Method and apparatus for fabricating honeycomb insulating material

In apparatus for mass producing one or more individual stacks of expandable tubular strips from each of which stack a number of expandable honeycomb panels of a variety of selected lengths can be formed, a first reel support structure;

• web guiding means to receiving said web material unwinding from the reel supported on said support structure to guide the web material for continuous movement along a given path;
• web moving means for moving said web material along said path;
• the improvement wherein there is provided cutting apparatus at the end of said given path which severs the web material into individual expandable tube-forming strips to be secured together to form honeycomb panels;
• a stacking station including a stacking chamber and strip pushing apparatus for pushing a strip delivered to said stacking station into said chamber, where the strips are adhered together to form an expandable panel, and strip moving means including high speed conveyor means for conveying the cut strips from said cutting apparatus to said stacking apparatus at a higher speed than the web material is fed to said cutting apparatus;
• leading and trailing edge sensing means for sensing the passage of the leading and trailing edges of a strip of material cut at said cutting station;
• and control means for terminating the operation of said web moving means after a predetermined period following the sensing of a leading edge of a strip if the trailing edge has not yet passed by said leading and trailing edge sensing means, such condition indicating a failure of the cutting apparatus at said cutting station to cut through said web material.

In apparatus for mass producing one or more individual stacks of expandable tubular strips from each of which stack a number of expandable honeycomb panels of a variety of selected lengths can be formed;

• a first reel support structure;
• web guiding means for receiving web material unwinding from a reel supported on said support structure to guide the web material for movement along a given path;
• said web material to contain splices which would form a defective honeycomb panel;
• the improvement wherein there is provided cutting apparatus at the end of said given path which severs the web material into individual expandable tube-forming strips to be secured together to form said honeycomb panels;
• a stacking station including a stacking chamber and strip pushing apparatus for pushing a strip delivered to said stacking station into said chamber, where the strips are adhered together to form an expandable panel;
• said web moving means including conveyor means for conveying the cut strips from said cutting apparatus to said stacking apparatus, said conveyor means having a discharge end beyond said stacking station to which a strip is delivered if it is not pushed into the stacking chamber;
• means responsive to a given control signal for operating said pushing means to push a strip delivered to said stacking station into the stacking chamber;
• splice sensing means for sensing the presence of a splice in said web material;
• and means responsive to the sensing by said splice sensing means of a splice in said web material for disabling operation of said pushing means when a strip reaches the stacking station which contains the splice detected by said web splice sensing means, so that this strip will not be fed into the stacking chamber.

In apparatus for mass producing one or more individual stacks of secured-together expandable tubular strips from each of which one or a number of expandable honeycomb panels can be formed;

• a reel support structure for supporting a reel of unfolded web material from which said strips are to be subsequently formed;
• web guiding and moving means for receiving said web material unwinding from the reel support on said reel support structure and for moving the same along a given path;
• folding apparatus along said path for folding the longitudinal edges of the web material passing thereby into confronting relation to form a flattened tubular web configuration;
• and stacking apparatus along said path for superimposing and adhering what were, initially at least, portions of said web material;
• the improvement in said folding apparatus which comprises means forming a slot therein through which the web passes, said slot including a base portion having a width of the order of magnitude of the thickness of the web and through which the central portion of the web passes, and end portions having a width of the order of magnitude of the thickness of the web and which fold the opposite longitudinal edge portions of the web toward each other.