US3052422A - Splined lifting tube - Google Patents

Description

Sept. 4, 1962 H. w. MOSER ETAL SPLINED LIFTING TUBE Filed Jan. 27, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTORS, HENRY W. MOSER WILLIAM J. EMERSON IRVING KESTENBAUM ATTYS.

P 1962 H. w. MOSER ETAL 3,052,422

SPLINED LIFTING TUBE Filed Jan. 27, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVEN+OR$I HENRY W. MOSER WLLIAM J. EMERSON BY IRVING KESTENBAUM ATTYS.

United States Patent Ufllice 3,052,422 Patented Sept. 4, 1962 3,052,422 SPLINED LIFTING TUBE Henry W. Moser and William J. Emerson, Haddonfield, and Irving Kestenbaum, Merchantville, N.J., assignors to Samuel M. Langston Company, Camden, N.J., a Corporation of New Jersey Filed Jan. 27, 1961, Ser. No. 86,567 Claims. (Cl. 242-684) The present invention relates generally to improvements in shaftless type unwind or mill roll stands of a type generally described and shown in co-pending US. application Serial No. 635,808, filed January 23, 1957, now US. Patent 2,991,953 entitled Mill Roll Stand and which is assigned to a common assignee with the present application.

As set forth specifically in said co-pending application, and to which reference is made for details of construction and operation, the machine consists basically of a horizontal shaft or tube supported and journaled in side frames at the opposite ends thereof and to which is keyed a pair of arms on opposing ends which are equipped at their free ends with a rotatable roll lifting and supporting spindle and a spindle cone chuck.

These cone chucks are inwardly pointed toward each other and are on the same horizontal center line so that when the arms are made to Slide laterally toward each other on the horizontal shaft, a roll or reel of sheet material can be engaged between the arms and on the cone chucks to permit rotation of the roll or reel when the arms are elevated by rotating the horizontal tube or shaft to lift the roll.

The horizontal shaft is rotated by two iluid cylinders, the head end of each of which is attached to an end frame and the piston rod end is attached to a bell crank collar or the like located and keyed to the horizontal shaft at each end. Two fluid cylinders are also provided for sliding the roll supporting arms laterally on the horizontal shaft. These latter fluid cylinders position the arms laterally and additionally provide the power to force the cone chucks into the roll core.

In the previous types of machines it has been the practice to key the support arms to the horizontal shaft and also to precision fit the support arms to the horizontal shaft. As a result of this construction the keys were imparted the torque load caused by lifting the roll and transferred this load to the horizontal shaft. Additionally in this type of construction the horizontal shaft took directly a large share of the load resulting from the twist ing of the support arm caused by the off-center load pulling down on the spindle chucks. Deflection of the horizontal shaft caused when loaded by the supported roll resulted in the shaft not only being bent slightly but under some circumstances it became elliptical in shape. This deflection and out of roundness of the shaft and the fact that the bearing surface length of the end of the support arms was relatively short in comparison with the diameter of the shaft rendered it diflicult to move the support arms laterally in unison when loaded and frequently resulted in jerky and chattery movement.

It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a mechanism wherein these objections in prior known devices is overcome and in accomplishing this two keys are mounted diametrically opposite to each other on the horizontal load supporting shaft which act as male splines and two female mating keyways are cut in a keyway self-aligning seat diametrically opposite to each other in each of the roll lifting arms and serve as female splines.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a construction wherein precision fitting of the end of the roll support arms with respect to the horizontal shaft or tube is not required and wherein the lifting torque load and the load which tends to twist the support arms resulting from lifting the roll is taken by the keys in the horizontal shaft which in turn transfer these loads to this shaft without requiring that the arms bear on the tube outside surface at any point.

It is a further object of invention to provide a construction which permits easy and smooth lateral movement of the support arms in unison, even when loaded and eliminates the necessity for close machining of the outside diameter of the shaft and the support arm.

An additional object of the present invention is to provide a construction susceptible of an even distribution of loads and forces over the entire surface of the key and the keyway.

Additional objects and advantages of the present invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description of an embodiment thereof when taken together with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a shaftless unwind stand embodying the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken on line 2-2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary enlarged view, partly in section, showing details of construction of the coacting mounting means for the roll lifting arms;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view taken on line 44 of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary sectional view taken on line 5-5 of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary perspective View of the coacting mounting means of the invention.

Referring now in detail to the drawings a horizontal lifting tube It is supported at its opposite ends in side frames 12 and 14. Bellcrank collars 16 are located at opposite ends of the tube and are keyed thereto. Fluid lift cylinders 18 are positioned at the two sides of the tube, preferably within the end frames, and are connected at one end 20 to the end frame for pivoting movement and have their opposite ends connected at 22 to the bellcrank collars 16. These lift cylinders 18 are adapted for rotating the lifting tube 10 in an obvious manner.

Scanning rolls 25 and 27 are secured in the end frames for operation in a known manner but form no part of the present invention. Roll lifting arms 24 and 26 have at one end spindles and spindle cone chucks generally designated 28, 30 adapted for coaction with a reel of paper or the like 32 in the usual manner and. are adapted to be rotatably braked by fluid operated friction brakes 34 and 36. The arms 24 and 26 at the ends opposite the chucks have hubs 38 and 40. These hubs as shown in detail in FIGS. 3-6 inclusive are substantially hollow and have central apertures 42 therethrough which permit mounting them over the tubes in the apparatus when assembling machines embodying the invention. It will be noted that the aperture 42 is of greater dimension than the exterior dimension of the tube and out of contact therewith. This precludes the necessity of close machining of the aperture and the exterior of the tube.

The manner in which the arms are mounted on the lift tube as shown and described herein is the departure of the present invention from previous constructions. This consists in a combination of mechanical elements operatively interconnecting the hubs of the arms with the tube. lnteriorly of the substantially hollow hubs there are solid webs integral with the interior of the hub and at diametrically opposite positions therein although any number and/or spacing of the interconnecting means can be utilized as required or desired. The webs 44 terminate in substantially half round guideways 46 which extend slightly more than as shown in FIG. 3. The webs 44 and guideways 46 extend between the side walls of the hubs and as shown in the drawings external flanges 48 are formed on opposite sides of the hubs. Selfaligning keyway seats 50 which are slightly more than 180 are adapted for mounting in the half round guideways 46 and due to the shape and dimensions of these coasting parts the keyway seats will be maintained in place during assembly until the arms are assembled on the horizontal shaft as will be readily apparent.

A female keyway 52 is cut in keyway seat 50 extending through the length thereof and a matching female keyway seat 54 is cut into lifting tube along the length thereof. It will be noted that the foregoing described structure including the keyways are provided at diametrically opposite points of the hub and tube as shown in FIG. 3 for example but additional ones could be provided and in different places thereon. Keys 56 are adapted for insertion in the coacting keyways 52 and S4 at the various locations indicated which act as male splines coacting with the keyways constituting female splines. A keyseat retainer 58 as shown in FIG. 6 is secured into the outer ends of the keyway seats 50 by screws 60 or the like and as will be noted have a rectangular cut-out portion 62 which permits it to be placed over the keys but in spaced relationship to the sides and tops thereof. A keyseat wiper 64 is secured by bolts 66 to the exterior of keyseat retainer 58 and serves to maintain the upper bearing surface of key 56 clean from dirt and the like. This keyseat wiper can be made of any satisfactory available material.

The means for laterally sliding the supporting arms with respect to the lifting tube consist of hydraulic cylinders 68 and 70 having the piston rod ends thereof attached each to a hub of one of the lifting arms or tubes with the head ends attached to the bellcrank collar 16 or to the lifting tube 10 as desired. These cylinders are arranged close to and parallel to the lifting tube 10 and rotate with this tube and the hubs 38 and 40 when the support arms are moved to elevate or depress the reel or roll of sheet material. Appropriate hydraulic circuitry is interconnected wtih the various cylinders in a known usual manner.

This arrangement makes possible the desired horizontal and angular movement of the roll support arms without having to precision fit the ends of each arm with the exterior of the lifting tube. With this arrangement the support arm ends do not bear on the horizontal lifting tube but the lifting torque load and the load which tends to twist the support arms resulting from lifting the roll is taken by the keys in the lifting tube which in turn transfer these loads to this tube Without requiring that the arms bear on the tube outside surface at any point. The keyways in the support arms take both the twist or torque load and the off-center load tending to twist the support arms and transfer these loads to the keys in the horizontal shaft. It will be seen that the proportion of the length of the bearing surface of the keyways to the thickness of the keys is many times greater than the proportion of the support arm contact surface length to the horizontal shaft diameter. This proportion results in smooth sliding under load.

The present construction which makes possible a clearance between the support arm bore and the lifting tube outside surface while permitting easy and smooth lateral movement of the support arms, in unison, even when loaded eliminates the necessity for a precision fit between the support arms and the horizontal shaft for lifting tube outside surface. A standard sized tubing can be utilized for the lifting tube without requiring that the outside diameter be machined to close tolerances and eliminates the necessity for machining the support arm bore to a close tolerance. This construction also permits painting of the outside surface of the lift tube, except for the keys thereon, to prevent corrosion rather than depending on the coating of lubricating grease or oil. It will also be readily understood that the half round keyway seat makes the keyway self-aligning with the mating key resulting in easier fitting of the keyway to the key and also renders possible the even distribution of the load over the entire surface of the key and the keyway.

While one embodiment of the present invention has been shown and described herein, manifestly minor changes in details of construction will be apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention as defined in and limited solely by the appended claims.

We claim:

1. In a mill roll stand, a rotatable lifting tube, roll lifting arms for rotatably supporting a reel of sheet material thereoetween, means for interconnecting said arms and said tube comprising hubs on said arms, said hubs having apertures therethrough, angularly rotatable keyway seats mounted in said hubs and extending longitudinally therethrough, a keyway in each of said seats, a longitudinally extended keyway in said tube in coacting position with the keyways in said seats a key engaged in said keyways slidably interconnecting said tube and arms and adapted for rotating said arms upon rotation of said tube, the apertures in said hubs having a larger diameter than the outside diameter of said tube whereby said hubs and said tube are in spaced non-contacting relation and all forces resulting from lifting loads are taken by said keys which transfer the loads to said tube without hearing contact between said arm hubs and the outside surface of said tube.

2. In a mill roll stand as claimed in claim 1, said hubs being substantially hollow and having interior solid radially extending Webs integral therewith, said webs terminating in substantially half round guideways, said keyway seats being substantially half round on the surface thereof opposite said keyways whereby said keyway seats are self-aligning in said guideways with respect to a mating key.

3. In a mill roll stand as claimed in claim 2, said guideways and said keyway seats being slightly greater than whereby said keyway seats will be maintained in place during assembly of said arms on said tube.

4. In a mill roll stand as claimed in claim 3, a keyway seat retainer secured to each end of each of said seats exteriorly of said hub to retain said seats in said hub.

5. In a mill roll stand as claimed in claim 4, a keyseat wiper secured to each said keyway seat retainer exteriorly thereof and in operative wiping contact with the upper bearing surface of said key.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,370,893 Komarek Mar. 8, 1921 1,472,798 Gyllsdorfl' Nov. 6, 1923 2,499,562 Behrens Mar. 7, 1950 2,973,914 Beninger et al. Mar. 7, 1961 2,991,953 Moser et al July 11, 1961 FOREIGN PATENTS 441,495 France May 29, 1912 467,802 Canada Sept. 5, 1950

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