The invention generally relates to doctor blades used in industrial process machines and relates in particular to retention features that are used to hold doctor blades in their holders in the papermaking, industrial processing, web converting, printing and other doctor blade using industries.
Doctor blades are predominantly used on papermaking and web converting machines to clean contaminants from roll surfaces or remove water or other liquids. Additionally, in some applications, doctor blades are used to remove and/or guide the product during machine start-ups and when product breaks/upsets occur. Doctor blades are held in a blade support device known as a doctor blade holder. The current industry standard doctor blade holder utilizes a lower finger or jaw-type blade retention member attached to a top plate and creating a cavity therebetween. One end of a doctor blade is held in the cavity with the top plate and lower jaw member cooperating to hold the blade against a roll. The blade is traditionally fitted with metallic rivets, washers and spring clips to keep it securely in place during operation.
On the other hand,
This issue arises in practice when the spring clips become permanently flattened during the blade insertion process or after repeated engagement/disengagement of the blade. Once flattened, these spring clips can no longer maintain the blade in the proper upward angled position. Furthermore, flattened spring clips may result in the blade falling out of the doctor blade holder potentially causing injury to nearby personnel or damage to the process machinery. The sharp edge of the spring clip can also cut into the underside of the holder top plate during blade changes and use, permanently damaging the top plate of the blade holder.
The conventional rivet/washer/spring clip method of retaining blades requires many different rivet lengths, washer thicknesses combinations thereof to accommodate various blade thicknesses, which can typically range from approximately 0.25 mm to 4.0 mm. The typical fixing method for the spring clip involves punching or machining holes for each assembly into the doctor blade; inserting rivets into the respective holes; fitting a spring clip onto the stem of the rivets; adding a washer to each rivet stem and then peening over the remaining rivet stem to lock the clip on to the doctor blade. In some cases, spring clips are not required, and rivets alone are able to hold the blades in place. Either way, this method is very labor intensive to perform manually and very expensive to automate.
Furthermore, as seen in
The conventional metal rivet, washers and spring clips also have the tendency to loosen and fall out during operation. This situation, along with blade failure, can cause extensive damage to the process machinery when pieces or fragments get lodged in moving parts of the machinery.
Due to the above-mentioned deficiencies and problems associated with the conventional doctor blade retention using rivets, washers and spring clips, there remains a need for an improved, less costly, safer, and more reliable doctor blade retention means.
In accordance with an embodiment, the invention provides a doctor blade including a blade surface and at least one shaped feature that is formed of a polymeric material and is provided to assist in maintaining the doctor blade with a doctor blade holder.
In accordance with another embodiment, the invention provides a doctor blade holder system including a doctor blade holder, a top plate, and a doctor blade that includes a polymeric shaped feature thereon that is provided to assist in maintaining the doctor blade between the doctor blade holder and the top plate.
In accordance with a further embodiment, the invention provides a method of providing a doctor blade comprising the steps applying at least one shaped feature that is formed of a polymeric material onto a surface of the doctor blade, wherein the at least one shaped feature is provided to assist in maintaining the doctor blade with a doctor blade holder.
The following description may be further understood with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
The drawings are shown for illustrative purposes only.
This invention overcomes the problems currently associated with conventional types of doctor blade retention means. The embodiments of the present invention eliminate the need to punch, rivet, countersink and clip doctor blades and has the potential to transform blade finishing.
In accordance with various embodiments, the invention provides for dispensing a polymeric material onto a blade in a controlled manner to give a pre-determined size of droplet or line that quickly sets or cures, creating a stable protuberance on the blade surface. As seen in
The blade retention features of various embodiments of the invention can be located in three main configurations. As seen in
In
As shown in
The protuberances can be shaped in a variety of ways.
As shown in
The material used for the protuberances generally has less resiliency than the spring clips of the prior art, which makes installation of the blades from the front by compressing the protuberances between the top plate and lower jaw undesirable, as the tolerances would be fairly important to ensure the blade stayed in the blade holder. One installation option is shown in
Alternatively, as shown in
The protuberances can be applied to the blades in a variety of manners. As shown in
Another method of application, as shown in
As seen in
Various materials can be chosen to provide desirable properties. For example, a UV curable polymeric material can be cured quickly under a UV bulb as a curing device. The method involves the UV curable polymer being deposited or dispensed onto a blade in a predetermined size or shape. This is then repeated along the length of the individual blade, series of joined blades or a coil of blade material, with the polymeric material being cured in seconds under a UV emitting lamp. Alternatively, a molten thermoplastic resin could be used that hardens on cooling. A further option would be to use an LED light curable polymeric material, whilst fusing a thermoplastic preform, in the shape of a retention aid, onto a blade provides a further way of achieving the same result.
A typical resin to use would be a modified acrylic resin, particularly a one-component high speed curing resin, a high performance thermoplastic resin or a snap-cure resin. The resin must have the ability to form a very strong bond to the doctor blade surface, have operational temperature capability, for example to 150° C., have sufficient viscosity to hold its shape prior to curing, to cure or set quickly and have both toughness and durability when exposed to water, caustic or acidic solutions, and otherwise harsh conditions.
The cured polymeric protuberances are typically 0.125 to 0.500 inches wide and 0.020 to 0.250 inches in height. The cured polymeric elongated shapes are typically 0.125 to 0.500 inches wide, 0.020 to 0.250 inches in height with a length that is 1 to 50 times its width, or continuous along the full length of the blade.
Joined blades include both lengths of blade material mechanically joined together and a single length of blade material with perforations or scored joints that can be easily snapped or broken to produce individual blade lengths after processing.
Important benefits of the invention are that it would eliminate expensive labor intensive punching and standard riveting from the production process and would result in a simpler, faster and significantly more efficient operation that could be applied to both paper and industrial doctor blade applications. It would also provide a clean dry method of applying doctor blade retention aids that would be free from dust. In addition, the invention eliminates the potential of any detrimental crack propagation or delamination originating from punched holes. A further benefit is that polymeric rivets would be less damaging to roll covers or machine felts and fabrics when compared to traditional metal rivets in the event of a rivet coming off or out of the blade.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that numerous variations and modifications may be made to the above disclosed embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
The present application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/725,459 filed Aug. 31, 2018 as well as to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/730,302 filed Sep. 12, 2018, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/US2019/049188 | 8/30/2019 | WO | 00 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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62725459 | Aug 2018 | US | |
62730302 | Sep 2018 | US |