US3721397A

US3721397A - Automatic reel mounting device for a continuous winding machine

Info

Publication number: US3721397A
Application number: US00089944A
Authority: US
Inventors: H Hori; S Kosuge; T Matsunaga; E Someya
Original assignee: Japan Steel Works Ltd
Current assignee: Japan Steel Works Ltd
Priority date: 1969-11-25
Filing date: 1970-11-16
Publication date: 1973-03-20
Anticipated expiration: 1990-03-20
Also published as: JPS504072B1

Abstract

EMPTY REELS RESTED ON THE INCLINED RAILS ARE AUTOMATICALLY ROLLED DOWN ONE BY ONE UPON RECEIPT OF A STARTING SIGNAL. IN THE COURSE OF SUCH ROLLING THE REEL IS STOPPED TO REST ON A REEL-LIFT, WHICH RAISES THE REEL TO THE POSITION WHERE IT IS HELD BETWEEN DRIVE AND DRIVEN DISCS OF A CONTINUOUS WINDING MACHINE TO BE ROTATED FOR TAKING UP WIRE ON IT, WHILE A FULLY TAKEN UP REEL HELD BETWEEN ANOTHER SET OF DISCS OF THE MACHINE IS LOWERED BY ANOTHER REEL-LIFT FROM THE WINDING POSITION OF THE MACHINE ONTO THE INCLINED RAILS AND HENCE ROLLED DOWN TO A REEL STACKING AREA NEAR THE END OF THE RAILS.

D R A W I N G

Description

March 20, 1973 HIROSHI HORI ET A ,3 7

AUTOMATIC REELrMOUNTING DEVICE FOR A CONTINUOUS WINDING MACHINE Filed Nov. 16, 1970 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG.

iiilhiiw FIG. 3

HIROSHI HORI, SHOJI KOSUGE, TOSHIO MATSUNAGA and EISHICHI SOMEYA,

INVENTORS ATTORNEY March 20, 1973 HIROSHI HORI ET AL 3,721,397

AUTOMATIC REEL MOUNTING DEVICE FOR A CONTINUOUS WINDING MACHINE Filed Nov. 16, 1970 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 HIROSHI HORI,

SHOJI KOSUGE,

TOSI-IIO MATSUNAGA and EISHICHI SOMEYA,

INVENTORs ATTORNEYS United States Patent O 3,721,397 AUTOMATIC REEL MOUNTING DEVICE FOR A CONTINUOUS WINDING MACHINE Hiroshi Hori and Shoji Kosuge, Yokohama, Toshio Matsunaga, Yokosuka, and Eishichi Someya, Yokohama, Japan, assignors to Japan Steel Works Ltd., Tokyo,

Japan Filed Nov. 16, 1970, Ser. No. 89,944 Claims priority, application Japan, Nov. 25, 1969, ht/94,523 Int. Cl. B65h 17/02 US. Cl. 242-67.l R 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Empty reels rested on the inclined rails are automatically rolled down one by one upon receipt of a starting signal. In the course of such rolling the reel is stopped to rest on a reel-lift, which raises the reel to the position where it is held between drive and driven discs of a continuous winding machine to be rotated for taking up wire on it, while a fully taken up reel held between another set of discs of the machine is lowered by another reel-lift from the winding position of the machine onto the inclined rails and hence rolled down to a reel stacking area near the end of the rails.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to an automatic reel mounting device for a continuous winding machine, and more particularly to an automatic reel mounting device for such a continuous winding machine that continuously takes up on reels an insulated conductor immediately after a conductor is extruded with an insulating covering over it e.g. by an extrusion covering machine.

Recently, much progress has been seen in such automatic reel mounting devices; but, with a mounting increase in the winding speed, the replacement of reels becomes so frequent that the conventional reel mounting devices can no longer cope with such frequent replacements of reels.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an automatic reel mounting device for a continuous winding machine which can automatically carry out the supply, mounting, dismounting and receiving of reels for a continuous winding machine with a much higher speed than previously attained.

The automatic reel mounting device of the present invention is preferably composed of a pair of inclined rails for rolling reels thereon by their own weight. The rails are provided with two sections along their longitudinal direction which are made movable orthogonally to the rails for stopping or receiving a reel at these sections, and there is further provided a reel-lift at each of these sections to support the reel thereon. The reel-lifts are made to be actuated to raise an empty reel to the taking up position of the winding machine disposed directly above the reellift or to lower the fully taken up reel from the taking up position of the machine onto the inclined rails.

Patented Mar. 20, 1973 In the automatic reel mounting device of the present invention, when the automatic reel mounting device is used in a continuous winding machine which continuously takes up a wire alternately on two reels respectively disposed directly above each of the lifts, an empty reel rolling down the inclined rails is caused to be stopped at one of the movable sections of the rails by displacing such movable section from the position aligning with the inclined rails, or to be passed through the other of the movable sections by aligning such other movable section with the inclined rails. When the empty reel is stopped at a movable section, the reel-lift is adapted to be moved upwards to raise the empty reel to the taking up position of the continuous winding machine, and the other reel-lift is adapted to be moved downward from the taking up position to lower the fully taken up reel onto the inclined rails and the reel is rolled down on the inclined rails to a storing area near the end of the rails. And these operations can be done automatically and sequentially by the provision of appropriate means such as limit switches at desired positions in the courses of the movements of the reels and the reel-lifts etc. Accordingly, if a number of the empty reels are stored on the inclined rails outside the continuous winding machine, they are automatically fed one by one to the taking up position of the winding machine upon receipt of a signal indicating that a fully taken up reel has 'been led to the storing area near the end of the inclined rails, and at the same time, a fully taken up reel is dismounted from the winding machine.

Thus it will be appreciated that, according to the present automatic reel mounting device, the mounting and dismounting of the reels are carried out automatically, securely and yet with a higher speed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS This and other objects of the present invention will become more apparent to those skilled in the art when considered in reference to the following detailed description in the light of the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatical view of a continuous winding machine providing an embodiment of an automatic reel mounting device according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatical view of an embodiment of an automatic reel mounting device according to the present invention; and

FIG. 3 is a partial cross sectional view of the device shown in FIG. 2 taken along the line IIIIII thereof.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT It will be recognized that all of the figures of the drawings are in part schematic in order to permit an understanding of the invention without showing and describing unnecessary details.

Referring now to FIG. 1 of the drawings, there is diagrammatically shown a continuous winding machine providing an automatic reel mounting device according to the present invention. A pair of inclined rails 4 are disposed underneath a continuous winding machine M. When a fully wound reel 2 rolls down along the inclined rails 4 and actuates a limit switch 3 to indicate that it has just passed through the switch, one of the empty reels 1 stored at the top of the inclined rails 4 is allowed to be rolled down along the inclined rails 4 by a reel supplying device of any known type (not shown). At the same time, a movable rail section A formed in the inclined rails 4 at a position directly below one of the two taking up positions (A) of the continuous winding machine M is actuated to arrest the reel 1 as shown at position A, then the empty reel 1 is raised to the taking up position A by a reel-lift disposed below the rail section (to be described in more detail below) and after the reel is held at the taking up position A by a reel holding device, as shown by 1' the reel-lift alone is lowered to the initial positon. At this state, on a reel 5 locating at the other taking up position B of the winding machine M is a wire 6 which is fed through a guide 7 and guided by a traverser 8 moving back and forth along the axial direction of the reels. Upon completion of the taking up on the reel 5, the winding of the wire 6 is switched to the reel 1' by any known means. After the reel 5 stops rotating, it is received on another reel-lift previously raised from another movable rail section formed in inclined rails 4 directly below the taking up position B and then lowered toward the inclined rails 4 to the position B. When this other reel-lift is lowered below the inclined rails 4, the reel 5 is placed on the inclined rails 4 and rolled downwardly thereon. After actuating the limit switch 3, it is received on the storing area near the end of the rails (not shown).

Upon actuation of the limit switch 3, the following empty reel 1 stored on the inclined rails is caused to be rolled down to the position B to be raised to the taking up position B of the machine M by the reel-lift. When the reel -1 at the taking up position A is fully wound, the winding is switched to the empty reel 5 located at the winding position B and at the same time the fully wound reel 1' is lowered onto the rails 4 by the reel-lift.

Thus, by repeating the above operations alternately, the mounting or dismounting of the reels to the continuous winding machine is automatically and yet continuously carried out with a higher speed.

An embodiment of the automatic reel mounting device according to the present will be fully explained in reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

In the figures, a shows an empty reel at one of the movable sections;

b, d show stationary inclined rail sections and c is a movable inclined rail section adapted to be moved back and forth by an air cylinder 9. 10 shows one of the reellifts having bifurcated arms to support a full or empty reel thereon. The reel-lift 10 is movable orthogonally the direction of the rails by an air cylinder 12 carried by a bracket 11, which is in turn movable up and down along an upright mast 30 of the continuous winding machine M through a chain 15

engaging gears

31 and 32, gear 31 being driven by a motor 13, through a reduction gear 14, a gear 33, and a chain 34.

On the continuous winding machine M there is further provided a reel holding device for holding the reel under compressive force which comprises, for example, a driving shaft 16, a driving disc 17, a driven disc 18 and a sleeve 20 shiftable by an air cylinder 19 mounted to the frame of the winding machine M. In FIG. 2, 21 and 22 show limit switches for stopping the motor 13 respectively at the predetermined lower and uper limited positions; 23 and 24 show limit switches for indicating the holding and releasing states of the reel holding device respectively.

Having thus described the elements comprising a preferred embodiment of a device according to the present invention, its operation will now be briefly described in reference to FIGS. 1 to 3.

Upon actuation of the limit switch 3 which issues a signal that a fully wound reel 2 has passed thereby, one of the empty reels 1 on the inclined rails 4 outside the continuous winding machine M is forced to be rolled down along the inclined rails 4 by the reel feeding device (not shown). Simultaneously one of the movable rail sections c is moved by the air cylinder 9 at a right angle to the inclined rails 4, that is, in the direction that the movable rail section 0 is moved out of alignment with the statlonary rail sections b and d so that the empty reel (1 falls down onto the respective reel-lift 10 and is thereby stopped. Then, after the lapse of a predetermined time determined by a timer, the reel-lift 10 begins to be raised by the chain 15 driven by the motor 13 through the reduction gear 14, whereby its bifurcated arms pass through the gaps formed between the stationary rail section b, d and the movable rail section c. When the reel-lift 10 reaches the position of the upper limit switch 22, it is stopped due to the resultant stopping of the motor 13. At the same time, both the air cylinder 19 for holding the reel and the air cylinder 12 for moving the reel-lift 10 are actuated, and the empty reel a is held under a compressive force between the driving disc 17 and the driven disc 18. When the limit switch 24 for indicating that the reel is in the held state is actuated, the reel-lift 10 is lowered and the movable rail section 0 is moved to the initial or normal position aligning with the stationary inclined rail sections b and (1. Upon reaching the position of the lower limit switch 21, the reel-lift 10 is stopped.

On the contrary, in the case of the dismounting of a fully wound reel from the winding machine M, after the reel ceases the winding of the wire, the reel-lift 10 on the side of the fully wound reel is raised to receive the reel, and actuates the uper limit switch 22. At the same time the driven disc 18 as well as the sleeve 20 is operated by the holding air cylinder 19 and the reel-lift 10 by the air cylinder 12. When the air cylinder 19 actuates the limit switch 23 to indicate that the reel is released, the lift 10 having the fully wound reel thereon is lowered to the position of the lower limit switch 21, stops and leaves the reel on the movable rail section c which has previously returned to the initial position shown at c in FIG. 2. Thus the fully wound reel left on the movable rail section c rolls down by its own weight due to the inclination of the rails, and, after it actuates the limit switch 3, it is stored near the end of the rails.

It will also be appreciated that the mounting and the dismounting of the reels is automatically taking place at the positions A and B alternately.

It is to be understood that although a form of this invention has been illustrated and described, it is not to be limited thereto except insofar as such limitations are included in the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. An automatic reel mounting device for a continuous winding machine, said device comprising a pair of inclined rails positioned beneath said continuous winding machine, said rails including stationary inclined rail sections separated at different positions along the length thereof by movable inclined rail sections; means associated with a pair of said movable inclined rail sections to move said pair of movable inclined rail sections horizontally transverse to the length of said inclined rails to selectively bring said pair of movable inclined rail sections into or out of alignment with said stationary inclined rail sections; each of said pair of movable inclined rail sections being positioned below a winding position of said continuous winding machine; a reel-lift aligned with each of said pair of movable inclined rail sections, each said reel-lift having means for supporting a reel used in said continuous winding machine; and means operatively associated with each of said reel-lifts for selectively moving said supporting means vertically from a first position below the level of the respective movable inclined rail section to a second position above said first position and in alignment with said respective winding position of said continuous winding machine.

2. A device as claimed in claim 1 wherein there are longitudinal spaces between said stationary and movable inclined rail sections, and wherein said supporting means comprise bifurcated arms which move through said spaces during movement to and from said first and second positions.

3. A device as claimed in claim 1 wherein each of said means for horizontally moving said pair of movable inclined rail sections comprise a fluid cylinder.

4. A device as claimed in claim 1 wherein each of said reel-lifts comprises an air cylinder capable of moving said respective supporting means horizontally orthogonal to said length of said inclined rails; and said means for moving each of said reel-lifts vertically comprises a bracket supporting said respective air cylinder, and motor driven chain means engaging said bracket.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,801,812 8/1957 Coulter 24279 3,231,210 1/1966 Miller 24281 X 3,345,014 10/1967 Shearn 242-79 STANLEY N. GILBREATH, Primary Examiner G. A. WALTERS, Assistant Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 242-56 A, 58.6, 81