US3098249A

US3098249A - Scrubbing and drying machine for flexible sheets

Info

Publication number: US3098249A
Application number: US146791A
Authority: US
Inventors: Arthur J Tice; Arnold D Wallace
Original assignee: SMC Corp
Current assignee: SMC Corp
Priority date: 1961-10-23
Filing date: 1961-10-23
Publication date: 1963-07-23
Anticipated expiration: 1980-07-23

Description

y 1963 A. J. TlCE ETAL 3,098,249

SCRUBBING AND DRYING MACHINE FOR FLEXIBLE SHEETS Filed Oct. 23, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 a! 4 I flm'ow 0. Wane:

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3,093,249 SCRUBBTNG AND DRYENG MACHINE F011 FLEXIBLE HEETS Arthur J. Tice and Arnold 1). Wallace, Golden, Clo., assignors, by mesne assignments, to SMC Corporation, Denver, (1010., a corporation of Colorado Filed 0st. 23, 1961, Ser. No. 146,791 (Zlairns. (Cl. 15-4) T his invention relates to a machine for washing, scrubbing and drying flexible plastic sheets and is more particularly designed for removing the score markings from the plastic bowling score cards as used in present bowling lanes and generally known as telescores.

Telescores are elongated transparent plastic cards with two aligned series of game boxes printed thereon. The telescores are positioned over light boxes and a light is projected upwardly therethrough to project the score on a screen as the game progresses. The players enter their scores in the printed boxes with Wax crayon pencils. It is a rather expensive procedure to provide new telescores for each game and it is an exceedingly timeconsuming task to remove the markings therefrom.

The principal object of this invention is to provide an economical and highly eflicient machine for use by bowling lanes into which a stack of used telescores may be placed and which will rapidly and individually feed the used telescores through a washing, scrubbing, drying and polishing operation and rapidly return the used telescores in a clean, dry, renewed condition ready for instant reuse.

Other objects and advantages reside in the detail construction of the invention, which is designed for simplicity, economy, and efficiency. These will become more apparent from the following description.

In the following detailed description of the invention, reference is had to the accompanying drawing which forms a part hereof. Like numerals refer to like parts in all views of the drawing and throughout the description.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a top plan View of the telescore renewing machine of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a right side elevational view thereof;

'FIG. 3 is a longitudinal vertical section through the machine, taken on the line 3-3, PIG. l; and

FIG. 4 is a cross section taken on the line 4-4, FIG. 3.

.The path of the telescores through the machine is indicated by the dash-dot-arrowed line in FIG. 3.

The machine is assembled in a box-like frame having a right side wall and a left side wall 11 maintained in separated parallel relation by a rear end wall 12 and a forward end wall 13. The bottom of the frame is closed by a bottom plate 16. An inclined feed chute 14- extends inwardly and downwardly between the side walls from the top of the rear end wall 12 and an inclined delivery chute 15 extends inwardly and downwardly from the end wall 12, below the chute 14, to the bottom plate 16.

A stack of telescores, indicated at 17, is held in place on the inclined feed chute 14 between guide strips 61 by means of a vertically movable gate 18 extending between two gate arms 19 pivoted to the

side walls

10 and 11, as shown at 26. A feed shaft 21 extends between the gate arms 19 above the gate 18 and carries feed rollers 22 which rest upon the forward extremity of the uppermost telescore in the stack so that counter-clockwise rotation of the feed shaft 21 will cause the feed rollers 22 to sweep the uppermost telescore 17 forwardly into the machine. The feed rollers and the gate gradually descend as the stack of telescores lowers.

The forward edge of the entering telescore strikes the downwardly moving side of a first guide roller 23 which forces it downwardly between that roller and a second Efihbl lg Patented July 23, 1963 ice guide roller 24 and against a third guide roller 25. The third guide roller 25 bends the telescore and projects it rearwardly into the scrubbing portion of the machine.

The scrubbing portion of the machine employs a solution roller 26, the lower portion of which is submerged in a detergent solution 27 contained in a solution pan 23 extending between the

side walls

10 and 11 and the forward end Wall 13.

The solution roller 26 normally contacts an upper scrubbing roller 29 and feeds cleaning solution thereto. The upper scrubbing roller 29 also normally contacts a lower scrubbing roller 30 also immersed in the detergent solution 27.

The telescore is forced by the grip of the

guide rollers

24 and 25 beneath the upper scrubbing roller 29 and over the solution roller 26 thence over the lower scrubbing roller 3%) and between two wringer rolls 31 and 32 so that the telescore is thoroughly scrubbed on both sides.

The wringer rolls feed the telescores between two flexible-edged wipers or squeegees 62 which wipe any excess solution drops from the surfaces. The squeegees extend between the side walls to which they are secured by means of suitable attachment screws 63. From the squeegees the telescores enter between two traveling,

absorbent belts

33 and 34 which are trained about a pair of upper belt rollers 35 and a pair of lower belt rollers 36, respectively. An inclined drip plate 66 is positioned below the wringer rolls, squeegees and belts to return removed solution to the solution pan 28.

The

belts

33 and 34 feed the telescores against the downwardly rotating side of an upper polishing roller 37 which bends them downwardly against the downwardly moving side of a lower polishing roller 38. The latter roller bends the telescores forwardly onto the delivery chute 15 and piles them in the receiving box 39, as shown in FIG. 3.

The

belt rollers

35 and 36 are formed of relatively solid rubber or resilient plastic. The feed rollers 22, the

guide rollers

23, 24 and 25, the solution roller 26, the wringer rollers 31 and 32 and the

polishing rollers

37 and 38 are preferably formed of a relatively thick soft cylinder of sponge rubber or plastic foam or similar compressible material so as to be relatively soft and resilient to prevent scratching or marring of the telescores. The compressible cylinders are mounted upon and surround core shafts which for convenience in the drawing are designated by prime numbers corresponding to their respective roller numbers. The

polishing rollers

37 and 38 preferably have a larger diameter than the

belt rollers

35 and 36 so that they will move at a greater surface speed than the

belts

33 and 34 to produce a frictional or polishing effect on the telescores. The scrubbing rollers 29 are sponge rubber or plastic foam rollers covered with tufted fabric such as carpeting so as to be solutionabsorbent and to produce a brushing or scrubbing effect. The

belts

33 and 34 are formed from endless strips of absorbent fabric such as turkish toweling or similar tufted absorbent material. The feed rollers 22 and the

guide rollers

23, 24 and 25, rotate at a slower speed (say 30' rpm.) than the

scrubbing rollers

29 and 30, the

belt rollers

35 and 36 and the polishing rollers 37 and 38 (say 60 rpm.) so as to produce differential speeds between the surfaces of the traveling telescores and the scrubbing, drying and polishing roller surfaces.

The rollers may be driven in any satisfactory conventional manner. As illustrated, they "are driven through suitable gears, chains and belts from a conventional reduction gear drive motor mounted in the frame between the

side plates

10 and 11 and below the delivery chute 15. The motor shaft projects outwardly through the right 3 side wall 10, as shown at 40 in FIG. 2, and terminates in a motor chain sprocket 42.

In the embodiment illustrated, an endless drive chain 41 extends from the motor sprocket 42 to a driven sprocket 43 on the shaft 31 of the upper wringer roll 31. The latter shaft is provided with a drive gear 44 which meshes with a driven gear 45 on the shaft 32 of the lower wringer roll 32 to drive the latter in the opposite direction.

A chain drive sprocket 46 is also mounted on the shaft 32' to drive an endless transmission chain 47 which is trained round a sprocket 48 on the shaft 36 of one of the lower belt rollers 36 thence round a sprocket 49 on the shaft of the third guide roller 25 and thence over a sprocket 50 on the shaft 29' of the upper scrubbing roller 29.

The drive sprocket 46 is of larger diameter than the driven sprocket 43 so that the transmission chain 47 moves at higher linear speed than the drive chain 41. The sprocket 49 is the same diameter as the drive sprocket 46 so that the

rollers

25 and 32 move at the same speed. The

sprockets

48 and 50 are smaller than the drive sprocket 46 so that the

rollers

36 and 29 travel at a higher speed than the

rollers

25 and 32.

Power is transmitted at 1 to 1 ratio from a drive gear 51 on the shaft 25 to driven gears 52 on the shafts 23' and 24 of the

guide rollers

23 and 24. Power is transmitted at 1 to 1 ratio to the shaft 26' of the solution roller 26 and to the shaft of the lower scrubbing roller 30 from the shaft 29 through the medium of three intermeshed gears 53 on these respective shafts.

The upper belt rollers are driven from one to one intermeshing gears 54 on the shafts 35' and 36' respectively. The shaft 35 also carries a chain sprocket 55 which drives, through the medium of short end-less chain 56, a sprocket 57 on the shaft 37 of the upper polishing roller 37 and a sprocket 58 on the shaft 38 of the lower polishing roller 38 to rotate the two polishing rollers in the same direction.

The shaft 37 of the upper polishing roller also carries a belt pulley 59 from which a flexible-crossed belt 60 extends round a belt pulley 64 on the feed shaft 21 to drive the feed rollers 22 forwardly at their bottoms. The side wall 10 has a vertical slot 65 for the feed shaft 21 to allow the latter to rise and fall in correspondence with the height of the stack of telescores on the feed chute 14.

In actual use the working elements would be preferably enclosed in a protective cover which for the sake of clarity of illustration has not been shown since it forms no part of the invention. Other arrangements of gears or belts or chains could be used by one skilled in the art to transmit the desired rotation to the various rolls.

While a specific form of the improvement has been described and illustrated herein, it is to be understood that the same may be varied within the scope of the appended claims, without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Having thus described the invention what is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

1. A machine for cleaning the surfaces of flexible plastic sheets comprising: an inclined feed chute for re ceiving a stack of said sheets; means for feeding the sheets individually forward from said stack; a pair of guide rollers receiving the sheets from said feeding means and directing them downwardly; a third guide roller receiving the sheets from said pair of guide rollers and directing them rearwardly; a solution roller; a first scrubbing roller receiving the sheets from said third guide roller and contacting one side of and urging the sheets against said solution roller; a second scrubbing roller contacting the other side of said sheets and urging them against the first scrubbing roller; said scrubbing rollers operating at a greater peripheral speed than said guide rollers, a pair of wringer rolls between which the sheets are received from said second scrubbing roller; a pair of juxtaposed absorbent belts between which said sheets are received from said wringer rollers; means for driving said rollers to impart travel to said sheets; means for supplying cleaning solution to said solution roller; and means for successively receiving and piling the sheets received from said belts.

2. A machine for cleaning plastic sheets as described in claim 1 in which the means for supplying cleaning solution comprises a solution pan positioned below said solution roller to partially submerge said roller in solution contained in said pan.

3. A machine for cleaning plastic sheets as described in claim 1 in which the means for receiving the sheets from said belts comprises a first polishing roller positioned below the discharge of said belts and rotating in a direction to bend the discharging sheets downwardly and a second polishing roller positioned below the first polishing roller and receiving and turning the sheets forwardly to a receiving receptacle below said rollers.

4. A machine for cleaning plastic sheets as described in claim 1 having a pair of flexible squeegee blades positioned between said wringer rolls and said belts between which said sheets pass to exert a wiping action on both faces of said sheets.

5. A machine for cleaning plastic sheets as described in claim 1 in which the means for feeding the sheets individually forward comprises a gate arm pivoted at its rear extremity and extending forwardly at each side of said stack of sheets; a gate plate extending between and supported by said gate arms forwardly of and preventing forward movement of said stack; a feed roller journalled between said gate arms and resting upon the uppermost sheet in said stack to support said arms and gate plate; and means for rotating said feed roller forwardly at its bottom to sweep the uppermost sheet forwardly over said gate plate.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,586,905 Leightlitner June 1, 1926 FOREIGN PATENTS 27,425 Great Britain of 1903

Claims

1. A MACHINE FOR CLEANING THE SURFACES OF FLEXIBLE PLASTIC SHEETS COMPRISING: AN INCLINED FEED CHUTE FOR RECEIVING A STACK OF SAID SHEETS; MEANS FOR FEEDING THE SHEETS INDIVIDUALLY FORWARD FROM SAID STACK; A PAIR OF GUIDE ROLLERS RECEIVING THE SHEETSD FROM SAID FEEDING MEANS AND DIRECTING THEM DOWNWARDLY; A THIRD GUIDE ROLLER RECEIVING THE SHEETS FROM SAID PAIR OF GUIDE ROLLERS AND DIRECTING THEN REARWARDLY: A SOLUTION ROLLER; A FIRST SCRUBBING ROLLER RECEIVING THE SHEETS FROM SAID THIRD GUIDE ROLLER AND CONTACTING ONE SIDE OF AND URGING THE SHEETS AGAINST SAID SOLUTION ROLLER; A SECOND SCRUBBING ROLLER CONTACTING THE OTHER SIDE OF SAID SHEETS AND URGING THEM AGAINST THE FIRST SCRUBBING ROLLER; SAID SCRUBBING ROLLERS OPERATING AT A GREATER PERIPHERAL SPEED THAN SAID GUIDE ROLLERS, A PAIR OF WRINGER ROLLS BETWEEN WHICH THE SHEETS ARE RECEIVED FROM SAID SECOND SCRUBBING ROLLER; A PAIR OF JUXTAPOSED ABSORBENT BELTS BETWEEN WHICH SAID SHEETS ARE RECEIVED FROM SAID WRINGER ROLLERS; MEANS FOR DRIVING SAID ROLLERS TO IMPART TRAVEL TO SAID SHEETS; MEANS FOR SUPPLYING CLEANING SOLUTION TO SAID SOLUTION ROLLER; AND MEANS FOR SUCCESSIVELY RECEIVING AND PILING THE SHEETS RECEIVED FROM SAID BELTS.