Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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A REVERSING DEVICE FOR AN ELONGA~ED SECTION MEMBER
The present invention relates to a reversing device
for a section member and more specifical,ly to such a device
for turning upside~down a section member that is used, for
example, in the manufacturing process of heat insulating
sash bars wherein reversing of a sash bar is needed to ~ill
grooves on both upper and lower sides of each sash bar with
heat insulating material.
It is a known practice to form a heat insulating sash
bar with an extruded hollow metal section member having
grooves therein which are filled with heat insulating
synthetic resin.
In this case, generally -the grooves are provided on
both sides of the section member, and after a groove on one
side is filled with heat insulating synthetic resin first,
the section member is reversed or turned upside-down, then
the groove on the other side is filled with heat insulating
synthetic resin.
As a device for turning section members upside-down,
a reversing device for section members has been proposed
which comprises: a rotation shaft horizontalIy supported on a fixed support;
a pair of arm members spaced apart along said shaft facing
each other and fixed to said shaft at one end of each of
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said arm me~bers so as to ~orm a ~rame member
composed of both of said arm members and said shaft; pairs
of pressing devices located on said pair of arm members at
positions facing each other for releasably holding elongated
section members therebetween; and a means to rotate said
rotation shaft for rotating said pair of arm members through
an angle of 180 degrees from a first horizontal position to
a second horizontal position and in the opposite direction
in turn.
This device, however, is not desirable from the lay-
out standpoint in which continuity of the transfer line for
section members is desired, since the section members are
moved for a considerable distance in the lateral direction
when they are turned upside-down. Further, there are addi-
tional problems brought about by the device since the area
or the space occupied by the transfer line is increased,
the speed of turning the section members upside-down is
limited, and the reversing device itself needs to be big
in size, etc.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention
to provide such a reversing device for a section member
that does not impair the continuity of the transfer line
for section members.
Another object of the present invention is to provide
such a reversing device for a section member that allows the
wholetransfer line for section members to occupy a small
area or space.
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Another object oE the present invention is to provide
such a reversing device for a section member that allows
the speed of turning section members upside-down to be
increased.
A further object of the present invention is to
provide such a reversing device for a section member that
is small in size.
These and other objects have been attained in a
reversing device for section members comprising a pair of
wheels located concentrically and spaced mutually apart,
each wheel having an aperture at the center thereof through
whlch a section member can pass; a fixing means located
around the aperture in each wheel to fix the section member
to the wheel; at least a pair of driving means to rota-te
the pair of wheels in a synchronized manner; and a control
means for restricting the anale of rotation of the pair of
wheels to 180 degrees.
Since the present invention is constructed as
described above, the reversing device for a section member
according to -the invention brings the following effec-ts:
~1) Since a section member is located at the center of
a pair of wheels, the section member stays on an unchanged
; axis before and after being turned upside-down, which
serves to maintain the continuity of the transfer line for
the section members.
(2) Since a section member is reversed or turned upside-
down only by the rotation of a pair of wheels, there is no
other motion such as a swing during the reversing operation,
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which helps to minimize the area or space occupied by the
whole transfer line for the section members.
(3) Since a section member is reversed or turned upside-
down by the rotation of a pair of wheels with the section
member being held at the center of the pair of wheels, the
reversing speed can be increased as compared with the
reversing operation using a swing motion.
(4) Since the major constituent component of the revers-
ing device is a pair of rotation wheels, the device can be
made smaller in si~e as compared with a swing type reversing
device.
The above and o-ther objects and attendant advantages
of the present invention will be more readily apparen-t to
' those skilled in the art from a reading of -the following
detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying
drawinas which show one preferred embodiment of the inven-
tion for illustration purpose only, but not for limiting
the scope of same in any way.
Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the entire structure
of an apparatus for filling heat insulating material into
grooves on both sides of elongated section members, the
reversing device for section members according to the inven-
tion being included in the apparatus.
Fig. 2 is a view showing the various steps of the
process to be conducted by the apparatus of Fig. 1.
Fig. 3 is a front view of an embodiment of a revers-
ing device for a section member according to the invention.
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Fig. 4 shows side views of the device of Fig. 3
explaining its operation.
Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the entire structure
of the apparatus for continuously producing sash bars
incorporating the invention. A plurali-ty of extruded
hollow sash bars 1 are placed on a first carriage 2 one by
one at a predetermined time interval by a supplying means
not shown. The first carriage 2 includes a movable stand
2b which is moved up and down by a cylinder 2a and is
reciprocated transversely of the apparatus by a cylinder 3
and a Eixed stand 2c. When the piston rod oE the cylinder
2a is ex-tended, the sash bars 1 on the Eixed stand 2c are
engaged by spacers of the movable stand 2b and are posi-
tioned at an equal pitch. Under this condition, when thepiston rod of the cylinder 3 is retracted, the sash bars 1
are moved transversely by one pitch together with the mov-
able stand. When the piston rod of the cylinder 2a is
retracted, the sash bars 1 are out of the spacers of the
movable stand and are placed on the fixed stand 2c. With
such condition, when the piston rod of the cylinder 3 is
extended, the movable stand 2b is returned transversely to
its original position for receiving a newly supplied sash
bar.
While the sash bars 1 are being moved intermittently
on the carriage 2, a heat insulating sheet 15 is inserted
into the groove 5 in each of the successive bars 1 by
supply rollers 20 and then the opposite ends of the groove
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5 are closed by end caps 6 by a cap attaching device 4.
The sash bars 1 with the grooves 5 closed by the end caps
are successively pushed out of the carriage 2 longitudinally
of the apparatus by a cylinder 7 and passed below an injec-
tion device 8 which injects a solution of heat insulatingsynthetic resin into the grooves 5 in the sash bars 1 one
by one.
The sash bars 1 with the heat insulating synthetic
resin 9 filled in the grooves 5 are then transferred by
feed rollers 38 onto a second carriage 10 which is similar
to the first carriage 2 and moved intermittently one pitch
by one pitch on the carriage 10 by a movable stand lOb, a
fixed stand lOc and cylinders lOa, 11 while allowing the
resin solution 9 to solidify during such movement to form
a heat insulating synthetic resin body 12.
Thereafter, each of the thus processed bars 1 is
pushed out of the second carriage 10 longitudinally of -the
apparatus onto a cutter device 14 by a cylinder 13 and
center portions of the bottoms of the grooves 5, 5' are cut
away by the cutter device 14 [see Fig. 2(e)]. Thereafter,
the sash bar 1 is transferred longi-tudinally of the appara-
tus by belt device means 18, 19 to a reversing device 17
which holds and turns the sash bar 1 upside-down to face
the lower groove 5' of the sash bar upward. The
reversed bar 1 is then pushed out of the device 17 longitu-
dinally of the apparatus by the next sash bar which is
moved toward the device 17 while the bottoms of its grooves
are being cut to be again placed on-to the first carriage 2
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where the now upwardly facing groove 5' of the bar 1 is
successively lined with the heat insulating sheet 15 and
fitted with the end caps 6 and thereafter filled with the
heat insulating synthetic resin 12 at the injecting zone in
the same manner as the processing of the grooves 5. The
sash bars 1 with the heat insulating synthetic resin filled
in the grooves 5' are then transferred onto the second
carriage 10 and are removed from the downstream end of the
second carriage by a removing means not shown.
Fig. 2 shows the sash bars 1 in cross-section in the
successive processing steps in the order men-tioned herein-
above. The sash bar 1 has the cross-sectional conEiguration
as shown in Fig. 2 (A) when ex-truded. In the processing, at
first, the sheet 15 is placed onto the bottom of the upper
groove 5 of the sash bar 1 as shown in Fig. 2(b), then the
opposite ends of the upper groove 5 are closed by end caps
6 and the sheet 15 is held in position by nipping it between
the portion of the cap and the bottom of the groove 5 as
shown in Fig. 2(c), the solution of heat insulating syn-
thetic resin 9 is injected into the upper groove 5 by theinjection device 8 as shown in Fig. 2(d), the central por-
tions of the bottoms of the upper and lower grooves 5, 5'
are cut away by the cutter device 14 as shown in Fig. 2(e),
the sash bar 1 is turned upside-down to reverse the position
of the upper and lower grooves 5, 5' as shown in Fig. 2(f),
the sheet 15 is placed onto the bottom of the now upwardly
facing groove 5' as shown in Fig. 2(g), the opposite ends
of the now upwardly facing groove 5' are closed by end caps
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6 and the sheet 15 is held in position within the groove 5'
' as shown in Fig. 2(h) and the solution of heat insulating
synthetic resin 9 is injected into the groove 5' by the
injecting device 8 as shown in Fig. 2(i).
Fig. 3 shows a front view of the reversing device as
viewed from the cutter device side. The reversing device
comprises a pair of wheels 21 (only one is shown in Fig. 3),
each wheel having teeth on the outer peripheral surface and
an aperture through which a section member is allowed to
pass at the center, and the pair of wheels being connected
wi-th each other by brackets 23 [see Fig. 4(a)]; pressing
rollers 25 and cylinders 24 Eor moving the pressing rollers,
the rollers and cylinders being located around the aperture
22 so as to allow a sash bar to be fixed to and set free
from the pair of wheels at their center; and a pair of
driving gears 26 to support and drive the pair of wheels 21.
The pair of driving gears 26 are connected with each other
by a rotation shaft 37 [see Fig. 4(a)], and are driven by
a motor 27 through a belt 36. The pair of wheels 21 are
supported by and placed on the pair of driving gears 26 and
idler gears 28 in such a way that the teeth on the outer
peripheral surface of each wheel engage with both the
driving gear 26 and the idler gear 28.
Support blocks 35 supporting the rotation shaft 37
of the pair of driving gears work to prevent the movement
of the pair of wheels in their axial direction. Since the
reversing device is assembled on a base plate 31 which is
supported on a foundation 34 through a height adjusting
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mechanism comprlsing a link mechanism 32 and a driving
device 33 for the link mechanism, the height of the aper-
tures 22 can be adjusted so that the apertures are aligned
with the sash bar transfer line.
The function of the reversing device according to
the invention is explained hereinafter referring to Fig. 4.
As shown in Figs. 4(a) and 4(b), a sash bar coming out of
the cutter device 14, while being held between driving belts
18, 19 and simultaneously having the central portions of
the bottoms of the grooves thereof cut away, is transferred
toward the right by feed rollers 16 so as to be inserted
into the apertures 22 at the center of -the pair of wheels.
As shown in Fig. 4(c), when the forward end of the sash bar
blocks the light passage of a photo-electric tube swi-tch
39, cylinder rods of cylinders 24 extend, pressing the
rollers 25 onto the sash bar. The sash bar is thus fixed
to the pair of wheels at their center.
By the function of a timer, the pair of wheels 21
are then rotated through an angle of 180 degrees, turning
the sash bar so that the groove S' faces upwards. The rota-
tion angle of the pair of wheels 21 is determined by -the
contact of a contact point 30 with a micro switch 29 as
shown in Fig. 3. When the reversing of a sash bar is
completed, cylinder rods of cylinders 24 retract moving
rollers 25 away from the sash bar. The sash bar which has
now been set free starts to move toward the right, being
pushed by the next sash bar coming out of the cutter device
as shown in Fig. 4(e) and Fig. 4(f). The reversed sash bar
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is then placed on the first carriage 2 again to fill the
groove 5' with heat insulating material before the sash bar
is completed.
