EP0090504A1

EP0090504A1 - Spooling machines

Info

Publication number: EP0090504A1
Application number: EP83301105A
Authority: EP
Inventors: David Parr
Original assignee: David Parr and Associates Ltd
Current assignee: David Parr and Associates Ltd
Priority date: 1982-03-04
Filing date: 1983-03-02
Publication date: 1983-10-05

Abstract

⁰ A spooling machine for spooling elongate material supplied thereto at a constant speed, the machine including a motor driven spool carrier (10) and a laying guide mechanism (15-22), and means for automatically controlling the speed of the laying guide mechanism to maintain such speed in constant proportion to the spool speed, the automatic controlling means including a manual control device (26) for manually steplessly adjusting the constant of proportionality. Separate motors (12, 18) drive the spool carrier and the laying guide mechanism, and control of the laying guide mechanism motor (18) is effected utilizing a speed transducer (25) producing an output signal proportional to the spool carrier speed, and a servo-control (24) for the laying guide mechanism motor (18) which controls the speed of the motor (18) in proportion to said output signal.

Description

This invention relates to spooling machines for winding elongate material such as metal wire or tape on to a spool.
In known spooling machines a spool carrier which carries the spool is driven by an electric motor which maintains tension in the elongate material. A laying guide mechanism is provided which guides the elongate material on to the spool, the guide being reciprocable in a direction generally parallel to the rotary axis of the spool carrier.
In the prior art the laying guide mechanism is driven by a motor which is controlled quite separately from the spool carrier motor and an operator sets the speed of the laying guide motor to ensure a proper lay of elongate material, and must adjust this speed as spooling proceeds since, where the linear feed speed of the elongate material is fixed, the rotary speed of the take-up spool will fall as the diameter of the mass of elongate material thereon increases. A skilled operator is thus required to ensure good even laying of the elongate material.
It has already been proposed to utilize a probe engaging the mass of material on the spool to detect changes in the mass diameter and automatically adjust the laying guide mechanism speed. This arrangement, however, can result in the probe forming a groove in the growing mass of material on the spool, thereby upsetting the lay of existing layers on the spool, especially when the material is of a light or flimsy nature. Moreover it does not control the laying guide mechanism speed in accordance with the speed of the spool carrier but only varies the mechanism speed in accordance with mass diameter on the spool.
It is also known to use the same electric motor to drive the spool and the laying guide mechanism, the latter being driven through the intermediary of a variable speed ratio mechanical drive. In this case, however, the disadvantage arises that the extra load caused each time the laying guide mechanism is reversed causes the speed of the spool or the tension in the elongate material to fall briefly.
It is an object of the invention to provide a spooling machine with an automatic laying guide mechanism speed control which avoids the above-mentioned disadvantage.
In accordance with the invention there is provided a spooling machine for spooling elongate material supplied thereto at a constant speed, the machine including a motor driven spool carrier, a laying guide mechanism, and means for automatically controlling the speed of the laying guide mechanism to maintain such speed in constant proportion to the spool speed, said automatic controlling means including a manual control device for manually steplessly adjusting the constant of proportionality.
It is preferred to use separate motors for driving the spool carrier and the laying guide mechanism. In this case control of the laying guide mechanism motor may be effected utilizing a speed transducer producing an output signal proportional to the spool carrier speed, and a servo-control for the laying guide mechanism motor which controls the speed of that motor in proportion to the output signal. The manual control device may be a simple potentiometer at the input of the servo-control.
An example of the invention is shown diagrammatically in the accompanying drawing.
As shown in the drawing, a spool carrier 10, on which a take-up spool 11 is mounted is driven by an electric torque motor 12 which is controlled to provide substantially constant torque whereby constant tension is maintained in the elongate material 13 being wound on to the spool 11. The material 13 is supplied from a source 14 which may be a machine treating the material in some way, or simply, where re-spooling of material is taking place, a spool and a constant (but adjustable) speed drive capstain taking material from the spool at a constant speed.
A laying guide mechanism is provided which includes a guide device 15 on the nut 16 of a leadscrew 17 extending in a direction parallel to the spool carrier axis. The leadscrew is driven by an electric motor 18 via reversing gears 19 and a pair of clutches 20, 21 which are selectively engaged under the control of a pair of opto- electric detector devcies 22a, 22b which are adjustably mounted on the machine frame and a shutter element 22c on the nut 16 which coacts with the devices 22a, 22b to define the ends of the travel of the nut 16. In known manner the motor 18 is driven continuously in one direction and one clutch 20 or 21 is engaged until the detector 22 detects one spool flange whereupon that clutch is disengaged and the other engaged until the other spool flange is detected.
Control of the motor 18 is effected by a servo-amplifier 24 which receives a demand signal from a speed transducer 25 sensitive to the speed of the spool carrier via a manually operable potentiometer 26. In the arrangement shown a transducer 27 is provided on the motor 18 to provide a speed dependent feedback signal to the amplifier 24. It will be appreciated, however, that the amplifier 24 may be arranged to operate open-loop, i.e. without a speed signal feedback from the transducer 27 of motor 18.
It will be seen that, in use, the speed of motor 18 will be maintained in constant proportion to the speed of motor 12, the constant of proportionality being steplessly variable by means of a potentiometer 26, to set the spacing (pitch) of the lay of material wound on the spool.
In a modification the laying guide mechanism described above is replaced by a mechanism wherein the drive motor is reversible and drives an endless toothed belt through either a belt or gear reduction mechanism. The guide device 15 is clamped to one run of the toothed belt and opto-electric detector devices provide signals which cause reversal of the drive motor when the spool flange positions are detected by coaction of the shutter with the opto-devices. In practice of course the flanges themselves are not detected, the shutter and the opto-devices being set to simulate the flange positions.
As with the prvious example, it is desirable to incorporate the feedback from the laying guide mechanism drive motor by means of a transducer 27 in order to minimise the risk that fluctuating loads will disturb the required relationship between the speed of the spool carrier and the speed of the laying guide mechanism. Thus in both examples the speed of the spool is used to control the speed of the laying guide mechanism and transient load fluctuations are accommodated.

Claims

1. A spooling machine for spooling elongate material supplied thereto at a constant speed, the machine including a motor driven spool carrier (10) and a laying guide mechanism (15-22), and characterized by the provision of means for automatically controlling the speed of the laying guide mechanism to maintain such speed in constant proportion to the spool speed, said automatic controlling means including a manual control device for manually steplessly adjusting the constant of proportionality.

2. A machine as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that separate motors (12,18) are utilized to drive the spool carrier (10) and the laying guide mechanism (15-22).

3. A machine as claimed in claim 2, characterized in that control of the laying guide mechanism motor (18) is effected utilizing a speed transducer (25) producing an output signal proportional to the spool carrier speed, and a servo-control (24) for the laying guide mechanism motor (18) which controls the speed of the motor (18) in proportion to said output signal.

4. A machine as claimed in claim 3 characterized in that there is provided a further speed transducer (27) associated with the laying guide mechanism, said further transducer providing a laying guide mechanism speed dependent feed back signal to said servo-control (24).

5. A machine as claimed in claim 3 or claim 4, characterized in that said manual control device (26) is a simple potentiometer at the input of said servo-control (24).