US789053A - Web-guiding device. - Google Patents

Description

vN0. 789,053. PATENTED MAY 2,1906. J. OGONNOR.

WEB GUIDING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 19.1900.

2 SHEETSSHEBT 1.

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WEB GUIDING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 19.1900.

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Patented May 2, 1905 PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES OCONNOR, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

WEB-GUIDING DEVICE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 789,053, dated May 2, 1905.

Application filed June 19, 1900. Serial No. 20,840. i l i To all whom it may con/007%.-

Be it known that 1, JAMES OCoNNoR, a citizen of the United States of America, and a resident of New York, in the county and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in l/Veb-Guiding Devices, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to means for guiding a traveling sheet or web in suitable relation to or registration with the rolls, type, trackerbar, or other devices of machinery or appa ratus employing such a sheet or web, the object being to maintain the sheet or web in suitable normal operative relation to its associated devices by means of the margins of the sheet or web itself without any perforation or cutting or other special preparation of the sheet and without in any way injuring the edges of the most delicate or fragile fabric.

Figure 1 of the drawings is a plan view of my preferred embodiment of this invention, showing it as applied to the guiding of a perforated sheet for controlling the operation of self-playing musical instruments and similar machines. Fig. 2 is a plan view of a modification of my invention adapted to utilize electric currents as an operating or controlling medium. Fig. 3 is a plan view, and Fig. 4 is a front view projected therefrom of another modi'fied embodiment of my invention employing a right and left hand screw for operating the guiding devices. Fig. 5 is a fragmentary front view showing a portion of Fig. 4 in a different position.

The employment of a longitudinally-traveling sheet or web of paper or similar flexible material, although very common in connection with many classes of machinery, is attended by serious and well-recognized difficulties, among the more important of which is that of guiding the traveling web in suitable register With the mechanism, so as to maintain the web or the operating or controlling devices thereof in suitable register or operative relation with the respective devices operated by them. This difficulty is accentuated by the fact that these webs are ordinarily made of paper of which the edges, al though best available and satisfactory for this purpose, cannot ordinarily be utilized, because of the delicate or fragile character of the material, without crumpling or otherwise injuring the edges. Hence the objection to employing for thin webs, and especially for those which have to be run through repeatedly, those centralizing devices the operation of which is inaugurated by physical or forcible contact with the leading edge of the web as the latter shifts sidewise. Such a traveling sheet or web is very-liable to be deflected sidewise from its normal path of travel from many causes, resident both in the apparatus which employs it and in the nature of the web itself. If one or more of the rolls should be slightly larger at one end than at the other or if the axes of the associated rolls are not perfectly parallel, the web will be deflected from this cause alone. It frequently happens also that the paper of which these webs ordinarily are made is unequal in thickness at its two edges or that the edges of the paper are not perfectlystraight and parallel. This may be due to imperfect cutting or trimming, or even if originally true the webs become untrue through changes in the atmospheric conditi ons, particularly the humidity thereof, one or both of the edges being affected from this cause more than the middle of the web, which is protected by the surrounding paper. Thus it often happens that a web of paper affected by any of the foregoing causes would when stretched out upon the floor in an extended. length assume a curved form instead of being straight. These causes, either singly or in conjunction, present many difficulties in the way of feeding such aweb in a continuously accurate course through a machine or apparatus. These difficulties are obviated in the present invention by means of devices for automatically shifting the rollers or the guiding devices, by means of which the paper is driven and guided, and by causing those de vices to be automatically actuated by the lateral deflections of the web, which when in its normal or central position serves to hold the web guiding or centralizing devices out of operation and which by its divergence to one side or the other allows the appropriate guid ing or centralizing device to come into operative contact.

The preferred embodiment of my invention (shown in Fig. 1) illustrates its use in connection with apparatussuch as self-playing musical instruments employing a perforated note-sheet 8. The perforations of the sheet are intended to travel in register with corresponding apertures in a tracker-bar 9, those perforations being connected by means of tubing (not herein shown) with an exhaustchest 10, which connects with and operates pneumatic motor devices in ways well known in this art and which need not, therefore, be described herein. The music-sheet is drawn from one to the other of the rolls 11 and 12, the latter of which is shown to be provided with a pulley 13, which is driven by means of a belt from any convenient shaft. With such an arrangement the paper would travel in the direction of the arrow 14, and under these circumstances the web may be guided laterally with. relation to the tracker-bar by moying the roll 11' lengthwise, or the trackerbar/1(? may be moved lengthwise beneath the "sl eet, either of these ways serving to regulate tne register of the perforations of the music-sheet in relation to their corre sponding apertures of the tracker-bar.

The roll 11 is mounted upon the shaft 15, which turns in the bearings 16, the latter resting in suitable seats in the supportingframes 17 and 18, so that the roll may be readily removed therefrom to change the note-sheets. The shaft is also provided with the thrust- collars 19 and 20, which are located in engaging relation to the arms 21 and 22, attached to the movable sides of the bellows 23 and 24, respectively, which are provided with air- tubes 25 and 26, connected with independent primary devices in the exhaust-chest 10. The operations of these primary pneumatics, and hence of their respective bellows- motors 23 and 24, are controlled through the tubes 27 and 28, leading to the apertures 29 and 30 upon the trackerbar 9. In order to enable these apertures to be readily adjusted in proper relation to the tracker-bar, they are, as shown, preferably carried in. independent blocks clamped to the tracker-bar by means of screws.

The bellows- motors 23 and 24 may be mounted upon brackets projecting from the frames 17 and 18. They are, however, as herein shown, preferably mounted upon the projecting ends of the tracker-bar 9, which is fitted so as to slide freely in the frames 17 and 18. By this arrangement the paper may be moved laterally with relation to the tracker-bar, or vice versa. In the first instance the tracker-bar is clamped to the frames by means of the screws 33, so that the bellows-motors when actuated will move the shaft 15, with its roll 1]., lengthwise. In the other case the bearings 16 are clamped to the frames by means of the screws 34, and the screws 33 are loosened, so that the actuations of the motors 23 and 24 operate to move the tracker-bar instead of the roll and in the opposite direction, the effect in either case being to restore the web and the trackerbar. to their normal relative position in respect of each other.

The apertures 29 and 30 are located a suitable distance inside the edges of the web and are covered by the margins thereof when the web is in its normal position; but when the web is from any cause moved or guided toward one side the aperture of the opposite side is uncovered, thereby admitting air to its primary pneumatic in the eXhaust-chest 10, and thus actuating the corresponding bellows-motor in a direction to restore the sheet or the tracker-bar into proper adjustment.

The operation of the device is illustrated in Fig. 1 by the position of the web 8. It is here assumed that the web has been previously deflected too far toward the right, so as to uncover the left-hand aperture 30, thus actuating the motor 24, which moves the roll 11 toward the left by sliding the bearings 16 endwise in their seats in the frames, thereby guiding the traveling web into its normal position, in which it covers again both apertures. lVhen in this position, both motors remain in the open position occupied by the motor 23, and the 101111 is yieldingly retained as to endwise position by the friction of its bearings 16 in their seats in the frame. In order to vary and regulate the amount of the restoring movement of the roll 11 or of; the tracker-bar 9, as the case may be, the apparatus is provided with the adjustingscrews 35, which may be changed while the machine is in operation. The adjustment of these screws will depend more or less upon the peculiarities of the individual webs, some of which require more movement than others to restore them to correct register.

In the modification shown in Fig. 2 the web 39 is drawn over the tracker-bar 40, which may, if desired, be a bar or carriage for moving the paper laterally, especially when employed at the end of a loop of the web, in a way well known to those familiar with this art. This bar is herein shown to be provided with the contact-plates 41 and 42, which are separated from the bar by suitable insulations 43 and 44. The tracker or guide is fitted to slide endwise freely in the frames 45 and 26. The terminals 47 and 48 are attached to and insulated from the frame 45, and these terminals are con nected by the wires 49 in an electric circuit, which incloses the battery 50 and the magnet 51. The opposite frame 46 similarly supports the terminals 54 and 55, which are, by

means of the wire 56, included in a circuit with the battery 57 and the magnet 58. These magnets are adjustably attached to convenient supports on the framing, so that they may be adjusted toward and from each other, as may be required by the respective webs or to vary the amount of restoring movement required of each. The terminals 48 and 55, which rest upon the paper, are preferably in theform of wire brushes, so that one or more of them will make contact with its plate as soon as the edge of the web is withdrawn. These terminals or brushes are also preferably inclined, as shown, in order that they may more readily ride over and upon the edge of the web during its restoring movement. When the web is in its normal position, it underlies both of the terminals 48 and 55, so as to hold them out of contact with their respective contact-plates 41 and 42 all the while the web is in normal position; but whenever for any cause the web is deflected to one side, as shown in this figure, far enough to permit the terminal on the op posite side, as 55, to make contact with the plate, as 42, the electric circuit is closed and the corresponding magnet 58 is energized, thus drawing the bar toward the right, as shown in the figure, so as to restore it to proper relation with the sheet. If this bar should, like the bar 9 of Fig. 1, be provided with apertures or other devices with which the sheet must register, then in that case the terminals 48 and should be supported on and travel with the bar, as in the case of the terminal 48; but if the bar 40 is to serve merely as an indicator for the position of the paper then in that case the terminals should all be secured to the frames 45 and 46 or to any other convenient stationary object. The bar 40 may also in that case be stationary and the magnets 51 and 58 be attached to the rolls, carriage, or other guiding or deflecting devices employed for restoring the paper to its proper course.

In the modifications shown in Figs. 3, 4, and 5 the web 60 is fed from one to the other of the rolls 61 and 62, and the journals of those rolls rest in suitable bearings in the movable carriage 63, which is supported in the frame 64 of the machine. The roll 62 may be turned by an ordinary crank, or it may be provided with a pulley 65 for receiving a belt, by means of which the rolls may be driven from any convenient adjacent shaft. The tracker-bar 66 extends across the machine and is supported at its ends by suitable hearings in the frame 64. This tracker-bar is provided with the apertures 68 and 69, which may be mounted directly upon the bar, as here shown, or may beattached thereto by means of separate blocks, as shown in Fig. 1. These apertures communicate, by means of tubes 70 and 71, with pneumatic devices in the exhaust-chest 72 72,

those devices being independently connected with the bellows- motors 74 and 75, respec tively, which may be mounted upon convenient brackets of the frame 64, or they may, as herein shown and for the reasons hereinafter mentioned, be mounted upon the ends of the tracker-bar 66. The movable arms 76 and 77 of these motors extend over the shaft of one of the rolls, preferably that of the driven roll 62, as here shown, and the corresponding portions of the shaft are provided with right and left hand threaded portions 78 and 79, with which the respective arms are adapted to engage after the manner of a half-nut. Both these mo tors rest in their open position, as shown in Fig. 5, during the time that the Web remains in its normal relation to the tracker-bar, so as to cover both of the apertures 68 and 69. I/Vhen, however, the deflections of the paper uncovers either of the apertures, as 69 in the figure, the associated pneumatic devices bring the corresponding arm 77 of the bellows into contact with the threads 79 of the shaft, thereby moving the carriage 63 or the tracker-bar 66, so as to restore the normal relation of the sheet thereto. As soon as that normal relation is restored and the aperture 69 again covered the pneumatic action is released and the arm 77 rises again to its open or resting position. (Shown in Fig. 5.) By this arrangement either side may be brought into action, remain in action throughout the varying times that may be required for restoring the web, and released again as soon as the desired restoration has been effected.

Either the carriage or the tracker-bar may be fixed to place by means of the gibs 81 or 82, respectively, the one which is free following the movements imparted by the respec tive screw- threads 78 and 79. By thus removably attaching the tracker-bar to the apparatus it may readily be removed therefrom for purposes of examination or repairs or for substituting another trackerboard of a different style or scale. In the form shown in Figs. 3 and 4 the trackerboard may be thus removed by removing the gibs 82, and in the form shown in Fig. 1 the tracker-board may be removed by removing the blocks 31 and 32, one of the bellows- mo tors 23 or 24, one of the screws 35, and slipping out the corresponding tube 25 or 26, which will permit the tracker-board to be slid out of place lengthwise and a tracker board of different style or scale substituted for it.

Inasmuch as the function and mode of operation of the apertures 29 and 30, 68 and 69 are so closely analogous to those of the contact-plates of Fig. 2, they are herein broadly designated as contact-points. The margins of the web when it is in its normal position serve also in the devices of Fig. 2 to hold the terminals 48 and 55' from contact with the plates 41 and 42.

Many other modified arrangements of this device may be employed adapted to the requirements of different conditions or different machines in many ways that will obviously occur to those familiar with this art.

I claim as my invention- 1. The combination with a sheet or web, of means, contacting with the surface of the web and held out of operation when the web is in its normal position, for guiding orrestoring the web to that normal position when deflected or diverted therefrom.

2. The combination with asheet or web, of means for guiding or restoring the web to its desired path when diverted therefrom and means, contacting with the surface of the web and held out of operation when the web is in its normal position, for inaugurating the operation of the guiding means.

3. Theeombination with the marginal surface of a traveling,- sheet or web, of means for guiding or restoring, the web to. its normal ath when diverted therefrom, a tracker-bar. and means contacting with the marginal surface of the web and held outof operation when the web is in its normal position, forinaugurating the operation of the guiding means.

4. The combination, with an apparatus employing, atraveling'sheet or web, of means for maintaining the web and the apparatus in suitable operative relation, comprising means for deflecting the web or the apparatus into the desired relation, and means held out of operative engagement by the margin of the sheet for inaugurating the operation of the guiding means when the edge of the sheet is deflected or withdrawn from its normal position.

5. The combination, with a traveling sheet or web, of a tracker-bar, and means, maintained in inoperative condition by the sheet when in its normal position, for restoring the normal relation of the sheet and the trackerbar when uncovered by the edge of the sheet.

6. The combination with the marginal surface of a traveling sheet or web, of a trackerbar provided with contact devices arranged adjacent to and inside of the normal position.

of the edge of the sheet, so as to be covered by the marginal surface of the web when the latter is in its normal position, and means op erable by the uncovering of the contact devices, for restoring the normal relation between the sheet and the tracker-bar.

7. The combination, with a traveling web, of pneumatic devices for restoring the web to normal position when deflected therefrom, and a tracker-bar, provided with contact devices located adjacent to and inside of the normal position of the edge of the web so as to be maintained in inoperative relation by the web while the latter is in normal position, whereby the operation of the pneumatic devices is inaugurated withdrawal of the web from the contact devices.

mal relations when by the deflection or 8. In a web-driving apparatus, means for restoring'the web and the apparatus into nordeflected therefrom, consisting of rolls for guiding the web, and a tracker-bar provided with an aperture adj acent to and within the normal position of the web so as to be covered thereby, and pneu matic devices, the operation of which is inaugurated by the uncovering of the aperture, for restoring the web or the tracker-bar to normal position.

9. In aweb-driving apparatus, in combination with a rollthereof, a motor for moving the roll sidewise and means normally held out of operation by the interposition of the sheet when in its normal position for moving the roll sidewise to restore the web to normal position when deflected therefrom;

10. In combination with. mechanism employing a traveling sheet or web, a tracker provided with a guide-opening, arranged to be closed by the sheet, when the latter is in its normal position, means for propelling the sheet across the tracker, and pneumatic devices governed by the guide-opening for ad justing the relation of the tracker and the sheet-propelling means when the opening is uncovered. I

11. In combination with mechanism employing a traveling sheet or web, a tracker provided with a guide-opening arranged to be normally closed by the sheet when the lat ter is in normal position, rolls for propelling the sheet across the tracker, a bellows governed by the guide-opening, and engaging with the tracker and rolls, to adjust their relation, when the guide-opening is uncovered.

12. In combination with mechanism employing a traveling sheet or web, an adjust able tracker provided with a guide-opening arranged to be closed by the sheet when the latter is in its normal position, longitudinally-adjustable rolls for propelling the sheet, and a bellows operatively governed by the guide-opening, and engaging with the tracker and rolls to adjust them when the guidcopening is uncovered.

13. 1n combination with mechanism emloying a traveling sheet or web, an adjustable tracker provided with a guide-opening arranged to be closed by the sheet when the latter is in normal position, laterally-adjustable means for pro ielling the sheet across the tracker-bar, a bel ows connected with the guideopening, and engaging with the tracker and sheet-propelling means to effect their relative adjustment, and means for clamping either the tracker or the sheet propelling means in place, whereby the other may be employed as the adjustable member.

14:. In combination with mechanism employing a traveling sheet or web, a tracker,

means for propelling the sheet across the tracker, a bellows for adjusting the relation between the tracker and the sheet-propelling means, and means for regulating and adjustjng the amplitude of movement of the belows.

15. In combination with mechanism employing a traveling sheet or web, a tracker provided with an adjustable guide-opening.

16. In an automatic musical instrument, the combination of a tracker provided with a guide-opening arranged to be closed by the note-sheet when the latter is in its normal position, means for propelling the sheet across the tracker, and a bellows governed by the guide-opening, and adapted to adjust the relation of the tracker and the sheet-propelling means when the opening is uncovered.

17. In an automatic musical instrument,

the combination of a tracker provided with a' guide-opening, arranged to be closed by the note-sheet, when the latter is in normal position, means for propelling the sheet across the tracker, and a bellows governed by the guide-opening mounted upon the tracker and engaging with the sheet-propelling means, to adjust them when the guide-opening is uncovered.

18. In an automatic musical instrument, the combination of a tracker provided with a guide-opening, a delivery-roll, and a take-up roll for drawing a note-sheet across said tracker, said guide-opening being arranged to be normally closed by the note-sheet, a shaft connected with one of said parts, and a bellows governed by said opening and engaging with the shaft to move the same when the opening is uncovered.

19. The combination, with a traveling sheet or web, of a tracker-bar, and means, maintained in inoperative condition by the sheet when in its normal position, for restorof June, 1900.

JAMES OCONNOR. Witnesses:

A. H. WAND, GEO. T. ANDREWS.

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