US3383932A - Adjustable drive for roll feed mechanism - Google Patents

Description

C. O. JONES, JR

ADJUSTABLE DRIVE FOR ROLL FEED MECHANISM May 21, 1968 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Aug. 8, 1966 INVENTOR. CLARENCE O JONES, J2.

ATToRNEYs May 21, 1968 c. o. JONES, JR

ADJUSTABLE DRIVE FOR ROLL FEED MECHANISM 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Aug. 8, 1966 nu} l w mm L n fl u J 3 1 5 mm 1 c mm n J 1 ww #LIFIIII Cl 1 w w 4 m w u n Ia. m u n w T m ilrrll [trig Lfrnnnhn L R. llullllfl :11- |L 1 IL INVENTOR. CLARENCE O. JONES, J2.

ATTORNEYS May 21, 1968 c. o. JONES, JR

ADJUSTABLE DRIVE FOR ROLL FEED MECHANISM 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed Aug. 8, 1966 h n Q Q a INVENTOR. CLARENCE O. JONES ,JR.

ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,383,932 ADJUSTABLE DRIVE FOR ROLL FEED MECHANISM Clarence 0. Jones, Jr., Eggertsville, N.Y., assignor to Niagara Machine & Tool Works, Buffalo, N.Y. Filed Aug. 8, 1966, Ser. No. 571,083 11 Claims. (Cl. 7488) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Apparatus for transmitting an adjustable degree of movement to a driven pinion from a drive member having a relatively constant degree of reciprocating movement. A rack member meshing with the pinion extends at a substantial angle to the direction of reciprocation of the drive member and an adjusting link has a pivotal mounting at one end and is pivoted at its other end to both the. drive member and the rack member. The pivotal mounting of the link is adjustable toward and away from the rack member to vary the included angle between the link and the rack member, the amount of drive transmitted to the pinion being thus variable from a maximum down to substantially zero when the link extends substantially coincident with the rack member.

The invention relates to motion translation mecha nism and particularly to novel means for converting rotary to rec'iprocatory motion wherein the length of the reciprocatory stroke is freely, conveniently and accurately adjustable while the mechanism is in motion.

A common area of use of the mechanism of the present invention is in the power press art wherein a strip of material is intermittently advanced to pressing apparatus from a supply roll and by way of illustration the present invention will be discussed with particular reference to such strip feeding, although the principles of the invention may be variously applied.

In strip-feeding or so-called roll feed mechanisms the drive to the strip feeding rolls is commonly from the crankshaft or other drive shaft of the power press served by the fee-d mechanism. An auxiliary crank secured to such drive shaft reciprocates a rack bar which, by means of a drive pinion including a one-way clutch or ratchet mechanism, rotates the feed rolls intermittently.

A number of devices have been proposed and patented for adjusting the length of strip fed at each feeding stroke, some of which purport to be adjustable during operation of the power press and the roll feed mechanism. Such proposals have usually consisted of means for adjusting the effective length of the crank arm which reciprocates the roll feed driving rack bar. Among other objections, such proposals necessitate adjusting crank mechanism which is located at the top of a power press, out of normal reach of an operator. Accordingly, linkage or mechanical means of some sort must extend from the crank to a position accessible to an operator.

The present invention provides novel stroke adjusting means whereby the reciprocating rod or bar which extends from the power press drive shaft down to the roll feed mechanism may have a constant non-adjustable stroke, adjustment being effected by means at the lower end of such operating rod. The adjusting means of the present invention is freely adjustable while the power press and strip feeding mechanism are in motion and the arrangement is such that accurate micrometric adjustment can be established and maintained.

While a single specific embodiment of the principles of the present invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing and described in detail in the following specifica- 3,383,932 Patented May 21, 1968 "ice tion, it is to be understood that such embodiment is by way of example only and that various mechanical modifications may be made Without departing from the spirit of the invention, the scope of which is limited only as defined in the appended claims.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary elevational view looking at the left hand side of a power press showing the lower end of the reciprocating operating rod, the rear portion of the feed roll mechanism, and one form of the stroke adjusting means of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary top plan view of the structure of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an elevational view of the structure of FIG. 1 taken from right hand side of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary cross sectional view on the line IVIV of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary cross sectional view taken approximately on the line VV of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 6 is a schematic fragmentary elevational View showing an eccentric driving connection from the main shaft of a power press to the feed roll operating rod.

Like characters of reference denote like parts throughout the several figures of the drawings and, referring to FIG. 1, a pair of feed rolls of a feed roll apparatus such as is conventionally used in conjunction with power presses are designated 10- and 11. The feed rolls 10 and 11 are journalled at their ends in bearing brackets, one of which is shown at 12 in FIG. 1, and the bearing brackets are secured to a base 13 which is positioned at one side of the bed of a power press in the usual manner. In the present instance the lower roll 11 is the driven roll of the feed mechanism and is advanced in adjustable increments by connection with the main shaft of a power press with which the feed roll mechanism is associated.

In FIG. 1 the numeral 14 designates a reciprocable rod which operates the feed roll mechanism. As shown schematically in FIG. 6, the upper end of rod 14 is pivoted eccentrically as at 15 to the end of a drive shaft 16, conventionally the crank or eccentric shaft of a power press. In the present apparatus stroke adjustment of the feed roll mechanism is accomplished entirely in the transmission between the lower end of rod 14 and the feed rolls and accordingly the eccentricity or throw of the crank at the upper end of rod 14 may be fixed and non-adjustable and the rod 14 accordingly reciprocates a fixed distance at all times. Varying feeding movements of the feed rolls 10 and 11 is effected by adjustment of the driving connection between the lower end of reciprocating rod 14 and the feed rolls in a manner and by means which will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The numeral designates an upright support plate which is rigidly secured to base 13 and has fixed to its outer surface a housing member 21.

The drive from reciprocating rod 14 to roll 11 is as follows. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 4, the lower end of rod 14 is bifurcated as shown at 22 and one end of a rack bar 23 is pivoted between the bifurcations by a pivot pin 25. The location of the axis of pivot pin 25 is adjustable by means of a link 26 in a manner which will presently be described and the adjusted location of the axis of pin 25 determines the effective stroke length of rack bar 23 in a manner which will presently be described.

Rack bar 23 extends through guide formations 27 of a rack guide and pinion housing designated 28 in FIGS. 1 and 2. A shaft 30 has antifriction bearing at one end in mounting plate 20 as shown at 31 in FIG. 2. Shaft 30 extends through housing 28, through a one-way clutch designated 33 in FIG. 2 and comprises the input shaft of a conventional helical drive unit designated 34 in FIG. 2.

A pinion 35 in housing 28 is rotatable on shaft 345 and is fixed to the housing of clutch 33, the latter being a conventional one-way clutch of the type wherein the housing comprises the drive member and an internal hub comprises the driven member. In the present instance the internal hub driven member is fixed to shaft 30 and thus drives the right angle drive unit 34. The rack guide and pinion housing 28 has side wall portions which bear rotatably on hubs which project from the opposite faces of pinion 35.

The output shaft of drive unit 34 is coaxial with and fixed to a shaft 33 which comprises the mounting shaft of driven feed roll 11. From the foregoing it will be seen that each reciprocation of rack bar 23 in one direction will be transmitted to shaft 30 through pinion 35 and clutch 33 and thence through drive unit 34 to feed roll 11, while return movements of rack bar 23 will be idle.

The stroke adjustment means will now be described. Link 26, one end of which is connected to pivot pin 25, extends into housing 21 and is connected at its opposite end to a pivot pin 37 by means of an antifriction bearing 38. Pivot pin 37 includes a male dovetail block formation 39 which is slidable lengthwise in a complementary dovetail groove 40 in housing 21.

A screw shaft 41 is journaled in the end wall of housing 21 and is held against axial movement relative thereto. Screw shaft 41 is threaded into dovetail block 39 as shown in FIG. 5. A hand wheel42 controls screw shaft 41 and rotation of the latter causes dovetail block 39 to move lengthwise in the dovetail groove 40 of housing 21.

As shown in FIG. 5 a locking strip 43 is set into one wall of dovetail groove 40 to bear against an adjacent face of dovetail block 39. A locking shaft 44 journaled in housing 21 has an eccentric head portion 45 which bears in a vertical groove in locking strip 43 whereby rotation of shaft 44 by means of a locking handle 46 causes locking strip 43 to move lengthwise in opposite directions.

As shown in FIG. 1, locking strip 43 is tapered along its length and the recess in housing 21 which receives the same is similarly tapered so that movement of the locking strip, by manipulation of locking handle 46, in a di rection toward hand wheel 42 securely locks dovetail block 39 against longitudinal movement.

In FIG. 1 pivot pin 37 is shown at the upper righthand end of housing 21 which is the position in which a maximum feed stroke is produced. Operating rod 14 is shown in FIGS. 1 and 6 in its lowermost position wherein it is about to begin an upward movement which will cause rack bar 23 to rotate pinion 35 in a clockwise direction to effect a feeding movement of feed roll 11.

Since the crank or eccentric which reciprocates rod 14- is attached to the crank shaft 16 of the power press it rotates one revolution for each revolution of the press crank shaft 16. It is conventional in feed roll drives to perform the feeding stroke during the last 90 degrees of a press cycle and the subsequent first 90 degrees of the following stroke thereof. Thus the feeding is effected after the slide or ram of the press is halfway up on a return cycle and during the first half of the downward movement of the slide or ram in the working cycle of the press. Accordingly, the down position of operating rod 14 illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 6 would correspond with a position of the power press wherein the slide or ram is halfway up on its return stroke. In FIG. 6 the crank throw for the usual pitman or connection which operates the power press ram or slide is indicated schematically in dot and dash lines at 48 in FIG. 6.

In effecting a feed stroke beginning with the position illustrated in FIG. 1, the lower end of operating rod 14 as represented by pivot pin 25 will be constrained to move along an upward work stroke from pivot pin 37 at the other end of link 26. This obviously will move rack bar 23 to the left as viewed in FIG. 1 to effect clockwise rotation of pinion 35.

4 Adjustment of pivot pin 37 along housing 21 from the position illustrated in FIG. 1 progressively reduces the strip length of the feed mechanism by reducing the angle of travel imparted to pinion 35 by rack bar 23. It will be observed that adjustment of pivot pin 37 until it reaches the pitch circle of pinion 35 at the lower side thereof, that is, the side engaged by rack bar 23, reduces the feed adjustment to zero. In this position the longitudinal center line of link 26 lies substantially coincident with the pitch line of the teeth of rack bar 23. Pivot pin 25 at the outer end of link 26 is limited to movement along an arc defined by link 26 in its swinging movement about pivot pin 37. Thus if pivot pin 37 is in the limit position just described, reciprocating movement of rod 14 will merely cause rack bar 23 to roll about the teeth of pinion 35 without producing any substantial rotation of the pinion. Note that the pitch line of the rack teeth extends substantially through the center of pivot pin 25.

There is substantially a straight line relationship b tween the relative position of adjustment of pivot pin 37 between the two limit positions described above and the angle of rotation imparted to pinion and to feed roll 11. Accordingly, a conventional counter means may be associated with screw 41 which reads directly in inches of feed for which the pivot pin 37 and block 39 are adjusted.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for transmitting reciprocating movement and for adjusting the degree of transmitted movement relative to a given degree of input movement, said apparatus comprising a reciprocating drive member and a driven pinion, a rack member mes-hing with said pinion and pivoted adjacent to an end thereof to said drive memher, said rack member extending at an angle to the general direction of reciprocation of said drive member, an adjusting link having a pivotal mounting at one end and pivoted at its other end to one of said members, and means for adjusting the pivotal mounting of said link toward and away from said rack member to adjust the degree of rotation imparted to said pinion by said rack member for a given degree of reciprocation of said drive member.

2. Apparatus according to claim Tincluding a guide member rotatably mounted coaxially with said pinion member and coacting with said rack member to slidably guide the same in meshing relation with said pinion.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the pivot between the drive member and the rack member and the pivot of said link member thereto have a common axis.

4. Apparatus according to claim 1 including a unidirectional clutch driven by said pinion member whereby to and fro movements imparted to the pinion member by said rack bar produce an intermittent unidirectional output motion.

'5. Apparatus according to claim 1 including means for locking said link pivotal mounting means in any predetermined position of adjustment.

6. Apparatus according to claim 1 including screw means for lineally adjusting said pivotal mounting toward and away from said rack bar member.

7. Apparatus for transmitting reciprocating movement and for adjusting the degree of transmitted movement relative to a given degree of input movement, said apparatus comprising a reciprocating drive member and a driven wheel, a bar member and means guiding the same for movement in a generally tangential direction relative to said wheel, said bar member having means for driving engagement with said wheel, said bar member being pivoted adjacent to an end thereof to said drive member, said bar member extending at an angle to the general direction of reciprocation of said drive member, an ad justing link having a pivotal mounting at one end and pivoted :at its other end to one of said members, and adjustment means for relatively moving said link and said bar member angularly toward and away from a position of coincidence with each other to adjust the degree of rotation imparted to said wheel by said bar member for a given degree of reciprocation of said drive member.

8. Apparatus according to claim 7 wherein said wheel member comprises a pinion and said bar member oomprises a rack meshing therewith.

9. Apparatus according to claim 7 wherein the pivot of said adjusting link with said members is coaxial with the pivot between said drive member and said bar member.

10. Apparatus according to claim 8 wherein the pivot of said adjusting link with said members is coaxial with the pivot between said drive member and said bar member.

11. Apparatus for transmitting reciprocating movement and for adjusting the degree of transmitted movement relative to a given degree of input movement, said apparatus comprising a reciprocating drive member, a driven pinion, a rack member meshing with said pinion and extending at an angle to the general direction of reciproca- 'tion of said drive member, an adjusting link having a said rack member for a given degree of reciprocation of said drive member.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,076,368 2/1963 Groll 226139 XR FRED C. MATTER'N, IR., Primary Examiner.

*F. D. SHOEM'AKER, Assistant Examiner.

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