US1943442A - Machine for coating sheet-material - Google Patents

Description

a M 2 0 r 4 V 1 W L m a/ m T Mum M o LG mw .AM wm FF E m H C A M Jan. 16, 1934.

Patented Jan. 16, 1&34

YATES ATEN'E Charles (D. Kilham, Beverly, Mass,

assigncr to United Shoe Machinery Corporation, Paterson, N. J., a corporation of New Jersey Application May 10, 1930. Serial No. 451,451

'7 Claims.

This invention concerns the coating of sheetmaterial, and especially that which has its margins beveled or otherwise made thinner than the body of the sheet.

Machines of the char cter described in Letters Patent of the United States No. 1,656,346, Cosgrove, January 17, 1928, are designed to operate upon material in the form of sheets, of which the opposite faces are substantially parallel throughout. Work is sometimes encountered which, instead of having such parallel faces, is thinner at the margins. We find an example of such material in rubber soles for shoes, which soles have peripheral bevels at the tread When such soles are freshly cut, the face which is to be cemented to the insol may be plane; but, as they age, the margin tends to curl toward the beveled side, makin it difficult to apply cement properly to this thin, distorted margin. An object of the present invention is to coat, in a substantially uniform manner, an entire face of sheets having such reduced margins.

To this end, and in accordance with a feature of the invention, I provide apparatus in which, in the illustrated embodiment of the invention,

' an applying roll, with its applying surface concaved longitudinally of the axis of rotation substantially throughout its length, dips in fluid in a receptacle for a coating substance, and has cooperating with it a rotatable pressure roll with its surface oppositely curved and hence convex. In the use of this apparatus, one face of a sheet is stretched more than the opposite face, and a coating is applied to the face. such as the larger face of a sole with peripheral bevels, which is under greater tension. Such stretching draws the thin margin toward the coating instrumentality, rendering the surface fully accessible. Thus the sheet is so stretched that it becomes convex upon the face to be coated and it is simultaneously coated by pressing it against the concave surface of the roll which has been supplied with a coating substance, the thin edges being coated way to the edge.

Because of the departure of the rolls from cylindrical form, their operating surfaces have different peripheral speeds at different points along their lengths. If the work is inserted b tween the rolls at one side of the center, this difference in the rate of rotation of the surfaces contacting with it tends to move its longitudinal axis angularly. This acts to carry the work too far to the opposite side, where the angular position is reversed, it consequently traveling in an irregular path, which interferes with the proper application of the coating. I prevent such action 1 by forming one of the rolls in sections, rotating one of these sections and leaving the associated sections free to turn relatively thereto. The element thus sectioned is preferably the pressure roll, the central section which is of substantially uniform diameter being shown as driven, as by attachment to a shaft, while the associated secticns of different diameter are free to move at the same rate as the contacting surface of the work. As a consequence of this relation, the advancing force positively applied by the driven central section acts in a substantially uniform manner across the portion of the sheet with which it contacts and no retarding effect is produced on the free end portion so that the path of the sheet is maintained straight.

The improved method which may be carried out, for example, by the above-referred to apparatus has not been claimed herein since it forms the subject-matter of a divisional application Serial No. 655,368, filed February 6, 1933.

The accompanying drawing illustrates, in Fig. 1, a single embodiment of my invention in broken side elevation; Fig. 2 is a transverse section on the line II II of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary view showing, on an enlarged scale, a portion of the sole and the rolls, as in Fig. 2; and

Fig. 4 is an enlarged cross-section through a rubber sole the edges of which have curled from their original shape, which latter is shown in dotted lines.

For the general construction of the present apparatus and for certain details which have no particular bearing upon my invention, reference may be had to the previously mentioned patent. A tank or receptacle 10, adapted to contain the cement or other coating substance to be applied, has journaled in its side walls a horizontal shaft 12 for a rotatable applying roll 14, the lower portion of which lies in the contained adhesive. The applying surface of this roll is preferably concave, being gradually curved longitudinally of its periphery from ends of maximum diameter to a reduced central portion. The roll is rotated, in the direction indicated by the arrow in Fig. 1 of the drawing, by connections at 16 through a counter-shaft 1'7 to a motor, and is supplied with work-pieces over a table or conveyor 18, the coated pieces being removed by a conveyor 20 at the opposite side of the roll 14.

To hold the work in contact with the roll 14 during the coating operation, and to aid in its advance, an upper pressure-roll 22 is rotatable about the axis of a shaft 24 parallel to and vertically alined with the shaft 12. The shaft 24 is journaled in sidearms of a frame 26 pivoted at 28, 28 upon a bridge 30 rising from the sides of and extending across the top of the tank. The roll 22 is convex, its longitudinal curvature being substantially concentric to the surface of the roll 12. As illustrated, it is in three independent sections. That at the center, to which the numeral 22 has been applied, is fast upon the shaft 24. The adjacent sections 32, 32, at its opposite sides, are loose upon the shaft. The ends of the sections operate in contact with one another, the convex surface of the roll 22 being thus practically unbroken. Extending upwardly from the frame 26, at opposite sides of the bridge, are two projections 34 and 36, the former having interposed between it and the bridge a spring 3'7, which exerts its force constantly to urge the roll 22 toward the applying roll 14. Threaded through the other projection is a screw 38, bearing at its inner extremity against the bridge. By differently positioning this screw, the normal separation between the rolls may be varied, thus adapting the apparatus to operate to the best advantage upon sheets of different thicknesses. The roll 22 is rotated oppositely t0 the roll 14, the central section having the same peripheral speed as such applying roll. This is accomplished by gearing 40 joining the shaft 24 to a countershaft 42 horizontally alined with the pivotal points 28 of the frame 26, and gearing 44 between said counter-shaft and the shaft 17.

In utilizing this apparatus to carry out my improved method, and assuming that rubber soles S beveled at 46 about their tread faces T are to be cemented, the operator feeds the work-pieces successively between the oppositely rotating applying roll 14 and the pressure-roll 22 from the table 18, the face opposite the tread being down. As each sole is advanced through the rolls by their rotation, the upper roll presses it into the concavity of the applying roll, bowing it downwardly and outwardly and stretching the lower face 48 transversely as the coating is applied. This strain upon the material draws down the thin edge 50, so that, even if it is curled over toward the tread face T, as indicated in Fig. 4, or is in an uneven wave form, the tension holds it firmly against the applying surface, which will lay upon the lower face 48 a substantially uniform coating extending to the very edge. If a sole enters the rolls at one side of their longitudinal centers, no appreciable retarding effect is produced by those more slowly rotating peripheral portions of the pressure-roll which are of less diameter than the central portion, since the two outer sections 32, 32 are not driven and can turn with the sole as it travels beneath them. The departure of the central driven portion of the roll 22 from cylindrical form is not suflicient to impart to the workpieces an angular deflection, so their travel is along a substantially straight line. This freedom of the end-sections of the pressure-roll in no way impairs its ability to maintain a proper contact of the surface being cemented with the applying roll. The sole operated upon thus emerges from between the rolls, upon the conveyor 20, with its entire lower face cemented.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. In a coating apparatus, coacting rolls one of which is concave and the other of which is convex whereby a piece of work having beveled edges passed between the rolls is distorted and one face of the piece of work is stretched or tensioned more than the opposite face, and means for supplying coating material to the concave roll to coat only that face of the piece of work which is under greater tension whereby the thin edges of the work, placed next to the concave roll,

will be drawn into contact with the applying surface.

2. In a coating apparatus, the combination with a receptacle for a fluid coating substance,

of an applying roll rotatable in the receptacle and dipping in the fluid and having its applying surface concaved longitudinally of the axis of rotation substantially throughout its length, and a rotatable pressure roll above the fluid 00- operating with the applying roll and having its surface curved oppositely to that of said applying roll to press the wide surface of work with bevelled edges into the concavity of the applying roll whereby the thin edges of the work are drawn into contact with the applying roll.

3. In a coating apparatus, co'operating rotatable coating-applying and pressure rolls, a sup port one of said rolls on said support consisting of sections of different diameters, and means 1 for rotating a portion of the sections, the associated sections being mounted on said support to turn freely relatively to the driven sections.

4. In a coating apparatus, a rotatable coatingapplying roll having its applying surface differing in diameter, a shaft, and a pressure roll on said shaft co-operating with and conforming to the applying roll, said pressure roll consisting of independent sections, and means for rotating one of said sections, the associated sections being free to turn on the shaft relatively to the driven section.

5. In a coating apparatus, co-operating rotatable applying and pressure rolls, the rolls having convex and concave surfaces for contact with the work, one of said rolls including independently rotatable sections of different diameters.

6. In a coating apparatus, a rotatable concave coating-applying roll, a driving shaft, a rotatable convex pressure roll on said shaft co-operating with the applying roll and including a central section and side-sections free to turn relatively to the central section, and means for rotating the central section.

7. In an apparatus for coating shoe-soles, the

combination with a receptacle for a coating substance, of a concave applying roll rotatable in the receptacle, a driving shaft, a convex pressure roll on said shaft rotatable above the receptacle and co-operating with the applying roll and having a central section fast upon the shaft, the 1 sections at each side of the central section being free to turn upon the shaft.

CHARLES O. KILHAM.

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