Patent Abstract:
A reusable core that is suitable for having paper or other sheet material wound thereon. A multi-sectioned core is provided that is easily assembled. Interlocking segments that provide a pivot are held together by a sliding pin inserted therein. The pin is preferable held into position by use of a snap ring or other similar fastening arrangement. By removing one pin between adjacent interlocking sections, the core collapses inwardly thereby permitting easy removal of the core from any remaining sheet material that must be discarded. The sheet material is held onto the core by means of a strip of double sided tape until the core is wound several times to keep the sheet material firmly in place.

Full Description:
[0001]     This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/378,176, filed Mar. 3, 2003, now abandoned. 
     
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     This invention relates to the field of winding cores, in particular, winding cores for use with paper, paper board, or other sheet material.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0003]     Sheet material, such paper, fabric, plastic sheeting and the like is typically wound onto paper cores. For example, in the direct mail industry, paper mills wind their stock forms onto paper board cores for shipment to a direct mail printing facility. The forms come in various sizes; generally 25,000 forms or pages per roll. The press department then punches pin feeds into the paper. The press department then prints anything that may be consistent on the form such as letter head or form numbers for any given customer. During this process the form is unwound from the shipped roll and then wound onto another paperboard core. The core that came with the paper is customarily discarded when there is still some paper left on it . . . any where from 1″ to 3″ thickness of paper and then the core and paper is customarily discarded.  
         [0004]     After the press punches pin feeds, prints letter head and rewinds the sheet forms, the roll is transferred to the laser printing department where the roll is unwound and rewound onto yet another core during the personalization process. (Names, addresses, phone numbers, letter information, etc.)  
         [0005]     A direct mail facility that produces between 30 or 40 million names/addresses per month goes through between approximately 2,500 to 3,500 cores that are thrown into bins for recycling. Furthermore, there are more than 2,000 rolls with cores on the production floor waiting to go through the process at any given time.  
         [0006]     Currently, winding cores are made of paper board and paper products. Their reuse is limited to several times, recycling and/or refurbishing the core so that it can be again used for winding material thereon. Double-sided tape is wrapped around the core in a “candy cane style” to adhere the sheet material to the core. Once the paper is completely wound onto the core, wooden plugs are pounded into the ends of the core to prevent it from collapsing from the weight of the load that was would upon it if the rolled material stays on the core for a considerable amount of time.  
         [0007]     There is not found in the prior art a reusable core that will eliminate the need to throw away these rolls and will also the need to wrap double sided tape around the core to attached the sheet material to the core for winding.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0008]     It is an aspect of the invention to provide a reusable core that is suitable for having paper or other sheet material wound thereon A multi-sectioned core is provided that is easily assembled. Interlocking sections that provide a pivot are held together by a sliding pin inserted therein. By removing one pin between adjacent interlocking sections, the core collapse thereby permitting easy removal. The sheet material is held onto the core by means of a strip of double sided tape until the core is wound several times to keep the sheet material firmly in place.  
         [0009]     This aspect of the invention are not meant to be exclusive and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art when read in conjunction with the appended claims.  
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0010]      FIG. 1  is an isometric view of the preferred embodiment of the reusable collapsible core in accordance with the invention.  
         [0011]      FIG. 2  is an isometric view of the core with one pin removed showing how the core is able to be collapsed.  
         [0012]      FIG. 3  is isometric bottom view of one section of the core.  
         [0013]      FIG. 4  is an end view of one section of the core.  
         [0014]      FIG. 5  is a top view of the core.  
         [0015]      FIG. 6  is a cross-sectional view of the core along line BB as shown in  FIG. 5 .  
         [0016]      FIG. 7  is a cross-sectional view of the core along line AA as shown in  FIG. 5 .  
         [0017]      FIG. 8  is a detailed view of the pin locking assembly.  
         [0018]      FIG. 9  is an isometric view of another embodiment of the invention.  
         [0019]      FIG. 10  is an end view of the embodiment shown in  FIG. 9 .  
         [0020]      FIG. 11  is a view of the invention without the key section in place.  
         [0021]      FIG. 12  is the two halves of the interlocking sections of the core separated and apart from the key section.  
         [0022]      FIG. 13  is an isometric view of the extractor mechanism.  
         [0023]      FIG. 14  is a detailed top view of the embodiment shown in  FIG. 9 .  
         [0024]      FIG. 15  is a detailed view of the spring used in an alternative embodiment for sheet material attachment.  
         [0025]      FIG. 16  is an end view of the preferred embodiment of the invention.  
         [0026]      FIG. 17  is a detailed view of the sliding pin used to activate the material attachment slat.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0027]     The invention is a reusable collapsible core that is useful for winding paper forms or other sheet material thereon. The core is preferably made of plastic but metal or hard rubber could also be used. The life span will be measured in years with little or no maintenance required.  
         [0028]     As shown in  FIG. 1 , invention  10  is assembled from at least substantial identical segments  11  to form a cylinder. Each segment can be manufactured from the same material or different materials. As noted above, plastic is the preferred material which is either injection molded or extruded. The hinge joint assembly  16  is designed to fit loosely in order to allow for expansion and contraction of the cylinder outside diameter for the purpose of both allowing for the maximum cylinder circumference while winding rolled sheet materials and to allow for collapsing the invention for removal so that it can be used again. Locking pin assemblies  14  lock each segment  11  to another segment  11  immediately adjacent to it as shown. Once one of pin assemblies  14  is removed, the segments  11  are easily collapsed so that invention  10  can be removed from waste sheet material that is wound thereon as shown in  FIG. 2 .  
         [0029]     The interior of invention  10  is provided with a plurality of detents  43  as shown in  FIG. 2  which permit increase the structural integrity of the core without adding additional mass or cost of material. As shown, segment  11  is provided with interlocking joint assemblies  16  which mesh with opposing joint assemblies  16  of an immediately adjacent segment  11 .  
         [0030]     When joined together, the segments  11  form a cylindrical tube. As shown in  FIG. 4  each segment  11  has an arc of a circle having an outer radius R 1  and an inner radius R 2 . Radius R 2  is selected to fit onto the printing mandrel that is being used. The difference between R 1  and R 2  is selected based on the strength that the core must provide in to prevent it from collapsing until one of pin assemblies  16  is removed from opening  17  so that invention  10  may be easily withdrawn from the remaining sheet material wrapped around the core. Then, the sheet material, usually paper, is discarded and invention  10  may be used again.  
         [0031]     Referring to  FIG. 5 , a top of invention  10  is shown with one complete segment  11  and the segment  11  immediately adjacent to it, attached with pin assemblies  16  (shown in detail in  FIG. 8 ).  
         [0032]     As shown in  FIG. 6 , the cross-sectional view taken along line BB noted in  FIG. 5 , shows the plurality of detents  43  which to make each segment  11  egg-crate shaped in appearance as viewed from the inside. Each pin assembly  16  is inserted through openings  17  in the respective segment  11  to hold each segment  11  in place while sheet material (not shown) is wound onto surface  19 .  FIG. 7  shows a similar cross-sectional view taken along a different section line AA in  FIG. 5 .  
         [0033]     Referring to  FIG. 8 , a detail view of pin assembly  16  is provided. Pin  23  is fed into openings  17  of interlocking segments  11  and then held firmly in place via a snap ring  25  which fits into circumferential channel  29 . Snap ring  25  is easily removed using snap ring pliers (not shown) which are well known in the art. A quick release pin  23  would not use snap rings  25  but merely could be fitted with a structure well known in the art which easily allows pin  23  to be pulled out such as a handle or a loop, an end having a right angled section, etc. in order to collapse the core  10 .  
         [0034]     Referring to  FIG. 9 , an alternative embodiment of invention  10  is shown. In this embodiment, invention  10  is made up of three sections. The two larger pieces  12 ,  14  of the cylinder are formed to loosely lock into each other thus providing hinge  16  which runs the entire length of the cylinder. The key section  18  runs the entire length of the cylinder and is designed to slide out of the cylinder in order to allow the remaining pieces to collapse. The key section could also be made as the larger sections and held together using the locking pins and quick release pin as noted above.  
         [0035]      FIG. 10  shows an end view of the cylinder. Male interlocking section  12  is provided with a locking bead  26  that fits into groove  28  of the female interlocking section  14 . Bead  26  and groove  28  run the entire length of the interlocking sections to ensure that the two sections are locked together. As noted above, bead  26  and groove  28  are designed to have space  34  (see  FIG. 11 ) between them so that it is easy to collapse these two sections toward one another when it is desired to removed the invention from material that has been wound thereon.  
         [0036]     Key section  18  slides into male and female interlocking sections and is held in position by keyways  32  with engages slots  30  to form the complete cylinder. The inner surface of the key section  18  and interlocking sections  12 ,  14  are provided with a liner  24  which is preferably a rubberized material. Liner  24  helps hold invention  10  firmly onto a mandrel (not shown) when sheet material is to be wound onto or off of the core. Two lever arms  22  are fitted immediately adjacent to each end of the cylinder preferably on interlocking section  14  as shown. However, lever arms  22  could also be attached to interlocking section  12  or even key section  18  if it is made sufficiently large to accommodate this mechanism. Each lever arm  22  is spring actuated (see  FIG. 15 ) via spring  50  and is connected to a sheet material attachment slat  38  (see  FIG. 14 ) which is used to attach the sheet material, usually paper, that is to be wound on the cylinder core.  
         [0037]     As shown in  FIG. 11 , once lever arms  22  are pulled away from interlocking section, the end of the paper or other material that is to be wound thereon is fed under attachment slat  38  and the lever arms  22  are released so that material is held fast and ready for winding. An indent for slat  38  (shown in  FIG. 16 ) is provided so that slat  38  is flush and so that material can be more easily wound thereon.  
         [0038]      FIG. 12  is the two halves of the interlocking sections  12 ,  14  of the core separated and apart from the key section  18 . Optionally, slots  42  are provided on provided on one or both of sections  12 ,  14 , either completely as shown or partially so that sufficient room is provided to permit lever arms  22  and attachment slat  38  to run the entire length of the cylinder core. The slots  42  decrease the surface area that is in contact with wound material and thus facilitate removal of the key section. Also, slots  42  also decrease the amount of plastic material that must be used to form invention  10 .  
         [0039]     As shown, hand hold  20  is provided so that core can be pulled from any remaining sheet material that is wound on the core. If removal is difficult, then extractor  44  (shown in  FIG. 13 ) is inserted into the core and hooks  46  engage recesses  40  so that the core can be pulled free from any material wound thereon by handle  48 .  
         [0040]     Referring now to  FIGS. 16 and 17 , another embodiment of invention  10  is shown This embodiment differs only in embodiment shown in  FIG. 9  in that the method for attaching the material that is to be wound on the core. In this embodiment, slat  38  is held on the core by the attachment mechanism shown in  FIG. 17 . Slot  56  in sleeve  51  is threaded into immediately adjacent to one end of the core. Another substantially identical sleeve  51  is threaded into the other end. Into each sleeve  51 , locking pin  52  is inserted. Spring loaded ball bearing  54  is used to releasably hold locking pin  52  into sleeve  51  via slot  56 . D-shaped pull  53  is bent at approximately 90 degrees relative to the longitudinal axis of pin  52  and is used to attach to slat  38  using techniques well known in the art. In this manner, slat  38  can be extended as shown in  FIG. 16  so that the material that is to be wound on the core can be inserted under slat  38  and then slat  38  can be slid back into place to hold material until a sufficient number of windings is wound thereon.  
         [0041]     The illustrated embodiments of the invention are intended to be illustrative only, recognizing that persons having ordinary skill in the art may construct different forms of the invention that fully fall within the scope of the subject matter disclosed herein. Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the descriptions hereof

Technology Classification (CPC): 1