US2957643A

US2957643A - Reel for wire coils

Info

Publication number: US2957643A
Application number: US775764A
Authority: US
Inventors: Delbert B Bosworth; Charles E Jackson
Original assignee: Chicago Bridge and Iron Co
Current assignee: Chicago Bridge and Iron Co
Priority date: 1958-11-24
Filing date: 1958-11-24
Publication date: 1960-10-25
Anticipated expiration: 1977-10-25

Description

Oct. 25, 1960 Filed Nov. 24, 1958 D. B. BoswoRTH Erm. 2,957,643

REEL 'FOR WIRE coILs 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 y u omvey Oct. 25, 1960 Filed Nov. 24, 1958 REEL FOR WIRE COILS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 S le e0 ai? S /4 8 J Q7 /5 a6. Q 9 a5E` I6 /7 e4 i a 7 al 36 /0 Q aa /l Je I8 c, as 5 30 o S w a5 S aa Jl .48 5f 33 W 47 .3:4

United States Patent itice 2,957,643 Patented Oct. 25, 1960 REEL FOR WIRE CILS Delbert B. Bosworth, Cumberland Center, and Charles E. Jackson, South Portland, Maine, assignors, by mesne assignments, to Chicago Bridge & Iron Company, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Illinois Filed Nov. 24, 1958, Ser. No. 775,764

7 Claims. (Cl. 242-128) The present invention relates to a reel for a coil of wire and particularly to such a reel for use with equipment having a wire feed.

Many types of wire may be purchased in coils at a considerable saving over its cost when the same wire is sold in reel form. There is a need, among users of large quantities of such wires, for a reel that will enable coiled wire to be used wherever wire feeds or other special requirements presently dictate that spooled wire must be used.

The principal objective of the present invention is to provide reels that meet that demand. In accordance with the invention, that objective is attained by providing a reel consisting of an annular, upwardly opening coil holder rotatably mounted in supporting structure and provided with a coaxial pulley rotatable therewith and located above a coil in said holder. The supporting structure carries wire guide means through which one end of wire is fed. The outfeed end of the wire guide means is disposed relative to the pulley to establish an approximately tangential engagement of the wire therewith. The supporting structure also is provided with exit means, preferably a wire straightener, frictionally engaging the wire as it comes from the pulley and spaced arcuately from the zone of engagement of the wire therewith as it cornes from the wire guide means. engagement with a pulley, a pull on the wire is operative to turn the pulley and the rotor but if the rotor overruns, such overrunning feeds wire through the guide means at an accelerated rate and frees it from driving engagement with the pulley.

It is preferred that the wire guide means include a flexible member disposed to trail over the coil, as the holder turns, and having an eye through which one end of the wire is fed, a portion having a transverse slot to receive the wire from the eye, and a tubular, curved, outfeed portion.

When, as in a wire feed to a welding gun, the wire becomes an electrical conductor, the rotor is electrically insulated from the supporting structure and the supporting structure is a closed housing.

In the accompanying drawings, there is shown, as an illustrative embodiment of the invention and from which these and other of its objectives, novel features, and advantages will be readily apparent, a reel for coiled wire that is to be fed to a welding gun. In the drawings,

Fig. l is a top plan View of a wire reel in accordance with the invention, and

Figs. 2 and 3 are sections taken approximately along the indicated lines 2 2, and 3 3, respectively, of Fig. 1.

In the embodiment of the invention shown in the drawings, the supporting structure comprises a bottom 5 and a cylindrical side wall 6 provided with liners 5a and 6a, respectively, of stock thatV is a non-conductor of electricity. The thus established housing is shown as being closed by a cover 7. Centrally of the bottom 5, there is a center post 8 having its base 9 locked to the bottom 5 As the wire is in sleeve 17 of the generally indicated rotor 18. The sleeve 17 and the post 8 have bearing retainers 19 and 20, respectively, secured thereto by

bolts

21 and 22. The bolts 22 also attach a bearing cap 23 to the cap 12. At the lower end of the sleeve 17, there is a shoulder 24 against which the race of a bearing unit 25 is held seated by a retainer 26 secured to the sleeve 17 by bolts 27. Y

Plates 28 and 29, fast on the upper and lower ends of the sleeve 17, respectively, are interconnected by downwardly and outwardly inclined ribs 30 and radial supports 31 are Welded to the lower plate 29. An annular, upwardly opening holder for a coil of wire W is generally indicated at 32 and comprises a bottom wall 33 secured to the supports 31, a cylindrical outer Wall 34, and an upwardly and inwardly inclined inner Wall 35 secured to the ribs 30. The upper plate 28 has a fixed pulley 36 co-axial with the rotor 18 and shown as of a diameter approximately equal to the outside diameter of the plate 28.

The sleeve 37 of a spider 38 is locked on the bolt 13 as by the nut 39. The spider 38 has

arms

40, 41, 42, and 43 extending radially outwardly over the holder 32. The

arms

40 and 41 have

guides

44 and 45, respectively. The

guides

44 and 45 are in the form of transverse slots of the same length but with the guide slot 44 of substantially greater width than the guide slot 45.

The arm 42 is provided with a clamp 46 anchoring the infeed end of a curved, tubular guide 47 in a position spaced rearwardly and centrally of, but in approximately the same plane as the guide slot 45. The outfeed end of the guide 47 is anchored in a clamp 48 on the spider arm 43 in such a position that wire W passing therefrom has an approximately tangential engagement with the pulley 36. The curvature and dimensions of the guide 47 are such that minimum resistance is olfered to the passage of the wire therethrough.

The arm 42 has a bracket 49 on which there are mounted rolls 50, 51, and 52 each having an annular groove 53. These rolls are disposed and arranged that as the Wire W passes between the roll 50 and the roll 51 and between the roll 50 and the roll 52 and through the exit port 54 in the Wall 6, it is suitably straightened.

The

guides

44 and 45 together with the tubular guide 47 constitute the wire guide means but such preferably includes a flexible member, such as a length of chain 55, carried by the spider arm 43 to trail over the wire coil as it is unwound. The appropriate end of the coiled wire is fed through the eye defined by its last link and is then fed through the

guides

44 and 45 and through the tubular guide 47. The wire is then passed around the pulley 36 and through the wire straightener and through the exit port 54. v

It will be noted that the wire straightener and exit port 54 are so located t'nat the wire W, when fed therethrough and through the wire guidemeans, engages lthe pulley 36 through` an arcv of". i For reasons that will presently be apparent, the arm 40 is provided with a dependingV pin 56 so disposed relative to the pulley- 36 that the wire W is loosely confined thereby in the groove of the pulley as may be seen from Fig. 3.

With the wire W fed through the guide means, part way around the pulley 36 and through the wire straightl ener and the exit port 54, a pull on the wire causes the rotor to turn. If the rotor 18 overruns, the wire is fed by such overrunning through the guide means at an eccelerated rate so that it moves but of driving engagement with the pulley 36 against the retaining pin 56. As a consequence, the rotor 18 does not turn in response to a pull on the wire W until the slack developed by its overrunning has been pulled from the reel and the wire again brought into driving engagement with the pulley 36. It will be appreciated that the flexible, trailing member 55 is important as it remains in control of the course of the Wire coil passing to the guide 44 even though that course may, at times, become buried by other courses thus ensuring trouble free unwinding of the coil.

What we therefore claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A reel for so supporting a coil of wire that the coil may be unwound by pulling, said reel comprising supporting structure, a rotor having an annular, upwardly opening coil receiving holder and being rotatably supported by said structure, said rotor including a co-axial pulley rotatable therewith and located above a coil in said holder, wire guide means carried by said structure through which one end of the wire is fed, and having its outfeed end `adjacent said pulley and disposed relative thereto to establish an approximately tangential engagement of the wire therewith, and means frictionally guiding the wire after said wire leaves said pulley and spaced arcuately from the zone of engagement of the wire as it comes from said guide means so that when wire is pulled through said frictionally guiding means, said pulley is rotated, overrunning of said rotor feeding wire through said wire guide means at an accelerated rate thus to disengage it from said pulley.

2. A reel for so supporting a coil of wire that the coil may be unwound by pulling, said reel comprising supporting structure, a rotor having an annular, upwardly opening coil receiving holder and being rotatably supported by said structure, said rotor including a co-axial pulley rotatable therewith `and located above a coil in said holder, wire guide means carried by said structure and including a flexible member for trailing over the coil and having an eye through which one end of the wire is fed, and an outfeed portion having its outfeed end adjacent said pulley and disposed relative thereto to establish an approximately tangential engagement of the wire therewith, and means frictionally guiding the wire after said wire leaves said pulley and spaced arcuately from the zone of engagement of the wire as it comes from said outfeed position so that when wire is pulled through said frictionally guiding means, said pulley is rotated, overrunning of said rotor feeding wire through said wire guide means at an accelerated rate thus to disengage it from said pulley.

3. A reel for so supporting a coil of wire that the coil may be unwound by pulling, said reel comprising supporting structure, a rotor having an annular, upwardly opening coil receiving holder and being rotatably supported by said structure, said rotor including a co-axial pulley rotatable therewith and located above a coil in said holder, wire guide means carried by said structure through which one end of the wire is fed, and having its outfeed end adjacent said pulley and disposed relative thereto to establish an approximately tangential engagement of the wire therewith, and means frictionally guiding the wire after said wire leaves said pulley and spaced arcuately from the zone of engagement of the wire as it comes from said guide means so that when wire is pulled through said frictional guiding means, said pulley is rotated, overrunning of said rotor feeding wire through said wire guide means at an -accelerated rate thus to disengage it from said pulley, and a member confining said wire against escape from a position relative to said pulley in which re-engagement therewith results when slack is eliminated.

4. A reel for so supporting a coil of wire that the coil may be unwound by pulling, said reel comprising supporting structure, a rotor having an annular, upwardly opening coil receiving holder and being rotatably supported by said structure, said rotor including a coaxial pulley rotatable therewith and located above a coil in said holder, wire guide means carried bysaid structure and including a flexible member for trailing over the coil and having an eye through which one end of the wire is fed, a portion having a transverse wire infeed disposed to receive said end and a tubular outfeed portion having its outfeed end adjacent said pulley and disposed relative thereto to establish an approximately tangential engagement of the wire therewith, and means frictionally guiding the wire after said wire leaves said pulley and spaced arcuately from the Zone of engagement of the wire as it comes from said guide means so that when wire is pulled through said frictional guiding means, said pulley is rotated, overrunning of said rotor feeding wire through said wire guide means at an accelerated rate thus to disengage it from said pulley.

5. The reel of claim 4 in which the infeed consists of two arcuately spaced arms each having a guide in the form of a transverse slot, the slits being of approximately the same length and the leading slot being wider than the trailing slot.

6. A reel for so supporting a coil of wire that the coil may be unwound by pulling, said reel comprising supporting structure, a rotor having an annular, upwardly opening coil receiving holder and being rotatably supported by said structure, said rotor including a co-axial pulley rotatable therewith and located above a coil in said holder, wire guide means carried by said structure and including a tiexible member for trailing over the coil and having an edge through which one end of the wire is fed `and having its outfeed end adjacent said pulley and disposed relative thereto to establish an approximately tangential engagement of the wire therewith, means frictionally guiding said wire after said wire leaves said pulley and spaced arcuately from the zone of engagement of the wire as it comes from said guide'means so that when wire is pulled through said outfeed, said pulley is rotated, overrunning of said rotor feeding wire through said wire guide means at an accelerated rate thus to disengage it from said pulley, and means confining the wire when disengaged from the pulley in position to re-engage therewith when the slack is used up.

7. A reel for so supporting a coil of Wire that the coil may be unwound by pulling, said reel comprising a housing, a rotor having an annular, upwardly opening coil receiving holder and being rotatably supported by said housing and electrically insulated therefrom, said rotor including a co-axial pulley rotatable therewith and located above a coil in said holder, wire guide means carried by said housing through which one end of the wire is fed and having its outfeed end adjacent said pulley and disposed relative thereto to establish an approximately tangential engagement of the wire therewith, and a wire straightener carried by said structure disposed to receive wire from said pulley and spaced arcuately from the zone of engagement of the wire as it comes from said guide means so that when wire is pulled through said straightener, said pulley is rotated, overrunning of said rotor feeding wire through said wire guide means at an accelerated rate thus to disengage it from said pulley.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,219,811 Friedman Oct. 29, 1940 2,246,840 Crane et al. June 24, 1941 2,680,710 Kenmore et al lune 8, 1954