US3537831A

US3537831A - Grinding and polishing mechanism

Info

Publication number: US3537831A
Application number: US765450A
Authority: US
Inventors: Allen K Foster
Original assignee: Hemphill Co
Current assignee: Hemphill Co
Priority date: 1968-10-07
Filing date: 1968-10-07
Publication date: 1970-11-03
Anticipated expiration: 1987-11-03
Also published as: BE739908A

Description

GRINDING AND POLISHING MECHANISM I Filed Oct. 7,1968 ZSheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR ALLEN KFOSTER M 4 41], 1 6 v Q ATTORNEY Nov. 3, 1970 A. KQFOSTER I 7 3,537,331

GRINDING AND POLISHING MECHANISM- Filed 001;. '2, I968 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 as 3'! s3 W /K\((\/Q? A .s dv 39 34 3 I .7 INVENTOR v ALLEN K. FOSTER BY 0M MM ATTORNEY US. Cl. 51--145 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A mechanism for grinding and polishing the cylindrical surfaces of rotating cylindrical members by means of a rotating endless belt which is adapted to be moved into contact with and traverse the full width of said cylindrical members.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to a mechanism for grinding and polishing the circumferential surface of cylindrical members, such as cylinders, drum rollers or the like, and more especially it pertains to a means for truing to uniform height and refinishing card clothing that has been fixedly assembled about the peripheral surface of such members.

The known forms of grinding mechanisms for truing and refinishing the so-called wire teeth of card clothing are of the traverse type. Although these grinders perform their function with some degree of satisfaction, they leave a great deal to be desired with regards to maintaining uniformity in the height of the teeth across the full span of the cylinders which the grinder must travel.

Additionally with this type of grinder, the amount of time required to satisfactorily true or refinish the wire teeth of carding rolls or cylinders is considered excessive. With the grinding element traversing the width of a rotating cylinder, the path of the grind is in the form of a helix and requires a great number of passes by said grinding element and rotations of said cylinder to remove the traces of the grind and to provide uniformity in tooth height.

Traverse grinding is considered a more costly operation than is economically desirable for due to the complexity of design of these mechanisms, they require the talents of a craftsman Well skilled in the art for proper and accurate set-up thereof.

The grinding and polishing mechanism according to the instant invention provides a relatively inexpensive apparatus that is compact, portable, requires a minimum of maintenance, simplified set-up procedure for precision grinding and which is capable of accomplishing its intended function in substantially less time than the known grinding and polishing mechanisms of the prior art.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The grinding and polishing mechanism of the present invention utilizes a horizontally disposed endless belt that serves as a carrier for the grinding or polishing elements adapted to act upon the peripheral surface of carding rolls or cylinders. This belt is supported for rotation by a plurality of rotatable pulley members mounted in spaced relation on a supporting frame that is adjustably slidable toward and away from the outer surface of the cylinders. One of the pulley members serves as a driver and two serve as guide pulleys having a belt guide platen extending therebetween. The length of the guide platen is greater than the length of a cylinder and is disposed so the ends thereof are tangent with the outer peripheral surfaces of the pulley members between which it is mounted. The belt member is caused to move about the pulley members and United St Pawn o along the longitudinal extent of the outer surface of the belt guide platen. The complete assembly is carried by the supporting frame and the latter being movable in a horizontal plane, permits that portion of the belt which travels along the length of the platen to be moved into contact with the outer surface of the carding rolls or cylinders as they are caused to rotate.

With the rotating belt contacting the full width of the rotating cylinders, the uniformity of grind upon the socalled carding teeth is easily controlled and the period of time required to complete a cylinder is substantially decreased relative to the known methods of traverse grindmg.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the grinding and polishing mechanism according to the invention showing the position of cylinder effected by said mechanism.

FIG. 2 is a section taken along line 2-2 of FIG. 1 and FIG. 3 is a section taken along line 33 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view in exploded form showing the means for supporting and adjusting the drive pulley for causing the endless belt to track in desired locations on the periphery of the pulley members.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 only those components of the grinding and polishing mechanism have been shown which are required for a description of the invention including a supporting frame having a configuration substantially triangular and which is depicted generally by numeral 10. Rotatable pulley members 11, 12 and 13 are carried on the upper surface of the supporting frame 10 by means of vertically disposed

shafts

14, 15 and 16 respectively. These shafts are journaled in bearing members such as the single pillow block 17 shown in FIG. 1.

The pulley members are rotatably carried by their respective shafts with one being supported in each corner of the triangular configuration of the supporting frame 10'.

An endless belt 18 serves as a carrier for the grinding or polishing elements adapted to engage the outer surface of carding rolls or cylinders, one of which is shown in FIG. 1 at 19. Although not shown a means is provided for supporting cylinder 19 for rotation in the position illustrated and said supporting and rotating means is carried by a stand structure partially shown and identified in FIG. 1 by numeral 20.

Pulleys 11 and 12 are freely rotatable and pulley 13 is driven by means of a motor 21 which is connected to said pulley 13 by means of a universal type connection 22 and a telescopic type of drive shown in FIG. 1 by cooperating members 23 and 24.

As shown in FIG. 1 the endless belt 18 passes about and engages each of the pulley members 11, 12 and 13 and said pulley member 13 is adjustable in a horizontal plane toward and away from the other of said pulleys to facilitate removal, assembly and adjustment of the belt.

The supporting frame 10 includes a pair of centrally located

channel members

25 and 26 that are disposed in spaced and opposed relation and

form guide tracks

27 and 28 in which a pulley support member 29 is adjustably slidable. This pulley support member is of rectangular configuration having spaced side runners 30 and 31 (FIGS. 1 and 3) which are receivable into and movable within

channel members

25 and 26, respectively. A plate element 32 forms one end of the pulley support member 29 and provides a vertical surface to which the pillow blocks 17 for supporting pulley 13 are fixedly assembled (FIGS. 1 and 4).

The opposite end of the pulley support member 29 is interconnected by a tie bar 33 having a cross sectional configuration that is generally L shaped. This tie bar 33 is provided with a centrally disposed and horizontally extending threaded hole 34 (FIG. 3) which is in axial alignment with an aperture not shown in a cross bar 35 that extends parallel with and in spaced relation to said tie bar 33. The ends of the cross bar 35 are fixed by any suitable means, such as by welding to

channel members

25 and 26.

A threaded rod 36 is adapted to assemble in the threaded hole 34 provided in the tie bar 33 and extending in a horizontal plane it passes through and beyond the aperture in the cross bar 35. The aperture in the cross bar 35 is larger than the diameter of the threaded rod 36 and permits the latter to be turned freely therein by means of a wheel type crank 37 which is fixed to that end of said threaded rod which extends beyond said aperture. To prevent longitudinal movement of the threaded rod 36 in this aperture said rod is provided with check nuts 38 (one only shown in FIG. 1) on each side of the cross bar 35.

By rotating the threaded rod 36 in one direction of the other, the tie bar 33 is moved longitudinally and the latter forming a part of the pulley support member 29 moves said member a sufiicient distance to either assemble, remove or adjust the belt 18 on the pulley members.

A belt guide platen 39 traverses the distance between pulley members 11 and 12 in a plane tangent to the outer peripheral surfaces of said pulley members. This platen 39 is supported above the supporting frame by means of a pair of spaced arm members 40 and 41 which extend from said platen in a plane normal to the longitudinal extent thereof. These arm members 40 and 41 extend in the direction of the pulley member 13 and being disposed above the supporting frame 10 are in vertical alignment with channel members and 26 respectively. The arm members are fixedly positioned above the channel members by means of spacers 42 and bolts 43 the latter of which extend through said spacers and aligned holes (not shown) in said arms and channel members.

That portion of frame 10 which carries pulley members 11 and 12 is adjustably attached to the stand structure 20 in such a manner so as to place the belt guide platen 39 in close proximity With the outer peripheral surface of the cylinder 19. The outer end of the supporting frame 10 is carried by any suitable means (not shown) such as a stand arranged to permit horizontal movement of said supporting frame.

The means for adjustably attaching the supporting frame 10 to the stand structure 20 includes a pair of spaced viselike adjustment devices generally indicated in FIG. 1 by

numerals

44 and 45. Both of these devices are of like construction and perform the same function and for purpose of brevity only device 45 will be described which illustrates in FIG. 1 all of the components which it includes. This adjustment device includes a generally rectangular block 46 which is fixedly attached to the underside of the supporting frame 10 by any suitable means such as by welding. Block 46 is provided with a centrally disposed and longitudinal extending threaded hole (not shown) having assembled therein a threaded rod 47. A block guide of L shape configuration and identified generally by numeral 48 is fixedly attached to the stand structure 20 and serves to support the block 46 for horizontal movement on a guiding track 49 that forms an integral part of its horizontally extending leg 50. The vertical extending leg of the block guide 48 is depicted by numeral 51 and includes an aperture (not shown) through which the threaded rod is adapted to extend. The aperture in leg 51 is of larger diameter than the threaded rod 47 and permits the latter to be turned freely therein. To prevent longitudinal movement of the threaded rod 47 in this aperture, collar members 52 (one only shown in FIG. 1) are fixed on said rod and in contiguous relation with the sides of vertical extending leg 51. The outer end of the threaded rod 47 has a knob 53 assembled thereon for selectively turning said rod in a desired direction to effect movement of block 46 in a horizontal plane.

Pulley 13 which provides the rotary motion for causing the endless belt 18 to travel in the manner described above, also includes a means for angular adjustment thereof, thereby providing a means for permitting said belt to track at predetermined positions on the peripheral surface of the pulley. This means allows nearly the entire surface of the belt to be utilized and FIG. 4 illustrates in exploded form the various components of one form of device that may be employed. The pillow blocks 17 are fixedly attached to a face plate 54 by means of cap screws 55 that are adapted to be received by threaded holes 56 in said face plate (FIG. 4). The face plate 54 also includes a pair of tapped holes 57 which are in horizontal alignment and disposed adjacent the upper end thereof. The plate element 32 is provided with a pair of apertures 58 that are in alignment with the tapped holes 57 in the face plate and by means of screws 59 passing through said apertures and into said tapped holes, said face plate is securely attached to said plate element.

A tapped hole 60 is provided in the lower central portion of the plate element 32 and is adapted to receive an adjusting screw 61 therein on which a lock nut 62 assembles.

A pair of

shim members

63 and 64 are positioned intermediate the plate element 32 and the face plate 54 and are disposed so as to permit the screws 59 to pass therethrough. The end of the adjusting screw 61 is caused to bear against the lower end of the face plate 54 and by simply turning screws 59 in one direction or the other and then tightening the adjusting screw 61, the face plate can be fixedly positioned in a number of angular positions. A very slight angular adjustment of the face plate 54 in one direction or the other away from its vertical position causes the endless belt 18 to track partially off center of the pulley members thereby permitting greater utilization of said belts abrasive surface.

In operation, pulley 13 serves as a driver causing the endless belt 18 to travel about the pulley members and across the outer surface of the belt guide platen 39. By simply turning the knobs of the

adjustment devices

44 and 45 the belt guide platen can be moved into or out of engagement with the outer peripheral surface of the cylinder 19. Cylinder 19 is rotating at a lesser speed than the speed at which the endless belt is caused to travel. With this arrangement the entire width of the cylinders outer surface which makes contact with the belt is acted upon and provides a greatly improved means of grinding the wire teeth of card clothing to an accurate and uniform height. Additionally the grinding and polishing mechanism ac cording to the invention requires a substantially less number of revolutions of the cylinder in order to obtain the desired finished result.

I claim:

1. A mechanism for grinding and polishing the cylindrical surfaces of a rotatable cylindrical member having its axis mounted in a horizontal plane which comprises (a) a supporting frame,

(b) an endless belt mounted in a generally horizontal plane in said frame and extending in part along the full length of said cylindrical member,

(c) a belt guide platen mounted adjacent said part and on the side of said belt opposite the cylindrical member, and

(d) means for rotating said endless belt.

2. The grinding and polishing mechanism according to claim 1 wherein said supporting frame includes adjustment devices for movement thereof toward and away from said cylindrical member.

3. The grinding and polishing mechanism according to claim 2 wherein adjustment devices comprise block members fixed to said supporting frame and movable in a horizontal plane by threaded rods assembled therein.

4. The grinding and polishing mechanism according to claim 1 wherein said supporting frame includes a plurality of pulley members rotatably mounted in spaced relation thereon for supporting said endless belt.

5. The grinding and polishing mechanism according to claim 4 wherein said means for rotating said endless belt includes a motor member with telescopic drive members universally connected to and in driving relation with one of said pulley members.

6. The grinding and polishing mechanism according to claim 5 wherein the pulley member in driving relation with said motor includes an adjustment means for causing said endless belt to track about predetermined locations on the outer periphery of said pulley members.

7. The grinding and polishing mechanism according to claim 6 wherein said telescopic drive members include References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,431,795 12/ 1947 Elmes 51141 2,469,735 5/1949 Lindsay et al 51-141 3,145,509 8/1964 Heesemann 51141 WILLIAM R. ARMSTRONG, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 5 1242