US 4,130,230 AGranted

Sheet feed tractor

AssigneeData Motion, Inc.

InventorAlan F. Seitz

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Abstract

A drive tractor of the type usually mounted in pairs at opposite edges of a web of edge-perforated sheet material such as printout paper has an endless drive belt mounted on a chassis. The drive belt has pin members projecting from it to engage edge perforations in the web and is engaged with a drive wheel having sprocket teeth which engage a drive formation on the inner surface of the belt. The sprocket wheel is engaged by a drive shaft to be driven thereby. The sprocket teeth and belt tread are respectively configured to mesh only in a predetermined relative position of the pin members relative to the rotational position of the drive wheel. The drive wheel is configured to seat on the drive shaft in a predetermined rotational orientation. Therefore, when a pair of such tractors is mounted on a common drive shaft their respective drive wheels are in the same rotational orientation which automatically transversely aligns the respective pin members of the paired tractors.

Claims17

Dependent claims

A drive tractor for driving web material comprising:

(a) a chassis having means thereon for mounting said chassis in proximity to a drive member;
(b) belt driving means mounted on said chassis and including a drive wheel mounted for rotation on said chassis and adapted to be operatively connected to the associated drive member to be rotated thereby, said drive wheel having a locating element on the periphery thereof;
(c) a flexible endless belt having an outer driving surface and an inner driven surface, said belt driven surface engaging said drive wheel for driving of said belt in a path of travel and including a locating formation thereon dimensioned and configured to mesh with said wheel locating element but not with other segments of said drive wheel periphery, said belt outer surface having a plurality of spaced apart pin members disposed along the length thereof and projecting outwardly therefrom, said pin members being adapted to engage a web material for driving thereof along a portion of said path of travel;
said belt locating formation having a predetermined spatial relationship relative to said belt pin members whereby engagement of said belt locating formation with said wheel locating element places said pin members at respective predetermined locations along said path of travel relative to the rotational position of said drive wheel.

1 more element

An assembly for driving web material, including a pair of drive tractors, each drive tractor comprising:

(a) a chassis having means thereon for mounting said chassis in proximity to a drive member;
(b) belt driving means mounted on said chassis and including a drive wheel mounted for rotation on said chassis and adapted to be operatively connected to the associated drive member to be rotated thereby, said drive wheel having a locating element on the periphery thereof;
(c) a flexible endless belt having an outer driving surface and an inner driven surface, said belt driven surface engaging said drive wheel for driving of said belt in a path of travel and including a locating formation thereon dimensioned and configured to mesh with said wheel locating element but not with other segments of said drive wheel periphery, said belt outer surface having a plurality of spaced apart pin members disposed along the length thereof and projecting outwardly therefrom, said pin members being adapted to engage a web material for driving thereof along a portion of said path of travel;
said belt locating formation having a predetermined spatial relationship relative to said belt pin members whereby engagement of said belt locating formation with said wheel locating element places said pin members at respective predetermined locations along said path of travel relative to the rotational position of said drive wheel.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.