Advancing material of indeterminate length – With means to temporarily deform material laterally
Reexamination Certificate
1998-07-16
2001-09-11
Noland, Thomas P. (Department: 2856)
Advancing material of indeterminate length
With means to temporarily deform material laterally
C073S865900
Reexamination Certificate
active
06286740
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an energy-supplying, signal-transmitting and/or material-supplying method and apparatus for supplying energy, signals and/or materials to a linearly-traveling mechanism such as a ball screw drive mechanism, a chain/belt drive mechanism and the like, and more specifically, to a method of and apparatus for using ribbon cables/hoses which are useful to supply energy such as electricity and the like from a non-moving section to a movable section and/or transmit and receive signals to and from the movable section and/or supply and/or discharge materials from the non-moving section to the movable section.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, although the cable guide for a linearly-traveling mechanisms is used in various industrial fields such as the output devices of computers and OA (Office Automation) equipment, automatic sliding doors, highrise warehouses, overhead traveling cranes, semiconductor manufacturing equipment operated in a clean room, automatic animal/plant factories and the like, when it is intended to supply electricity, energy, or a printing ink liquid and the like in a sufficient amount from a non-moving section side of a building, fixed table and the like to a movable section side, they must be supplied through solid cables/hoses which are formed to a certain shape because they cannot be supplied by a wireless supplying system.
Although color printers and the like have a plurality of ink hoses which extend from a non-moving section to a movable section, since they are disorderly bound and only tentatively fixed by bands or the like arbitrarily, a problem arises in that maintenance is needed for the wear, break and the like of the ink hoses which are caused when they interfere with each other by being twisted or caught by a protrution. Thus, it has been desired to fundamentally solve the problem. In addition, when electric energy and the like are directly supplied to the linearly traveling mechanism making use of a wire, since the electric energy is supplied through a cable/hose which is curled, loosely hung or loosely crept, the connecting portion and bending portion of the cable/hose are twisted or crushed and stress is concentrated to the portions. Since the cable/hose is clogged, broken and subjected to contact failure, it is handled as an expendable supply with a short lifetime.
Japanese Patent Publication No.8-149651 discloses the cable guide for a linearly-traveling mechanism by which the above problems are solved. The above invention serving as a base of the present invention provides a small cable guide which has sufficient durability even if it is used to a mechanism which reciprocates a total traveling distance longer than 500 km at a high speed of at least 2 m/sec.
Although the above invention discloses a technology for transmitting and receiving electric energy and electric signals, it discloses nothing as to an ink-liquid supply hose (cable) in inkjet printers and the like.
Since the inkjet printers and the like do not require a high speed motion higher than 2 m/sec. and their total traveling distance is within 100 km, a material-supplying apparatus which is simpler and can be easily mounted and dismounted has been desired for this type of the linearly-traveling mechanism.
Further, although the above invention has a short right-to-left traveling distance of about 1 m, when the aforesaid long cable guide which is used to a relatively long reciprocating distance of 2-5 m is disposed in a hollow space, there is also a problem that the cable guide is slacked as a whole by the weight of a cable itself and the like.
In addition, with only the disposition of the aforesaid cable guide, there is a further problem of safety in that when the operator approaches the space where the cable travels together with a movable section, the operator is liable to be caught by the traveling cable and get hurt.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention made in view of the above circumstances is to provide an energy-supplying and material-supplying method and apparatus for supplying energy and materials for a linearly-traveling mechanism reciprocating to the right and left, the method and apparatus permitting cables/hoses for supplying them to be safely used for a long period of time without being bent at a midpoint thereof and clogged.
The present invention relates to an energy-supplying, signal-transmitting and/or material-supplying apparatus for a linearly-traveling mechanism comprising a movable section reciprocating along traveling guides and supplying-cables/hoses, which is guided and held by a flexible support member, for supplying energy from a non-moving section corresponding to the movable section and/or transmitting and receiving signals to and from the non-moving section and/or supplying and/or discharging materials from the non-moving section, and the above objects of the present invention can be achieved by that the support member is composed of a band-shaped solid member formed to an arc-shape which is curved in a lateral direction with one end of the support member fixed to the movable section and the other end thereof fixed to the non-moving section and travels while forming parallel portions which are parallel with the fixed portion of the movable section and the fixed portion of the non-moving section and a curved portion having an approximately constant radius of curvature with the convex direction of the lateral-arc-shaped portion facing inward or outward.
The present invention also relates to an energy-supplying, signal-transmitting and/or material-supplying method for a linearly-traveling mechanism comprising a movable section reciprocating along traveling guides and a supplying-cable/hose, which is guided and held by a flexible support member, for supplying energy from a non-moving section corresponding to the movable section and/or transmitting and receiving signals to and from the non-moving section and/or supplying and/or discharging materials from the non-moving section, and the above objects of the present invention can be also achieved by the steps of composing the support member of a band-shaped solid member formed to an arc-shape curved in a lateral direction; laminating a ribbon cable/hose by disposing the support member and the supplying-cable/hose slidably or integrally arranging them; fixing one end of the support member to the movable section as well as fixing the other end thereof to the non-moving section so as to form parallel portions which are parallel with the fixed portion of the movable section and the fixed portion of the non-moving section and a curved portion having an approximately constant radius of curvature with the convex direction of the lateral-arc-shaped portion facing inward or outward; and reciprocating the movable section so that the radius of curvature of the support member has the approximately constant radius of curvature.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4048705 (1977-09-01), Blanpain et al.
patent: 5472407 (1995-12-01), Schenck
patent: 261633 (1990-10-01), None
patent: 195871 (1992-07-01), None
patent: 223998 (1992-08-01), None
patent: 8149651 (1996-06-01), None
Noland Thomas P.
Tsuden Kabushiki Kaisha
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