GB2306173A

GB2306173A - Coating plant with pivotting contact rollers

Info

Publication number: GB2306173A
Application number: GB9621279A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Thomas Vogt; Hans Kessler; Branko Bahunek
Original assignee: Leybold AG; Balzers und Leybold Deutschland Holding AG
Current assignee: Balzers und Leybold Deutschland Holding AG
Priority date: 1995-10-11
Filing date: 1996-10-11
Publication date: 1997-04-30
Anticipated expiration: 2016-10-11
Also published as: DE19537779A1; ITMI962024A1; CN1159964A; IT1290421B1; GB9621279D0; GB2306173B

Description

COATING PLANT FOR COATING FILMS 2306173 The present invention relates to a

coating plant for coating films in which a coating roller for diverting the film to be coated into a s coating region, and a belt cover are provided, wherein the belt cover has a frame with a plurality of guide rollers for at least one endless cover belt and wherein the cover belt is held against the coating roller by at least one contact pressure roller in the coating area.

Such coating plants are generally well known and are used io for example for vapour plating films for capacitors. In this connection, the cover belts are used for keeping areas on the electrically non-conductive film free from the metal which is vapour- deposited. These cover belts are highly stressed in the coating plant because they are exposed to high temperatures and because coating material is deposited on them. For this is reason, the cover belts have to be changed relatively frequently. Changing the cover belts also becomes necessary if the strip pattern on the film is to be altered.

Changing the cover belts causes difficulties in conventional coating plants because the coating roller is usually disturbed as a result. In order to create more room between the coating roller and the cover belts when changing cover beits,,R is conventional to swivel the whole belt cover away from the coating roller. This introduces additional expense in terms of the design of the coating plant and leads to an undesirable enlargement of the coating plant in order to create the necessary space for swivelling the belt cover away from the coating roller.

The object of the present invention is to provide a coating plant of the type stated in the introduction whereby a simple exchange of the cover belts is possible without the coating plant having to be undesirably large or complex.

1 This object is achieved according to the present invention by the provision of at least one contact pressure roller on the frame which is pivotally mounted for pivotting between a position away from the coating roller and a position in which the cover belt is urged towards the coating s roller.

By means of this arrangement, in order to exchange a cover belt or belts, the belt cover as a whole may remain in its position. Only one contact pressure roller need be moved into and out of the contour of the cover belt. Thus, no additional space requirement is necessary because io the room required for this purpose is available within the frame anyway. As it is not the whole belt cover but only parts of it that have to be moved according to the present invention, by producing a sag in the cover belts in order to exchange them only slight structural complexity in the belt cover is entailed. As well as enabling a simple exchange of the cover belts, the present invention also enables a relatively large clearance to be produced below the coating roller so that the coating roller is accessible and can be cleaned.

A particularly simple embodiment of the present invention in terms of design consists of the contact pressure roller being mounted between the free ends of two swivel arms and the swivel arms being provided extending radially outwardly from, and in a rotationally fixed manner relative to a pivot shaft mounted in a pivoting manner in the frame.

The pivoting movement can be produced reliably and quickly by a servomotor fitted to the frame for swivelling the pivot shaft.

With relatively small pivot angles, a large sag can be produced in the cover belts and a large clearance achieved below the coating roller if, according to another further embodiment of the present invention, two contact pressure rollers are provided at opposite sides of the coating roller, each of which may be pivoted away from the coating roller.

Exchanging the contact pressure rollers and guide rollers is rendered particularly quick and is possible without use of a tool if the contact pressure rollers and the guide rollers are each held at their two ends by a bearing in a bearing housing in each case having upwardly open support shells.

The bearing housing is particularly simply formed if a locking part is rotationally fitted on the bearing housing around the bearing axis against the upwardly open support shell and if the combined periphery of the locking part and the support shell extends through a maximum angle of io 1800 when they are in a position in which they are swivelled against one another.

Owing to this design of the bearing housing, the locking part need only be swivelled less than 900 until R lies against the support shell for radial dismantling of the bearing. The swivelling itself may be effected is in a very simple manner, for example by means of a hand lever fitted to the locking part.

Furthermore, the fixing of the locking part in its locking position does not require any screw connections but can be achieved by means of a stop and possibly also a catch.

A contribution is made to the further simplification of the bearing housing if, according to another preferred further feature of the invention, the support shell is provided at the free end of a bush mountable in a stationary manner and K this bush rotationally bears a pivot axle, which is connected, at its end adjacent the support shell to the locking part.

Fixing the bearing housing in a beam or other machine part can be carried out particularly simply if, according to another preferred further feature of the invention, the bush has external threads for fixing in a hole in the frame on its external jacket surface on the side facing away from the support shell.

It is also advantageous if the pivot axle on the side remote from the support shell extends out of the bush and if there is provided thereon an operating part for swivelling the pivot axle. By this means there is no need to access the interior region of the locking part which is frequently difficult to access or cannot be accessed at all in order to swivel the locking part.

The operating part provided on the pivot axle could be a simple hand lever which is fixed to the pivot axle in radial alignment therewith. The locking part can also be motor-driven if, according to a io further embodiment of the invention, the operating part is a gear wheel. Such an embodiment also makes it possible to operate several locking parts at the same time by means of a single drive whilst this drive drives a chain running over several such gear wheels.

In order to mount rollers, which, essentially because of their is downwardly directed weight, have to be supported, it is advantageous if the support shell extends over a considerably greater peripheral area than the locking part. In such an application, the locking part does not normally need to absorb any forces. If the component to be mounted, however, also has to be supported in the direction of the locking part, this locking part may be made correspondingly large and, for example, may be made the same size as the support part.

Unintentional swivelling of the locking part into the unlocking position by torques produced by the bearing is prevented if, according to another preferred further feature of the invention, the unlocking direction of the locking part is opposite to the direction of rotation of the component mounted in the bearing.

The invention permits various embodiments. Two of these are shown in the drawing and are described below.

Fig. 1 is a cross-sectional side view of a coating roller and belt cover arrangement; 1 Fig. 2 is a cut-away cross-sectional view of the arrangement shown in Figure 1 taken along the line 11-11; Fig. 3 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view through a bearing housing according to the present invention showing adjoining components; Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view through the bearing housing at Figure 3 along the line IV-IV; Fig.5 is a cross-sectional view similar to Figure 4 but showing the housing in an unlocked state of the bearing housing; and Fig. 6 is a view similar to Figure 3 showing a second io embodiment of the bearing housing.

Figure 1 shows a coating roller 1, which diverts a film 2 to be coated by 180. Below the coating roller 1, a belt cover 3 is provided which has a frame 4. This frame 4 is provided with several guide rollers 5 and two contact pressure rollers 6J. The frame 4 and rollers 5, 6 and 7 support an endless cover belt 8 or several cover belts 8 around the outside of frame 4.

As can be seen in Figure 1, the guide rollers 6,7 are each mounted at the free ends of swivel arms 9,10. The swivel arms 9,10 extend radially outwardly from a pivot shaft 11,12 respectively and in each case are rotationally fixed with respect to the respective pivot shafts 11, 12.

The pivot shafts 11, 12 are rotationally mounted in the frame 4. This makes it possible to swivel the swivel arms 9,10 away from the coating roller 1 into the position shown by the dot-dash line in Figure 1, whereby the cover belt 8 is caused to sag and at the same time is moved a considerable distance from the coating roller 1.

In order to swivel the pivot shafts 11, 12, a servomotor 14 in the form of a lifting cylinder is used, which is arranged to displace a connecting rod 29, which in turn is connected to the pivot shafts 11,12 via arms 30,31.

Figure 2 shows with respect to the contact pressure roller 7 that the contact pressure roller 7 is mounted in bearing housings 13,13a on two swivel arms 10, 1 Oa. At the same time, in the left part of Figure 2, the swivel arms 10, 1 Oa are shown fixedly connected to and for rotation with the pivot shaft 12. The servomotor 14 is used for driving the pivot shaft 12 and thus for swivelling the swivel arms 10, 1 Oa. A similar arrangement (not shown) mounts the contract pressure roller 6 on swivel arms 9,9a. Two of the cover belts 8 are also shown in figure 2.

Figure 3 shows, in longitudinal section the bearing housing io 13, which is fixed into the frame 4. For this purpose, the bearing housing 13 is provided with a bush 15 having an external thread 16, so that it may be placed in a hole 17 provided in the frame 4 and secured by means of a nut 28.

In the front area, to the left in Figure 3, the bush 15 has on its is underside an upwardly open support shell 18, which extends in this embodiment in the peripheral circumferential direction through an angle of about 1200, as can be seen in Figure 4. A bearing 19 rests in the support shell 18. In this embodiment, the bearing 19 is a ball bearing. A shaft end of the contact pressure roller 7 is inserted into the bearing 19. In common with the other contact pressure roller 6 and the guide rollers 5 for guiding the cover belts 8 shown in Figure 1, the contact pressure roller 7 has peripheral grooves 21.

The bush 15 has a pivot axle 22, which is coaxially rotationally fitted therein around a common bearing axis 23. The pivot axle 22 forms a modular unit with a locking part 24. The locking part 24 is constructed in the shape of a shell similar to the support shell 18. In the locking position shown in Figures 3 and 4 the locking part 24 engages the bearing 19 from the side opposite the support shell 18 so that the bearing 19 is reliably held in the bearing housing 13.

In order to turn the pivot axle 22 and thus also swivel the locking part 24, an operating part 25 is fixedly secured for rotation with the pivot axle 22 at its end remote from the locking part 24. In this embodiment, the operating part 25 takes the form of a gear wheel. By means of a chain (not shown) the gear wheel used as the operating part 25 may be rotated thus also turning the locking part 24.

Figures 4 and 5 illustrate how the unlocking of the bearing 19 takes place. It can be seen in Figure 4 that the support shell 18 extends circumferentially in the peripheral direction through about 1200 and the io locking part 24 through about 600. It is important that both parts together do not extend through more than 1800. The locking part 24 is swivelled in an anti-clockwise direction by means of the operating part 25, so that it lies laterally against the support shell 18, which arrangement is shown in Figure 5. In this position, the bearing 19 and thus the contact pressure m roller 7 shown in Figure 3, with its shaft end 20 seen in Figure 5, can be lifted out, obliquely upwardly and to the right, from the bearing housing 13.

In the embodiment according to Figure 6, a handle 26 is provided as an operating part, which extends radially away from the pivot axle 22 and by which R is possible to swivel the locking part 24 by hand and without adjusting other locking parts into the unlocking position. In the locking position, the handle 26 lies against a stop 27. This is located on the side of the handle 26 such that the locking part 24 may only be swivelled against the normal direction of rotation of the contact pressure roller 7.

1

Claims

1. A coating plant for coating films in which a coating roller for diverting the film to be coated into a coating region, and a belt cover are provided, the belt cover having a frame with a plurality of guide rollers for at least one endless cover belt and the cover belt being held against the coating roller in the coating area by at least one contact pressure roller and wherein at least one contact roller of the frame is pivotally mounted for pivoting between a position away from the coating roller and a position into io the contour of the cover belt.

2. A coating plant according to Claim 1, wherein the contact pressure roller is mounted between the free ends of two swivel arms and wherein the swivel arms extend radially away from and are rotationally fixed with respect to a pivot shaft which is pivotally mounted in the frame.

is

3. A coating plant according to either one of Claims 1 and 2, wherein a servomotor is fitted to the frame for swivelling the pivot shaft.

4. A coating plant according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein two contact pressure rollers are provided at opposite sides of the coating roller, each of which can be swivelled away from the coating roller.

5. A coating plant according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein each of the contact pressure rollers and the guide rollers is supported at both ends by a bearing, each bearing being supported in a bearing housing having an upwardly open support shell, and wherein, when said bearing housing is in a locking position, a locking part engages the respective bearing held in the support shell.

6. A coating plant according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein each locking part is rotationally fitted around a common bearing axis and wherein, when the locking part is swivelled against the support shell, the locking part and the support shell together extend through a maximum peripheral angle of 1800.

7. A coating plant according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the support shell is provided at the free end of a bush which is mountable in a stationary manner, and which rotationally bears a pivot axle which is connected at its end adjacent the support shell to the locking part.

8. A coating plant according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the bush has an external thread, for fixing the bush in a hole of the frame, on its external jacket surface of the side remote from the support shell.

9. A coating plant according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the pivot axle on its side remote from the support shell leads out of the bush and has an operating part provided thereon for swivelling the pivot axle.

10. A coating plant according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the operating part is a gear wheel.

11. A coating plant according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the support shell extends over a greater peripheral area than the locking part.

12. A coating plant according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the unlocking direction of the locking part is opposite to the direction of rotation of the component.

13. A coating plant for coating films substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.