Metal fusion bonding – Including means to apply flux or filler to work or applicator
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-27
2001-09-11
Dunn, Tom (Department: 1725)
Metal fusion bonding
Including means to apply flux or filler to work or applicator
C219S130100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06286748
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains feeding devices for welding wire, particularly for charging a welding wire guide system with a new coil of wire.
2. Description of the Related Art
Welding wire is commonly dispensed from large coils through a wire guide system to the welding site, i.e. the welding gun or an automated welding head. The gun or welding head includes a wire feeder for longitudinally feeding the wire into the welding arc as needed, but the welding wire feeder at the welding site is inoperable until wire has been supplied thereto.
It is not uncommon for a considerable distance to exist between the location of the welding wire coil and the welding site. Welding wire guide systems are used to guide the welding wire from the dispensing coil to the welding site, and such guide systems usually consist of elongated conduits, often having curves, bends and angles through which the wire travels. Upon a coil of welding wire being depleted, the welder feed will pull the wire through the guide system until the wire is completely depleted. Thereupon, upon new welding wire being dispensed from a new coil, the operator must insert the end of the new coil into the guide system and manually push the welding wire through the guide system, usually a difficult, time consuming and arduous task.
To this date, an effective system for feeding a new coil of welding wire into a guide system has not existed, and the invention solves this problem.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the invention to provide a relatively small portable welding wire power feeder capable of quickly and efficiently feeding welding wire into a guide system.
Another object of the invention is to provide a welding wire feeding system using conventional power means, such as an electric or air drill, and wherein the power wire feeder may be selectively readily used with a plurality of coils of welding wire.
An additional object of the invention is to provide a portable welding wire feeder capable of being operated by persons of conventional mechanical ability, and wherein the wire feeder may be quickly loaded and adapted to a particular wire guide system.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The portable welding wire powered feeder in accord with the invention is of a relatively small size as to be hand manipulated, and a single wire feeder can be used to service a plurality of welding wire dispenser coil stations.
The welding wire feeder includes a metal casing in which a drive roller is rotatably mounted upon anti-friction bearings. A portable power source, such as an electric or air hand drill, is mounted upon the casing in an appropriate cradle or support, and is in driving relationship to the drive roller. A casing housing is pivotally mounted upon the casing for movement relative to the casing and drive roller, and a backup roller is rotatably mounted upon the casing housing upon anti-friction rollers. The pivotal mounting of the casing housing permits the backup roller to be moved toward and away from the drive roller to load or unload the feeder, and as the rollers lie in the identical plane, and each has a peripheral circumferential groove for receiving a welding wire, welding wire may be gripped between the drive and backup rollers providing sufficient frictional engagement with the welding wire to axially translate or “push” the same.
A spring biased latch holds the casing housing in its operative closed position whereby a spring biasing force is imposed upon the backup roller to squeeze the welding wire and force the welding wire against the drive roller periphery. A toothed spur gear concentrically mounted on the drive roller for rotation therewith engages the teeth of another spur gear concentrically related to the backup roller, and the teeth of the two gears mesh when the casing housing is in its operative closed position. In this manner, both rollers impose a motive force on the wire during feeding.
The casing includes guides for receiving the welding wire. The wire entrance guide is adapted to be associated with the welding wire coil discharge conduit, while the welding wire exit guide defined on the casing cooperates with the welding wire guide system, and a spring biased plunger detent may be used to temporarily interconnect the casing exit guide to the entrance of the wire guide system.
Unlatching the casing housing from its operative closed position permits the casing housing to be pivoted to an “open” position permitting the new end of a welding wire coil to be placed in a tangential relationship to the drive roller periphery, and this wire will be placed within the casing entry and exit wire guides. Pivoting of the casing housing to its closed or operative position causes the backup roller to engage the welding wire gripping the welding wire between the two rollers, and operation of the latch imposes a biasing force upon the backup roller against the wire. Rotation of the drive roller by actuating the power source rotates both the drive and backup rollers axially translating the welding wire through the casing exit guide into the welding wire guide system permitting the guide system to be rapidly charged with the new coil of welding wire and the welding wire continues to be forced into the wire guidance system until the welding wire is received by the wire feeder arrangement at the arc welding location.
The wire feeder can also be “charged” with wire from a new coil by feeding the end of the new coil into the entry wire guide until the wire end engages the contacting drive and backup rollers. Thereupon, the electric drill power source can be energized to pull the end of the wire into the casing between the rollers, and feed the wire into the casing exit guide and wire guidance system.
The casing may be suspended from a cable or spring device wherein the weight of the portable welding wire feeder need not be entirely supported by the operator. A powered welding wire feeder in accord with the invention permits an operator to quickly charge several welding wire guidance systems in a short period of time, and the practice of the invention overcomes a previously arduous and inefficient manual operation.
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Dunn Tom
Elco Enterprises, Inc.
Pittman Zidia
Young & Basile P.C.
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