GB723041A - Apparatus and method for performing sheeting or coating operations by rolling or calendering - Google Patents

Abstract

723,041. Coating webs. TRIGGS, W. W. (Wingfoot Corporation). May 20, 1952, No. 12711/52. Class 140. [Also in Group V] In roller sheeting machines, to allow for deflection of the rollers due to the pressure of the material, apparatus according to the invention comprises a pair of rollers forming a roll bight between which material can pass, the opposite ends of at least one roller being supported in encompassing bearings part of one of which at least serves as a fulcrum and in which means are provided for applying a controllable pressure to some other part of the bearing or bearings so that the axis of the roller can be controllably cambered at will. Fig. 1 illustrates diagrammatically a three-high set of rollers in which the bottom pair or finishing rollers 3, 4 can be adjusted to bend or camber towards one another. The roller 3 is journalled in bearings 11, 13 and is extended in both directions to enter outboard bearings 12, 14. The roller 4 is similarly carried by inner bearings 17, 18 and outboard bearings 19, 20. A hydraulic jack 27 is positioned between the outboard bearings 12 and 19 and a hydraulic jack 28 between the bearings 14 and 20, and when these jacks are operated the outboard bearings at each end are forced apart and the rollers are cambered so that their centres approach, as shown in exaggerated form. For sheeting plastics the rollers are not truly cylindrical but crowned, as shown at 58, 59, Fig. 4, but the degree of crowning is only slight, so that when a plastic sheet is rolled between them the surfaces of the rolls will move further apart, to the positions 60, 61. Compensation is applied by cambering the rollers as in Fig. 1, resulting in their surfaces being parallel, as indicated at 62, 63. The distance between the rollers 3 and 4 may be made adjustable by mounting the bearings 17, 18 so that they are slidable vertically and arranging screws 25, 26 to engage them. When these screws are tightened the rollers are moved together, and when they are loosened the roller 4, by its weight, moves away from the roller 3. Similar means for adjusting the distance between the rollers 2, 3 may be provided by making the bearings 7, 8 for the shaft 2 vertically slidable and engaging them by screws 21, 22, the roller 2 being caused to move away from the roller 3, when the screws are slackened, by springs 23, 24 between the bearings. Inversions of the arrangement shown in Fig. 1 are described. In one, the rollers are cambered away from (instead of towards) one another by forcing the outboard bearings together, a hydraulic jack then being required on the outside of each. In another inversion the main bearings, supported by the frame, are outboard and the bearings subjected to the pressure are inboard, the roller then being cambered downwards when pressure is extended downwards and vice versa. A more detailed description of the arrangement diagrammatically shown in Fig. 1 is given.