US2953310A

US2953310A - Apparatus for wire winding of tanks, tubes and the like

Info

Publication number: US2953310A
Application number: US469502A
Authority: US
Inventors: William B Mclean; Brian R Perry
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1954-11-17
Filing date: 1954-11-17
Publication date: 1960-09-20
Anticipated expiration: 1977-09-20

Description

Sept. 20, 1960 .w. B. M LEAN E? AL 2,953,310

, APPARATUS FOR w IRE WINDING 0F TANKS, TUBES AND THE LIKE- Filed Nov. 17, 1954 5 SheetS-Sheet 1 INVENTOR5 WILL/17M Malt 52/4 7. PERRY,

a t ifle w m fw v Nanny 5 a J j Sept. 20, 1960- I w. B. MOLEAN ETAL 2,953,310

APPARATUS FOR WIRE WINDING OF TANKS, TUBES AND THE LIKE Filed Nov. 17, 1954 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORE:

ATTORNEYS APPARATUS FOR WIRE} WINDING, OF TANKS, TUBES AND THE LIKE Filed .Nov. 17, 1954 v 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR5 BY ua rd ATTORNEYS 2,953,310 I?atented Sept. 20 1 96 0,

APPARATUS FOR WIRE WINDING or TANKS,

' TUBl ISANDTHELIKE Filed Nov. 17, 1954, Ser. No. 469,502 7 2 Claims. (Cl. 242 -7) This invention relates to apparatus for wire winding of tanks, tubes and the like for the purpose of reinforcing and compressing the walls thereof.

The distinction between tanks and tubes for the purpose of this application is that normally tanks are too large to be rotated, they mustrest on their own foundation and the winding apparatus must travel .around it. A tube on the other hand is of such a size that it is more conveniently wound by rotating it on its axis as in a lathe or by revolving it on rollers as in certain types of circular dryers. The winding apparatus paying out the wire will then .be fixed. The relative motion is the same in each case and the improvements hereinafter described could be applied to either with slight modifications in, detail.

The invention consists essentially in the provision of a self-contained apparatus which when properly adjusted for speed of travel and for tension of wire will operate to wind a wire spirally or in any other regular pattern on the wall of a tank or tube at a predetermined spacing or pitch, of spiral: at the tension required, and in which; so long as the drive is applied and the wire payed out, the operation of winding will continue automatically.

The tension and stretching of the wire is obtained by means of a novel stretching device wherein the wire is gradually stretcher over a considerable length rather than locally as in a dieor direct friction brake. The longitudinal stretching resulting in a more uniform quality ofwire which, in conjunction with the, tension control, can be wound on a tank at considerable, higher "speeds than, is atpresent permissible and with less of breakage of the wire. f 1

One form of the apparatus hereinafter described in greater detail, consists of a winding unit completelyselfcontained, which can be mounted on or at the side of tanks of varying character. It com-prises a main column supporting or carrying a. prime mover of any desired or' suitable type. The prime mover drives the winding unit around the wall of the tank and the tensioning is effected by the drag of the wire payed out as the apparatus is rotated about the tank.

Theapparatus includes .a drive engine whichis directly coupled to a wheel which rides on the upper surface of the tank to drive the winding uni-t around the tank. The drive engine is also coupled with a sheave upon which the wire is wound so that the wire is payed out from the coil over the sheave to the tank. As the engine drives the wheel to move the apparatus around the periphery of the tank,the sheave will also be rotated to pay out a given amount of wire. By suitably selecting the diameters of the drive wheel and the sheave and the drive ratio be tween these two rotatable members, it can be seen that the apparatus canbe adjusted so that for a given movement of the apparatus around the tank, less wire will be payed out and consequently the wire must be stretched and tensioned in order to compensate for the dilterence in peripheral distance travelled by the drive wheel and adjusted so as to slip in the event that excessive tension is createdin the wire. a

The apparatus for wire winding of tanks disclosed herein possessesa number of advantages over prior art devices designed fora similar purpose. The primary advantage in this apparatus is that a uniform tensioning throughout the length of the wire is assured. The 'desired tension may be predetermined by preselecting the diameters of the driving wheel and the sheave and presetting the drive ratio between these two elements and by adjustment of the slip coupling. Once these adjustments are made, assurance is given that the correct tensioning -will be uniformly applied throughout the spiral winding. Furthermore, the presently disclosed apparatus requires less power for operation than similar prior art devices.

A primary object of the invention is: to provide an apparatus for tensioning wire to strengthen and compress the walls of tanks or tubes wherein the wire is uniformly tensioned throughout the length thereof.

. A further object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus in which a minimum power is used to tension wire on a tank with a minimum degree of friction losses.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a wire winding device which is adaptable to .any diameterof tank and which can be made readily adjustable to suit any variation in wire size and degree of tenpling bet-ween the drive engine and sheave which can be sion required. I a

These and other objects will be more readily understood from the following, detailed specification of which the following drawings are a part.

Fig, 1 is :a vertical elevation looking of the apparatus; a

Fig. 2 is a vertical elevation looking on the side of the apparatus and showing it mounted on the wall of a t Fig 3 is a plan view of the apparatus showing the main drive and the self-aligning guide wheel;

Fig. 4 isa partial sectional detail of the slip. coupling assembly and showing the two drive sprockets;

' Fig. 5 is a side view of the tension-ing and stretching device;

V, Fig. 6 is a fragmentary enlarged sectional detail of a tensioning andstretching sheave showing the step-bystep enlargement of the diameters ofthe grooves;

Fig. 7 is a sectional detail of the apparatus on the line 7--7 of Fig. 1 showing the mounting of the sliding carriage in the apparatus; and a (F.ig. 8 is a diagrammatic illustration ofthe apparatus showing the essential elements only and the drive connections to andfrorn these elements. I

Referring to the drawings, the main tramework of the device consists of a ventical column 1 of suitable section and strength to support the working equipment tobe mountedon it and to take care of the stresses imposed upon it under maximum working conditions. Secured. to thercol-umn l at a position near its top is the horizontal working platform 2 (Fig. 3) which is sufficient in area to have in-ountedon -i-t theprime mover 3, which can be of any suitable type and is hereinafter referred. to as the drive engine. The platform is suitably braced to the main column :by the brace 4. i

As shown in Fig. 2 of the drawings, the vertical column 1 is supported on the top of the side wall of a tank 11 through the flanged drive wheel 5 running on the rail ,6 concentric with the wall of the tank '11. .The drive wheel 5 is keyed to the shaft 7 supported in the head of the column 1 and is driven by the chain Sand sprocket 9 'from the reduction gear unit 10 which in turn is directly connected to the drive engine 3. While the top end of'the column 1 is supported on the top of in the front face the tank, the bottom end of the column 1 is held parallel with the wall of the tank 11 and in spaced relation thereto by means of the guide wheels 12 supported on the horizontal transverse bracket 13. The above described structure forms the complete working base for the self-contained wire winding apparatus. The flanged drive wheel insures that once the unit is placed on the rail track it will remain thereon and will be constrained to run on the rail at all times. However, in order to insure that the wheel 5 and the column structure 1 will not twist about the axis of the column when the drive is applied, a guide wheel 14 (Fig. 3) is pivotally fitted in the end of the boom 15 which in turn is pivoted on the horizontal platform 2 at a point 16. A guide bar 17 limits the horizontal travel of the boom 15 and supports it vertically, but within this limit the guide wheel can be aligned on the rail 6 over a wide range of diameters of rail track and diameter of tank. While the above description concerns a unit suspended from the top of a tank, the complete unit could as before mentioned be reversed and the rail be on the ground and requiring only a simple guide Wheel at the top of the tank; also another such guide wheel could run on the inside of the tank wall 11, or a pivoted structure mounted in the center of the tank could guide the column 1 around the tank.

Having now described the base unit and the manner of its mounting on a tank, the details of the drive to the wire and the means to stretch and tension the wire, together with the means for setting the pitch of payout of the wire on the tank will be described in detail. As above described, the drive from the engine 3 is through the reduction gear unit 10 to the chain 8, sprocket 9 and to the shaft 7. The shaft 7 is provided with a second sprocket wheel 58 which drives the sprocket wheel 18 through the drive chain 19. This sprocket wheel 18 is keyed to the inner half 21 of the friction coupling 20. Sprocket wheel 18 and the inner half of the friction coupling are rotatably journaled on a shaft 23 which is mounted in bearings on the column 1. The shaft 23 is rigidly connected with the outer half 22 of the friction coupling 20. The coupling 20 can be of any suitable type and is here shown as being of the friction plate type wherein the amount of friction between the plates may be adjusted by adjustment of the screws 24. Thus, under light load conditions sprocket 18 will drive the inner half of the coupling which will in turn drive the outer half of the coupling and shaft 23. Under excessive load conditions on shaft 23 the inner and outer portions of the coupling will slip.

As shown in Fig. 2 the shaft 23 has a sprocket 25 keyed to the outer end thereof. This sprocket drives a sprocket 26 through chain 28. Journaled on column 1 is a shaft 27 having sprocket 26 keyed on one end thereof and sheave 36) on the other end. A second shaft 29 is journaled in column 1 below shaft 27 and is provided with a sheave 31 rigidly mounted on one end thereof and gear 37 keyed to the other end.

The sheaves 30 and 31 are provided with grooves 60 as clearly shown in Fig. 5. These grooves are of constantly increasing diameter for a purpose which will become more fully apparent hereinafter.

The gear 37 engages a gear 38 journaled on shaft 39 which has a sprocket 40 mounted on the other end thereof as shown in Fig. 1. This sprocket drives shaft 47 through chain 41, sprockets 42 and 44 mounted on shaft 43, chain 45 and sprocket 46. Shaft 47 has gear 48 fixed to the opposite end thereof as shown in Fig. 2 and this gear drives shaft 52 through drives 49, 5t and Mounted on shaft 52 is a spirally grooved pulley As shown in Fig. 7, column 1 is provided with a plurality of rollers 59 which are disposed along the length thereof to support frame 36 for vertical sliding movement therein. The frame 36 has a plurality of arms fixedly mounted thereon on which are rotatably mounted pulleys 35. It can be seen in Fig. 2 that there are provided three such rollers 35. Rigidly secured to each end of the vertically movable frame 36 is a rope 54 and this rope 54 is wound around the spirally grooved pulley 53 as shown. It can be seen that rotation of the pulley 53 will cause vertical movement of the frame 36 with its pulleys 35.

Mounted on the column 1 adjacent the sheaves 30 and 31 is a braking device 34 which comprises a plurality of friction blocks through which the wire passes. The coil of wire 33 is rotatably mounted on the supporting column and the wire passes from this coil through the braking device 34 and is wrapped around the sheaves 30 and 31 in such a manner that the wire passes from the coil first over the smaller diameters on the sheaves onto the larger diameters on the sheaves. The wire is then fed over the guide pulleys 35 as shown in Figs. 1 and8 and is payed out from these pulleys onto the tank which is to be wound by the wire.

The wire winding apparatus disclosed herein is operated in the following manner. The wire on the coil is fed through the braking device, over the sheaves and through the outlet pulleys 35 in the manner previously described. The end of the wire is then anchored on the tank. The drive engine 3 is then energized to cause the drive wheel 5 to traverse the upper periphery of the tank. Simultaneously, the drive motor will rotate sheaves 30 and 31 to pay out the wire 32. The diameters of drive wheel 5 and sheave 30 and the drive connection between the motor 3 and sheave '30 are such that the length of wire payed out is not as great as the distance traversed by the wheel 5. Consequently, the wire is stretched and tensioned automatically as the apparatus moves forwardly. The brake 34 provides a snubbing action on the sheaves 30 and 31 in order to prevent the wire from simply slipping around the sheaves. Theoretically, it would be possible to use a single sheave but it has been found in practice that a more uniform action is assured through the use of the pair of sheaves having increasing diameters. It is apparent from Fig. 1 that the tension in the wire 32 will tend to rotate the sheaves in the same direction as the motor 3 tends to turn these sheaves. This component of the tension in the wire brings about a reduction in the amount of power required to operate the apparatus. That is to say, less power is required to wind a tank with wire at a given tension with the presently disclosed apparatus than with similar devices in which friction blocks or the like are used to produce the tension.

Theoretically, it would be possible to provide an apparatus in which the drive ratio between the sheave and drive wheel and the diameter of these elements could be so related as to predetermine the exact tension produced in a line for a given tank. Assuming a perfectly shaped structure, this tension would be uniformly applied throughout the length of the wire. However, as a practical matter, tanks are not perfectly shaped and certain areas will have diameters which may vary considerably. Consequently, the diameters of the drive wheel and the sheave and the drive connections between these elements are so related as to produce a tension greater'than that desired. The friction coupling 20 is then set to slip at the desired final tension and thus, assurance is given that the wire will be uniformly tensioned even though the diameter of the tank varies within rather large limits. As the wire traverses the tank over an area of normal tank diameter or over an area of greater than normal tank diameter, the friction coupling 20 will slip to prevent greater tension than that desired whereas in areas of less than normal tank diameter the coupling will slip to a lesser degree or perhaps will not slip at all.

As the wire is payed out over the pulleys 35 these pulleys are being moved upwardly by vertical movement of the column 36 through the drive connection between pulley 53 and rope 54. When the lowest pulley 35 moves upwardly to the point where the second lowest pulley was originally located, the apparatus is stopped and the wire 35 is anchored to the drum and removed from the lower pulley 35. The column 36 is then lowered to its original position and the wire is passed over the second pulley 35 and the operation is resumed. Thus, the wire may be spirally wound around the tank Without the need for a lead screw of a length equivalent to the height of the tank. It can be appreciated that the drive connection to the pulley 53 may be varied so as to produce any desired rate of vertical ascent of column 36 in relation to the forward movement of the apparatus around the periphery of the tank. If the diameter of the tank be large, then the drive to the sliding carriage 36 will be slower than if the diameter of the tank is small. The larger the diameter of the tank, the longer it will take for the sliding carriage to travel the single pitch step required for the proper laying of the wire on the tank Wall.

Obviously, there are other factors which are considered in making the various adjustments in order to produce the desired tensioning in the wire. Such factors include the modulus of elasticity of the wire and the size of the wire utilized. Such factors are obvious to those skilled in the art and it is not believed necessary to set forth such details herein. It will be evident, however, that the presently disclosed apparatus may be readily altered to suit various operational requirements Without in any way afiecting the basic principles involved in providing a structure for creating uniform tension.

Obviously, many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in the light of the above teachings. What is claimed as new and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. An apparatus for winding, stretching and tensioning a reinforcing wire around the outer circumferential surface of a cylindrical object comprising a frame vertically disposed adjacent the outer circumferential surface of the object, a driving wheel mounted on said frame and engaging the upper surface of said cylindrical object, a guide wheel mounted adjacent the lower edge of said frame and engaging the outer circumferential surface of the object, said driving wheel and said guide wheel constituting the sole supporting means for said frame on the object, drive means connected with said driving wheel for driving said frame around the outer surface of the object, a wire stretching device including a wire reel mounted on said frame and at least a pair of sheaves, the wire from the reel being passed around the sheaves and onto the cylindrical object, said sheaves having a plurality of grooves therein of diameters increasing from the groove over which the wire from the reel is threaded to the groove from which the wire passes to the cylindrical object whereby the wire is uniformly tensioned by said pair of sheaves, a driving connection including an adjustable slip clutch between said drive means and one of said sheaves, said driving connection including means for rotating said one sheave to pay out lengths of wire less than the distance that the rotation of the driving wheel moves the frame around the cylindrical object to further tension the wire, and means for spacing the turns of the wire uniformly over the surface of the object, said last-named means being driven by rotation of the other of the sheaves by movement of the wire as it is payed out onto the cylindrical object.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said last-named means includes a carriage slidably mounted on said frame and a plurality of guide pulleys spaced on said carriage, the wire being selectively laid over each of said guide pulleys as the sliding carriage is advanced along the frame.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,370,780 Crom Mar. 6, 1945 2,464,536 Solliday et al Mar. 15, 1949 2,520,403 Hirsh Aug. 29, 1950 2,524,439 Green Oct. 3, 1950 2,640,663 Leland June 2, 1953 2,711,291 Kennedy June 21, 1955 2,785,866 Vogt Mar. 19, 1957