U.S. patent application number 10/596697 was filed with the patent office on 2007-11-29 for covering for welding wire container.
This patent application is currently assigned to SIDERGAS SPA. Invention is credited to Carlo Gelmetti.
Application Number | 20070272573 10/596697 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 34673019 |
Filed Date | 2007-11-29 |
United States Patent
Application |
20070272573 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Gelmetti; Carlo |
November 29, 2007 |
Covering for Welding Wire Container
Abstract
A cover (24) for a welding wire container (10,12) is shown,
having an upper surface (26) provided with a slot (32) through
which the welding wire (16) can be withdrawn from the container,
and having spacing means (34) which define an inner portion (36)
and an outer portion (38) of the slot such that welding wire
extending through the inner portion of the slot is held spaced from
welding wire extending through the outer portion of the slot.
Inventors: |
Gelmetti; Carlo; (Lazise,
IT) |
Correspondence
Address: |
HAYES SOLOWAY P.C.
3450 E. SUNRISE DRIVE, SUITE 140
TUCSON
AZ
85718
US
|
Assignee: |
SIDERGAS SPA
Viale Rimembranza 17,
Ambrogio di Valpolicella
IT
I-37010S
|
Family ID: |
34673019 |
Appl. No.: |
10/596697 |
Filed: |
December 21, 2004 |
PCT Filed: |
December 21, 2004 |
PCT NO: |
PCT/EP04/14554 |
371 Date: |
June 21, 2006 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
206/395 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B23K 9/133 20130101;
B65D 85/04 20130101; B65H 49/12 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
206/395 |
International
Class: |
B65D 85/00 20060101
B65D085/00 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Dec 22, 2003 |
DE |
103 60 466.9 |
Claims
1-23. (canceled)
24. A cover for a welding wire container having an upper surface
provided with a slot through which the welding wire can be
withdrawn from the container, and having a spacer which defines an
inner portion and an outer portion of the slot such that welding
wire extending through the inner portion of the slot is held spaced
from welding wire extending through the outer portion of the
slot.
25. The cover of claim 24, wherein the spacer is formed such as its
spacing effect can be overcome by the welding wire.
26. The cover of claim 24, wherein the spacer is attached to the
cover so as to be at least partially detachable from the cover.
27. The cover of claim 24, wherein the spacer is formed so as to be
destructible.
28. The cover of claim 24, wherein the spacer is formed so as to be
deflectable such that the welding wire is allowed to pass the
spacer when the spacer is in a deflected condition.
29. The cover of claim 24, wherein the spacer is formed from an
adhesive strip.
30. The cover of claim 24, wherein the spacer is formed from a
label attached to the cover.
31. The cover of claim 29, wherein the spacer is formed from an
inner label and an outer label.
32. The cover of claim 31, wherein the inner and outer labels each
have an opening for the welding wire.
33. The cover of claim 29, wherein the spacer is formed from a
single adhesive strip.
34. The cover of claim 24, wherein the spacer is a plate attached
to an upper surface of the cover.
35. The cover of claim 34, wherein the plate is attached to the
upper surface of the cover on one side of the slot only.
36. The cover of claim 24, wherein the spacer is formed of
plastic.
37. The cover of claim 24, wherein the spacer comprises at least
one narrow portion of the slot at which edges of the slot are
arranged opposite each other with a distance which is smaller than
a diameter of the welding wire.
38. The cover of claim 24, wherein the slot extends from an edge of
the cover towards and beyond a center of the cover.
39. The cover of claim 24, wherein an elevated portion is provided
in a center of the cover.
40. The cover of claim 39, wherein the elevated portion has a shape
of a truncated cone.
41. The cover of claim 39, wherein the elevated portion has a shape
of a truncated pyramid.
42. The cover of claim 41, wherein the slot crosses one side
surface and a top surface of the truncated pyramid and extends over
almost an entire opposite side surface of the truncated
pyramid.
43. The cover of claim 24, wherein the slot has a width of
approximately 20 mm.
44. A welding wire container having a body for accommodation of a
welding wire coil, and an upper opening through which welding wire
can be withdrawn from the body, and having a spacer which allows to
separate a welding wire portion currently withdrawn from a welding
wire portion leading to another welding wire container.
45. A welding wire container having a body for accommodation of a
welding wire coil, and an upper opening through which welding wire
can be withdrawn from the body, and having a spacer which allows to
separate a welding wire portion currently withdrawn from a welding
wire portion leading to another welding wire container, wherein the
spacer is provided on a cover according to claim 1.
46. The welding wire container of claim 44, wherein the spacer is
arranged inside the body close to the opening.
Description
[0001] The invention relates to a cover for a welding wire
container and to a welding wire container having a cover.
[0002] Welding wire for automatic welding machines is provided in
coils, each coil being placed in a container. On top of the
container, a cover is provided in order to prevent dirt or other
contaminations from entering into the container. The cover
typically consists of cardboard or of a plastics material.
[0003] In order to continuously feed welding wire to the welding
machine, it is known to use two containers, namely a first
container which currently provides the welding wire, and a second
container which is being used as soon as the wire from the first
container has been entirely consumed. The end of the welding wire
of the first container is joined to the beginning of the welding
wire of the second container so that a continuous supply of the
welding wire is ensured. After the first container is empty and the
welding wire is being withdrawn from the second container, the
first container is replaced by a new container, and the beginning
of the welding wire of the new container is joined to the end of
the welding wire from the container currently used.
[0004] Essential for the proper function of such system is that the
welding wire does not entangle or kink, in particular when the
welding wire of one container has been almost entirely consumed so
that the small remaining portion of the welding wire is withdrawn
from the container. With known systems, no cover is provided on the
container in order to ensure proper switching from one container to
the other. Using an open container however results in contamination
of the welding wire.
[0005] WO 02/094493 shows a system with two containers in which a
runner is arranged on the welding wire. The runner is a solid body
and is intended to prevent kinks in the wire by means of its
weights. However, this solution has proven to not work
satisfactorily.
[0006] The object of the invention is to provide a cover for a
welding wire container which prevents entanglement or kinks in the
welding wire, in particular when the system is switching from one
container to the other, while at the same time allowing to use a
cover for closing the container.
[0007] To this end, the invention provides a cover for a welding
wire container, having an upper surface provided with a slot
through which the welding wire can be withdrawn from the container,
and having spacing means which define an inner portion and an outer
portion of the slot such that welding wire extending through the
inner portion of the slot is held spaced from welding wire
extending through the outer portion of the slot. The invention is
based on the recognition that it is possible to combine both a
cover for the container so as to prevent dirt and other
contaminations from entering into the container, and a means for
preventing entanglement of the wire and kinks in the wire, in
particular in the phase in which the system switches from one
container to the other. The invention basically consists in
provision of a spacing means on a cover, the spacing means holding
the two portions of the welding wire of one container spaced apart,
namely the portion being fed to the welding machine and the portion
extending towards the other container. The cover effectively
prevents dirt and other contaminations from entering the container
as the slot forms only a very small opening in the cover (less than
1% of the overall surface).
[0008] According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the
spacing means is formed such that its spacing effect can be
overcome by the welding wire. This allows the welding wire to
escape from the container currently used such that the system can
switch to the subsequent container, without any external
interference. The pulling force acting on the welding wire when
being withdrawn from the container allows to automatically make the
spacing means ineffective.
[0009] The spacing means can be overcome by either at least
partially detaching the spacing means from the cover, by
destructing the spacing means or by deflecting the spacing means so
as to allow the welding wire to escape through the slot.
[0010] In a simple embodiment, the spacing means can be formed by
an adhesive strip. The strip is attached to the cover so as to
close an intermediate portion of the slot, leaving open an inner
portion and an outer portion.
[0011] In another embodiment, the spacing means if formed from two
narrow portions of the slot. These narrow portions hold the welding
wire portions extending through the cover spaced from each other
while at the same time allowing the wire to pass through when
switching from the currently used container to the subsequent
container.
[0012] According to an alternative embodiment, the spacing means is
formed from a plate attached to the upper surface of the cover. The
plate can be attached to the upper surface of the cover on one side
of the slot only, which allows the spacing means to be bent
upwardly when the welding wire seeks to escape through the slot. As
an alternative, the plate could be attached to the cover so as to
detach therefrom under the traction force of the welding wire.
[0013] According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, the
slot in the cover extends from an edge of the cover towards the
center and beyond the center. This gives the welding wire a certain
freedom of movement, contributing to the prevention of entanglement
and kinks.
[0014] The invention is now described in detail by means of a
preferred embodiment which is shown in the drawings. In the
drawings,
[0015] FIG. 1 shows a side view of a system using two welding wire
containers with covers according to the invention;
[0016] FIG. 2 shows a side view of the system of FIG. 1;
[0017] FIG. 3 shows in an enlarged view a container according to a
first embodiment of the invention;
[0018] FIG. 4 shows a perspective view of the cover shown in FIG.
3;
[0019] FIG. 5 shows a top view of a cover according to a second
embodiment of the invention; and
[0020] FIG. 6 shows a top view of a cover according to a third
embodiment of the invention.
[0021] FIG. 1 shows a first welding wire container 10 and a second
welding wire container 12. Both welding wire containers contain a
coil 14 of welding wire 16. The end portion 18 of the welding wire
contained in the first container 10 is joined by a butt welding to
the beginning or front portion 20 of the welding wire coil
contained in the second container 12. The welding wire 16 is
withdrawn from the welding wire containers 10, 12 through a feeding
system 22 which is only schematically depicted.
[0022] On top of each container 10, 12 a cover 24 (see also FIGS. 3
and 4) is arranged. Each cover has an upper surface 26 which closes
an upper opening of the respective container, and side walls 28
extending from the upper surface 26 and positioning the cover on
the respective container.
[0023] In the center of the upper surface 26, a truncated pyramid
30 is provided. Further, a slot 32 is provided in the upper surface
26. The slot 32 extends from an edge of the cover 24 towards and
beyond the center of the upper surface 26. As can be seen in FIGS.
3 and 4, the slot 32 extends over the left side surface and the
upper surface of the truncated pyramid 30 and over almost the
entire right side surface.
[0024] A spacing means 34 is provided on the upper surface of the
cover. The spacing means 34 divides the slot 32 into an inner
portion 36 and an outer portion 38. The welding wire feed to the
welding machine extends through the inner portion 36 of slot 32,
and the end portion of the welding wire coil connected to the
forward end of the subsequent welding wire coil extends through the
outer portion 38 of the slot 32.
[0025] The spacing means 34, in the preferred embodiment, is formed
from a plastic plate attached to the upper surface 26 of the cover
24 on one side of the slot 32 only. This attachment is
schematically shown with reference numeral 40 in FIGS. 3 and 4.
[0026] During operation, the welding wire is withdrawn from the
respective container through the inner portion 36 of the slot.
After the welding wire stored in the respective container has been
entirely used, only a small loop 42 of welding wire (please see
FIG. 1) remains in the container. The spacing means 34 ensures that
the welding wire portion leading to the subsequent welding wire
container is held spaced apart from the portion currently withdrawn
from the container. This prevents any entanglement and kinks in the
welding wire. If the welding wire is continued to be withdrawn from
the container, loop 42 bends spacing means 34 upwardly on the side
opposite attachment 40 so that the welding wire entirely escapes
from the first container. The system then automatically continues
to withdraw the welding wire from the second container.
[0027] FIG. 5 shows a cover in which the spacing means is formed
from two separate adhesive paper labels attached to the cover
spaced from each other. One of the labels holds the end portion 18
of the welding wire in the outer portion 38 of the slot 32, and a
second label holds the wire portion currently withdrawn in the
inner portion 36 of the slot. When the system is switching from the
currently used container to the subsequently used container, the
paper labels are ruptured so as to allow the welding wire to escape
from the container through the slot.
[0028] FIG. 6 shows a third embodiment which largely corresponds to
the second embodiment. In the third embodiment, the two labels are
formed from a stronger material such as plastic, leather or
cardboard. In order to allow the welding wire to escape through the
slot when switching from the currently used container to the
subsequently used container, the labels are provided with a
preformed cut which makes it easier for the welding wire to escape
from the labels.
* * * * *