GB1019543A - Method and apparatus for making a buffing element - Google Patents

Abstract

A method of making a buffing wheel element comprises moving an elongated strip of buffing material lengthwise, corrugating the strip while in motion to provide folds therein, and longitudinally contracting the corrugated portion of the strip. The strip may be in the form of a single, multiply or laminated web of cloth or other buffing material 12, Fig. 8 (not shown), which has a medial line 40 of stitching and is fed from a supply reel 42 to plates 44, 45 to fold the web so as to have a U-shaped cross-section. The web is advanced through a guide 46 and a wire 14, Fig. 11 (not shown), supplied from a reel 52 and straightening device 54, is positioned within the folded edge by a guide wheel 56. The guide 46 leads the web to a corrugating device 60, Fig. 12 (not shown), the wire 14 being guided by a short tube 58. The device has a pair of corrugating gears 68, 70 on shafts 90, 98 interconnected and driven by gearing 84, 86, 89, 96 from a shaft 82. The gears 68, 70 are of equal diameter, the outside diameter of the gears being tangential, and corrugate the material from a point spaced a short distance from the folded edge. The gears 68, 70 are also connected by gearing 104, 110 to retarding gears 76, 77 which act to longitudinally compress the corrugated portion of the strip, the material at the folded edge being puckered. Guide rods 72 aligned with grooves in the corrugating gears and retarding gears prevent the material being carried round by the gears. From the retarding gears, the corrugated and compressed strip is carried by chains 126, 127 past a stitching head 122 for applying stitching through the material to hold the corrugations in position. In other arrangements, the buffing material may be in the form of two multi-ply webs 130, 132, Fig. 18 (not shown), connected in spaced relation to an outer web 134, or be unfolded as illustrated in Fig. 19 (not shown), and corrugated as described above. The strip of corrugated buffing material may be cut to length and formed into a ring 26, Fig. 5 (not shown), secured to a metal disc 28 by staples 30. The strip may be formed into a roll, Fig. 7 (not shown), by being wound upon a tubular core 36 between the convolutions of a spring-like member 38 which is compressed to grip the buffing material by end flanges 150, 152 urged together by a nut 156; alternatively the material as it is fed from the corrugating device, may be stapled directly to a helical member. The folded material may be provided with inner and outer shield members 143, 144, (Fig. 21 not shown), which may be of cardboard, or an inner filler for increasing the thickness of the strip. p