Patent Abstract:
A vertically movable foam sponge cutting apparatus includes a vertical cutting device disposed on a blade strip frame. The vertical cutting device can be moved left and right in a vertical state. In addition, the vertical cutting device includes an ascending/descending device which is controllably movable up and down to change the rigidity of the blade strip in a cutting operation area. A foam sponge is cut along vertical cutting lines on a working bench. Therefore, a greater cutting function is achieved and the power consumption is lowered.

Full Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to a vertically movable foam sponge cutting apparatus, and more particularly to a foam sponge cutting apparatus in which the blade strip can be kept in a vertical state when moved left and right. In addition, the interval of the working section of the blade strip can be adjusted. The foam sponge or the like can be cut into products with various irregular or curved shapes. The cutting operation is facilitated and stabilized. 
     In a conventional foam sponge cutting apparatus, the interval of the working section of the blade strip is constant. Consequently, when cutting a hard foam sponge, the blade strip tends to deflect and cause unplane cutting face. This is because the interval of the working section of the blade strip is too large and thus the rigidity of the blade strip is insufficient. Therefore, the blade strip may be resiliently deformed to lead to unplane cutting face. Moreover, the cutting speed is slowed down. In addition, in cutting, when it is desired to change the position of the vertical blade strip, it is necessary to drive a control mechanism to shift the large and heavy structure body. This wastes a great amount of power. Also, the blade strip replacing device includes a rotary handle for adjusting a guide wheel. It is laborious to operate such rotary handle. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a vertically movable foam sponge cutting apparatus in which the blade strip can be moved left and right in a vertical state and the working bench is able to move the work piece so that the foam sponge can be cut into products with various irregular or curved shapes. Therefore, the cutting operation can be speeded to save cost. 
     It is a further object of the present invention to provide the above foam sponge cutting apparatus in which by means of an ascending/descending device, the interval of the working section of the vertical blade strip can be changed. Therefore, the cutting operation will not be deflected and the cutting operation is stabilized and the planarity of cutting face is enhanced. 
     It is still a further object of the present invention to provide the above foam sponge cutting apparatus in which by means of the pulley unit, transmission mechanisms and guide rails, the movement of the blade strip can be accomplished by reversely synchronously sliding only a few elements. Therefore, it is no more necessary to ascend or descend the entire blade strip frame body and thus the power consumption is lowered. 
     It is still a further object of the present invention to provide the above foam sponge cutting apparatus on which a horizontal cutting device can be mounted at the same time. 
     According to the above objects, the blade turning unit movement control mechanism makes the upper and lower seat bodies of the blade turning unit are respectively synchronously moved along the linear slide bars and the guide rails of the linear slide bar seats. The two pulleys disposed on the upper and lower linear slide bars are also synchronously moved along therewith to keep the working section of the blade strip moving left and right in a vertical state. In addition, an ascending/descending device is used to change the interval of the working section of the blade strip. The blade strip deflection rectifying mechanism is able to automatically detect and rectify the deflection of the blade strip. The working bench is reciprocally linearly moved back and forth and the positions of the foam sponge and blade strip on the plane are adjusted by means of numeral control so as to cut the foam sponge into products with various irregular or curved shapes. A driving member serves to push the guide wheel to loosen the blade strip for easy replacement thereof. Therefore, the vertical cutting operation is facilitated and stabilized and the power consumption is reduced and thus the cost is lowered. 
     The present invention can be best understood through the following description and accompanying drawings wherein: 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of the foam sponge cutting apparatus of the present invention; 
     FIG. 2 is a front assembled view of the vertical blade strip structure of the present invention in which the cover of the blade strip frame is opened; 
     FIG. 3 is a side view of the working bench of the present invention; 
     FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of the blade strip deflection rectifying mechanism of the present invention; 
     FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the blade strip deflection rectifying mechanism of the present invention; 
     FIG. 6 is a front assembled view of a second embodiment of the vertical blade strip structure of the present invention in which the cover of the blade strip frame is opened; 
     FIG. 7 a  shows the seat body of the second embodiment of the vertical cutting device of the present invention in a normal (not descended) state; 
     FIG. 7 b  shows the seat body of the second embodiment of the vertical cutting device of the present invention in a descended state; 
     FIG. 8 is a front assembled view of the horizontal blade strip structure of the present invention, in which the cover of the blade strip frame is opened; 
     FIG. 9 is a front assembled view of the horizontal blade strip structure of the present invention, in which the cover of the blade strip frame is opened and the horizontal cutting device includes an extensible driving device; 
     FIG. 10 shows the application of the present invention in one state; and 
     FIG. 11 shows the application of the present invention in another state. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Please refer to FIGS. 1 to  3 . The present invention includes an apparatus body  10  and a blade strip frame  20 . A working bench  11  is mounted on the apparatus body  10 . A motor  13  is disposed under the working bench  11  and fitted with a toothed belt and wheel assembly  14 . Two ends of each of the front and rear sections of the working bench  11  are disposed with roller shafts  12 . The blade strip frame  20  is disposed with a vertical cutting device  16  (first embodiment). Each of the upper and lower beams of the vertical cutting device  16  is disposed with a linear slide bar  221 . A thread rod  31  is underlaid on lower side of the slide bar  221 . A guide rail  21  is disposed on upper side of slide bar  221  of the lower beam. The upper beam is disposed with a slide bar seat  22  the middle of which is a linear slide bar  221 . A thread rod  31  is underlaid on lower side of the slide bar  221 . 
     A blade turning unit  32  includes an upper and a lower blade seats. The upper blade seat is hung on the slide bar seat  22  and the lower blade seat is hung on the guide rail  21 . The upper and lower blade seats are respectively connected with the slide bars  221 . 
     Referring to FIGS. 2 and 4, a blade strip deflection rectifying mechanism  50  is disposed on the blade turning unit  32 . The blade holder  51  at front end is integrally connected with a first positive gear  52  for clamping a blade strip  90 . Two ends of the first positive gear  52  are respectively engaged with two positive gears  53 ,  58 . A spiral rod  54  is engaged with upper side of the second positive gear  53  and a slide block  55  is disposed on the spiral rod  54 . A detector unit  56  is positioned beside the slide block  55 , including an upper detector A and a lower detector B. A third positive gear  58  is disposed at the output shaft of a servomotor  57 . As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, when the blade face of the blade strip  90  is turned by a certain angle, the blade holder  51  is also turned by a certain angle to make the first positive gear  52  rotate and indirectly drive the adjacent second positive gear . 53  and the spiral rod  54  to rotate. Accordingly, the slide block  55  is vertically moved. When the turning angle of the blade strip  90  is responsive of the vertical moving height of the slide block and exceeds the allowed limit of the upper detector A or lower detector B, the detector unit  56  will detect this and immediately activate the servo motor  57  to operate forward or backward in time for driving the third positive gear  58  to rotate and drive the first positive gear  52  to rotate. Accordingly, the blade holder  51  can carry the blade strip  90  and rectify the deflection to a correct angle. Therefore, the detector unit is a safety device for automatically sensing and automatically rectifying the deflection. 
     Referring to FIG. 2, a guide wheel unit  40  includes a driving wheel  41 , two pulleys  43 ,  47  and three guide wheels  44 ,  45 ,  46 . The driving wheel  41  is mounted on the lower beam of the blade strip frame  20  and connected with an output shaft of a motor. The lower blade seat pulley  43  is disposed under the lower blade seat of the blade turning unit  32  and positioned on the slide bar  221  and meshes with the thread rod  31  thereunder. The first and second guide wheels  44 ,  45  are mounted at two ends of the upper beam. The upper edges of the two wheels are adjacent to the tangential position. The third guide wheel  46  has a smaller diameter and is disposed beside the second guide wheel  45 . The upper blade seat pulley  47  is disposed on the upper side of the slide bar  221  of the upper beam and meshes with the thread rod  31  thereunder. An oil cylinder  48  is horizontally disposed on outer side of the second guide wheel  45  and coupled therewith. 
     A blade strip  90  is wound over the driving wheel  41  and pulled upward to the first guide wheel  44 . Then the blade strip  90  is tangentially pulled to the second guide wheel  45  and further pulled to the third guide wheel  46  and then to the upper blade seat pulley  47 . The blade strip  90  vertically passes through the upper and lower blade seats and then is downward pulled to the lower blade seat pulley  43 . Finally, the blade strip is pulled back to the driving wheel  41  to form a circularly close winding space. The blade strip  90  includes a vertical working section X and other sections forming the circularly winding space. 
     The blade turning unit  32  is controlled by a movement control mechanism  93 . The output shaft end of a motor  23  via a toothed belt  25  and a toothed pulley  26  is coupled with a transmission shaft  24 . The upper and lower ends of the transmission shaft  24  are respectively vertically connected with the slide bars  221  and mesh with the thread rods  31  thereunder. 
     The ascending/descending device  15  includes a driving mechanism  92  on which the linear slide bar seat  22  is fitted. The driving mechanism  92  is driven by another motor  29 . The output shaft end of the other motor  29  via the toothed belt  25  and toothed pulley  26  is respectively coupled with a guide thread rod  30 . The guide thread rod  30  is screwed with a nut  222  of the slide bar seat  22 . The upper and lower ends of the guide thread rod are fitted with connecting rod bearing  28 . The top end is disposed with a toothed pulley  26  to respectively connect with two idle wheels  27  via the toothed belt  25  and further connect with the toothed pulley  26  at the top end of the guide thread rod  30  on the other side. 
     The present invention is characterized in that when the motor  23  outputs rotational power, the toothed belt  25  and the toothed pulley  26  are fitted with each other to drive the transmission shaft  24  to rotate. By means of the thread rods  31  under the respective linear slide bars  221 , the upper and lower seat bodies  33  of the blade turning unit  32  are respectively synchronously moved along the slide bar  221  and the guide rail  21  of the slide bar seats  22 . The upper blade seat pulley  47  and the lower blade seat pulley  43  are also guided by the thread rods  31  and synchronously reversely moved along therewith to keep the working section X of the blade strip  90  moving left and right in a vertical state. The motor  29  synchronously drives the guide thread rods  30  on two sides, whereby the slide bar seat  22  ascends/descends via the nuts  222  at two ends so as to change the interval of the working section X of the blade strip  90 . 
     When the motor drives the driving wheel  41  to rotate, the blade strip  90  is continuously revolved by means of the transmission of a guide wheel unit  40  so as to provide a cutting effect on the working bench  11 . 
     A pneumatic cylinder  48  pushes and displaces the second guide wheel  45  to change the circularly close winding space of the blade strip so as to loosen the blade strip  90  for replacement thereof. 
     FIGS. 6,  7   a  and  7   b  show another embodiment of the vertical cutting device  17  of the present invention. The vertical cutting device  17  includes a blade turning unit movement control mechanism  94  including two guide rails  121  and a thread rod  122  disposed on each of the upper and lower beams. The output shaft end of a motor  123  via a toothed belt  125  and a toothed pulley  126  is coupled with a transmission shaft  124 . The transmission shaft  124  is fitted with multiple connecting rod bearings  128 . The upper and lower ends of the transmission shaft  124  are respectively vertically connected with the thread rods  122 . The blade turning unit  32  includes an upper and a lower blade seats. The seat bodies  133 ,  134  of the upper and lower blade seats are respectively hung on the upper and lower guide rails  121  and connected with the thread rods  122 . The blade strip  90  is wound on the guide wheel unit  40  to form a close winding line with a fixed length. The blade strip  90  includes a vertical working section X and other sections forming the circularly winding line, whereby the vertical cutting device  17  can be moved left and right with the blade strip kept vertical. The ascending/descending device  15  is such that a separable seat body  133  is hung on the guide rails  121  and the thread rod  122  disposed on the upper beam of the blade strip frame  20 . The seat body  133  includes an upper seat section  331  at upper end and a lower seat section  332  at lower end. The upper seat section  331  is fixed with a front end of a pneumatic cylinder  160 . The vertical lower seat section  332  is locked with an extensible stem  161  of rear end of the pneumatic cylinder  160 . Two connecting rods  162  are screwed and fixed on two sides of the lower seat section  332  and vertically fitted with the upper seat section  331 . An electric wire  170  is connected between the upper and lower seat sections, whereby the seat body  133  can ascend or descend to change the interval of the working section X of the blade strip. 
     In addition to the above vertical cutting device  16 , the other side of the blade strip frame  20  can be disposed with a horizontal cutting device  18 . The components of the horizontal cutting device are similar to those of the vertical cutting device  16 , while the guide wheel unit is installed in altered direction. Therefore, one single cutting apparatus can provide both vertical and horizontal cutting functions. 
     Referring to FIG. 8, the components of the guide wheel unit  40 ′ of the horizontal cutting device  18  are identical to those of the aforesaid guide wheel unit  40 . As shown in FIG. 2, the entire structure of the horizontal cutting device is alternatively arranged in a horizontal state, in which the blade strip  90 ′ is horizontally positioned on the apparatus body  10 . The blade turning unit  32 ′, the blade strip deflection rectifying mechanism  50 ′ and the blade turning unit movement control mechanism  93 ′ of the horizontal cutting device are also identical to those of the vertical cutting device. 
     Referring to FIG. 9, the components of the horizontal cutting device  18  can be identical to those of the aforesaid vertical cutting device  16 , including an extensible driving device  91 , while being arranged in altered direction to form a horizontal cutting device  19  in which the interval of the working section Y of the blade strip is changeable. 
     Referring to FIG. 10, in use for vertically cutting operation, the foam sponge  80  is placed on the working bench  11  and then the vertical cutting device  16  (or  17 ) is activated. The working bench is reciprocally linearly moved back and forth so as to cut the foam sponge along various irregular or curved cutting line  81  in vertical direction. The travel of the blade strip  90  depends on the change of the position of the wheels of the guide wheel unit  40 , whereby the driving power consumption is reduced so that the present invention can be easily and conveniently operated and is able to achieve a stable cutting effect. Therefore, the power consumption is reduced and the cost is lowered. 
     Referring to FIG. 11, in use for horizontally cutting operation, the foam sponge  80  is placed on the working bench  11  and then the horizontal cutting device  18  (or  19 ) is activated to similarly cut the foam sponge along various irregular or curved cutting line in horizontal direction. Therefore, both vertical and horizontal cutting can be performed on one single working bench. This reduces the room occupied by the equipment and indirectly lowers the cost. 
     However, since the vertical and horizontal cutting devices co-use the working bench, when using the vertical cutting device  16  (or  17 ), the horizontal cutting device  18  (or  19 ) should be shifted to the rear end of the travel to ensure safety. 
     According to the above arrangement, the present invention has the following advantages: 
     1. The ascending/descending device of the present invention serves to change the interval of the working section of the blade strip. When the interval is shortened, the cutting operation will not be deflected so that the cutting operation is stabilized and the planarity of cutting face is enhanced. 
     2. By means of the pulley unit, linear slide bars and guide rails, the shifting and changing of the interval of the blade strip can be accomplished only by sliding of a few elements so that the power consumption is reduced and the working cost is lowered. 
     3. The pneumatic cylinder serves to push the guide wheel to loosen the blade strip for easy replacement thereof. 
     4. The guide thread rod is fitted with connecting rod bearing so that the guide thread rod will not swing due to excessive length and the stability is enhanced. 
     5. One single apparatus includes both vertical and horizontal cutting devices so that the apparatus can be very conveniently used. 
     The above embodiments are only used to illustrate the present invention, not intended to limit the scope thereof. Many modifications of the above embodiments can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

Technology Classification (CPC): 8