1/ we claim:
1. An apparatus to form a punched drive belt 130 from a drive belt 105 having a length, said apparatus comprising:
a roller 115 for guiding and supplying said drive belt 105 at a pre¬determined rate of velocity and tension;
a puncher 120 for punching said drive belt 105 at a pre-determined frequency and intensity;
a controller 125 for measuring said drive belt 105 and control said frequency and said intensity of said puncher 120; characterized in that,
said roller 115 supplies said drive belt 105 to said controller 125 via said puncher 120 at said pre-determined rate and said tension; said controller 125 triggers said puncher 120 to punch said drive belt 105 along its said length at said pre-determined frequency and intensity to form a plurality of individual punched drive belts 130 abutted to each other along the said length of said drive belt 105, each individual punched drive belt 130 having a length, a width, a leading end 140 and a trailing end 145. said plurality of individual punched drive belt 130 are winded without disjoining said individual punched drive belts 130 from each other along the said length of said drive belt 105;
2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said apparatus includes a plurality of rollers 115.
3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said intensity of said puncher 120 results in a plurality of said individual punched drive belts 130 along the said
length of said drive belt 105 wherein said leading end 140 of said individual punched drive belt 130 abuts said trailing end 145 of a preceding said individual punched drive belt 130.
4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said puncher 120 forms a finger type joint.
5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said controller 125 employs a rotary encoder to measure said length of said drive belt 105.
6. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said controller 125 includes a programmable logic controller for controlling said frequency and said intensity of said puncher 120.
7. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said drive belt 105 retains said rate of velocity and said tension acquired from said roller 115 till said plurality of individual punched drive belt 130 are winded.
8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said rate of velocity and said tension is variable.
9. A punched drive belt formed from a drive belt 105 wherein:
said drive belt 105 having a length, a width, a proximal end and a distal end;
said punched drive belt comprising of a plurality of individual punched drive belts 130; each having a length, a width, a leading end 140 and a trailing end 145;
a punch formed on each of said leading end 140 and said trailing end 145 of each of said individual punched drive belts 130; characterized in that,
a plurality of uncut punched drive belt 130 abutting each other along the said length of said drive belt 105 such that each said leading end 140 of a said individual punched drive belt 130 abuts with said trailing end 145 of a preceding said individual pre punched drive belt 130; said leading end 140 of said individual punched drive belt 130 constituting said proximal end of said drive belt does not abut with said trailing end 145 of said individual punched drive belt 130 constituting said distal end of said drive belt 105.
10. A punched drive belt according to claim 10, wherein an individual punched drive belt 130 abutting a said preceding individual drive belt 130 is plucked out by way of exerting a substantially small pull force on said individual punched drive belt 130.

TECHNICAL FIELD
The subject matter described herein, in general, relates to drive belts used to drive spindles. BACKGROUND
Conventionally, drive belt manufacturers produce the drive belts in long continuous length and make them in the form of huge rolls and ship them across to end users. The end users in textile industries, where the drive belts are used to drive spindles, have to perform a series of processes on the drive belts before actually putting them to use. A drive belt of a specified length has to be first disjoint from a roll of continuous length supplied by a manufacturer. This disjoint drive belt ought to be of precise length as any deviation would result in wastage of the drive belt. A punch is then to be formed on the drive belt of a desired shape on both ends of the drive belt. Any asymmetry of punches being formed would result in a weak joint and hence would result in joint failure during the operation of the belt. The perfectly punched drive belt is then joined to make an endless drive belt, which is then mounted on a spindle to drive it. A joint may be achieved by means of heating, melting or fusion method.
The above mentioned process which is conventionally carried out at user end demands a whole lot of expertise which would ensure precision in forming a punched drive belt ready to be used. Such an expertise would attract a substantial investment in having an adequately training manpower, purchase of a specific set of tools, place and equipment for the precise measurement of length etc. Additionally, the entire process of forming an endless punched drive belt from a supplied roll of drive belt can be time consuming.
Therefore, in the context of aforesaid, there lies a challenge in providing a pre-punched drive belt which would enable an end user to use it without aforesaid processes being applied on a supplied drive belt, hence sparing the end user of a few substantially tedious, expensive, lengthy and precision sensitive processes being applied before being able to actually use it.
SUMMARY
The present subject matter described herein is directed towards forming a pre-punched drive belt with a specific punching apparatus before dispatching the drive belt to end user so as to spare the end user from a substantially tedious, expensive, lengthy and precision sensitive process of measuring the length and punching the drive belt at their end.
According to one aspect of the present embodiment, an apparatus to form a punched drive belt from a drive belt includes a roller, which guides and supplies the drive belt at a specific rate of velocity and tension to a controller via a puncher. The puncher, controlled by the controller, is configured to punch the drive belt at a pre-determined frequency and intensity. The controller also continuously measures the drive belt, which is a pre-cursor in determining the frequency and intensity of the puncher so as to punch the drive belt at a specific pre-determined length.
A plurality of individual punched drive belts, abutted to each other, is formed along the length of drive belt, wherein a portion of drive belt between two consecutive punches defines an individual punched drive belt. The intensity of puncher is such that a plurality of punched drive belts along the length of the drive belt are formed without being disjoint from each other. An array of punched drive belts along the length of drive belts is formed such that each leading end of an individual punched drive belt abuts with each trailing end of a preceding individual punched drive belt.
However, if the drive belt is to be supplied non endless and in a roll, the leading end and trailing end constituting the two extreme ends of the drive belt do not abut each other. The punched drive belt is then guided and supplied to a winding means that winds the punched drive belt to a roll, which is to be supplied to an end user. It would be obvious that the total length of individual punched drive belt along the length of the drive belt is equal to the roll length.
The end user can pluck an individual punched drive belt from the supplied roll by applying a small pull force on the drive belt. The individual punched drive belt would disjoin on the punches upon pulling. The punched drive belt is then joined to make it endless by heating, melting or fusion methods at user end and mounted on a spindle to drive it.
These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present subject matter will become better understood with reference to the following description and appended claims. This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
The above and other features, aspects and advantages of the subject matter will become better understood with regard to the following description, appended claims, and accompanying drawings where:
Fig 1 is a schematic plan view of the apparatus to form a punched drive belt 130 from a drive belt 105.
Fig 2 is an isometric view of an array of the punched drive belt 130 wound into a roll 135.
DESCRIPTION
In order to address the aforesaid challenges, according to at least one embodiment of the present subject matter, an apparatus to form a punched drive belt comprises of a roller, a puncher and a controller. The roller supplies and guides a drive belt at a pre-determined rate of velocity and tension to the controller via the puncher. The controller continuously measures the length of the drive belt and sends signals to the puncher to punch the drive belt at a pre-determined frequency and intensity. An array of punched drive belts is hence formed along the entire length of the drive belt, which is defined as a portion of the drive belt between two consecutive punches. An individual drive belt thus formed has a leading end and a trailing end. The intensity of the puncher is such that is doesn't disjoin individual punched drive belts, but each leading end of each individual punched drive belt abuts with a trailing end of each preceding drive belt. Since this array has to be winded into a roll and supplied to the end user, leading end and trailing end constituting the extreme ends of an individual drive belt do not abut each other. Each individual punched drive belt is abut to a preceding individual punched drive belt in the array of punched drive belt in such a manner that an individual punched drive belt can be plucked out from the roll of punched drive belt by applying a small pull force on the individual drive belt.
Aforesaid apparatus can have a plurality of rollers to guide and supply the drive belt. The puncher is operated pneumatically and the controller employs a rotary encoder to measure the drive belt. The controller also employs a programmable logic control to control the frequency and intensity of the puncher. The punch formed on the drive belt according to the aforesaid apparatus is a finger type thus enabling a finger type joint to make the individual drive belt endless while being used and mounted on the spindle.
Fig 1 is a schematic plan view of an apparatus to form a punched drive belt 130 from a drive belt 105. A roller 115 guides and supplies drive belt 105 from a roll 110 of drive belt 105 to a controller 125 via a puncher 120 at a pre-determined rate of velocity and tension. The puncher 120, being controlled by the controller 125, is configured to punch the drive belt 105 at a pre-determined frequency and intensity while continuously measuring the drive belt 105, which is a pre-cursor in determining the frequency and intensity of the puncher 120 so as to punch the drive belt 105 at a pre-determined length. An array of individual punched drive belt 130 along the length of drive belt 105 is formed; each individual punched drive belt 130 having a leading end 140 and a trailing end 145 as shown in Fig 2. The punch intensity of puncher 120 is such that, each leading end 140 as shown in Fig 2 of an individual punched drive belt 130 abuts a trailing end 145 as shown in Fig 2 of a preceding individual punched drive belt 130. The array of individual punched drive belt 130 is wound into a roll 135 of punched drive belt and supplied to an end user.
Fig 2 is an isometric view of an array of individual punched drive belt 130 wound into a roll 135. The array of individual punched drive belt 130 is formed along the length of the drive belt 105 as shown in Fig 1, wherein each individual punched drive belt 130 includes the leading end 140 and the trailing end 145. The array of individual punched drive belt 130 is formed such that each leading end 140 of individual punched drive belt 130 abuts with a preceding trailing end 145 of an individual punched drive belt 130. However, a leading end 140 and a trailing end 145 of an individual drive belt 130 constituting extreme ends of a drive belt 130 do not abut each other so as to keep the drive belt 130 with definite ends. The array of individual punched drive belt 130 is then wound into the roll 135, which is then supplied to the end user.
An individual punched drive belt 130 can be plucked out from the roll 135 of punched drive belt by applying a small pull force on the individual punched drive belt 130. The leading end 140 and trailing end 130 of an individual drive belt 130 are then joined at the user end to make it endless.
Although the subject matter has been described with reference to specific embodiments, this description is not meant to be construed in a limiting sense. Various modifications of the disclosed embodiments, as well as alternate embodiments of the subject matter, will become apparent to persons skilled in the art upon reference to the description of the subject matter. It is therefore contemplated that such modifications can be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the present subject matter as defined.