US2608286A - Mounting for roller conveyers - Google Patents

Description

INVENTOR.

3 Sheets-Sheet 1 ERHARD RUDOLF HENSCHKEE BY WW X A T TnPA/E Y5 E R HENSCHKER MOUNTING FOR ROLLER CONVEYERS Aug. 26, 1952 Filed Nov. 1, 1949 INVENTOR. ERHARD RUDOLF HENSCH KER 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 A 7'795NEY5 E R HENSCHKER MOUNTING FOR ROLLER CONVEYERS Aug. 26, 1952 Flled Nov 1, 1949 6, 1952 E/R. HENSCHKER MOUNTING FOR ROLLER CONVEYERS s Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Nov. 1, 1949 g a. z I s L E: 1 I I k fiq Hm Q HQ ma D A filillllld M I I l m IIH S a 2 vv .2

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INVENTOR. ERHARD RUDOLF HENSCHKER A TTOPNEYS Patented Aug. 26, 1952 MOUNTING FOR ROLLERCONVEYERS Erhard Rudolf Henschker, Parkstone, England, assignor to The LoewyEngineering Company Limited, London, England, a corporation of Great Britain Application November 1, 1949, Serial No. 124,906

In Great Britain July 8, 1948 6 Claims.

This invention relates to roller conveyors or roller tables of the type used in rolling mill installations and other metalworking plants for transporting rolled stock-in the following, briefly called bars, but to be understood to include rolled stock of any description, 1. e., simple shapes as well assections, rails, etc.

The means generally employed for this purpose comprise a series of rollers, driven either in groups from a common motor or individually by separate motors, and rigidly supported in suitable frames or pedestals which rest on the mill floor.

In practice, the rigid mounting of the rollers is not always entirely satisfactory; the bars, due to uneven cooling or for other reasons, are frequently delivered from the rolling mills in a de formed condition, so that they are sometimes bent or twisted in an uneven line. Such bars, when moving along a conveyor consisting of rigidly "-mou'ntedrollers, will by-pass some of the rollers without touching them, thus reducing the number of points of contact between the bars and the rollers where the propelling force can be transmitted to the bars. This has made it necessary to give individual roller motors more power than would be required if every single roller could be relied upon to take its full share of the load. On the other hand, an increase in power of the driving motors has the drawback of causing the rollers to spin idly below the bars, withoutpropelling them along the conveyor, whenever the contact pressure between rollers and bars is comparatively small, as in the case of light bars.

It is an object of the present invention to provide means for transporting rolled stock, in which these difficulties are overcome.

It is, in particular, an object of the present invention to provide a mounting for a roller forming part of a conveyor of the type set forth, which permits the roller to adapt itself automatically to the conditions prevailing when the bars to be transported are bent or twisted in an uneven line.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a mounting for a roller forming part of a conveyor of the type set forth which limits the load on the driving motor of that roller and thus forms a safeguard against overloading.

Another object of the invention i to provide a conveyor of the type set forth, which consists partly of driven rollers and partly of non-driven rollers.

These and other objects of the invention are achieved by providing some or all of the rollers forming part of a conveyor for transporting rolled stock with flexible or resilient mountings, permitting a roller supported in this manner to give way under load and adapt its level relative to the adjacent rollers in conformity with the outline of the rolled stock. These rollers can therefore readily follow any bends or twists which may occur in the bars which they have to transport. Thus, even a bar which is not straight will not by-pass any of the rollers without touching them when travelling along a roller conveyor.

A suitable flexible or resilient support comprises a housing which carries the roller and is tiltable about an axis parallel to that of the roller, spring means being interposed between the housing and a pedestal or other stationary elements in which the housing is pivotally mounted, so that the housing, together with the roller, is constantly urged upwards, whereby contact between a roller and a bar will be maintained under all conditions, irrespective of whether the bar is straight or not.

The present invention, by ensuring effective power-transmitting contact between any one driven roller and a bar, irrespective of its shape, makes it possible to restrict the number of driven rollers in a conveyor and replace some of them by idle rollers which act merely as load-carrying elements and therefore do not require a flexible or resilient mounting. If these idle rollers are spaced sufficiently close to each other that any bar passing along the conveyor will be supported at any one moment during its travel along the conveyor by at least two idle rollers, the contact pressure, and thus the friction, between the bar and any driven rollers will be determined solely by the force by which the aforesaid spring means will urge those rollers against the bar.

It is a further feature of the invention to make the tension of these spring means adjustable, so that they can be so set that they will produce just the friction between the driven rollers and a bar required for advancing the bar along the conveyor. In this way, the spring means will act as a load-limiting member for the roller motors and prevent them from being overloaded.

In the accompanying drawings, two embodiments of the invention are shown by way of example with reference to these drawings:

Fig. 1 is a longitudinal section of a resiliently mounted conveyor roller with its individual driving motor, the section being taken along the line ll of Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the roller and its mounting shown in Fig. l, the section being taken along the line 2'-2 of Fig. 1.

"Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section showing another mill floor.

ported in a housing II by means of non-friction bearings I2. Roller ID has a driving connection with motor I3 through a pinion I4 and a pair of gear wheels I4 and I4" respectively. The housing II has a pair of lateral lugs I5 (Fig.2) forming supports for pivot pin I6. This .latter extends parallel to the axis of the roller II) and serves to hinge housing I I to a pair of stationary elements, such as pedestals II, which rest on the 7 Roller III can therefore be tilted relative to the stationary elements about anaxis parallel to its own.

Spring means are provided to urge housing I I,

' and thereby also roller H], upwards, which means consist-here of a close-coiled spring I8, housed a separate casing I9, attached to housing II. The spring 18 abuts with one end against a plug 20 threaded into casing I9 and with its other end against a nut 2I adjustably secured or threaded to a bo'lt 22 passing through the coils of the, spring IS. The nut 2i has a spigotted seat in casing +9, on which it is forced down by spring I8. Bolt 22 rests with its end near the 'nut 21 against a face 23 of one of the'pedestals 'I'I and has a spherical surface, so that it can swivel about face 23 and keep in contact therewith durin thetiltingof the housing I-I, while the spring 18 is compressed or relaxed as the case may be. The other end of the bolt 22 is square-shaped, to

enable the bolt to be turned for adjustment pur- "poses.

Turning a bolt '22 Will vary the position of 'housing 11 relative to the pedestal I1. and thus also the level of the roller I 0 relative to the sadjacent rollers of the conveyor. Turning of the plug 20 willalter the posit-ion of spring I8 and thereby the, contact pressure between the roller randthe load carried "by the same.

In-the embodiment shown in Figs. 1 and t2, the

driving motor I3 for the roller II] is flanged to an intermediate casing 24, accommodating the :reduction gear between the motor "I3 and roller III, the casing 24, extending from the housing I] so that the roller is and its driving means .form

an assembiy'which can tflt bodily about pivot pin .16.

The embodiment of the invention shown .in Figs. 3. and 4 is similar to that of Figs. 1 and -2 in most respects, the difference being mainly in the arrangement of the motor I3 and the reduction gear between motor I3 and roller II]. The

motor ishere shown as being arranged underneath'the roller if! and secured by suitable means to the underside of the housing I I. Power is transmitted from the motor I3 to the roller I0 through spiral gears '25, 2'5 and 25', :all arranged inside "an. intermediate casing 26 extending from the housing H. Here again, the roller In and its driving means form together an assembly which can tilt bodily about the pivot pin IB'.

Inth-e embodiments shown, the spring means provided for urging the rollers upwards are arranged at one end of the housing H only. It is to "be understood that similar spring means can 4 also be provided, if desired or necessary, at the other end of the roller housing and that the spring means can be disposed in any suitable manner other than that shown in the drawings.

Instead of a close-coiled helical spring, other resilient means may be provided for exerting an elastic pressure on the roller, and other modifications in the arrangement and design of the mounting of the conveyor roller may be provided without departing from the spirit of the invention.

In 5, a roller conveyor is shown comprising a number of driven rollers III which are flexibly or resiliently mounted in accordance with the embodiment shown in Figs. 1 and 2, and which alternate with non-driven or idle rollers 21, the latter being rigidly supported in open brackets 28 extending from pedestals or supports 29.

Travelling along the rollers I0 and 21 is a bar B which is not quite straight, but has two shallow bends in opposite directions vandwhich .give the bar an uneven outline. Due to the flexible mounting of the driven rollers II], the bar will be in contact with all the rollers :over which it passes at agiven moment, notwithstanding the "fact that the bar has .a double bend, and the propelling force will be transmitted to the bar B wherever the latter passes over a driven rollerzIIl.

It will be seen -from .Fig. 5 that to enable a roller 18 to maintain contact with the upward bends of a bar, it is necessary for this roller, when under no load, to be held at a level slightly above that of the adjacent .idle rollers 21, the necessary positional adjustment being effectedby means of 'the threaded connection between nut 21 and bolt 1-22.

When :a straight length of bar passes over a flexibly mounted roller which is :normally somewhat above the level of the adjacent idle rollers. that railer will give Way until it is down to the level of the adjacent-idle rollers. When the bar has downward bends, the flexibly mounted .roller will give way still more, so as to conform with the depression of the bar. In every one of these "cases, the bar. will be supported at "any one moment of its travel along the conveyor of Fig. 5 by atleast two .i'd'le rollers 21, and the contact pressure "between a driven roller II] and the bar will be solely determined by the tension of the spring 18 which urges the roller upwards. This tension wm be so adjusted that the friction between the :roller I1} and the bar .13 will be just sufficient to transmit to the bar the force required for advancing it along the conveyor, :and the spring I8 will thus act as'a load-limiting element for motor I 3.

In the example shown in .Fig. 5, driven rollers alternate withnon-driven rollers. It is, however, Within the scope of the invention to vary the arrangement of driven and non-driven rollers in one and the same conveyor; for instance, it is possible to provide only every third or 'fourth roller of the conveyor with a drive and flexible mounting if the operational conditions and the dimensions of the bars permit .it, the remaining rollers being non-driven and having rigid pports.

means being pivotally connected to said support about an axis parallel to the axis of said roller, so that said roller can give way in a downward direction independently of any 0:! the other rollers of the conveyor, driving means on said carrying means connected to said roller and resilient means connected to said cantilever carrying means on the same side of the axis of the pivotally mounted carrying means as the axis of the roller, continuously urging said roller upwards on its pivot against the stock to be transported, so that said roller will be positioned in accordance with stock being conveyed thereby.

2. In a conveyor for transporting rolled stock having a plurality of rollers, a driven roller for advancing the stock along the conveyor, a fixed support for said roller, frame means carrying said roller, said frame means being pivotally connected to said support about an axis parallel to the axis of said roller so as to enable said roller to assume a position at a level below that of the other rollers of the conveyor, resilient means urging said roller upwards about its pivot and maintaining close contact between said roller and the stock to be transported, and adjusting means connected to said resilient means for adjusting the force exerted by said resilient means on said roller for limiting the torque load on said roller.

3. In a conveyor for transporting rolled stock and having a plurality of rollers, a roller for advancing the stock along the conveyor, a fixed support for said roller, a hinged carrier for said roller pivotally connected to said support about an axis parallel to the axis of said roller, so that said carrier, together with said roller, can swing downwardly and assume a position at a level different from that of the other rollers of the conveyor, resilient means continuously urging said carrier and said roller upwards about the pivot of said carrier so as to maintain close contact between said roller and the stock to be transported, and an adjustable stop element contacted by said resilient means and acting between said fixed support and said hinged carrier for determining the uppermost position of said carrier and said roller.

4. In a conveyor for transporting rolled stock and having a plurality of rollers, a roller for advancing the stock along the conveyor, a fixed support for said roller, individual driving means for said roller and connected thereto, a carrier for said roller, means pivotally connecting said carrier to said support about an axis parallel to that of said roller, said driving means being mounted on said carrier so that said carrier, together with said roller and driving means, can swing downwardly and assume a position at a level different from that of the other rollers oi the conveyor, and resilient means continuously urging said carrier and said roller upwards about the pivot of said carrier so as to ensure close contact between the roller and the stock to be transported.

5. A conveyor for transporting rolled stock, comprising rollers for advancing the stock along the conveyor, fixed supports for said rollers, means rigidly mounting some of said rollers on their respective supports, and supporting means for resiliently and pivotally mounting other rollers on their respective supports, so as to permit each of said resiliently and pivotally mounted rollers to give way in a downward direction independently of the other rollers in the conveyor, while remaining in close contact with the stock to be transported.

6. A conveyor for transporting rolled stock, comprising alternating driven and non-driven rollers for advancing the stock along the conveyor, fixed supports for said rollers, the nondriven rollers being rigidly mounted on said supports, the driven rollers having separate resilient and flexible mountings on said supports so that each of said driven rollers can give way in a downward direction and assume a position at a level different from that of the other rollers of the conveyor, while remaining in close contact with the stock to be transported.

ERHARD RUDOLF HENSCHKER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 888,765 Stevens May 26, 1908 1,650,037 Phillips Nov. 22, 1927 1,743,223 Lowy Jan. 14, 1930 2,129,510 Taylor Sept. 6, 1938 2,315,246 Cunning Mar. 30, 1943 2,493,479 Eggleston Jan. 3, 1950

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