Patent GB-1084042-A (GB)
IPC: B29D30/30
Abstract: 1,084,042. Feeding webs. NRM CORPORATION. Aug. 31, 1964 [Dec. 26, 1963], No. 35549/64. Heading B6B. Tyre fabric material fed by a conveyer 42, Fig. 1, is wound on a roll 53 of a tyre servicer 43 together with liner material fed from a roll 54 mounted on the servicer. The tyre fabric is fed from a selected one of a number of rolls, as described in Specification 1,084,041, to a bias cutter 4, and the cut pieces drop on to a table 9 where they are spliced to form a web. The web can be fed to a conveyer 15 which extends beneath the table, either directly in direction 36, Fig. 1, or indirectly in direction 40 via a conveyer 16 and guide 21 so as to be turned upside down with the cord-bias reversed. The conveyer 15 is driven by a motor 33. From the conveyer 15 the web 5, Fig. 7, drops on to a fixedinclination conveyer 42 which feeds it either to a further conveyer 60 or to a storage drum 53 on the servicer 43 where it is wound up with the liner L from the liner drum 54. A number of pairs of drums 53, 54 are mounted on the servicer 43 which can be indexed to present a different pair of drums 53, 54 to the conveyer 42. Two such servicers 43 may be mounted coaxially on a turn-table rotatable about a vertical axis so that whilst one servicer is storing material received from the conveyer 42, the other may be paying it out to a tyre-making machine. While the fabric is being wound on to the drum 53 it passesover a forwarding brush 190, Fig. 4. rotated at a greater speed than the conveyer 42 and also over an apron formed by the liner L passing over a roller 55 on its way to the drum 53. The roller 55 is carried by arms 56 as described in Specification 1,084,041 which can be projected to cause the liner to form the apron or can be retracted to. allow the fabric to drop on to the conveyer 60, from which it can pass to succeeding sets of apparatus each comprising a conveyer 42, a servicer 43 and a conveyer 60, the units being identical except that the final apparatus has no conveyer 60. The drive for the conveyers 42, 60 is from a motor 130, Fig. 1, the speed of which is controlled according to the amount of material received by the conveyer 42 from the conveyer 15. For this purpose, a series of photo-cells 125, Fig. 7, situated vertically one above the other are aligned with the space between two of the belts 72 forming the conveyer 42, and light from a source 122 can impinge on them. As the fabric S drops from the conveyer 15 on to the conveyer 42, it can allow the light to actuate all the cells if the conveyer 42 is moving too fast relatively to the conveyer 15 or can block all or some of the cells according to the position assumed by the bend 127 in the fabric as it drops on to the conveyer 42. The cells control the motor 130 so that the requisite relative speeds of the conveyers 15, 42 are obtained. Transverse adjustment.-The frame 166, Fig. 4, carrying the conveyer 42 is pivoted about a vertical pin 160 at its end adjacent to the unit 43. At its other end it has brackets (100, 101, Fig. 9) with rollers 109, Fig. 7, running on a support 111. Attached to the brackets (100, 101) is a transverse member 102 attached to the piston of a piston-and-cylinder unit (113, Fig. 9) whereby the conveyer 42 can be moved about the pivot 160 to align its receiving end with the incoming fabric. The unit 113 is controlled by photo-electric devices as follows: mounted on brackets 84 attached to the frame of conveyer 42 are two photoelectric devices 94 which can be moved transversely of the fabric towards or away from one another by a double-lead screw 89 rotatable by a motor 92. The devices 94 are set by means of the motor according to the width of the fabric cut by the bias cutter so as to sense the edges of the fabric and operate the unit (113, Fig. 9) to cause the entry end of the conveyer 42 to be correctly centred. Stopping and starting the feed.-Two photoelectric devices 200, 201, Fig. 1, are provided along the conveyer 42. The device 201 senses the arrival of fabric on the conveyer and causes the arms 56 to be moved to apron-forming position and the device 200 senses the end of the fabric, causing the conveyer to be stopped, the arms 56 to be retracted, and the unit 43 to be indexed.