Automatic Apparatus for Guiding Endless Bands, Felts, and Wires.
Year: 1886

page_text: Automatic Apparatus for Guiding Endless Bands, Felts,
and Wires.
I RICHARD SMITH of Sherbrooke, in the county of Sherbrooke, Province of
Quebec, Dominion of Canada, Machinist, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to mechanism for automatically guiding any continuously
travelling endless belt, apron, felt or wire-cloth, which may pass between a pair or
around a series of rolls. The apron being the actuating agent by which to axially
shift the guide rolls and so disposed with respect to other connecting and operative
parts of the device, that any undue lateral deviation of said apron from its proper
path of travel shall cause a shift of the rolls between or over which it passes.
Thus axial change in the position of the rolls with respect to the normal path of
travelling apron or felt causes the latter to be shifted and so retained in the proper
place on the face of the rolls-One prominent feature in this automatic wire and felt
guide is a continually rocking shield actuated by a crank arm or pin plate secured to
the guide-roll, this shield being provided with a rocking shield to which are secured
two arms upon which rest corresponding but oppositely disposed pawls adapted to
engage with a toothed wheel.
The position of the shield determining, whether one pawl shall be active or both
remain inactive, as circumstances require for the proper working of the device to
which it may be attached.
The prominent features in my present invention are first-the sliding adjustable
standard, which supports the guide-roll, whereby the axis of the latter may be
shifted or changed obliquely with respect to the path of travel of the apron or
beit; secondly in making the belt, an actuating agent to adjust itself, by means
of a vibrating lever, across which the belt is to pass, and thus any divergence of
said belt from its proper path of travel, will cause the lever to tilt a rocker-shield
carrying two pawls.
This movement of the shield will cause one of said pawls to engage with a
toothed wheel; but, since the pawls are pivoted to a rocker-plate a sliding
movement of the standard carrying the rolls is effected by the rotation of the
toothed wheel with respect to a fixed rack, bolted to the frame. Hence the axis
of the guide-roll may be changed more or less obliquely in either direction with
Prine 71

page_text: respect to the path of travel of the belt or apron according to the lateral divergence
of the latter.*
In the drawings herewith shown, Fig. 1 is a side elevation of an automatic
guide-roll attachment secured to a fixed housing. Fig. 2 represents a transverse
vertical section on line xx, while Fig. 3 is a plan of the same. Fig. 4 is a longi-
tudinal section of the actuating rod, and Fig. 5 is a side elevation in detail of the
guide-roll and actuating rod supports.
In such drawings I have represented a stationary standard A, which is adapted
to contain a series of rolls upon or around which travels an endless felt or apron a,
moving in the direction, shown by arrow 1, over the guide-roll B. This roll is
mounted in pivotal journals bc, the latter one being adjustably disposed upon but
firmly fastened to upright support C¹; on the other hand the front one b is secured
upon a sliding or reciprocating standard C, provided with a circular hollow boss or
stud D, within which is journaled a short shaft E; upon the rear extremity of the
latter is affixed a pinion F, which is adapted to engage and cooperates with a fixed
rack d, cast upon or bolted to the frame A, while on the front end is placed a
toothed wheel G. This wheel is arranged to be actively advanced upon the rack
by two oppositely disposed pawls e e¹, pivotally hung upon the rear side of a rocker
plate H, the lower end of which is in its turn mounted loosely upon the end of the
shaft E, before mentioned.
Continuous rocking or active movement of this plate H is produced by means
of a crank-pin f secured to a face-plate I, the said pin being furnished with a loose
roller or plate 8 which rotates upon the inner face of the slot g, cut in the top or
head portion of the rocker-plate. Hence rotation of the guide-roll B will produce
constant oscillating motion of the plate to advance by the aid of the pawls, the
toothed wheel G in either direction, dependent upon the pawl, which may be
actively employed at the time.
Upon the boss D and to the rear of or behind the toothed wheel, I have attached
a stationary bracket or post J, upon which is centrally hung a curved rocker-
shield K. This shield is adapted to support the pawls by means of pins hh,
fastened thereto and which rest upon the exterior periphery of the shield. Thus
the pawls are maintained disengaged from the peripheral teeth of the wheel G
when the endless apron is pursuing its proper path of travel.
To actively dispose either one of the pawls e e¹, it becomes necessary to tilt or
depress that end of the shield upon which the pawl to be used rests; to effect this
tilting movement of the shield K, I have disposed a short crank-arm L to the
pivotal support of the shield. Now to this crank-arm is secured a rod i, con-
necting with a bell-lever M, which is pivoted to a bracket or arm N. The latter
supports the bell-lever and also the transverse rod j, across which the travelling
belt passes, and by means of which the entire operative mechanism is actuated to
axially shift the roll B.
The rear end of the rod j is attached to a link k, pivotally secured to the
standard C¹, while the latter is slotted and provided with an adjustable post 7 in
which is mounted the journal c; thus in case the guide-roll can not be axially
shifted upon the front side, by the operation of the toothed wheel G and its
operative mechanism, sufficiently to produce proper guidance of the apron, then
the rear journal of the guide-roll may be easily adjusted to accomplish the
purpose.
The operation of my guide-roll attachment is as follows, supposing that the
endless apron or felt is travelling in the direction of arrow 1, see Fig. 1 over the
guide-roll B and thence beneath the rod j, which is provided with adjustable guide
feathers m m¹.
Referring to Fig. 3, I have assumed that the felt is diverging laterally in the
direction of arrow 2, or towards the back side of the machine, and thus it presses
against the feather m¹, pushing the rod j in the direction of arrow 3, and by aid
of the belt-lever M thrusts the connecting rod i in the directioil as shown by
arrow 4, (see Fig's. 1 and 2). This movement of the rod i actuates the crank-

page_text: arm L, which tilts or depresses that end of the rocker-shield K, upon which the
pawl e rests, and allows the latter to approach and engage the teeth of the
wheel G, which is rotated by means of the feed motion of said pawl, caused by
the rocker-plate H; the latter is actuated by the face-plate I and pin f carried
by the guide-roll B.
Rotary movement of the toothed wheel G and shaft E in direction of arrow 5,
see Fig. 1, likewise and similarly actuates the pinion F, which cooperates with the
toothed rack d; but since the latter is stationary and affixed to the frame A, the
standard C is forcibly advanced in the direction of arrow 6 and carries the front
journal of the guide-roll B with it. This change in the axial position of the roll
will tend to give the belt the opposite lateral divergence, whereby it may be shifted
and maintained in its proper path of travel.
Conversely, if the belt has opposite lateral tendency to that represented by
arrow 2, then the opposite end of the rocker-shield is depressed and the paw! e
then becomes active, while the roll B is shifted towards the right of Fig. 1.
To prevent excessive lateral movement of the movable standard C owing to
great irregularity or lateral divergence of the wire or felt in its path of travel and
to obviate any danger of breaking some one of the various component parts of the
machine I have disposed two pins n n¹ which are affixed to and project laterally
from the frame A of the machine proper.
These pins or studs are adjusted in the path of travel of the pivotal pin p of
the vibrating connecting rod i; such pivot pin extending rearwardly as shown
in Fig. 2 in order to engage and come in contact with said pins at proper critical
times.
Now to illustrate the operation of this safety attachment, I will presume the
felt is travelling in direction of arrow 1 as shown in Fig. 1 and we will suppose
the felt is running to the back side of the machine very excessively; hence the
connecting rod i is thrust in the direction of arrow 4 and thus permits the shield
to drop at the end which carries the pawl e¹ which engages with and actively
operates toothed wheel G in direction of arrow 5 and the standard will continue to
move until the pin p of the connecting rod i has reached the safety pin n' with
which it engages, this at once tilts the shield, disengages the pawl e¹, to render it
inactive and stops any further movement of the standard in this direction.
This opposite position of the studs now has brought the pawl e into active use and
the standard retreats until the pin p is entirely clear from the pin n¹ when the
pawi e again becomes active. Thus the movement and travel of the standard is
limited by the safety or stop pins n n¹.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare what
I claim is:
1st The combination with a continuous travelling endless felt, of cooperating
mechanism, substantially as herein described; whereby the lateral divergence of
said felt shall cause automatic shifting of a guide-roll to compensate for such
divergence.
2nd The combination with a continuous travelling endless wire or felt, of
mechanism substantially as described; cooperating upon a movable standard and
the safety stops disposed upon a fixed frame whereby the lateral or oblique shifting
of a guide-roll is limited as herein described.
3rd A guide-roll attachment, operated automatically by the lateral pressure of a
continually travelling endless apron against a transversely reciprocating rod,
whereby a rocking pawl-carrying shield imparts rotary movement to a toothed
wheel to change the axial position of the guide-roll substantially as set forth.
4th The combination with the fixed frame, of the endless apron with a guide-roll
provided with one fixed and one movable journal, the latter being mounted in a
standard which slides upon the frame and is automatically actuated by lateral
divergence of the endless apron.

page_text: 5th In combination with a guide-roll B, adjustably mounted at one end in the
standard C, of the toothed gear G and its operating pawls e e¹ to which feed
motion is imparted by a rocker-plate H actuated by the guide-roll, substantially as
and for purposes set forth.
6th In combination the endless felt α, transverse rod j, rocker shield K actuated
thereby, the pawls e e¹ loosely pivoted to the rocker-plate H, toothed wheel G,
pinion F, and fixed rack d, whereby the movable standard C is shifted to change
the axial position of the guide-roll B, substantially as herein described.
7th A guide-roll operated automatically by the travelling endless apron, in
combination with a toothed wheel its actuating pawls and their rocker shield and
a stationary rack, for the purposes herein set forth.
8th The combination with the rocker-plate H, carrying the pawls ce¹, of the
reciprocating rod j, bell-crank lever M, rod i and rocker shield K, whereby the
latter maintains both pawls inactive, while the apron remains in its normal path
of travel substantially as stated.
9th The combination with the rocker-plate H carrying the pawls e e¹, of the
reciprocating rod j, bell-crank lever M, rod i and rocker shield K, whereby either
end of the shield is depressed to actively engage the pawl, pivoted thereat, with
the toothed wheel to rotate the latter and axially shift the roll B, substantially for
the purposes described.
10th. In combination the reciprocating transverse rod j, connecting rod i and
bell-lever M pivoted to and carried by the sliding standard C to operate said parts
as and for the purposes stated.
11th The combination with the rocker-plate H carrying the pawls e e¹, the
reciprocating rod j, bell-crank lever M, rocker shield K, rod i and pivot pin p of
the safety pins n n¹ secured to the fixed frame A and adapted to engage with
said pin
to limit the travel of the standard C, substantially as herein described.