Mineral wool packager

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method where rolling a length of compressed flexible material into a roll use a flexible roll-up belt moving along a belt pathway, said pathway defined by a number of rollers, wherein at least one of said rollers is active where its rotation is driven by a drive motor and drives the belt along said belt pathway, the roll-up belt can be tightened or loosened along said belt pathway by changing the position of at least one moveable roller and thereby changing the length of the pathway, wherein said method comprises feeding said compressed flexible material into a meeting loop cavity shaped by a segment of said roll-up belt along said roll-up belt pathway, whereby material follows the inner surface of the loop and the rolling of the flexible material is initiated, gradually increasing the length of the segment of said roll-up belt in said meeting loop cavity to ensure that that the roll-up belt segment in said meeting loop cavity gradually and continuously follows the increasing size of the roll and supports the outer contour of the roll, wherein said gradual increase of the segment comprises the steps of gradually loosening the roll-up belt by changing the position of said at least one moveable roller and simultaneously controlling the rotation speed of said at least one active roller to control the length of said belt segment in said meeting loop cavity. Thereby, an automatic rolling of flexible material is obtained, which adaptably expands a meeting loop cavity to ensure that the rolling is initiated in a controlled manner, and furthermore, that one apparatus performing the method according to the present invention may be used to roll flexible material of various dimensions and characteristics.

1 . A method of rolling a length of compressed flexible material into a roll using a flexible roll-up belt ( 10 ) moving along a belt pathway, said pathway defined by a number of rollers ( 11 ,  111 ,  12 ,  12 ′,  16 ,  161 ,  17 ,  181 ) wherein at least two of said rollers ( 11 ,  16 ) are active where their rotation is driven by a drive motor and drives the belt along said belt pathway, said roll-up belt can be tightened or loosened along said belt pathway by changing the position of at least one moveable roller ( 17 ) and thereby changing the length of the pathway, characterised in that said belt pathway comprises a first pathway segment ( 101 ) defining a route between said two active rollers and a second pathway segment ( 102 ) defining another route between said two active rollers, wherein said moveable roller ( 17 ) is located along said first pathway segment ( 101 ) and a meeting loop cavity ( 14 ) is located along said second pathway segment ( 102 ), wherein said method comprises
 feeding said compressed flexible material ( 4 ) into said meeting loop cavity shaped by a segment of said roll-up belt along said roll-up belt pathway, whereby material follows the inner surface of the loop and the rolling of the flexible material is initiated, 
 gradually increasing the length of the segment of said roll-up belt in said meeting loop cavity to ensure that that the roll-up belt segment in said cavity gradually and continuously follows the increasing size of the roll and supports the outer contour of the roll, 
 wherein said gradual increase of the segment comprises the steps of gradually loosening the roll-up belt by changing the position of said at least one moveable roller and simultaneously controlling the rotation speed of said at least two active rollers to control the length of said belt segment in said meeting loop cavity. 
 
     
     
         2 . A method according to  claim 1 , wherein at least two of said rollers are active and wherein gradually increasing the length of the segment of said roll-up belt in said meeting loop cavity comprises controlling the rotation speed of at least one of said at least two active rollers along said belt pathway. 
     
     
         3 . A method according to  claim 1 , wherein the compression ( 41 ) of said flexible material is obtained by moving the flexible material ( 4 ) between an upper feed belt ( 3 ) and a lower feed belt ( 2 ), and wherein the feed belts are inclined relative to each other, whereby the distance between their transport surfaces decreases in their transport direction. 
     
     
         4 . An apparatus for rolling a length of compressed flexible material into a roll, said apparatus comprising
 a flexible roll-up belt ( 10 ) moving along a belt pathway being defined by a number of rollers ( 11 ,  111 ,  12 ,  12 ′,  16 ,  161 ,  17 ,  181 ),   at least two active rollers ( 11 ,  16 ) where their rotation is driven by a drive motor and where said active rollers drives the belt along said belt pathway,   a moveable roller ( 17 ), where the roll-up belt can be tightened or loosened along said belt pathway by changing the position of said moveable roller and thereby changing the length of the pathway,   a meeting loop cavity ( 14 ) shaped by a segment of said roll-up belt along said roll-up belt pathway, for receiving said length of compressed flexible material ( 4 ) to be rolled,   means for gradually increasing the segment by gradually loosening the roll-up belt by changing the position of said at least one moveable roller and simultaneously controlling the rotation speed of said at least one active roller to control the length of said belt segment in said meeting loop cavity,   
       characterised in that
 said belt pathway comprises a first pathway segment ( 101 ) defining a route between said two active rollers and a second pathway segment ( 102 ) defining another route between said two active rollers, wherein said moveable roller ( 17 ) is located along said first pathway segment ( 101 ) and said meeting loop cavity ( 14 ) is located along said second pathway segment ( 102 ). 
 
     
     
         5 . An apparatus according to  claim 4 , further comprising at least one limiter unit ( 16 ), where
 said at least one limiter unit is adapted to reduce the speed of said belt along said belt pathway, and where said limiter unit is positioned along said belt pathway after said meeting loop cavity in the belt moving direction.   
     
     
         6 . An apparatus according to  claim 5 , wherein said limiter unit is a passive roller or an active roller. 
     
     
         7 . An apparatus according to  claim 6 , wherein said limiter unit is the first roller positioned along said belt pathway after said meeting loop cavity in the belt moving direction. 
     
     
         8 . An apparatus according to  claim 4 , where said loop cavity is retained by fingers ( 13 ), said fingers protruding onto said belt ( 10 ) inside said meeting loop cavity ( 14 )