Abstract:
A general winding and feeding apparatus includes a rotating shaft on the upper side of a standing wall of a base, and a motor is connected to the rotating shaft in the standing wall. A swing arm extends across a traveling material and is situated at a suitable position on the standing wall. Digital variable frequency methods may be used to drive the motor, which operates in conjunction with light-coupled sensors to detect the traveling speed of a material on the swing arm and sense a swing position of the swing arm. Feedback is generated in real-time to modify the speed of the motor, and the constant speed travel of the material can be achieved while being either wound or unwound.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a general winding and feeding apparatus, and more particularly to an apparatus in which digital frequency variation technology is adopted to drive a motor, and optically coupled sensing technology operates in coordination therewith to detect the traveling speed of a material on a swinging arm and sense the swing position of the swinging arm. Whereby, feedback is utilized to properly modify the rotating speed of the motor, achieving constant-speed feeding of the material while being winding or feeding. 
     2. Background 
     A conventional winder structure primarily includes a rotating shaft projecting above a standing wall of a base and used for engaging with a spool around which a material can be wound, where a motor is installed in the standing wall and connected to the rotating shaft thereby providing a rotating power. In addition, a swinging arm is installed at a suitable position on the standing wall and extends across a traveling material. A buffering tension is achieved through the weight of the rolling shaft itself, and the material can be wound tightly without loosening. 
     The coupling structure is simple, but the use thereof is substantially broad; it can be used in a variety of different industries, for example, it can be used in the continuous winding of a long wire, paper or metal material such that it satisfies a significant extent of the market&#39;s needs. However, the conventional winder structure is used almost exclusively for material winding and not for material feed-out, and as such the operations thereof are limited. 
     Furthermore, the motor of a conventional winder is almost always driven directly by a DC motor or a synchronous AC motor, ensuring that the rotating speeds of the rotating shafts connected to each other are the same. Therefore, the distance of adjacent winding circles changes as the material winding radius increases gradually during the material winding operations, making it nearly impossible to allocate paper feeding speeds relatively, and consequently, the rotating speeds of the inner and outer layers of the paper are not uniform. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     To improve the problems of conventional winders mentioned above, the present invention is proposed. 
     Embodiments of the present invention disclose a general purpose winding and feeding apparatus, which includes: 
     a base, a standing wall disposed on an upper side thereof, and a bottom plate disposed on a bottom thereof; 
     a rotating shaft disposed on an upper side of the standing wall of the base and used for winding or releasing a material; 
     a motor, driven by means of digital variable frequency technology, installed in the standing wall of the base and connected to the rotating shaft, thereby providing rotating power; 
     a swing arm, one end thereof having a fixed shaft disposed on the standing wall, a positioning hole plate disposed on the fixed shaft, another end thereof having a rod thereby allowing the swing arm to extend across a traveling material, a grating wheel installed in the rod; and 
     at least two light-coupled sensors, a first light-coupled sensor installed in the swing arm and corresponding to the grating wheel of the rod of the swing arm, thereby detecting rotating speeds thereof, a second light-coupled sensor thereof installed in the standing wall of the base and corresponding to the positing hole plate of the fixed shaft of the swing arm, thereby detecting swing positions thereof; 
     whereby, a user can set a material feed speed in inches per second alone, automatically adjusting a relative position and rotating speed, a material traveling speed and the swing position of the swing arm both detected by the two light-coupled sensors during material winding or feeding operations so as to yield feedback to modify the rotating speed of the motor, achieving the object of maintaining a constant feed speed of the material. 
     In addition, an indication lamp, which is lit to indicate whether the rotating shaft is rotated clockwise or anticlockwise, may further respectively be installed on both left and right sides of the swing arm additionally according to embodiments of the present invention so as to allow the user to differentiate easily whether the machine is being operated in a material winding state or feeding state. 
     Furthermore, embodiments of the present invention may further include a fast spool axle center fixing module capable of coupling to a variety of different diameters of material shafts with the rotating shaft, thereby loading and unloading the material quickly. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The present invention can be more fully understood by reference to the following description and accompanying drawings, in which: 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a partial cross sectional view of an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  is a partial exploded view of an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 4  is a perspective view of a portion of an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 5  is an exploded view of a spool axle center fixing module of an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 6  is a schematic view of a paper winding action of an embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 7  is another schematic view of a paper winding action of an embodiment of the present invention; and 
         FIG. 8  is a schematic view of a rotation of a positioning hole plate of an embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     First, referring to  FIGS. 1 to 4 , a general winding and feeding apparatus includes a base  1 , a rotating shaft  2 , a motor  3 , a swing arm  4  and at least two light-coupled sensors (a first light-coupled sensor  51 , second light-coupled sensor  52 , etc.). 
     A standing wall  11  is disposed on the upper side of the base  1 , and a bottom plate  12  is disposed on the bottom of the base  1 . Where a handle  13  extends from the top of the standing wall  11 , a bracket  111  is disposed in the standing wall  11  and a positioning hole  112  is disposed in the middle of one side of the standing wall  11 . 
     The rotating shaft  2  used to engage with a spool  6 , which is used for winding or releasing a material, and is installed on the upper side of the standing wall  11  of the base  1 , where a plate  21  is respectively installed on both sides of the rotating shaft  2 , thereby clamping and fixing the spool  6 , and a fixing element  22  for fixing and positioning the plate  21  and the rotating shaft  2 , which may be, for example, a rotating handle bar, and is installed on the outer side of the plate  21  and the rotating shaft  2 . 
     The motor  3  is driven using a digital variable frequency method, and is installed on the bracket  111  of the standing wall  11  of the base  1 , and connected to the rotating shaft  2  through a gear train  31 , thereby providing rotating power. 
     The swing arm  4  has a swing arm seat  41 , where a fixed shaft  42  at one end of the swing arm seat  41  is disposed on the standing wall  11 . A positioning hole plate  421  is disposed on the fixed shaft  42 , and a rod  43  is disposed on another end of the swing arm seat  41 , where a silicone rotating shaft  44  is disposed around the rod  43 , thereby extending across a traveling material. Furthermore, a grating wheel  45  is installed on the inner end of the rod  43 . 
     The first light-coupled sensor  51  is used for detecting the rotating speed of the rod  43  and is installed in the swing arm seat  41  of the swing arm  4  at a position that corresponds to the grating wheel  45  of the rod  43 . The second light-coupled sensor  52  is installed in the standing wall  11  of the base  1  at a position that corresponds to the positioning hole plate  421  of the fixed shaft  42  of the swing arm  4 ; the swing position of the swing arm  4  can thus be detected based upon hole sites disposed around the positioning hole plate  421  as the swing arm  4  moves, where a coding, such as Gray coding, may be adopted for the coding of the positioning hole plate  421 , thereby decreasing incorrect code reads and increasing the accuracy of positioning determination. 
     Referring again to  FIGS. 2 and 4 , the motor  3  may be a stepper motor, and a gear train  31  connected thereto may be installed with a grating  32 , and a third light-coupled sensor  53  additionally installed at a corresponding position on the bracket  111  may be employed as an out-of-step sensor used to detect whether the motor  3  is acting normally or not. In addition, fan blades  33  may be installed on the grating  32 , thus allowing the grating  32  to detect out-of-step conditions and to carry away heat produced from the motor  3  by circulating air induced by the rotation of the fan blades  33  when the grating  32  is rotated, thereby cooling the motor  3  at the same time. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 2 and 3  again, an indication lamp  46  may respectively be installed inside the left and right sides of the swing arm seat  41  of the swing arm  4  while the embodiment present invention device is operating, thereby working in conjunction with the rotating shaft  2  to light up to indicate whether the rotation thereof is clockwise or anticlockwise, allowing a user to differentiate easily whether the machine is acting in a winding or feeding state. In addition, referring again to  FIG. 2 , an elastic locking element  47  may be installed in the middle of the swing seat  41 , allowing the swing arm  4  to be brought home to stop and retain in the positioning hole  112  of the standing wall  11  when it is not in use, thereby preventing the swing arm  4  from swinging freely and being damaged while being transported. 
     In addition, referring to  FIG. 5 , a fast spool axle center fixing module  20  may further be disposed on the rotating shaft  2  according to an embodiment of the present invention. The fast spool axle center fixing module  20  is provided by configuring a plurality of distally separated elastic engagement elements  23  on the rotating shaft  2 , and a slide  24  is used for engaging with a plurality of spool fixing elements  25 , each having a hole  253 , on which a plurality of sliding masses corresponding to the slide  24  are disposed. At least three elastic projecting masses  251  are disposed radially around the outside of each spool fixing element  25 , and engagement flanges  252  are disposed on one side of each spool fixing element  25 . Furthermore, engagement holes  212  permit the engagement flanges  252  of the spool fixing elements  25  to be placed therein and rotated to engaged therewith, and are disposed correspondingly on the plate  21  of the rotating shaft  2 . The external portions of the plurality of spool fixing elements  25  may be designed to various different specifications so as to be able to engage with various different sizes of spool  6  axle centers, thereby achieving the practical object of the quick changing of spools  6 . 
     Adopting digital variable frequency technology to drive the motor  3  makes embodiments of the present invention more electrically efficient and the clockwise and anticlockwise rotation controls easy to implement. In addition, because the indication lamps  46  are respectively oppositely disposed inside the left and right sides of the swing arm seat  41  of the swing arm  4 , and light up separately depending upon which direction the motor  3  is rotating, such embodiments of the present invention can be used as a winder as well as feeder. Consequently, the various embodiments contemplate broad uses and can be used in various different industries, such as the continuous winding of long-striped wire, paper or metal materials. Although the following application uses paper winding as an example, it should be understood that the invention is not limited to such embodiments. 
     Referring again to  FIG. 2 , when embodiments of the present invention are not in operation or storage, the swing arm  4  is engaged with the positioning hole  112  of the standing wall  11  of the base  1  by way of the elastic locking element  47  and retained there temporarily, thereby preventing the swing arm  4  from swinging arbitrarily and becoming damaged, thereby securing embodiments of the present invention conveniently during the transportation thereof. 
     When an embodiment of the present invention is used for paper winding, as shown in  FIGS. 2 ,  3  and  6 , one end of the paper  61  output from a front-end device such as a printer (not shown in the figures) is fed so as to prop against and pass through the rod  43  of the swing arm  4 , and wound around the rotating shaft  2 , where the force of friction can be increased by way of the silicone rotating shaft  44  surrounding the rod  43 , ensuring that the paper  61  can be attached to the rod  43  more tightly and rotated while being fed, and allowing the grating wheel  45  of the rod  43  to rotate synchronously and the corresponding first light-coupled sensor  51  to receive light to generate high and low signals. Thereafter, the traveling speed of the paper can be calculated accurately, and whether the paper winding shaft is full with paper or not can be determined so as to avoid faults. 
     While material winding is proceeding, as shown in  FIGS. 2 ,  7  and  8 , the distance between every two adjacent winding loops of paper  61  changes with the winding radius of the paper  61 , increasing gradually, and the rod  43  is then raised correspondingly, allowing a swing angle of the swing arm  4  to be changed correspondingly. Because the positioning hole plate  421  on the fixed shaft  42  is moved in succession at the same time that the swing arm  4  is rotated, an angular change of movement of the swing arm  4  can be accurately determined via the Gray coding of the second light-coupled sensor  52  to calculate a value of the winding radius of the paper  61 , thereby generating feedback to modulate the rotational speed of the motor  3 ; the rotational speed thereof is relatively reduced as the winding radius of the paper  61  increases. Therefore, changing the paper feeding speed can obtain corresponding adjustments and achieve the practical object of maintaining a constant feeding speed of the paper  61 , thereby allowing the inner and outer circles of the wound paper  61  to tighten uniformly, and thus providing the best winding effect. 
     In addition, referring again to  FIGS. 2 ,  3  and  4 , because the fan blades  33  are installed on the grating  32  of the gear train  31 , they can cool the motor  3  as the gear train  31  rotates normally. Furthermore, to maintain the precision of the stepper motor  3  and to avoid stalling of the motor, the third light-coupled sensor  53  detects the action change of the grating  32  disposed on the gear train  31  connected to the motor  3  to measure whether the motor  3  and the grating  32  are acting synchronously or not; the motor  3  is deactivated if not. 
     Additional advantages and modifications will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the invention in its broader aspects is not limited to the specific details and representative embodiments shown and described herein. Accordingly, various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the general inventive concept as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.