Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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METHOD AND APPARATUS FO~ SPLITTING AMORPHOUS METAL F~IL
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a method and an apparatus
for splitting a broad roll of amorphous metal foil (here-
inafter referred to as original roll) fed from a reel into
a plurality of narrow ribbon tapes and taking them up on
so many different reels.
Amorphous alloy foil is normally produced in the form
of a broad roll, which is then split into a number of
narrow ribbon tapes before they are used for preparing
cores of choke coils and other applications.
An original roll is normally cut into narrow tapes by
using rotary cutters made of hard metal or high speed
steel, following a process as described below.
Firstly, a reel that carries an original roll (here-
inafter referred to original roll reel) is set in position
so that the roll of foil is unwound and fed as the origi-
nal roll reel is driven to rotate. Then, the original
roll is split into a number of narrow ribbons, ~hich are
taken up on take-up reels arranged in parallel on a common
rotary shaft except for those made form marginal areas of
the original roll. The ribbon tapes made from marginal
portions of the original roll are randomly taken up on a
paper cylinder and thrown away as trash.
The process as described above, although currently
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popularly used, involves a number of problems to be re-
solved. One of ~he problems is related to the step of
splitting an original roll by rotary cutters, while anoth-
er is related to disposal of trash ribbon tapes. There is
still another problem that arises when ribbon tapes are
taken up.
Now, these problems will be discussed in greater
detail.
What is particular wi-th a roll of amorphous metal
foil is that it does not evenly proceed and can meander as
it is fed from a reel. Unlike aluminum foil, polyethylene
film or paper, an original roll of amorphous metal foil,
if cut, often shows an uneven cross section which is thick
at the middle and loses its thickness as it reaches the
lateral edges. A roll of amorphous metal foil having such
a cross section can easily take a winding course when it
is fed from a reel so that it can be cut slantly or zigzag
and sometimes it may not be cut at all when its course is
moved away from the cutters. The table below shows for
comparison the irregularities of thickness of an amorphous
metal foil, a copper foil and a plastic film.
Another problem particular with an original roll of
amorphous metal foil is that it has to be always appropri-
ately tensioned when it is fed to cutters.
A slackened original roll can be easily undulated and
Table
thickness ' irregularity of ' ductility
' (~m) ' thickness (%)
amorphous metal foil , 25 , +10~15 , low (brittle)
copper foil , 35 , +5 or less , medium
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plastic foil ' 25 ' +1 or less ' high
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meander so that it is subjected to -the above described
problems, whereas a too tightly tensioned original roll
can slip on the cutters leaving the cutters idly running
under it.
In order to give an original roll a correct tension
and avoid any over- and under-tension, the operation of
splitting the original roll of amorphous metal foil with
cutters should be synchronlzed with the operation of
feeding it to the cutters. This by turn requires synchro-
nized operation of the drive motors of the cutters and the
original roll o~ those of the cutters and the pinch rolls
for pulling the amorphous metal foil from the original
roll. Particularly, during the rise time required for the
original roll to reach a constant rate of rotation from
the start of motion, fine control of the two motors is
needed in order to secure their synchronized operation.
Such synchronization is very difficult when the motors are
manually operated.
Besides, the rate at which the amorphous metal foil
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is fed from the original roll decreases as the volume of
the original roll is reduced in -the course of cutting
operation to increase the tension applied to the amorphous
metal foil. Therefore, it is desirable that the drive
motor of the original roll reel is controlled as a func-
tion of the volume of the original roll left on the origi-
nal roll reel.
Moreover, there arises a problem at the time of
taking up the split ribbon tapes of amorphous metal foil
on take-up reels, where the volume of ribbon tape on a
take-up reel at the middle is greater than those of ribbon
tapes on reels near and at the lateral edges because of
the difference of thickness of amorphous metal foil which
is greater at the middle than at the lateral edges of the
original roll as described above. ~onsequently, ribbon
tapes having a smaller thickness can show a loose rela-
tionship with the respective rotary cutters and are loose-
ly taken up by the respective take-up reels. Thus, the
force applied to the take-up reels arranged on a common
rotary shaft is varied depending on the location of the
reels, leading to imbalance of the force applied to the
reels that can results in unintentionally broken ribbon
tapes. Such trouble of broken ribbon tapes can occur
particularly when the amorphous metal foil is fed and
split at a high rate of more than 50m/min.
A ribbon tape of amorphous metal foil that has been
loosely taken up by a take-up reel can be tightened on the
reel when it is pulled by external force. Therefore, when
such a loosely wound ribbon tape is takerl out from the
reel for manufacturing choke coil cores, it would not come
out from the reel at a constant rate so that the operation
of manufacturing choke coil cores can be obstructed and
defective products can appear at a relatively high rate.
Finally, disposal of ribbon tapes obtained from
mar~inal portions of an original roll is accompanied by
the following problem.
If the tapes are taken up randomly on a paper cylin-
der in a conventional manner, the rate of splitting an
original roll cannot be made greater than 100 to 200m/min
because a rate beyond that,can result in unintentionally
broken tapes and 1nevitably interrupted operation to
reduce the efficiency of the overall operation. Besides,
the randomly taken up ribbon takes are simply thrown away
as trash to further reduce the efficiency of the opera-
tion.
In view of the above described problems, it is there-
fore an object of the present invention to provide a
method for preventing any meandering motion of an original
roll and feeding it to rotary cutters under appropriate
tension ~ithout requiring any adjustment of rate of rota-
tion of related drive motors for synchronized operation.
A second object of the invention is to provide amethod for controlling the rate of rotation of the drive
motor for feeding the original roll as a function of the
volume of the original roll left on the original roll
reel.
A third object of the invention is to provide a
method for efficiently splitting an original roll without
requiring any particular operation for handling defective
ribbon tapes as well as an apparatus for carrying out the
method.
A fourth object of the invention is to provide a
method for ensuring an equal level of tension to be ap-
plied to the take-up reels of produced ribbon tapes as
well as an apparatus for carrying out the method.
SUMMARY OF THE NVENTION
According to the invention, the first object of the
invention is achieved by providing a method of preventing
meandering mo-tion of an original roll by means of a spe-
cifically designed apparatus and of operating the cutter
drive motor and the original roll feeding drive motor wi-th
a constant ratio of rotation.
More specifically, there is provided a method of
splitting a broad roll of amorphous metal foil fed from a
foil feeder reel into a plurality of ribbon tapes by
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rotary cutters using a sensor for detecting the lateral
edges of the roll and a pair of rollers, wherein a mean-
der-preventive device is provided for preventing meander-
ing motion of the amorphous metal foil by modifying the
angle formed by the rollers according to the output signal
from the sensor and the drive motor for driving the rotary
cutters and the drive motor for feeding amorphous metal
foil are operated with a constant ratio of rotation.
With a method according to the invention as described
above, any meandering motion of a roll of amorphous metal
foil fed from a foil feeder reel due to an irregular
thickness and irregular lateral edges of the foil can be
corrected so that the foil is always rectangularly applied
to the cutters at a predetermined position. Moreover,
since the rate of rotation of the drive motor for feeding
amorphous metal foil is automatically adjusted to maintain
a given ratio of rotation relative to the rate of rotation
of the drive motor for driving the rotary cutters, the
foil does not show any lac~ of tension or any excessive
tension even during the rise time required for the foil
feeder reel to xeach a constant rate of rotation from the
start of motion.
The second object of the invention is achieved by
providing a method of controlling the drive motor for
feeding amorphous metal foil by detecting the displacement
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of a dancer roll arranged between the foil feeder reel and
the rotary cutters in such a manner that it is firmly kept
in contact with the amorphous metal foil and moves back
and forth as a function of the tension of the amorphous
metal foil.
With a method as described above, the dancer roll
comes forward ~downward in Fig. 1) when the amorphous
metal foil becomes loose between the foil feeder reel and
the rotary cutters and the displacement of the dancer roll
causes to reduce the rate of rotation of the drive motor
for feeding amorphous metal foil a~d hence the rate of
feeding the foil. To the contrary, the dancer roll moves
backward (upward in Fig. 1) when the amorphous metal foil
becomes too tight between the foil feeder reel and the
rotary cutters and the displacement of the dancer roll
causes to increase the rate of rotation of the dancer roll
for feeding amorphous metal foil and hence the rate of
feeding the foil. Thusj the rate of rotation of the drive
motor for feeding amorphous metal foil is modified as a
function of the volume of amorphous metal foil on the foil
feeder reel and hence the amorphous metal foil is fed to
the rotary cutters with a same level of tension wlthout
becoming too loose or too tight.
In order to control the drive motor for feeding
amorphous metal foil as a functlon of displacement of the
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dancer roll, the displacement may be converted into an
electric signal that alters the voltage applied to or the
resistance connected to the drive motor to increase or
decrease the rate of rotation of the motor appropriately
whenever the dancer roll is displaced from its normal
position.
An alternative method for achieving the second object
of the invention consists in detecting the volume of
amorphous metal foil remaining on the foil feeder reel by
means of a sensor for detecting the volume and controlling
the drive motor for feeding amorphous metal foil as a
function of the detected volume.
The sensor for detecting the volume of amorphous
metal foil remained on the foil feeder reel may comprise,
for instance, a spindle which is kept in contact with the
outer surface of the amorphous metal foil on the foil
feeder reel and radially moves back and forth depending on
the volume of amorphous metal foil remaining on the foil
feeder reel so that the displacement of the spindle is
converted .into an electric signal that alters the voltage
applied to or the resistance connected to the drive motor
to increase or decrease the ra-te of rotation of the motor
appropriately. However, it may be replaced by any known
mechanical, electric, optical and/or ultrasonic sensing
means.
With a method as described above, -the rate of rota-
tion of the drive motor for feeding amorphous metal foil
is low when a large volume of amorphous metal foil is left
on the foil feeder reel and increases as the volume of
amorphous metal foil decreases on the foil feeder reel.
The third object of the invention is achieved by
providing a method of introducing trashy ribbon tapes
prod~ced by marginal portions of a roll of amorphous metal
foil into a hard blasting pipe and blasting them by com-
pressed air. More specifically, there is provided a
method of collecting and removing tra~hy ribbon tapes
produced by marglnal portions of a roll of amorphous metal
foil when the amorphous metal foil is split into ribbon
tapes by means of rotary cutters, wherein said trashy
ribbon tapes are introducing into a hard blasting pipe and
blasted by compressed air.
When ribbon tapes of amorphous metal foil is in-tro-
duced into a blasting pipe and blasted by compressed air,
the brittle amorphous metal foil collide against the pipe
wall and are broken to pieces as -they move very fast in
the pipe. The small pieces of amorphous metal foil are
finally ejected from the pipe.
The inventor of the present invention has discovered
that ribbon tapes of amorphous metal foil are twisted and
damaged if they are mixed with compressed air in a large
mixer before -they are introduced into a blasting pipe so
that they may become even more brittle and easily broken
to pieces as they pass through the blasting pipe.
Therefore, the above described method is character-
ized by that trashy ribbon tapes of amorphous metal foil
are mixed with compressed air and then introduced into a
hard blasting pipe. An apparatus for carrying out the
method comprises an ejector for collecting trashy ribbon
tapes produced during the operation of splitting a roll of
amorphous metal foil by way of a collector pipe, a mixer
for mixing the trashy ribbon tapes collected by the ejec-
tor with compressed air and a hard blasting pipe connected
to the mixer.
While there may be provided a pair of apparatuses as
described above for carrying out the method, each for
trashy ribbon tapes produced from a lateral marginal
portion of a roll of amorphous metal foil, trashy ribbon
tapes from t~o lateral marginal portions of a roll are
preferably collected and introduced into a single mixer
and blasted in a blasting pipe. When trashy ribbon tapes
form two lateral marginal portions of a roll are collected
together, the~ will collide against one another and be
damaged even more fiercely so that the operation of blast-
ing the tapes may be carried out more efficiently and
effectively while a single mixer and a single blasting
~3~
pipe can be commonly used for trashy ribbon tapes from two
lateral marginal portions to simplify the overall configu--
ration of the system of blasting tapes. According to an
experiment conducted by the inventor of the invention, the
maximum rate of operation of splitting a roll of amorphous
metal foil was 80m/min, whereas -the rate was raised to
200m/min by installing a mixer for collecting ribbon tapes
from the two lateral marginal portions of the roll.
A blasting pipe, an ejector and a mixer to be used
for the purpose of a method and an apparatus according to
the present invention may be made of any hard and strong
material. Feasible candidates for these components in-
clude metal pipes such as iron pipes, stainless steel
pipes, aluminum pipes or steel pipes, plastic pipes such
as FRP pipes and tempere~ glass pipes. A blasting pipe
should be longer than 5cm and have an inner diameter
between 5 and 50mm. Preferably, it has an inner diameter
between 10 and 30mm and is as long as somewhere between 30
and 200cm.
Although the ejector may be arranged downs-tream
relative to the blasting pipe, it is preferably arranged
upstream relative to the pipe and the mixer, if the latter
is installed, and within a guide pipe having an inlet port
open for the lateral marginal portions of the roll of
amorphous metal foil. The ejector is provided with a neck
2~3~
portion having a reduced diameter. While the inner diamet-
er of the neck portion should be larger than the width of
a ribbon tape, an excessively large diameter can reduce
the force of suctioning ribbon tapes. The inner diameter
of the neck portion is between 3 and 30mm and preferably
between 5 and 20mm.
While the pressure of compressed air introduced into
the ejector is related to the rate of ribbon tapes passing
through the ejector, the width of ribbon tapes, the inner
diameter of the neck por-tion of the ejector and the inner
diameter and the length of the blasting pipe, it is should
be greater than 3kg/cm2 and preferably it is betr~een 5 and
lOkg/cm2.
The velocity and the rate of compressed air passing
through the blas-ting pipe are respecti~Jely between 20 and
40m/sec and between 200 and 600kl/min.
If two guide pipes are installed for collectlng
trashy ribbon tapes from the two lateral marginal portions
of a roll of amorphous metal foil and a mixer is provided
for mixing the tapes, the angle formed by the two guide
pipes (incident angle) may be between 5 and 120, although
long guide pipes are required if the angle is too small
and a too large angle results in collision of two gas
flows coming ~rom the two guide pipes to reduce the force
to send ribbon tapes into the blasting pipe. Therefore,
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the incident anyle is preferably between 30 and 90.
A method and an apparatus ~or achieving the fourth
object of the invention is intended to rotatably arrange a
plurality of take-up reels on common rotary shafts and
loosely hold them by holding means so that the take-up
reels on any of the common rotary shafts becGme idle on it
whenever the tension applied to ribbon tapes on them
exceeds a threshold value.
More specifically, a method and an apparatus for
separately taking up individual ribbon tapes produced by
splitting a broad roll of amorphous metal foil by take-up
reels arranged zigzag and driven by respec-tive motors are
characterized by that the take-up reels are rotatably
arranged on common shafts and held by holding means in
such a manner that they become loose whenever the tension
applied to the ribbon tapes on them exceeds a threshold
value.
With a method and an apparatus as described above,
the ribbon tapes produced by splitting a broad roll of
amorphous metal foil are alternately taken up by upper and
lower take-up reels to avoid and friction between them.
Although the tensions applied to the ribbon tapes may vary
from one another, causing differences to take place in the
rate of rotation of the take-up reels, those take-up reels
carrying ribbon tapes under high tension becomes loosely
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held by holding means so tha-t all the ribbon tapes show a
substantially equal tension as they are taken up by the
take-up reels.
Each of the holding means to be used for the purpose
of the above ~e-thod and apparatus may be realized in the
form of a layered and ring-shaped sheet made of a were-
resistive material having a low coefficient of friction
and tightly held either between two adjacent reels or at a
lateral side of a reel by a pair of keep plates fitted to
the related rotary shaft. Materials that may be used for
them include polytetrafluoroethylene (trade name: Teflon)
filled with glass fiber, graphite, carbon, bronze, molyb-
denum disulfide or a compound of any of them and super
high molecular weight polyethylene (trade name: Hyzex
Million). The layered ring-shaped sheet may be coated
with a material selected from those listed above. The
layered ring-shaped sheet may be replaced by a sleeve to
be fitted between the take-up reel and the rotary shaft,
the sleeve having a inner or outer peripheral surface
having a large coefficient of friction. Alternatively,
the layered ring-shaped sheet may be replaced by a piece
made of a material having a large coefficient of friction
to be fitted to at least either the take-up reel or the
rotary shaft.
When a ring-shaped sheet as described above is ar-
ranged between two adjacent reels, they may smoothly sliderelative to each other lf more than one such sheets are
provided. The sheets arranged at a same spot may be those
made of either a same material or different materials. A
composite sheet prepared by bonding a rubber sheet and a
polytetrafluoroethylene sheet containing glass fiber by
using a piece of double side adhesive tape is particularly
preferable when a pair of such composite sheets are put
together with their rubber sheet sides facing outward and
disposed between two adjacent reels so that they are in
contact with the take-up reels. The effect of -the compos-
ite sheets will be siynificantly enhanced when more than
one pieces glass cloth impregnated with polytetrafluoro-
ethylene dispersed from the composite sheets are arranged
between them.
With a method and an apparatus as described above,
any of the take up reels becomes idle when the tension
applied to the ribbon tape on it is too large so that all
the ribbon tapes may have an equal level of tension.
However, there arises a problem that the rate at which the
take-up reels take up ribbon tapes increases and therefore
the tension applied to each of the tapes also increases as
the reels come to carry a large volume of ribbon tapes,
leading to a high frequency of idly runniny reels. This
problem is resolved by providing an arrangement with which
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the take-up reels is held to the respective rotary shafts
with an increased power as the ~olume of ribbon tapes they
carry augments. If the means for holding the take-up
reels to the rotary shafts consists in ring-shaped sheets
arranged between adjacent reels and squeezed by a pair of
keep plates from lateral sides, -the problem can be re-
solved by providing keep plates that hold take-up reels
with an increased power as the volume of ribbon tapes the
reels carry augments. Such an arrangement involves sen~
sors for detecting the volume of ribbon tapes on the
take-up reels and controlling the power with which the
take-up reels are slidably held to the respective rotary
shafts by keep plates.
The mechanism for pushing a keep plate against a
take-up reel may be an air cylinder, a cam device that
shifts the position of the keep plate by means of a lift
or a device designed to shift the position of the keep
plate by pivotal movement of a lever.
The fourth object of the invention can be alterna-
tively achieved by providing a method and an apparatus for
separately taking up individual ribbon tapes produced by
splitting a broad roll of amorphous metal foil by take-up
reels arranged zigzag and driven by respective motors are
characterized by that each of the tape take-up reels is
arranged on a separate rotary shaft and driven by a sepa-
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rate motor and provided with a tension sensor for detect-
ing the tension applied to the ribbon tape and controlling
the rate of rotation of the motor.
With a method and an apparatus as described above,
the rate of taking up each of the ribbon tapes is sepa-
rately controlled as a function of the tension applied to
the ribbon tape in order to achieve an equal level of
tension for all the ribbon -tapes. While the arrangement
of providing each of the ribbon tapes produced by split-
ting a broad roll of amorphous metal foil with a take-up
reel, a rotary shaft, a mo-tor for driving the rotary shaft
and a tension sensor will not arise any problem so long as
the number of the ribbon -tapes is small, the overall
appara-tus will become complex and excessively bulky if the
number of ribbon tapes is large.
This problem can be avoided by dividing the take-up
eels into two groups arranged on different levels, an
upper group of reels and a lower group of reels which are
fitted to respective rotary shafts, each of the reels
being provided with a holding means that holds -the reel to
the rotary shaft in such a manner that it becomes idle on
the rotary shaft whenever the tension applied to any of
the ribbon tapes of the group it belongs exceeds a given
threshold value as it is detected by a sensor arranged for
that group of reels on a common rotary shaft driven by a
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r~tary mo~or, the rate of rotation of which is also con-
trolled by the sensor. With such an arrangement, since a
plurality of take-up reels are fitted to a common rotary
shaft driven by a single drive motor without sacrificing
the tension regulating capability of the apparatus, the
size of the apparatus can be minimized.
Although the ribbon tapes obtained by splitting a
broad roll of amorphous metal foil can be taken up by
simply driving the take-up reels -to rotate by motors, the
tapes are subjected to considerable tension as the origi-
nal roll is split into ribbon tapes and eventually reaches
the take-up reels because of the large torque required for
driving the take-up reels in order to offset the resist-
ance the tapes receive as they pass through the cutters
and the guide rolls. Therefore, it is recommendable to
arrange pinch rolls between the cutters and the take-up
reels to preliminarily pull the tapes in order to allevi-
ate the tension applied to the tapes when they are taken
up by the take-up reels.
When pinch rolls are arranged between the cutters and
the take-up reels, one or more than one tension sensors
are preferably arranged between the cutters and the pinch
rolls to detect the tension appl,ied to the tapes in that
area to cont~ol the drive motor for driving the pinch
rolls accordingly.
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With a method according to any of claims 1 through 3
of the present patent applica-tion, any meandering motion
of the original roll due to irregular thickness of -the
amorphous metal foil and uneven lateral margins of the
original roll is corrected so that the original roll be
placed perpendicular to the cutters at a right position.
Moreover, the rate of feeding the original roll is auto-
matically adjusted depending on the rate of splitting the
original roll so that the tension applied to the original
roll is maintained to a right degree even during the rise
time required for the foil feeder reel to reach a constant
rate of rotation from the start of motion.
With a method according claim 4 of the present patent
application, the rate of rotation of the original roll
driving motor is modified according to the degree of
slackness of the original roll to adjust the feeding of
the original roll so that it may be fed to the cutters
under appropriate tension.
With a method according to claim S of the present
patent application, the rate of ro-tation of the drive
motor for feeding the original roll is modified according
to the volume of the original roll left on the foil feeder
reel so that the original roll is fed at a constant rate
regardless of tne volume left on the foil feeder reel to
avoid any excessi~e or lack of tension of the original
roll.
With a method according to claim 6 of the present
patent application, the operation of splitting amorphous
metal foil is conducted at a very elevated rate of between
100 and 200m/min. Moreover, since the trashy ribbon tapes
produced from the lateral marginal portions of the origi-
nal roll are blasted to small pieces having a relatively
small volume so that they can be put into a limited number
of bags for disposal and consequently the space required
for storing the bags as well as thé cost of waste disposal
can be significantly reduced. Besides, the blasted ribbon
tapes may be placed between plastic or plywood sheets to
form a magnetic shield panel to be used for magnetically
shielding magnetic fleld generating cables, medical in-
struments or computers or for other recycling applica-
tions.
With a method and an apparatus according to claim 7
or 9, the tape blasting capability of the apparatus can be
enhanced by mixing trashy tapes with compressed air as
more scars are formed on the tapes.
With a method and an apparatus according to claim 8
or 10, the tape blasting capability of the apparatus can
be further enhanced ribbon tapes from the two lateral
marginal portions of an original roll are collected to-
gether to collide against each other and produce more
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scars, although a single mixer and a single blasting pipe
are commonly used to simplify the configuration of the
apparatus.
With a method and an apparatus according to claim 11
or 14, ribbon tapes obtained by splitting an original roll
of amorphous metal foil are taken up by respective take-up
reels with an equal level of -tension and without producing
any slackened ribbon tapes even the ribbon tapes have
thicknesses which are irregular and different from one
another. Such an arrangement can effectively eliminate
any unintentionally broken ribbon tapes and raise the
speed of splitting operation to red~ce the cost of manu-
facturing ribbon tapes. Moreover, since the ribbon tapes
on the take-up reels can be retracted evenly under an
equal level of tension, the overall yield of the process
is greatly improved.
With a method and an apparatus according to claim 12
or 28, since the pressure applied to the take-up reels is
modified according to the volume of ribbon tapes carried
by the reels, any of the take-up reels would not become
idle even the volume on it reaches an enhanced level.
With a method and an apparatus according to claim 13,
15 or 18, the tansion applied to each of the ribbon tapes
produced by splitting an original roll of amorphous metal
foil can be maintained to an appropriate level. With an
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apparatus according to ciaim 16, the tensions applied to
the ribbon tapes obtained from an original roll are equal-
ized to an appropriate level, while the apparatus is
realized to a simple configuration.
With an apparatus according to claim 17 of the
present patent applica-tion, the tension applied to each of
the ribbon tapes as it is taken up by a take-up reel is
alleviated to avoid any unintentional breakage or elonga-
tion of the ribbon tape.
BRIEF DESCR PT_ON OF THE DRAWINGS
Fig. 1 is a schematic illustration of an amorphous
metal foil ribbon tape manufacturing apparatus according
to the invention.
Fig. 2 is a schematic illustration of a trashy ribbon
tape blasting apparatus.
Fig. 3 is a sectional view of a principal part of a
ribbon tape take-up apparatus.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OE A PRE~ERRED EMBODIMENT OE THF.
_ VENTION
Now, -the present invention will be described in
greater detail by referring to the accompanying drawings
that illustrate a preferred embodiment of the inven-tion.
<Embodiment>
An original roll reel 11 carries a roll of amorphous
metal foil 12 having a width of between 100 and 213mm and
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a thickness of between 24 and 26~m at the center and
between 21 and 23~m at -the lateral edges, which is gradu-
ally unwound from the original roll reel 11 and fed by way
of a dancer roll 13, pinch rolls 14, anti-meander device
15 and a tension sensor to ro-tary cutters 17 having upper
and lower edges, by which the amorphous metal foil 12 is
split into a number of ribbon tapes 18, which are separat-
ed into an upper group and a lower groups and fed further
by way of respective tension sensors 20, pinch rolls 21
and tension sensors 22 to take-up reels 23 that take up
the respective ribbon tapes 18. The original roll reel 11
is driven clockwise in Fig. 1 by a DC motor 24 by way of a
reduction gear 25 and the upper and lower edges of the
rotary cutters 17 are also rotated clockwise by a DC motor
26 by way of a reduction gear 27. The output voltage of
the DC motor 26 is detected to control the voltage of the
DC motor 24 by means of a con-troller 28 as a function of
the output voltage of the DC motor 26 so that the ratio of
the rate of rotation of the DC motor 24 and that of the DC
motor 26 always agrees with a given value.
The dancer roll 13 moves upward or downward depending
on the degree of slackness of the amorphous metal foil 12
and its displacement from a reference level is con~erted
into a voltage signal. When the dancer roll 13 is located
above the reference level, the voltage signal has a posi-
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tive value, whereas it shows a negative value if thedancer roll 13 is found below the reference level. A
positive voltage signal causes the DC motor 24 to increase
its rate of rotatlon, whereas a negative ~Joltage signal
gives rise to an decrease in the rate of rotation of the
DC motor 24. As the rate of rotation of the DC motor 24
is increased by a positive voltage signal, the rate of
feeding the amorphous metal foil 12 augments, whereas it
goes down as the rate of rotation of the DC motor 24 is
decreased by a negative vol-tage signal.
The up and down movemen-t of the pinch rolls 14 is
harnessed by a powder brake 25 that operates in accordance
with the tension of the amorphous metal foil 12 detected
by the tension sensor 1~ so that the tension is always
kept constant.
The anti-meander device 15 consists of a light emit-
ting unit and a light receiving unit which are juxtaposed
at the lateral sides of the roll of amorphous metal foil
12 and comprises an optical sensor 31 for detecting an
edge of the amorphous metal foil 12, a pair of horizontal-
ly rotatable rolls 3Z and a servo-motor 33 which is actu-
ated to hoxizontally rotate the rolls 32 to alter the
angle between them by an output signal generated by and
transmitted from the liyht receiving unit when the beam of
light from the light emitting unit to the light receiving
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unit is interrupted. Two anti-meander devices are provid-
ed to form a front device and a rear device.
Two guide pipes are arranged downstream to the c~t-
ters 17, each of the guide pipes being provided with a
sensor 35 for detecting an edge of a trashy ribbon tape 18
produced from a lateral marginal portion of the amorphous
metal foil 12 and a tape inlet port arranged near the
cutter for the trashy ribbon tape 18 for receiving it.
Each of the two guide pipes 36 is connected to an ejector
37 as shown in Fig. 2.
As seen from Fig. 2, the ejectors 37 are connected to
a mixer 38 having a large diameter in the form of letter
Y. They operate to transfer trashy ribbon tapes into the
mixer 38 by compressed air blown in from an air compressor
(not shown~ through the respective neck portions so that
the trashy ribbon tapes collide against and damage one
another.
The compressed air supplied to the ejectors 37 may be
blocked by change-over valves ~not shown) according to
output signals transmitted from the sensors 35. Whenever
either of the sensors 35 detects the front edge of a
rlbbon tape 18, the change-over valves are opened to allow
compressed air to flow into the ejectors from the air
compressor. Likewise, the change-over valves are closed
to block the compressed air from flowing into the ejectors
26
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2~3~ 7~
whenever the rear edge of a ribbon ink is detected by
either of the sensors 35.
The mixer 38 is also connec-ted to an iron pipe 39
having a diameter smaller than its own so that entangled
trashy ribbons coming out from the mixer 38 with com-
pressed air collide against the inner wall of the iron
pipe 39 and are blasted to pieces before they are received
by a metal mesh dust collector 40.
Each of the tension sensors 20 and 22 is so designed
that it vertically shifts its position depending on the
degree of tension of the ribbon tape for which it is
responsible and generates a voltage signal that corre-
sponds to its positional displacement, which is then
transmitted to the controller 28. The controller 28, upon
receiving a voltage signal,either from the tension sensor
20 or 22 so controls the torque motor 42 for driving the
pinch rolls or the torque motor 43 for driving the rotary
shaft that the ribbon tapes restore the specified level of
tension.
The take-up reels 23 are divided into four groups and
rotatably disposed on the respective rotary shafts ~
arranged at four vertically and horizontally different
positions. Take-up reels 23 on a common rotary shaft are
arranged at a constant pitch. As shown in Fig. 3, a pair
of ring-shaped composite sheets 47, each prepared by
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' ' ' ~ '
~1~3~ P~ ~
bonding a rubber sheet 45 and a sheet of glass fiber
reinforced polytetrafluoroethylene 46 by means of a double
side adhesive tape, are disposed between two adjacent
take-up reels 23 with the rubber sheets 45 placed in
contact with the reels. A ring shaped sheet 48 made of
glass cloth impregnated wi-th dispersed polytetrafluoroeth-
ylene is placed between each pair of composite sheets.
Each of the take-up reels 23 accompanied by two pairs of
composite sheets 47 and a pair of glass cloth sheets 48
are pinched from the lateral sides by a pair of keep
plates 49a and 49b, of which the keep plate 49a is rigidly
fitted to the rotary shaft 44 while the keep plate 49b is
slidably fitte~ to the rotary shaft by means of a key 50.
The keep plate 49b is connected to an air cylinder 51 in
such a manner that it can slide to the left on the rotary
shaft as seen in Fig. 3 under the influence of the air
cylinder 51 to further squeeze the take-up reel 23. The
rate of sliding motion of the keep plate 49b is controlled
by a flow rate regulator valve 52 of the air cylinder 51.
Each of the rotary shafts 44 is also provided with a
sensor 54 for detecting the volume of the ribbon tape 1~
taken up by one of the take-up reels 23 it carries. (Fig.
1 shows only one of the sensors arranged on the rotary
shafts.) Each of the sensors is provided with a spindle
(indicated by an arrow poin-ting the lowest take-up reel 23
28
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in Fig.1) which is radially movable depending on the
volume of the ribbon tape 18 carried on the take-up reel
18. The displacement of the spindle is converted to a
voltage signal and transmitted to the controller 28, which
determines the side pressure required to be applied to the
take-up reels 18 on the rotary shaft 44 as a function of
the detected volume of ribbon tape by calculation using a
set of empirical formulas, controls the flow rate regula-
tor valve 52 -to actuate the air cylinder 51 and move the
keep plate 49b so that the side pressure being applied to
the reels agrees with the calculated value. In short, as
the volume of taken up ribbon tapes increases, so is
increased the side pressure applied to the take-up reels
23 correspondingly in order to avoid any idle motion of
any of the take-up reels 23 due to the increased volume of
taken up ribbon tapes.
In a series of experiments conducted by the inventor
of the present invention by using the embodiment, the rate
of splitting amorphous metal foil (the rate at which the
roll of amorphous metal foil is fed to the rotary cutters)
was normally between 80 and 250m/min and advantageously
between 100 and 200m/mln; which is considerably greater
than the rate available with any existing apparatus.
[~xample 1]
Using an apparatus as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, a roll
; 29
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of amorphous metal foil was split at a rate of 200~/min.
Air was blown into the ejectors 37 under a pressure of
5kg/cm3 and trashy ribbon tapes produced from the lateral
marginal portions of the roll were taken into the guide
pipes 36, mixed in the mixer 38 and then passed through
the iron pipe 39 to be blasted to small pieces having a
length between 1 and 50mm. The volume of the blasted
ribbon tapes was less than 1/100 of their volume before
the blastingO The iron pipe had an inner diameter of 28mm
and a length of 130cm.
[Example 2]
A 101.6mm wide roll of amorphous metal foil was
split by cutters to produce nine lOmm wide ribbon tapes,
which were taken up by take-up reels arrange alternately
high and low, five high-positioned reels and four low-
positioned reels, at a rate of lOOmfmin. All the nine
ribbon tapes were taken up under appropriate tension
without showing any slack. No broken tapes were observed
during the operation. The taken up ribbon tapes were
squarely and neatly carried by the reels without showing
any looseness.
The take-up reels were made of hard vinylchloride and
had an inner width of 12mm, an outer width of 16mm, an
core diameter of 160 and an outer diameter of 380mm.
A pair of composite sheets, each prepared by bonding
r~ ~ ~
a O.~mm thick rubber sheet and a l.Omm thick polytetra-
fluoroethylene sheet containing glass fiber with a double
adhesive tape, and a sheet, prepared by impregnating and
dispersing polytetrafluoroethylene in a lOO~m thick glass
cloth and arranged between the composite sheets, were
placed between two adjacent reels. Each of the sheets has
a form of a ring having an inner diameter of 71mm and an
outer diameter of 107mm.
[Example 3]
An experiment same as that of Example 2 above except
that the polytetrafluoroethylene sheets containing glass
fiber were replaced by so many high molecular weight
polyethylene sheets was conducted to-produce nine ribbon
tapes which were taken up by take-up reels under appropri-
ate tension without showing any slack. No ribbon tapes
were broken during the experiment. The taken up ribbon
tapes were squarely and neatly carried by the reels with-
out showing any looseness.
[Example 4]
A 170.18mm wide roll of amorphous metal foil was
split by cutters at a rate of 200m/min to produce sixteen
lOmm wide ribbon tapes, which were taken up by take-up
reels arranged alternately at a high position and a low
position and pivotally supported by two shafts located at
the respective positions, each carrying eight reels.
31
~3~rl~
All the sixteen ribbon tapes we~e taken up under
appropriate tension without showing any slack. No ribbon
tapes were broken during the experiment. The taken up
ribbon tapes were squarely and neatly carried by the reels
without showing any looseness.
~ 'he take-up reels were made of hard vinylchloride and
had an inner width of 12mm, an ou-ter width of 16mm, an
core diameter of 160 and an outer diameter of 380mm.
A pair of composite sheets, each prepared by bonding
a 0.5mm thick rubber sheet and a 0.3mm thick polytetra-
fluoroethylene sheet containing glass fiber with a double
adhesive tape, and a sheet, prepared by impregnating and
dispersing polytetrafluoroethylene in a lOO~m thick glass
cloth and arranged between the composite sheets, were
placed between two adjacent reels. Each of the sheets has
a form of a rlng having an inner diameter of 71mm and an
outer diameter of 107mm.
[~xample 5]
A 170.18mm wide roll of amorphous metal foil was
split by cutters at a rate of 200m/min to produce thirty
three 5mm wide ribbon tapes, which were taken up by take-
up reels arranged alternately at a high position and a low
position and pivotally supported by four shafts located at
the respective positions, carrying respectively eight,
eight, eight and nine reelsO
32
.~11 the thirty three ribbon tapes were taken up under
appropriate tension without showing any sLack. No ribbon
tapes were broken during the experiment. The taken up
ribbon tapes were squarely and neatly carried by the reels
without showing any looseness.
The take-up reels were made of hard vinylchloride and
had an inner width of 7mm, an outer width of 13mm, an core
diameter of 160 and an outer diameter of 380mm.
A pair of composi-te sheets, each prepared by bonding
a 0.5mm thick rubber sheet and a 0.3mm thick polytetra-
fluoroethylene sheet containing glass fiber with a double
adhesive tape, and a sheet, prepared by impregnating and
dispersing polytetrafluoroethylene in a lOO~m thick glass
cloth and arranged between the composite sheets, were
placed between two adjacent reels. Each of the sheets has
a form of a ring having an inner ~iameter of 71mm and an
outer diameter of 107mm.
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