Conveyors: power-driven – Conveyor section – Live roll
Reexamination Certificate
2003-01-21
2004-06-29
Ridley, Richard (Department: 3651)
Conveyors: power-driven
Conveyor section
Live roll
C198S788000, C193S037000, C029S525000, C029S525050, C029S525060, C029S509000, C029S505000, C411S054000, C411S054100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06755299
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a roller device for use in a conveyor or the like apparatus and a method of making the roller device, and more particularly relates to the roller device whose characteristic feature resides in a structure of securing to a roller body a fixture that is accommodated therein wholly or partially.
2. Related Art
Various types of free rollers and/or motor-installed rollers have been employed to construct the conventional conveyors or the like apparatuses. Each free roller has comprised a roller body formed as a round cylinder supported by and rotating about a shaft, and each motor-installed roller has comprised a motor and a reducer both installed in the roller body.
In these prior art free rollers and motor-installed rollers, fixtures or closures for closing end openings of each roller body, as well as bearings or other constituent parts, have been fixed on or in the roller body. Usually, adhesives, set-screws, grooved pins, spring pins or the like fastening members have been used to secure such fixtures or parts to said roller body.
An example of the prior art structures is disclosed in the Japan Patent Laying-Open Gazette No. 6-171730. In this case, a fixing ring intervenes between the roller body and the fixture closing the open end thereof. A set-screw will be tightened sideways through a cap in order to firmly consolidate the fixture with said roller body in a wedge-like manner.
Arrays of these free rollers and/or motor-installed rollers are often used to transport any articles, goods or materials, suffering from mechanical vibration and shocks while they are transporting the articles. It has been observed often that holes or apertures for insertion of those set-screws or pins would possibly be widened gradually, loosening them and causing them to slip off at worst. In such an event, the roller bodies would no longer rotate smoothly, thus failing to transport the goods in an orderly manner.
If such set-screws or the like threaded fasteners are used for the described purpose, then those roller bodies and fixtures must be threaded not easily. A relatively complicated structure as proposed in the Gazette No. 6-171730 will render its assembling works very intricate to raise manufacture cost.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide such a roller device that its fixture such as a closure or bearing is easily secured to its roller body with use of a fastening member, lest any vibration or other mechanical stress transmitted or imparted to the roller device should cause the fastening member to slip off.
A roller device provided herein to achieve this object may comprise a roller body, a fixture accommodated at least in part in the roller body and secured thereto, and a fastener fixedly connecting a periphery of the fixture to a periphery of the roller body. The fastener comprises at least one transverse key driven in transverse apertures that are formed in the portions of the peripheries crosswise to an axis of the roller body. The transverse key is composed of a columnar solid portion and a cylindrical collapsible foot continuing therefrom, such that a thrust applied axially of the key to the solid portion will expand the collapsible food radially and outwards so as to inhibit the key from moving axially thereof, whereby the solid portion is retained in place to prevent the fixture from moving relative to the roller body.
When assembling this roller device, the at least one key as the fastener will be placed in the aperture and then struck transversely of the roller body. As a result, the cylindrical collapsible foot of the key will collapse so as to form a bulged flash. This flash hooks the rim of said transverse aperture so that the fixture will now be retained in the roller body much more strongly as compared with the prior structures, and the fastener itself will surely be protected from slipping off.
Such a fastener will never loosen itself, once its collapsible foot has deformed itself inside the roller body, even if any noticeable vibration is produced during a subsequent operation of this roller device. Owing to presence of the un-collapsed solid portion, the key as the fastener will reliably prevent displacement of the roller body relative to the fixture easily and surely consolidated therewith.
From another aspect of the invention, it provides a roller device comprising a roller body, a fixture accommodated at least in part in the roller body and secured thereto, and a fastener fixedly connecting the fixture to a periphery of the roller body. The fastener comprises at least one transverse key and at least one anvil member combined therewith. The key is composed of a columnar solid portion and a cylindrical collapsible foot continuing therefrom, such that a thrust applied axially of the key to the solid portion will expand the collapsible foot, with the solid portion being retained in place to prevent the fixture from moving relative to the roller body. The anvil member is shaped such that the thrust applied to the solid portion will force this member into the collapsible foot so that this foot is expanded radially and outwards.
When assembling this roller device, the at least one key as the fastener will be placed in the aperture and then struck transversely of the roller body. The anvil member thus entering the collapsible foot will serve to surely collapse it radially within the roller body so as to form a dilated foot. Such a dilated foot will retain the fixture in place in the roller body much more strongly as compared with the prior structures, and the fastener itself will surely be protected from slipping off.
Also in this case, the fastener will never loosen itself after its collapsible foot has been deformed inside the roller body, even if any notice able vibration is produced during operation of this roller device. Owing to the presence of the solid portion un-collapsed, the key as the fastener will reliably prevent the roller body from being displaced relative to the fixture having easily and surely been consolidated therewith.
Preferably, the collapsible foot of the key incorporated in the roller device may be a hollow portion of said key so that a weak force initially applied thereto from the outside does suffice well to deform said foot. Such a hollow foot will make it easier to more surely fix the fixture to the roller body.
Two or more fasteners may preferably be arranged at intervals around the roller body that constitutes the roller device of the invention.
External forces such as vibration acting on the periphery of roller device will be distributed to the fasteners. These fasteners are more surely protected from loosening themselves, with the apertures holding them becoming less likely to be deformed.
Preferably, each aperture formed in the fixture to receive the fastener may communicate with a recess that also is formed in the fixture so as to extend crosswise to a direction in which the fastener is inserted.
In this case, the fastener's collapsible foot will be guided to deform itself along the surface of such a recess in a direction crosswise to the direction in which the fastener is being struck. The recess extending in a direction crosswise to the direction in which said fastener is inserted will be effective to much surely prevent the slipping off of the fastener.
On the other hand, the columnar solid portion of the key as the fastener may preferably penetrate both the aligned portions of said roller body and fixture.
The fixture will reliably be protected from displacement relative to the roller body, not only in axial direction but also in circumferential direction thereof.
The anvil member also employable in the roller device of the invention may have a pointed top, an enlarged bottom, and a tapered region smoothly transferring from the top to the bottom. The top is of an outer diameter smaller than the inner diameter of the key's collapsible foot, with the bottom having an outer diameter larger than said inner diame
Itoh Kazuo
Kobayashi Kazuaki
Itaoh Electric Company Limited
Ridley Richard
Wood Phillips Katz Clark & Mortimer
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