Brush filling machine, method for filling brushes, and use of a preloaded force sensor

Abstract

The invention relates, inter alia, to a brush filling machine (1) comprising a filling tool (2) which has a rammer tongue (3) designed to fill bristle bundles (4) into bundle receiving holes (5) in a brush body (6), wherein the brush filling machine (1) has a force sensor (10) which is preloaded with a preloading force (24) in the starting position and which is designed to measure a force resulting from a filling force (25) acting on the rammer tongue (3) when filling bristle bundles (4) and from the preloading force (24) applied to the force sensor (10) in the starting position.

Description

[0001] PC 231386 J December 27, 2023 Brush tucking machine, method for tucking brushes, and use of a prestressed force sensor The invention relates to a brush tucking machine, a method for tucking brushes, and the use of a force sensor prestressed with a prestressing force on a brush tucking machine. Brush tucking machines are used to manufacture brushes and, specifically, to tuck bristle bundles into tuft receiving holes in brush bodies, thus creating a bristle covering on a brush. For this purpose, brush tucking machines have a tufting tool with a pusher tongue designed and provided to tuck bristle bundles into tuft receiving holes in a brush body. As a rule, the bristle bundles are tucked into the tuft receiving holes together with fastening anchors and anchored there.To prevent damage to the brush tucking machine, it can be useful to monitor the tucking force acting on the pusher tongue when tucking in bristle bundles. If the tucking force acting on the pusher tongue falls outside a tolerance range, this may indicate damage to the pusher tongue or contamination or wear of the tucking tool and thus the need for cleaning or maintenance of the brush tucking machine. If the tucking force acting on the pusher tongue becomes too great, this can, in the worst case, lead to a breakage of the pusher tongue or to damage to a drive of the brush tucking machine and thus to a failure of the brush tucking machine. The object of the invention is to prevent damage to a brush tucking machine during the production of brushes.To achieve this objective, a brush tucking machine is proposed with the means and features of the independent claim directed to such a brush tucking machine. Specifically, to achieve this objective, a brush tucking machine with a tucking tool is proposed, which has a pusher tongue configured to tuck bristle bundles, in particular together with fastening anchors, into bundle receiving holes of a brush body. The brush tucking machine has a force sensor preloaded with a preload force in its initial position, which is configured to measure a force resulting from a tucking force acting on the pusher tongue when tucking bristle bundles and the preload force applied to the force sensor in its initial position. The preload force and the tucking force can be at least partially opposed to one another. The resulting force can be measured to determine the tucking force.The tamping force can be determined from the force measured with the force sensor, which results from the preload force and the tamping force, particularly if the preload force is known. The force sensor can be used to determine whether the tamping force is within its tolerance range. If the tamping force is outside its tolerance range, this may indicate a malfunction in the brush tamping machine. A reduction in the power of the brush tamping machine or even shutdown of the brush tamping machine may then be necessary. If the force sensor is relieved by the tamping force, i.e. the resulting force from the preload force and tamping force is smaller than the preload force applied to the force sensor in its initial position, damage to the force sensor can be effectively avoided even as the tamping force increases.The degree to which the force sensor is relieved then corresponds to the degree to which the pusher tongue is loaded by the tamping force and can be used to monitor the tamping process, the brush tamping machine, and in particular to monitor the pusher tongue. The brush tamping machine can comprise a drive that is connected to the pusher tongue via a force transmission lever and is designed to drive the pusher tongue in a tamping movement. The force transmission lever can be preloaded against the force sensor to preload the force sensor in the tamping direction. The force transmission lever thus has a dual function: On the one hand, it transmits the drive movement and drive force of the brush tamping machine drive to the pusher tongue. On the other hand, it ensures the preload of the force sensor.In one embodiment of the brush tamping machine, the force transmission lever is movably mounted and / or flexible in such a way that the force sensor can be relieved by the tamping force acting on the force transmission lever via the tamping tongue, in particular against the tamping direction of the tamping tongue. The relief of the force sensor counteracts the preload force applied to the force sensor in the initial position, so that a correspondingly reduced resultant force can be measured with the force sensor. The preload force acting on the force sensor in the initial position can be dimensioned such that force transmission contact between the force transmission lever and the force sensor is canceled as soon as the tamping force reaches a defined overload force. In this case, the tamping force cancels out the preload force, and the resulting force PC 231386 J 4 / 22 December 27, 2023 is zero or even negative, i.e. directed away from the force sensor.Due to its flexibility and / or movable bearing, the force transmission lever can then detach from the force sensor due to the tamping force it absorbs. The force sensor is then relieved, from which it can be deduced that the tamping force has at least reached the value of the overload force. The flexibility and / or movable bearing of the force transmission lever can simultaneously provide overload protection for the ram tongue, which can protect the ram tongue from damage. If the force transmission lever can deflect against the tamping direction or at least remain stationary due to its movable bearing and / or flexibility when the preload force is removed by a sufficiently high tamping force, the transmission of a tamping force exceeding the overload force to the ram tongue can be avoided, thus protecting the ram tongue.As soon as a defined overload force acts on the push rod, which may, for example, be so great that it is still tolerated by the push rod without failure, the force transmission lever, which is held preloaded against the force sensor, can detach from the force sensor. This is detectable by a corresponding signal or by a corresponding drop in the signal from the force sensor. Because the force transmission lever detaches from the force sensor in this overload case, damage to the force transmission lever, the force sensor, and ultimately also the push rod can be effectively avoided. As soon as the overload force is reached, the preload force with which the force transmission lever is held preloaded against the force sensor in its initial position is overcome, and the force transmission lever and the force sensor can detach from each other. PC 231386 J 5 / 22 December 27, 2023In a preferred embodiment of the brush tamping machine, it has a tongue lever consisting of at least two parts. One part of the tongue lever is a drive lever, and a second part of the tongue lever is the previously mentioned power transmission lever. The drive lever can be connected at one end, for example via a connecting rod, to the drive of the brush tamping machine, and at another end to the power transmission lever. Via the drive lever of the tongue lever, a drive force and a drive movement of the drive can be transmitted first to the power transmission lever and from there to the pusher tongue in order to move the pusher tongue in the tamping movement. The drive lever and the power transmission lever can be connected to one another in an articulated manner such that the force sensor is relieved by the tamping force acting on the power transmission lever via the pusher tongue, counter to the tamping direction.If a tamping force that cancels the preload is applied, for example, the previously mentioned overload force, the force transmission contact between the force transmission lever and the force sensor can be completely eliminated. Specifically, this can mean that when the overload force acting on the force transmission lever occurs, the force transmission lever and the drive lever change their angular position relative to each other. Due to the articulated connection between the drive lever and the force transmission lever, the force transmission lever and the drive lever can change their relative position relative to each other upon further movement of the drive lever, thereby relieving the load on the force sensor. This effectively prevents damage to the two-part tongue lever, in particular the force transmission lever, and also to the pusher tongue.Because the preload force with which the force transmission lever is preloaded against the force sensor is removed when the overload force occurs, the force transmission contact between the force transmission lever and the force sensor can be removed. This leads to a corresponding drop in or even a lack of a sensor signal from the force sensor. The drop in or lack of a sensor signal can indicate a malfunction of the brush tamping machine. The force then measured with the force sensor, resulting from the tamping force and preload force, can be zero in this case. In a preferred embodiment of the brush tamping machine, the force sensor is arranged between the drive lever and the force transmission lever. The force sensor can, for example, be arranged on the drive lever.Due to its position between the drive lever and the power transmission lever, the force sensor can particularly reliably detect the force resulting from the tamping force acting on the power transmission lever against the tamping direction and the preload force. The brush tamping machine can have a preload device for generating the preload force acting on the force sensor. The previously mentioned power transmission lever can be preloaded against the force sensor by the preload device, particularly in the tamping direction. PC 231386 J 7 / 22 December 27, 2023 The preload device can be arranged, for example, on the drive lever. The preload device can further have a compression spring that generates the preload force. The magnitude of the preload force can be dimensioned such that the preload is released when the overload force occurs. This can protect the force sensor from overload.The brush tamping machine can have a control unit. The control unit can be configured to reduce the tamping speed of the push-pull tongue or to stop the push-pull tongue as soon as the resulting force applied to the force sensor reaches or falls below a limit value. The control unit can be configured to control a drive of the brush tamping machine, for example the one already mentioned, depending on a sensor signal from the force sensor. In particular, the control unit can be configured to reduce the speed of the drive or to stop the drive as soon as the resulting force applied to the force sensor reaches or falls below a limit value. The control unit can stop the drive of the brush tamping machine, for example, as soon as the force sensor is completely relieved of load.The limit value of the resultant force that must be reached or undershot to reduce the tamping speed of the pusher tongue and / or to reduce the speed of the drive can be greater than the limit value of the resultant force that must be reached or undershot to stop the pusher tongue and / or the drive. To achieve the object, a method for tamping brushes using a brush tamping machine according to the invention is also proposed. It is provided that bristle bundles are tamped into bundle receiving holes of brush bodies using the pusher tongue of the tamping tool of the brush tamping machine. To determine a tamping force acting on the pusher tongue, a force resulting from the pretensioning force and the tamping force is measured with the force sensor, and the tamping force is derived therefrom.The tamping force can be derived from the measured resultant force, for example, using the previously mentioned control unit of the brush manufacturing machine. In one embodiment of the method, a tamping speed is reduced or a tamping process is interrupted as soon as the resultant force reaches or falls below a limit value. In one embodiment of the method, a control unit of the brush tamping machine reduces the speed of the drive of the brush tamping machine or stops the drive as soon as the resultant force reaches or falls below a limit value. The drive can be stopped, for example, when there is no longer any preload force applied to the force sensor, i.e., the resultant force measured by the force sensor is zero.In one embodiment of the method, it is provided that the force sensor and the force transmission lever of the aforementioned brush manufacturing machine move away from each other with increasing tamping force and even detach from each other when the tamping force is so great that it cancels out the preload force acting on the force sensor. PC 231386 J 9 / 22 December 27, 2023 To achieve the object, the use of a force sensor preloaded with a preload force on a brush tamping machine is also proposed for determining a tamping force by measuring a force resulting from the preload force and the tamping force with the force sensor. The force sensor can be preloaded, for example, by a force transmission lever between a drive and a pusher tongue of the brush tamping machine. The tamping force can be a tamping force acting on a pusher tongue of the brush tamping machine.The invention is described in more detail below using an exemplary embodiment, but is not limited to this exemplary embodiment. Further exemplary embodiments arise from combining the features of individual or multiple claims with one another and / or from combining individual or multiple features of the exemplary embodiment.: Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a brush tamping machine with a tamping tool, wherein a pusher tongue of the tamping tool is connected to a drive of the brush tamping machine via a two-part tongue lever, wherein a force sensor is arranged between a drive lever and a power transmission lever of the two-part tongue lever, against which force sensor the power transmission lever is pretensioned in the tamping direction with a defined pretensioning force, and Figure 2 shows a diagram with a characteristic curve of the force sensor of the brush tamping machine shown in Figure 1, wherein the diagram shows a size of a sensor signal of the force sensor versus the force acting on the force sensor. PC 231386 J 10 / 22 December 27, 2023 Figure 1 shows a brush tamping machine, designated as a whole by 1. The brush tamping machine 1 has a tamping tool 2 which comprises a pusher tongue 3.The pusher tongue 3 is configured to stuff bristle bundles 4, together with fastening anchors, into bundle receiving holes 5 of a brush body 6. The brush stuffing machine 1 has a drive 7, which is connected to the pusher tongue 3 via a power transmission lever 8 and is configured to drive the pusher tongue 3 in a stuffing movement. Figure 1 shows that the power transmission lever 8 is preloaded against a force sensor 10 in a stuffing direction of the pusher tongue 3, indicated by the arrow 9. The direction of a preload force acting on the force sensor 10 is illustrated by the arrow 24 in Figure 1. The force sensor 10 preloaded with the preload force 24 is configured to measure a force resulting from the preload force 24 and a stuffing force 25 acting on the pusher tongue 3 when stuffing bristle bundles 4.The force sensor 10 in the brush tamping machine 1 shown in Figure 1 is arranged in such a way that it is relieved by the tamping force 25 acting on the force transmission lever 8 via the push rod 3, opposite to the tamping direction 9. As the tamping force increases, the resulting force measurable with the force sensor 10 therefore decreases. The relief of the force sensor 10 with increasing tamping force is made possible by a correspondingly movable mounting of the force transmission lever 8. The force transmission lever 8 is movably mounted and initially connected to the force sensor 10 in such a way that the force sensor 10 is relieved by the tamping force 25 acting on the force transmission lever 8 via the push rod 3, opposite to the tamping direction 9 of the push rod 3.If a stuffing force 24 acting opposite to the stuffing direction 9 of the push rod 3 is applied, equal to an overload force so great that it cancels the preload of the force transmission lever 8 against the force sensor 10, a force transmission contact between the force transmission lever 8 and the force sensor 10 is canceled. The relief of the load on the force sensor 10 that occurs when the push rod 3 is loaded is detected by the force sensor 10 as a change in the resulting force and leads to the output of a corresponding sensor signal. The sensor signal represents the resulting force currently applied to the force sensor 10 and allows a conclusion to be drawn about the specific stuffing force 25 applied and thus about the load to which the push rod 3 is exposed. Since the force sensor 10 is relieved by a load on the push rod 3 opposite to the stuffing direction 9, there is no risk of damage to the force sensor 10 if the push rod 3 is overloaded in this direction.The force sensor 10 is thus effectively protected from damage without, however, impairing the monitoring of the pusher tongue 3. The brush tamping machine 1 has a two-part tongue lever 11, wherein one part of the tongue lever 11 is a drive lever 12 and a second part of the tongue lever 11 is the previously mentioned power transmission lever 8. PC 231386 J 12 / 22 December 27, 2023 The drive lever 12 is connected to the drive 7 of the brush tamping machine 1 via a connecting rod 13. The end of the drive lever 12 facing away from the connecting rod 13 is connected to the power transmission lever 8. The drive lever 12 and the force transmission lever 8 are connected to one another in such a way that the force sensor 10 is relieved by the stuffing force 25 acting on the force transmission lever 8 via the pusher tongue 3 in the opposite direction to the stuffing direction 9.Due to the tamping force 25, the power transmission lever 8 can change its angular position relative to the drive lever 12 by pivoting it slightly about a pivot axis 30 of the articulated connection between the drive lever 12 and the power transmission lever 8 relative to the drive lever 12. The articulated connection between the drive lever 12 and the power transmission lever 8 is formed by a pivot joint 14. The force sensor 10 is arranged on the drive lever 12 and between the drive lever 12 and the power transmission lever 8. By changing the angular position between the power transmission lever 8 and the drive lever 12, the force sensor 10 and the drive lever 12 can move away from the power transmission lever 8 with increasing tamping force 25 and can be released from it when the tamping force 25 is so great that it cancels out the pretensioning force 24. The pretensioning force 24 is generated by a pretensioning device 15 of the brush tamping machine 1.For this purpose, the force transmission lever 8 is pretensioned in the tamping direction 9 against the force sensor 10 by the pretensioning device 15. The pretensioning device 15 is arranged on the drive lever 12 and comprises a compression spring designated 16, which tensions the force transmission lever 8 against the force sensor 10 arranged on the drive lever 12. PC 231386 J 13 / 22 December 27, 2023 The brush tamping machine 1 has a control unit 17. The control unit 17 is configured to reduce the tamping speed of the pusher tongue 3 or to stop the pusher tongue 3 as soon as the resulting force measured by the force sensor 10 reaches or falls below a limit value.For this purpose, the control unit 17 can control the drive 7 of the brush tucking machine 1 depending on a sensor signal from the force sensor 10, i.e., for example, reduce the speed of the drive 7 or even stop the drive 7 as soon as the resulting force measured by the force sensor 10 reaches or falls below a limit value. The limit value of the resulting force, which must be reached or fallen below to reduce the tucking speed of the pusher tongue 3 and / or to reduce the speed of the drive 7, can be greater than the limit value that must be reached or fallen below to stop the pusher tongue 3 and / or the drive 7. The brush manufacturing machine 1 has a bristle magazine 26 with bristle filaments arranged therein and a bundle separator 27 with a bundle removal notch 28.With the bundle removal notch 28, the bundle separator 27 is moved past the bristle magazine 26 in order to remove a bristle bundle 4 from the bristle magazine 26. The bundle separator 27 then transfers the removed bristle bundle 4 to the downstream stuffing tool 2. With the stuffing tool 2, the bristle bundle 4 is then stuffed into a bundle receiving hole 5 of a brush body 6 arranged on a holding device 29 of the brush stuffing machine 1. The previously explained brush stuffing machine 1 is PC 231386 J 14 / 22 December 27, 2023 configured to carry out the method for stuffing brushes described below. In this case, bristle bundles 4 are stuffed into bundle receiving holes 5 of ready-made brush bodies 6 using the pusher tongue 3 of the stuffing tool 2 of the brush stuffing machine 1.To determine a tamping force 25 acting on the pusher tongue 3, the force sensor 10 measures a force resulting from the preload force 24 and the tamping force 25, and the tamping force 25 is derived from this. A tamping speed is reduced or the tamping process is even interrupted as soon as the resulting force measurable with the force sensor 10 reaches or falls below a limit value. Specifically, the control unit 17 of the brush tamping machine 1 is used to reduce a speed of the drive 7 of the brush tamping machine 1 or to stop the drive 7 as soon as the resulting force reaches or falls below a limit value. The force sensor 10, preloaded by the preload force 24, is thus used on the brush tamping machine 1 to determine the tamping force 25 acting on the pusher tongue 3 of the brush production machine 1 by measuring a force resulting from the preload force 24 and the tamping force 25 with the force sensor 10.The diagram in Figure 2 shows the characteristic curve of the force sensor 10 of the brush tamping machine 1. In the diagram, the sensor signal 18 output by the force sensor 10 is plotted against the force 19 acting on the force sensor 10. The diagram indicates a measuring range start 20, a measuring range end 21, and an overload limit 22 of the force sensor 10. If the force sensor 10 is loaded beyond its overload limit 22, it can be damaged. Reliable measurements are only possible between the measuring range start 20 and the measuring range end 22. Due to the installation situation of the force sensor 10 shown in Figure 1, the force sensor 10 is relieved there with increasing load on the pusher tongue 3. This effectively prevents the force sensor 10 from being exposed to forces beyond its overload limit 22. A setting point 23 is also marked in the diagram.At setting point 23, the force is applied to the force sensor 10, with which the force transmission lever 8 is preloaded against the force sensor 10. By appropriately selecting the preload force 24, the setting point 23 can be positioned as desired, for example, centrally, within the measuring range of the force sensor 10 defined by the measuring range start 21 and the measuring range end 23. This ensures that the force sensor 10 can be used optimally to monitor the force acting on the push rod 3. The negative installation direction of the force sensor 10, as shown in Figure 1, has the advantage that the comparatively expensive force sensor 10 is not damaged if the push rod 3 is overloaded, but is relieved as the load increases.Starting from the setting point marked 23 in Figure 2, at which the defined preload force 24 is applied to the force sensor 10, the force sensor 10 is relieved with increasing tamping force 25 acting on the pusher tongue 3, until the force resulting from the preload force 24 and tamping force 25 reaches or falls below a limit value, for example, is zero. PC 231386 J 16 / 22 December 27, 2023 Reaching or falling below the limit value can serve as a trigger criterion for specifically controlling the drive 7 of the brush tamping machine 1 using the control unit 17 and thus, for example, reducing the tamping speed or stopping the drive 7. / List of reference symbols.

[0002] PC 231386 J 17 / 22 December 27, 2023 List of reference symbols 1 Brush tucking machine 2 Tucking tool 3 Pusher tongue 4 Bristle bundle 5 Bundle receiving holes 6 Brush body 7 Drive 8 Power transmission lever 9 Tucking direction 10 Force sensor 11 Tongue lever 12 Drive lever 13 Connecting rod 14 Swivel joint between 8 and 12 15 Pretensioning device 16 Compression spring 17 Control unit 18 Sensor signal 19 Force acting on 10 20 Start of measuring range 21 End of measuring range 22 Overload limit 23 Setting point of the pretension 24 Pretension force 25 Tucking force 26 Bristle magazine 27 Bundle separator 28 Bundle removal notch 29 Holding device 30 Swivel axis / Claims

Claims

PC 231386 J 18 / 22 December 27, 2023 Claims 1. Brush stuffing machine (1) with a stuffing tool (2) comprising a pusher tongue (3) configured to stuff bristle bundles (4) into bundle-receiving holes (5) of a brush body (6), wherein the brush stuffing machine (1) has a force sensor (10) prestressed in the initial position with a prestressing force (24), which is configured to measure a force resulting from a stuffing force (25) acting on the pusher tongue (3) when stuffing bristle bundles (4) and the prestressing force (24) applied to the force sensor (10) in the initial position.Brush tamping machine (1) according to the preceding claim, wherein the brush tamping machine (1) comprises a drive (7) connected to the pusher tongue (3) via a force transmission lever (8) and configured to drive the pusher tongue (3) in a tamping movement, wherein the force transmission lever (8) is pretensioned against the force sensor (10) to pretension the force sensor (10) in the tamping direction (9) of the pusher tongue (3).

3. Brush tamping machine (1) according to the preceding claim, wherein the force transmission lever (8) is movably mounted and / or flexible in such a way that the force sensor (10) can be relieved by the tamping force (25) acting on the force transmission lever (8) via the pusher tongue (3).

4. Brush tamping machine (1) according to one of the two preceding claims, wherein the pretensioning force (24) is dimensioned such that a force transmission contact between the force transmission lever (8) and the force sensor (10) is eliminated. PC 231386 J 19 / 22 December 27, 2023 as soon as the tamping force (25) reaches a defined overload force.

5. Brush tamping machine (1) according to one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the brush tamping machine (1) has an at least two-part tongue lever (11), wherein one part of the tongue lever (11) is a drive lever (12) and a second part of the tongue lever (11) is the power transmission lever (8), wherein the drive lever (12) is connected to the drive (7) and to the power transmission lever (8), in particular via a connecting rod (13).

6. Brush tamping machine (1) according to the preceding claim, wherein the drive lever (12) and the force transmission lever (8) are pivotally connected to one another such that the force sensor (10) is relieved by the tamping force (24) acting on the force transmission lever (8) via the pusher tongue (3) opposite to the tamping direction (9).Brush tamping machine (1) according to one of the two preceding claims, wherein the force sensor (10) is arranged between the drive lever (12) and the force transmission lever (8), in particular on the drive lever (12) or on the force transmission lever (8).

8. Brush tamping machine (1) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the brush tamping machine (1), in particular on the drive lever (12), has a pretensioning device (15) for generating the pretensioning force (24), in particular wherein the force transmission lever (8) is pretensioned against the force sensor (10) by the pretensioning device (15).

9. Brush tamping machine (1) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the brush tamping machine (1) has a. PC 231386 J 20 / 22 December 27, 2023 Control unit (17) configured to reduce a tamping speed of the push-pull tongue (3) or to stop the push-pull tongue (3) as soon as the preload force (24) applied to the force sensor (10) reaches or falls below a limit value.

10. Brush tamping machine (1) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the brush tamping machine (1) has a control unit (17) configured to control a drive (7) of the brush tamping machine (1) as a function of a sensor signal from the force sensor (10), in particular to reduce a speed of the drive (7) or to stop the drive (7) as soon as the preload force (24) applied to the force sensor (10) reaches or falls below a limit value.Method for stuffing brushes using a brush stuffing machine (1) according to one of the preceding claims, wherein bristle bundles (4) are stuffed into bundle receiving holes (5) of brush bodies (6) using a pusher tongue (3) of a stuffing tool (2) of the brush stuffing machine (1), and wherein, in order to determine a stuffing force (25) acting on the pusher tongue (3), a force resulting from the pretensioning force (24) and the stuffing force (25) is measured using the force sensor (10), and the stuffing force (25) is derived therefrom.

12. Method according to the preceding claim, wherein a stuffing speed is reduced or a stuffing process is interrupted as soon as the resulting force reaches or falls below a limit value.

13. Method according to one of the two preceding claims, wherein a control unit (17) of the brush stuffing machine (1) reduces a speed of the drive (7) of the brush stuffing machine (1) or stops the drive (7) as soon as the. PC 231386 J 21 / 22 December 27, 2023 resulting force reaches or falls below a limit value.

14. Use of a force sensor (10) preloaded with a preload force (24) on a brush tucking machine (1) for determining a tucking force (25), acting in particular on a pusher tongue (3) of the brush manufacturing machine (1), by measuring a force resulting from the preload force (24) and the tucking force (25) with the force sensor (10). / Summary

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