US2306059A - Sphere-smoothing method and apparatus - Google Patents

Description

' Dec. 22, 1942. w. E. HUMPHREY SPHERE-SMOOTHING METHOD AND APPARATUS Filed Jan. 8, 1942 lNVE-NTOR O ,WW

Patented Dec. 22, 1942 SPHERE- SlvIOOTHING METHOD APPARATUS AND Walter E. Humphrey, Jeannette, Pa.

Application January 8, 1942, Serial No. 426,021

3 Claims.

This invention relates to the smoothing of the surfaces of spherical articles, and finds practical application in the smoothing and pressing of the felt covers upon tennis balls, and in the closing of the seams at the meeting edges of the applied covers, before the covered balls are vulcanized. An ultimate vulcanizing step is taken, to accomplish the vulcanization particularly of the intercalated fihn of rubber cement by which the cover is caused initially to adhere to the rubber shell, and to integrate the whole. Invention is found both in method and in the apparatus for performing the method of smoothing and pressmg.

In the accompanying drawing, Fig. I is a view, partly in side elevation and partly in vertical section, of apparatus built in embodiment of the invention. Fig. II is a view of the apparatus in plan from above, the upper of two companion plates having (for purposes of illustration) been removed. In Fig. II the plane of section of Fig. I is indicated by the line 1-1. Fig. III is a View in vertical and transverse section, on the plane indicated at III-III, Fig. I.. Fig. IV is a diagrammatic view, illustrating the progressive operation of the apparatus upon a ball. Fig. V is a fragmentary View to larger scale showing in perspective and in inverted position a portion of the structure.

Over the surface of a smooth and rigid table I, advantageously formed of hard maple plank and arranged in horizontal plane, a web 3 of cotton belting advances. The web is advantageously an endless belt, organized as shownin Fig. I. It is mounted upon two drums 4 and 5 that are placed beyond the opposite ends of the table. The belt is driven from a source of power I through a shaft 6, upon which one of the drums (4) is mounted.

Above and suitably spaced from the web-faced table-top I are set blocks 2 in succession longitudinally of the table-top. These blocks are conveniently formed as downward extending eminences upon the nether face of a plate 20. The plate with its eminences is conveniently formed of hard maple and is accurately spaced from and rigidly placed in its relation to the table-top l.

Comparing Fig. V with Fig. I, it will be seen that each block 2 presents a horizontal lowermost surface 2! that extends in parallelism to the table-top l, and an inclined surface 22 that slopes from higher level and meets the horizontal surface 2!. The blocks 2 conveniently extend laterally throughout the width of the table-top, and they are so arranged that a ball resting upon the belt 3 is by the advance of the belt rolled under the inclined surfaces 22 and under the horizontal surfaces 2|. As shown in Fig. I, nine blocks 2 are built into this particular organization; and, in sequence from right to left, the interval at which the lower faces 2! of the first five of these blocks are spaced from the table-top I is greater than that at which the succeeding four are spaced.

Above the web-faced table-top are arranged two series of vertical and obliquely extending abutments, 8, 8, etc. and 9, 9, etc, the series 9, 9, etc. succeeding the series 8, 8, etc. The two series extend from the two sides of the webfaced table-top; and within each series the successive abutments extend to greater andgreater distance from the side, across the width of the web. There remains, however, free passageway for a web-borne ball in direct course, beyond the end of the last abutment of each series. The abutments 8, 8, etc. and 9, 9, etc. are in the assembly arranged in the intervals in the succession of blocks 2, 2, etc. It is convenient to form the abutments as faces of plates ii and II that project from side walls l2, upon which side walls the plate 20 finds rigid support.

At the right-hand end of the apparatus, as

seen in Fig. I, a funnel-shaped opening I? is formed through plate 26 for the introduction one by one of the balls to be rolled. I

In operation an in-fed ball descends and rests upon the travelling web 3. The right-to-left advance of the web carries the ball beneath the successive blocks 2 and to bearing upon the successive abutments 3 and 9. In the intervals between the blocks 2, the space interval between the web-faced table-top and the block 2 is greater than the diameter of the web-borne ball. The blocks 2, howevenare so spaced from the tabletop that the advancing ball, engaged by them, is rolled beneath them, and under pressure that increases as the ball rolls over the inclined faces 22 and at a continuing maximum pressure as the ball rolls over the horizontal faces 2 l The length of the blocks 2 in the direction of ball travel is advantageously such that in passing beneath each block the ball is rolled through one complete rotation; and, since the blocks are set square across the line of advance, the rolling is centered on a great circle of the ball. The length of the surface 2| in the direction of rolling is equal to half the circumference of the ball; and the ball, compressed between the surface 2! above and the Web-faced table-top below, is pressed at maxivance of the web is to cause the ball to roll along the face of that abutment, and in so doing to shift in its position laterally upon the face of the web 3. The advancing web 3 thus rolls the ball across the face of and beyond the end of the abutment, and when it has rolled the ball beyond the end of the abutment the web in its further advance brings it beneath the next succeeding block 2, and there it is again rolled and compressed, and this second rolling is upon another great circle than that of the preceding rolling.

Since the ball is rolled under pressure between the nether surface of the block, and the Web-faced upper surface of the table, there will be in each step an area of compression, a path of surfaceupon-surface contact, that extends in a belt around the ball. In Fig. IV such belts of compression are indicated by shading. Beneath each block 2 one such belt of compression is developed. The abutments 8, 8-9, 9 etc. are of such extent that the successive belts of compression are developed as indicated in Fig. IV, overlapping at polar points and side-by-side at the equator, so that, on passing beneath a sufdcient number of blocks, the ball is at every point in its surface compressed between the opposed compression members.

Manifestly, the greater the extension of the blocks 2 from the nether face of the plate 29 and the narrower the interval between the surface 2! of the block and the web-faced tabletop, the broader will be the belt of compression. And in the drawing I have, by way of example, indicated that beneath the five blocks to the right (Fig. I) belts of compression are developed of a breadth of 36 or more, measured on a great circle of the ball; and thus beneath thefive blocks the entire surface of the ball is compressed.

I find it desirable to make this operation of rolling and compressing the applied cover a twostep operation. (It might, manifestly, be made a three-step operation, or more; but I find two steps sufficient.) I roll and compress in a first step, with the apparatus and by the procedure described, under relatively light pressure; then,

having secured a more complete adhesion of the cover to the ball, I roll a second time under greater pressure, and at the pressure necessary to afford a completely satisfactory'article. It is for such second rolling under increased pressure that the second set of blocks 2 is provided. These are the blocks to the left, Fig. I; and, since they are of greater extension from plate 20, and the belt of compression developed by them is broader, a smaller number (four as against five) sufiices to effect compression over all the surface of the .ball. The abutments 9, 9 etc. of the second set are correspondingly adapted in their extent to afford the proper equatorial spacing of the rolled belts. The reversal in the arrangement of the two plates l9 and II with their abutment surfaces is a matter of convenience merely. By such reversal of arrangement the ball is shifted upon the table, first from right to left (Fig. III), and then (as will be manifest) from left to right; and so table and belt are kept narrow and structure simple.

Referring to Figs. I and II, a ball introduced at I3 is borne by the Web 3 from right to left. When in position a it is in course of rolling beneath the first of the blocks 2; in position b it has just been shifted by the conjoint action of the web 3 and the first of the abutments 8 to position for rolling beneath the second of the blocks; in position 0 it is in course of rolling beneath the second of the blocks 2, and so on. In position 11 it is in course of rolling beneath the fifth of the blocks 2 (the last of the blocks of low downward extension from plate 20). In position 'c it has been shifted to position to be rolled beneath the first of the blocks of greater extension from plate 20; in position 1 it is in course of rolling beneath such last-named block; and so on, until at length, passin'gfrom beneath the last of the blocks 2 the ball emerges, as indicated at g, and escapes as indicated ath, Fig. I.

I claim as my invention:

L'The method herein described of smoothing and increasing adherence of a newly applied cover upon a compressible playing ball which consists in rolling the ball upon a pluralityof great circles' between compression surfaces of Wide spacing and thereafter rolling the ball upon a plurality of great circles between compression surfaces of narrow spacing.

2.'Apparatus for smoothing the surface of a compressible spherical article which consists of a rigid table, a flexible web movable in right-line course upon the table, a plurality of compression blocks arranged at an interval above the table and spaced apart in the'direction of web travel and adapted to effect the rolling over their nether faces of a spherical article of a diametergreater than the interval at which they are remote from the table when impelled by the moving web, and an abutment arranged in the spacebetween two of the said blocks and having a surface obliquely disposed to the line of direction of web travel and adapted to effect lateral movement upon'the we-bof a spherical articlein response to'web travel.

3. Apparatus for smoothing the surface of a compressible spherical article which consists of a rigid table, a flexible web movable in right-line course upon the table, two sets of'compression blocks arranged at different intervals above'the table, spaced apart in the direction of web travel, and the blocks of each set also spaced apart in the direction of web travel, the intervals at which the two sets of blocks stand remote from the table being (in the direction of web travel) first wide and then narrow, and abutments arranged in the space between successive blocks and adapted to effect lateral shift of an article borne by the moving web.

' WALTER E. HUMPHREY.

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