1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a nail feeding device of a nail rolling machine, and more particularly, to a nail feeding device of a nail rolling machine in which a worm screw having a drive device is installed at an entrance of a rolling zone (i.e. a nail rolling zone) and serves to rapidly and accurately input nails, fed from an inclined chute, into the rolling zone, resulting in a considerable enhancement in the productivity and quality of the nail rolling machine.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a screw shank nail 5a as illustrated in FIG. is used in hard woods, and a ring shank nail 5b as illustrated in
Referring to
Accordingly, if the nail 5 slides down along an inclined chute 7 and is introduced into an entrance 6a of the rolling zone 6 by means of a finger 8, the nail 5 is rolled while being moved and rotated along the rolling zone 6 via rotation of the ring dies 3 and after completion of rolling, is discharged from an exit 6b. The resulting nail 5 may be provided at an outer circumferential surface thereof with the plurality of screws 5c or the plurality of rings 5d by the processing blades formed respectively at the facing surfaces of the ring dies 3 and the segment dies 4.
In the case in which grooves 3b and 4b are respectively formed at partial portions of the ring dies 3 and the segment dies 4 (in other words, the processing blades 3a, 4a and 3d are not formed at the partial portions), the resulting nails are not provided at partial portions thereof with the screws 5c or the rings 5d, like the nails 5a and 5b as illustrated in the right side of
In the above described conventional nail rolling machine 1, the ring dies 3 and the segment dies 4 have a predetermined radius of curvature and therefore, the nail 5 is continuously oriented in an upright position while passing through the rolling zone 6. Additionally, a finger drive device is installed at a lateral portion of the ring dies 3 to allow the finger 8 to input the nails 5 fed from the inclined chute 7 into the entrance 6a of the rolling zone 6 one by one.
The finger drive device includes a cam 10 which is placed above the ring dies 3 so as to be rotated along with the ring dies 3, a wheel 11 which comes into contact with an outer surface of the cam 10, the finger 8 which is operated to input the nails 5 in a direction designated by the arrow A one by one, an actuating member 13 to which the finger 8 and the wheel 11 are secured, a shaft 12 which is coupled to the actuating member 13, and an elastic support member 14 which acts to push the actuating member 13 so as to cause the wheel 11 to come into contact with the cam 10. A stopper 15 is installed at the entrance 6a of the rolling zone 6 and is adapted to be moved forward or backward as designated by the arrow of
The rolling zone 6 needs a function of adjusting a distance (gap) according to a diameter of the nail 5. To this end, a fixing member 18, which is located at one end of the support member 9 of the segment dies 4, is provided with a gap regulator 16 and a pair of balancers 17, which serve to adjust the size of the rolling zone 6, i.e. a distance between the ring dies 3 and the segment dies 4.
The cam 10 is provided with a plurality of valleys 10a and peaks 10b alternately arranged throughout an outer circumferential surface thereof. When the wheel 11 is located at the top of any one peak 10b as illustrated in
Due to the fact that the finger 8 has low productivity and reliability, the above described conventional nail rolling machine 1 has several problems in that excessive operating noise occurs when the nail 5 is introduced into the rolling zone 6 and in that the nail 5 may fail to be accurately introduced into the entrance 6a due to shock, vibration and the like. Moreover, high speed operation may shorten the lifespan of the finger 8. When replacing the finger 8, which seems no longer of any use, with a new finger, setting the new finger to perform a normal operation may require considerable time, up to several hours, which results in a considerable deterioration in productivity. In addition, even the stopper 15 may exhibit several problems, such as frequently preventing the nail 5 from entering the rolling zone 6.
There are Patent documents, such as, Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-0001423 (published on Aug. 26, 1979) entitled “Nail Making Machine”, Korean Utility Model Registration No. 20-0240588 (published on Sep. 26, 2001) entitled “Apparatus for Manufacturing Round Cap Nail”, and Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0675344 (published on Jan. 30, 2007) entitled “Apparatus for Successively Manufacturing Tacker Nail”.
Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a nail feeding device of a nail rolling machine in which a worm screw (or a ball screw) having a drive device is provided to ensure that nails are rapidly and accurately input into a rolling zone one by one for the sake of successful rolling thereof.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a nail feeding device of a nail rolling machine in which a nail guide member is installed below a worm screw to assist nails in being sequentially introduced into a rolling zone in a vertically aligned state without a risk that lower ends of the nails cross each other.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a nail feeding device of a nail rolling machine in which a lifting restrainer is installed to an inclined chute at a position above the worm screw so as to prevent heads of nails from being lifted.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, the above and other objects can be accomplished by the provision of a nail feeding device of a nail rolling machine in which a worm screw (or a ball screw), which is easy to set and has high productivity and reliability, is installed at an entrance of a rolling zone to rapidly and accurately input nails, fed from an inclined chute, into the rolling zone, thereby achieving a considerable enhancement in productivity and quality.
The worm screw may have a drive device associated with a controller. Also, the worm screw may be provided throughout an outer surface (i.e. an outer circumferential surface) thereof with a spiral protruding ridge and a spiral groove arranged by a predetermined interval or pitch, so as to assist the nails in being accurately moved into the rolling zone. In addition to the controller, an RPM sensing device may be provided to sense revolutions per minute of the worm screw and input the sensed result to the controller, so as to ensure that the rate of rotation (or the rotating speed) of the worm screw is precisely controlled.
A lifting restrainer may be installed to the inclined chute at a position above the worm screw and serve to prevent heads of the nails from being lifted.
The spiral protruding ridge and the spiral groove of the worm screw may be formed in a direction to move and input the nails to the entrance of the rolling zone. The worm screw may have a vertical tip end surface to prevent backward movement of the nails introduced into the rolling zone, which makes it unnecessary to provide a stopper and ensures that the nails are kept vertical.
A nail guide member may be installed below the worm screw to assist the nails in being sequentially introduced into the rolling zone while being kept in a vertically aligned state without a risk that lower ends of the nails cross each other.
The above and other objects, features and other advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
In the drawings, the same or similar elements are denoted by the same reference numerals even though they are depicted in different drawings. In the following description of the present invention, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention rather unclear. Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The nail feeding device of the nail rolling machine 20 according to the present invention basically includes the ring dies 3 adapted to be rotated by a drive device, the segment dies 4 and the segment dies support member 9 coupled to one side of the ring dies 3 so as to face each other, the rolling zone 6 defined between the ring dies 3 and the segment dies 4, the inclined chute 7 extending to the entrance 6a of the rolling zone 6, and the gap regulator 16, the balancers 17 and the fixing member 18 which serve to adjust a distance (or gap) of the rolling zone 6 according to the diameter of the nails 5, similar to the previously described conventional nail rolling machine 1. The present invention has a feature in that a worm screw 22 having a drive device is installed at the entrance 6a of the rolling zone 6, which ensures that the nails 5 can be accurately and rapidly introduced into the rolling zone 6 one by one and then, discharged from the rolling zone 6 after completion of rolling. The worm screw 22 is provided throughout an outer circumferential surface 22d thereof with a spiral protruding ridge 22a and a spiral groove 22b in such a way that the spiral protruding ridge 22a and the spiral groove 22b alternate with each other by a predetermined interval or pitch, so as to assist the nails 5 in entering the rolling zone 6 at a constant speed.
The drive device of the worm screw 22, as illustrated in
The anti-overload mechanism, which is coupled to the timing pulley 28, includes a lining 31 which comes into contact with one surface of the timing pulley 28, a shoe 32 connected to the rotating shaft of the motor 26, an additional lining 33 which comes into contact with the other surface of the timing pulley 28, a shoe 35 which comes into contact with the lining 33, and an elastic spring 37 accommodated in a spring housing 39 to elastically support the shoe 35.
Through provision of the worm screw 22, in the case in which the nails 5 are not introduced, or overload is applied to the worm screw 22 due to introduction of defective nails and the like, the timing pulley 28 may perform a slip motion to prevent transmission of rotational power to the worm screw 22 even if the motor 26 is continuously rotated. This may prevent breakage or damage to main components, such as the worm screw 22, the inclined chute 7, the ring dies 3, the segment dies 4 and the like.
The nails 5, fed to the inclined chute 7, are adapted to slide down in an evenly linearly aligned state along a guide slot of the inclined chute 7. However, in the case in which new nails 5 are fed to the inclined chute 7 in a state in which all or almost all of the nails 5 fed to the inclined chute 7 were used, some of the nails 5 sliding down along the guide slot may collide with stationary nails, which may cause the nails 5 to be separated from the inclined chute 7 or heads of the nails 5 to be lifted and overlap each other. Consequently, accurate feeding of the nails 5 may be impossible.
To solve the above described problem, according to the present invention, as illustrated in
In the present invention, if the worm screw 22 is rotated by the drive device, the nail 5 fed from the inclined chute 7 is first moved forward along the spiral groove 22b and then, is accurately and rapidly introduced into the entrance 6a of the rolling zone 6. The nail 5 having passed through the entrance 6a is moved toward the exit 6b of the rolling zone 6 while being rotated along with the ring dies 3 via rotation of the ring dies 3. Thereby, the nail 5 is rolled under cooperation between the ring dies 3 and the segment dies 4 and after completion of rolling, is discharged from the exit 6b. In the present invention, the worm screw 22 has a vertical tip end surface 22c to prevent the nail 5 introduced into the rolling zone 6 from moving backward, which enables elimination of a stopper that has conventionally been provided to prevent backward movement of the nail 5.
A controller 24 is provided to control a rotating speed of the motor 26. The worm screw 22 is rotated in a given direction to move an object to be processed, i.e. the nail 5 forward toward the entrance 6a. Specifically, a rotating direction of the worm screw 22 is changeable according to a winding direction of the spiral protruding ridge 22a and the spiral groove 22b formed at the worm screw 22 (i.e. a clockwise direction or a counterclockwise direction).
An RPM sensing device is provided to sense revolutions per minute (RPM) of the worm screw 22 and input the sensed result to the controller 24, which enables control of the rate of rotation of the worm screw 22. Specifically, a sensing object 50 is installed at a position where the sensing object 50 does not interfere with movement of the nail 5, for example, at one end of the shaft 19 of the worm screw 22 or at one end of the timing pulley 34 as illustrated in
Although the spiral protruding ridge 22a formed at the worm screw 22 according to the present invention has an inclined surface, the nail 5 is kept vertical when introduced into the entrance 6a since the tip end surface (or a distal end surface) 22c of the worm screw 22 is a vertical surface as illustrated in
In the present invention, when moved forward along the spiral groove 22b, the nail 5 is centrally supported by the spiral groove 22b.
In the present invention, for the sake of smooth introduction of the nail 5, an air injection nozzle 54 may be installed at the entrance 6a of the rolling zone 6 as illustrated in
Although an injection pressure of the air injection nozzle 54 is variable according to the size or type of the nails 5 and a rolling environment, it is preferable that the injection pressure be in the range of 1 kg/cm2 to 5 kg/cm2. The air injection nozzle 54 is installed in an angle adjustable manner, such that an injection direction thereof can be adjusted according to the size or length of the nails 5. The air injection nozzle 54 is preferably installed to face the entrance 6a of the rolling zone 6 and an air injection position of the air injection nozzle 54 is preferably slightly higher than the center of the length of the nail 5.
The nail 5, which is moved along the rolling zone 6 via rotation of the ring dies 3, is kept vertical during rolling as well as when discharged from the rolling zone 6 owing to a predetermined radius of curvature of the ring dies 3 and the segment dies 4. As illustrated in
For example, the nail 5a provided with the screws 5c as illustrated in
The guide member 60 includes a fixing portion 62 fastened to a block 78 using a bolt 74, a through-hole 64 perforated in the fixing portion 62 for penetration of the bolt 74, a horizontal portion 66 formed at the top of the fixing portion 62, a connecting portion 68 formed at a distal end of the horizontal portion 66, a planar portion 72 formed at an outer surface of the connecting portion 68 to assist the nails 5 in being aligned when introduced into the rolling zone 6 by the worm screw 22, and a recess 70 indented in an upper surface of the connecting portion 68 so as to be located close to the worm screw 22.
The guide member 60 is secured to the block 78 as the bolt 78 is fastened into the through-hole 64. A shaft support portion 80 of the worm screw 22 is also bolted to the block 78. As a horizontal protrusion formed at the guide member 60 is fitted into a horizontal groove 76 formed at the block 78, the guide member 60 can be immovably fixed.
The planar portion 72 of the guide member 60 extends parallel to a longitudinal direction of the worm screw 22, and the recess 70 indented in the upper surface of the guide member 60 is located close to the worm screw 22 so as not to come into contact with the worm screw 22. This configuration may prevent friction between the guide member 60 and the worm screw 22 as well as unnecessary movement of the nail 5.
Unlike conventional rolling machines which have a risk of unwanted stoppage due to overload applied thereto when the lower ends of the nails 5 cross or overlap each other due to impurities adhered to surfaces of the nails, air current and the like, according to the present invention, the nails 5 can be aligned by coming into contact with the planar portion 72 of the guide member 60 when introduced into the rolling zone 6 by the worm screw 22, which prevents the lower ends of the nails 5 from crossing or overlapping each other and consequently, prevents overload from being applied to the nails 5 upon introduction.
According to the present invention, by using the worm screw 22 (or a ball screw) having the controller 24 and the drive device instead of the finger 8 and the finger drive device that have been conventionally used to input the nail 5 into the entrance 6a of the rolling zone 6, a considerable enhancement in the productivity and quality of the rolled nails 5a and 5b can be accomplished.
Comparing productivity, the previously described conventional nail rolling machine 1, which is configured to input the nail 5 using the finger 8, processes about 1200 nails per minute, whereas the nail rolling machine 20 of the present invention, which is configured to input the nail 5 using the worm screw 22, can process about 3000 nails per minute. Of course, when the rotating speed of the worm screw 22 is further enhanced by the controller 24, productivity can be further enhanced without deterioration in quality.
In the drawings, reference numeral 3c designates a hollow of the ring dies 3, reference numeral 21 designates a nail feeding vessel, reference numeral 23 designates a chute to discharge rolled nails, reference numeral 22a designates a shaft hole of the worm screw 22, and reference numeral 22f designates a screw hole to fix the worm screw 22.
As is apparent from the above description, the present invention provides a nail feeding device of a nail rolling machine in which a worm screw serves to rapidly and accurately input (feed) nails, fed from an inclined chute, into a rolling zone one by one, which results in a considerable enhancement in the productivity and rolling quality of the nail rolling machine.
Further, the nail rolling machine according to the present invention has a simplified configuration and is easy to set after installation.
Furthermore, according to the present invention, a lifting restrainer is installed to the inclined chute at a position above the worm screw, which can prevent heads of nails from being lifted.
In addition, according to the present invention, a nail guide member is installed below the worm screw and serves to assist the nails in being sequentially introduced, in a vertically aligned state, into the rolling zone without a risk that lower ends of the nails cross each other.
Although the exemplary embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art will appreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions are possible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention as disclosed in the accompanying claims.