This disclosure relates to the general field of mercantile storage and display, and in particular, to the storage and display of industrial endless belts such as so-called “V-belts.”
Industrial machines and devices such as, but not limited to, automobiles, lawnmowers, washing machines, drill presses, tillers, snow blowers, compressors, pumps, saws, conveyor systems, crushers, tree debarkers, combines, hay bines, unloaders, sprayers, etc., make widespread use of endless drive belts, such as so-called V-belts, to transmit various driving forces from one drive element to another. These endless industrial drive belts are manufactured in a vast variety of sizes, e.g., diameters, widths, and depths, depending on their intended use, such that a merchant who carries these belts often has a great deal of difficulty storing and displaying them in an organized and compact fashion.
Additionally, these belts 1 are often stored in a manner that causes them to be bent into an overly-tight curvature radius at various positions around their circumference, such as, but not limited to, when they are commonly packaged as shown in FIG. 1. These types of substantially asymmetric belt storage methods can cause belt to stretch unnaturally in certain regions (such as at the opposite end regions of
The prior art reveals a limited number of efforts to provide for the storage of endless drive belts, all of which are unsatisfactory in various way. U.S. Pat. No. 4,150,745, for example, illustrates a belt packaging tray. Although this tray appears to provide a compact means for shipping a plurality of endless drive belts, these belts are tightly and unnaturally wound in a way that can deform their natural shape. In particular, this tray causes some regions of the outer circumferences of these belts to be unnaturally bent with a concave curvature, such as in the region of
U.S. Pat. No. 3,942,637 similarly discloses an endless belt package which unnatural curvatures into the belts, and also, which wastes valuable space that might otherwise be used for compact and efficient belt storage, such as the spaces in
A related patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,162,009, is for packaging endless fabrics, rather than drive belts. However, if the teachings of this patent were applied to the non-analogous art area of drive belts, the unnaturally-tight bending illustrated in this patent, while perhaps suitable for fabrics, could again be damaging if applied to drive belts. Similarly, removal and replacement of any one fabric without disrupting the remaining fabrics appears to be impossible.
Also of background interest is U.S. Pat. No. 4,890,730, insofar as the device disclosed therein appears to be used to hold several different sizes of elastic bands such as rubber bands.
However, none of these references addresses the fundamental concern of compactly storing and displaying a large variety of endless drive belts in a systematic, organized manner, for mercantile use, without introducing unnatural and possibly-deforming bends into these belts.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a system, apparatus and method that enables drive belts of a wide range of sizes to be easily and compactly stored in an organized manner.
It is further desirable for the same system, apparatus and method that stores these endless drive belts to also be usable to display these belts without having to remove the belts from storage, thereby enabling a drive belt merchant to easily convert between the storage and the display of his or her drive belts.
It is further desirable to enable individual drive belts to be removed from storage or display, and later replaced back into storage or display, easily, quickly, and without disrupting the remaining belts which are not removed.
It is further desirable to ensure that drive belts are stored and displayed in a manner that does not cause unnatural bending, either by bending the outer circumference of the belts concavely, or by bending the outer circumference of the belts convexly with a curvature radius that exceeds their natural radius of curvature by more than 2 to 1, or 3 to 1, or 4 to 1, or 5 to 1, or, at the outer limit, 6 to 1.
It is further desirable for drive belts to be stored in a way that enables identifying labels on the sides of these belts to be easily viewed while the belts are in storage.
It is further desirable to ensure that drive belts are stored in an environment where they are protected from exposure to elements such as dust and sunlight.
An endless drive belt storage and display module enables a plurality of endless drive belts of different sizes to be placed circumferentially, one inside the other, in a way that makes optimal use of available space, causes minimal belt bending, enables easy removal and replacement of any given belt, maintains organization among the belts placed therein, and protects the belts from exposure to elements such as dust and sunlight.
The features of the invention believed to be novel are set forth in the appended claims. The invention, however, together with further objects and advantages thereof, may best be understood by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing(s), as follows.
As noted above, endless drive belts are manufactured in many different sizes. It is helpful, therefore, to begin by surveying the range of size and related characteristics common to endless drive belts, since this provides a basis for understanding the mercantile storage and display requirements for these belts, and for developing a suitable system, apparatus and method for the maintenance defined herein as the storage and/or display of such endless drive belts.
In its natural shape, an endless drive belt 1 is fully circular, as illustrated toward the right hand side of FIG. 2. The radius R, 21, is by common practice defined as the distance from the center of endless drive belt 1 to the outer (not inner) circumferential surface of endless drive belt 1, as illustrated. The circumference C of the outer circumferential surface of endless drive belt 1 is related in the expected manner to the radius by:
C=2π·R (1)
The size of an endless drive belt 1 is characterized by common practice in the art according to the outer circumference C of endless drive belt 1, and also, according to the outer circumference width W, 22, of endless drive belt 1, as shown in the exploded sectional view of FIG. 2. Focusing for a moment on width 22, it is common practice to refer to belts broadly, for example, as 2L, 3L, 4L, and 5L, wherein the numbered prefix represents the width 22 of endless drive belt 1 in eighths of an inch. Thus, a 5L belt, for example, has a width 22 of ⅝ inch.
The other important parameter is the thickness T, 23 of endless drive belt 1 . While there is not an exact relationship between width W, 22 and thickness T, 23 in all cases, there is a fair correlation insofar as wider belts such as 4L and 5L tend to also be proportionately thicker than narrower belts such as 2L and 3L. This correlation is helpful in designing a suitable storage and display system, apparatus and method for such endless drive belts 1.
Finally, it is to be noted that the “V” in the belt is generally manufactured at a given V-angle 24. A V-angle 24 of 30 degrees, which is quite common in the art, is illustrated. Another common V-angle 24 is 40 degrees, not illustrated here. The storage of belts of any V-angle 24, including but not limited to the 30 and 40 degree V-angles 24 most widely practiced in the at, is fully considered within the scope of this disclosure and its associated claims.
It is also helpful to observe that while the “V” cross-sectional profile shown for endless drive belt 1 in FIG. 2 and also replicated in
While discussion to follow will utilize 2L, 3L, 4L and 5L width endless drive belts 1 as examples in order to discuss belt storage and display generally, it is to be understood that the disclosure to follow applies equally well to any other width endless drive belts 1 that one might wish to consider, and that the storage and display of endless drive belts 1 other than the 2L, 3L, 4L and 5L width belts discussed here, using the system, device and method disclosed herein; is considered to be within the scope of this disclosure and its associated claims. This includes any other system of non-metric or metric belt size characterization used or which may become used In the art, including the A, B, C, D, E belt classification systems used in many locations outside of North America. Similarly, while this discussion will use ordinary, single-V (
In short, the discussion to follow will use a limited number of non-metric, single-V, 30 degree, 2L- through 5L-width, varying-circumference belts as examples, but this is simply for the purpose of illustrating applicant's invention, and should not be interpreted In any way to limit the sizes and types of endless drive belts 1 to which applicant's disclosure and its associated claims can be applied.
As now illustrated in
As illustrated In
At this point, we turn to examine more closely the manner in which endless drive belts 1 are typically distributed according to industry practice, to determine more specifically the organizational structures required for drive belt storage and display modules 6 in order to fully store and display a broad range of endless drive belts 1.
As noted above, endless drive belts 1 are typically classified according to their circumference C, and in non-metric systems, are generally manufactured in discrete 1 inch circumference intervals. Thus, for example, the most commonly-used 5L (=⅝ inch thick) belts 1 run from a 26 inch circumference up to a 120 inch circumference, one inch at a time. That is, for 5L belts, C=26, 27, 28, . . . 120 inches. For the most common 4L belts, C=15, 16, 17, . . . 100 inches. For the most common 3L belts, C=11, 12, 13, . . . 80 inches. And for the most common 2L belts, C=11, 12, 13, . . . 46 inches.
Because adjacent-circumference endless drive belts 1 differ from one another by 1 inch, the radii of two adjacent-circumference endless drive belts 1, using equation 1, will differ from one another by:
ΔR=(C+1)/2π−C/2π=½π≅0.159 inches (2)
Thus, if the thickness T of two adjacent-circumference endless drive belts 1 is much over about 0.15 inches, it will not be possible to store two adjacent-circumference endless drive belts 1 circumferentially within one another. Instead, it will be necessary to skip over intermediate sizes and use two drive belt storage and display modules 6, one for “even” circumference belts, and one for “odd” circumference belts. Similarly, if the thickness T of two adjacent-circumference endless drive belts 1 is much over about 0.3 inches =2×0.15 inches, then it will be necessary to use three drive belt storage and display modules 6 for every third size. If the thickness T of two adjacent-circumference endless drive belts 1 is much over about 0.45 inches =3×0.15 inches, then four drive belt storage and display modules 6. Five drive belt storage and display modules 6would be needed for T>about 0.6 inches. And so on.
Applicant, in surveying the commonly-manufactured endless drive belts 1, has observed that the thickness T of 5L belts is always less than 0.6 inches, but can be greater than 0.45 inches. So four drive belt storage and display modules 6 are required to store all circumferences of 5L belts, with adjacently-stored endless drive belts 1 within any one belt storage and display module 6 differing from one another by 4 inches in circumference, and hence by radius R≅0.637 inches. Similarly, the thickness T of 4L belts is always less than 0.45 inches, but can be greater than 0.3 inches. So three drive belt storage and display modules 6 are required to store all circumferences of 4L belts, with adjacently-stored endless drive belts 1 within any one belt storage and display module 6differing from one another by 3 inches in circumference, and hence by radius R≅0.478 inches. The thickness T of 3L belts is always less than 0.3 inches, but can be greater than 0.15 inches. So two drive belt storage and display modules 6 are required to store all circumferences of 3L belts, with adjacently-stored endless drive belts 1 within any one belt storage and display module 6 differing from one another by 2 inches in circumference, and hence by radius R≅0.318 inches. Finally, in most instances, the thickness T of 2L belts is always less than 0.15 inches, but in some instances a 2L belt can slightly exceed 0.15 inches. Thus, it may be possible in some situations to store all circumferences of 2L belt in a single belt storage and display module 6, but in other instances, two belt storage and display modules 6 storing “even” and “odd” circumferences may be needed.
Thus, a total of 10 or 11 =4+3+2+(1 or 2) belt storage and display modules 6 are need to store and display all commonly-available circumferences of 5L, 4L, 3L, and 2L endless drive belts 1. To store and display more than one belt (N belts) of a given size and thickness, the minimum depth D of the drive belt guides 61 must be N×⅝ inches for 5L belts, N×½inches for 4L belts, N×⅜ inches for 3L belts, and N×¼ inches for 2L belts. Generally, to store and display N yL belts of identical circumferences, depth D must be:
D≧N×y/8 (3)
In the preferred embodiment, although not a requirement, each belt storage and display module 6 is fully removable from drive belt storage facility 8. In this manner, when storage display modules 6 reside within drive belt storage facility 8, these are storage devices, protecting their endless drive belts 1 from elements such as dust and sunlight. When storage display modules 6 are removed from drive belt storage facility 8, they can, for example, be hung on a wall or placed on a flat surface as a mercantile display. Importantly, the conversion from storage to display and back to storage is as simple as removing a drawer from a cabinet and later replacing it back into the cabinet, and does not at all disrupt the endless drive belts 1 themselves.
In the example illustrated in
Similarly, belt-storage and display modules 805, 806, and 807 comprise the three 4L storage and display modules 6, which, recall, are stored in three sets. Thus, module 805 comprises drive belt guides 61 suitable for placement of 4L belts with circumferences C=15, 18, 21, . . . 99 inches. Module 806 comprises drive belt guides 61 suitable for placement of 4L belts with circumferences C=16, 19, 22, . . . 100 inches. And, module 807 comprises drive belt guides 61 suitable for placement of 4L belts with circumferences C=17, 20, 23, . . . 98 inches.
Belt storage and display modules 808 and 809 comprise the two 3L storage and display modules 6, which, recall, are stored in two (“odd” and “even”) sets. Thus, module 808 comprises drive belt guides 61 suitable for placement of 3L belts with circumferences C=11, 13, 15, . . . 79 inches, and module 809 comprises drive belt guides 61 suitable for placement of 3L belts with circumferences C=10, 12, 14, . . . 80 inches.
Finally, belt storage and display modules 810, and 811 comprise the two 2L storage and display modules 6. Recall that 2L belts can in some instances be stored in a single drawer, but for this example, are to be stored in two (“odd” and “even”) sets. Thus, module 810 comprises drive belt guides 61 suitable for placement of 2L belts with circumferences C=11, 13, 15, . . . 45 inches, and module 811 comprises drive belt guides 61 suitable for placement of 3L belts with circumferences C=12, 14, 16, . . . 46 inches. (Note that this would actually require eighteen drive belt guides 61, but that to avoid overcrowding of the illustration, a lesser number of drive belt guides 61 are in fact illustrated.)
At this point, a number of generalizations can be made regarding the storage of endless drive belts 1 according to the device, system, and method disclosed thus far. While the belts discussed thus far differ from one another by circumferences of 1 inch, we generalize to the situation where the circumferences of adjacently-circumferenced belts differ from one another by a predetermined circumferential length δ, as represented in some system of linear measurement. We also generalize to the situation where it is desired to store a total of N (duplicate, identical) endless drive belts 1 for any given width W (22) and circumference C. And, we generalize to the situation where the belts of this given width W have a maximum thickness T (23), which, as noted earlier, will determined their required storage and display spacing as well as the number of belt storage and display modules 6 required to store and display belts of all available circumferences. Such a set of drive belts of given width W (22), maximum thickness T (23), and circumferential length difference δ will be referred to as a “drive belt set.”
First of all, it is easily generalized from eq. (2) that the radial difference ΔR between adjacently-circumferenced belts is:
ΔR=(C+δ)/2π−C/2π=δ/2π (4)
Next, it is deduced that the number, M, of belt storage and display modules 6 required to store all circumferences of these maximum thickness T belts is equal to:
M=int(T/ΔR)+1=int(2πT/δ)+1, (5)
where int(x) denotes the integer part of x.
Consequently, adjacently-stored belts within any given belt storage and display module 6 will differ from one another in circumference by:
ΔC=M·δ=δ[int(2πT/δ)+1]. (6a)
and in radius by:
M·ΔR=M·δ/2π (6b)
If the minimum belt circumference to be stored for a belt set of the given width W is Cmin and the maximum belt circumference to be stored for this same belt set of the given width W is Cmax (for the 5L example earlier given, Cmin=26 inches and Cmax=120 inches), than a first one of these M belt storage and display modules 6 will store belts ranging in size from Csmallest=Cmin to Clargest=Cmin+ΔC•x, by circumferential increments of ΔC, where x is the largest integer that can be chosen such that Clargest≦Cmax. If M>1, than a second one of these M belt storage and display modules 6 will store belts ranging in size from Csmallest=Cmin+δ to Clargest=Cmin+δ+ΔC•x, by circumferential increments of ΔC, where x is the largest integer that can be chosen such that Clargest≦Cmax. Any additional belt storage and display modules 6, if necessary, will store belts ranging in size from Csmallest=Cmin+z·δ to Clargest=Cmin+z·δ+ΔC•x, by ΔC, where x is the largest integer that can be chosen such that Clargest≦Cmax, and where z=2, 3, . . . M−1.
Thus, for any given one of these M belt storage and display modules 6, if the minimum belt circumference to be stored in that module 6 is Csmallest and the maximum belt circumference to be stored in that module 6 is Clargest, then the total number T of differently-circumferenced belts stored within that belt storage and display module 6 will be given by:
T=(Csmallest−Clargest)/M+1. (7)
In other words, one provides a total of at least M=int(2πT/δ)+1 drive belt storage and display modules to maintain and display a drive belt set. One then maintains every Mth-circumferenced drive belt from among a first subset of the drive belt set so as to be adjacently-circumferenced within a given one of the drive belt storage and display modules, and maintains every Mth-circumferenced drive belt from among M−1 additional, alternately-circumferenced subsets of the drive belt set so as to be adjacently-circumferenced within the further M−1 of the drive belt storage and display modules.
Finally, as noted in eq. (3) above, the storage and display depth D (80) of the associated belt storage and display module 6, and particularly of its associated drive belt guides 61, must be:
D≧N×W. (8)
We turn at this point to examine several other preferred embodiments for belt storage and display modules 6 and their associated drive belt guides 61.
Recall that in
In
The belt storage and display module 6 of
First, it was noted earlier (see eqs. 3 and 8 and the associated discussion) that it my be desirable to store several belts of each width and circumference, i.e., to store duplicate belts. Belt layer divider 9, which is an optional element, assists in doing this. In particular, a bottom layer of endless drive belts 1 is placed directly in the bottom surface of belt storage and display module 6, and then a belt layer divider 9 is placed atop this bottom layer of belts. Then, a next layer of endless drive belts 1 is placed atop belt layer divider 9. If desired, a second belt layer divider 9 may then be placed upon this second layer of endless drive belts 1 and then a third layer of endless drive belts 1 stacked thereon yet again, and so on for yet additional drive belt layers. This helps keep the belt layers neatly stacked.
Next, as was noted earlier, the line drawn on the top of each drive belt guides 61 in
Next, we turn to belt label display enhancer 101. It is customary for a given endless drive belt 1 to be labeled with identifying information about that belt, on the outer circumferential surface of the belt. When multiple belts are stored and displayed circumferentially within one another such as shown in
Finally, it is to be observed from
In all cases, belts of different circumference are circumferentially stored within one another, which is to be interpreted simply as meaning that smaller-circumference belts are stored within the circumference of wider-circumference belts, with no other limitation. These belts can also be stored circularly, as in
While only certain preferred features of the invention have been illustrated and described, many modifications and changes will occur to those skilled in the art. It is, therefore, to be understood that the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications and changes as fall within the true spirit of the invention.
This application is a divisional of application Ser. No. 09/721,595 filed Nov. 22, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,520,325 issued Feb. 18, 2003, which is incorporated herein by reference. The claims presented herein are drawn to non-elected invention II as set forth in the Mar. 22, 2002 office action for Ser. No. 09/721,595. This non-elected invention was classified according to said office action in class 53, subclass 474.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20030097822 A1 | May 2003 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 09721595 | Nov 2000 | US |
Child | 10248672 | US |