Patent ID: 7125012

Claim:
A rotatable feed wheel for a sheet converting machine, comprising: (a) a hub including a rigid body having a cylindrical shape relative to an axis of rotation through said rigid body and an external peripheral surface about said rigid body; and (b) a tread including a discontinuous annular body having a ring-shaped configuration and made of a resilient pliable stretchable deformable material, said annular body further having opposing leading and trailing ends with mateable female and male surfaces of complementary non-planar configurations defined respectively on said leading and trailing ends and forming a discontinuous non-planar join through said annular body such that said annular body can be fitted over and about, and also removed from, said rigid body of said hub by yieldably and resiliently deforming and stretching said annular body temporarily out of said ring-shaped configuration to and from a seated relationship of said annular body about and with said external peripheral surface of said rigid body of said hub and such that in said seated relationship an outer peripheral surface of said annular body is adapted to make a gripping contact with a surface of a sheet and to cause feeding of the sheet in a preselected direction when said annular body is moved in a given direction of rotation with the rotatable feed wheel about said axis of rotation; (c) said hub and tread further including respective elements cooperating together so as to retain said annular body of said tread on and about said rigid body of said hub and prevent rotational movement of said tread relative to said hub and also to retain said non-planar mateable female and male surfaces interfitted with one another during rotation of said feed wheel; (d) wherein said respective cooperating elements of said hub are a plurality of holes defined in said rigid body and being open at said external peripheral surface thereof; (e) wherein said respective cooperating elements of said tread are a plurality of locking lugs formed on and protruding inwardly of said annular body, said locking lugs having configurations complementary to configurations of said holes of said hub so as to enable said locking lugs to fit into said holes; (f) wherein said plurality of holes in said rigid body of said hub includes first and second holes disposed in a side-by-side closely spaced apart relation to one another and being reversely angularly displaced relative to one another away from respective first and second radial lines extending from said axis of rotation through said first and second holes of said rigid body.