United States Patent Douche-Gay Sept. 12, 1972 [54] REINFORCING ROD-MACHINE [72] Inventor: Pierre Douche-Gay, Buenos Aires,

Argentina [73] Assignee: American Engineering Company Limited 22 Filed: March 15,1971

21 Appl.No.: 124,007

52 US. 01 ..140/63, 140/65 51 1m. (:1. .321125/00 [58] Field ofSearch ..140/58, 62, 63, 65

' [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 520,459 5/1894 Swanbum ..140/63 727,210 5/1903 Schnabel ..140/63 2,681,084 6/1954 Sommerville ..140/63 3,396,759 8/1968 Donche- Gay ..140/58 Primary Examiner-Lowell A. Larson Attorney-Peter L. Tailer 57 ABSTRACT A machine for the manufacture of reinforcing rod having spaced apart flattened portions wound with turns of smaller diameter rod has a pair of constantly turning forming rollers which feed the rod between them and form the spaced apart flattened portions and the machine has a reciprocating winding head which winds turns about the flattened portions of the rod while advancing with the rod. A drive for the forming rollers rotates cams which oscillate a yoke which reciprocates the winding head. The drive for the forming rollers also, through sprockets and a chain, rotates the winding head arbor. The chain driving the winding head arbor incorporates a spring chain tightener to compensate for the oscillation of the winding head. The reciprocation of the winding head causes a sector gear on the winding head engaging a fixed rack to drive rod metering rollers which extend smaller diameter, rods to be wound about the flattened portions of the reinforcing rod.

3 Claims, 13 Drawing Figures PATENTED SEP 1 2 I972 SHEEY 2 OF 3 alflllllllillll llllllll II FIG. 3

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F|G l2 ATTORNEY REINFORCING ROD MACHINE CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION I To manufacture the reinforcing rod of the above identified patent application, a particularly strong and rugged machine is required that is easily adjusted and set up to deform and wind turns about relatively heavy rod. This invention supplies such a machine.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a longitudinal, vertical section through the reinforcing rod machine of this invention with a lower portion broken away;

FIG. 2 is a horizontal section taken on line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a section taken on line 3'-3 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a section taken on line 44 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a section taken on line 5-5 of FIG. 4 showing the drive mechanism for feed rollers of the winding head;

FIG. 6 is a horizontal section through elements of the winding head showing details of its construction;

FIG. 7 is a longitudinal, vertical section through a broken away end of the winding head arbor showing extended fingers winding smaller diameter rods about a flattened portion of a reinforcing rod;

FIG. 8 shows drive elements for the upper set of feed rollers of the winding head;

FIG. 9 is a side view of a length of reinforcing rod 1 with windings thereon shown in section;

FIG. 10 is a side view of a length of reinforcing rod with windings thereon;

FIG. 11 is a side view of a modified length of reinforcing rod with one winding thereon shown in section;

FIG. 12 is a section'taken on line l2-12 of FIG. 11; and,

FIG. 13 is a longitudinal, vertical section through fragments of forming rollers passing a reinforcing rod therethrough.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the machine of this invention has a rectangular frame with a front wall 21, end walls 22 and 23, and a top wall 24. Rear walls 25 and 26 and intermediate wall 27 form a wider drive housing 28 of the machine and a narrower winding headportion 29.

Main drive shaft 30 is journalled in front and rear walls 21 and 26 and has the drive pulley 19 for multiple V-belts mounted on it outside frame 20. Spur gear 31 mounted on shaft 30 drives a larger spur gear 32, shown in phantom lines in FIG. 1, which is mounted on shaft 33. Shafts 33 and 34, which are linked by meshing spur gears of the same size (not shown) have the fonning rollers 35 and 36 mounted on them. As may be seen in FIG.v 13, the forming rollers 35 and 36 deform the cylindrical rod 37 as shown in FIGS. 11 and 12 by flattening short lengths 38 between short unflattened portions 39 and 40. The longer lengths 41 between portions 39 and 40 are also preferably flattened to provide easier handling of the finished rod.

Referring further to FIGS. 1 and 2, a pair of earns 42 and 43 are mounted on shaft 30. Shaft 44 mounts a cam follower shaft yoke 45 which has one arm 46 mounting follower 47 riding on cam 42 and another arm 48 mounting follower 49 riding on cam 43. The cams 42 and 43 impart a controlled oscillating motion to yoke 45 which, by means of the link 50, oscillates winding head 18. Winding head 18 is mounted on and formed about the winding head plate 51 which is slidably mounted in the guides 52 and 53 which are most clearly shown in FIG. 4. The link 50 is adjusted as to length by rotating its central portion 54 about the oppositely threaded ends 55 and 56. This adjustment enables the winding head 18 to have its oscillations positionedin relation to deformed portions 38 of the constantly moving rod 37 to wind turns 121 thereon as will be described.

A sprocket 57 on shaft 30 drives sprocket 58 on shaft 59 by means of a chain 60 and a chain tension idler sprocket 61. Shaft 59, as shown in FIG. 2, mounts a sprocket 62 which may be used to drive a large diameter rod take-up reel (not shown). It also mounts sprocket 63 which drives sprocket 64 by means of chain 65. Since sprocket 64 is mounted on the oscillating winding head plate 51, the distance between the sprockets 63 and 64 will constantly vary to some extent.

.A chain tension device is shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 to keep a constant tension on chain 65 as the winding head plate 51 reciprocates. Two arms 66 and 67 are rotatably mounted on shaft 59 and carry the idler sprockets 68 and 69 at their ends. A connecting rod 70 and a compression spring 71 urges the ends of the arms 66 and 67 together to maintain a constant and even tension on chain 65 As shown in FIG. 2, sprocket 64 is mounted on shaft 72 which carries bevel gear 73 driving bevel gear 74 of winding head shaft 75. As may be seen in detail in FIG. 6, shaft 75 mounts a large spur gear 76 which extends through winding head plate 51 to drive spur gear 77 of winding head arbor 78. A barrel cam 79 mounted on the back of spur gear 80 oscillates link 81 which has follower 82 mounted thereon. By means of shaft 83 which mounts both link 81 and link 84, projection 85 of link 84 longitudinally reciprocates winding finger shaft 86 once for each rotation of shaft 75. Projection 85 extends between the annular flanges 87 and 88 of the hollow winding finger shaft 86 which is slidably mounted on arbor 78 so that teach reciprocation of shaft 86 extends and retracts the winding fingers 89.

The end of shaft 75 carries an eccentric 90' from which a follower 91' slidably extends to mount the smaller diameter winding rod cut-off knives 92. As shown in FIG. 7, the rod forming rollers 35 and 36 feed rod 37 through arbor 78 until a flattened portion 38 extends past the arbor 78. As reciprocation of winding head plate 51 matches the speed of rod 37, fingers 89 extend to wind projected ends of the smaller diameter rods 93 about the flattened portion 38.

As shown in FIGS. 1, 4 and 5, a rack gear 91 is mounted on the machine frame 20. A sector gear 92 which drives ratchet wheel 95 with each motion of winding head plate 51 in one direction. Shaft 93 carries sprocket 96 which drives sprocket 97 by means of chain 98. As may be seen in FIG. 8, sprocket on shaft 100 turns bevel gear 101 meshing with bevel gear 102 on shaft 103 carrying gear 108 and the smaller diameter rod feeding roller 104. Gear 107 on shaft 106 meshes with gear 108 on shaft 103 to drive feeding roller 105. The shafts 103 and 106 are journalled in a housing 109.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, gear 110 on shaft 100 drives gear 111 by means of idler gears 112 and 113. Gear 111 drives the feeding rollers 115 and 116 which are mounted on shafts (not shown) journalled in housing 117. The rollers 115 and 116 are driven by means of a gear train similar to that shown by FIG. 8. Guides 118 and 119 direct smaller diameter rod to the sets of feed rollers 104 and 105 and 115 and 116.

As shown in FIG. 7, the smaller diameter rods 93' are fed through guides 120 and 121 to be wound and then cut off by the laterally moving knives 92 moved by eccentric 90. The smaller diameter rods 93'- of FIG. 7 form the windings 121 shown in FIGS. 9-11. As shown in FIGS. 9 and 10, rod 37 may be left unflattened between windings 121; however, the flattening of the portions 41 as shown in FIGS. 11 and 12 enables the rod to be-coiled and handled more easily.

It is to be noted that with each turn of shaft 30 winding'head -18 oscillates once, winding fingers 89 extend andretract as arbor 78 rotates several times to wind the turns 121, feed rollers 104 and 105 and 115 and 116 feed out smaller diameter rod for the next winding 121, and eccentric 90 cuts off the completed winding 121. The speed of winding head 18 to the left as shown in FIGS. land 2 matches the speed forming rollers 35 and 36 pass rod 37 therebetween. Link 50 is adjusted so .that each winding 121 is made about a flattened portion 38.

Referring to FIG. 2, a rod 125 is fixed to winding head plate 51 to reciprocate with it. Rod 125 terminates in a piston 126 within a cylinder 127. The ends 128 and 129 of cylinder 127 may be turned in or out to position the compression springs 130 and 131 to help overcome inertia of winding head 18 at each end of its oscillations.

The combined elements and mechanisms of this reinforcing rod machine provide a rugged apparatus for the rapid production of relatively heavy reinforcing rod.

What is claimed is:

l. A machine to make reinforcing rod having spaced apart flattened portions and windings of smaller diameter rod'about the flattened portions, said machine comprising, in combination, a machine frame, first and second shafts journalled in said frame, forming rollers mounted on said first and second shafts, said forming rollers having circumferential portions forming spaced apart flattened portions on a reinforcing rod passing therebetween, a third driven shaft mounted on said frame, first transmission means on said third and said second shafts so that said third shaft drives said second shaft, gear means on said first and second shafts so that said second shaft drives said first shaft, first and second cams on said third shaft, a yoke pivotally mounted on said frame said yoke havin two arms and followers thereon engaged by said firs and second cams so that rotation of said first and second cams with said third shaft oscillates said yoke, a fourth shaft mounted on said frame, second transmission means on said third and fourth shafts so that said third shaft drives said fourth shaft, a slidably mounted winding head on said frame above said fourth shaft, a link of adjustable length connecting said yoke to said winding head oscillating said winding head on said frame, a fifth shaft on said winding head parallel to said fourth shaft, third transmission means on said fourth and fifth shafts so that said fourth shaft drives said fifth shaft, a longitudinal sixth winding head shaft, bevel gears on said fifth and sixth shafts so that said fifth shaft drives said sixth shaft, feed rollers on said winding head for smaller diameter rod passing smaller diameter rod therebetween, guides and cutoff knives on said winding head for smaller diameter rod, a third cam on said sixth shaft, means moved by rotation of said third cam moving said knives cutting off said smaller diameter rod, a hollow seventh winding head shaft through which reinforcing rod passes after being intermittently deformed by said forming rollers a large drive gear on said sixth shaft, a smaller driven gear on said seventh hollow winding head shaft driven by said large drive gear, winding fingers slidably mounted on said winding head shaft, a fourth cam on said large drive gear on said sixth shaft, means moved by said fourth cam extending and retracting said winding fingers to wind smaller diameter rod about flattened portions of said reinforcing rod, and means driving said smaller diameter rod feed rollers during oscillation of said winding head .to feed lengths of smaller diameter rod through said guides to be wound, said winding head oscillating to move with said reinforcing rod at the same speed as said reinforcing rod.

2. The combination according to claim 1 wherein said means driving said smaller diameter rod feed rollers comprises a rack gear on said frame, at least a sector gear on said winding head engaging said rack gear, a rachet and a rachet wheel on said winding head one of which oscillates with said sector gear driving the other intermittently in one direction, and fourth transmission means connecting said smaller diameter rod feed rollers to said rachet and rachet wheel intermittently driving said smaller diameter rod feed rollers.

3. The combination according to claim 2 wherein said third transmission means on said fourth and fifth shafts comprises chain sprockets on said fourth and fifth shafts, a chain connecting said sprockets, two arms pivotally mounted on said fourth shaft, idler sprockets on said arms riding on said chain on each side thereof, and spring means urging said arms together maintaining even tension on said chain as said winding head reciprocates.