Patent Application
20150321874
The present invention relates to a traverse device and a traverse method for winding wires (wire materials) including metal wires such as steel cords, bead wires, and wires for piston rings, coated wires such as electric cables, and other wires such as ropes on a reel by regular winding.
As a method for winding a wire on a reel, the following method is conventionally known: a wire is guided to a reel body via a guide roller (traverse guide roller) placed at a distance radially from the reel body so as not to interfere with a reel flange, and wound by rotating the reel while moving the reel or the guide roller in the reel axis direction to move (traverse) the winding position. In this method, however, since there is a considerable distance between the wound surface on the outer circumference of the reel body and the guide roller, leeway occurs, resulting in that a deviation occurs between the movement of the winding position of the wire on the reel body and the movement of the reel or the guide roller. In particular, traverse adjustment at the reversal of the movement at both ends of the reel body is not easy, and thus the wound surface cannot be controlled. For this reason, when regular winding of a wire is attempted by this method, an intended wound surface is not obtained, but the wire piles up. Once it piles up to a given extent, the pile collapses, and this causes entanglement. Also, when cross winding is performed by this method, where the winding pitch is large, the influence of the leeway caused by the large distance between the wound surface and the guide roller on the finishing of the wound surface is comparatively small. In this case, however, since the reeled-out wire digs into space between lines of the wire, the wire tends to acquire flaws. Also, the winding thickness becomes large, forming voids within the wound wire. The articles tend to collapse during preparation for shipping, and this also causes entanglement and flaws.
When the distance between the wound surface and the guide roller is large, it is not possible to control the wound surface, failing to perform regular winding, as described above. In view of this, the following method is also considered: using a large-diameter disc-shaped guide roller, the outer edge of the roller is placed as close to the wound surface as possible, to wind the wire. According to this method, by bringing the roller outer edge as close to the wound surface as possible, the movement of the winding position of the wire on the reel body can be made to roughly coincide with the movement of the reel or the guide roller. In this method, however, when it is intended to wind the wire up to a reel flange border, the guide roller may collide against the reel flange because the reel flange has variations in machining accuracy and deformation. The reel deforms after many times of use. Also, since the reel is put into an oven together with the wire during annealing, deformation of the reel is unavoidable. For this reason, to avoid the collision, the setting of the traverse must be adjusted every winding task, and this takes time. If an allowance is given to the setting to avoid the collision, the approach to the flange border becomes loose, resulting in a shape of drum winding that is quite different from regular winding.
Also, as a method of permitting the wire to be wound up to the reel flange border while bringing the roller outer edge close to the wound surface, a method is proposed where the guide roller is placed so as to be inclinable in the reel axis direction relative to a rotational axis, as the rotation center, located at the roller outer edge on the side apart from the outer circumference of the reel body. At the time of traverse reversal near the flange border of the reel body at either end, the movement of the reel in the axis direction is stopped, and, while the guide roller is angled and inclined so that the roller outer edge comes close to the reel flange border on the reel side, the reel is rotated to wind the wire on the reel body at the flange border. At a midpoint position of the reel body, while the reel is moved continuously in the axis direction at a constant speed, the guide roller is angled so as to wind the wire on the reel body by one rotation at a time (see Patent Document 1, for example). According to this method, the guide roller is inclined at both ends of the reel body to enable winding of the wire up to the flange borders, and thus regular winding can be performed. In this method, however, not only at the time of traverse reversal, but also at the midpoint position of the reel body, it is necessary to move the rotational axis of the guide roller forward or backward with respect to the reel body, every time the guide roller is angled, in response to the inclination so as to ensure that the guide roller is not apart from the reel, and this makes the control complicated. Also, when the guide roller is inclined, the pitch of the traverse changes when the reel moves at a constant speed, for example. For this reason, in order to keep the pitch of the traverse constant, pitch adjustment is necessary for the reel or the guide roller every time the guide roller is angled. This control is complicated and costly.
The following method has also been considered. As in the above method, the guide roller is placed so as to be inclinable in the reel axis direction relative to the rotational axis, as the rotation center, located at the roller outer edge on the side apart from the outer circumference of the reel body, and the roller outer edge is inclined to be close to the reel flange located ahead in the traverse direction on the side near the reel body. In this method, however, the inclining direction of the guide roller is switched to the opposite direction at the midpoint position of the reel body, and the guide roller is inclined at all times except for this switching time. With the guide roller kept inclined in this way, while the reel, for example, is moved in the axis direction for traverse, the reel is rotated to wind the wire thereon. According to this method, where traverse is performed with the guide roller kept inclined, it is unnecessary to move the guide roller forward or backward in response to the inclination of the guide roller. Also, since the inclining direction of the guide roller does not change during one back and forth traverse motion, control of the pitch adjustment is comparatively easy. However, in this case, also, the inclining direction of the guide roller is switched for every back and forth traverse motion, and at this switching, the guide roller rotates around the rotation center located at the roller outer edge on the side apart from the outer circumference of the reel body. Therefore, the winding position of the wire to be wound on the reel body is slightly deviated in the reel axis direction, changing the traverse pitch. For this reason, in order to keep the pitch constant, control of moving the reel or the guide roller in the reel axis direction is necessary, which is not easy.
To address the above problem, the present applicant focused attention on a traverse device and method as follows, and filed an application for a patent previously (Japanese Patent Application No. 2011-210616). As in the above methods, the guide roller is made inclinable in the reel axis direction so that the roller outer edge is inclined in a direction toward the reel flange located ahead in the traverse direction on the side near the reel body. In this case, however, the rotation center for the inclination of the guide roller is located at the outer edge on the side near the outer circumference of the reel body. The inclining direction of the guide roller is switched at the midpoint position of the reel body, and the traverse is performed with the guide roller kept inclined. Using this technique, the winding position is hardly deviated at the switching of the inclining direction, and thus the pitch of the traverse can be kept roughly constant.
[Patent Document 1] JP 2001-180866A
As described above, in the prior art, since the distance between the wound surface on the reel and the guide roller is large, the wound surface cannot be controlled. Also, since the guide roller may possibly collide against the reel flanges at the time of traverse reversal, regular winding of a wire cannot be performed, and the wire tends to have entanglement and flaws at the flange borders. In the method of winding the wire up to each flange border while angling the guide roller, it is necessary to provide the control of moving the guide roller toward or away from the reel body every time the guide roller is angled, and this control is complicated and costly. Also, in the method of inclining the guide roller at all times and switching the inclining direction at the midpoint position of the traverse, the rotation center for the inclination of the guide roller is set at the outer edge of the guide roller on the side near the outer circumference of the reel body. This makes it possible to prevent or reduce variations in traverse pitch due to a deviation of the winding position, and thus achieve regular winding of the wire under a simple control. In this method, however, the inclining direction of the guide roller must be switched to the opposite direction immediately at the midpoint position of the traverse, causing a large change in the inclination of the guide roller at this switching. This raises a possibility that the wire may be deviated in the width direction of the groove of the guide roller, and the wound surface may be uneven. Moreover, depending on the working conditions, the wire may come off from the guide roller.
An object of the invention is providing a traverse device and a traverse method capable of performing regular winding of a wire easily, inexpensively, and reliably.
A traverse device according to the invention is a traverse device for winding a wire, fed via a guide roller having a guide groove on its outer circumference, onto a reel by regular winding while moving a winding position of the wire with respect to the reel in a reel axis direction with movement of at least one of the guide roller and the reel, wherein the guide roller is placed near an outer circumference of a body of the reel, and is kept at an orientation where a roller radial center line crossing a reel axis is perpendicular to the reel axis at a position apart from a reel flange border, and inclined in a direction in which a roller outer edge goes away from a reel flange ahead in a traverse direction on the side apart from the reel body relative to a rotation center, as a fulcrum, located near the outer edge on the side near the outer circumference of the reel body at a position of the reel flange border.
In the above traverse device, the distance between the wound surface on the reel and the guide roller can be reduced over the entire area in the reel axis direction including the reel flange borders, and thus the wound surface can be controlled. Also, since the guide roller keeps its perpendicular orientation in an area other than the reel flange borders, the pitch of traverse can be held constant over a wide area in the reel axis direction. At the reel flange borders, by inclining the guide roller, the wire can be wound up to the ends of the reel body while avoiding contact with the reel flanges. At this time, by inclining the guide roller relative to the rotation center, as the fulcrum, located near the roller outer edge on the side near the outer circumference of the reel body, the wire is prevented from largely deviating in the width direction of the guide groove, and thus the traverse pitch can be kept roughly constant. The motion of the guide roller of inclining at the reel flange borders is a motion from the perpendicular state toward the inclined state, or the reverse of this, not involving an immediate large inclination to the opposite direction. Therefore, it is possible to prevent or reduce deviation of the wire in the width direction of the groove of the guide roller, thereby preventing or reducing unevenness of the wound surface, and also preventing or reducing the chance of the wire coming off the guide roller. Also, even if there are variations in machining precision, deformation due to repeated use, deformation at the time of heat treatment of the wire, etc. in the reel flange, the guide roller can be kept from contact with the reel flange. Thus, occurrence of entanglement and flaws due to stacking of the wire can be prevented, and even square wires and other oddly-formed wires such as I-shaped wires can be subjected to regular winding easily, inexpensively, and reliably.
In the above traverse device, in particular, the guide roller may be placed near an outer circumference of a body of the reel, and be kept at an orientation where a roller radial center line crossing a reel axis is perpendicular to the reel axis at a position where the distance between a roller end face and a reel flange exceeds a first distance in the reel axis direction, and gradually inclined, with the movement in the reel axis direction, in a direction in which a roller outer edge goes away from a reel flange ahead in a traverse direction on the side apart from the reel body relative to a rotation center, as a fulcrum, located near the outer edge on the side near the outer circumference of the reel body at a position where the distance between the roller end face and the reel flange does not exceed the first distance in the reel axis direction, so that the inclined angle of the roller radial center line to a direction perpendicular to the reel axis may become maximum at a position where the distance between the roller end face and the reel flange is a second distance that is smaller than the first distance in the reel axis direction. With this configuration, regular winding can be performed easily.
In the above traverse device, the first distance may be 10 to 50 mm, and the second distance may be 1 to 10 mm. By setting the first distance and the second distance as described above, regular winding can be performed smoothly and reliably. If the first distance is less than 10 mm, the inclining motion of the guide roller will be so sharp between the first position and the second position that the wire may possibly come off the guide roller. If the first distance exceeds 50 mm, the area where the guide roller is inclined will be unnecessarily large, increasing the possibility that the winding position may be deviated. If the second distance is less than 1 mm, there is a high possibility that the guide roller may come into contact with the reel flange in the case that the reel has undergone a deformation. Note however that, when the reel has undergone no deformation, it is preferable that the second distance be closer to 0 mm. If the second distance exceeds 10 mm, the state of the inclination of the guide roller being maximum will last long, causing a possibility that the control of the wound surface may become loose at the time of traverse reversal.
In the above traverse device, the distance between the roller outer edge and the wound surface on the outer circumference of the reel body may be in a range of more than 0 mm to 30 mm or less. With this setting, through accurate control of the winding position over a wide area in the reel axis direction, regular winding as intended can be performed. If the distance between the roller outer edge and the wound surface on the outer circumference of the reel body exceeds 30 mm, there is a possibility of failing to control the winding position accurately. It is advisable that this distance be reduced to a minimum as far as the roller outer edge is prevented from hitting the wound surface.
In the above traverse device, the width size of the guide groove of the guide roller may be the width size of the wire plus 0.1 to 0.50 mm. By setting the width size of the guide groove as described above, it is possible to prevent deviation of the wire while securing leeway in the groove width direction. Thus, through accurate control of the winding position, regular winding as intended can be performed. If the width size of the guide groove is less than the width size of the wire plus 0.1 mm, the leeway will decrease, and thus feeding of the wire will become less smooth, raising a possibility of occurrence of a flaw. If the width size of the guide groove exceeds the width size of the wire plus 0.50 mm, the wire will deviate in the width direction of the guide groove, raising a possibility of failing to control the winding position accurately.
A traverse method according to the invention uses the traverse device described above, and includes placing the guide roller near an outer circumference of a body of the reel, and keeping the guide roller at an orientation where a roller radial center line crossing a reel axis is perpendicular to the reel axis at a position apart from a reel flange border, and inclining the guide roller in a direction in which a roller outer edge goes away from a reel flange ahead in a traverse direction on the side apart from the reel body relative to a rotation center, as a fulcrum, located near the outer edge on the side near the outer circumference of the reel body at a position of the reel flange border. By this method, regular winding can be performed easily, inexpensively, and reliably.
As is apparent from the description described above, according to the invention, the distance between the wound surface on the reel and the guide roller can be reduced over the entire area in the reel axis direction including the reel flange borders. Also, the guide roller can be kept in its perpendicular position over a wide area, whereby the control of the wound surface is easy. In addition, by inclining the guide roller at the reel flange borders, the wire can be wound up to the ends of the reel body. At this time, it is possible to prevent or reduce deviation of the wire in the width direction of the groove of the guide roller, thereby preventing or reducing unevenness of the wound surface, and also preventing or reducing the chance of the wire coming off the guide roller. Even if there are variations in machining precision, deformation due to repeated use, deformation at the time of heat treatment of the wire, etc. in the reel flange, the guide roller can be kept from contact with the reel flange. Thus, occurrence of entanglement and flaws due to stacking of the wire can be prevented, and even square wires and other oddly-formed wires such as I-shaped wires can be subjected to regular winding easily, inexpensively, and reliably.
The guide roller 2 is rotatably supported, via a bearing 6, by a roller shaft 5 that is supported by the support arm 3, and placed at a position where the outer edge of the roller comes close to the outer circumference of the reel body 1a in the space between the reel flanges 1b on both sides of the reel 1, entering deep inside the reel flanges 1b in the reel radial direction, and is held at a position (in the reel radial direction) of a distance (D shown in
The support arm 3 is supported by the support block 4, and the support position is movable toward or away from a reel axis R with respect to the support block 4 by operating an adjusting handle 12.
The support block 4 is placed on a movable mount 11 that is movable along a linear guide rail (not shown) formed on a base (not shown) in a direction perpendicular to the reel axis direction (direction forward or backward with respect to the reel body 1a) using an air cylinder (not shown) for horizontal movement as the drive source. The support block 4 is thus movable, and by the movement of the support block 4 together with the movable mount 11 in the direction forward or backward with respect to the reel body 1a, the guide roller 2 moves in a direction in which the roller outer edge comes close to or goes away from the reel body 1a in the reel radial direction on the side near the reel 1.
The support block 4 is rotatable on the movable mount 11 along R guides (arc-shaped guide rails) 8 around the center of curvature of the R guides 8 as the rotation center using a servomotor 9 as the drive source. When the support block 4 rotates, the guide roller 2 inclines relative to the center of curvature of the R guides 8 as the rotation center C from the position (shown by the solid line in
The positional relationship between the guide roller 2 and the rotation center C (the center of curvature of the R guides 8) can be adjusted by the operation of the adjusting handle 12. By turning the adjusting handle 12 to move the support position of the support arm 3 on the support block 4, the position of the support arm 3 with respect to the center of curvature of the R guides 8 changes, and thus the position of the guide roller 2 supported by the support arm 3, i.e., the positional relationship between the guide roller 2 and the rotation center C changes.
In this traverse device, while the reel 1 is moved in the reel axis direction (up/down direction in
The rotation center C is set in the vicinity of the roller outer edge on the side near the outer circumference of the body of the reel 1, for example, using, as the reference, the center position in the width direction of the bottom surface of the guide groove 2a on the outer circumference of the guide roller 2 on the side near the reel axis R. The position of the rotation center C can be moved by the operation of the adjusting handle 12, and is adjustable according to the thickness of the wire to be wound, etc.
The operation of the guide roller 2 will be described in more detail with reference to
The outer edge of the guide roller 2 enters deep inside the reel flanges 1b in the reel radial direction and keeps a position (in the reel radial direction) of a distance (D shown in
When the guide roller 2 comes close to the reel flange 1b and reaches the position where the distance between the roller end face 2b and the reel flange 1b is the first distance in the range of 10 to 50 mm (e.g., 35 mm) (the position where the rotation center C is at point a in
When the distance between the roller end face and the reel flange 1b reaches the second distance (e.g., 5 mm) described above (the position where the rotation center C is at point b in
When the guide roller 2 passes beyond the position where the distance between the roller end face 2b and the reel flange 1b is the second distance (e.g., 5 mm) (the position where the rotation center C is at point b in
If the inclined angle θ of the guide roller 2 near the traverse reversal position (the position where the rotation center C is at point c in
In this traverse device, by the operation described above, the distance between the wound surface on the reel 1 and the guide roller 2 can be reduced over the entire area in the reel axis direction including the borders with the reel flanges 1b, permitting accurate control of the wound surface. Also, even if there are variations in machining precision, deformation due to repeated use, deformation at the time of heat treatment of the wire, etc. in the reel flanges 1b, the guide roller 2 is kept from contact with the reel flanges 1b, and thus occurrence of entanglement and flaws due to stacking of the wire T can be prevented. Thus, regular winding can be performed easily, inexpensively, and reliably.
The traverse device of this embodiment is suitable for regular winding of metal wires such as steel cords, bead wires, and wires for piston rings, coated wires such as electric cables, and other wires such as ropes. Not only round wires but also square wires and other oddly-formed wires such as I-shaped wires can be subjected to regular winding easily, inexpensively, and reliably.
It is advisable that the width size (a shown in
While the case of moving the reel 1 to perform the traverse was described in the above embodiment, the reel 1 may not be moved but the guide roller 2 may be moved in the reel axis direction, or both the reel 1 and the guide roller 2 may be moved to perform the traverse.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-139148 | Jun 2012 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2012/074053 | 9/20/2012 | WO | 00 |
