Winding – tensioning – or guiding – Coil holder or support – Radially expansible or contractile
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-09
2002-03-05
Jillions, John M. (Department: 3653)
Winding, tensioning, or guiding
Coil holder or support
Radially expansible or contractile
C242S578000, C242S578200, C242S592000, C242S594300, C242S597400
Reexamination Certificate
active
06352215
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a payoff device for use with a reeless package such as a reeless wire or cable coil which is particularly well suited for mounting on a utility truck such that a reeless package of material may be easily, conveniently, and safely unwound in the field.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Devices for insertion into the hollow core of a roll or coil of material to support the roll or coil and to facilitate unwinding are known. It is also known in the art to use an adjustable device to facilitate initial insertion into a roll core prior to clamping expansion or to accommodate rolls or coils with different inside diameters through various degrees of expansion. There is also known in the art expandable and collapsible holders about which material is wrapped while the holder is in an expanded state. Examples of expandable and collapsible holders or mandrels can be found, for instance, in U.S. Pat. Nos.: 1,466,153; 2,682,924; 2,762,577; 3,918,659; 4,124,171; 4,278,112; 4,763,850; 4,995,569; and 5,318,236.
There is also know in the art support stands for use in the dispensing or holding of wound material as represented by U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,807,549; 3,918,659 and 5,810,283.
Rolls of electrical wire or cable such as those used in the field by electric utilities and the like for installation and repair often are relatively heavy (e.g., 1,500 lbs) and can be cumbersome to handle and payoff. These rolls of wire or cable used by utility companies in the field are wound onto wooden reels and typically there is a frame mounted in the truck bed of the utility vehicle for supporting the wooden reel. The wire or cable wrapped on the wooden reel is then transported in the field for unwinding by pulling on an end of the wire thereby rotating the reel on which it is wound. The extra weight and material associated with the wooden reel with rolled material introduces added production and shipping costs for the manufacturer of the rolls as well as handling and disposal costs for the utility company or the like dispensing the rolled material. The wooden reels also take up a lot of room in the truck bed thus limiting space which could be put to other use such as providing additional storage space for coil material or tooling to prolong the time out in the field. Furthermore, the use of such wooden reels is detrimental to the environment by causing trees to be consumed and taking up space in landfills after their useful life.
In addition, under current practice reels are mounted in trucks on support frames that are not multi-positional with respect to the supporting truck bed (e.g support frameworks that are non-rotatable about a vertical axis). For example, many prior art support frames have two spaced apart support structures each rigidly secured to the bed of the truck for supporting opposite ends of a shaft about which the reel or spool is rotated during payoff. This arrangement makes the device ill suited for any repositioning of the support structure. Thus, a worker in the field must reposition the entire truck in order to adjust the direction of payoff. This can be very difficult if there are obstacles which hinder the movement of the truck and can be dangerous if it forces a truck into an unstable position or in a position which interferes with others, such as by blocking street traffic. There also arises situations wherein it would be beneficial to be able to provide for loading of new cable or wire or the like in a certain orientation which is not possible in non-adjustable prior art reel support frame structures.
There is need in the art for a reeless package payoff device which is durable, not overly complex (but yet highly versatile), safe and easy to both load and operate in a dispensing mode and which is well suited for use in the field such as on the back of a utility truck or the like or on a transported trailer.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention, there is provided a reeless package payoff device and method of operation of the same which avoids many of the limitations of the prior art devices in providing a highly versatile and easy to operate system that is well suited for field use such as on the back of utility vehicles or the like. Preferably the reeless package payoff device comprises a clamp assembly that is supported by a main shaft rotatably mounted in bearings of a support frame structure such that the clamp assembly and shaft rotate together. A preferred arrangement features a main shaft which is supported on one of its ends by bearings that are spaced apart along the end portion of the shaft to a sufficient extent based on the anticipated loads. The support frame structure that supports the main shaft is preferably, itself, multi-positionable to provide for different payout orientations such as by way of an upper support framework portion that pivots with respect to a non-rotatable lower portion. The support frame is attached to the bed of a utility truck or other vehicle, preferably by way of releasable attachment means which securely fastens the lower portion of the support frame to the bed or the truck or other suitable underlying support and provides for removal of the support structure from the underlying support when not required or in use.
The clamp assembly preferably comprises first and second hubs axially spaced along the main shaft. Each hub is connected so as to rotate together with the main shaft with a preferred embodiment featuring a fixed hub and an axially mobile hub with the latter being keyed to the main shaft so as to rotate therewith, but free to axially adjust along the main shaft by way of a key/slot arrangement. The clamp assembly further comprises clamp pads (e.g., 4) that are driven radially in and out by an expansion/contraction device such as a plurality of scissor linkage assemblies to which the clamp pads are respectively attached. The scissor linkage assemblies feature scissors linkage that are pivotably attached at their radial outer end to a support structure of the clamp pads, are pivotably joined together at an intermediate area and are further pivotably attached at respective radial interior ends to the axially spaced apart mobile hub and fixed hub. The mobile hub is moveable axially such that, upon movement toward the fixed hub, it causes the scissors linkage to move the clamp pads radially outward into compressive attachment contact with the interior surface of a reeless package placed on the clamp assembly. Alternatively, the clamp assembly may have clamp pads attached to fixed arms. Such an arrangement allows rotation with a variable ID with the variation limited mainly by the escentricity of the coil or roll package. The advantages of this are that no manual lifting of the coil is required, less torque is needed, there is no movement of the arms circumferencially inside the coil, thereby preventing damage to the coil by scraping, marring, etc., and there is less wear on pivot parts. When it is desired to remove a reeless package or replace a completely paid out reeless package, the previously expanded clamp assembly can be collapsed in a controlled fashion to a suitable state to receive a replacement reeless package having a similar or smaller sized interior diameter. Alternatively, if the replacement reeless package has a larger interior diameter than the previous reeless package and the prior reeless package was completely paid out, then the replacement package can be simply inserted over the earlier expanded clamp pads and the clamp pads further moved radial out by moving the mobile hub even closer to the fixed hub until the replacement reeless package is fixed with respect to the clamp pads. Thus, the above described preferred embodiment of the clamp assembly of the present invention can quickly and accurately conform to a variety of different diameter reeless packages which was not the case with the non-adjustable wooden reel support payoff devices in the prior art. In addition, while the clamp pad assembly is designed for use with reeless packages, the clamp
Cash John Wilson
Flagg Michael F.
Langston James Wilburn
Windom David Warren
Hanegan Herbert M.
Hanson Eric J.
Jillions John M.
Lischer Dale
Southwire Company
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