Orbital knife
OwnerBradley W Boesel, Mujdat Kandemirinventors
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An orbital knife including a support structure; a yoke rotatably attached to the support structure having a yoke hub and a plurality of yoke arms; one or more rotatable knife rolls connected to at least two of the plurality of yoke arms; one or more blades attached to each of the one or more knife rolls; one or more sun gears rotatably attached to the support structure; an anvil roll rotatably attached to the support structure; one or more idler gears wherein each such idler gear is mated with one of the one or more sun gears; and one or more planet gears wherein each knife roll has rotatably attached thereto at least one planet gear and each planet gear is mated with one of the one or more idler gears, with the sun gear driving the idler gear which in turn drives the planet gear.
Claims16
An orbital knife comprising:
- a. a support structure;
- b. a yoke rotatably attached to the support structure having a yoke axis of rotation, wherein the yoke comprises a yoke hub and a plurality of yoke arms;
- c. one or more rotatable knife rolls radially displaced from and parallel to the yoke hub and securely connected to at least two of the plurality of yoke arms wherein each knife roll has an axis of rotation;
- d. one or more blades attached to each of the one or more knife rolls and comprising a cutting element parallel to the knife roll to which the blade of such cutting element is attached;
- e. one or more sun gears rotatably attached to the support structure wherein each sun gear has (1) an axis of rotation concentric with the yoke axis of rotation, and (2) associated therewith a sun gear pitch radius;
- f. an anvil roll rotatably attached to the support structure and having an axis of rotation parallel to the yoke axis of rotation;
- g. one or more idler gears wherein each such idler gear is mated with one of the one or more sun gears;
- h. one or more planet gears each with a planet gear axis of rotation and a planet gear pitch radius, wherein (1) each knife roll has attached thereto at least one planet gear, (2) each planet gear is mated with one of the one or more idler gears that, together with one of the one or more sun gears, forms a gear train wherein the sun gear drives the idler gear which in turn drives the planet gear, and (3) the planet gear axis of rotation of each planet gear is concentric with the axis of rotation of the knife roll to which the planet gear is attached;
- and
- i. one or more phasing actuators wherein each phasing actuator is attached to the support structure, provides a force for rotation of the one or more sun gears, and comprises a phasing link, wherein each phasing link has rotatably attached thereto a phasing arm that is attached to one sun gear, and wherein rotation of each of the one or more sun gears about the axis of rotation of such sun gear is effectuated by the transfer of the phasing actuator force to the sun gear phasing arm attached to such sun gear via the phasing link of such phasing actuator attached to such sun gear phasing arm.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.