Brushing – scrubbing – and general cleaning – Implements – Brush or broom
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-17
2001-10-02
Spisich, Mark (Department: 1744)
Brushing, scrubbing, and general cleaning
Implements
Brush or broom
C015S230000, C015S230100, C015S230140, C015S230170, C015S230190, C451S465000, C300S021000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06295687
ABSTRACT:
DISCLOSURE
This invention relates generally to a rotary wheel type buff or brush section assembly, and more particularly to the assembly of such sections into sub-assemblies or ganged sections for assembly on the arbors or drive shafts of wide face buffing or brushing machines.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Buffing or brushing machines often utilize relatively long power driven arbors or shafts on which buff sections or wheels are mounted for rotation with the arbor or shaft. Spacers are sometimes interposed between the wheels. Spacers may be simple rings or worn buffing or brush wheels.
Buffing wheels may have a wide range of materials and can be used for aggressive material removal or just polishing and coloring. The materials may range from soft to coarse cloth, or abrasive fabric, or sand paper or sheets. The same is true of brush wheels and the materials used for the brush filaments.
In forming a buffing wheel, a clinch ring is sometimes employed which includes teeth which bite into the folded radially extending fabric, cloth, or paper at the fold. When the buff wheel is formed a core plate or hub is normally press-fit into clinch ring. The core plate normally includes a center hole or openings which fit on the drive arbor of the machine. A central opening may include notches or keyways designed to fit drive keys on the arbor. Brush wheels may be made in generally similar fashion but normally include an annular wire core in the clinch ring around which the radially extending filaments are folded. Examples of buff wheels made with clinch rings are seen in Atkins U.S. Pat. No. 3,438,080, or Pedrotte U.S. Pat. No. 4,504,999. Examples of wheel type brushes with such rings may be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 2,160,829 to Nielsen, and U.S. Pat. No.2,757,401 to Peterson.
Some buff wheels have the fabric or buffing or abrading material attached directly to the hub or core plate and do not use a separate clinch ring or channel. These types of wheels are shown for example in Churchill U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,724,937 and 2,687,602, and are sold under the well known trademark CHURCHILL by the JacksonLea unit of Jason Incorporated at Conover, N.C.
Prior efforts to form ganged sub-assemblies of buff wheels with or without spacers are shown in Schaffner U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,365,742 and 5,650,744. Both utilize straps or tabs which extend axially inside the clinch rings connecting buff sections under pressure. The straps or tabs are welded in place and a rigid or unyielding sub-assembly is formed. Since the sub-assemblies will not yield axially or further compress, the machine operator is limited to an arbitrary unyieldable axial dimension increment which when assembled on the shaft may not precisely fit the total axial length of the shaft. Nothing is more frustrating than to try to make something fit that will not fit. Without the proper fit one of the assemblies has to be removed and replaced by individual wheel segments or spacers. This of course adds to the machine downtime, cost, and requires more labor, and unnecessary wheel inventory. It would accordingly be desirable if the stack or sub-assembly of wheels would yield axially so that proper fit could be obtained simply by further compression or expansion. This of course is impossible with a rigid sub-assembly.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A unitized assembly of buffing or brushing wheel sections with or without spacers between individual wheel sections is compressed under pressure and held together by cable ties in one embodiment, or screw clamps in another embodiment. The purpose of building the assembly is to aid the customer during the loading and unloading of the machine shaft. Buff sections are generally made on a metal clinch ring with radially projecting fabric, paper, abrasive sheets, or a non-woven material serving as the buffing surface. The buff sections have a permanent metal hub, core plate or disc placed in the center of the ring, specifically sized for the customer's machine shaft. The spacers may or may not have a metal center core plate or disc, and may be made of various materials such as soft wood or even rubber or plastic. The buffs and or spacers are stacked on a press such as an hydraulic press and the arbor holes in the center plates are lined up or aligned so that the buff assembly will slide easily onto the customer's shaft. The buffs and or spacers are compressed to a certain degree and then held together in one embodiment of the invention by cable ties that have been threaded through special holes in the metal center core plates or discs. The cable ties are then tightened with a pneumatic tool to hold the assembly together at a customer-specified face width.
In another embodiment, screw clamps are tightened to maintain the specified face width. These design embodiments are an improvement over rigid buff assemblies since the customer now has the option to compress the unit even further once placed onto the machine shaft, or in some cases even to enlarge the face width by loosening the cable ties or screw clamps.
In the cable tie embodiments of the invention the core plates or discs are provided with paired hole or hole sets in the outer periphery of the core plates. The holes of each pair have parallel symmetrical edges facing each other which are also parallel to and equally spaced from a diameter of the wheel. There may be a number of sets of such holes, each set having the opposed parallel symmetrical edges. The assembly however, needs to be balanced. The cable tie may be in the form of a stainless steel band having a transversely slotted end threaded through the helix of a screw mounted on the other end. The screw is positioned about midway between the slot edges at an end face of the assembly. The free slotted end is threaded through the helix after the stacked wheels or wheels and spacers are aligned, stacked, and compressed. The tie may be tightened simply by turning the screw with a pneumatic tool. The stack is then an integrated unit under compression which can be compressed further or slightly expanded for axial fit on the arbor or shaft of the machine.
In the other embodiment, the stack is held in a preferred state of compression to obtain the desired face width by nuts threaded on carriage bolts extending through the core plates. The assembly may be further compressed or slightly enlarged simply by tightening or loosening the nuts. The assembly is thus field adjustable in axial length or as to face width for ease of machine assembly.
To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends the invention, then, comprises the features hereinafter fully described and particularly pointed out in the claims, the following description and the annexed drawings setting forth in detail certain illustrative embodiments of the invention, these being indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principles of the invention may be employed.
REFERENCES:
patent: 445005 (1891-01-01), Mahler
patent: 1470740 (1923-10-01), Hose
patent: 2160029 (1939-05-01), Nielsen
patent: 2244582 (1941-06-01), Thompson
patent: 2290575 (1942-07-01), Potter
patent: 2534892 (1950-12-01), Wilhide
patent: 2687602 (1954-08-01), Churchill
patent: 2724937 (1955-11-01), Churchill
patent: 2757401 (1956-08-01), Peterson
patent: 3212819 (1965-10-01), Churchill
patent: 3365742 (1968-01-01), Schaffner
patent: 3407425 (1968-10-01), Drumm
patent: 3438080 (1969-04-01), Atkins
patent: 4504999 (1985-03-01), Pedrotte
patent: 4850158 (1989-07-01), Schaffner
patent: 5560744 (1996-10-01), Schaffner, III
patent: 157225 (1954-06-01), None
patent: 237804 (1969-07-01), None
Panduit Pan-Steel™ Stainless Steel Ties undated admitted prior art.
Renner, Otto, Boiselle & Sklar LLP
Spisich Mark
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