DEVICE AND METHOD FOR MOVING REELS IN AN UNWINDER

• US 20090065626A1
• Filed: 12/29/2006
• Published: 03/12/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Futura S.p.A.
• Original Assignee: Futura S.p.A.
• Inventors: Petri, Stefano
• Granted Patent: US 7,950,602 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 242/558
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 16/06 both-ends type
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 16/106 in which power is applied to web roll
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 19/126 with both-ends supporting arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 2301/41361 sequentially used roll supports for the same web roll
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 2301/4185 Core or mandrel discharge or removal, also organisation of core removal
• CPC Class Codes: B65H 2301/418526 by movement of the mandrel

Abstract

Device for moving paper reels in an unwinder of the type in which a nearly empty reel (1) is moved along a predetermined path between more operating stations in each of which the reel (1) is free to rotate about its longitudinal axis. The device is disposed and acting between the said operating stations and comprises: a carriage (4) intended to support a nearly empty reel (1) and movable between said operating stations, the reel (1) being free to rotate about its longitudinal axis on the carriage (4); a structure (5) supporting said carriage (4); means for moving said carriage (4) between said operating stations; means for controlling said means for moving the carriage (4).

Claims

1. Device for moving paper reels in an unwinder of the type in which a nearly empty reel is moved along a predetermined path between more operating stations in each of which the reel is free to rotate about its longitudinal axis, the device being disposed and acting between the operating stations and comprising:

a carriage intended to support a nearly empty reel and movable between said operating stations, the reel being free to rotate about its longitudinal axis on the carriage;

a structure supporting said carriage;

means for moving said carriage between said operating stations;

means for controlling said means for moving the carriage, wherein said carriage is provided on each of its sides with a brake and two wheels, said brake acting on said wheels for slowing down the rotation of said reel about the longitudinal axis thereof.

2. Device according to claim 1, wherein said path is comprised between a first station in which the reel rotates about its longitudinal axis until the attainment of a condition of incipient exhaustion and a station in which the reel can continue to rotate about its longitudinal axis until the complete exhaustion, that is until a new reel is placed in said first station substituting the nearly empty one.

3. Device according to claim 1, wherein said path is comprised between an intermediate station in which the reel is transferred, coming from a station in which the reel rotates about its longitudinal axis until the attainment of a condition of incipient exhaustion, and a station in which the reel can continue to rotate about its longitudinal axis until its complete exhaustion.

4. Device according to claim 3, further comprising an automatic means for transferring said reel from said station, in which the reel rotates about its longitudinal axis until the attainment of a condition of incipient exhaustion, to said intermediate station, the latter being placed at the beginning of said path.

5. Device according to claim 4, wherein said means executing the transferring of the nearly empty reel from said station to said station comprises two pushers destined to act on two ends of the reel projecting from support seats which are intended to support two axial ends of the reel, in order to push the reel towards said intermediate station and, more, in particular, towards the carriage waiting therein.

6. Device according to claim 5, wherein each of said pushers is constituted of a lever which is hinged, at one of its ends, to a fixed part of the fixed structure of the unwinder, the hinge-axis being parallel to the axis of the reel, and connected, at the opposite end, to an actuator which, when activated, determines the rotation of the same lever about the respective hinge-axis.

7. Device according to claim 1, wherein said structure has two horizontal sides each of which being provided with an external rectilinear track defining a guide element for the carriage.

8. Device according to claim 7, wherein said track is horizontal.

9. Device according to claim 1, wherein said carriage comprises two lateral forks.

10. Device according to claim 9, wherein each of said forks is provided, on its external side, with a lower “

L”

-shaped appendix whose end slides in a track of a corresponding side of the structure.

11. Device according to claim 9, wherein each of said forks supports two wheels.

12. Device according to claim 11, wherein the axes of said two wheels are parallel to the longitudinal axis of the reel, i.e. oriented orthogonally with respect to the arms of the respective fork.

13. Device according to claim 11, wherein said two wheels are mounted on the fork by means of two correspondents pins whose axes are disposed on a same horizontal plane and whose distance is such that, given the external diameter of the wheels, a corresponding end of the core projecting from the reel can be supported on the wheels free to rotate about its own axis.

14. Device according to claim 1, wherein said carriage is moved by means of a mechanism comprising, for each of the two sides of the carriage, a chain connected to a motor-reducer and ring-closed on a plurality transmission spools.

15. Device according to claim 14, wherein said chain is activated bi-directionally by the motor-reducer, moving the carriage alternatively between said operating stations of the unwinder.

16. Device according to claim 1, wherein said braking means comprises a brake with a body with concave frontal surface connected to a linear actuator which, in turn, is fixed on the carriage, said body being behind one of the wheels.

17. Device according to claim 1, wherein said carriage is provided, in correspondence of each of its sides, with a lateral appendix having a concave part.

18. Operating method executable during a change reel cycle in an unwinder, the method comprising:

a step of transferring a nearly empty reel from a station in which the reel rotates about its own longitudinal axis until the attainment of a condition of incipient exhaustion to a station in which it can continue to rotate about its longitudinal axis until the complete exhaustion, that is, until a new reel is disposed in the first station to replace the nearly empty reel, said transferring step being executed at a predetermined speed along a predefined path;

a step of controlling of the rotational speed of said nearly empty reel, wherein said step of controlling the rotational speed of the nearly empty reel is executed at the end of said transferring step by lowering the rotational speed of the nearly empty reel.

19. Method according to claim 18, wherein said transferring is operated in two successive steps, with a step of transferring from said station in which the reel rotates about its own longitudinal axis until the attainment of a condition of incipient exhaustion to an intermediate station and a step of transferring from the intermediate station to said station in which it can continue to rotate about its longitudinal axis until the complete exhaustion.

20. Method according to claim 18, further comprising, subsequently to the transferring of said reel in said station in which it can continue to rotate about its longitudinal axis until the complete exhaustion, a step of positioning the exhausted reel on a conveyer which removes it from the unwinder.

21. Method according to claim 20, wherein during the positioning of the exhausted reel on the conveyer, the exhausted reel is guided.