HIDE SPLITTING MACHINE
The invention is about a splitting machine particularly suitable for being used in the treatment of natural or synthetic hides with non-homogeneous surfaces. The splitting machines are commonly used in the hide tanning industry in order to split the hide according to the thickness by making it move forwards against a blade so as to obtain the best part, commonly known as the grain, which corresponds to the outer part of the hide and the worst part, usually known as the split, that corresponds to that part of the animal's skin which is directly in contact with the flesh. Such kind of treatment can be mainly carried out during one of the three hide treatment conditions.
A first use of the splitting machine is that on bathed and raw hide, commonly known as "pelt", achieved after the depilation treatment wherein the hide is placed inside of drums together with sulphide based substances that allow their dilatation of the holes and the outlet of the hairs.
In a second case, the splitting machine is used on moist hide which is obtained after the tanning treatment and commonly known as "wet blue". In a third and last case, the splitting machine is used on mostly dry and finished hide where the humidity percentage of the hide corresponds to the ambient humidity.
The splitting on the finished hide is usually carried out after a prior pelt or wet blue splitting treatment in order to better even out the hide and thus achieving a high quality product. The state of the art splitting machines are usually made of a casing where two mutually opposed rollers are defined among which the hide to .be split passes through, the hide is then forwarded against a splitting blade arranged in the area comprised between the two rollers.
The first of such rollers, usually named sizing roller, has a smooth surface and during the splitting is put in contact with the grain side of the hide. The second of such rollers, usually named contact roller, is put in contact with the split side of the hide and adjusts itself to its non-homogeneous contour during the forward movement.
For such reason the contact roller consists of a plurality of mutually juxtaposed rings, moving radially with respect to the axis defined by the same roller, so as to adjust itself to its thickness variations.
In order to allow the proper adherence of the contact roller and of its constitutive rings to the split side of the hide, a thrust roller arranged with the outer surface in contact with the rings is associated parallel to the contact roller. For this reason the thrust roller has the outer surface made of soft elastic material which is fit to the different positions of the rings and provides the thrust force necessary for their adherence to the split side of the hide. A first inconvenience that the use of said thrust roller has consists in that it imparts the same elastic thrust force along its entire development. Said situation turns out to be unfavourable wherever the hide has a considerable thickness difference along its width.
In order to achieve a correct distribution of the thrust force indeed, wherever the thickness turns out to be larger, usually towards the center of the hide, the force of the needed pressure is smaller compared to the areas wherein the hide has a minor thickness, as it takes place in the lateral zones.
Another problem of such technique consists in that the surface of the thrust roller is subject to wear phenomena which determine the need to carry out correction or replacement operations of the roller after a set number of working hours. It is the object of the present invention to remedy the above-mentioned inconveniences.
It is a first object of the invention that of making a splitting machine wherein, compared to the state of the art splitting machine, the adherence of the contact roller to the hide to be split would keep the same efficiency when the thickness of the hide varies.
It is another object of the invention that of making a splitting machine which allows to adjust the thrust forces as a function of the thickness variation of the hide.
It is a further object of the invention that of making a splitting machine which allows to reduce the maintenance operations and the respective downtime. Said objects and advantages are achieved by a hide splitting machine that, in line with the content of the main claim, comprises a casing which supports the following: - a sizing roller and a contact roller mutually parallel among which said hide to be split is made to pass through, said contact roller being made of a
plurality of rings radially moving with respect to the axis defined by it and cooperating with a thrust unit fit to keep them in contact with said hide;
- a splitting blade placed between said rollers against which said hide to be split is moved forward, said splitting machine being characterized in that said thrust unit comprises a plurality of mutually different opposing means each of them being operatively associated to one or more of said rings. According to an operative preferred embodiment, the opposing means consist of a linear actuator of the pneumatic kind connected to a pair of small rolls which cooperate by contact with the outer surface of a corresponding ring. Advantageously the pressure exerted on each ring of the contact roller can be independently controlled one from the other along the entire length of the same roller.
Said objects and advantages will be better highlighted in an explanatory but not limiting way during the description of some preferred embodiments of the invention with reference to the annexed drawings, wherein:
- Figure 1 is a cross section of the splitting machine of the invention;
- Figure 2 is an enlarged detail of Figure 1 ;
- Figure 3 is a detail of a lateral view of Figure 1 ;
- Figure 4 is a lateral view of the invented machine during its operation; - Figure 5 is an operative embodiment of figure 1.
The splitting machine of the invention is shown in Figure 1 where is generally indicated with 1.
The machine mainly comprises a casing 2 which supports an upper crosspiece
3 and a lower crosspiece 4 among which a splitting blade 5 is defined. The lower crosspiece 4 supports a sizing roller 6 placed in contact with the grain side 7a of the hide to be split 7.
The sizing roller 6 advantageously rests on a pair of idle counter-rollers 8, arranged at the bottom, which guarantee their straightness.
The upper crosspiece 3 holds the contact roller 9 which is put in contact with the split side 7b of the hide to be split 7.
As shown in figures 3 and 4, the contact roller 9 consists of a plurality of rings, indicated with 10, radially moving with respect to the axis X defined by the same contact roller 9.
Such rings 10, as shown in figure 4, cooperate with a thrust unit, generally indicated with 11 , fit to keep them adherent in contact with the split side 7b of
the hide 7.
According to the invention, the thrust unit 11 comprises a plurality of mutually different opposing means 12 and operatively associated to a corresponding ring 10 of the contact roller 9. As shown in figure 2, each of said opposing means 12 comprises at least a thrust element 13 integral with the upper crosspiece 3 and connected to, through a mobile support 14, two pairs of small rolls, each indicated with 15 and 16 respectively in figure 3. In each pair of small rolls15 and 16, the axes 17a, 17b and 18a, 18b of the corresponding small rolls 15a, 15b and 16a, 16b are mutually parallel and they form a trigonal prism with the axis X of said roller.
In the embodiment here described two pairs 15, 16 of the small rolls are used for a total of four small rolls 15a, 15b and 16a, 16b but it is obvious that in different embodiments, for example, a single pair or more than two can be also provided.
The outer surface 19a, 19b and 20a, 20b, preferably made of polyurethane, of each small roll 15a, 15b and 16a, 16b cooperates through contact with the outer surface 10a of the corresponding ring 10 to which is connected. In such embodiment, only one ring 10 of the contact roller 9 corresponds to each single opposing means 12, but it is clear that in different embodiments two or more of said rings 10 can be connected to a single opposing unit 11. Regarding the thrust element 13, it is advantageously made of a pneumatic linear actuator which has the body 21 fixed to the upper crosspiece 3 while the stem 22 is connected to the mobile support 14. In different embodiments the linear actuator 13 could be, for example, of the hydraulic kind when they need greater thrust force, or could be made of an electric motor checked through state of the art control systems. In a further different embodiment the thrust unit 11 could consist of a spring connected at one end to the upper crosspiece 3 and at the opposite end to the mobile support 14.
It is obvious that such diverse embodiments provide for different settings for the thrust elements in the calibration phase or during the operation. Regardless of the kind of the thrust element, the object is to create a thrust force, along the direction indicated by the arrow 23 in the figures 2 and 4, which allows to achieve the desired adherence effect of each ring 10 on the
split side 7b of the hide 7 along its entire development, as shown in the detail of figure 4.
The splitting machine 1 of the invention furthermore comprises driving means, not shown in the figures for reason of clarity, for the advancement of the hide to be split 7 against the blade 5, cinematically connected to the sizing roller 6 and/or to the contact roller 9 for their rotation.
Furthermore there are moving means of the crosspieces 3, 4, not shown in the figures for reason of clarity, for their reciprocal positioning and that of the supporting rollers, in order to allow the setting of the thickness of the desired split hide.
Operatively, as shown in figure 4, when the hide 7 is made to move forward between the sizing roller 6 and the contact roller 9, each ring 10 will be along with its outer surface 10a in contact with a part of the surface of the split side 7b of the hide 7. Usually the hide 7 has a greater thickness in the central area compared to the lateral areas as shown in the figures, for this reason the linear actuators 13 by the central area have the stem 22 greatly retracted with respect to the linear actuators 13 relative to the lateral areas. It must be noticed that the particular arrangement of the pairs of small rolls 15a, 15b and 16a, 16b determines a counterthrust direction which allows the linear actuator, and more specifically the stem 22 working correctly, not being subject to any twisting moments, as shown in figure 2. An operative embodiment of the invented machine is shown in figure 5, generally indicated with 100, which differs from the previous one because the sizing roller 106 is placed above the contact roller 109 and both are supported by the corresponding crosspieces 103 and 104.
It is clear for what has been previously said that the splitting machine of the invention accomplishes the preset objects and advantages. In the operative phase further variations can be brought to the splitting machine of the invention.
Said variations can consist, for example, of a different kind of opposing means, of its different arrangement with respect to the rings of the contact rollers, or yet to a different arrangement and making of the small rolls. Such and further embodiments, whether described or not, should be all considered protected anyhow by the present patent if falling within the scope of
the following claims.