GB759503A - Improvements in or relating to means for continuously feeding webs of material - Google Patents

Abstract

759,503. Feeding webs. ELDORADO ICE CREAM CO., Ltd. Sept. 8, 1954 [Sept. 9,1953], No. 24993/53. Class 100 (1). Means for continuously feeding web material comprises a pair of feed rollers between which a web is gripped and passed, said rollers having stationary guides extending on both sides thereof and tangentially thereto, said guides lying in circumferential recesses in the rollers, and on either side of the feed rollers a mandrel for a web roll and a set of guide rollers for the web, the arrangement being such that when one web is nearly exhausted the other is introduced between the feed rollers to be fed with the tail end of the first web, so that at least one web is at all times fed between the rollers, e.g. to an ice-cream-block-wrapping machine. Feed rollers 12, 13 are provided with guides 14, 15 secured to brackets 14a, 15a, and the guide 14 is biased against the guide 15 by a weight 5 and a bracket 3 pivoted at 4. Each guide comprises one or more fingers. A web 11 from a roll 18 is passed round guide rollers 19, a spring-mounted guide roller 20, between normally separated prefeed rollers 23, 24, between guide rods 7, 8, and thence between the guides 14, 15 and the rollers 12,13 to the wrapping-machine. A second web 28 from a roll 27 passes round similar rollers 19, 20 and its end lies short of the rollers 12, 13, so that it is not fed. When the web 11 is nearly exhausted, the cessation of tension allows a feeler roller 35 to drop and close contacts 36, 37 to energize a solenoid 53, which causes the roller 23 to move into contact with the roller 24. The web 28 is then fed together with the tail end of the web 11 between the rollers 12, 13, which continue to feed the second web after the first is exhausted. The roll 18 is then changed and the solenoid de-energized. When the web 28 is exhausted, the same process is repeated, a similar roller 35 and contacts 36, 37 associated with the roll 27 energizing the same solenoid. Instead of the rollers 35, photo-electric cells may be used, which detect either exhaustion of or a break in the web, to energize the solenoid. The apparatus may be arranged for manual operation, when the rollers 23, 24, 35 are omitted and the end of the new web is inserted manually between the rollers 12, 13 before the old web is exhausted. According to the Provisional Specification, two pairs of pre-feed rollers, one pair for each web, are provided, the rollers of each pair in permanent contact with each other and driven through dog clutches controlled by solenoids. A feeler arm rests on the circum. ference of each web roll, and when one roll is reduced to a predetermined diameter, the solenoid of the opposite pre-feed rollers is energized to feed in the end of the other web.