Abstract: A moving web tension monitoring apparatus of easily fabricated, relatively inexpensive and easily assembled construction comprises a cantilever mounted strain beam element coupled at the flexurable end thereof through a self-aligning bearing to one end of the support shaft for the web supporting guide roll by a coupling member removably fastened to the shaft end and having a multiply axially split expandable tubular collar portion projecting endwise from the shaft end into the self-aligning bearing and expanded by a locking member forcibly inserted into the collar portion to expand and tightly lock it to the bearing. The self-aligning bearing preferably is of the roller bearing type having barrel shaped roller elements, and the strain beam means preferably is of the twin beam type having a pair of vertically spaced, parallel beam members formed by drilling out the core of a metal block member from which the sensor member of the transducer is fabricated.

Abstract: An easily installed and disassembled web transducer device for measuring and monitoring the tension in a continuously moving web as it moves over a tensioning roller. The transducer device comprises a cantilever mounted strain beam with attached strain gauges at the beam flex points and formed at its free end with a cup-shaped coupling receptacle having an open outer end enclosing and supporting one end of a support shaft for the web tensioning roller by a self-aligning bearing retained in place in the bore of the coupling receptable by a retaining ring snap locked in an annular groove in the receptacle bore. A spring washer in the coupling receptacle bore is biased between the closed inner end thereof and the bearing to continuously yieldingly urge the latter toward axially abutting engagement with the retainer ring.

Abstract: An easily installed and disassembled web transducer device for measuring and monitoring the tension in a continuously moving web as it moves over a tensioning roller. The transducer device comprises a cantilever mounted strain beam with attached strain gauges at the beam flex points and formed at its free end with a cup-shaped coupling receptacle having an open outer end enclosing and supporting one end of a support shaft for the web tensioning roller by a self-aligning bearing retained in place in the bore of the coupling receptacle by a retaining ring snap locked in an annular groove in the receptacle bore. A spring washer in the coupling receptacle bore is biased between the closed inner end thereof and the bearing to continuously yieldingly urge the latter toward axially abutting engagement with the retainer ring.

Abstract: A web tension transducer device which is easily in-installed, has a high natural frequency, excellent linearity, and extremely low hysteresis. A twin beam type transducer having strain gages at the flex points of the beams is coupled to the shaft supporting the moving web through a self-aligning anti-friction bearing, the strain gages being so located and electrically connected that effects of friction in the bearing due to bending of the shaft are automatically cancelled out in the circuitry in which the strain gages are connected. The self-aligning bearing coupling is arranged to permit relative axial displacement between the shaft and the twin beam transducer for accommodating comparatively large amounts of shaft expansion. The bearing also may have a bearing surface liner comprised of a low coefficient of friction thermoplastic resin material such as teflon fiber or teflon fiber-filled acetal resin fabric.