US789788A - Fabric-handling mechanism. - Google Patents

Description

No. 789,788.; PATENTED MAY 16, 1905.

G. J. BELLAMY. v FABRIC HANDLING MECHANISM.

APPLIUATION FILED FEB. 12. 1904.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

FIB. l

PATEN TED MAY 16, 1905.

0. J. BELLAMYY. FABRIC HANDLING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 12 1904.

2 SHEETSSHEET. 2.

duo away Niran STATES Patented. May 16, 1905.

PATENT rricn.

CHARLES J. BELLAMY, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 789,788, dated May 16, 1905.

Application filed February 12, 1904:- Serial No. 193,306-

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, CHARLES J. BELLAMY, a citizen of theUnited States of America, residing at Springfield, in the county of Hampden and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Fabric-Handling Mechanism,of which the followingis aspecification.

My invention relates to improvements in devices for holdingflexible fabric in such manner that it can be rolled and unrolled, and comprises certain peculiarlyarranged abutment and tension members, as hereinafter described and claimed; and the objects of my improvement are, first, to produce fabric-handling mechanism which enables cloth, paper, or other material having similar characteristics to be successfully wound into a roll and drawn from a roll under constant and approximately even tension; second, to provide such tension for a fabric roll; third, to afford adequate means for handling rolls of any size Within the capacity of any given device; fourth, to furnish mechanism into or from which rolls may be easily and expeditiously inserted or removed at will, and, fifth, to provide simple and comparatively inexpensive mechanism in the class named which is eminently practicable and efiicient. I attain these objects by the mechanism illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is a side view of a preferred form of my invention; Fig. 2, a similar view of the same, illustrating the changed relations of the parts when a smaller roll than the one shown in the preceding View is in position; Fig. 3, a rear end view of the mechanism as it appears in the first figure. Figs. 4, 5, and 6 are views of different kinds of rollers which may be used with my mechanism, and Figs. 7 and 8 side views of modifications.

Similar letters refer to similar parts throughout the several views.

Generally speaking, this invention, which is designed to be employed independently or in connection with type-writers, handwritingboards, printing-presses, and other machines or devices which utilize fabric from a roll and in connection with the manufacture of fabric, consists of a suitable frame and a series of abutment and tension members mounted therein or thereon and adapted to invest a fabric roll, some of said members having movable bearings. The addition of a carrier to the before-mentioned parts is found to be necessary or advantageous in some cases. While the abutment and tension members usually consist of rollers, in some cases non-rotary members which are not of roller formation even may be employed in place of some or all of the rollers, more especially for the abut- 'ment roller or rollers, perhaps.

Although I have shown the embodiment of my invention in the several forms which it would be most likely to take, it is to be understood that I do not restrict myself in this connection, but may vary the detailed construction of the mechanism to whatever extent is required to meet any particular casein hand. In many cases no journals need be provided for the magazine-roll which this mechanism is designed to handle. Indeed, some of the most valuable applications of said mechanism depend upon the ability to feed from a roll supported only by its perimeter and in being able to wind fabric onto a core which has no journals. In the latter case the fabric is wound into a roll by fastening the end of a strip of cloth, paper, or other material to the core and feeding in from the rear or from above by revolving the abutment member or members, or the feeding in may be done from the front either above or below the abutment member or above or below both, if two such members are provided, or between the latter. The drawings illustrate the use of the mechanism for feeding from a roll; but I the other use of winding into or onto a roll or core will be readily understood from the foregoing, taken in connection with the deconverge from back to front. It should be stated here that the end of the device from which the fabric is drawn is herein termed the forward or front end and the opposite end the rear or back end, and in all of the views, except Figs. 8, 4, 5, and 6, the forward end is at the right. An abutment member or roller (Z, so called because it serves as a direct or indirect stop or means of limitation for the tension members described below, has its trunnions or shaft 6 fixedly jou rnaled in the sides 6 ahead of the middle runway 0. A carrier comprising side pieces ff and connecting-rods g g is here provided, each of said side pieces having fixed trunnions or studs it and it, which project from the outside face thereof into the middle runway c, it being understood that said carrier is inside of the frame. Springs 2' extend forward from the carrier-studs h to points of attachment near the upper edges of the sides Z) and normally draw the carrier toward the front. Two

members j are supported by the carrier and frame, such members being rollers in this as in the other cases illustrated herewith, the trunnions or ends of the shafts 7i? of said rollers extending through slots Z in the side pieces f into the upper and lower runways c in the sides b-that is, the ends of one of said shafts enter the upper pair of runways 0 and the ends of the other enter the lower pair of runways 0. The rollers 1' may be termed tensionrollers, since part of their office is to bear on a magazine-roll with a yielding pressure, as will presently appear. The slots Z, a pair for each shaft 70, are so arranged in the side pieces f as to intersect the planes of the upper and lower runways 0. Since each pair of studs h and it so it the corresponding runway 0 that there is little or no motion permitted except longitudinally of said runway, the carrier is thereby prevented from rocking, and it will be readily seen that if said carrier be moved backward against the resiliency of the springs the rollers 1' will separate, being forced apart by the diverging bearings formed by the upper and lower runways 0 for the shafts Z0, and, conversely, if said carrier be moved forward, as by said springs, said rollers will approach each other, said shafts moving freely in the slots Z in any event.

In operation the carrier with its rollers is forced back sufficiently to permit a magazineroll m to beinserted between said rollers and the abutment-roller (Z, and then said carrier is released to its springs. The roll m is now securely held in place under the tension afiorded by the springs 71 and the fabric n is led therefrom either under or over the roller (Z, according to the manner in which said roll is placed in the device. By drawing on the exposed end of the fabric 9% said fabric is'unwound from the roll m, which revolves with comparative freedom, all of the supporting or contact ing rollers rotating with it. As the roll on decreases in size, which it is constantly doing' anism is effected in the same simple manner as the introduction.

By making the trunnions or shaft p of the core 0 long enough to enter the middle run ways 0 additional bearings for the roll on are secured, in which event the rollers j serve as followers and tension members Without exerting so much influence in the way of supports. In some constructions, and for heavy rolls in particular, it may be desirable to journal the roll trunnions or shaft in the manner just noted.

For some purposesto decrease frictional resistance, for instance it may be deemed best to break up the periphery or peripheries of one or all of the rollers used in this mechanism, and I have shown three methods by which this can be done. In Fig. 4 the marginal portions 1 q only are adapted for contact with the magazine-roll, in Fig. 5 merely the central portion q, and in Fig. 6 the marginal and central portions (1 and q. Other forms of rollers having broken peripheries will readily occur to one familar with the art.

Passing now to a consideration of the modifications illustrated in the other views, which modifications, it is clear, do not depart from or affect the general and essential features underlying my invention, in Fig. 7 the middle runway is omitted and spring connections are had with both shafts 7:; through the medium of links 1 7", or two springs may be used; otherwise the description of the first three views applies to this one. There is no provision for bearings for the roll-shaft 9. Two abutment-rollers appear in Fig. 8, where the device is turned end for end, as it were, so that the fabric a can pass forward from the roll on above or below either of the tensionrollers 7', but preferably out of contact therewith. Except for the addition of another abutment-roller and the reversed position of the mechanism this device does not difier from the one first described.

The term magazine-roll as herein employed refers to the transitory member which the abutment and tension members are adapted to receive, whether said transitory member consists entirely of fabric or is made up by winding or rolling fabric upon a substantial core, which latter, as hereinbefore stated, may or may not be provided with journals, and also applies to the denuded core.

If little or no tension on the fabric is required in feeding, the fabric from the magazine-roll may be led rearward instead of forward, leaving the device somewhere behind the abutment roller or rollers.

I do not wish to be restricted to any particular resilient or yielding means, gravity being sufficient and convenient under some conditions, it only being necessary that there be an agency or law which constantly tends to keep the tension members against the perimeter of the magazine-roll when in place regardless of the variation thereof.

WhatI claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In fabric-handling mechanism, the combination with a suitable frame provided with runways, of a carrier provided with transverse members all having movable bearings in said runways, certain of said transverse members having movable bearings also in said 2 carrier on a plane or planes intersecting the planes of the runways.

2. In fabric-handling mechanism, the combination with a suitable frame provided with three converging runways, of a carrier provided with transverse members having movable bearings in all of said runways, certain of said transverse members having movable bearings also in said carrier on planes intersecting the planes of the runways.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

CHARLES J. BELLAMY.

Witnesses:

F. A. CUTTER, A. L. STEVENS.

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