US 6,637,086 B2 · Method and arrangement for automatic bow adjustment

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method for automatic bow adjustment for a venetian blind assembly machine, said bow adjustment station comprising rollers (48; 104, 106) for guiding, bending and levelling a strip material (43; 112), and further comprising a forming section (36; 102) where mating concave and convex upper and lower form rollers (50; 108, 110) are arranged for creating a transverse curvature in the strip material, further comprises the steps of: providing levelling through means for offsetting (34; 100, 102) in order to straighten the bow of the strip material (43; 112) within a predetermined deviation on a predetermined length of strip material; measuring the deviation through optical means (146) providing a deviation signal; and adjusting the levelling by said means for offsetting (34; 100) through the deviation signal, if said measured deviation exceeds a predetermined deviation, in order to keep the deviation within said predetermined deviation. In addition, the present invention also relates to an arrangement for automatic bow adjustment for a venetian blind assembly machine. An advantage over prior art is that the bow adjustment is better controlled, the adjustments can be done with an increasing rapidity and a decreased wastage of strip material is obtained.

Claims24

Dependent claims

An arrangement for automatic bow correction for use in a venetian blind assembly machine, the arrangement including;

a slat profiling unit having an upstream end and a downstream end, the slat profiling unit being adapted to profile slat material fed thereto from the upstream end to remove pre-existing bow in said slat material and create a transverse curvature into the slat material exiting the slat profiling unit from its downstream end, the slat profiling unit comprising a leveling section downstream of its upstream end and a forming section downstream of the leveling section, the forming section providing a coarse adjustment for removing bow and the leveling section providing fine adjustment for removing bow;
a control system for controlling the removal of said bow by automatically adjusting said leveling and forming sections of said slat profiling unit;
and
an accumulator station having therein means for optical measurement of bow in said slat material downstream from said leveling and forming sections and for providing a signal to the control system to govern the automatic adjustment of said leveling and forming sections.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Method and arrangement for automatic bow adjustment

Life of this patent

Method and arrangement for automatic bow adjustment

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims24