GB2151268A

GB2151268A - A device for traversing material onto a spool with divergent end flanges

Info

Publication number: GB2151268A
Application number: GB08430334A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Joachim Uhing
Original assignee: UHING JOACHIM ING
Current assignee: UHING JOACHIM ING
Priority date: 1983-12-15
Filing date: 1984-11-30
Publication date: 1985-07-17
Also published as: FR2556703A1; IT8424052A0; NL191146C; GB2151268B; CH665197A5; NL8403452A; ATA349784A; NL191146B; DE3345420C2; DE3345420A1; GB8430334D0; IT1177414B; AT388356B

Abstract

Wire, strip, cable, rope, etc. is wound onto a conical flanged spool through a guide (3) which is mounted on a carriage (2) that performs reciprocal movement along a shaft. The shaft is rotated and the carriage includes a roller cage gear which produces the carriage movement. A reversing lever (7) on the carriage engages stops (14, 15) to reverse the direction of carriage movement. The position of the stops is progressively moved outwardly to produce wider spreads of windings on the spool as successive winding layers are built up, to this end, a cam (21) on the carriage operates a lever (22) which rotates a threaded spindle (18) threadingly engaged with the end stops to move them outwardly and increase the length of the path of carriage travel. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION A device for guiding a flexible elongate member onto a take-up device such as a spool with divergent end flanges The invention relates to a device for guiding a flexible elongate member onto a take-up device and has particular but not exclusive application to winding onto a take-up spool having mutually divergent end flanges, such as biconical spools.

According to the present invention there is provided a device for guiding a flexible elongate member onto a take-up device, comprising a carriage mounted for reciprocal movement along a path, guide means on the carriage for guiding the flexible elongate member to a take-up device, means actuable on the carriage for reversing the direction of movement of the carriage along the path, stop means disposed at spaced apart locations for becoming engaged with the actuable means as a result of the carriage movement and in such a manner as to cause reversal of the carriage movement direction, and means responsive to carriage movement for causing adjustment of the location of at least one of the stop means whereby to adjust the length of the path of carriage reciprocal movement.

The adjustment of the length of the path of carriage movement permits the winding of material such as wire, strip, cables, ropes, etc. onto spools whose flanges are not perpendicular to the axis of the spool but have a conical shape, in such a way that the material is wound about the surface of the spool in a uniform manner over the entire spool width, taking into account the shape of the spool flanges.

The invention is described in detail below by way of example with reference to the attached drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a diagrammatic illustration of a spool winding device of a conventional type, Figure 2 shows a biconical spool, Figure 3 is a perspective view of a device according to the invention, Figure 4 shows a cam fastened to the gear unit with an adjustment screw and an adjustment knob for adjustment of the stroke, Figure 5 shows a variant of Fig. 4, with a cam which may be displaced on the gear unit, Figure 6 shows a further embodiment of the device of the invention, which uses, instead of the screw threads on the spindle, frictionally connected roll body rollers with smooth shafts.

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic illustration of a conventional spool winding device with which it is possible to wind cylindrical spools. A carriage in the form of a gear unit 2 is disposed on a smooth rotary shaft 1, and has mounted thereon guides 3 for the material to be wound. The gear unit 2 per- forms an axial and reciprocal movement such that the guides 3 move between the flanges 5 and 6 of the spool body 4. When the guides 3 reach the flanges 5 or 6, the direction of movement of the gear unit 2 is reversed by a reversing lever 7 which abuts against one of the end stops 8 or 9. These two end stops 8, 9 have a spacing or stroke H from one another, which corresponds to the distance H, between the flanges 5, 6 of the spool 4.When the correct inclination is set on the scale 10 of the gear unit 2, the material to be wound 11 is guided such that its turns are positioned adjacent to one another in an accurate manner. The angular setting of the reversing lever 7 is then formulated to the inclination which has been set, proportionally to the diameter of the material to be wound. The gear unit 2 is typically a rolling cage gear examples of which are described in my U.K. Patent Application 8418980, Figure 2 shows the embodiment of the spool 4 which can be wound by means of the invention.

Flanges 5, 6 define conical shapes with an angle of inclination of 45" for example. Spools of this type are called biconical spools. As this Figure shows, the material to be wound has a circular cross-section. It can also be seen that in each position of the material to be wound there are two further turns 12, 13, provided that the turns are disposed on one another during the winding.

In order to be able to wind biconical spools of this type, the spacing of the end stops 8, 9 are increased, during each individual stroke H of the winding process, by an amount corresponding to two turns of the material to be wound, as shown, for example in Fig. 2 by the reference numerals 12, 13. This process is carried out mechanically, as shown in the perspective view of Fig. 3, in that the end stops 14, 15 are disposed with their outward projections 16, 17 on a threaded spindle 18 which has a left-handed screw thread 19 on one side and a right handed screw thread 20 on the other side.

During each stroke H of the gear unit 2 this spindle is rotated stepwise by an angular amount to move the end stops 14, 15 by an appropriate amount, i.e.

by the width of two turns 12, 13 in the case of each stroke H (Fig. 2). The threaded spindle is driven in response to linear movement of the gear unit 2 by means of a cam 21 and a lever 22 with a roll 23.

The cam 21 converts the stroke movement of the gear unit 2 into a rocking movement of the lever 22. The cam 21 is fastened to the gear unit 2, whereas the lever 22 is fastened to the threaded spindle 18. The lever is urged to an end position by the action of a spring 24, i.e. when the roll 23 of the lever 22 is not in operational connection with the cam 21, and is only actuated when the gear unit 2 with the cam 21 passes by it. The amount of the lever displacement is selected to correspond to double the diameter of the material to be wound.

The amount of lever displace ment may be adjusted either by adjusting the initial position of the lever 22 or the initial position of the cam 21. This adjustment, as shown in Fig. 4, i.e. to take account of the diameter of the material to be wound, takes place by means of an adjustment screw 25 whose adjustment knob 26 has a micrometer scale. In both examples of the gear unit (Figs. 4 and 5) division marks are provided on the cam 21 (Fig. 4) and the cam 27 (Fig. 5). These marks show, prior to pivoting of the lever 22 about the pivot axis 36, the approximate value of the size of the pivot angle Fy.

These divisions may be in millimetres of the material to be wound or may have a different scale. In the example of Figure 5, the cam 27 is adjustably mounted on the gear unit 2. The decision as to whether the cam 27 (Fig. 5) is to be adjusted or whether the initial position of the lever 22 is to be adjusted via the adjustment screw 25 with the adjustment knob 26 (Fig. 4) depends in each case on the actual requirements.

Figure 3 shows that the pivoting lever 22 trans mits its rotary movement, at the centre of rotation 36, by means of a freewheel coupling 28 to the threaded spindle 18 in such a way that the spindle is rotated in one direction only. During resetting of the lever 22, a further freewheel coupling 29 causes the threaded spindle 18 to remain stationary. These freewheels may for example be locking pawls or loop springs. The rotation of the spindle thus produces the progressive movement of the end stops 14, 15 as a result of the screw threads 19, 20 on the threaded spindle 18 being threadingly engaged in the end stops 14, 15.

When the biconical spool 4 (Figs. 2, 3) is fully wound, the end stops 14, 15 must be returned to their initial positions in order to be able to wind further spools. For this purpose, the freewheel couplings 28, 29 are disengaged and the threaded spindle 18 is rotated back into the initial position.

An embodiment of the device of the invention will now be described with reference to Fig. 6, in which the spindle corresponding to spindle 18 and screw mechanisms on the end stops 14, 15 do not have threads but are formed as frictional screws with smooth shafts. A device of this type preferably consists of at least three roller bodies 30, 30', 30", which roll on a smooth shaft 31 in a positively connected manner such that their components are added together in the roll points 32. For this purpose their axes of rotation 33, 34, if cylindrical rollers are used as the roll bodies as shown in the example, must form the same angle of inclination (3with the shaft 31.It can be seen from Fig. 6 that the roll body rollers 30, 30', 30" are offset with respect to one another and that the central roller 30' has a much smaller spacing x with respect to the outer roller 30 and a much larger spacing y with respect to the other outer roller 30", the latter being pressed by the action of a spring 35 against the shaft 31 and provides for the frictional connection of the three roll body rollers 30, 30', 30" on the shaft 31. As a result of this arrangement, the forces in the roll points 32 of the rollers 30, 30' having a narrow spacing are substantiaily greater than on the roller 30 which has a greater spacing.

As a result of this, the contact pressures in the case of the rollers 30', 30 having a narrow spacing increase, if the forces of the reversing lever 7 of the gear unit 2 engage outside of the threaded spindle 18 or the shaft 31 (Figs. 3 and 6), as shown by the force vector 37 of Fig. 6. This prevents, when the end stops 14, 15 are used, the end stops from slipping as they are clamped on the shaft 31.

This locking is released when the force of the vectors 37 acts in the opposite direction, i.e. direction 38 in Fig. 6. As a result of this, the displacement of the end stops 14, 15 into the initial position may be carried out simply by hand. The third remote roller 30" is in this respect under such a low spring pressure that its proportion of thrust components may be disregarded. A less expensive sliding bearing, which is pressed against the spindle under the action of a spring, may be used in its place for this purpose.

As during winding with each turn on top of the previous turn - the inclination being a function of the turn spacing - is set in the gear unit and as the displacement steps of the end stops 14, 15 are proportional to the diameter of the material to be wound, it is possible to provide devices in which the adjustment element, i.e. the pointer 39 (Fig. 5), for the inclination also acts on the displacement of the cam 27. This dispenses with the need for the particular adjustment by the adjustment head 26 on the cam 21 (Fig. 4) or limits this adjustment to small corrections.

The described device of the invention for winding biconical spools and like spools may also be used for conventionally available spools with cylindrical flanges (Fig. 1). In this respect, it is simply necessary to set the adjustment head 26 (Figs. 3 and 4) to zero which simply means that the switching mechanism (21/27, 22, 23) is disengaged.

Claims

1. A device for guiding a flexible elongate member onto a take-up device, comprising a carriage mounted for reciprocal movement along a path, guide means on the carriage for guiding the flexible elongate member to a take-up device, means actuable on the carriage for reversing the direction of movement of the carriage along the path, stop means disposed at spaced apart locations for becoming engaged with the actuable means as a result of the carriage movement and in such a manner as to cause reversal of the carriage movement direction, and means responsive to carriage movement for causing adjustment of the location of at least one of the stop means whereby to adjust the length of the path of carriage reciprocal movement.

2. A device according to claim 1, wherein said carriage movement responsive means comprises a member mounted adjacent the carriage path, means on the carriage to produce movement of the member as the carriage moves past the member, and means arranged to adjust the location of at least one of the stops in response to said movement of the member.

3. A device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the carriage is mounted on a rotary shaft, and includes drive means responsive to rotation of the shaft to produce translatory movement of the carriage along the shaft.

4. A device according to claim 3, wherein said shaft has a smooth periphery and the drive means comprises a roller cage gear.

5. A device according to claim 2 or 3, wherein said means on the carriage comprises a cam, said member comprises a lever to be actuated by the cam, and said stop adjusting means comprises gear means responsive to movement of the lever, a spindle arranged to be rotated by the gear means, said stop means being mounted for translatory movement in response to rotation of the spindle.

6. A device according to claim 5, wherein each said stop means is threadingly engaged with a thread on the spindle.

7. A device according to claim 6, wherein the threads for said respective stop means is of opposite senses whereby to adjust the stop means in opposite directions.

8. A device according to claim 5, wherein said spindle has a smooth surface adjacent said stop means, and each said stop means is mounted on a respective support which includes means frictionally engaging the spindle to produce adjustment of the position of the stops in response to spindle rotation.

9. A device according to claim 8, wherein said frictionally engaging means comprises a roller cage gear.

10. A device according to any one of claims 5 to 8, wherein the position of the cam on the carriage is adjustable, whereby to permit adjustment of the displacement of the lever by the cam.

11. A device according to any one of claims 5 to 10, wherein said lever is biased by spring means against an abutment, and the position of the abutment is adjustable.

12. A device including an adjustment screw for adjusting the position of the abutment.

13. A device according to any one of claims 5 to 12, wherein said gear means includes a freewheel.

14. A device according to any preceding claim and including a take-up device in the form of a rotary spool having mutually divergent end flanges.

15. A device for winding biconical spools or spools with similar flanged shapes by means of a gear unit which effects a uniform winding of the spool body together with a switching mechanism, characterised in that during the winding process a switching mechanism is actuated approximately in its centre in each new winding position, as a result of which the end stops, which are required for the switching of the gear unit in the end positions, are adjusted.

16. A device for guiding a flexible elongate member onto a take-up device, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 3 and 4 or 5 or 6 of the accompanying drawings.