Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor – With bending – folding – winding – or wrapping means
Reexamination Certificate
1997-10-16
2001-03-27
Lorin, Francis J. (Department: 1775)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor
With bending, folding, winding, or wrapping means
C242S615000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06206068
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method of and an apparatus for continuously manufacturing a tape strip folded about a ring, which is to be used as a connector between a frame and a sheet in a trampoline and between a bag and a band end, and also to a tape twist correcting device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the conventional art, the above-described type tape strip folded about a ring is manufactured by severing a predetermined length off a continuous tape, inserting the thus obtained tape strip through the ring, and folding the tape strip through and about the ring outwardly. And in order to facilitate a subsequent sewing work, a laminate portion of the folded tape strip is provisionally secured with a thread, a staple or any other fastener to keep the tape strip in a folded form, which is performed manually.
FIG. 15
of the accompanying drawings shows a trampoline
1
in which the conventional type tape strips
10
each folded about a ring
12
are used as connectors between a circular or rectangular frame
1
a
and a sheet
1
b
of the same shape inside the frame
1
a.
For other purposes, these tape strips may be used as connectors between a bag and a band, for example. The laminate portion of a folded tape strip, which is similar to that of FIG.
14
(B), is attached to the sheet
1
b
or the bag. In the trampoline
1
, each ring
12
attached to the respective folded tape strip
10
is connected to the frame
1
a
via a spring
13
. In the folded tape strip attached to the bag, the band is connected to the ring directly or by a non-illustrated swivel joint.
Generally, the ring
12
is a triangular or rectangular ring formed from a metal wire or molded of reinforced synthetic resin, and on the other hand, the tape strip
11
requires adequate strength and rigidity and is accordingly a thick woven, knit or non-woven cloth of fibers made of thermoplastic synthetic resin, such as polyamide, polyester or polypropylene, or a thermoplastic elastomeric resin tape having, as a core, a cloth of the above-mentioned kind.
According to the conventional technology, however, production of the tape strip folded about the ring chiefly relies on manual work and hence needs large manpower, which would be very inefficient. Further, since the thread and staple used in temporarily securing the folded tape strip are unnecessary in a final product, such as a trampoline, and especially in the case of the staple, such a fastener has to be removed from the folded tape strip by hand at the final stage of production, for preventing any injury of the user, thus lowering the productivity.
Further, when a continuous tape is drawn from a tape container, for example, in the production of the tape strip folded about the ring, the continuous tape tends to be twisted; this twist would be a large cause for hindering the continuous processing of the continuous tape.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a primary object of this invention to improve the efficiency of production of tape strips each folded about a ring so that production of a final product using such folded tape strips can be facilitated.
Another object of the invention is to provide a tape twist correcting device for automatically correcting a twist of a continuous tape while the continuous tape is drawn in a twisted form from a tape supply section.
The above and other objects and additional features as well as advantageous results will become manifest from various preferred embodiments described below.
In order to accomplish the above objects, according to a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a method for continuously manufacturing a folded tape strip with a ring, comprising the steps of: successively supplying rings to a tape strip folding section via a ring supply path; intermittently feeding, in response to intermittent driven rotation of tape drawer rollers, a continuous tape by a predetermined length at a time from a tape supply section to the tape strip folding section; inserting a leading end portion of the continuous tape through the ring at the tape strip folding section while the continuous tape is fed; stopping the feeding of the continuous tape when the continuous tape has been fed by the predetermined length; severing the predetermined length of tape strip off the continuous tape, by a cutter operable when the feeding of the continuous tape is stopped, with the leading end portion of the continuous tape being inserted through the ring at the tape strip folding section; folding the tape strip on itself through the ring by a tape strip bending means at the tape strip folding section; fusing at least part of a laminate portion of the folded tape strip; and discharging the resulting folded tape strip with the ring out of a folded tape strip manufacturing machine.
The rings, which are each formed by bending a metal wire or molded of synthetic resin and have each a straight portion, are successively fed along a ring supply path by a vibrating parts feeder. The tape is made of woven, knit or non-woven cloth of thermoplastic fibers, or a thermoplastic synthetic resin tape having a woven cloth as a core.
Preferably, the intermittent driven rotation of the tape drawer rollers is performed by a stepping motor. The continuous tape is inserted through the ring perpendicularly to a general plane of the ring and is then folded into a completely laminate form around the straight portion of the ring, or the continuous tape is inserted through the ring diagonally with respect to the general plane of the ring and parallel to the straight portion of the ring and is then folded about the straight portion of the ring in a crossed form. In the case where the continuous tape is fed vertically downwardly, it is preferable that the folidng includes bending the lower end portion of the continuos tape, with the continuoustape being bent about the ring, substantially simultaneously with stopping of rotation of the tape drawer rollers, then the tape strip is severed by the cutter, and then the upper half of the tape strip is bent about the ring in the same direction.
During the folding, it is preferable that the tape strip is folded with its upper and lower halves in a non-contact posture, and then part of confronting inner surfaces of the upper and lower halves of the tape strip is melted by inserting a heating member into the non-contact space of the tape strip, whereupon the melted confronting inner surfaces are pressed against each other by first and second pressing means after retracting the heating member from the non-contact space. Alternatively, the tape strip may be folded in an intimate laminate form, and part of the laminate portion may be spot-fused by applying ultrasonic waves.
According to a second aspect of the invention, the foregoing method is carried out effectively by a machine for continuously manufacturing a tape strip folded through a ring, comprising: a tape supply section accommodating a continuous tape; tape drawer rollers adapted to be driven for controlled rotation to intermittently draw a predetermined length of the continuous tape at a time from the tape supply section along a tape traveling path; a ring supply path along which rings are to be successively supplied, the supply path meeting the tape traveling path; ring positioning means for positioning the ring, which is supplied via the ring supply path, in a fixed position in such a posture that a leading end portion of the continuous tape can be inserted through the ring; tape severing means situated between the tape drawer rollers and the ring supply path and operable, while the feeding of the continuous tape is stopped, for severing a predetermined length tape strip off the continuous tape with a leading end portion of the continuous tape being inserted through the ring; tape bending means situated adjacent to the ring positioning means for folding the tape strip of the predetermined length through the ring; tape fusing means for fusing at least part of a laminate portion of the folded tape strip; and discharging
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner L.L.P.
Lorin Francis J.
YKK Corporation of America
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