Method and apparatus for rolling mats

A method and apparatus is provided for tightly rolling mats. The mats are moved in a horizontal direction in their flattened condition to a rolling section which includes a plurality of fixed curved fingers and a corresponding plurality of curved spring-loaded fingers. A roller is further provided to move the mat upwardly from the conveyor forming a tight cylindrically shaped mat inside the curve of the fingers. Upper belts are provided above the fingers to further ensure that the mat is rolled tightly.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for rolling flat flexible 
work pieces. More particularly, it relates to a method and apparatus for 
ensuring that flat, flexible workpieces are rolled very tightly. 
Laundries which are in the mat cleaning business have found it necessary to 
roll the mats after they have been cleaned because of customer demand, 
space limitations and ease in handling. Early on the mats were simply 
rolled by hand with the resulting high labor cost. Recently machines have 
been developed to roll mats. However, these machines have a major drawback 
in that to data no machine has been developed which will roll a mat into 
an acceptable tight roll. Obviously, the tighter the roll the easier the 
mat is to handle and the less space it takes up in storage and during 
transport. 
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION 
It is therefore one object of this invention to provide a method and 
apparatus for rolling a flat, flexible workpiece into a tight roll. 
It is another object to provide an apparatus which efficiently and 
economically rolls mats into a tight bundle. 
It is still another object to provide an apparatus which will roll various 
sizes of mats. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
In accordance with one form of this invention there is provided a method 
and apparatus for rolling a flat, flexible workpiece. A conveyor section 
and a rolling section are included in the apparatus, with the rolling 
section having a lower portion. The conveyor section transports the 
workpiece in its flattened condition to the rolling section. The lower 
portion of the rolling section includes at least one curved finger having 
a feed-in and feed-out portion located on its opposing ends. The feed-in 
portion is located adjacent one end of the conveyor section and receives 
the workpiece from the conveyor section. A roller drive is situated 
between the feed-in and feed-out portions of the curved finger. The 
rolling drive contacts the workpiece to drive it along the curved finger 
for forming the flat workpiece into a rolled workpiece. 
Another aspect of the invention includes an upper portion of the rolling 
section having second fingers detached from the first fingers but forming 
approximately a continuation of the arc of the first fingers. The second 
fingers are biased inwardly to ensure a tight roll, yet will move as the 
circumference of the roll increases during the operation of the apparatus. 
Another aspect of the invention includes a transport member contacting the 
portion of the workpiece located between the first and second fingers for 
further enhancing the tightness of the roll.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Referring now more particularly to FIG. 1, there is shown a pictorial view 
of mat rolling machine 10 supported by legs 12 and 14. The legs are 
connected to platform 16 which, in turn, supports the operational 
mechanism of the rolling machine. The operational parts of the rolling 
machine may be better understood with reference to FIG. 2, which is a 
sectional view of FIG. 1 taken along line 2--2. 
Conveyor section 18 includes a plurality of belts 20 which are driven by 
drive roller 22. Drive roller 22 is, in turn, driven by electric motor 24 
through a belt system 26. The other end of belts 20 are connected to 
roller 28. Roller 28 forms the receiving end for the leading edge of the 
mats which are to be rolled. Roller 30 includes an outer rubber portion 
32, which is adapted to make contact with the mat as it moves along belts 
20. This rubber surface 32 ensures that the mats are gripped by this 
roller. The remainder of the device includes an upper and lower rolling 
section 34, which includes a plurality of curved stainless steel fingers 
36 which alternate between the belts 20. These curved fingers act as 
guides to initiate the rolling action for the mat. Between each of fingers 
36 are situated doughnut rollers 38. These doughnut rollers are on a 
common axle 40, as shown in FIG. 1. The doughnut rollers utilize a 
roughened outer rubber surface to make good gripping contact with the mat 
to assist in the rolling action. The tangential speed of the doughnut 
rollers is somewhat greater than the linear speed of belts 20. 
Mounted above fingers 36 on rod 42 are a plurality of guide fingers 44 
forming part of the upper rolling section. The rod and thus the guide 
fingers are biased inwardly by spring 46. Thus the guide fingers 44 will 
maintain a downward force on the roll as it accumulates layers and grows 
in thickness. Furthermore, by permitting the guide fingers to float, both 
very large and very small mats are able to be rolled without changing the 
setup of the machine. Mounted above the guide fingers 44 on either side of 
each finger is a plurality of belts 48. The belts 48 are mounted on the 
respective rollers 50 and 52. These rollers 50 and 52 as well as doughnut 
roller 38 are driven by belt 54 which, in turn, is driven by motor 24. 
These belts are mounted on a bracket which is attached to the frame of the 
machine and pivot about roller 52. The bracket is counterbalanced by a 
spring (not shown). The belts 48 bear down on the top of the mat as it 
comes through finger 36 with equal weight as the mat grows in diameter. 
The linear speed of belts 48 are somewhat greater than the linear speed of 
belts 20 in order, again, to assist in assuring a tight roll for the mat. 
The sectional view of rollers for belts 48 are shown only partially in 
FIG. 1 for exemplification purposes. 
The machine described above operates as follows. A mat is introduced into 
the front end of the conveyor section 18 near roller 28. The leading edge 
passes under and makes contact with the rubber surface 32 of roller 30 and 
it contacts the lower portion of fingers 36 coming off belt 20. Fingers 36 
cause the mat to begin to curve upwardly and doughnut roller 38 makes 
contact with the leading edge of the mat and with its tangential speed 
being somewhat greater than the speed of the conveyor belts 20, the mat 
will begin to form into a tight roll. Conveyor belts 48 and guide fingers 
44 approximately at the same time make contact with the leading edge of 
the mat with the linear speed of belts 48, again, being somewhat faster 
than the belt speed 20 while the mat continues in the tight roll with the 
guide finger 44 finalizing the tightness of the roll inwardly by spring 
46. As the roll size begins to grow with more and more layers, the spring 
biased guide fingers 44 will move upwardly as well as the conveyor belt 
46. Thus a substantially tightly rolled mat is automatically and easily 
provided. 
From the foregoing description of the preferred embodiment of this 
invention it will be apparent that many modifications may be made therein 
without departing from the true spirit and scope of this invention.