US3556742A

US3556742A - Shaft puller

Info

Publication number: US3556742A
Application number: US790067A
Authority: US
Inventors: James A Benzing
Original assignee: US Plywood Champion Papers Inc
Current assignee: US Plywood Champion Papers Inc
Priority date: 1969-01-09
Filing date: 1969-01-09
Publication date: 1971-01-19
Anticipated expiration: 1988-01-19

Abstract

APPARATUS FOR PULLING A SHAFT FROM A ROLL OF PAPER THE APPARATUS INCLUDING A YOKE FOR ENGAGING THE END OF A SHAFT AND MEANS FOR MOVING THE YOKE AWAY FROM THE ROLL TO WITHDRAW THE SHAFT FROM THE ROLL.

Description

Jan. 19, 1971 J. A. BENZING 3,556,742

` SHAFT FULLER Filed Jan.v 9, 1969 2 sheets-sheet 1 I NVE NTR.

W 45W- /Bf www Jan. 19, 1971 J.A. BENzxNG 3,556,742

SHAFT FULLER Filed Jan. 9. 1969 2 sheets-sheet 2 United States Patent O U.S. Cl. 29-256 8 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Apparatus for pulling a shaft from a roll of paper the apparatus including a yoke for engaging the end of a shaft and means for moving thexyoke away from the roll to withdraw the shaft from the roll.

This invention relates to the papermaking industry and more particularly the invention is directed to apparatus for removing the shafts from Vrolls of paper.

By way of background, paper coming from a papermaking machine is many fee-t wide and it is wound upon a shaft. As wide as it is, lt is not particularly luseful for indus-try and therefore apparatus is provided for slitting the paper web and rewinding it onto smaller rolls. The apparatus for ythis slitting includes a stand for mounting the main unslit roll and two spaced stands for mounting two shafts onto which the'slit webs will be rolled. Between the main roll and the two spaced shafts are slitting knives which continuously cut the web, as it is drawn from the main roll, into smaller webs which are wound in alternating fashion -upon the two shafts.

It is the removal of the two shafts from the rolls of slit webs to which the invention is directed.

Prior to winding the slit webs onto the two shafts, the two shafts are dressed The dressing includes placing a collar on the pull end of the shaft, that is the shaft which will be engaged by the shaft puller. Then a cylindrical core is slid over the shaft to the position established by the collar. The slit webs will be wound upon the core.

Prior to the present invention, after winding the webs onto the shafts, the shafts were removed by hand. This has been a laborious and inefficient operation and hence an objective of the present invention is to provide apparatus for mechanically pulling the shafts from the rolls.

Another objective of the invention has been to rp rovide apparatus for pulling shafts from rolls wherein the apparatus supports the shafts at their pull ends and-- after they are partially removed at approximately the midpoint of the shafts to prevent their sagging and hence binding in the rolls. To the end of achieving this objective of the invention, it has been another feature of the invention to provide for the temporary removal of the support for the midpoint of the shaft so as to provide clearance for the collar on the pull end of the shaft to pass by that midpoint support.

It has been another objective of the invention to provide for a rapid and efficient height adjustment of the shaft puller whereby the shaft puller is adapted to accommodate itself to pulling shafts from various diameter rolls.

These and other objectives of the invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic top plan view of the papermaking and slitting apparatus with which the present invention is employed,

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic side elevational view thereof,

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the shaft pulling apparatus,

ice'

FIGS. 4, 5 and 6 are diagrammatic side elevational views illustrating the sequence of operations of the shaft puller, and

FIG.- 7 is a cross sectional view taken along lines 7-7 of FIG. 4 showing the ways along which the pulling and supporting elements move.

As shown in the diagramamtic illustration of FIG. l, the paper is -frst formed in a papermaking machine 10 and as it issues from the papermaking machine 10, it is wound as a roll 11 on shaft 12. The roll 11 is thereafter conveyed to the slitting apparatus illustrated at 13 wherein the ends of the shaft 12 are suitably supported. The web 14 of the main roll is fed past four slitting knives 15 to form live distinct narrower webs (for example) of desired widths. The number and widths of the webs will of course be determined by the requirement of the customers. Three of the webs 16 are wound upon a first shaft 17. The remaining two webs 18 which alternate with the webs 16 are wound upon a shaft 19.

As shown, eachshaft, before rewinding, has been provided with a collar 20 which is fixed to the shaft by a setscrew 21. The colla'r determines the position of a core 22 which is slid upon the shaft prior to the rewinding operation.

Adjacent the rewinding station 13 is a shaft pulling station which includes the shaft puller 25 of the present invention. A pair of troughs 26 are located adjacent the shaft puller, the troughs being adapted to receive the rolls, align them with respect to the shaft puller, and temporarily hold .them in position during the shaft pulling operation.

The crane has two sets of

hooks

29, 29a which are specially arranged to fulll the following:

When the entire assembly is in the rear position, hook 29a holds dressed shafts. The hooks 29 are located directly above

shafts

17 and 19. These

shafts

17 and 19 are picked up by hooks 29 and the entire assembly moved to the right so that

shafts

17 and 19 are directly above troughs 26 and, at the same time, dressed shafts are properly located above the shaft loading position of the rewinder. These rolls may be lowered to troughs 26 simultaneously with the shaft lowering into the rewinder. When these operations are complete the entire assembly is moved to the right so that the hooks 29a are located above the shaft puller to pick up newly dressed shafts.

The shaft pulling apparatus is best illustrated in FIG. 3. The apparatus is supported on a main frame 35 which is in turn mounted on wheels 36 which travel on rails 37 that permit the shaft puller to be moved to and from operative position with the rails maintaining precise alignment with the troughs 26 and hence the shafts. This precise alignment is advisable in order to prevent the bending and hence binding of the shafts as they are pulled.

The main frame 35 carries four vertical posts 39 at its corners .which in part support a pulling frame 40 to be described below. An anchor assembly 41 is mounted on two of the posts 39 and includes a horizontal anchor control rod 42 to which a control bracket 43 is fixed. The bracket pivotally supports the upper end of a bar 44 whose lower end is connected to a pin 45 which passes through a hole in the main frame 35. The pin is adapted to engage a hole in the floor to anchor the shaft puller in position. The vertical movement of the pin is effected simply by rotating the horizontal anchor control rod 42 which, through the bracket 43 moves the rod 44 and the pin 45 up and down.

The pulling frame 40 is threadedly secured to four elevating screws 48I which are rotatably mounted in the. posts 39. The simultaneous rotation of the elevating screws 48 causes the pulling frame to move up and down so as to accommodate the shaft puller to shafts from rolls of various diameters. At the lower end of each screw is a bevel 3 gear' 49 which is engaged by a cooperating gear 50 on each end of two horizontal adjusting shafts 51. A sprocket 52 is fixed to an end of each of the shafts 51 and a chain 53 passes over the sprockets to cause simultaneous rotation of the shafts 51. A crank 54 is fixed to one of the screws to cause its rotation. It can be seen that rotation of any one of the screws will, through the transmission effected by the shafts 51 and the chain 53 cause the rotation in the same direction of all elevating screws 48.

A forward yoke 60 and a rear yoke 61 are slideably mounted on T-slot tways in longitudinal frame members 62 which in part form the pulling frame. (See FIG. 7.) The forward or front yoke 60 is to provide midway support for the shafts being pulled and the rear yoke 61 is adapted to engage the pull ends of the shafts to effect the pulling of the shafts from the rolls.

The yoke 61 carries a pair of spaced threaded nuts 59 which are engaged by longitudinally extending pull screws 63. The pull screws 63 are journaled at each end in blocks 64 `fixed to the pull frame 40. Sprockets 65 are fixed to the rearward ends of the screw 63 each sprocket being engaged by a chain 66 which passes over a respective sprocket 67 on a shaft 68 of motor 69. The motor 69 is preferably an alternating current reversible ymotor which, through the sprockets and chains, is adapted to effect the simultaneous rotation of the pull screws 63 to effect the forward or rearward excursion of the yoke 61. The yoke 61 carries brackets or cradles 70 at its outer ends. The brackets are notched as at 71 to receive the ends 72 of the shafts to be pulled. Each shaft end is capped by a flange 73 which provides an abutment engageable by the cradle 70 to pull the shafts.

The yoke 61 has two holes 75 through which take-up rods 76 slideably pass. At each end of each take-up rod is a stop 77 which is engageable by the yoke 61 to carry the take-up rod with the loke as the yoke moves in a rearward direction. The opposite end of each rod is fixed to the front support yoke 60. The function of the takeup rods is to permit the pull yoke 61 to move rearwardly, carrying the

shafts

17 and 19 with it until each shaft is pulled approximately half the distance to remove it from the roll. At this point, the stops 77 are engaged and the pull rods pull the support yoke 60 along the vways in the frame 40 to permit the yoke 60 to provide continuous support for the

shafts

17 and 19 at approximately their rnidpoints.

The support yoke 60 is, as indicated, slideably mounted on the frame 40. It carries a bracket 55 at each end to provide support for the midpoint of each

shaft

17 or 19. It is important that the bracket 55 lie as close to the shaft as possible so as to minimize any sag which could cause binding of the shaft in its roll. It must be borne in mind however that the collar 20 is xed to the shaft and must pass beyond each bracket 55 before the yoke 60 begins to carry the brackets rearwardly. To this end, each bracket is mounted on an arm 56 which is pivoted at 57 on the end of the yoke 60. The arm may have a weight 58 at its lower end or may be spring biased to hold the arm normally in a vertical attitude bringing its Ibracket 55 into support position. The weight or resilient means however will permit the arm to rotate so as to permit each bracket 55 to swing rearwardly as the collar 20 passes by the bracket. After the collar has passed by the bracket the arm swings to a vertical attitude bringing the bracket to its normal position adapted to engage and support the midpoint of each shaft.

The pull frame has a rear limit switch 80 and a forward limit switch 81. The rear limit switch is engageable by the yoke 61 and the forward limit switch is engaged by the yoke 60. Each is effective to interrupt the circuit to the reversible motor `69 to stop the traverse of the yokes.

In the normal operation of the invention, it would be usual to have a run of a substantial number of rolls of the same diameter. Bearing this in mind, the first step in the operation of the invention is to bring the shaft puller into position and to lower anchor pin 45 into a hole in the floor to fix the shaft puller in its position. Thereafter the crank 54 is rotated to raise or lower the pull frame 40 until its yokes and brackets are in an upper position to receive the

shafts

17 and 19 projecting from rolls supported in the troughs 26. The main frame normally will be maintained at that position throughout the run. AS t0 succeeding rolls, of the sarne diameter, the crane 27 simply brings the rolls into a position over the troughs and eases them into the troughs with the ends of the shaft settling into position in their respective brackets.

With the shafts engaged by the brackets, the motor 69 is operated to rotate the pull screws 63 and to cause the yoke 61 to move rearwardly. This phase of the operation is illustrated in FIG. 4. Also as illustrated in FIG. 4, a collar 20 is passing by the bracket 55 on the front or support yoke causing the bracket to swing rearwardly to permit the collar to pass. As the rearward excursion is continued, the yoke 60 engages the stop 77 on the end of each take-up rod 76 to effect the rearward movement of the take-up rods. The take-up rods pull with them the front or support yoke with its brackets in a position to engage approximately the midpoint of each shaft as it begins to sag under its own weight.

As rearward movement is continued, the shaft is pulled from its roll and is fully supported on the brackets of the respective front and rear yokes. At about this time, the rear yoke 61 engages limit switch 80 and turns off the motor 69.

The shafts thus supported on the shaft puller are dressed with new cores to receive a new set of rolls. When this is completed and the rolls 18 removed from the trough, the anchor pin 45 is raised and the entire assembly is rolled on rails 37 to the center of the machine underlying the crane. There the crane hooks 29a pick up the newly dressed shafts. The shaft puller is now rolled to its original position and anchor pin 45 locked.

Thereafter, the motor 69 is reversed and the lead screws carry the yokes back to their original starting position. When the starting position is reached, front yoke engages limit switch 81 to turn off the motor 69'. The apparatus is thus ready to receive the next set of rolls.

I claim:

1. A puller to remove elongated shafts from a roll comprising,

a pulling frame having a forward end positionable adjacent the shafts to be pulled,

a rear yoke mounted on said frame for movement in a horizontal plane,

a front yoke mounted adjacent the forward end of said frame,

each said yoke carrying at least one shaft receiving bracket,

means for moving said rear yoke rearwardly to pull a shaft from its roll,

the brackets on said front yoke receiving said shaft as it is withdrawn from its roll.

2. A shaft puller according to claim 1 in which each said yoke has two transversely spaced brackets to receive two transversely spaced shafts,

and power means for moving said rear yoke rearwardly.

3. A shaft puller according to claim 1 in which said power means comprises a pair of transversely spaced threaded nuts fixed on said yoke, a pair of longitudinally extending screws threaded into said nuts, a motor, and means drivably connecting said motor to said screws.

4. A shaft puller according to claim 3 wherein said motor is reversible, and limit switches mounted on said frame at each end of the excursion of said y oke for engagement thereby to interrupt the circuit to'said motor upon engagement.

5; A Shaft Puller according to claim l fu'rther comprtsmg,

5 a main frame, four vertical screws mounted on said main frame, said screws being threaded into four holes in said pulling frame, and means for rotating said screws simultaneously to raise and lower said pulling frame. 6. A shaft puller to remove elongated shafts from a roll comprising,

a frame having a forward end positionable adjacent the shafts to be pulled, a rear yoke mounted on said frame for movement in a horizontal plane, means for moving said rear yoke rearwardly to pull a shaft from its roll, a front yoke mounted adjacent the forward end of said frame, each said yoke carrying at least one shaft receiving bracket, means for moving said front yoke rearwardly after said rear yoke has moved approximately half its shaft pulling distance. 7. A shaft -puller according to claim 6 wherein said front yoke moving means comprises an elongated rearwardly projecting take-up rod fixed to said front yoke, and

slidably engaging said rear yoke, cooperating stop means of said rear yoke and rod respectively to effect engagement of said rod by said rear yoke after said rear yoke has moved half its rearward distance.

8. A shaft puller according to claim 6 adapted to pull a shaft having collar on the end adjacent said shaft puller, said front yoke bracket being mounted on the upper end of an arm said arm being mounted on said yoke to pivot about a horizontal transverse axis, and means normally urging said arm to a position in which said bracket is at the upper end of said arm in a position to receive said shaft, whereby said bracket can be swung out of the way of said collar before said front yoke begins its rearward movement.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 6/1961 Grove 269--60 8/ 1969 Hildebrand 29-256