Supports – Brackets
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-24
2001-05-01
Ramirez, Ramon O. (Department: 3632)
Supports
Brackets
C474S165000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06224028
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a cantilever shaft assembly having a shaft body made from a synthetic resin and rotatably supporting a rotating member such as a power transmission sprocket or a power transmission pulley. More particularly, this invention relates to such a cantilever shaft assembly which is particularly suitable for use in a water-treatment sludge scraping apparatus or a plating dross collecting and removing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional cantilever shafts, as shown in
FIG. 6
, include a free end portion X rotatably supporting thereon a rotating member such as a driven sprocket S, and a flanged body portion X
2
adapted to be attached to the surface of a stationary supporting member. To reduce the weight and improve the corrosion resistance, the cantilever shaft X is molded from a synthetic resin material into a one-piece structure. The synthetic resin molded cantilever shaft X is used in a sludge scraping machine disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-open Publication No. (HEI) 2-57109 and Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No, (HEI) 3-96711.
To secure reliable and firm attachment to the supporting member such as a wall, the synthetic resin molded cantilever shaft has a specific cone-like configuration consisting of the free end portion X
1
of reduced diameter and the flanged body portion X
2
of enlarged diameter.
The conventional cantilever shaft has varius drawbacks as enumerated below.
(1) Due to its specific cone-like configuration, the conventional cantilever shaft requires a special molding die which is expensive to manufacture. Because of a little demand, the cantilever shaft is not suited for mass-production. Thus, the manufacturing cost of the conventional cantilever shaft is relatively high.
(2) The synthetic resin cantilever shafts molded on the same molding die have a fixed length. Accordingly, when used in an application where different lengths of cantilever shafts are necessary to form various types of water treatment sludge scraping apparatuses, a corresponding number of molding dies must be provided. The thus formed synthetic resin cantilever shafts are highly expensive to manufacture.
(3) When the free end portion rotatably supporting the rotating member is damaged or worn out, the conventional cantilever shaft, due to its one-piece structure, must be replaced for repairing as a whole including the undamaged body portion. Replacement of the overall structure is inefficient, laborious and time-consuming.
(4) To replace the partially damaged synthetic resin cantilever shaft with a new cantilevered shaft is wasteful of resources and requires an adequate waste disposal treatment to avoid environmental contamination.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a cantilever shaft assembly for rotating members which is light in weight, has an excellent corrosion resistance, can be manufactured at a relatively low cost, is easy to repair or replace, and is particularly suitable for use in a water treatment sludge scraping apparatus.
To achieve the foregoing object, a cantilever shaft assembly according to the present invention includes a steel pipe firmly secured at one end to a wall surface of a stationary support member and projecting perpendicularly from the wall surface, and a core shaft made from a synthetic resin and having a body portion removably fitted in the steel pipe and an end portion located outside the steel pipe. The end portion of the core shaft forms a free end of the cantilever shaft assembly and rotatably supports thereon a rotating member. The core shaft and the steel pipe are locked and held together by a locking device.
The cantilever shaft assembly thus constructed is light in weight and can be easily repaired at a low cost when the end portion of the synthetic resin core shaft-is damaged or worn out.
The locking device may be a locking pin fitted through a radial through-hole in the steel pipe into a radial hole formed in the body portion of the core shaft. The locking pin may be replaced by a locking key in which instance the body portion of the core shaft has a key seat. The key is fitted in the key seat through the radial through-hole of the steel pipe.
Preferably, the body portion of the core shaft has a plurality of radial holes formed at equal intervals along an axis of the core shaft. The locking pin is fitted in one of the radial holes. The intervals between said radial holes are preferably substantially equal to a length of the end portion of the core shaft. When the end portion of the synthetic resin core shaft is damaged or worn out, the core shaft is removed from the steel pipe. The damaged end portion is cut off or removed, then an end part of the body portion is cut or machined to form a new end portion of reduced diameter. The body portion is inserted again into the steel pipe, and the locking pin is fitted in an adjacent radial hole of the core shaft which is displaced by one pitch from the one radial hole toward the fixed end of the steel pipe.
The plural radial holes of the core shaft may be replaced with plural key seats formed in the body portion at equal intervals along the axis of the core shaft.
The core shaft may further have an additional end portion having the same size as the first-mentioned end portion and projecting from an end of said body portion in a direction opposite to the first-mentioned end portion. The additional end portion is normally received inside the steel pipe. When the first-mentioned end portion of the core shaft is damaged or worn out, the core shaft is removed from the steel pipe, then inserted again in the steel pipe so that the additional end portion forms a free end of the cantilever shaft assembly. The damaged end portion is received inside the steel pipe. Thus, the damaged core shaft can be easily repaired without a substantive downtime of a chain transmission mechanism in which the rotating member is incorporated.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those versed in the art upon making reference to the following detailed description and the accompanying sheets of drawings in which certain preferred structural embodiments incorporating the principle of the present invention are shown by way of illustrative examples.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3944055 (1976-03-01), Stumpf
patent: 4950398 (1990-08-01), Wiegand et al.
Doi Katsuo
Tanaka Koji
Dann Dorfman Herrell and Skillman
Ramirez Ramon O.
Skillman Henry H.
Tsubakimoto Chain Co.
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