US2984429A

US2984429A - Single rollstand web handling machine

Info

Publication number: US2984429A
Application number: US701249A
Authority: US
Inventors: William F Huck
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1957-12-06
Filing date: 1957-12-06
Publication date: 1961-05-16
Anticipated expiration: 1978-05-16

Description

y 1961 w. F. HUCK 2,984,429

SINGLE ROLLSTAND WEB HANDLING MACHINE Filed Dec. 6, 1957 F192 a0 INVENTOR:

W. F. Hucz United States Patent SINGLE ROLLSTAND WEB HANDLING MACHINE William F. Huck, Forest Hills, N.Y. (81 Greenway Terrace, Forest Hills, NY.)

Filed Dec. 6, 1957, Ser. No. 701,249

4 Claims. (Cl. 242-751) This invention relates to web-handling machinery, and more particularly to devices for winding or unwinding a web of material from or to a roll which is in operative relation to a rollstand.

In machines for processing continuous webs of material, such as paper or the like, it is necessary that provisions be made for unwinding the web material from a supply roll (or winding it upon a take-up roll) and for handling the rolls in proper relation to the other operations. The quality of the operations that are performed upon the moving continuous web is dependent in great measure upon the speed and tension of the moving web being kept as constant as possible. In the printing art, for example, it is of the utmost importance that the speed of the web as well as the tension be kept within close limits, so that the finished product will be of high quality, and spoilage (due to poor register, web breakage or other causes) will be kept to a minimum. Since the inertia of a large and heavy roll of paper or similar web material varies widely with its changing diameter, and since its rotational speed also varies with respect to the linear speed of material payed out or taken up, the maintainance of good tension regulation requires fairly close control of the speed of the supply or take-up roll. Even if more precise tension regulators follow the supply roll location, the tension control at the supply or take-up point must be adequate to keep the web tension within the control range of such precision regulators.

In addition to the problem of constant speed and tension of the web as it is being rolled or unrolled, there is the problem of handling the heavy roll of the web material either when the roll is about to be unwound and processed, or when the web has been completely processed and is ready to be removed from the machine. The prior art machines of this type have required separate devices to move the heavy roll of material into operative position either at the start or completion of the operating cycle.

It is an object of this invention to provide a novel web winding or unwinding machine that includes a completed or full roll lifting device in combination with a web tensioning and feed mechanism to maintain the travelling web at a tension and speed that are constant within certain predetermined limits.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a web winding and unwinding machine that will maintain the web speed and tension constant within certain predetermined limits, and in which the web is either wound or unwound by means of a moving continuous belt that contacts the periphery of the supply or take-up roll for the Web.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a web winding and unwinding device in which the web is removed from or wound upon a roll by means of a moving continuous belt in surface contact with the rolled web, and in which the speed of the moving belt is automatically controlled by the tension of the web being fed.

Briefly, the machine of the present invention accomice plishes its objects by an arrangement in which the web is fed to or from a take-up or supply roll by an endlessmoving belt which is maintained against the web at a constant pressure, and in which the speed of the belt is controlled by the tension of the web itself. The same mechanism provides means for lifting and lowering a full web roll into or out of contact with the endless belt for transfer of the roll to or from the floor level, truck, elevator or the like, and including fluid pressure mechanism for moving the full roll of the web material to or from the endless belt driving means. The mechanism operates preferably by means of fluid pressure for lifting or lowering the full roll of the web material, and which fluid pressure means also maintains the web in constant pressure contact with the endless belt feed device, as the diameter of the roll changes, by altering the elevation of the roll center-line in a controlled progressive manner.

The foregoing and other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent when the following specification is read in conjunction with the attached drawings, in which:

Figure l is a side elevation view, with certain nonessential portions omitted, of a web handling machine which embodies this invention.

Figure 2 is a top view, partly in section, of the machine illustrated in Figure l.

The embodiment of this invention that will now be described is capable of handling rolls of material such as paper, cloth and webs of other material. In addition, although the description and operation of the preferred embodiment of the invention will be directed mainly to the handling of a full roll of web material that is to be unwound and processed further, it is to be understood that this invention will operate in just as satisfactory a manner in the handling of a web which is being wound upon a roll after it has been processed in a desired manner.

This invention may be incorporated in the frame of an existing machine for the processing of a continuous web, or it may be added as a separate machine to be set up adjacent an existing web processing machine, as for example, a printing press. Referring now to the drawings, the reference numerals 10 and 12 designate the side frame members of the machine. As just stated, these side members may be those of an existing machine such as a printing press which is to perform certain operations upon the web, or the side frame members 10 and 12 may be those of a separate rollstand. A supply roll of web material that is to be unwound, and the web fed to a processing location or locations, is designated by the reference numeral 14. The supply roll 14 is wound around a hollow core piece 16 having cone ends 18 and 20.

The hollow core piece 16 is mounted for free rotation about a spindle shaft 22 which is located transversely of the side frame members 10 and 12 of the machine. Flanged

sleeve bearings

24 and 26 which abut the

coneshaped end members

18 and 20 are provided to reduce the friction of rotation of the roll 14. The spindle shaft 22 extends beyond the

sleeve bearings

24 and 26, the ends of the shaft having clamped thereon a pair of

movable support arms

28 and 30. One of the hinged clamps is illustrated in Figure 1 and designated 32. These clamps are of the quick release type including a screw 34 and a Wing nut 36, the screw being pivoted as at 37 and received in a slotted end of clamp 32.

Each of the

movable support arms

28 and 30 is formed as a lever rotatable about a pivot located a short distance from one end of the arm. Since the

movable arms

28 and 30 are identical in structure but located at opposite ends of the spindle shaft 22, only one of the movable arms need be described. The lever or supporting arm is a unitary element formed of a long arm 38 and a short arm 40, the lever being mounted to rotate with a transverse supporting shaft 44. The shaft 44 supports both of the

movable lever arms

28 and 30 and is journalled in the side frame members and 12 by means of suitable sleeve bearings, so that both arms will move together.

To impart movement to the

movable lever arms

28 and 30, and to support the core piece 16 with its web supply roll 14 thereon, there is provided a pair of fluid pressure cylinders, one mounted on each of the side frame members 10 and 12. The two pressure cylinders are identical in structure, one of them being shown in the drawings and designated 46. The fluid pressure cylinder is provided with the usual piston having a piston rod 48 extending from the lower end ofthe cylinder, and provided with a connectinglink 50. The connecting link 50 has a forked .end 52 bored to receive therethrough a connecting pin 54 which also passes through the end of the short arm 40 of the movable lever 28. The cylinders, which are mounted for limited pivoting motion on the side frame members, are supplied with fluid under pressure through a supply line 55 having a gauge 59 and an adjustable regulating valve.57 so that the pressure of the fluid within the cylinders may be set at the desired value.

In this invention the web is either unwound from or wound upon the core piece 16 by means of an endless moving belt 56 which contacts the web upon the roll 14 over a considerable arc. The fluid pressure cylinders 46 maintain the web roll 14 at a constant pressure against the endless moving belt 56 so that the web which is being unwound or wound upon the core piece 16 is urged in the desired direction of travel by a force which is applied over aconsiderable area and length of the web being handled, and less danger of the endless moving belt 56 being ruptured because of fluctuations in contact pressure between roll 14 and belt 56. In this way there is less danger of the web being torn or ripped because of a purely tensile force applied to it. Since the pressure cylinders assure that the web roll 14 is being urged against the endless moving belt 56 at a constant pressure, the rate of feed of the web either from or to the roll upon the core piece 16 does not vary as the diameter of the roll 14 varies. The endless moving belt 56 passes around

pulleys

58, 60, and 62 as seen in Figure 1. The belt 56 may be made in any width that is desirable, it being obvious that the wider the belt, the greaterthe web area that will be contacted to apply the moving'force to feed the web in the desired direction. The

pulleys

58 and 60 are mounted on

shafts

64 and 66 respectively, the shafts being mounted transversely in the side frame members 10 and 12. The pulley 62 is mounted upon the transverse shaft 68 which is situated lower'than the shafts 64'and 66 in order that the endless belt 56 may-wrap around a considerable arc of the web supply roll 14.

The web being unwound from the supply roll 14 is designated W and is caused to follow a serpentine path as it is being unwound. As it leaves the supply roll 14, the web W is fed downwardly around a roller 70 which is mounted upon a transverse shaft support in the side .frame members 10 and 12. From the roller 70 the web W then travels laterally to pass around a floating roller 72. Reversing direction, the web W passes around a roller .74 to a roller 76, then vertically as to a roller 78 to be fed from themachine in any desired direction. The rollers '74, 76, and 78 are, like the roller 78, mounted upon:transverse shafts supported in the side frame members 10 and 12. The

rollers

70, 74, 76, and 78 are fixed with respect tothe machine frame, whereas the floating roller 72 is movable with respect to rollers '78 and 74in a manner to be described. The'ends of the roller 72 are supported ormounted upon a pair of crank arms 8tl and 82 each of which is supported on and pivots with.awtransverseashaft 84 supported by the side frame members 10 and 12. As seen in Figure 1, the roller 72 is mounted between the lower ends of the crank arms and 82, so that as the

crank arms

80 and 82 are rota-ted with the pivot shaft 84 the roller 72 will move either towards or away from the

rollers

70 and 74. The upper end of the crank arm 82 carries an idler roller 86 for a purpose to be described presently. The crank arms are biased to urge the roller 72 in a direction away from the

rollers

70 and 74 so that the web being unwound from the supply roll is kept under tension. The biasing of the roller 72 is accomplished by .means of a spring 88 which is connected for example to the crank 82 by means of pin 90. The other end of the spring 88 is anchored to the machine frame by means of an adjustable threaded anchor bolt 92.

The moving endless belt 56 used to unwind the web from the supply roll is powered by means of a V-belt 94driven by a \I -b elt pulley 96. The V belt 94 passes around the power pulley 96 and then around avariable speed pulley 98 mounted upon the shaft 68 which also carries the endless belt roller 62. The V belt power pulley 96 isaflixed to one end of a stub shaft 100 mounted in the side frame member 12. The other end of the stub shaft 100' has mounted thereon .a bevel gear 102 which mesheswith a gear '104,that is driven'by the main process machine or some other available source of power. The movement of the crank 82 in a clockwise direction because of increased web tension acting through the roller 72 will cause the pressure roller 86 to be urged up against the outside of the lower pass of the V-belt 94 as seen clearly in Figures 1 and 2. Increased pressure by the roller 86 upon the Vbelt 94 will decrease the effective length of the V belt 94 and thus cause the variable speed pulley 98 to expand axially so that the belt 94 runs on asmaller radiusof pulley 98. This increases the rotational speed of the pulley 98 causing the endless belt 56 to travel at a greater speed. Unwinding the web from the supply roll 14 at the greater speed will compensate for any increase in web tension that was sensed by themovement of the web roller 72 in a clockwise direction.

In the operation of this invention as it is used for the unwinding of a full roll of web material to be fed to some processing station, the full supply roll 14 of the web material, as indicated in dotted lines in Figure 1, has been moved to the machine and is resting on the flood or a carriage. After the shaft 22 has been fitted into the center of the full roll 14, the ends of the shaft are clamped to the

movable support arms

28 and 30 by means of the clamps 32. The supply rollisgready to be moved upwardly into its full-line position against the endless belt '56 after the web has been threaded around the

rollers

70, 72, 74, 76 and 78. The pressureregulating valve 57 is then opened, permitting the fluid under pressure to enter the feed line 55 and each ofthe actuating cylinders 46. The short end 40 of each of the crank arms 28 is pushed downwardly, pivoting the upper end 38 and thus lifting the supply rollto contact the endless belt 56. The pressure gauge 59 indicates the magnitude of the pressure within the actuating cylinders 46, and may be calibrated in terms of contact force between the web supply roll 14 and the endless belt 56. Since the fluid pressure within the actuating cylinders 46 is maintained constant, the supply roll 14 willalways be urged against the endless belt 56 at the same pressure regardless of the diameter of the roll as it is being unwound. The actuating cylinders will urge the supply roll 14 upwardly against the endless belt 56 at a constant pressure throughout the entire unwinding procedure. The location of supportingshaft 44 and cylinders 46, and the varying turningmoments about shaft 44 occurring during unwinding are all proportioned so that constant pressure within cylinders 46 is converted to a constant contact pressure between/belt 56 and the surfaceof roll 14 at all operating positions of the

support arms

28 and 30.

If during the unwinding of the web from the supply roll 14 there is an increase in web tension to the right side of the unit, the floating roller 72 carried on the lower end of the crank arm 80 will be rotated clockwise about the pivot shaft 84. This will cause the idler roller 86 to be forced up against the lower reach of the V belt 56, decreasing its effective length, forcing the variable speed pulley 98 to expand, and thereby increasing its rotational speed which is imparted to the endless belt 56 and the unwinding web. In this way any increased tension in the web is compensated by the speeding up of the web unwinding from the supply roll. The magnitude of the web tension as it is being unwound may be controlled by the tension of the biasing spring 88. A reduction in outgoing web tension will produce a corrective lowering of the unwinding speed in the same manner.

The operation of this machine for the winding of a web upon a core after the web has been processed is obvious, being the reverse of the operation just described. The leading edge of the web is taken from the last processing step and is threaded around the

rollers

78, 76, 74, 72 and 70 and then wrapped for a few turns around the core piece 16 which is already mounted and clamped to the

movable arms

28 and 30. The valve 57 is opened to admit fluid under pressure to each of the pressure cylinders so that the core piece is urged up against the endless belt 56 at the required pressure, and the power then turned on to drive the endless belt 56 in a direction opposite to that used for the unwinding process described above. The web then is wound upon the core piece 16, the speed and the tension of the web being kept within the desired limits as explained above in connection with the operation of the machine in the unwinding procedure. When the roll 14 has reached the desired dimension the power is shut off, the web is cut, and the fluid under pressure in the cylinders is permitted to escape slowly; for example, valve 57 may have a release position. With the pressure in the cylinders slowly reduced, the

movable support arms

28 and 30 will pivot about the shaft 44 bringing the full roll 14 slowly downward until it rests on the floor or carriage .as shown in dotted lines in Figure 1.

During rewind operation, the machine is arranged just as shown in Figure 1, except of course that the lower run of V-belt 94 must be moved so as to pass under idler roller 86 at the upper extension of crank arm 82, to assure the desired response of the variable speed drive to tension changes.

Having set forth the preferred embodiment of the invention, and having explained its mode of operation, I wish it to be understood that many changes and modifications may be made in the apparatus without departing from the spirit of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A continuous web unwinding machine comprising a web supply roll, fluid pressure means for moving said web supply roll through an are from an inoperative position to an operative position, endless belt means for contacting said web on said supply roll, means for moving said endless belt so that the web is unwound from said supply roll, said fluid pressure means also acting to continuously support and urge said supply roll against said endless belt at a regulated pressure to move said roll toward said belt as said web is being unwound and said supply roll decreases in diameter, and means for controlling the speed of said endless belt in accordance with the tension of the web being unwound from said supply roll.

2. In a continuous web handling machine, the combination comprising a core for a web supply roll, a pair of movable support arms for said web supply roll core, fluid pressure cylinders for moving said movable support arms through an are from an inoperative position to an operative position, an endless belt for contacting said web supply roll over a considerable peripheral extent thereof, a variable speed drive means for operating said endless belt means, tension sensing means for the web at a point removed from said web roll, said sensing means being operative to change the speed of said variable speed drive means in proportion to the changes in web tension, whereby said endless belt is driven at a speed proportional to the tension of the web, said fluid pressure cylinders also acting to continuously urge said movable support arms toward said endless belt at a regulated pressure, whereby said movable support arms are continuously movable toward and away from said belt to accommodate changes in the diameter of said web roll as web material is payed out or taken up.

3. In a continuous web handling machine, the combination comprising, a web roll, a machine frame, a pair of pivoted support arms mounted on said frame for moving said web roll in an are from an inoperative position to an operative position within said frame, a pair of fluid pressure cylinders mounted upon said frame for actuating said pivoted support arms, an endless belt for contacting said web roll to impart motion to the web, a variable speed drive for driving said endless belt, a plurality of rollers over which the web passes, one of said rollers being a web tension sensing roller, said last named roller having connected therewith means acting upon said variable speed drive when the web undergoes a change in tension to cause said drive to change speed whereby a change in web tension is corrected by a change in the speed of the web, said fluid pressure cylinders also acting to continuously urge said web roll toward said endless belt at a regulated pressure, whereby said web roll is continuously movable toward and away from said endless belt to accommodate changes in the diameter of said roll as Web material is payed out or taken up.

4. In a continuous web handling machine, the combination comprising a web roll, a machine frame, a web roll drive means, and a single means for raising said web roll from a lower inoperative position to an elevated operative position to continuously urge said web roll with constant pressure against said web roll drive means, said single means including a pair of pivoted support arms, a pair of fluid pressure cylinders for actuating said sup port arms, said web roll drive means comprising an endless belt contacting said web roll over a large are on the upper periphery thereof, a variable speed drive for driving said endless belt, and a web tension sensing means, said web tension sensing means arranged to act upon said variable speed drive to vary the speed of said endless belt in accordance with changes in tension of the web, whereby the speed of the endless belt is varied to compensate for changes in web tension, and said single means is continuously movable with respect to said endless belt to accommodate changes in the diameter of said web roll as web material is payed out or taken up.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,621,736 Scruggs et al. Dec. 16, 1952 2,670,907 Huck Mar. 2, 1954 2,710,153 Baumrucker et al. June 7, 1955 2,837,293 Clem June 3, 1958 FOREIGN PATENTS 251,297 Great Britain Oct. 21, 1926