GB2295877A

GB2295877A - A drive assembly for a potters wheel

Info

Publication number: GB2295877A
Application number: GB9424617A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Leslie Dilks
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1994-12-07
Filing date: 1994-12-07
Publication date: 1996-06-12
Anticipated expiration: 2014-12-07
Also published as: GB2295877B; GB9424617D0

Abstract

A drive assembly for a potters wheel 10 comprises a locating plate 18 having an integral toothed driven pulley 38 which is supported, via thrust bearing 22, on a pedestal 40. Pedestal 40 locates a turntable 12 of the wheel 10 above a holding member 48. A support member 64, which encloses an electric motor 56 (eg a flat motor), is fixed to holding member 48 and to base 68, thereby supporting the assembly. Attached to the motor 56 is a toothed drive pulley 26 which is connected to a toothed driven pulley 28 by an endless belt 30. Pulley 28 has an integral toothed drive pulley 34 which is connected, via belt 36, to driven pulley 38. Each pair of pulleys (ie 26, 34 and 28, 38) are identical in diameter and form. The pulleys 26, 28, 34 and 38 may be flat or V belt pulleys or intermeshing or friction gears. A wear plate (72, fig 3) made of phosphor bronze or plastics may be provided between the bearing 22 and pedestal 40. The speed of turntable 12 may be varied by altering the speed of the motor 56. <IMAGE>

Description

Improvements in or releting Gear Assemblies This invention relates to gear assemblies. More particularly, the present invention relates to gear assemblies for driving turntables, specificelly, but not exclusively, for potters wheels, Electrically operated potters wheels in general use today have changed little in design over the past one hundred years. Although various attempts have been made to improve and modernise the design, few, if any, have been commercially successful.

The typical potters wheel is still a heavy cumbersome floor mounted space consuming machine, which because of old fashioned design is extremely expensive.

Pottery making is becoming an increasingly popular leisure activity and there is a growing need for a low cost, portable space saving wheel from amateur and professional potters and educational establishments.

In eastern countries where the craft of pottery making goes back thousands of years, the rapid spread of electrical power is causing a growing demand for low cost portable electrically operated labour saving wheels.

The present invention fulfils all the functions that modern societies demand, low cost, portsbility, and space saving.

This invention takes advantage of modern technology by incorporating the latest small but powerful flat "pancake" electric motor, together with an extremely neat and compact flexible toothed belt drive system.

A separate motor control unit enables the wheel head to rotate at any desired speed and remain constant irrespective of load.

Simplicity of design reduces the manufacturing cost considerably compared to conventional wheels, and because of the low cost, compactness and portability it will have instant appeal to both amateur and professional potters.

It is therefore en object of the invention to obviate and/or mitigate the disadvantages of the prior art.

According to one aspect of the invention there is provided 8 gear assembly for driving a driven member the gear assembly comprising 8 plurality of gears adapted to be connected to 8 drive means for driving said driven member.

According to another aspect of this invention there is provided a potters wheel comprising a driven member in the form of a turntable, a plurality of gears and a drive means adapted to be connected to the gear assembly to drive said driven member.

The driven member may define a substantially circular recess in which the plurality of gears can be arranged.

The word gear as used herein means any rotatable member capable of transmitting motion to a further rotatsble member.

Preferably the gear assembly includes a first gear adapted to be fixedly connected to the drive means, preferably by being mounted on a spindle of the drive means. Desirably the first gear is adapted to be arranged centrally of said recess.

The first drive gear may be connected to and drives 8 second gear.

Preferably the second gear incorporates a third gear on its same axis. The third gear may be mounted directly above and forms a secure and integral part of the second gear.

The third gear may be connected to and drive a fourth gear which is mounted on a pedestal directly above and on the same axis as the first gear.

The driven member may have on its inner surface a downwardly protruding spigot to which the fourth gear forms a fixed and integral part.

A bearing preferably a thrust bearing may be securely fixed into the centre of the said spigot and then may be securely locked onto 8 central position on the upstanding pedestal thus allowing the driven member to rotate freely when driven. The upstanding pedestal may form a bridge over the first gear absorbing all the working load thus protecting and prolonging the life of the motor bearing.

The drive between the gear may be arranged in friction engagement or in meshing engagement.

Preferably, the gears are in the form of pulleys wherein the drive between both sets of pulleys is by flexible endless belts extending around each drive and driven pulley.

The said flexible belts will preferably have gear tooth profiles on their inner surface meshing with identical gear tooth profiles on the driving and driven gears.

A holding member which may be in the form of a flat plate, holds the drive assembly, together with the driven member in position.

The driven member, said drive assembly and said drive means, may be supported on a support member which may be fixedly attsched to said holding member.

The drive means may be a motor, preferably an electric motor. Conveniently the motor is a flat motor, which has the advantage thst it keeps the overall height of the assembly as low as possible.

According to another aspect of this invention there is provided a potters wheel comprising a driven member in the form of a turntable, drive means for driving the turntable and a plurality of pulleys arranged between the drive means and the turntable whereby a driving force from the drive means is transmitted to the turntable via the pulleys.

Etnbodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Fig. 1 is a sectional side view of one embodiment; Fig.2 is a view along the lines II - II in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a sectional side view of a further embodiment Referring to Figs. 1 and 2 there is shown 8 drive assembly which in the embodiment shown is 8 potters wheel 10. The potters wheel 10 comprises a turntable 12 which is of substantially circular configuration, as shown in Fig. 2, and has a depending flsnge 14 extending about the circumference thereof. The flange 14 defines a recess 16. The turntable 12 is fixedly mounted on a locating plate 18 by 8 plurality of screws 19, only one of which is shown in Fig. 1.

The plate 18 defines a recessed bore 20 into which is fixedly mounted a thrust bearing 22.

A drive assembly 24 is arranged within the recess 16. The drive assembly 24 comprises a toothed drive pulley 26 which is connected to a toothed driven pulley 28 by an endless toothed belt 30. The toothed driven pulley 28 has on its upper surface an upstanding spigot 32 which forms a toothed drive pulley 34, identical in diameter and form to drive pulley 26. An endless toothed drive belt pulley 36 identical to the toothed belt drive 30, connects the toothed drive pulley 34 to a toothed driven pulley 38 identical in diameter and form to the toothed driven pulley 28. The toothed driven pulley 38 forms an integral part of locating plate 18 thus providing the drive to the turntable 12.

The turntable 12 together with the locating plate 18 are centrally supported upon a pedestal 40 which has an upstanding portion 42, adapted to be fitted into the bore of thrust bearing 22. As can be seen in Fig. 1 the thrust bearing 22 is fixedly attached to the pedestal 40 by the clamping plate 44 and screw 46.

The pedestal 40 locates centrally over the toothed drive pulley 26 and is fixedly attached to a holding member 48 by a plurality of screws 50 only one of which is shown. A spindle 52 sbout which the toothed pulleys 29 and 34 freely revolve is also fixedly attached to the holding member 48 by means of 8 nut 54.

A motor 56 is arranged below the toothed drive pulley 26 and has a spindle 58 to which the toothed drive pulley 26 is fixedly connected via a screw 60. In the embodiment shown, the motor 56 is an electric motor.

A suitable such motor is a flat motor. For example, 'spacesaver' motors sold by Panasonic can be used in this invention.

The holding member 48 is located centrally on and above the electric motor 56 which is fixedly attached to the holding member 48 by 8 plurality of bolts end nuts 62. only one of which is shown. A support member 64 fully supports the whole assembly and fully encloses the electric motor 56. The holding member 48 is fixedly attached to the support member 64 by e plurality of bolts and nuts 66 only one of which is shown. The support member 64 is, in turn attached to 8 base 68 by 8 plurality of bolts and nuts 70 only one of which is shown.

A second embodiment is shown in Fig. 3 in which the same features as those shown in Figs. 1 and 2 are given the same reference numbers. In this second embodiment a circular disc wear plate 72 sits on the pedestal 40 and locates on the upstanding portion 42, the thrust bearing 22 in turn sits on the circular disc wear plate 72.

The circular disc wear plate 72 and the thrust bearing 22 are then fixedly attached to the pedestal 40 by the clamping plate 44 and screw 46.

The circular disc wear plate 72 stabilizes the locating plate 18 and therefore the turntable 12 and absorbs most of the working load, thus protecting and prolonging the life of the thrust bearing 22.

The circular disc wear plate 72 is made of a hard wearing frictionless material such as phosphor bronze, or preferably, a low cost proprietary plastic bearing material which can be easily replaced when worn.

Various modifications may be mede to the invention with departing from the scope thereof. For example the endless toothed belts 30,36 could be replaced by endless flat or round belts running on flet or gtooved pulleys.

In another embodiment the endless toothed belts 30,36 and toothed pulleys 26,28,34,38 could be replaced by meshing gears, or plain friction drives.

A further embodiment could be replacing the drive assembly unit completely with an electric motor incorporating an integral reduction gear drive unit, thus the locating plate 18 could be fixedly attached to the motor spindle 58.

The speed of the turntable 12 cen be varied by varying the speed of the electric motor.

Claims

Clsims:

1. A gear assembly for driving a driven member the gear assembly comprising a plurality of gears adapted to be connected to a drive means for driving said driven member.

2. A gear assembly according to Claim 1, wherein the first gear is adapted to be fixedly connected to the drive means, the first gear or pulley being arranged centrally of said driven member.

3. A gear assembly according to Claim 2, wherein a second gear is connected to the first gear by an endless belt extending around said first gear and said second gear.

4. A gear assembly according to Claims 2 or 3, wherein there is provided third and fourth gears fixed above and on the same centres as the second and first gears respectively.

5. A gear assembly according to Claims 2, 3 or 4, wherein the gears are provided with circumferential gear tooth profiles and are connected and driven by endless belts having substantially identical toothed profiles on their inner surface.

6. A gear assembly according to Claims 2, 3 or 4, wherein the gears are provided with circumferential grooves and are connected and driven by endless round belts.

7. A gear assembly according to Claims 2, 3 or 4, wherein the gears have smooth circumferential surfaces and are connected and driven by endless flat belts.

8. A gear or pulley assembly according to Claims 2, 3 or 4, wherein the gears are arranged in friction engagement or in meshing engagement.

9. A gear assembly according to Claim 4, wherein the fourth gear is adapted to be fixedly connected to the driven member.

10. A gear assembly according to Claim 9, wherein a bearing is adapted to be fixedly connected to the driven member.

11. A gear assembly according to Claim 10, wherein the said bearing comprises a thrust bearing.

12. A gear assembly according to Claim 9 or 10, wherein the said bearing located on and is fixedly connected to a centrally located upstanding pedestal thus allowing the driven member to freely rotate when driven.

13. A gear assembly according to Claim 12, wherein the said centrally located pedestal forms a bridge over the motor spindle and drive gear or pulley and is fixedly connected to a holding member.

14. A gear assembly according to any preceeding claim wherein the drive means is a motor.

15. A gear assembly according to Claim 14, wherein the motor is a flat motor.

16. A drive assembly comprising 8 driven member defining 8 substantialy circular recess, and a gear assembly as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 15.

17. A potters wheel comprising a driven member in the form of a turntable defining a substantially circular recess, and 8 gear assembly as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 15.

18. A method of manufacturing 8 drive assembly as claimed in Claim 16 comprising arranging a plurality of gears between a drive means and a driven member whereby the driving force from the drive means is transmitted to the driven member by said gears.

19. A method according to Claim 18 including connecting said gear assembly to a drive means to drive said driven member.

20. A gear assembly substantially as herein described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.

21. A drive assembly substantially as herein described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.

22. A potters wheel substantially as herein described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.

23. A method substantially as herein described with reference to and as shown in the accompanying drawings.

24. Any novel subject matter or combination including novel subject matter herein disclosed, whether or not within the scope of or relating to the same invention as any of the preceding claims.