EP3067300B1

EP3067300B1 - Apparatus for spreading and guiding and centering ribbon-shaped material

Info

Publication number: EP3067300B1
Application number: EP16159548.3A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Agostino Bassi
Original assignee: Fait Group SpA
Current assignee: Fait Group SpA
Priority date: 2015-03-10
Filing date: 2016-03-10
Publication date: 2017-11-15
Anticipated expiration: 2036-03-10
Also published as: EP3067300A1

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to the technical field of accessories for industrial machines, in particular it relates to the technical field of apparatuses for managing and distributing ribbon-shaped material.

BACKGROUND ART

It is known that, during their management, ribbon-shaped materials, such as, for example, fabric, paper, films, woven materials, leather etc., are transferred from one cylinder to another by unwinding and winding so as to make it possible to process and use them.
During these steps of transferring, which implies steps of unwinding and winding on different cylinders, the ribbon-shaped material must be unwound and rewound remaining as spread and as centered on the guiding rolls as possible. This prevents the ribbon-shaped material from being subject to creasing which could damage it or hinder the next treatment and the next processing, and prevents the outer edge of said ribbon-shaped material from passing beyond the end of the roll themselves, thus compromising the correct winding and rewinding operations and causing damage to the ribbon-shaped material itself.
Systems for avoiding the aforesaid drawbacks are known in the background art. Italian patent IT1314888 describes a system for spreading ribbon-shaped materials by means of a so-called widening bar. The invention consists of a return cylinder of ribbon-shaped material which comprises a shaft and a plurality of discoid elements associated with said shaft, each of which is free to rotate about their axis, which is slightly inclined with respect to the axis of said shaft. Said discoid elements are divided into two groups, each of which extends for approximately half of the cylinder, has equal and opposite inclinations and diverge with respect to the median point of said shaft.
When the return cylinder is working, the action of said discoid elements is such to exert a traction on the ribbon-shaped material directed from the center towards the ends and such to maintain the material itself spread. Document US 3 344 493 discloses a spreading roll with tensioned elastics. Furthermore, there are spreading rolls based on a different operating principle and comprising elastic strings, which are arranged on the surface of the spreading roll and which extend from one end of said roll to the other, instead of the aforesaid discoid elements associated with a shaft with respect to which they are free to assume different orientation and to rotate.
The elastic strings are fixed to each of the ends by appropriate fastening and orientation means. Said fixing and orientation means generally comprise an adjuster device adapted to accommodate and fasten the ends of said elastic strings, said adjuster device being associated with the end of said roll and coaxial thereto when it is in neutral position. Said adjuster device is free to pivot with respect to said spreading roll, i.e. by inclining its axis with respect to the roll axis. Furthermore, said adjuster device is generally either provided or associated with a user interface comprising a display on which the degree of inclination imparted to said adjuster device is shown, together with other information, e.g. related to the resulting tension of the ribbon-shaped material which runs on the roll. Consequently, when said adjuster device is inclined by a given angle with respect to the stretching roll, some elastic strings are more elongated and other less elongated with respect to the neutral position in which said adjuster device is coaxial to said roll and all the elastic strings have substantially the same length. By effect of the different extension of the elastic strings of the roll, the webbing of ribbon-shaped material which runs on the revolving roll is subject to a crosswise traction such to "iron" the ribbon, thus eliminating any creases present.
Spreading rolls of this type are simple to use and very effective, but they display some drawbacks which limit efficiency and diffusion.
Firstly, the rolls of the prior art comprise fixing and orientation means provided with user interfaces which have a single orientation direction and thus require to install the roll with one only orientation, so that said user interface can be read by the operator. This limitation may be particularly annoying in the cases in which the apparatus for winding and unwinding the ribbon-shaped material is located in a small environment and the space available for inserting the spreading roll does not allow to install it with the required orientation in order to keep the user interface oriented correctly.
Secondly, the elastic strings of the rolls of the prior art are mutually distanced apart so as to display a given distance from one another. This distance may be detrimental because the space between two adjacent elastic strings may promote the onset of creases in the ribbon which runs on the roll, with evident mitigation of the spreading effect of the roll itself.
It is thus an object of the present invention to introduce a new spreading roll of the type comprising elastic strings and an adjuster device for said new spreading roll of the type comprising elastic strings such to solve the aforesaid problems of the prior art.
Further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent in the following detailed description provided by way of non-limitative example and illustrated in the accompanying figures, in which:

figure 1 shows the roll according to the present invention;
figure 2 shows a section of the cylinder of the roll according to the present invention;
figure 3 shows an exploded view of the adjuster device of the roll according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

With reference to the accompanying figures, the present invention comprises a spreading roll 10 for ribbon-shaped materials, said spreading roll comprising in turn:

a cylinder 11;
a supporting shaft 12, adapted to support said cylinder 11 and to allow the rotation of said cylinder 11 on its axis;
a plurality of elastic strings 13, adapted to engage said cylinder 11 so as to be free to run on the outer periphery of said cylinder 11;
fixing and orientation means of said elastic strings 13, said fixing and orientation means being associated with said cylinder 11 and with said supporting shaft 12, being adapted to keep said elastic strings 13 adjacent to one another on the surface of said cylinder 11 and to adjust the length of said elastic strings 13.

Advantageously, said elastic strings 13 comprise a body having a substantially "T"-shaped section with an extended flat part, respectively not very thick on one side, and a grooved coupling on the other side, said grooved coupling comprising an elongated body, which departs from said flat part for a given length with a first thickness and terminates with a second thickness which is greater than the first thickness.
Correspondingly, said cylinder 11 comprises, on its surface, a plurality of channels 14 shaped so as to be engaged with the grooved coupling of said elastic strings 13, and thus allow said elastic strings 13 to freely run on the surface of said cylinder 11.
With reference to the accompanying figure 3, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, said fixing and orientation means of said elastic strings 11 comprise at least one adjuster device 15 comprising, in turn:

a connection block adapted to engage the shaft of said cylinder 11 and the ends of said elastic strings 13 in integral manner, said connection block comprising:
- a ring nut 16 provided with a plurality of slots 17 for fixing the ends of said elastic strings 13;
- a sleeve 18 associated with a ball joint 19 and a sleeve 20 for connecting to said supporting shaft 12 and for adjusting the inclination of said adjuster device 15 with respect to said supporting shaft 12.
an adjustment block of the tension of said elastic strings 13, comprising in turn:
- a box 21 provided with engagement means with said sleeve 20, said box comprising said bevel gear pair 22, 23 and a lid 24;
- an adjustment pin 25 of said bevel gear pair 22, 23;
a fastening flange 26 adapted to block the mutual orientation between said connection block and said adjustment block, said fastening flange 26 being associated with a connecting rod 27 adapted to engage with said sleeve 18. Advantageously, said connection block and said adjustment block further comprise bearings 27, 28.

Said adjustment pin of said bevel gear pair 25 is adapted to be connected to an analog position indicator 29, e.g. of the Clayton type. Said analog position indicator 29 is fixed to said adjustment pin of said bevel gear pair 25 and provides an indication of the inclination which, by action on said bevel pair, is transmitted to said ring nut 16 so as to cause a corresponding deformation of said elastic strings 13, which ultimately results in a modulation of the tension of the ribbon-shaped material which runs on the roll.
Furthermore, said analogue position indicator 29 is advantageously provided with a knurled ring nut on the outer edge, so as to promote the management by the operator.
The adjuster device 15 of the spreading roll according to the present invention is installed on both ends of the spreading roll and allows to adapt the spreading roll to many different operative situations in which the installation environment is small and limited. Indeed, the adjuster device 15 of the spreading roll according to the present invention allows to install the user interface so that it is always oriented correctly and thus so as to facilitate the operator's work.
During installation, the roll is firstly set according to the hosting winding apparatus and according to the winding angle of the ribbon-shaped material being processed. With this regard, the fastening flange 26 is tightened and said connecting rod 27 is fixed. In this manner, by acting on said adjuster pin 25, possibly associated with an analog position indicator 29, the connection block is inclined with respect to the axis of said cylinder 11, said spreading roll thus inclining the axis of said connection block with respect to the roll axis.
By means of said adjustment pin 25 the bevel gear pair 22, 23 is operated by translating said sleeve 20, thus inclining the ring nut 16 constrained by means of said sleeve 18 and said connecting rod 27 to the fastening flange 26.
When said connection block is inclined by a given angle with respect to the stretching roll which hosts it, consequently some of said elastic strings 13 are more elongated and others are less elongated with respect to the neutral position in which said adjuster device is coaxial to said roll and all the elastic strings have substantially the same length.
So, by effect of the different extension of the elastic strings 13 of the roll, a crosswise traction is exerted on the ribbon-shaped material which runs on the roll, said crosswise traction being such to "iron" the ribbon, thus eliminating any creases present.
In order to further optimize the operation of the spreading roll according to the present invention, said plurality of channels 14 on the surface of said cylinder 11 are distanced so that the corresponding elastic strings 13 are arranged on the surface of said cylinder 11 without there being any space between the two adjacent strings. This allows to improve the spreading of the ribbon-shaped material by the roll according to the present invention because it prevents the onset of creases of the ribbon running on the roll, which creases are favored by the presence on the roll surface of gaps between adjacent elastic strings 13.

Claims

A spreading roll (10) for ribbon-shaped material, comprising:
. a cylinder (11);

. a supporting shaft (12), adapted to support said cylinder (11) and to allow the rotation of said cylinder (11) on its axis;

. a plurality of elastic strings (13), adapted to engage said cylinder (11) so as to be free to run on the outer periphery of said cylinder (11);

. fixing and orientation means of said elastic strings (13), said fixing and orientation means being associated with said cylinder (11) and to said supporting shaft (12), being adapted to maintain said elastic strings (13) adjacent to one another on the surface of said cylinder (11) and to adjust the extension of said elastic strings (13), said fixing and orientation means of said elastic strings (13) comprise at least one adjuster device (15), comprising in turn:

. a connection block, adapted to engage the shaft of said cylinder (11) and the ends of said elastic strings (13) in integral manner;

. an adjustment block of the tension of said elastic strings (13) associated with said connection block and characterised by comprising a bevel gear pair (22, 23), adapted to adjust the inclination of said connection block with respect to the axis of said supporting shaft (12);

. fastening means adapted to block the mutual orientation between said connection block and said adjustment block.
A spreading roll according to claim 1, characterized in that said connection block comprises:
. a ring nut (16) provided with means for fixing the ends of said elastic strings (13);

. a sleeve (18) associated with said ring nut (16), to a ball joint (19), and to a sleeve (20) for connecting to said supporting shaft (12).
A spreading roll according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said adjustment block of the tension of said elastic strings (13) comprises:
. a box (21) provided with engagement means with said sleeve (20), said box comprising said bevel gear pair (22, 23) and a lid (24);

. an adjustment pin (25) of said bevel gear pair (22, 23);
A spreading roll according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said fastening means adapted to block the mutual orientation between said connection block and said adjustment block comprise a fastening flange (26) associated with a connecting rod (27) adapted to engage with said sleeve (18).
A spreading roll according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises an analog position indicator (29) associated with said adjustment pin (25).
A spreading roll according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said elastic strings (13) comprise a body having a substantially T-shaped section with an extended flat part, respectively not very thick on one side, and a grooved coupling on the other side, said grooved coupling comprising an elongated body, which departs from said flat part for a given length with a first thickness and terminates with a second thickness which is greater than the first thickness.
A spreading roll according to the preceding claim, characterized in that said cylinder (11) comprises, on its surface, a plurality of channels (14) shaped so as to be engaged with the grooved coupling of said elastic strings (13), and thus allow said elastic strings (13) to freely run on the surface of said cylinder (11).
A spreading roll according to the preceding claim, characterized in that the channels (14) of said plurality of channels (14) are distanced from one another on the surface of said cylinder (11), so that the corresponding elastic strings (13) are arranged on the surface of said cylinder (11) without there being any space between the two adjacent strings.
An adjuster device (15) for spreading roll as defined in claim 1, comprising:
. a connection block adapted to engage the shaft of said cylinder (11) and the ends of said elastic strings (13) in integral manner;

. an adjustment block of the tension of said elastic strings (13) associated with said connection block and comprising a bevel gear pair (22, 23) adapted to adjust the inclination of said connection block with respect to the axis of said supporting shaft (12);

. fastening means adapted to block the mutual orientation between said connection block and said adjustment block.