Automatic machine for cutting, fusing, and reeling raw material plates of plastic material

A machine for processing raw material plates includes a feeding assembly, a first transportation assembly for moving raw material plates to a front clamping assembly which is used to clamp a first raw material plate for subsequent cutting of an irregular front end of the first raw material plate by a front electric heating assembly. The machine further includes a movable table device for moving the first raw material plate to a rear clamping assembly for subsequent cutting of an irregular rear end of the first raw material plate by a rear electric heating assembly. The rear electric heating assembly has a further function for fusing the cut front end of the first raw material plate to a previously fused material web before the cutting of the rear end of the fused material web. A second transportation assembly is provided to feed the first raw material plate to the rear electric heating assembly. The machine further includes a side cutting assembly for cutting the sides of the fused material web and a third transportation assembly for feeding the material web to a reel assembly.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates to an automatic machine for cutting, fusing, 
and reeling raw material plates of plastic material such as polyethyene 
(PE) or ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA). 
2. Description of Related Art 
Presently, for manufacturing shoe soles, plastic foam forms, by foam 
formation technique, rectangular thick raw material plates which are 
irregular in shape along their perimeters. The thick raw material plates 
are cut to have straight edges and are sliced into a number of thinner 
plates of a standard size under many cutting procedures. The thinner 
plates are glued or fused together at their ends thereof to form a web of 
material plate which is coiled around a reel for subsequent use in making 
the shoe soles. 
In addition to a plurality of mechanisms, a considerable number of workers 
are required to move and stack the raw material plates and the reels. 
Furthermore, too many processing steps are involved and thus causes a 
waste in time and raw material and results in bad quality of products. 
Although machines have been proposed to handle the melting and reeling of 
the raw material plates, the raw material plates are still manually cut 
and workers are still required to move the raw material plates to the 
fusion machine. For environmental consideration, reclaimed material, 
achieved by adding stone powder, is also used to manufacture plastic 
plates which are harder and thus cannot be effectively rolled by the 
above-mentioned machines during the fusion thereof. 
The present invention provides an automatic machine to solve the 
above-mentioned problems. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention provides a machine for processing raw material plates 
of polyethyene (PE) or ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA). The machine includes 
a feeding assembly for feeding raw material plates, a first transportation 
assembly for moving raw material plates to a front clamping assembly which 
is used to clamp a first raw material plate for subsequent cutting of an 
irregular front end of the first raw material plate by a front electric 
heating assembly. The machine further includes a movable table means for 
moving the first raw material plate to a rear clamping assembly for 
subsequent cutting of an irregular rear end of the first raw material 
plate by a rear electric heating assembly. The rear electric heating 
assembly has a further function for fusing the cut front end of the first 
raw material plate to a previously fused material web before the cutting 
of the rear end of the fused material web. A second transportation 
assembly is provided to feed the first raw material plate to the rear 
electric heating assembly. The machine further includes a side cutting 
assembly for cutting the sides of the fused material web and a third 
transportation assembly for feeding the material web to a reel assembly. 
Other objects, advantages, and novel features of the invention will become 
more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in 
conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Referring to the drawings and initially to FIG. 1, a machine for processing 
plastic material such as polyethyene (PE) or ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) 
includes a feeding assembly 10, a first transportation assembly 14, a 
front clamping assembly 15, a front electric heating assembly 20 for 
cutting a front end of a new, incoming raw material plate, a movable table 
means 30, a rear clamping assembly 37, a rear electric heating assembly 40 
for fusing a new, incoming raw material plate to a previously fused 
material web and cutting a rear end of the fused material web, a second 
transportation assembly 50, a side cutting assembly 60 for cutting the 
sides of the fused material web, a third transportation assembly 51, and a 
reel assembly 70 for reeling the fused material web. 
The feeding assembly 10 includes a plurality of feeding rollers 11 which 
are freely rotatable and are mounted on a frame (not labeled). A 
positioning track 12 is mounted to each of two sides of the frame to guide 
the raw material plates (not shown in this figure) fed by the feeding 
rollers 11. A pair of positioning plates 13 are mounted on the frame and 
extend across the feeding rollers 11, a distance between the positioning 
plates 13 being adjustable so as to be equal to a width of the raw 
material plates to be fed to the front electric heating assembly 20 via 
the transportation of the first transportation assembly 14. 
The first transportation assembly 14 includes an upper positioning wheel 
141 and a lower rotational wheel 142. A pneumatic cylinder device 143 is 
provided to vertically carry the upper positioning wheel 141. The lower 
rotational wheel 142 is rotatable under the control of a motor or other 
suitable driving means. 
The front clamping assembly 15 includes a fixed plate 154 (see FIG. 17) and 
a movable plate 153 which is attached to and thus vertically carried by a 
distal end of a piston rod 152 of each of two pneumatic cylinders 151 
(only one is shown) mounted therebelow. 
Still referring to FIG. 1 and further to FIG. 2, the front electric heating 
assembly 20 includes a mounting plate 21 which is carried by a pneumatic 
cylinder means 25 to move horizontally, a heating plate 26 mounted to the 
mounting plate 21 to supply heat energy to a heating blade 23 whose lower 
end is supported by a substantially slanted U-shaped bracket 24 which, in 
turn, is attached to the mount plate 21, thereby preventing the heating 
blade 23 from deflection or breakage due to softening resulting from 
overheating. Electricity is supplied by electric source wires 261 (see 
FIG. 7) which are mounted above the heating plate 26 and passes through a 
protective tubular chain 27, such that the wires 261 do not tangle during 
reciprocatable horizontal movement of the heating blade 23 which is guided 
by a track 22 mounted below the heating plate 26. A waste dispensing 
device 28 is mounted to the mounting plate 21 and is adjacent to the 
heating blade 23 to guide the waste plastic material to fall on a waste 
material conveyor means 52. 
Referring to FIGS. 1, 8, and 9, the movable table means 30 includes a table 
31 which is mounted to the bodies 321 of two pneumatic cylinders 32 (only 
one is shown) and thus carriable by the latter to move horizontally. A 
mounting plate 33 is mounted to each of front and rear ends of the table 
31 for mounting a vertical pneumatic cylinder 34. The piston rods 341 of 
the cylinders 34 together carry a clamping plate 35 vertically. Piston 
rods 321 of cylinders 32 carry the table 31, the vertical cylinders 34 as 
well as the clamping plate 35 to move horizontally, while the vertical 
cylinders 34 carry the clamping plate 35 to move vertically. 
A pair of axles 36, which extend in a direction parallel to the 
longitudinal axis of the table 31, are secured below the table 31 by two 
positioning bars 311. A gear 361 and a positioning wheel 362 are mounted 
on each of two ends of each axle 36, in which the positioning wheel 362 
rests on the frame of the machine and the gear 361 meshes with a rack 363. 
By such an arrangement, displacements of the two sides of the movable 
table 30 are synchronous to each other to ensure perfect fusion between 
two raw material plates. One edge of the clamping plate 35 has 
castellations 351 therein and the table 31 has castellations 312 in an 
associated edge. 
Referring now to FIG. 3, the rear clamping assembly 37 is mounted after the 
movable table means 30 and includes a fixed plate 371 and a movable plate 
38 which is attached to and thus vertically carried by a piston rod 373 of 
each of two vertical pneumatic cylinders 372 (only one is shown). The 
fixed plate 371 and the movable plate 38 also have castellations 374 and 
381 in associated edges thereof for fittingly mating with the 
castellations in the table 31 and the clamping plate 35. 
Still referring to FIG. 3, the rear electric heating assembly 40 has a 
structure slightly different to that of the front electric heating 
assembly 20. The rear electric heating assembly 40 also includes a heating 
blade 41 which is horizontally carried by a pneumatic cylinder means 42. 
The electricity is supplied by electric source wires to a heating plate 
(not labeled), the electric source wires passing through a protective 
tubular chain 43 (see FIG. 3), such that the wires does not tangle during 
reciprocatable horizontal movement of the heating blade 42. The horizontal 
movement of the heating blade 42 is guided by a loop 45 which is mounted 
around four pulleys 44, 441, 442, and 443 respectively mounted to four 
corners thereof. As can be seen in FIG. 6, the loop 45 starts from pulley 
442, passes over pulley 443, tangles around pulleys 44 and 441 twice, and 
returns to pulley 442. A lower end of the heating blade 42 is attached to 
the loop 45 at the section between pulleys 442 and 443, while an upper end 
of the heating blade 42 is attached to the loop 45 at the second tangling 
section between pulleys 44 and 441. By such an arrangement, the upper and 
lower ends of the heating blade 42 may move synchronously and horizontally 
under operation of the pneumatic cylinder means 41. 
The front and rear electric heating blades 23 and 42 are vertically 
adjustable. Taking the rear electric heating 18 blade 42 for example, 
referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, it is securely held between upper and lower 
plates 421 and 422 in which the upper plate 421 is securely attached to an 
upper positioning seat 423, while the lower plate 422 includes a dovetail 
arrangement to cooperate with a vertical dovetail groove 425 in a lower 
positioning seat 424, the lower plate 422 thus being vertically slidable 
relative to the lower positioning seat 424. The upper and lower plates 421 
and 422 and upper and lower positioning seats 423 and 424 are made of heat 
conducting material, such as copper, and are interconnected by heat 
conducting wires. When the heating blade 42 expands along its lengthwise 
direction, i.e., in the vertical direction, the lower plate 422 is moved 
downwardly to avoid deformation of the heating blade 42, and thus enhance 
the quality of the cut and fused material plates. Furthermore, if the 
width of the material plates changes, the heating blade 42 may be replaced 
by a wider one. The front heating blade 23 is also vertically adjustable 
under same arrangement and is not redundantly described herein. 
Referring to FIGS. 3 through 5, a waste material dispensing device is 
provided adjacent to the rear heating assembly 40 and includes a pneumatic 
cylinder 47 whose upper end is pivoted to an upper section of the upper 
positioning seat 423 by a pivotal axle 461. A triangular plate 48 is 
pivoted at one of its corners to a lower section of the upper positioning 
seat 423 by a second pivotal axle 462. A second corner of the plate 48 is 
connected to a distal end of a piston rod 471 of cylinder 47 by a pivotal 
seat 472. An operative member 481 extends along one side of the triangular 
plate 48. The same arrangement of waste material dispensing device (28) is 
provided to the front electric heating assembly 20. [see FIG. 2]. 
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 4, when the front heating blade 23 has finished 
cutting a front end of the material plate and is about to return to its 
original position, or the rear heating blade 42 is under fusing procedure, 
the operative member 481 of the waste material dispensing device is in a 
substantially horizontal position, as shown in FIG. 4. When the rear 
heating blade 42 has finished cutting the rear end of fused material plate 
90, the piston rod 471 moves downwardly to urge the triangular plate 48 to 
pivot through a certain degree such that the operative member 481 exerts a 
downward force on waste material 91 [see FIG. 5] which accordingly falls 
on a waste conveyor means 52. Similar operation is made after the front 
heating blade 23 has cut the front end of the incoming raw material plate 
90. Referring to FIGS. 1 and 10, the waste conveyor means 52 includes a 
belt 522 mounted around two transverse rollers 521 one of which is driven 
by a motor 523. 
Referring back to FIG. 1, the second transportation assembly 50 includes an 
upper positioning wheel 501 and a lower rotational wheel 502. An adjusting 
screw device (not labeled) is provided to an upper section of the upper 
positioning wheel 501 for adjusting the height of the latter, while the 
lower rotational wheel 502 is driven by a motor or other suitable driving 
means. The third transportation assembly 51 also includes an upper 
positioning wheel 511 and a lower rotational wheel 512. An adjusting screw 
device (not labeled) is provided to upper section of the upper positioning 
wheel 511 for adjusting the height of the latter, while the lower 
rotational wheel 512 is driven by a motor or other suitable driving means. 
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 11 through 13, the side cutting assembly 60 
includes upper and lower guiding axles 61 and 62. An adjusting screw 63 is 
provided above the upper guiding axle 61 and includes two screw sections 
respectively at two ends thereof, one of the screw sections being 
right-handed and the other being left-handed. A driving means, such as a 
motor 64 is provided to drive the adjusting screw 63. A pair of tools or 
cutter subassemblies 65 are mounted on the upper guiding axle 61. Each 
cutter subassembly 65 includes a positioning seat 651 which has a sleeve 
652 which has inner threading and is freely and rotatably mounted to an 
upper end thereof for receiving the screw section of the adjusting screw 
63 and a substantially arc-shaped member 653 at a lower end thereof. The 
cutter subassembly 65 further includes a main sleeve 655 with a 
positioning ring 656 which is mounted around a mediate section of a 
periphery thereof and which has two threaded ends 657. Referring to FIG. 
13, a thrust bearing 66 is mounted into the positioning ring 656 and a 
circular cutter 67 mounted to the right side of the positioning ring 656 
is retained by a nut 663 engaged on the threaded end 657. Then, the 
arc-shaped member 653 is mounted around the main sleeve 655 and is 
retained by two pins 658 passing through pin holes 654 [see FIG. 12] 
formed therein and frictionally engage with the outer periphery of the 
main sleeve 655, thereby holding the thrust bearing 66 in one side of the 
arc-shaped member 653. A second thrust bearing 661 is mounted into the 
other side of the arc-shaped member 653 and is retained by another nut 
662. 
Referring to FIG. 11, a positioning bracket 68 extends from the upper end 
of each positioning seat 651 and includes a substantially inverted 
U-shaped member 681 to which an arc-shaped waste material guiding member 
682 is securely attached for guiding waste material. A pair of anvil 
wheels 69 are mounted around the lower guiding axle 62 and each of which 
has an annular groove 691 for receiving the edge of the cutter 67. 
Referring to FIG. 1, a transmission device 611 is provided to drive the 
upper guiding axle 61 as well as the cutters 67 for cutting the material 
plate 90 and includes a motor 612 with an output gear 613 which drives a 
gear 615 mounted on the upper axle 61 via a chain 614. 
Referring to FIG. 13, when adjusting the distance between the cutters 67, 
the motor 64 rotates the adjusting screw 63 to cause the cutters 67 
(together with the anvil wheels 69) to move toward or away from each other 
under the provision of the different screw directions in the adjusting 
screw 63 and the provision of the freely rotational sleeve 652 of the 
positioning seat 651. Provision of the thrust bearings 66 and 661 allows 
the adjustment to be proceeded during rapid rotation of the cutters 67. 
FIG. 14 shows another embodiment of the positioning seat which is a 
substantially inverted U-shaped member for mounting the cutter 67. The 
occupied space of the machine is reduced since the side cutting assembly 
60 is directly mounted between the second and third transportation 
assemblies. 
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 15, mounted behind a rear end of the third 
transportation assembly 51 is an inclined plate 53 behind which the reel 
assembly 70 is mounted. The reel assembly 70 includes an axle 712 mounted 
between a pair of spaced vertical beams 72 (only one is shown) and a reel 
71 rotatably mounted on the axle 712. The reel 71 is substantially 
cylindrical and has a rim formed in each of two ends thereof. Each beam 72 
includes two beam members 721 and 723 which are connected by hinges 725. 
Beam member 721 has a plurality of spaced brackets 722, while beam member 
723 has corresponding latches 724 pivoted thereto. When the latches 724 
are in unlocked positions, beam member 723 may be rotated through 
90.degree. [for removal of the reel 71]. Furthermore front and rear wheels 
75 and 751 are mounted below the reel 71 and are driven by a motor 73 and 
a chain 74. A hook means 76 extends from a lower end of each vertical beam 
72 for engaging with an associated cutout 711 in the reel 71 when the reel 
71 is in its lowermost position, such that the cutout 711 faces the 
machine. 
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 16, a mounting frame 80 is provided above the 
space between the front and rear clamping assemblies 15 and 37 for 
mounting an inclined mirror 81 whose inclination can be adjusted by an 
adjusting plate 82 for reflecting the status of cutting and fusing. Thus, 
the worker needs not to patrol back and forth between the movable table 
means 30 and the feeding table. 
The machine in accordance with the present invention is controlled by a 
control box and electric eyes are installed at proper locations to detect 
whether trouble occurs or not. Referring to FIG. 1, electric eye 83 
detects the distance travelled by the front end of the raw material plate 
relative to the front clamping assembly 15 in order to stop the lower 
rotational wheel 142 and causes the front clamping assembly 15 to clamp 
the raw material plate for proceeding with the cutting of the front end of 
the raw material plate. Electric eye 84 detects the past distance of the 
front end of the raw material plate relative to the movable table means 30 
in order to urge cylinder 34 to carry the clamping plate 35 downwardly to 
clamp the front end of the raw material plate and to urge the upper 
positioning wheel 141 to move upwardly. Electric eye 85 detects the past 
distance of the rear end of the raw material plate in order to stop the 
lower rotational wheels 502 and 512 and to urge the movable plate 38 of 
the rear clamping assembly 37 to move downwardly to clamp the rear end of 
the raw material plate for subsequent cutting of said rear end. Motors, 
sprockets, chains, and detectors are provided to control the length of the 
raw material plate, thereby providing an automatic machine. 
FIGS. 17 through 21 illustrate operation of the machine. Referring to FIG. 
17, after being foamed, a raw PE or EVA material plate 90 still has an 
irregular perimeter and is manually fed into the feeding assembly 10 which 
transmits it to the first transportation assembly 14. The upper 
positioning wheel 141 is in its lower position, and the raw material plate 
90 is carried rightwards by the lower rotational wheel 142 until the front 
end thereof passes through the front heating blade 23. Under detection of 
electric eye 83, the lower rotational wheel 142 stops and the piston rods 
152 of cylinders 151 carry the movable plate 153 of the front clamping 
assembly 15 downwardly to clamp the raw material plate 90. Then, cylinder 
25 carries the front heating blade 23 horizontally to cut the front edge 
of material plate 90, the waste material 91 falls on the waste material 
conveyor 52 and thus is carried to a waste container. 
Referring to FIG. 18, thereafter, the lower rotational wheel 142 again 
moves the raw material plate 90 rightwards during which the sides of the 
raw material plate 90 are cut by the cutters 67 of the side cutting 
assembly 60 and the waste material after cutting is dispensed by the 
guiding member 682 [not shown in this Figure]. When the raw material 90 
has passed through electric eye 85 for a pre-determined distance, the 
lower rotational wheels 502 and 512 and cutters 67 stop simultaneously. 
Thereafter, the movable plate 38 of the rear clamping assembly 37 moves 
downwardly to clamp the rear end of the raw material plate 90, and the 
rear heating blade 42 is actuated to move horizontally to cut the rear end 
of the raw material plate 90 and during the cutting the front heating 
blade 23 is returned to its original position. 
Referring now to FIG. 19, a new raw material plate 92 is fed and its front 
end is cut by the front heating blade 23, feeding and cutting operations 
for the raw material plate 92 are identical to that described in the above 
except that the waste material is now identified by reference numeral 
"92". 
Now turning to FIG. 20, the lower rotational wheel 142 again moves the raw 
material plate 92 rightwards. The vertical cylinder 34 of the movable 
table means 30 urges the clamping plate 35 to move downwardly to clamp the 
front end of the raw material plate 92. Then, the whole movable table 
means 30 is carried rightwards by horizontal cylinder 32 toward material 
plate 90 during which the upper positioning wheel 141 is lifted to allow 
smooth rightward movement of raw material plate 92 until material plates 
90 and 92 contact with each other. Thereafter, the rear heating blade 42 
passes through the contact surface between the two material plates 90 and 
92 to fuse them together by melting. Subsequently, the cutters 67 rotate 
and then the lower positioning wheels 502 and 512 rotate to cut the sides 
of material plate 92 during the further rightward movement of the latter 
for reeling it. The machine can be operated by only one worker who is only 
required in the feeding procedure. 
Finally referring to FIG. 21, when material plate 90 is to be reeled to the 
reel assembly 70, the movable plates 153, 38, and 35 respectively of the 
front and rear clamping assemblies 15 and 37 and the movable table means 
30 simultaneously move upwardly, and under actuation of the lower 
rotational wheels 142, 502 and 512, one end of material plate 90 engages 
with the cutouts 711 in the reel 71. With reference to FIG. 15, at this 
moment, motor 73 rotates front and rear rotational wheels 75 and 751 to 
further move material plate 90 rightwards and thus rotate the reel 71 to 
coil the material plate 90 on the reel 71. After a predetermined length of 
material plate is coiled around the reel 71, the machine is stopped and 
beam members 723 are moved away from beam members 721 for removal of the 
reel 71 and to replace it with a blank one. Thereafter, the blank reel 71 
is lowered to its lowermost position for subsequent operation. 
Although the invention has been explained in relation to its preferred 
embodiment, it is to be understood that many other possible modifications 
and variations can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of 
the invention as hereinafter claimed.