Xerox Corporation

Willard J Patrick

William A Lloyd

Keith E McFarland

Angus H Whitaker

A roll apparatus for supporting a continuous web of material is designed to maintain the web in proper alignment as the web is paid from or rewound onto the roll. The apparatus comprises a pair of frame members to rotatably support the roll on a pair of open ended bearing supports. A roll drive has a drive shaft extending to one end of the roll. An interengageable coupler is provided on both the output end of the roll drive shaft and the one end of the roll to permit the roll to be rotatably driven by the roll drive shaft while not being directly secured thereto. This allows for immediate lateral disengagement of the coupler means upon removal of the other end of the roll from its open ended bearing support. A spring loaded plunger is axially mounted at the one end of the roll and biased to move axially outward away from the roll for engagement against the output end of the drive shaft. A lateral translation drive is mounted on the other of the frame members with a lateral translation output mechanism engaging in axially aligned, abutting contact relation with the other end of the roll. This arrangement permits disengagement of the other end of the roll from the lateral translation output mechanism by lifting the other roll end out of its open ended bearing support together with lateral disengagement of the one roll end from the interengageable coupler.

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Los Gatos, CA, United States of America

Willard J Patrick