GB887321A - Improvements in roller apparatus for supporting and rotating cylindrical objects - Google Patents

Abstract

887,321. Work-holders. YATES PLANT Ltd. June 13, 1958 [March 13, 1957; July 10, 1957], Nos. 8254/57 and 1001/57. Class 83 (3). In apparatus for rotating cylindrical work 5, at least one of the rollers 2, 4 supporting the work is supported and driven frictionally by a rotary member 11. The rollers and the driving member may be steel drums or wheels, and the driving member may have a serrated &c. periphery. Alternatively, the rollers and/or member 11 may have a rubber tyre. As shown, Fig. 1, the idler roller 4 and roller 2 are mounted in adjustable frames 1, 3, roller 2 being driven through a worm gearing 13, 14, by a variable-speed electric motor. Roller 2, comprising a drum or a series of wheels, is carried on a shaft 6 mounted at each end, or at the ends and between them, in blocks 7 secured by bolts 9 acting through springs 10 which may be compressed to increase the pressure between roller 2 and driving member 11. Stop-screws 16 prevent excessive pressure. Alternatively, only one of the bearings of roller 2 may be a floating bearing 7, and a rigid disc on each supporting roller and of smaller diameter than the rubber tyre of the roller may prevent excessive pressure between the rollers and driving member. As shown in Fig. 2, the rollers 21 are mounted in pairs between brackets 24 pivoted about the axle of the driving wheels 28 which are driven, through reduction gears 32 and chains 29, by electric motors 33 controlled as in Specification 687,290. The rollers each comprise a pair of axially-spaced wheels which remain in contact with driving wheels 28 during pivotal movement of the frames between stops 38, 39. Screws 35 bearing against sliding bearings 27 of axles 26 adjust the bearing pressure between the rollers and wheels 28, and stop-screws 37 in bearings 27 contact the brackets to prevent excessive pressure. Rollers 40, or shoes, on springs 41 engage the work and rock the brackets into position to receive the work; alternatively, this could be effected by a sector-rack and a pinion. If the rollers are without rubber tyres, the bearing pressure may be applied through a spring. For long work, one or more sets of idler apparatus may also be used, in which the rollers rest against idler wheels or their supporting brackets pivot without yielding abutments.