Winding – tensioning – or guiding – Convolute winding of material – With cutting – perforating – or notching
Reexamination Certificate
2000-06-27
2002-04-16
Rivera, William A. (Department: 3653)
Winding, tensioning, or guiding
Convolute winding of material
With cutting, perforating, or notching
C242S525000, C242S527300, C242S532300, C242S533400
Reexamination Certificate
active
06371399
ABSTRACT:
The present invention relates to a winding machine or “winder”, for a continuous product in sheet form, in order to form reels.
Winders are used in many branches of industry in which the production machines and processes used result in the continuous manufacture of a flat product or relatively large width and of variable thickness. The flat elements produced by the manufacturing lines must be wound so as to be able to be easily stored and/or transported to the subsequent conversion steps.
This is the case in particular in industrial processes and machines used for the continuous manufacture of wovens, papers, webs, plastic sheets and films, nonwovens, etc. For reasons of simplicity, the term “sheet” is used hereafter to denote various types of flat products. In the plastics field, winders are systematically used at the end of lines for manufacturing plastic film from materials as diverse as polypropylene, polyester, polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, coextruded complex sheets, etc.
Most of these industrial processes are carried out continuously, the machines virtually never being stopped except for maintenance operations, which are spaced apart by several weeks or indeed several months.
Moreover, in order for the reels to remain handlable, as well as for other reasons connected with the winder technique, it is not possible for the diameter of the reels of the wound product to be increased in an unlimited manner. It is therefore necessary for the winders used on continuous manufacturing lines to be provided with devices allowing, without interrupting the production, to switch from a full reel, when the latter has reached the intended diameter, to a new, as yet empty, reel.
The winders intended for this kind of application comprise, in a generally known manner, a machine frame on which is mounted, so as to rotate about a horizontal axis, a rotary assembly, called a drum, provided with at least two parallel winding cores, a typical embodiment comprising two diametrically opposed cores, the cores being associated with rotational drive means; in this regard, reference may be made to documents DE-A-1,816,870 and DE-A-3,629,216. Each core receives, at a given moment, the sheet product arriving continuously from the production line, the drive means delivering to the core the torque needed for the sheet product to be wound into a reel. Once the reel is full, the drum rotates through a half turn, simultaneously allowing the full reel to be removed and a new, empty core to be brought into the winding position. Of course, a cutting device is employed before the two cores are exchanged, in order to cut the sheet material.
Necessarily associated with the main part of the winder, comprising the frame and the drum bearing the cores, are means for feeding the sheet product, the function of which is to feed the winder with product to be wound, this being done in a suitable manner, while ensuring that various operating parameters are controlled. These feed means comprise several rolls and rollers over which the sheet product to be wound passes, and especially comprising:
a first roll, called tension measurement roll, over which the sheet product arrives approximately horizontally, and
a second roll called contact roll, which guides the sheet product to the winding point, this contact roll exerting a pressure at the point of application on the reel being wound.
Usually, these rolls as well as other rollers are supported by a carriage or trolley on which are also mounted the tension-measuring means and the other control members, as well as the cutting device. The trolley is mounted so as to move in horizontal translation in a direction perpendicular to the axes of the drum and of the cores of the winder. Since the frame of the winder is fixed, it is the trolley which gradually moves as the reel is wound, in order to ensure permanent application of the contact roll against the reel, the diameter of which is gradually increasing. As variants, as provided in the aforementioned documents DE-A-1,816,370 and DE-A-3,629,216, the winding cores may have a limited degree of mobility in order to “absorb” the increase in diameter of the reel being formed.
In current winders, produced as recalled above, the introduction of the sheet product, upon switching on the machine or after a breakage has occurred, constitutes an extremely complex operation. This is because, on account of the above explanations, the horizontally movable trolley comprises a large number of rolls, rollers and other devices, such as the cutting device, which make this trolley a complex and heavy assembly. In addition, the winder itself, with its frame, its drum and its two cores, as well as its ancillary devices, is a heavy and bulky machine. The size of the cores cannot be reduced, particularly on very wide machines, since such a reduction would result in an unacceptable bending of the cores and, if the winding diameter is large, which is generally desired, the dimensions of the frame are necessarily large. Furthermore, since the cores are mounted on a drum which rotates, it is extremely dangerous to penetrate into the winder near the cores, and the safety recommendations prevent this kind of intervention, in most factories and countries.
When the leading edge of the sheet product to be wound is presented, it is consequently extremely difficult to make the sheet pass through the winder, in order to feed it onto one of the two winding cores.
At the present time, in order to be carried out in a relatively acceptable manner, such an operation requires the intervention of at least two persons, one feeding the sheet above the trolley which has been brought beforehand into the retracted position, the sheet with a little luck dropping to the floor where it is picked up by the second person at the output end of the winder, using a hook or sometimes an automatic belt arrives behind the winder. This operation remains difficult and dangerous, particularly when the machine is operating at high speed.
The present invention aims to avoid these difficulties and the object of the invention is therefore to provide a winder of the kind in question, in which the operations of introducing the sheet may be carried out at high speed, without the safety of the persons in charge of these operations being threatened, or even with a single operator.
For this purpose, the subject of the invention is a machine for winding a continuous product in sheet form, in order to form reels, comprising a machine frame on which is mounted, so as to rotate about a horizontal axis, a drum provided with at least two parallel winding cores associated with rotational drive means, the rotation of the drum simultaneously allowing a full reel to be removed and an empty core to be brought into the winding position, the machine also including means for feeding the sheet product to be wound, these means comprising various rolls and rollers, such as a tension-measuring roll and a contact roll, as well as, preferably, control members and a cutting device, this winding machine being characterized in that the assembly comprising the frame, the drum and the winding cores is mounted so as to move in horizontal translation in a direction perpendicular to the axes of the drum and of the cores, whereas the means for feeding the sheet product are fixed, the translational displacement of the movable assembly comprising the frame, the drum and the cores allowing its gradual advance as the diameter of a reel being formed grows, and the total travel of this displacement being such that it makes it possible to leave, between this assembly and the feed means, a gap available for an operator for the purpose of introducing the leading edge of the sheet product onto one of the cores of the winding machine.
Thus, unlike the conventional design of winders, in which the feed means are carried by a trolley which can move so as to gradually retreat during the steady growth of the diameter of the reel being formed, the present invention proposes to keep the feed means in a fixed position, and thus it is the assemb
Darlet Marchante Technologie S.A.
Oliff & Berridg,e PLC
Rivera William A.
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