a protective layer covering the wire mat is also wound out.