US3758042A

US3758042A - Continuous yarn winding apparatus

Info

Publication number: US3758042A
Application number: US00189185A
Authority: US
Inventors: S Sear
Original assignee: PETTY MACHINE CO
Current assignee: PETTY MACHINE CO
Priority date: 1971-10-14
Filing date: 1971-10-14
Publication date: 1973-09-11
Anticipated expiration: 1990-09-11

Abstract

A winder assembly for continuously taking up a textile strand onto one of two displaceable, self-supporting bobbins at high speed without interruption of the take-up of the strand. The strand is fed between nip rollers and upon transfer from one bobbin to the other is directed between one of the nip rollers and a displaceable transfer roll, the displaceable transfer roll being moved into engagement with one of the nip rollers before transfer.

Description

O l i United States Patent 1 1111 3,758,042 Sear 1 1 Sept. 11, 1973 4] CONTINUOUS YARN WINDING 3,118,625 1/1964 Kuster 242/18 A P TUS 3,165,274 1/1965 Priest 3,279,904 l0/l966 Russell et al 242/18 A [75] Inventor: Stuart B. Sear, Gastonia, NC.

[73] Assignee: Petty Machine Company, Inc., Primary Examinero"stanley Gllreath Gastonia, NC. Attorney-David Rabin [22] Filed: Oct. 14 1971 ABSTRACT [21] Appl' 189,185 A winder assembly for continuously taking up a textile strand onto one of two displaceable, self-supporting [52] US. Cl 242/18 A bobbins at high Speed Without inmrruptit)" of the take- 51 Int. Cl B65h 54/02 p of the strand- The Strand is fed between p roller-h 58 Field of Search 242/18 A, 25 A and upon transfer from one bobbin t0 the other is rected between one of the nip rollers and a displaceable 5 References Cited transfer roll, the displaceable transfer roll being moved UNITED STATES PATENTS into engagement with one of the nip rollers before t f 2,905,402 9/l959 Foller et al. 242/18 A tans er 2,957,635 10/1960 Bisbe 242/18 A 8Claims, 7 Drawing Figures I Win 1 l 1 l l PAIENTEDSEPI 1 Im 3.758.042

sum 1 or 2 Waxy INVENTOR STUART B. SEAR PATENTEDSEPI 1 m 7 3.758.042

' saw a nr 2 INVENTOR STUART B. SEAR BRIEF SUMMARY AND OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION In the manufacture of synthetic yarns it is necessary to provide a means for taking up continuously single and multifilament strands at high speed and to wind the strands onto self-supporting bobbins at various stages in the manufacturing processes. In wet and dry spun processes it is often impractical or undesirable, because of associated thermal events in the process, to interrupt the delivery of the strand to the winder bobbins. It is often necessary to divert the strand to a waste collection system, or to a spare winding system, each time that it is necessary to doff a completely wound bobbin of yarn from a winder. Also, it is often necessary to pre- I cisely control the weight of the bobbins, to avoid waste in subsequent strand treatment processes, thereby often requiring elaborate schedules for doffing full bobbins from a multiplicity of machines having many winding stations. 7 g

The quality of the yarn and the efficiency of theprocess also is dependent upon the degree of skill that an operator acquires in threading a strand winder during doffing operations; Also, such operations require careful and continous supervision.

The present invention enables the strand which has been wound on one winding bobbin to be automatically transferred to a second or spare winding bobbin on the same machine without interruption or change in the rate of take-up of the textile strand and without significant waste.

Briefly, according to the present invention, the strand is traversed, either by a reciprocating guide or a grooved traverse roll, onto the surface of one or two nip rolls, one nip roll being driven and the other being spring-biased against and driven by the first roll. The machine includes two mandrels, which may be of the expansible type, for receiving and accurately holding winding tubes or bobbins thereon. Each mandrel is mounted on a pivoting or sliding carriage, the carriage being symmetrically arranged on either side of an imaginary line drawn through the nip formed by the two nip rolls. The mandrels are rotated due to surface contacts between the bobbins mounted thereon and the nip rolls. The textile strand is guided by the traverse roll or guide onto the surface of one of the two nip rolls and is further carried through the nip and over a portion of either the driver or driven nip roll before being taken up on the bobbin in frictional driving contact with the driver or driven roll. As yarn accumulates on the tube or bobbin, the mandrel and carriage assembly moves away from the nip roll during the package so that essentially the same surface contact pressure is maintained between the nip roll and the strand wound on the bobbin. Once the winder has been initially threaded, means are provided for automatically successively deflecting the strand from one bobbin to the other to form packages. It will not be necessary to re-thread the winder again except for reasons of malfunction or interruption of the supply of strand to the winder.

One of the primary objects of the invention is the provision of apparatus for winding up a textile strand onto successive bobbins without interruption.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a bobbin winding apparatus for reducing yarn waste.

- roll;

Still another object of the invention is to reduce the exposure of operators to hazardous yarn transfer procedures associated with high speed winding of heavy industrial and other textile threads.

Other feature of the invention is the reduction of the number of operators necessary to operate a multistation winding operation in a synthetic yarn manufacturing facility.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art during the course of the following detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES FIG. 1 is a front elevational view of the winding machine, with parts broken away, illustrating the nip rolls, thewinding mandrels and means for imparting movement to the winding mandrels and the transfer roll;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary, perspective view of the drive arrangement for the nip rolls and the traverse roll;

FIG. 3 is a schematic, front elevationalview of the strand winder with the strand being guided between the nip rolls and onto the right take-up tube and mandrel;

FIG. 4 is a schematic, front elevational view of the winder, similar to FIG. 3, with the right take-up mandrel being disengaged from the nip roll, the transfer roll being driven due to its engagement with the other nip FIG. 5 is a schematic, front elevational view of the strand as it is broken intermediate the transfer roll and the take-up mandrel, the end of the strand being fed between the transfer roll and the nip roller into engagement with the left take-up mandrel;

FIG. 6 is a schematic,-front elevational view of the winder as strand begins to wind upon the left mandrel; and

FIG. 7 is a schematic, front elevational view of the winder with the transfer roll disengaged from the left mandrel and the right mandrel having the package doffed therefrom.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring to FIG. 1 of the drawing, the winder 10 includes a pair of nip rolls 12 and 1.4, a transfer roll 16 and a pair of winding mandrels l8 and 20 supported by a machine frame 22.

The nip roll 12 is mounted in a cantilevered fashion upon a shaft 24 suppoted by the machine frame 22.'The shaft 24 is driven by a motor 26 through

pulleys

28, 30, and a belt 32. The cantilevered nip roll 14 is rotatably mounted upon the machine frame by a shaft 15 supported in a spring loaded slide assembly 34. During a winding operation, the roll 14 is always in engagement with a roll 12 such that the roll 14 is frictionally dirven by the roll 12. The roll 12 preferably is chrome plated steel while the roll 14 is rubber covered.

The mandrels l8 and'20 mounted upon shafts l9 and 21 secured to swing

arms

36 and 38, respectively, which swing arms are pivotally secured to the machine frame 22. The

shafts

19, 21 extend through arcuate slots 25 provided in the front plate 27 of the machine frame 22. The

arms

36 and 38 are actuated by double

action fluid cylinders

40 and 42, respectively.

Thecylinders

40 and 42 control the swing arms so as to maintain a predetermined pressure between the strand packages and the nip rolls l2, l4 and to compensate for the change in the diameters of the yarn packages. Preferably the

mandrels

18 and 20 are of the expansible type to hold or release bobbins or tubes for doffing and donning operations.

The yarn or strand transfer roll 16 is normally centered below the nip formed by

rolls

12 and 14 and is adapted to be moved into driving engagement with either roll 12 or roll 14. The freely rotatable roll 12 is mounted upon a swing arm 44 pivotally mounted at 46 upon the machine frame 22. The lower end of the swing arm 44 is coupled to a double action fluid cylinder 48 and a spring arrangement 50. The cylinder 48, which is fixed to a bracket 49 on frame 22, is adapted to shift the arm 44 in either direction, as shown by the arrows, while the spring arrangement 50 acts to position the arm 44 in a central position with transfer roll 16 disengaged from the rolls l2 and 14. The spring arrangement may comprise an angle plate 52 fixed to the machine frame 22 and having an opening therethrough for receiving a rod or shaft 53, FIG. 3, which has a top member 54 on the outer end thereof.

Springs

56 and 58 are mounted in surrounding relation to the rod 53 on each side of the angle plate 52.

Located above the roll 12 is a roll 60 for traversing the strand before it is wound into a package. The traverse roll 62 is driven from a shaft 62 and pulley 64, the pulley 64 being driven from the belt 32, as shown more clearly in FIG. 2. While a grooved roll 60 has been disclosed for traversing the strand, it is to be understood that other types of traverses, including reciprocating guides, may be used.

Referring to FIG. 1, a strand S, produced in a known manner, is directed over the traverse roll 60, over roll 12, and into the nip formed by the

rolls

12 and 14 and onto the package P-l supported by mandrel 20. The strand S is wound upon a roughened tube or bobbin 62 mounted upon the mandrel 20. The swing arms 38, supporting package P-l, is urged upwardly by the fluid cylinder 42 such that the package is in driven engagement with the nip roll 14. It is to be noted that the doffed mandrel 18 is in a retracted position durin the winding of package P-l and that the transfer roll 16 is out of engagement with

rolls

12 and 14.

It is a known fact by those skilled in the art that when a strand passes through a pair of nip rolls, such as

rolls

12 and 14, the strand will continue in a straight line, on the downstream side of the nip rolls, by reason of its own momentum coincident with the tangent drawn through the point of contact between the nip rolls unless otherwise restrained by tension acting in either direction. The transferring of the strand from one winding position to the other depends substantially upon this fact.

The sequence of events to complete the transfer of the strand S from mandrel 20 to mandrel 18 will be described in conjunction with FIGS. 3-7. Upon winding of the package P-l, FIG. 1, to substantially the desired weight or size, actuation of various components of the machine are initiated, as shown by FIG. 3. The fluid cylinder 40 is actuated to swing the mandrel 18, having a bobbin 64 mounted thereon, into driving engagement with the roll 12 such that the surface speed of the bobbin 64 is equal to the speed of the strand S passing through the

nip rolls

12, 14. In addition, fluid cylinder 48 is actuated to swing the arm 44 and transfer roll 16 to the left such that the transfer roll 16 also is in driving engagement with the nip roll 12. Note the compression of spring 58.

At this point, the package P-1 and mandrel 20 are moved away from roll 14 by the fluid cylinder 42 thereby disengaging the friction drive to the package P-l as shown by FIG. 4. Since the drive to the package is disengaged, the package beings to slow down due to air drag and friction in-the mandrel bearings. As the bobbin 62 slows down the tension in the strand S reduces until it no longer follows the periphery of nip roll 14 but is propelled downwardly in a substantially straight line to impinge upon the transfer roll 16, as shown by FIG. 4.

FIG. 5 shows a stage still later in the transfer cycle. Sufficient slack in the strand S has developed to form a loop 66 which is fed into the nip between the counterclockwise rotating transfer roll 16 and the clockwise rotating drive roll 12 due to the drag between the loop and the surface of transfer roll 16. At this instant, the strand connecting this loop to bobbin 62 is broken intermediate the package P-1 and the transfer roll 16.

In FIG. 6, the loop 66 now is shown firmly held in the nip between the bobbin 64 and the roll 12. The surface finish of bobbin 64 is relatively rough compared to the surface finish of roll 12 and a few filaments of the strand S will become embedded in the surfaceof the bobbin 64 due to the ironing action in the nip between bobbin 64 and roll 12. Sufficient entanglement of a few filaments with the surface of bobbin 64 normally occurs for the complete strand to continue to be carried by the surface of the bobbin 64 and therefore to continue to wind on the bobbin surface.

Once the strand S begins to wind on bobbin 64, the pressure within the double action fluid cylinder is released thereby permitting the spring 58 to expand and center the lever 44 thereby disengaging the transfer roll from the nip roll 12, as shown by FIG. 7. The righthand package P-l is now removed from the mandrel 20 and a new bobbin has been placed thereon for a subsequent transfer operation.

After the package P-2 on mandrel 18 has reached the desired size, the mandrel 20, having an empty bobbin thereon, is moved into driving engagement with nip roll 14 and the transfer roll 16 is urged into driving engagement with roll 14 due to the action of double acting cylinder 48. As the roll 16 and lever 44 move to the right, spring 53 is compressed. As the package P-2 moves out of engagement with nip roll 12, the strand S is broken,

similar to the manner previously described, and the strand again begins to wind on the new bobbin mounted upon mandrel 20.

Control means, not shown, are provided for the successivemovements of the mandrel swing

arm fluid cylinders

40 and 42 and for the strand deflecting transfer roll fluid cylinder 48. Control means also may be provided for expanding and contracting the expansible mandrels during bobbin doffing and donning operacry of the package. While the invention as described herein refers to manual removal of the full bobbins from the mandrels and the placement of empty bobbins on the mandrels, the present arrangement lends itself for such operations tobe automated.

I claim 1. An apparatus for continuously winding strand without interruption comprising; a pair of mandrels, each having a bobbin thereon and adapted to receive strand for forming yarn packages, drive roll means including at least one pair of drive rolls defining a nip for feeding strand therebetween, discrete means for displacing each of said bobbins from a position wherein the bobbin is in surface driven engagement with and defines a nip with one roll of said drive roll means to a bobbin doffing and donning position spaced from said drive roll means, and strand transfer means displaceable from a position spaced from said pair of rolls of said drive roll means ,to positions in-engagement with said drive roll means and intermediate the nip defined by said pair of rolls and a nip formed by one of said drive rolls and one of said bobbins for feeding and transferring the strand from a strand package supported on one bobbin to the other bobbin to initiate the winding of a new package.

2. An apparatus for continuously winding strand without interruption as recited in claim 1, and further including strand traversing means for directing the strand over one roll of said pair of rolls and onto one of said pair of displaceable bobbins for traversing the strand back and forth along a package.

3. An apparatus for continuously winding strand without interruption as recited in claim 1, said strand transferring means including an idler roller displaceable to contact successively and be driven by one or the other of said pair of drive rolls.

4. An apparatus for continuously winding strand without interruption'as recited in claim 3, wherein said transfer roller forms a nip with one of said pair of drive rolls to deflect the strand being conveyed by the drive rolls and impinge the strand onto the surface of one of said displaceable bobbins.

5. An apparatus for continuously winding strand strand as recited in claim 7, wherein the strand extendwithout interruption as recited in claim 1, wherein said strand transfer means includes an elongated pivotable member having an idler roller mounted thereon, and means for displacing said transfer roller to initiate the strand winding on a bobbin.

6. An apparatus for continuously winding strand without interruption as recited in claim 1, wherein said bobbins and mandrels supported in; cantilivered fashion upon arm members, said arm members being displaced by fluid means secured thereto.

7. The method of continously winding a continuous strand into packages comprising the steps of; gripping and feeding a strand through a first nip, directing the strand in a first arcuate path through a second nip to a bobbin package, frictionally driving, at a selected speed, the bobbin package to wind strand thereon, positioning a bobbin in peripheral engagement witlh a roll, frictionally driving the bobbin from the roll at substantially the same peripheral speed as the bobbin package, forming a third nip intermediate the first and second nips, displacing the bobbin package to terminate the friction drive thereto while continuously feeding the strandat the selected speed through the first nip to form a loop portion within the strand, gripping .the strand loop portion and directing the strand through the third nip to the bobbin, frictionally rotating the bobbin at said selected speed while directing the strand through the third nip, and breaking the strand extending between the third nip and the wound bobbin package.

8. The method of continuously winding a continuous

Claims

1. An apparatus for continuously winding strand without interruption comprising; a pair of mandrels, each having a bobbin thereon and adapted to receive strand for forming yarn packages, drive roll means including at least one pair of drive rolls defining a nip for feeding strand therebetween, discrete means for displacing each of said bobbins from a position wherein the bobbin is in surface driven engagement with and defines a nip with one roll of said drive roll means to a bobbin doffing and donning position spaced from said drive roll means, and strand transfer means displaceable from a position spaced from said pair of rolls of said drive roll means to positions in engagement with said drive roll means and intermediate the nip defined by said pair of rolls and a nip formed by one of said drive rolls and one of said bobbins for feeding and transferring the strand from a strand package supported on one bobbin to the other bobbin to initiate the winding of a new package.

4. An apparatus for continuously winding strand without interruption as recited in claIm 3, wherein said transfer roller forms a nip with one of said pair of drive rolls to deflect the strand being conveyed by the drive rolls and impinge the strand onto the surface of one of said displaceable bobbins.

5. An apparatus for continuously winding strand without interruption as recited in claim 1, wherein said strand transfer means includes an elongated pivotable member having an idler roller mounted thereon, and means for displacing said transfer roller to initiate the strand winding on a bobbin.

6. An apparatus for continuously winding strand without interruption as recited in claim 1, wherein said bobbins and mandrels supported in cantilivered fashion upon arm members, said arm members being displaced by fluid means secured thereto.

7. The method of continously winding a continuous strand into packages comprising the steps of; gripping and feeding a strand through a first nip, directing the strand in a first arcuate path through a second nip to a bobbin package, frictionally driving, at a selected speed, the bobbin package to wind strand thereon, positioning a bobbin in peripheral engagement with a roll, frictionally driving the bobbin from the roll at substantially the same peripheral speed as the bobbin package, forming a third nip intermediate the first and second nips, displacing the bobbin package to terminate the friction drive thereto while continuously feeding the strand at the selected speed through the first nip to form a loop portion within the strand, gripping the strand loop portion and directing the strand through the third nip to the bobbin, frictionally rotating the bobbin at said selected speed while directing the strand through the third nip, and breaking the strand extending between the third nip and the wound bobbin package.

8. The method of continuously winding a continuous strand as recited in claim 7, wherein the strand extending to the bobbin package is broken substantially simultaneously with the transferring of the strand to the bobbin.