Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to the field of constructing and manufacturing sites. More particularly, the invention relates to an auxiliary winding device, which is utilized for wrapping continuous piping, or combinations of piping and wiring with joining and/or isolating film provided in reels.

Background of the Invention

A variety of piping and wiring installations are applied in the construction of new buildings, industrial facilities and in various appliances installations, where the bundling of multiple long tubular elements together is done by wrapping said elements with a laminar material. In some applications the winding of such a bundle is done within the industrial facility which produce bundled piping which then transported to the desired installation site, yet in many of the applications, the size of bundle (i.e., the number and types of joint elements) is determined in the installation sites hence requiring the winding operation to take place at the installation sites. Furthermore, when maintenance operation is required and only one or some of the elements or a limited section of it has to be replaced, a re-winding shall be performed at the installation site.

Traditionally the winding operation is performed manually, or involves designated heavy weighted devices which require significant effort from the service/installation personnel, especially in long installations under various environmental conditions. Obviously, heavy winding tools which are operated for long period of time in tough environmental conditions requires intensive maintenance and special parts, resulting with higher operational costs.

The traditional winding also lacks of economic efficiency since the manual winding usually results with too small or too large laminate overlapping, hence either low endurance of the binding wrap or high winding materials consumption. It is therefore an object of the present invention to introduce a lightweight powered winding tool which is provided with the required supportive element to reduce the required physical effort for its operation.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a simply constructed tool which can fitted to a portable power supplying device and receive the required power for its operation, requiring no special maintenance.

Further purposes and advantages of this invention will appear as the description proceeds.

Summary of the Invention

An auxiliary winding device, comprising:

a) coupling elements adapted to interface with a power tool;

b) a rotation shaft having a first end adapted to receive a rotation drive from said power tool;

c) an angular transmission interfacing with a second end of said rotation shaft, wherein said angular transmission is adapted to angularly convert the rotational drive; and

d) a winding assembly adapted to receive the angularly converted rotational drive for rotating at least one winding arm together with a free rotation enabling base suitable for supporting a wrapping material reel, thereby enabling to wrap at least one longitudinal element (herein referred to as "bundle") such as piping elements, wiring elements or a combination thereof.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the power tool is a standard cordless battery-powered tool such as a power drill.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the power tool is a dedicated device having a rotation drive suitable to interface the auxiliary winding device in order to rotate the rotation shaft of said auxiliary winding device. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the rotation shaft is provided with exchangeable coupling adaptors to the power tool.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the rotation shaft is provided with exchangeable coupling adaptors to the transmission.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the transmission is an angular transmission utilizing transmission gears such as bevel gears, worm-gears, helical gears.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the transmission is a gearless angular transmission.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the at least one winding arm is integral with the transmission output element, for example said arm is attached or in one piece with the output bevel gear of a bevel gears transmission.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the device further comprises supporting element adapted to avoid exertion of external loads on the rotation shaft.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the supporting element comprises at least one handle.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the supporting element comprises a support strap.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the device further comprising support and guiding elements for reducing user's effort while using the device.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the support and guiding elements comprises at least one guiding wheel.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the device further comprises a carrying strap. Brief Description of the Drawings

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 schematically shows the winding device, according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

Fig. 2 schematically shows an exploded view of the winding device, according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description of Embodiments of the Invention

Reference will now be made to an embodiment of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying figures for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following description that alternative embodiments of the structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed, mutatis mutandis, without departing from the principles of claimed invention.

The device of the present invention is an auxiliary device which can be coupled to a standard or to a dedicated power tool, from which it may receive rotation moment for the rotation of a winding arm around one or a bundle of longitudinal elements such as piping or wiring elements or a combination thereof (hereinafter referred as "bundle" for the sake of simplicity, although it may include a single pipe or wire of which wrapping is desirable).

Fig. 1 schematically shows the winding device, according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which a winding device 100 is coupled with a power tool 101 (e.g., a cordless battery-powered power drill) by clamping arms 102a of support bar 102 together with the belting cap 103. The distal end of bar 102 is attached to a transmission box 105. In parallel to bar 102 a rotation shaft 104 is connected and transfers the rotation of power tool 101 to the transmission elements of transmission box 105 (for the sake of clarity some of the details shown in Fig. 1 and further hidden elements are illustrated in Fig. 2). The transmission elements of box 105 convert the rotation of shaft 104 to an essentially horizontal axis rotation of winding assembly 106 on which a wrapping film reel 107 is installed for wrapping bundle 108 which is initially runs through the annular hole in the middle of box 105. Further shown in Fig. 1 are carrying and guiding elements, according to an embodiment of the present invention, comprising handle 102c for controlling the movement of device 100 along the bundle, slits 102b, 103a and 105a (and corresponding slits on the opposite side of device 100) for threading a clamping strap. Of course, the same slits can be utilized for installing a carrying strap or a combined strap for clamping and carrying. According to another embodiment of the present invention, at least one support and guiding wheel 109 is installed in a wheel frame 109a which is attached to transmission box 105.

The wrapping is executed after an initial manual wrapping is made to achieve durable grasp (usually two overlapping wrapping layers would be sufficient), followed by the operation of the power tool 101 which results with a rotation of winding assembly 106. The rotation of assembly 106 while the wrapping film is initially attached to bundle 108 produce a couple of forces Fa and Fb which transforms into a rotation of reel 107 around itself (enabled by the free rotation enabling base 206d of Fig. 2), thus unwinding wrapping film of reel 107. This rotation combined with the rotation of assembly 106 results with the continuous wrapping operation. As soon as the wrapping has started, device 100 is guided along bundle 108 at the desirable pace (i.e., determined by the operator, according to the desired overlapping between wrapping layers) until the wrapping operation is complete.

Fig. 2 schematically shows an exploded view of the winding device, according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which coupling adaptors 202a and 202b and gear-shaft adaptor 203 are utilized for the coupling of shaft 104 to power tool 201 and to gear-shaft adaptor 203, thus enabling the coupling of device 200 to multiple types of power tools and the utilizing of various gear types and suitable gear-shaft adaptors 203. The transmission elements of device 200 are essentially comprised of two bevel gears 204 and 206a which convert the incoming drive from shaft 104 through gear adaptor 203 to the angular rotation axis of the winding assembly 206.

Obviously, a skilled person in the art may select various bevel gear types and sizes with suitable size ratio between gear 206a and gear 204 to achieve the desirable rotation speed reduction and output moment adapted to specific embodiments of the device 200. The size of transmission box 205 including its base 205a cover 205b and the size and shape of the gear-shaft adaptor 203 and its support 203a are all derived from the required gears 204 and 206a for multiple different embodiments of the present invention. Furthermore, some embodiments of the present invention may utilize different transmission types suitable for angular transmission (e.g., worm gear transmission, helical gears).

Further shown in Fig. 2 are guiding wheel 109, wheel frame 109a, wheel frame coupling cap 109b and winding assembly 206, wherein assembly 206 is comprised of gear 206a on which at least one reel arm 206b is attached (i.e., a second arm 206c can be used for multiple applications where more than one wrapping material is required, for example one material for heat or electrical isolation and a second material for strong bundling or for leak detection), a free rotation enabling base 206d and coupling element 206e which restraint base 206d to winding arm 206b (i.e., a second base 206d is not shown yet it is required for the winding of a second real when used).

The abovementioned modular and simple design provides a low cost and low maintenance device which can be coupled to a wide range of rotating portable power tools, while its winding mechanism can easily be produced in plurality of shapes and sizes, suitable for different types, shapes and sizes of elements to be wrapped.

Additionally, the design of the invented device provides a light and well supported tool which requires much less effort for performing the wrapping task.

Although embodiments of the invention have been described by way of illustration, it will be understood that the invention may be carried out with many variations, modifications, and adaptations, without exceeding the scope of the claims.