US3448684A - Rotary cutting device - Google Patents

Description

June 10, 1969 G. CARDINET ET AL 3,448,684

ROTARY CUTTING DEVICE Filed March 17, 1967 I N VEN TORS afiarneys Guy Cardr'nef BY Edmond L..Z Feud f 6&0 g dam M 4'11 United States Patent Int. Cl. B30b 3/04; B23d 25/12; F16c 35/00 US. Cl. 100--171 8 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Cutting or creasing device employing cooperating rolls journaled in boxes that are yieldingly urged together but separated by wedge means positively determining the operative relation of the rolls.

This invention comprises a new and improved device employing cooperating rolls for cutting, creasing or otherwise treating thin sheet material.

In numerous industrial processes it is desired to pass the product to be treated between a pair of rolls rotating in synchronism around parallel axes, the distance between which determines the distance between the operative surfaces of the rolls.

Among other applications, mention may be made of the rolling of very thin sheets, such as sheets of gold, truing, calibrating, printing, goifering and precise cutting or creasing of sheets of cardboard or plastic, as well as thin sheets of fibers.

Precision of the roll spacing is essential for the proper carrying out of these operations. In cutting operations for which one of the rolls is provided with transverse or peripheral cutters, the precision of the spacing between the two rolls is diflicult to maintain since the reaction forces are discontinuous. On the other hand precision is here all the more important since, for instance in the manufacture of cartons, it is frequently necessary to determine the penetration of the knife into the thickness of a sheet of cardboard in such a manner as not only to the cutting of it but also to impart to it creasing or folding lines.

With the precision now available in the production of the bearings of the two rolls, it is impossible to maintain a distance apart of the precise value desired, that is to say, at a precision of one hundredth of a millimeter or of a micron which is frequently necessary, if only because of the heating of the bearings during operation. The center-to-center lost motion of the rolls must then be added onto or subtracted from the theoretical value desired.

An object of the present invention is to provide a device which will solve this problem. To that end the shaft of each of the rolls of the pair is supported at both of its ends by two journal boxesthe first determining precisely by means of a wedge interposed between it and the corresponding journal box of the other roll, the minimum spacing between axes of the two shafts; the second journal box being subjected to a yielding force which tends constantly to press the first journal box against the wedge.

These and other features of the invention will be best understood .and appreciated from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof selected for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawing in which FIG. 1 is a view in elevation partly in section,

FIG. 2 is an end view, and

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic view on a larger scale show- Patented June 10, 1969 ing the position of the roll shafts in their journal boxes.

The frame of the illustrated device includes a base 10 having upright arms or posts 11 in each of which are formed parallel guideways for journal boxes 12, 13, 14, 15. These are arranged in pairs and support upper and lower roll shafts 16 and 17. As herein shown the upper shaft 16 carries a cutter roll 18 having replaceable longitudinal knives 19. The lower 1011 20 is a smooth anvil roll which serves to present sheet material 30 for cutting or creasing in cooperation with the cutter roll 18. The shaft 17 is provided with a driving pinion 24 and with connections to a gear 25 on the shaft 16.

The roll 20 and its shaft 17 are supported at both ends by primary journal boxes 15 which rest upon solid abutments such as blocks or wedges 22. These positively determine the position of the axis of the roll 20 since any play or lost motion in the bearings is brought to the upper side of the shaft 17 by downward pressure of the journal boxes 15- as indicated in FIG. 3.

The lower roll shaft 17 also has at both ends secondary journal boxes 14 mounted in the guideways of the arms 11 at one side and independently of the adjacent journal boxes 15. Similarly the cutter roll shaft 16 has at both ends primary journal boxes 12. These are engaged by compression springs 21 contained in the upper part of the arms 11 and tending always to urge the journal boxes 12 downwardly with the shaft 16.

The shaft 16 is also provided with secondary journal boxes 13 and these are adjustably related to the journal boxes 14 of the shaft 17 through wedges 23 interposed between them.

The roll 20 is mounted for rotation about a fixed predetermined axis through its journal boxes 15 and the supporting blocks 22. The springs 21, acting through the journal boxes 12, 13, and 14, maintain the shaft 17 always in contact with its lower side of the bearing. By varying the thickness of the blocks 22 the whole assembly of journal boxes and rolls may be bodily adjusted as to their height in the frame of the device. It will be apparent that in all adjusted positions of rolls the amount of their separation is positively determined by the wedges 23 with a high degree of precision. The secondary set of journal boxes 13, 14, thus determines exactly the minimum spacing of the roll-s, and the other set 12, 15 is subjected to spring force tending always to maintain con tact with the Wedges.

Pressure of the springs 21 is transmitted downwardly through the boxes 12 to the shaft 16 and thus to the secondary boxes 13 so that continuous gauging pressure is maintained upon the wedges 23 in their position between the two secondary journal boxes 13 and 14. Similarly downward pressure of the springs 21 is further transmitted to the journal boxes 15 thus maintaining their continuous engagement with the blocks or wedges 22 upon the base 10.

Having thus disclosed our invention and described in detail an illustrative embodiment thereof, we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. A rotary device having a frame and a pair of shafts carrying cooperating rolls for treating sheet material, wherein the improvement comprises two journal boxes in the frame at both ends of each shaft, adjustable wedge means at each end separating one pair of journal boxes of said shafts to positively determine the operative relative spacing of the two rolls, and resilient means adjustably mounting one of the other pair of journal boxes in said frame.

2. A rotary device as defined in claim 1 further characterized in that said adjustable mounting means comprise spring means acting directly on one journal box of the other pair at both ends of one of the shafts to maintain wedge-controlled operative spacing of the cooperating rolls.

3. A rotary device as defined in claim 1, further charac terized in that two journal boxes are mounted side by side at each end of both shafts.

4. A rotary device as defined in claim 1, further characterized in that at each end a spring acts at all times on one journal box of the other pair to press one of the journal boxes of the first pair constantly against the wedge.

5. An adjustable bearing arrangement including a pair of spaced roller shafts, a primary journal box and a secondary journal box mounted at both ends of both shafts, a rigid abutment engaging each of said primary journal boxes of one roller shaft, means adjustably spacing the pair of secondary journal boxes at each end of said shafts and resilient means applying a yielding force on the primary journal boxes of the other shaft in a direction to bias said secondary journal boxes toward each other.

6. Adjustable bearing arrangement as defined in claim 5 further characterized in that the roller shafts are vertically spaced whereby the rigid abutments support the primary journal boxes of said one roller shaft, and the resilient means act on the primary journal boxes of the other shaft in a downward direction.

7. Adjustable bearing arrangement as defined in claim 6 characterized in that said resilient means are springs.

8. Adjustable bearing arrangement as defined in claim 5 characterized in that the adjustable spacing means are wedges.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 679,413 7/1901 Bunker 30858 X 957,921 5/1910 Whitehead. 1,162,125 11/1915 Bassett 308-26 1,365,521 1/1921 McNeil 1O0168 X 2,652,292 9/1953 Sabee 30858 2,773,400 12/1956 Sulger 30826 X 2,825,217 3/1958 Byrd. 3,140,900 7/1964 Martin. 3,326,439 6/1967 Sarka 226-194 FOREIGN PATENTS 747,347 4/1956 Great Britain.

MARTIN P. SCHWADRON, Primary Examiner.

L. L. JOHNSON, Assistant Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R.

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