Dispenser Housing For Wire And The Like

Abstract

A spool for a coil of wire or other product includes a core about which a coil is wound and a housing disposed about the coil. The housing includes a pair of spaced disks to which the core is secured and a cylindrical section disposed between the outer peripheries of the spaced disks. The core consists of a tube and a connector which secures the tube to the disks, whereby the core is removable from the housing while leaving the coil intact within the housing. The two ends of the coil may be led to the center of the coil in such a manner that it is possible to carry out a continuous operation whereby the ends of one spool may be joined to the end of another spool, and this may be repeated as many times as necessary to join any number of spools as one continuous line so that as one coil is unwound, the next one automatically begins to unwind and so on down the line.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a spool and housing therefore for a coil of wire or other product.

Heretofore known spools for wire and the like have not always been satisfactory. For example such spools would result in snarls and tangles in the product, particularly during unwinding. In other known spools, obstructions on the spool would cause snarls or other difficulties principally upon completion of the unwinding. In other known spools, the coiled product was not protected properly and there was no satisfactory arrangement for providing for continuous unwinding from one coil to the next.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to overcome the difficulties and disadvantages of prior art devices by the provision of a spool housing which is constructed and arranged to avoid snarls and tangles during unwinding and which is readily adaptable to provide for a continuous unwinding operation of a plurality of spools.

According to one embodiment of the invention, there is provided a spool housing which can be dismantled into several parts, and wherein the core about which the coil is wound may be removed from the housing so as to permit the coil to be unwound from the inside where the core had been located before its removal. The ends of different spools may be joined, and this may be repeated as many times as necessary, to join any number of coils as one long continuous line so that as one coil is unwound, the next one automatically begins to unwind and so on down the line.

The foregoing and other objects and features of the invention will become apparent from the following description and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a spool housing according to one embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the spool housing shown in FIG. 1.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows a spool housing which includes a cylindrical body 10 made up of two equal sections 12 and 14. Each section 12 and 14 has a pair of circular ring sections 16 and 18 joined by longitudinally disposed ribs 20. Each section 12 and 14 has a pair of spaced lugs 22, 24 at one end and three spaced lugs 25, 26, 27 at the other end. The lugs 22, 24 of one housing section 12 or 14 are adapted to fit in between the spaced lugs 25, 26, 27 of the other housing section as shown in FIG. 1, so that a connecting member such as a pin 21 or the like can be passed through the openings of the aligned lugs 22, 24, 25, 26, 27 to thereby secure the two housing section 12, 14 together. A pad of flexible material 28, for example rubber, is disposed on the inner side of each housing section 12, 14. The pad of flexible material 28 presses on the outer layer of the coil 29 of wire or other product wound on the spool housing and prevents said coil 29 from becoming in a condition of disarray or otherwise tangled or deformed, thus avoiding great difficulty during the final unwinding. Alternatively, strips or an assembly of prongs may be used instead of the pad 28.

Two disks 30, 32 including inner and outer ring elements 31, 33 joined by spoke elements 35 are held or pressed in the assembled housing and held against the inner longitudinal edges of the annular flange 34 on each longitudinal end of each housing section 12, 14. Also a core cylindrical tube 36 is held or pressed in the assembled housing and held against or pressed by means of its longitudinal edges or flanges 37 against the two disks 30, 32.

A connecting member 38 is provided to connect the two longitudinal edges 40,42 of the cylindrical core tube 36 together and to secure the cylindrical core tube 36 in its place in the spool assembly. To this end the connecting member 38 has lugs 44, 46 on either end whereby each lug 44, 46 has a hole to facilitate securing the connecting member 38 in place on the disks 30, 32. The lugs 44, 46 hold the tube 36 and flanges 37 in place on the disks 30, 32. The connecting member 38 has openings 48, 50 through which the ends of the coil 29 are led to the interior of the cylindrical core tube 36.

One of the ribs 35 on the disk 30 has a half-round groove 52 extending radially along the rib 35.

The end of the coil of wire 29 passes from the last exterior turn through the half round groove 52, through opening 48 in connector 38 and thence into the interior of the cylindrical core tube 36.

In operation, the connector 38 is removed from the core tube 36 from the interior of the latter by removing the fastening elements which pass through the openings in the lugs 44, 46 in the connector 38 to the disks 30, 32. The connector 38 is removable from the inside of the core tube 36. Next the core tube 36 is removed from the assembly. The two ends of the coil 29, which had passed through openings 48, 50 in the connector 38 to the interior of the core tube 36 are drawn out of the openings 48, 50 to permit the connector 38 and core tube 36 to be removed.

Once the connector 38 and tube 36 are removed, the two ends of the coil 29 will be disposed in the center of the coil 29. One of the ends 60 comprises the continuation of the last exterior turn on the coil 29 which had been passed to the center throught the half round groove 52. The other end comprises the end of the interior turn which had passed through the opening 50 in connector 38 and which passes directly to the wire consuming device (not shown). The end 60, if desired, may be joined or connected with the interior wire end coming out from a second spool housing and continued in this manner to any number of spools.

From the above description it will be seen that there has been described a spool device in which the core can readily be removed from the spool housing so that the coil in the housing can be unwound from the interior, that is from where the core had previously been located. By using the spool device described above, on which any type of material can be wound, it is possible to carry out a continuous operation whereby the ends of a plurality of coils on such spools can be joined, for example, by welding, loops, bindings and the like. Thus the end of one coil on one spool may be joined to the end of another coil on another spool, and this may be repeated as many times as necessary to join any number of coils as one long continuous line so that as one coil is unwound, the next one automatically begins to unwind and so on down the line.

By using the spool housing hereinabove described, snarls and tangling are eliminated, and bracing of the wire is thus obtained, particularly when completing the unwinding of a spool as on conventional devices where obstructions appear without any protection which are commonly used with such conventional wire binding used as straps.

It is understood that the foregoing description is illustrative of a preferred embodiment of this invention and the scope of the invention is not to be limited thereto, but is to be determined by the appended claims.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A spool for a coil comprising a housing means about said coil, a core means secured to said housing, said coil being disposed about said core means, said housing having a pair of disk elements to which said core means is secured, said core means comprising a tube element and a connector element which secures the tube element to said pair of disks, said core means being removable while leaving said coil intact within said housing.

2. A spool according to claim 1 wherein said core means has an opening through which is passed the end portion of said coil.

3. A spool according to claim 1 wherein said connector element has a pair of openings through which both ends of the coil are passed to the interior of the core means.

4. A spool according to claim 1 wherein one of said disks has a groove therein extending radially to pass the end portion of the last exterior turn of the coil to the interior of said core means.

5. A spool for a coil according to claim 1 wherein said housing comprises an outer cylindrical means abutting the outer radial edge portions of said two disks, whereby said cylindrical means and said two disks define a housing for the coil which is disposed on said core means.

6. A spool for a coil according to claim 5 wherein said cylindrical means is made in two semi-circular halves, and means detachably joining said two semi-circular halves.

7. A spool according to claim 6 wherein said joining means comprises longitudinally aligned lugs, and wherein said connector means has lugs secured to said two disks.

8. A spool according to claim 1 wherein said core means is constructed and arranged to be removed from the spool while leaving the coil intact within the housing, and wherein the two ends of the coil are disposed within the interior of the coil after the core means is removed.

9. A spool according to claim 1 wherein said cylindrical means has a flexible material disposed on the interior cylindrical wall thereof and adapted to engage the outer exterior layer of said coil.

10. A spool according to claim 1 wherein strips are disposed on the inner cylindrical wall of said cylindrical means.