Cutting – With means to deform work temporarily
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-03
2002-02-12
Rachuba, M. (Department: 3724)
Cutting
With means to deform work temporarily
C083S439000, C083S907000, C083S950000, C104S102000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06345561
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wire measuring and cutting apparatus and a method of measuring a length of the wire.
2. Description of Related Art
FIGS. 1 and 2
show a conventional wire measuring and cutting apparatus disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (kokai) No. 9-27222.
As shown in
FIG. 1
, the wire measuring and cutting apparatus
100
includes a wire feed unit
101
withdrawing a long size wire W from a not-shown wire stock and continuously feeding it along a designated pass line PL, a guide unit
102
succeeding the wire feed unit
101
and provided with a U-turn guide section
103
for guiding the fed wire W to a substantially U-shaped leading passage
103
a
for bending the wire W in a substantially U-shaped configuration, a nipping unit
104
for holding the wire W and a cutting unit
105
for cutting the wire W.
The wire feed unit
101
includes measuring rollers
120
constituted by a pair of encoder rollers, and plural feed rollers
121
.
As shown in
FIG. 2
, the U-turn guide section
103
is constructed with a fixed guide part
106
, a movable guide part
107
and a displacement mechanism
108
. The movable part
107
is rotatably supported by the fixed guide part
106
so as to form a substantially U-shaped guide passage
103
a
in a closed position of the part
107
on one hand and also open the passage
103
a
in the opened position on the other hand. The displacement mechanism
108
operates to displace the movable guide part
107
between the closed position and the opened position.
In this arrangement, the fixed guide part
106
is made from a substantial semicircular member having a general semicircle-shaped convex circumference
106
a
, while the movable guide part
107
is made from a substantially U-shaped member having a general semicircle-shaped concave circumference
107
a
opposing the above circumference
106
a
in the closed position of the part
107
. Formed on the concave circumference
107
a
is a circumferential groove which defines the guide passage
103
a
together with the above-mentioned circumference
106
a
when the movable guide part
107
is in the closed position. Further, the fixed guide part
106
is provided with a strut
110
standing thereon and having a pin member
111
projecting to right and left, horizontally. The movable guide part
107
is pivoted on the fixed guide part
106
since rotating arms
109
formed on both sides of the part
107
are rotatably mounted on the pin member
111
.
The displacement mechanism
108
includes a cylinder
114
having its tube side pivoted to an attachment piece
112
fixed on the strut
110
and the rod side pivoted to a connecting piece
113
fixed on the movable guide part
107
. With the expansion of a rod of the cylinder
114
, the displacement mechanism
108
allows the movable guide part
107
to shift to the closed position thereby to define the guide passage
103
a
(see FIG.
2
). On the contrary, with the shrinkage of the rod of the cylinder
114
, the displacement mechanism
108
allows the movable guide part
107
to rotate from the closed position to the opened position upward (direction of arrow in
FIG. 2
) thereby to open the guide passage
103
a .
In the shown conventional apparatus, the nipping unit
104
is disposed between the wire feed unit
101
and the U-turn guide section
103
and constituted by a first clamp
115
corresponding to an inlet of the guide passage
103
a
defined in the section
103
and a second clamp
116
corresponding to an outlet of the guide passage
103
a.
According to the so-constructed wire measuring and cutting apparatus
100
, the wire W fed by the wire feed unit
101
is firstly introduced into the guide passage
103
of the guide section
103
through the first clamp
115
, so that the wire W is bent in the substantially U-shaped manner. The leading end of the wire W bent in this way is nipped by the second clamp
116
.
Next, in the U-turn guide section
103
, the movable guide part
107
is displaced to the opened position by the displacement mechanism
108
, so that the guide passage
103
a
does open. Thereafter, by the wire feed unit
101
, the wire W is further drawn out to measure the length of the wire W. During the opening state of the guide passage
103
a
, since the movable guide part
107
occupies the opened position resulting from the displacement in a direction perpendicular to the wire feeding direction, the wire W drawn out does not interfere with the movable guide part
107
thereby allowing the swiftness of the measuring operation.
However, the above-mentioned conventional wire measuring and cutting apparatus
100
has a problem as follows. That is, for some reasons that the movable guide part
107
is apt to be heavy and large-sized due to its structure of a single plate member; the displacement of the movable guide part
107
toward the opened position is carried out in the upward direction perpendicular to the wire feeding direction; and that the same displacement is carried out by the cylinder
114
only, the part
107
is apt to become slow in moving toward the opened position. Such a slow motion of the part
107
causes the measuring operation to be divided into a first stage to bend the wire W in the substantially U-shaped manner and a second stage to move the part
107
to the opened position, so that the operation is usually accompanied by time loss of at least 0.3 to 0.5 sec between the first stage and the second stage, which is far from the swiftness of measuring operation.
Additionally, as the opening and closing direction(s) of the movable guide part
107
is substantially perpendicular to the wire feeding direction of the wire W, if it is drawn out before the movable guide part
107
opens perfectly, there is raised a possibility of wire's hooking since the wire W does enter into the cicumferential groove of the guide part
107
. Therefore, hitherto, it has been caused a necessity to order the drawing operation of the wire W to be ready for the complete opening of the movable guide part
107
, which is far from the swiftness of measuring operation, too.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Under such a circumstance, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a wire measuring and cutting apparatus and a method of measuring the length of the wire, by which it is possible to carry out the opening operation of the guide passage in the U-turn guide section rapidly and continuously feed the wire during the opened state of the guide passage, whereby the swiftness of measuring operation can be realized.
The object of the present invention described above can be accomplished by a wire measuring and cutting apparatus comprising:
a wire feed unit having measuring rollers for measuring the length of a wire thereby to feed the wire along a designated pass line;
a guide unit provided with a U-turn guide section which includes a fixed guide part and a movable guide part which is pivoted with respect to the fixed guide part in such a manner that, when the movable guide part is in its closed position, the movable guide part defines a substantially U-shaped guide passage with respect to the fixed guide part and when the movable guide part is in its opened position, the movable guide part allows the U-shaped guide passage to open to the outside, the U-turn guide section being curved in a substantially U-shaped manner and also leading the wire being fed from the wire feed unit, into the U-shaped guide passage; and
a nipping and cutting device for nipping and cutting the wire;
wherein the movable guide part is constituted by a pair of guide pieces which are pivoted so as to embody the movable guide part in the closed position when the guide pieces are closed together and also embody the movable guide part in the opened position when the guide pieces are opened together in parallel with a direction to feed the wire; and
wherein the U-turn guide section is provided with a displacement mechanism which can maintain the pair of guide pieces i
Mizuno Akihiro
Suzuki Hiroo
Yamakawa Nobuaki
Rachuba M.
Yazaki -Corporation
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