Information
-
Patent Grant
-
6386083
-
Patent Number
6,386,083
-
Date Filed
Thursday, December 23, 199925 years ago
-
Date Issued
Tuesday, May 14, 200222 years ago
-
Inventors
-
-
Examiners
- Peterson; Kenneth E.
- Choi; Stephen
Agents
-
CPC
-
US Classifications
Field of Search
US
- 083 788
- 083 801
- 083 808
- 083 809
- 083 813
- 083 820
- 083 6511
-
International Classifications
-
Abstract
A vertically movable foam sponge cutting apparatus includes a vertical cutting device disposed on a blade strip frame. The vertical cutting device can be moved left and right in a vertical state. In addition, the vertical cutting device includes an ascending/descending device which is controllably movable up and down to change the rigidity of the blade strip in a cutting operation area. A foam sponge is cut along vertical cutting lines on a working bench. Therefore, a greater cutting function is achieved and the power consumption is lowered.
Description
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a vertically movable foam sponge cutting apparatus, and more particularly to a foam sponge cutting apparatus in which the blade strip can be kept in a vertical state when moved left and right. In addition, the interval of the working section of the blade strip can be adjusted. The foam sponge or the like can be cut into products with various irregular or curved shapes. The cutting operation is facilitated and stabilized.
In a conventional foam sponge cutting apparatus, the interval of the working section of the blade strip is constant. Consequently, when cutting a hard foam sponge, the blade strip tends to deflect and cause unplane cutting face. This is because the interval of the working section of the blade strip is too large and thus the rigidity of the blade strip is insufficient. Therefore, the blade strip may be resiliently deformed to lead to unplane cutting face. Moreover, the cutting speed is slowed down. In addition, in cutting, when it is desired to change the position of the vertical blade strip, it is necessary to drive a control mechanism to shift the large and heavy structure body. This wastes a great amount of power. Also, the blade strip replacing device includes a rotary handle for adjusting a guide wheel. It is laborious to operate such rotary handle.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a vertically movable foam sponge cutting apparatus in which the blade strip can be moved left and right in a vertical state and the working bench is able to move the work piece so that the foam sponge can be cut into products with various irregular or curved shapes. Therefore, the cutting operation can be speeded to save cost.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide the above foam sponge cutting apparatus in which by means of an ascending/descending device, the interval of the working section of the vertical blade strip can be changed. Therefore, the cutting operation will not be deflected and the cutting operation is stabilized and the planarity of cutting face is enhanced.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide the above foam sponge cutting apparatus in which by means of the pulley unit, transmission mechanisms and guide rails, the movement of the blade strip can be accomplished by reversely synchronously sliding only a few elements. Therefore, it is no more necessary to ascend or descend the entire blade strip frame body and thus the power consumption is lowered.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide the above foam sponge cutting apparatus on which a horizontal cutting device can be mounted at the same time.
According to the above objects, the blade turning unit movement control mechanism makes the upper and lower seat bodies of the blade turning unit are respectively synchronously moved along the linear slide bars and the guide rails of the linear slide bar seats. The two pulleys disposed on the upper and lower linear slide bars are also synchronously moved along therewith to keep the working section of the blade strip moving left and right in a vertical state. In addition, an ascending/descending device is used to change the interval of the working section of the blade strip. The blade strip deflection rectifying mechanism is able to automatically detect and rectify the deflection of the blade strip. The working bench is reciprocally linearly moved back and forth and the positions of the foam sponge and blade strip on the plane are adjusted by means of numeral control so as to cut the foam sponge into products with various irregular or curved shapes. A driving member serves to push the guide wheel to loosen the blade strip for easy replacement thereof. Therefore, the vertical cutting operation is facilitated and stabilized and the power consumption is reduced and thus the cost is lowered.
The present invention can be best understood through the following description and accompanying drawings wherein:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1
is a perspective view of a first embodiment of the foam sponge cutting apparatus of the present invention;
FIG. 2
is a front assembled view of the vertical blade strip structure of the present invention in which the cover of the blade strip frame is opened;
FIG. 3
is a side view of the working bench of the present invention;
FIG. 4
is an enlarged view of the blade strip deflection rectifying mechanism of the present invention;
FIG. 5
is a perspective view of the blade strip deflection rectifying mechanism of the present invention;
FIG. 6
is a front assembled view of a second embodiment of the vertical blade strip structure of the present invention in which the cover of the blade strip frame is opened;
FIG. 7
a
shows the seat body of the second embodiment of the vertical cutting device of the present invention in a normal (not descended) state;
FIG. 7
b
shows the seat body of the second embodiment of the vertical cutting device of the present invention in a descended state;
FIG. 8
is a front assembled view of the horizontal blade strip structure of the present invention, in which the cover of the blade strip frame is opened;
FIG. 9
is a front assembled view of the horizontal blade strip structure of the present invention, in which the cover of the blade strip frame is opened and the horizontal cutting device includes an extensible driving device;
FIG. 10
shows the application of the present invention in one state; and
FIG. 11
shows the application of the present invention in another state.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Please refer to
FIGS. 1
to
3
. The present invention includes an apparatus body
10
and a blade strip frame
20
. A working bench
11
is mounted on the apparatus body
10
. A motor
13
is disposed under the working bench
11
and fitted with a toothed belt and wheel assembly
14
. Two ends of each of the front and rear sections of the working bench
11
are disposed with roller shafts
12
. The blade strip frame
20
is disposed with a vertical cutting device
16
(first embodiment). Each of the upper and lower beams of the vertical cutting device
16
is disposed with a linear slide bar
221
. A thread rod
31
is underlaid on lower side of the slide bar
221
. A guide rail
21
is disposed on upper side of slide bar
221
of the lower beam. The upper beam is disposed with a slide bar seat
22
the middle of which is a linear slide bar
221
. A thread rod
31
is underlaid on lower side of the slide bar
221
.
A blade turning unit
32
includes an upper and a lower blade seats. The upper blade seat is hung on the slide bar seat
22
and the lower blade seat is hung on the guide rail
21
. The upper and lower blade seats are respectively connected with the slide bars
221
.
Referring to
FIGS. 2 and 4
, a blade strip deflection rectifying mechanism
50
is disposed on the blade turning unit
32
. The blade holder
51
at front end is integrally connected with a first positive gear
52
for clamping a blade strip
90
. Two ends of the first positive gear
52
are respectively engaged with two positive gears
53
,
58
. A spiral rod
54
is engaged with upper side of the second positive gear
53
and a slide block
55
is disposed on the spiral rod
54
. A detector unit
56
is positioned beside the slide block
55
, including an upper detector A and a lower detector B. A third positive gear
58
is disposed at the output shaft of a servomotor
57
. As shown in
FIGS. 4 and 5
, when the blade face of the blade strip
90
is turned by a certain angle, the blade holder
51
is also turned by a certain angle to make the first positive gear
52
rotate and indirectly drive the adjacent second positive gear .
53
and the spiral rod
54
to rotate. Accordingly, the slide block
55
is vertically moved. When the turning angle of the blade strip
90
is responsive of the vertical moving height of the slide block and exceeds the allowed limit of the upper detector A or lower detector B, the detector unit
56
will detect this and immediately activate the servo motor
57
to operate forward or backward in time for driving the third positive gear
58
to rotate and drive the first positive gear
52
to rotate. Accordingly, the blade holder
51
can carry the blade strip
90
and rectify the deflection to a correct angle. Therefore, the detector unit is a safety device for automatically sensing and automatically rectifying the deflection.
Referring to
FIG. 2
, a guide wheel unit
40
includes a driving wheel
41
, two pulleys
43
,
47
and three guide wheels
44
,
45
,
46
. The driving wheel
41
is mounted on the lower beam of the blade strip frame
20
and connected with an output shaft of a motor. The lower blade seat pulley
43
is disposed under the lower blade seat of the blade turning unit
32
and positioned on the slide bar
221
and meshes with the thread rod
31
thereunder. The first and second guide wheels
44
,
45
are mounted at two ends of the upper beam. The upper edges of the two wheels are adjacent to the tangential position. The third guide wheel
46
has a smaller diameter and is disposed beside the second guide wheel
45
. The upper blade seat pulley
47
is disposed on the upper side of the slide bar
221
of the upper beam and meshes with the thread rod
31
thereunder. An oil cylinder
48
is horizontally disposed on outer side of the second guide wheel
45
and coupled therewith.
A blade strip
90
is wound over the driving wheel
41
and pulled upward to the first guide wheel
44
. Then the blade strip
90
is tangentially pulled to the second guide wheel
45
and further pulled to the third guide wheel
46
and then to the upper blade seat pulley
47
. The blade strip
90
vertically passes through the upper and lower blade seats and then is downward pulled to the lower blade seat pulley
43
. Finally, the blade strip is pulled back to the driving wheel
41
to form a circularly close winding space. The blade strip
90
includes a vertical working section X and other sections forming the circularly winding space.
The blade turning unit
32
is controlled by a movement control mechanism
93
. The output shaft end of a motor
23
via a toothed belt
25
and a toothed pulley
26
is coupled with a transmission shaft
24
. The upper and lower ends of the transmission shaft
24
are respectively vertically connected with the slide bars
221
and mesh with the thread rods
31
thereunder.
The ascending/descending device
15
includes a driving mechanism
92
on which the linear slide bar seat
22
is fitted. The driving mechanism
92
is driven by another motor
29
. The output shaft end of the other motor
29
via the toothed belt
25
and toothed pulley
26
is respectively coupled with a guide thread rod
30
. The guide thread rod
30
is screwed with a nut
222
of the slide bar seat
22
. The upper and lower ends of the guide thread rod are fitted with connecting rod bearing
28
. The top end is disposed with a toothed pulley
26
to respectively connect with two idle wheels
27
via the toothed belt
25
and further connect with the toothed pulley
26
at the top end of the guide thread rod
30
on the other side.
The present invention is characterized in that when the motor
23
outputs rotational power, the toothed belt
25
and the toothed pulley
26
are fitted with each other to drive the transmission shaft
24
to rotate. By means of the thread rods
31
under the respective linear slide bars
221
, the upper and lower seat bodies
33
of the blade turning unit
32
are respectively synchronously moved along the slide bar
221
and the guide rail
21
of the slide bar seats
22
. The upper blade seat pulley
47
and the lower blade seat pulley
43
are also guided by the thread rods
31
and synchronously reversely moved along therewith to keep the working section X of the blade strip
90
moving left and right in a vertical state. The motor
29
synchronously drives the guide thread rods
30
on two sides, whereby the slide bar seat
22
ascends/descends via the nuts
222
at two ends so as to change the interval of the working section X of the blade strip
90
.
When the motor drives the driving wheel
41
to rotate, the blade strip
90
is continuously revolved by means of the transmission of a guide wheel unit
40
so as to provide a cutting effect on the working bench
11
.
A pneumatic cylinder
48
pushes and displaces the second guide wheel
45
to change the circularly close winding space of the blade strip so as to loosen the blade strip
90
for replacement thereof.
FIGS. 6
,
7
a
and
7
b
show another embodiment of the vertical cutting device
17
of the present invention. The vertical cutting device
17
includes a blade turning unit movement control mechanism
94
including two guide rails
121
and a thread rod
122
disposed on each of the upper and lower beams. The output shaft end of a motor
123
via a toothed belt
125
and a toothed pulley
126
is coupled with a transmission shaft
124
. The transmission shaft
124
is fitted with multiple connecting rod bearings
128
. The upper and lower ends of the transmission shaft
124
are respectively vertically connected with the thread rods
122
. The blade turning unit
32
includes an upper and a lower blade seats. The seat bodies
133
,
134
of the upper and lower blade seats are respectively hung on the upper and lower guide rails
121
and connected with the thread rods
122
. The blade strip
90
is wound on the guide wheel unit
40
to form a close winding line with a fixed length. The blade strip
90
includes a vertical working section X and other sections forming the circularly winding line, whereby the vertical cutting device
17
can be moved left and right with the blade strip kept vertical. The ascending/descending device
15
is such that a separable seat body
133
is hung on the guide rails
121
and the thread rod
122
disposed on the upper beam of the blade strip frame
20
. The seat body
133
includes an upper seat section
331
at upper end and a lower seat section
332
at lower end. The upper seat section
331
is fixed with a front end of a pneumatic cylinder
160
. The vertical lower seat section
332
is locked with an extensible stem
161
of rear end of the pneumatic cylinder
160
. Two connecting rods
162
are screwed and fixed on two sides of the lower seat section
332
and vertically fitted with the upper seat section
331
. An electric wire
170
is connected between the upper and lower seat sections, whereby the seat body
133
can ascend or descend to change the interval of the working section X of the blade strip.
In addition to the above vertical cutting device
16
, the other side of the blade strip frame
20
can be disposed with a horizontal cutting device
18
. The components of the horizontal cutting device are similar to those of the vertical cutting device
16
, while the guide wheel unit is installed in altered direction. Therefore, one single cutting apparatus can provide both vertical and horizontal cutting functions.
Referring to
FIG. 8
, the components of the guide wheel unit
40
′ of the horizontal cutting device
18
are identical to those of the aforesaid guide wheel unit
40
. As shown in
FIG. 2
, the entire structure of the horizontal cutting device is alternatively arranged in a horizontal state, in which the blade strip
90
′ is horizontally positioned on the apparatus body
10
. The blade turning unit
32
′, the blade strip deflection rectifying mechanism
50
′ and the blade turning unit movement control mechanism
93
′ of the horizontal cutting device are also identical to those of the vertical cutting device.
Referring to
FIG. 9
, the components of the horizontal cutting device
18
can be identical to those of the aforesaid vertical cutting device
16
, including an extensible driving device
91
, while being arranged in altered direction to form a horizontal cutting device
19
in which the interval of the working section Y of the blade strip is changeable.
Referring to
FIG. 10
, in use for vertically cutting operation, the foam sponge
80
is placed on the working bench
11
and then the vertical cutting device
16
(or
17
) is activated. The working bench is reciprocally linearly moved back and forth so as to cut the foam sponge along various irregular or curved cutting line
81
in vertical direction. The travel of the blade strip
90
depends on the change of the position of the wheels of the guide wheel unit
40
, whereby the driving power consumption is reduced so that the present invention can be easily and conveniently operated and is able to achieve a stable cutting effect. Therefore, the power consumption is reduced and the cost is lowered.
Referring to
FIG. 11
, in use for horizontally cutting operation, the foam sponge
80
is placed on the working bench
11
and then the horizontal cutting device
18
(or
19
) is activated to similarly cut the foam sponge along various irregular or curved cutting line in horizontal direction. Therefore, both vertical and horizontal cutting can be performed on one single working bench. This reduces the room occupied by the equipment and indirectly lowers the cost.
However, since the vertical and horizontal cutting devices co-use the working bench, when using the vertical cutting device
16
(or
17
), the horizontal cutting device
18
(or
19
) should be shifted to the rear end of the travel to ensure safety.
According to the above arrangement, the present invention has the following advantages:
1. The ascending/descending device of the present invention serves to change the interval of the working section of the blade strip. When the interval is shortened, the cutting operation will not be deflected so that the cutting operation is stabilized and the planarity of cutting face is enhanced.
2. By means of the pulley unit, linear slide bars and guide rails, the shifting and changing of the interval of the blade strip can be accomplished only by sliding of a few elements so that the power consumption is reduced and the working cost is lowered.
3. The pneumatic cylinder serves to push the guide wheel to loosen the blade strip for easy replacement thereof.
4. The guide thread rod is fitted with connecting rod bearing so that the guide thread rod will not swing due to excessive length and the stability is enhanced.
5. One single apparatus includes both vertical and horizontal cutting devices so that the apparatus can be very conveniently used.
The above embodiments are only used to illustrate the present invention, not intended to limit the scope thereof. Many modifications of the above embodiments can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.
Claims
- 1. A vertically movable foam sponge cutting apparatus comprising an apparatus body having a front face, a blade strip frame including upper and lower beams, a blade strip, a guide wheel unit and a blade turning unit wherein:a working bench is mounted on said front face of said apparatus body; said blade strip frame bridged over said apparatus body and a blade turning unit movement control mechanism disposed between said upper and said lower beams; said blade turning unit including upper and lower blade seats each of which has a seat body, transmission mechanism and blade holder; and said guide wheel unit including a driving wheel and multiple wheels disposed on said upper beam of said blade strip frame and said two seat bodies of said blade turning unit fixing said blade strip for cutting operation, and a pulley disposed on each of said seat bodies and said blade strip wound on said guide wheel unit and pulled and conducted to form a close winding line with a fixed length including a vertical working section of the blade strip, said foam cutting apparatus being characterized in that an ascending/descending device is disposed between said upper and lower beams of said blade strip frame and associated with said blade turning unit movement control mechanism for changing the interval of the working section of said blade strip; and wherein said ascending/descending device includes a linear slide bar seat fitted on a driving mechanism, a slide bar seat being connected with the blade turning unit movement control mechanism, whereby the blade seat hung on the slide bar seat can be ascended or descended along with the slide bar seat and wherein said ascending/descending device includes a pair of internally threaded elements and a pair of guide threaded rods extending through said internally threaded elements, and a motor for synchronously driving said guide threaded rods to thereby change the interval of the working section of the blade strip.
US Referenced Citations (13)