EP0046120B1 - Process and automatic basting apparatus for making products with a multidirectional woven armature - Google Patents

Description

The subject of the present invention is a method and an automatic lacing apparatus for producing parts with multidirectional woven reinforcement. These parts are obtained from a frame produced by multidirectional weaving and then impregnated with an appropriate binder so as to be able to withstand very high mechanical and thermal stresses. These are, for example, nozzles, radio antenna windows, turbine blades, front points of reentry bodies, armor plates, brake discs, etc.

In most of the methods and machines for multidirectional weaving of reinforcements of simple or complex shape, at least one direction is materialized by a network of relatively rigid rods. Thus, in US Patent No. 3,904,464 is described a method of manufacturing a block in three directions in which the vertical direction is formed of rigid rods. Also in French Patent No. 2,227,748, in the name of the applicant, a method is described for the production of hollow revolving reinforcements which consists in depositing circumferential wires simultaneously and via a stitching head. radial through a network of relatively rigid rods. Likewise, in French Patent No. 2,276,916, a process is claimed for producing a composite with three-dimensional reinforcement in which all of the elements of the criss-crossed beams are constituted by rigid elements. French patent application No. 2 395 340, in the name of the applicant, describes a process for producing hollow woven armatures, of revolution, which can offer a complex cylindrical-conical shape. This process consists in carrying out a three-dimensional weaving by depositing in helical layers circumferential threads and radial threads woven at a fixed point in front of which pass rods rotated about the fictitious axis of the armature of revolution.

The rods used according to these patents and patent application consist of a mixture of fibers of all kinds and of a polymerized resin. These rods are therefore consumed for the production of each frame, therefore of each piece. They must be manufactured prior to the production of each frame. This manufacture is of high cost. It is therefore advantageous to replace them with metal rods which are reusable. Until now, the replacement of these temporary rods by wire is done by hand. However, the operation is not only delicate but also very expensive.

To overcome these various drawbacks, the present invention relates to an automatic lacing process for woven reinforcements or pieces produced by multidirectional weaving and composed of filiform textile elements arranged in several directions, one of the weaving directions being initially materialized by provisional rigid rods which must be replaced, during lacing operations, by filiform textile elements such as threads or wicks. This process is characterized by the fact that it consists in passing a needle through the woven part, which simultaneously pushes outward a preselected provisional rigid rod and flushing out the woven part, in making the needle grip a textile element previously formed in a loop and ironed in the opposite direction through the woven piece the needle provided with the textile element thus grasped, which occupies the space released by the rigid rod previously driven out, and to release the needle of the woven piece, then release it from the textile element. The needle used is preferably a needle with an opening eye, the eye of which, normally closed, is controlled to open to allow the textile element to be gripped by the needle. Such a needle is the subject of European patent application 46 119.

Advantageously, the selection of the rigid rods is carried out successively by moving the woven piece step by step, said rods being presented one by one under the needle.

It is advisable to form the loop with the lacing textile element at the same time as the needle crosses the woven piece while pushing the rod to be driven out.

Preferably, the needle is rotated about itself by 90 ° when, after passing through the woven piece, its head emerges, the latter then being properly oriented to hang the loop of the textile element, then it is brought back the needle in its initial position by reverse pivoting while it completes its return stroke.

When the rigid rods used in the manufacture of the woven piece initially exceed a certain length of the surface of the woven piece, they are brought substantially to the level of said surface before being pushed by the needle.

The invention also relates to an apparatus making it possible to implement the method defined above. This apparatus comprises a step-by-step advancement mechanism of the woven piece in a direction perpendicular to that of the rigid rods which it comprises, and two stationary assemblies placed on either side of the woven part in the direction of the rigid rods. , namely an upper assembly comprising a sub-assembly for detecting the position of the rods and a sub-assembly for actuating and guiding a lacing needle with an opening eye which passes through the woven piece by chasing the rods one by one and, after having picked the textile element, returns by bringing it back in place of the driven rod, and a lower assembly comprising a forming sub-assembly, by means of a movable member, of a loop the textile element capable of being grasped by the opening eye needle, a sub-assembly for presenting the textile element alternately to said movable member and to said needle, and a sub-assembly for opening the eye of the needle .

In a preferred embodiment, the sub-assembly for detecting the position of the rods essentially comprises a pivoting fork which is controlled to come to bear on each rod appearing under the needle; when the rod reaches the exact extension of the needle, this rod is embraced by the two branches of the fork, which then completes tilting and controls the stopping of the advancement of the woven piece.

The actuating and guiding sub-assembly preferably comprises actuating cylinders in longitudinal translation and in rotation on itself of the needle and a column guiding the latter and containing an arrangement intended to prevent its buckling.

The upper assembly may further include a rod leveling subassembly, which presses almost flush with the surface of the woven piece each rod before it comes under the needle to be driven by it.

The loop forming sub-assembly advantageously comprises a hook animated by a jack in a direction perpendicular to the axis of the needle, at the same time as the needle descends through the woven piece.

A preferred embodiment of the textile element presentation sub-assembly is characterized by the fact that it comprises a display guiding the latter and pivoting under the action of a jack so as to bring the textile element first engaged with the movable loop-forming member, then against the needle to make it penetrate into the open eye thereof, said textile element then being grasped and entrained through the woven piece at the rise of the needle. The aforementioned display advantageously comprises several converging guide channels, capable of receiving several fibers or filaments and of joining them at its outlet by forming the textile element.

As for the opening sub-assembly of the eye of the needle, it preferably comprises a part offering a corridor in which the head of the needle enters at the end of its downward stroke and where it meets a ramp which repels it. laterally towards a knife, the latter then penetrating into the eye of the needle and ensuring the opening. This sub-assembly should be animated radially with small movements ensuring its erasure to allow the driven rod to pass and its return to receive the needle.

The description which follows with reference to the accompanying drawings by way of nonlimiting examples will make it possible to understand clearly how the invention can be put into practice.

Figure 1 shows in perspective a lacing apparatus according to the invention.

Figures 2 and 3 show on a larger scale, in elevation with partial section, the subassembly for actuating and guiding the needle, respectively in two different functional situations.

Figure 4 shows in section, through a radial plane, the sub-assembly for detecting the position of the rigid rods to be replaced by a textile element.

Figures 5 and 6 show a section along line A-A of the object of Figure 4, in two successive functional situations.

FIG. 7 shows in elevation the subassemblies for presenting the textile element and opening the eye of the needle.

Figures 8a to 8e schematically illustrate the operation of the eye opening needle.

The piece to be laced is, in the present example, in the form of an armature of revolution 10 (of which only one sector is shown) woven according to the process and with the apparatus described in French application No. 2,395,340. This frame (Figure 1) is constituted by a network of vertical rods 111 of axis 116 furnished with crossed threads during the so-called weaving operation. These rods delimit circumferential and radial corridors which are filled with so-called circumferential and radial wires, which are packed by fingers 30 arranged in a crown around the axis 116. The lower end of the rods 111 passes through one or more grids such as the grid 21 where they can circulate freely. The woven piece is delimited and supported in its lower part by a set of blades 50 held by fitting into an inner plate 51 grooved and, in its upper part, by another set of blades or fingers 30 used for weaving, retained by a outer plate 115 grooved. The whole is designed so that at the start of the weaving operation the lower blades 50 can come into contact with the upper fingers 30. All of these elements can rotate around the vertical axis of rotation 116 of the part.

Above the rods 111 is arranged an assembly 79 comprising a needle 1 of great length (of the order of 1 m) held in a fixed frame in the form of a tube 53 where it can slide, its stroke being sufficient to enable it to cross the woven piece 10.

The tube 53 is arranged to prevent the needle 1 from buckling; it contains (FIG. 2) spacers 54 interposed between helical springs 55. The descent and ascent of the needle 1 are ensured by two jacks: a main jack 56 which, on the descent, controls the lowering of the needle 1 through the woven piece 10 until its head 4 appears beyond the underside of the piece 10 (position shown in Figure 3) and a secondary cylinder 57 which ensures the final stroke of the needle 1 where it will grab the wires to replace the rods 111.

The cylinders 56 and 57 are mounted back to back, as shown. The rod 58 of the jack 56 carries a support 59 connected to the top of the needle 1 by a tubular rod 60. On this support is mounted a small jack 61 capable of actuating in rotation, by means of a crank 62, the rod 60 and consequently the needle 1, as can be seen in FIG. 3. The elements 56 to 62 have not been shown in FIG. 1.

The arrangement which has just been described constitutes a sub-assembly 94 for actuating and guiding the needle 1.

The first function of the needle 1 is to eliminate the rods 111 from the woven piece 10, by chasing them one by one during its successive descents through the woven piece. For this purpose, the rods 111 of each circumferential ply centered on the axis 116 are brought one after the other to the right of the needle 1 in the high position, by rotation step by step of the woven piece 10 around of the axis 116 by means of a mechanism not shown.

Beforehand, the rods 111, which usually protrude from the upper face of the piece 10 once its weaving is complete, are each driven in by a pusher 63 driven by a jack 64 (sub-assembly 95 for leveling the rods 111) so to bring their end almost flush with the upper face of the part 10.

It is then important that each rod 111 comes to be positioned exactly under the needle 1, so that the latter meets it when descending and can drive it out. A sub-assembly 65 for detecting the position of the rods 111 is provided for this purpose. This comprises (FIG. 4) a single-acting cylinder 66, the rod 67 of which presses on a lever 68 pivoting about a horizontal axis 69 and carrying at its lower end a fork 70 situated in the radial plane containing the needle 1 , so as to maintain said fork in its rest position (shown in dashes) where it is moved away from the place where the rods pass 111. When a rod 111 arrives near the needle 1, the actuator is made inactive 66. The lever 68 then switches under the action of a spring 71 which acts by pushing the fork 70 towards the rod 111. In general, the latter is then badly positioned and one of the branches of the fork 70 meets it (Figure 5), the lever 68 stopping in the position shown in phantom in Figure 4. We continue to rotate the woven piece 10 until the hollow of the fork 70 comes to embrace the rod 111 (Figure 6). The lever 68 then switches completely taking the position shown in solid lines in FIG. 4, which is observed by a detector 72, for example a magnetic proximity detector, which controls the rotation of the woven piece 10. The selected rod 111 is then exactly positioned under the needle 1 and in the extension of the latter, which going down, will push it down by its head 4 endowed with a point 4 'which is housed in a conjugated cavity 73 provided at the end of each of the rods 111. Of course, the body of the jack 66, the axis 69 of the lever 68 and the detector 72 are linked to the upper frame 53 of the upper assembly 79.

The fingers 30, which have been used to pack the woven piece during making, rest on it when it is finished. Those which arrive, during the step-by-step rotation of the woven piece 10 according to arrow 35, in the region of the needle 1, must be removed from it. To this end, two cylinders 74, 77 are provided which are fixed and oriented radially. The jack 74 ensures the release of the fingers 30 and acts by means of a catching device 75 with ratchet controlled by a small jack 75a, which cooperates with a rack 76 which each of the fingers 30 has over part of its length ; the jack 77 provided with a pusher 78 ensures the repositioning of said fingers, which slide in the grooved plate 115 rotating with the woven piece 10. Each finger 30 arriving at a certain distance from the needle 1 is hooked by the device 75 and pulled in the centrifugal direction by the jack 74. Then it continues to rotate in a disengaging situation until it arrives in front of the jack 77, the pusher of which brings it back into normal situation, beyond the needle 1.

The second function of the needle 1 is to hook and pull the textile element 11 inside the woven piece 10. To this function corresponds the lower assembly 80 of the lacing apparatus, which, placed at the below the woven piece 10, comprises a sub-assembly 81 for forming a loop of the textile element 11 which must replace the rods 111, a sub-assembly 82 for presenting the textile element 11 successively for the formation of said loop and for attachment by the needle 1, and a sub-assembly 96 for opening the eye 7 of the latter.

The textile element 11 is, in the present example, a wick formed of three threads 87 coming from reserve coils (not shown) and passing over scroll detectors 83 (FIG. 7) which signal any break or immobilization possibly affecting the either of said sons. These penetrate along the arrow 15 into converging guide channels 13, hollowed out in a display 12, movable around a pivot axis 19, which forms, with its actuating cylinder 84 to the rod 85 from which it is articulated , the aforementioned presentation subset 82.

The sub-assembly 81 ensuring the formation of a loop on the wick 11 comprises a jack 86 arranged horizontally and a pusher 14 actuated by this jack and provided at its end with a hook 14a capable of driving the wick 11 to the left in the figures in order to show there at the outlet of the display 12 a loop 11a of suitable length, with a corresponding unwinding of the wires 87.

The needle 1 is an opening eye needle such as the needle described in European patent application No. 46 119 filed in the name of the applicant on the same day as the present application. This needle comprises a long barrel 2 which bends at its lower part 3 to form a head 4 and an elastic blade 5, having a thinned zone 8, the end 6 of which is normally applied against the barrel 2, but can be moved away from it under the action of an opener (which will be described later) so as to open the eye 7 appearing between the blade 6 and the part 3 of the needle barrel.

The aforementioned opener (FIG. 7) comprises a corridor 16 formed in a fixed part 20 and offering a lateral ramp 17 which meets the head 4 of the needle 1 and which pushes it slightly to the left, which causes the penetration of a knife 18, fixed on the part 20, in the eye 7 of the needle 1.

The subassembly 96 for opening the eye 7 of the needle 1, mainly comprising the opener and the guide piece 20, is mounted on a support 88 which further carries a gutter 89 for guiding the needle 1 to its output from the woven piece 10. This support 88 can be moved radially in a short stroke by a jack not shown.

The different phases of the operation of the apparatus given here as an example will now be described.

Initially, the pusher 63 descends on a rod 111 to bring it to the desired level, then rises to the rest position; the fork 70 detects the arrival of the preceding rod 111 in alignment with the needle 1 and controls the stopping of the rotation of the woven piece 10.

At the next time, the needle 1 begins to descend under the action of the jack 56, while the jack 66 returns the fork 70 to the rest position. The needle 1, oriented as shown in FIG. 4, its eye 7 offering its orifice in the radial direction, crosses the woven piece chasing the selected rod 111, then stops when its head 4 comes out from the bottom of the woven piece 10. The rod 111, released from the latter, continues to descend on its run through the grid 21 and stops on a horizontal plate (not visible in the drawings), its upper end slightly protruding from the grid 21 (Figure 1 ) (it follows from this arrangement that the rods 111 driven from the woven piece 10 do not escape the grid 21, nor to the other non-visible grids, which facilitates their repositioning on the weaving machine for making a new room 10). A detector 90 finds that each rod 111 has indeed reached the final position which has just been specified; otherwise, the detector 90 controls the stopping of the apparatus.

As the needle 1 went down, the pusher 14 formed a loop 11 a on the wick 11 (FIG. 7). On the other hand, to prevent the blade 50a of the lower plate 51 located upstream of the needle 1, between the latter and the wick 11 emerging from the woven piece 10, from being caught in the loop 11 a, this blade was hooked and temporarily extracted radially from the plate 51 by a jack 91 (FIG. 1).

The rod 111 having left the needle 1, the latter pivots 90 ° under the action of the jack 61 (FIG. 3) to take the position shown in FIG. 7. The part 88 moves towards the axis 116 so that the gutter 89 and the corridor 16 of the part 20, previously eclipsed to allow free passage to the rod 111, are present in the axis of the needle 1. The needle 1 continues to descend under the action of the jack 57, enters the corridor 16, meets the ramp 17 and its eye 7 is opened by the knife 18 (Figures 7 and 8a). Finally, it meets the actuator 92 of a contactor 93 which registers the arrival of the needle at the end of the stroke, the eye of which is then completely open (FIG. 8b), and authorizes the following sequence.

The display 12 rocks under the action of the jack 84 and comes to present the wick 11 against the needle 1, above the end 6 of its blade 5 (FIG. 8c). The pusher 14 withdraws and releases the loop 11a. The needle begins to go up, grasps the wick 11 (Figures 8d and 8e) and pivots again 90 °, in the opposite direction to the pivoting performed on the descent, as soon as its head 4 has crossed the lower assembly 80, continuing its rise and driving the wick 11 in its eye 7 closed through the woven piece 10, in place of the rod 111 driven, while the loop 11a is absorbed.

When the needle 1 arrives at the end of the ascent, the lower blade 50a is replaced, as well as, on the upper plate 115, the first retracted finger 30a, while a new finger 30b upstream of the pusher 63 is extracted ( figure 1).

Then the woven piece 10 rotates one step, with the plates 115 and 51, the fingers 30, the blades 50 and the grid 21, so as to present the next rod 111 in the axis of the needle 1. A new lacing cycle can then be accomplished. At the top of the piece 10, the wick 11 is either broken at each step, or arranged in a chain stitch by the needle 1.

The different circumferential rows of rods 111 are treated successively by radial displacement of the assemblies 79 and 80.

Claims (17)

1. Process for the automatic basting of armatures or woven articles made by multi-directional weaving and composed of filiform textile components disposed in several directions, one of the weaving directions being initially established by temporary rigid rods which have to be replaced by filiform textile components during the basting operations, characterized in that a needle is passed through the woven article and simultaneously pushes a preselected temporary rigid rod toward the exterior and displaces it from the woven article, a textile component previously formed into a ring is gripped by the needle and the needle is then passed in the reverse direction through the woven article, together with the thus- gripped textile component, which then occupies the space left by the previously displaced rigid rod, and the needle is then disengaged from the woven article in order to release it from the textile component.

2. Process according to claim 1, characterized in that the needle used is a needle with an openable eye, the eye being normally closed and being caused to open to allow gripping of the textile component by the needle.

3. Process according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that selection of the rigid rods occurs successively by stepwise displacement of the woven article, the rods becoming positioned one by one under the needle.

4. Process according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the ring is formed by the basting textile component at the same time as the needle traverses the woven article when pushing the rod to be displaced.

5. Process according to any of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the needle is pivoted through 90°, after traversing the woven article, its head opens, the latter being then oriented so as to catch the ring on the textile component, and the needle is then returned to its initial position by reverse pivoting while it effects its return movement.

6. Process according to claim 1, characterized in that the rigid rods used in manufacture of the woven article, initially extending beyond a predetermined length of the surface of the woven article, are returned substantially to the level of such surface before being pushed by the needle.

7. Process according to any of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the rigid rods used in manufacture of the woven article are displaced from the woven article by a basting needle so that they remain in the positioning assembly of the weaving apparatus to serve for the weaving of the following article.

8. Apparatus for carrying out the process according to any of claims 3 to 7, characterized by comprising a mechanism for effecting step-by- step advance of the woven article (10) in a direction (35) perpendicular to that of the rigid rods (111) comprising it and two stationary assemblies placed on one side and on the other of the woven article in the direction of the rigid rods, namely an upper assembly (79) comprising a detector sub-assembly (65) for determining the position of the rods (111) and an actuator sub-assembly (94) for actuating and guiding an openable eye basting needle (1) which traverses the woven article (10) so as to displace the rods (111) one-by-one and, after catching the textile component (11), reverses so as to return it to the location of the displaced rod (111), and a lower assembly (80) comprising a forming sub-assembly (81) for making by means of a movable device (14a) a ring (11a) in the textile component (11) capable of being caught by the open-eyed needle (1), a presentation sub-assembly (82) for moving the textile component (11) alternatively to the movable device (14a) and to the needle (1) and an opening sub-assembly (96) for opening the eye of the needle (1).

9. Apparatus according to claim 8, characterized in that the detector sub-assembly (65) for determining the position of the rods (111) essentially comprises a pivoting fork (70) controlled so as to contact each rod (111) located under the needle (1) and in that, when the rod (111) reaches the exact prolongation of the needle (1), this rod is embraced by the two limbs of the fork (70), which then completes its rocking movement and causes arrest of the advance of the woven article (10).

10. Apparatus according to claim 8, characterized in that the actuator sub-assembly (94) comprises jacks (56, 57, 61) for effecting longitudinal translation and rotation of the needle (1) and a column (53) guiding it and enclosing a mechanism (54, 55) for preventing singeing of it.

11. Apparatus according to any of claims 8 to 10, characterized in that the upper assembly (79) also comprises a locating sub-assembly (95) at the level of the rods (111), which moves each rod substantially to the surface of the woven article (10) before it moves under the needle (1) in order to be displaced by it.

12. Apparatus according to claim 8, characterized in that the sub-assembly (81) for forming the ring comprises a hook (14a) moved by a jack (86) along a direction perpendicular to the axis of the needle (1), at the same time as the needle (1) passes down through the woven article (10).

13. Apparatus according to claim 8, characterized in that the presentation sub-assembly (82) for moving the textile component (11) comprises a presenter (12) guiding it and pivoting under the action of a jack (84) so as to move the textile component firstly in conjunction with the movable device (14a) for forming the ring and then counter to the needle (1) in order to make it enter the open eye (7) thereof, the textile component thus being caught and moved through the woven article as the needle rises.

14. Apparatus according to claim 13, characterized in that the presenter (12) comprises several convergent guide channels (13) capable of receiving several fibres or filaments (87) and of combining them at its outlet in order to form a textile component (11).

15. Apparatus according to claim 8, characterized in that the sub-assembly (96) for opening the eye of the needle (1) comprises a member (20) including a passage (16) which the head (4) of the needle enters at the end of its descent and where it contacts a ramp (17) which forces it laterally towards a blade (18), the latter then entering the eye (7) of the needle and ensuring opening of it.

16. Apparatus according to claim 8 or 15, characterized in that the sub-assembly (96) for opening the eye of the needle (1) is moved radially by small movements ensuring its removal for allowing the displaced rod (111) to pass and its return for receiving the needle (1).

17. Apparatus according to claim 8, characterized by comprising security systems constituted by a first proximity detector (72) mounted so as to enter in relation with the end of the lever (68) carrying the pivoting fork (70), when the two limbs of the latter embrace a rod (111) before being displaced by the needle (1), and, in this event, so as to cause arrest of the advance of the woven article, second detectors (83) for the movement of yarns issuing from reserve bobbins and serving to form a textile component (11) arranged to replace a rod (111), mounted in front of such yarns so as to indicate any breakage or stoppage affecting them and, in this event, causing arrest of the basting apparatus, a third detector (90) located in the upper part of a grid assembly (21), so as to determine the final position of each rod (111) displaced by the needle (1) and to cause arrest of the apparatus in the event of malfunction, and a contactor (93), the actuator (92) of which is located at the entry to the passage (16) in the opener, serving to record arrival of the needle (1) at the end of its travel and to initiate the following sequence.

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