Energy conserving intermittent motion device and method

Claim 2

In a device for transmitting intermittent motion; a rotatable member, an elastic agency for alternately storing and releasing energy when wound and unwound respectively about alternate ends thereof, means for holding said elastic agency wound about said alternate ends, means for selectively releasing said holding means, means associated with said alternate ends of said elastic agency to restrict rotation of said ends to one direction, means for transferring kinetic energy from said released elastic agency to said rotatable member to angularly accelerate said rotatable member and to transfer momentum from said rotatable member to said elastic agency to decelerate said rotatable member and rewind said elastic agency to store potential energy therein, and means rendered effective while said rotatable member decelerates for imparting additional kinetic energy to said rotatable member in an amount that is substantially equal to the difference between the released kinetic energy and the kinetic energy remaining in said rotating rotatable member.

Claim 3

The mechanism of claim 1 wherein said means for imparting additional kinetic energy is a variable torque motor controlled by a circuit which supplies to the motor a pulse of energy the magnitude of which is inversely proportional to the speed of rotation of the rotatable member.

Claim 4

The device of claim 1 wherein said elastic agency is an elongated rod which when wound and unwound is twisted about the longitudinal axis thereof.

Claim 5

The device of claim 3 wherein said means for transferring kinetic energy includes: first and second input means individually secured to said ends of said elastic rod, and output means connected to said rotatable member and to said first and second input means, said output means being driven by said first input means and reacting against said second input means to rotate said rotatable member when one of said ends of said elastic rod is unwinding and being driven by said second input means and reacting against said first input means to rotate said rotatable member when the other of said ends of said elastic rod is unwinding.

Claim 6

The device of claim 4 wherein said first and second input means are input bevel gears and wherein said output means is at least one output bevel gear meshed with both of said input bevel gears.

Claim 7

In a harmonic intermittent drive mechanism, a first clutch device, a second clutch device, an elongated member twisted about its longitudinal axis and held by said first and second clutch devices, means for alternately releasing said first and second clutch devices to allow said member to untwist and then retwist, a driven member, means responsive to the untwisting of said member for driving the driven member, means responsive to the momentum of the driven member for retwisting said elongated member, and means controlled by the degree of retwisting of said elongated member for further retwisting said elongated member to an extent equal to the amount of original twist.

Claim 8

In a harmonic intermittent drive mechanism, a first clutch device, a second clutch device, an elongated member twisted about its longitudinal axis and held by said first and second clutch devices, means for alternately releasing said first and second clutch devices to allow said member to untwist and then retwist, a driven member, means responsive to the untwisting of said member for driving the driven member, means responsive to the momentum of the driven member for retwisting said elongated member, and means controlled by the degree of retwisting of said elongated member for further retwisting said elongated member to an extent equal to the amount of original twist.

Claim 9

The mechanism of claim 6 wherein said first clutch device and said second clutch device each consist of both a one-way clutch to restrict rotation of the elongated member to one direction and a selectively operated clutch to selectively hold said elongated member.

Claim 10

In a mechanism for advancing a driven member, a torsion rod, a pair of clutch devices acting on opposite ends of the torsion rod for holding the rod twisted about its longitudinal axis in a first fashion, means for selectively releasing one of the clutches to allow the rod to untwist, means for transferring the untwisting motion of said rod to advance the driven member, means rendered effective upon the untwisting of the rod and continued advance of the driven member under the influence of momentum for retwisting the rod in a fashion opposite to said first fashion, and means controlled by the extent of advance of the driven member for further advancing the driven member to further retwist said bar in said second fashion until the amount of retwist is equal to the amount of twist in the first fashion and for rendering said released clutch effective to hold said rod in said retwisted second fashion.

Claim 11

In a mechanism for advancing a driven member, a torsion rod, a pair of clutch devices acting on opposite ends of the torsion rod for holding the rod twisted about its longitudinal axis in a first fashion, means for selectively releasing one of the clutches to allow the rod to untwist, means for transferring the untwisting motion of said rod to advance the driven member, means rendered effective upon the untwisting of the rod and continued advance of the driven member under the influence of momentum for retwisting the rod in a fashion opposite to said first fashion, and means controlled by the extent of advance of the driven member for further advancing the driven member to further retwist said bar in said second fashion until the amount of retwist is equal to the amount of twist in the first fashion and for rendering said released clutch effective to hold said rod in said retwisted second fashion.

Claim 12

In a mechanism for intermittently line feeding a strip of material, a mounting frame, a tubular platen mounted for rotation with respect to said mounting frame to line feed the strip of material, a torsion rod extending longitudinally within said tubular platen, a pair of clutch devices acting on opposite ends of said torsion rod for holding said torsion rod stationary with respect to said frame and initially twisted about its longitudinal axis in a first fashion, means for selectively releasing one of the clutches to allow the rod to untwist by allowing one end of said rod to rotate, first means for transferring rotation positioned within said tubular platen and connected both to said tubular platen and to said one end of said rod to (1) transfer rotation from said one end of said rod to said platen and to (2) retwist said rod in a second fashion opposite to said first fashion upon untwisting of said rod and continued rotation of said platen under the influence of momentum, means for rendering said one of said clutches effective to hold said rod in said retwisted second fashion, means for selectively releasing the other of said clutches to allow the rod to again untwist to rotate the other end of said rod, second means for transferring rotation positioned within said tubular platen and connected both to said tubular platen and to said other end of said rod to (1) transfer rotation from said other end of said rod to said platen and to (2) retwist said rod in said first fashion upon the untwisting of said rod and continued rotation of said platen under the influence of momentum, means for rendering said other of said clutches effective to hold said rod in said retwisted first fashion, and means controlled by the extent of rotation of the platen to further retwist said torsion rod when said torsion rod is retwisting until the amount of retwist is equal to the amount of original twist existing in either the first or second fashions.

Claim 13

In a mechanism for intermittently line feeding a strip of material, a mounting frame, a tubular platen mounted for rotation with respect to said mounting frame to line feed the strip of material, a torsion rod extending longitudinally within said tubular platen, a pair of clutch devices acting on opposite ends of said torsion rod for holding said torsion rod stationary with respect to said frame and initially twisted about its longitudinal axis in a first fashion, means for selectively releasing one of the clutches to allow the rod to untwist by allowing one end of said rod to rotate, first means for transferring rotation positioned within said tubular platen and connected both to said tubular platen and to said one end of said rod to (1) transfer rotation from said one end of said rod to said platen and to (2) retwist said rod in a second fashion opposite to said first fashion upon untwisting of said rod and continued rotation of said platen under the influence of momentum, means for rendering said one of said clutches effective to hold said rod in said retwisted second fashion, means for selectively releasing the other of said clutches to allow the rod to again untwist to rotate the other end of said rod, second means for transferring rotation positioned within said tubular platen and connected both to said tubular platen and to said other end of said rod to (1) transfer rotation from said other end of said rod to said platen and to (2) retwist said rod in said first fashion upon the untwisting of said rod and continued rotation of said platen under the influence of momentum, means for rendering said other of said clutches effective to hold said rod in said retwisted first fashion, and means controlled by the extent of rotation of the platen to further retwist said torsion rod when said torsion rod is retwisting until the amount of retwist is equal to the amount of original twist existing in either the first or second fashions.

Claim 14

A mechanism for transmitting intermittent motion to a load, which comprises: a torsion bar; means for selectively clamping the ends of the bar to retain an axial twist in the bar; means for unclamping only a first end of the bar to permit the bar to untwist about the clamped second end, thus rotating the first end of the bar; means for mechanically coupling the first end of the bar to the loaD so that rotation of the first end of the bar drives the load in a desired direction and so that the momentum of the moving load continues for a time to rotate the first end of the bar after the bar has been untwisted to retwist the bar a given amount in the reverse direction, after which the clamping means is actuated to reclamp the first end of the bar to retain the reverse twist; means for unclamping only the second end of the bar to permit the bar to untwist about the clamped first end, thus rotating the second end of the bar; and means for mechanically coupling the second end of the bar to the load similarly to the first-end coupling means to drive the load, untwist the bar and retwist it again in the first direction after which the clamping means is actuated to reclamp the second end of the bar to retain the retwist.

Claim 15

A mechanism for transmitting intermittent motion to a load, which comprises: a torsion bar; means for selectively clamping the ends of the bar to retain an axial twist in the bar; means for unclamping only a first end of the bar to permit the bar to untwist about the clamped second end, thus rotating the first end of the bar; means for mechanically coupling the first end of the bar to the loaD so that rotation of the first end of the bar drives the load in a desired direction and so that the momentum of the moving load continues for a time to rotate the first end of the bar after the bar has been untwisted to retwist the bar a given amount in the reverse direction, after which the clamping means is actuated to reclamp the first end of the bar to retain the reverse twist; means for unclamping only the second end of the bar to permit the bar to untwist about the clamped first end, thus rotating the second end of the bar; and means for mechanically coupling the second end of the bar to the load similarly to the first-end coupling means to drive the load, untwist the bar and retwist it again in the first direction after which the clamping means is actuated to reclamp the second end of the bar to retain the retwist.

Claim 16

The mechanism as recited in claim 10, further comprising means for applying additional force to the system while the bar is coupled to the load to further rotate the unclamped end of the bar in the direction it is rotating so as to compensate for the work performed in driving the load and friction losses, to provide a predetermined amount of twist after each retwisting step.

Claim 19

The method as recited in claim 12, further comprising the steps of applying additional force to the system during steps (d) and (g) to further rotate the unclamped end of the bar in the direction it is rotating in steps (c) and (f), so as to compensate for the work performed in driving the load and for friction losses, to provide a predetermined amount of twist after each of steps (d) and (g).

Claim 20

In a device for transmitting intermittent motion, a rotatable member, an elastic member for alternately storing and releasing energy when wound and unwound respectively about opposite ends, means selectively operable to individually prevent rotation of said opposite ends to allow said elastic member to be alternately wound and unwound about said ends, means for transferring kinetic energy from said elastic member to said rotatable member to angularly accelerate said rotatable member when either of said ends is unwinding and to transfer momentum from said rotatable member to said elastic member to decelerate said rotatable member and rewind said elastic member to store potential energy therein, and means rendered effective while said rotatable member decelerates for imparting additional kinetic energy to said rotatable member in an amount substantially equal to the difference between the released kinetic energy and the kinetic energy transferred by the momentum of said rotating member.

Claim 21

In a device for transmitting intermittent motion, a rotatable member, an elastic member for alternately storing and releasing energy when wound and unwound respectively about opposite ends, means selectively operable to individually prevent rotation of said opposite ends to allow said elastic member to be alternately wound and unwound about said ends, means for transferring kinetic energy from said elastic member to said rotatable member to angularly accelerate said rotatable member when either of said ends is unwinding and to transfer momentum from said rotatable member to said elastic member to decelerate said rotatable member and rewind said elastic member to store potential energy therein, and means rendered effective while said rotatable member decelerates for imparting additional kinetic energy to said rotatable member in an amount substantially equal to the difference between the released kinetic energy and the kinetic energy transferred by the momentum of said rotating member.