Overlapping gear drive for straightening machines

摘要

The invention relates to a train of gears housed within a gear box and designed for driving the lower straightening rolls of a feeding and straightening machine. The gears in the gear box are disposed in staggered relation in adjacent parallel planes and each drive gear is journalled by a drive shaft having a coupling connection to a straightening roll. The staggered arrangement of the drive gears is an important feature since the drive gears have pitch diameters greater than the center to center distance between adjacent straightening rolls. In addition to staggering the drive gears the invention provides idler gears which are interposed between adjacent drive gears, with one idler gear in one plane receiving the drive and the other idler gear in the adjacent parallel plane transmitting the drive.