Axial Movement from Mating Cam Sections Rotating at Different

Speeds.- Certain copper tubes used in connection with steam-heating

apparatus are covered with strips of copper, the strip being wound around the
tube and soldered. The strip and the solder must be removed from the ends of
the tubes to provide a bare length of 1 inch for connection to a tank or header.
This "stripping" of the tube ends is done by using a machine having three
cutters, which are held radially and feed inward as the cutter-head rotates
about the tube. The machine used for this work is shown by the sectional and
plan views. The end of a wound tube ( represented by the zigzag lines) is
pushed over a stationary pilot B. Fig.14, which fits snugly inside the tube. An
air-operated clamp is next tightened and the tube is ready for the stripping
operation. The head of the machine, which contains the three cutters (one of
which is shown at D), revolves continually at the rate of 600 revolutions per
minute, and when a clutch is tripped by a foot-pedal, the three tools feed
inward a distance 3/4 inch at the rate of about 0.018 inch per revolution. The
mechanism for obtaining and controlling this feeding movement is the
interesting feature of the machine.
The drive from the motor to the cutter-head is through gears F and G. Gear G
is attached to the main spindle K, which connects with the cutter-head. A head
L, which is rotated by the cutter-head proper, is free to slide for a limited
distance along spinelle K. Attached to sliding head L there is a cam M which
fits a mating cam N. Cam N is free to revolve on spindle K, and it has attached
to it a gear H which meshes with the gear J.
Before the tool feeding movement begins, cam M drives the mating section N
through the step or shoulder O (see plan view), and gears H and J revolve idly.
When the tools are to be fed inward, cam N is rotated 40'1/2 revolutions to 40
revolutions of cam M. The result is that cam N exerts a wedging effect
against M, causing the latter, with head L, to slide along the spindle. When
this sliding movement occurs, racks R, attached to sliding head L, transmit
this movement through pinions to racks S, attached to the cutter-holders. The
method of obtaining this differential movement between cam sections M and
N will now be described.
In order to start the tool-feeding movement, a clutch trip lever is raised by
depressing a foot-pedal. This releases a clutch dog or plunger connecting plate
P through a clutch with the shaft of worm-wheel W, which is rotated
continually from the driving shaft. As soon as plate P begins to revolve, the
dog or clutch lever R is forced out of the notch in plate P, thus connecting,
through a clutch, the driving shaft with gear J; consequently, cam section N is
now driven from shaft E through gears J and H, and since it rotates 40 1/2
revolutions to 40 revolutions of cam M, the wedging action and traversing
movement previously referred to occurs. This difference in the speeds odf
cams M and N is due, of course, to the rations of gears F and G as compared
with gears J and H. Gear F has 25 teeth and G 40 teeth; hence, for each turn of
gear G, F makes 40/25 turn.
Therefore, 40 turns of G require 40/25 x 40=64
turns of shaft E and gear F. For each turn of gear J, H makes 31/49 turn, as J
has teeth and H 49 teeth; hence, if J makes 64 turns then H will make 31/49 x
64= 40 1/2 turns.

While the driving shaft is turning sixty-four times in order to complete one
cycle in the movement of the feeding mechanism, plate P is turned 64/65
revolution, as the worm-wheel W has sixty-five teeth. At the end of the cycle,
clutch lever R is again opposite the notch in plate P and gear J is disconnected
from the driving shaft, thus stopping the feeding movement automatically.
Shoulder O on cam N is also around to the point where section M can slide
back into engagement, which it is forced to do by means of springs concealed
in the cutter-head. The difference in the speeds of the two cam sections is so
slight that this re-engagement occurs easily and without objectionable shock.