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Ta-Da! a 6-month design bears fruit!

One huge problem I've had is feeding flat wire into machines. For years, I've used a feeder design that used spring-loaded pinch rollers on 1-way clutches cycled back and forth with an air cylinder. The variances in the wire's hardness, oiliness, surface finish, etc. would cause havoc. And, just the mass of the rollers would cause over-feed. We coped.

The new design uses no moving parts other than the cylinder and linear bearing car. The wire is controlled by a pinch roller that is just a standard 1/2" round carbide insert. The roller rides in a angled pocket with a small spring to coax it into the lower end of the pocket and pinch the wire against a hard block. If you pull on the wire in one direction, the roller jams the wire tight against the block. Pull in the other direction and the roller releases the wire and it moves easily. This replaces the 1-way clutches. The trick is the angle! Too little and the roller stays jammed tight, too much and the roller lets the wire slip.

The first prototype used 8 degrees in the pocket, it stayed jammed sometimes. The next try was 20 degrees with the intention of finding the far end where the wire constantly slipped. But, to our delight, 20 degrees just happened to be perfect. We went one whole day without a single wire problem and logged a15% increase in average productivity. I know that one day is too small of a test but it is a great start. (one step closer to retirement!)

We are currently building a new machine that will incorporate a bunch of new ideas designed to eliminate or reduce the various problems. I think we can improve an average 30% down-time to less than 10%. I have another wire feeder design that is just coming up on the machining schedule. It's based on an entirely different idea using gears pinching the wire. We also made the machine reset automatically, added warning lights for the operator to know if the machine is ready, reset, blocks clamped, etc. We also added a VFD and tachometer to fine-tune the speed, beefed-up weak subsystems and made a bunch of ergonomic changes. (another step closer to retirement!)

Reply to
Tom Gardner
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========== Congratulations on your successful improvements.

Thanks for keeping the group in the loop.

It is good to see that American iniative and inventiveness are not dead, just squashed in too many huge organizations.

Unka' George [George McDuffee]

------------------------------------------- He that will not apply new remedies, must expect new evils: for Time is the greatest innovator: and if Time, of course, alter things to the worse, and wisdom and counsel shall not alter them to the better, what shall be the end?

Francis Bacon (1561-1626), English philosopher, essayist, statesman. Essays, "Of Innovations" (1597-1625).

Reply to
F. George McDuffee

Congratulations! The joy of making something finally work keeps me going more than the paycheck. Course, it IS nice to be able to pay all your bills.

My "task of this year" has been noise reduction on the packing line. One more trouble area left. When I'm done, we should be able to talk quietly to each other while we work. Maybe don't seem like a big deal to most, but working in the noise all day just wears you down a bit more than necessary.

Karl

Reply to
Karl Townsend

All 12 of my wooden block brush machines used to have an impeller on the drill quill spinning at 10k. We replaced all of them with external evacuators that are dead quiet. We dropped the sound level 100db! Huge difference!

Reply to
Tom Gardner

Tom,

Clever!!!

That 20 degree angle is measured from the surface of the wire or from the normal to the wire???

This might be overkill but have you ever looked at flat stock feeders for punch presses? These are now all pneumatic and can be adjusted to very accurate and repetitive feed lengths. Perhaps a review of same may inspire a brain storm!

Congrats,

Wolfgang

Reply to
wfhabicher

Another good application of a great old idea. If you can find a new application that someone hasn't though of yet for it you might be able to make a million. The spindle lock on my Starrett micrometer uses the same principle and IIRC a guy made a lot of money by using it in a fencing fastener such as for cattle fencing.

Reply to
David Billington

This is why you ALWAYS question people stuck in a "That's the way we've always done it!" loop. Just because your grandfather figured out one way to do something that works does NOT mean there aren't several better ways to do it.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

Will all the noise you are eliminating be replaced by the employees ghetto blasters?

Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

Reply to
Wes

On Sat, 30 Aug 2008 13:30:44 -0700, Bruce L. Bergman

SNIP

Hey Bruce,

But just as relevant is that just because you are young or new does not automatically mean that the old and ancient ways are not correct or viable.

Over the years I recall going through about 8 new young "managers" right out of college or new to the business who thought many of our old ways were outdated. I fought their lack of knowledge for the first few times, and then relented when I realized they needed to find out for themselves, and that trashing their spirits on day one wasn't a good thing.

Take care.

Brian Lawson, Bothwell, Ontario.

Reply to
Brian Lawson

Funny you say that, I contacted the blokes at Rapidair and sent them samples. They do that sort of thing and are known in our industry for feeding coil stock into strip brush machines. The engineers there pondered my application for a week and then I got the call that after much coffee and danish, they were going to bail. They didn't like the idea of feeding 3 wires at a time.

Reply to
Tom Gardner

I let the camel's nose in the tent on this ONCE. By the end of the season we had customers complaining about loud noisy music. Now, I put the radio on WCCO, local news/talk, nobody wants that too loud.

Karl

Reply to
Karl Townsend

On Sat, 30 Aug 2008 18:37:02 -0400, with neither quill nor qualm, Wes quickly quoth:

Nah. Lezbo Muzak.

-- The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man. -- Euripides

Reply to
Larry Jaques

On Sat, 30 Aug 2008 20:12:49 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, "Karl Townsend" quickly quoth:

Oops, I thought Tawm had posted that message. Sorry, Karl.

-- The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live that way, you are really a wise man. -- Euripides

Reply to
Larry Jaques

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