A buffer wheel for supporting abrasive compounds

Abstract

 A buffer wheel or tool for supporting abrasive compounds, wherein the material forming the flexible body for supporting the abrasive compound is a composite including at least one load-bearing core (2) associated with at least one layer of a material (3) having enhanced properties of absorbing and retaining the greasy paste or the like providing a base for the abrasive material.

Description

[0001] This invention relates to a buffer wheel for supporting abrasive compounds.

[0002] Buffer wheels of this kind have been known and employed in the surface treatment of workpieces, e.g. for polishing, buffing, deglazing, roughing, etc. metal sectional members, such as section bars of aluminum or light alloys, scissors, table utensils, motor vehicle hub caps, cooking utensils, stainless steel articles and articles of polyester, plexiglass, or other synthetic materials, which operations are usually carried out either manually or on automatic equipment. In the course of such operations as those listed above an abrasive compound is applied to the buffer wheel, which wheel comprises a flexible supporting body of aerated configuration, or formed of a brush, disks laid side-by-side, a strip wound around itself, brush-like, and so on. The manually applied paste or compound will be selected to provide a requisite action depending, for example, on the grain size of the abrasive matter, or on the properties of the greasy base paste. Wheels are formed conventionally from cloths of cotton, sisal, or a mixed type, their object being that of providing support for the abrasive compound. These materials are required to be flexible in order for the wheel to keep true against the varying profiles or contours of workpieces.

[0003] Known buffer wheels have several drawbacks and disadvantages, mainly as listed herein below:
cotton disk wheels are generally made up of unused textile materials, and are accordingly inherently expensive; the use of waste textile materials, with pieces held together by quilting, is both time- and labor-consuming;
with sisal disk wheels, the manufacturing process is also a costly one, because the wheel is formed by sewing together triangular sisal segments which have to be pre-cut; this is a requirement imposed by the need to have along the outer periphery of the disks a desired arrangement of the weft loops of the sisal cloth, or of the corners thereof;
cotton wheels have low absorbing and soaking capabilities, thereby a substantial part of the abrasive paste applied in use is not used, or goes wasted, because it cannot be properly held on the wheel;
this limited ability to retain the abrasive paste is even more evident with sisal wheels;
owing to the limited paste-retention ability of conventional wheels, the rate of consumption of the abrasive compound is high;
the above-cited inability of the materials of conventional wheels to retain the abrasive paste therein, involves the development of high pressures between the wheel and workpiece, with the consequent development of substantial heat; additionally to requiring a higher power input to the wheel, this results in the formation, especially on polished workpieces, of darker marks and stripes from residual cloth and grease on the workpieces;
the various processing steps, i.e. roughing, grinding, polishing, buffing, and the like, tend to create, irrespective of the pastes being used, unhealthy working conditions due to the substantial amounts of abrasive dust and greasy matter released from the wheels; such a contaminated working area is bound to be harmful for the operators' health;
continued attendance by an operator for the frequent application of fresh abrasive paste to the wheels; as a consequence, such an application is bound to be a matter of choice and almost never an even one, as is instead desirable;
as work progresses, conventional wheels wear out rapidly and leave, along with the abrasive compound, heavy deposits of a sticky dust which cannot be removed with standard suction apparatus and must be scraped away manually;
the dust and slurry from the work also affect adversely the machine moving parts, increasing their rate of wear; and
the abrasive paste, rather than being absorbed by the wheel material, nests in the interstices of the mesh structure thereof, thereby it tends to be urged centrifugally out, toward the wheel periphery; this results in the formation of a peripheral layer of abrasive paste between the disk and the workpiece; this layer is to be renewed regularly and is subjected to a strong removing action which depends on the profile contours of the workpieces: where these happen to have sharp corners or flange-like projections, the amount of abrasive paste that goes wasted may be quite large.

[0004] It is the aim of this invention to provide a buffer wheel as indicated, which can, on the one side, obviate the drawbacks and deficiencies mentioned above, and on the other side, afford faultless surface treatments for a drastically reduced rate of abrasive paste and power consumption.

[0005] Within the above aim, it is an object of the invention to provide a byffer wheel as indicated, which is simple and quick to manufacture.

[0006] Based on a buffer wheel of the general type indicated in the preamble, the aim and object of this invention are achieved by that the material forming the abrasive material-supporting flexible body is a composite material comprising at least one backing reinforcement associated with at least one layer of a material having high properties of absorbing and retaining viscous fluids and greasy substances.

[0007] According to the invention, the reinforcement that mahes up the flexible body for supporting the abrasive material may have any desired compositions, including woven cloth, non-woven cloth, needled cloth, a film, or the like. Viable materials for the construction of the reinforcement are both naturally occuring materials, such as cotton, sisal, flax, hemp, coco, jute, manitoba, polynosic fibers, either alone or in any combinations, and synthetic materials, such as nylon, dralon, kevlar, carbon fiber, glass wool, etc.

[0008] According to the invention, the preferred material with high properties of absorbing and retaining viscous fluids and greasy substances is polyurethane, either in its standard or slightly foamed forms.

[0009] The buffer wheel of this invention affords a number of advantages. Firstly, the material can be supplied already in bolts, thereby the individual wheel disks can be merely punched off. The material proposed can absorb and retain the abrasive material support paste in an optimum way, thus drastically reducing the rate of consumption of the same and preventing effectively contamination of the working area. Also drastically reduced are the working pressure and power input requirements, while avoiding the polishing faults consisting of the above-cited marks and discolorations. Quite advantageously, the faculty is afforded of providing pre-impregnated wheels, thus doing away with the need to subsequently apply the abrasive paste manually during the processing operations. If manual application is resorted to, however, then the application frequency would be far less pressing and only require small amounts of abrasive paste, which is at once absorbed into the wheel material and fully utilized with no waste.

[0010] Still another advantage is the possibility of first manufacturing the body of the wheel or tool of a textile material and then impregnating it with polyurethane or the like. This specially advantageous with wheels of substantial thickness.

[0011] An additional advantage of the invention is that an adhesive material may be applied to the body of the wheel or tool, such as by spraying, injection, or dipping, on which the abrasive material may be made to adhere where required.

[0012] According to the invention, the wheel is advantageously provided with an inner chamber for accommodating abrasive paste therein.

[0013] Further features, advantages, and details of the buffer wheel, or of its construction material, according to this invention, will become apparent from the following description with reference to the accompanying schematical drawing, where:

Figure 1 is a plan view of a single wheel disk for forming buffer wheels according to this invention;

Figures 2,3 and 4 are cross-sectional views taken along the line I-I of Figure 1, showing respective modifications of the wheel disk, or wheel material, of this invention;

Figure 5 is a perspective view showing one embodiment of a buffer wheel or tool according to the invention; and

Figure 6 is a modified embodiment of a buffer wheel according to this invention.

[0014] With reference to the drawing figures, wherein like parts are designated with the same reference characters, indicated at 1 is a single wheel disk of a material according to the invention, as provided for making up buffer wheels or tools having any desired configurations, e.g. as shown in Figures 5 and 6. Such wheel disks would obviously have any comparable configurations with conventional ones formed from either cotton or sisal, or being of mixed construction.

[0015] According to this invention techings, the material proposed, instead of being a mere cloth or substantially mesh-like construction, has at least one supporting or load-bearing reinforcement or core 2, wherewith there is associated at least one layer 3 of a material having enhanced properties of retention of dense flowable fluids, highly viscous fluids, and greasy substances. Thus, the proposed material has a composite structure.

[0016] As for the reinforcement or supporting mesh 2, the same may have any configuration, and may be laid to form a central core, or alternatively, a side-mounted backing plate, or any other desired arrangement with any number of layers, e.g. on either sides. Also the yarn material and the dimensions of the warp and weft yarns in the reinforcement may be selected as appropriate. Expendiently, such yarns would be of either naturally occurring fibers, such as cotton, flax, hemp, coco, jute, manitoba, ennecken, polynosic fibers, and the like, to be worked as desired, e.g. in the forms of a woven cloth, non-­ woven cloth, needle-worked cloth, and so on, or of synthetic fibers, such as nylon, dralon, kevlar, carbon fibers, glass wool, and the like, to be worked in the forms mentioned above, or alternatively, in film form.

[0017] According to the invention, the highly absorptive material may consists preferably of polyurethane, in either its standard form or a slightly foamed form. Also within the scope of this invention is the use of any materials having comparable characteristics and behaviors.

[0018] The proposed composite material is advantageous­ly easy to supply in bolts, which facilitates the manufacture of the individual disks for composing the composite buffer wheels or tools having any of the currently accepted configurations.

[0019] Owing to the proposed material ability to readily absorb the abrasive paste, the working pressures, as well as the loss or consumption of base paste and abrasive paste, and hence the electric power input, can be advantageously diminished.

[0020] Furthermore, the proposed material advantageously lends itself to being pre-impregnated with abrasive paste, thereby it becomes possible, for the first time, to provide pre-impregnated buffer wheels, that is, buffer wheels ready for use.

[0021] Figure 6 shows an embodiment with an inner charge of abrasive paste. Thus, full utilization of the buffer wheel is ensured while affording a constant and reliable availability of stored abrasive paste.

[0022] In the embodiment of Figures 6 and 4, a general view of the buffer wheel is provided where 5 denotes a tubular core, 6 two end flanges, and 7 an interspace filled with abrasive paste. This general embodiment may be implemented using any appropriate expedients and dimensions.

[0023] The invention also envisages a first modified embodiment wherein a reinforcement body or core is provided for the buffer wheel or tool, which has a substantial thickness dimension and is then impregnated with the highly absorptive material, e.g. polyurethane.

[0024] A second variation of the invention provides for the use of an adhesive material, instead of the conventional greasy paste, as a carrier for the abrasive material or powder. The adhesive material may be applied to the buffer wheel or tool, formed of the material proposed herein, by spraying, injecting, or dipping.

[0025] It may be appreciated from the foregoing that this buffer wheel or tool made of the proposed material effectively achieves its objects and the advantages mentioned hereinabove. In particular, the rate of consumption of abrasive paste, as well as the power input requirements, are decreased, while keeping the working area healthy, the buffer wheel may be supplied in a pre-impregnated or charged form, the manufacture of the buffer wheels is simplified, and so on.

[0026] In practicing the invention, the selection of the materials with enhanced properties of absorption and retention for viscous fluids and greasy substances, may be from a broad range, and the individual components for such materials selected at will contingent on individual requirements, without depart­ing from the invention scope.

[0027] All of the features which may be inferred from the specification, claims, and drawing are substantial to the invention, either individually or in any combinations thereof.

Claims

1. A buffer wheel for supporting abrasive compounds, comprising a flexible supporting body of aerated, brush-like, side-by-side disk, wound on itself strip, or the like constructions, characterised in that the material forming the flexible supporting body for the abrasive paste is a composite material including at least one reinforcement (2) associated with at least one layer (3) of a material having enhanced properties of absorption and retention of fluids, viscous fluids, and greasy substances.

2. A buffer wheel according to Claim 1, wherein said reinforcement (2) is formed from either naturally occurring or synthetic fiber yarns, and said material (3) having enhanced absoprtive properties is polyurethane.

3. A buffer wheel according to Claim 1, characterised in that it comprises a supporting body formed of a plurality of said reinforcement layers (2) and subsequently filled, as by injection, with said material (3) having enhanced absorptive properties, e.g. polyurethane.

4. A buffer wheel according to Claim 1, characterised in that said material (3) forming the abrasive paste supporting flexible body is pre­impregnated with said abrasive paste.

5. A buffer wheel according to Claim 1, wherein said reinforcing body, or core (5) of the buffer wheel (1,4), is coated with an adhesive to hold abrasive material onto said wheel or tool (1,4).

6. A buffer wheel according to Claim 1, wherein said buffer wheel (1, 4) is formed with an inner chamber (7) for storing abrasive paste therein.

Drawing