The production of wound rolls of paper or other winding material in the form of a web is carried out on a winding machine of a carrier roll (or reel) construction or back-up roll (or reel) construction.

For a carrier roll winder, the winding rests on two rotating carrier rolls arranged parallel to each other. For a back-up roll winder, the winding is supported to rotate on a shaft, which for its part is fastened to swinging arms. The con- struction details of a carrier roll winder differ sharply from those of a back-up roll winder. However, in connection with the invention they both share in common that a roll parallel to the axis of a winding being formed, e.g., a roll in the form of the aforementioned carrier rolls, back-up roll, or a weighting roll, is supported against the winding being formed. A nip force develops at the contact line bet- ween winding and roll, the so-called nip; this nip force rises, at least for a carrier roll winder, as the diameter of the winding increases, the diameter being synonymous with the increased weight of the winding. The web traction in particular and, for a carrier roll winder, the distribution of turning moment (torque) are responsible for the winding

hardness or winding tension. As the diameter of the winding becomes greater, the circumferential tension generated by means of the weight of the wound roll rises, which can lead to an overstretching of the wound material, e. g. paper, to the point of tearing.

Web traction and the distribution of turning moment can be regulated and controlled by means of known methods. Decrea- sing the nip force is connected with greater cost. Thus, winding methods are known, particularly for a carrier roll winder, for which the weight of a wound roll is carried entirely or partially by means of devices which pass through the core of the wound roll, such as winding shafts or grip heads (chucks); the latter are known from back-up roll win- ders. The technological advantage of this type of carrier roll winder is connected with high cost; in addition, it is extremely costly to configure automation in order to increa- se productivity. With other winding methods for a carrier roll winder, the angle of the plane which passes through the carrier roll shafts can be adjusted relative to a horizontal plane.

An additional proposal known from the state of the art is to the effect of providing one or both carrier rolls with a compressible elastomeric coating. By means of deformation, a compressible roll cover distributes the occurrent nip load to a larger area, thus reducing the actual harmful specific nip load. Simultaneously, however, the deformation of the roll cover causes an axial distortion of the web, e. g. of paper; this is undesirable since it influences the winding quality. Differences in thickness become visible, which differences generally exceed the limits for acceptance set by further processors. In order to decrease this disadvanta- ge, it has been proposed as a practicable compromise to use a roll of this type, coated with elastomer, for only one of the two carrier rolls.

In DE 2,908,294, a winding device comprises, apart from two carrier rolls, an elastic belt placed under tension by means of a tension roll, supported to be movable, which belt wraps around one of the two carrier rolls and a clamping roll. The spatial arrangement of the rolls around which the belt is wrapped provides for the development of a relieving compo- nent on the weight of the roll during the entire winding process.

US 3,098,619 discloses a winding device for which 3 rollers are mounted on a framework in such a way that two of the rollers form a uniplanar roller pair, i.e., a plane which is placed through the roller shafts of the roller pair is par- allel to a plane tangential to the winding throughout the entire winding process. The spacing of the rollers of the uniplanar roller pair is as small as possible, such that pressure waves which originate from the nip of each of the rollers can superimpose each other. In order to increase the nip which is developed, a moving belt can rotate around all three rollers and can be put under tension by means of the third roller. The uniplanar position of the roller pair is maintained by means of a drag-link on the basis of the equi- librium of force.

The invention starts from DE 4,035,054 which has as an ob- ject, a roll of the same generic class having a thin-walled metal running sleeve. In order to realize the basic idea of decreasing the specific contact pressure by means of enlar- ging the contact surface between roll and winding, DE 4,035,054 proposes to mount the metallic running sleeve to the roll body over an elastic, flexible intermediate layer.

For this roll, with a mounted thin-walled metal running sleeve, no axial force appears in an axial direction, in contrast to a roll having an exclusively elastomeric roll cover or else a rubber sleeve, such that the winding quality

is not impaired in the way which occurs for a roll having a compressible roll cover.

In addition, it is known that the diameter of the carrier roll is responsible to a decisive degree, in accordance with Hertzian stress, for the specific nip force. As the diameter of a carrier roll is increased, the specific nip force falls for a wound roll of equal weight. However, because of the small tube diameters coming into use, the diameters of back- up rolls and carrier rolls cannot be enlarged by any optio- nal amount.

The purpose of the invention is to create a roll with which the winding hardness can be adjusted in accordance with the desires of a further processor and, in particular, can be kept small without impairment to other aspects of the win- ding quality and without enlarging the diameter of the roll.

This problem is solved by means of the invention rendered in Claim 1.

In this respect, the basic idea in accordance with the in- vention is that, on one hand, the hardness or ductility of the thin-walled running sleeve on the basis of its wall thickness and its material-specific properties, such as elastic modulus, determines the obtainable winding hardness; on the other hand the position of the arrangements of sup- porting elements relative to the nip, i.e., to the contact location between roll sleeve and wound roll can be used as a controlling or regulating component for winding hardness.

In a first variant of the solution, the supporting device as a whole can pivot around the shaft of the roll. At the be- ginning of a winding process in which a greater nip force is striven for in order to obtain a hard wound core, for a winding process which uses a roll in accordance with the

invention, the supporting device preferably is pivoted in such a way that one of the arrangements of supporting ele- ments supports the running sleeve from the inside, on or near the contact location. As the wound diameter increases, the supporting device is pivoted such that, in accordance with the requirements for a necessary smaller nip force, the nip is located between two adjacent arrangements of suppor- ting elements, so that the running sleeve can give way to the nip pressure.

In a second variant of the solution, the invention is reali- zed with a supporting device for which the angle between at least two of the arrangements of supporting elements can be varied. By means of changing the position of the arrange- ments of supporting elements with respect to each other, the shape of the running sleeve changes, e.g., from round to oval (in the shape of a rotary piston), such that for the latter shape, the radius of curvature at the contact loca- tion corresponds with that of a roll having a greater roll diameter. The variation of the angle(s) between the arran- gements of supporting elements also can be superimposed by a pivoting of the supporting device, such that the effects of both solution alternatives appear simultaneously.

In accordance with a third variant of the solution, the mutual spacing of the arrangements of supporting elements is changed by means of radially displacing at least one of the arrangements of supporting elements with respect to the roll shaft. For all variants of the solution, due to the flexural strength of the running sleeve, only its degree of curvature can change, while the shape of the roll is maintained with a convex curved sleeve.

In a preferred way, the supporting elements are executed as rollers, with either one roller per arrangement of suppor- ting elements being able to extend across the entire roll

width, particularly for a short roll, or with several rol- lers of the same diameter being arranged on one shaft with spacing between each other, particularly for a wide roll.

A winding device in accordance with Claim 9 represents the preferred field of application. The roll can be driven in a preferred way by means of a driving roller which acts upon the outside of the roll sleeve. In order to avoid undesira- ble influences such as roll deformation caused by means of the transfer of turning moment, the introduction of turning moment should be carried out at a location, the angular distance of which from the nip is as great as possible, preferably on or near to that arrangement of supporting elements which supports the running sleeve from the inside on the side facing away from the nip.

The aforementioned as well as the claimed and also the furt- her components which are described in the example, to be used in accordance with the invention, are subject to no particular exceptional circumstances with respect to size, design, material selection and technical conception, such that the selection criteria known in the field of applica- tion can find unlimited use. Additional details, features and advantages of the object of the invention are obtained from the following description of the associated figure which represents - per example - preferred embodiments of a roll in accordance with the invention.

The description of the embodiments describes only the use as a carrier roll in a carrier roll winder. The use of the described roll construction for a back-up roll winder can be carried out without moving out of the range of protection of the patent. Shown in the drawing are: Figure 1: A roll in accordance with the invention in general view, partially broken;

Figure 2: A longitudinal section through the left end of the roll from Figure 1; Figure 3: The winding of a new roll with a roll in ac- cordance with the first variant of the solu- tion, in end view; Figure 4: The solution as in Figure 3, with a nearly finished wound roll; Figure 5: A winding process with a roll in accordance with the second variant of the invention, in end view; and Figure 6: A winding with a roll in accordance with the third variant of the invention, in end view with a driving roller.

Figure 1 shows a general view of a roll, designated as a whole as 50, which can be used as a carrier roll, back-up roll or weighting roll in a winding process not shown. The width of the roll 50 extends at least across the entire winding width of the winding device. The roll 50 has a shaft L, about which can rotate a cylindrical, preferably seam- less, single-piece running sleeve 1. It is preferable to use a thin-walled tube as the running sleeve. The running sleeve also can be assembled in the sense of the invention from several tubular sections. The running sleeve preferably consists of an elastically ductile metal, the elastic modulus of which is selected in such a way that a thin-walled running sleeve of a selected wall thickness gives way above a certain pressure, yet the flexural strength is sufficient to maintain a convex curvature of the running sleeve even in unsupported zones of the sleeve.

Arrangements of supporting elements 2A, 2B, 2C in the form of a carrier roller system arranged radially about the shaft L of the roll 1 serve as an inner support for the running sleeve 1; the arrangements of supporting elements 2A, 2B, 2C likewise are constructed, in each case, of several carrier rollers 4A, 4B, 4C arranged on a supporting element shaft S aligned parallel to the shaft L. A supporting device 10 having three carrier roller systems 2A, 2B, 2C is described in the example. Two, four or even more carrier roller sys- tems also can be used in accordance with the roll diameter and intended use. The individual carrier rollers 4A, 4B, 4C of the carrier roller systems 2A, 2B, 2C are supported on a common, non-rotating carrier device which extends across the entire width of the roll 50; in the example, this is shown as the shaft 5, as is particularly clear from Figure 5.

The running sleeve 1 is supported at the ends of the roll by means of bearings 6 such that it can rotate about the shaft 5. The individual carrier rollers of the carrier roller system all can be of the same kind; in particular, they can be dimensioned alike. As is evident from Figure 2, here, the carrier rollers 4A, 4B of the carrier roller systems 2A, 2B have a different roller width and a different roller spacing than the carrier rollers 4C of the carrier roller system 2C; the latter also can vary among each other. The smaller roll- er width of that/those carrier roll(s) 4C' which are located adjacent to the bearings 6 which support the running sleeve 1 can minimize or equalize negative effects caused by means of the bearings 6 on the degree of deformation of the run- ning sleeve 1.

The differing constructions of a roll with respect to the variants of the solution is explained in the following with reference to Figures 3-6, in which like components are pro- vided with like reference numbers.

The first variant of the invention is shown in Figures 3 and 4. A carrier roll winder features a first carrier roll 51 and a second carrier roll 52. Preferably, only the first carrier roll 51 has a construction in accordance with the invention as in Figures 1 and 2, while the second carrier roll 52 is in the form of a conventional carrier roll. A material web (M) wraps around a section of the running sleeve 1 of the first carrier roll 51 up to the contact location N (Nip) with a winding tube 11. At the beginning of the winding process (Figure 3), the running sleeve 1 is supported at the nip on the inner circumference 1' by means of one of the carrier roller systems 2B, such that the run- ning sleeve 1 cannot be deformed at the nip.

The individual carrier rollers 4A, 4B, 4C are supported with the ability to freely rotate, by means of bearings 8, about the associated supporting element shaft S. In addition, at least one of the carrier roller systems, preferably the carrier roller system 2C, can feature an elevating mechanism 9, by means of which the radial distance of the supporting element shaft S' of the carrier roller system 2C from the roll shaft L can be varied in comparison with the distance of the supporting element shaft S of the carrier roller systems 2A, 2B, as further explained below in detail (Figure 6).

An idle supporting device 10 can be pivoted about the shaft L by means of a mechanism, not shown, as shown by a compari- son of the position of the first carrier roll 51 in Figures 3 and 4 which show the growth of the wound roll. As the diameter of the wound roll 12 increases, the first carrier roll 51 is pivoted and/or the nip between the wound roll 12 and running sleeve 1 migrates in the direction of Arrow P, counter-clockwise on the basis of the increasing diameter of the wound roll 12. Since with an increasing diameter of the wound roll, the running sleeve 1 now no longer is supported

at the nip N by a carrier roller system 2B, but rotates (unsupported) between the two carrier roller systems 2A, 2B, the radius of curvature of the running sleeve between the two carrier roller systems 2A, 2B can increase under the nip pressure, by means of which the desired influence of winding hardness is achieved, since the specific nip force is de- creased.

The elevating mechanism 9 for the carrier roller system 2C serves in order to be able to maintain a sufficient primary stress in the sleeve 1 in a controlled way. In a particular- ly advantageous configuration of the invention, a control device can be used for the purpose of controlling or regu- lating the pivot of the supporting device 10 in accordance to a winding program oriented to the winding hardness in such a way that a radial shifting of the supporting element shaft S' of the carrier roller system 2C superimposes the pivoting - or the other way around.

The second and third variants of the invention are shown in Figures 5 and 6 respectively. Likewise a material web M wraps around a part of the running sleeve 1 up to the nip N.

For the supporting device 110 shown in Figure 5, the carrier roller systems 102A, 102B can be pivoted relative to a starting position with symmetrically distributed carrier roller systems 102A, 102B, 102C about an Angle a or p. a and p can be like or different in accordance with the choice of the control program. The change in curvature of the running sleeve 1 achieved by means of changing the angular position of the supporting element shaft S of the carrier roller systems 102A, 102B is represented in exaggerated proportions. The effect is similar to that for the roll in accordance with the first solution alternative. As shown in Figures 5 and 6, the radial spacing of the third carrier roller system 2C, as shown in Figure 6 with 6, can be shif- ted in order to increase the smoothness of running of the

running sleeve 1, yet also in order to change the radius of curvature of the running sleeve 1 in the region of the nip, with a radially outward displacement of the carrier roller system 2C increasing the radius of curvature and a shifting inward reducing the radius of curvature.

The running sleeve for all variants of the solution can be driven as in Figure 6 by means of a driving roller 13, which preferably acts upon the running sleeve 1 in such a way that the introduction of turning moment is carried out at a loca- tion supported by means of the carrier roller system 2C. If the supporting device can be pivoted, as shown for the solu- tion alternative 1, either the driving roller 13 can be pivoted along with it, or it is accepted that there will be less of an offset at the running sleeve between the carrier roller system 2C and the contact location of the driving roller 13. Of course, the suspension of the driving roller 13 also must be able to follow a radial shifting of the carrier roller system 2C if necessary.

It goes without saying that the disclosure of the device in accordance with the invention, in particular the use of the rolls when winding, also includes procedural features which can be supplied to an original procedural protection.

Reference Numbers 1 Soft Nip Drum 2 Inner Circumference 2A, B, C Support Reel System (Arrangement of Supporting Elements) 4A, B, C Support Reels (King Rollers) 5 Shaft 6 Bearing 8 Bearing 9 Elevating Mechanism 10 Supporting Device 11 Winding core (Tube) 12 Wound Roll 13 Driving Roller 50 Cylinder (Roll) 51 First Drum (First King Roll) 52 Second Drum (Second King Roll) 102A King Roller System 102B King Roller System 102C King Roller System 110 Supporting Device P Arrow L Axis S, S' Support Element Axis M Web of material N Nip a Angle p Angle 6 Radial Spacing