EP0117234B1

EP0117234B1 - Device for hydraulic feeding of textile material to circular wildmann-type and similar machines, with direct hydraulic recycling of the rejected fibres, plus exclusion of the cards

Info

Publication number: EP0117234B1
Application number: EP19840830009
Authority: EP
Inventors: Giovanni Cesare Fratini
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1983-01-21
Filing date: 1984-01-13
Publication date: 1989-06-07
Also published as: DE3478619D1; EP0117234A1

Description

The present invention concerns an installation for the preparation and feeding of textile material to circular machines (Wildmann type or similar) for the production of a high pile fabrics comprising: means for opening the textile material; means for pneumatic transportation of said material towards the cards; means for pneumatic recycling of the fibres not held by the needles; means for engaging the fibres pneumatically transported to the hooks of the needles.
For the operation of the Wildmann type circular machines for making high pile fabrics with knit fabrics as support, it is required to supply to the carding machines the fibres reduced to a combed ribbon, obtained with carding processes; in general, the cylindrical carding machines are used, through which the. staple fibre is transported after having prepared the mixture, in order to obtain a sufficiently strong slivers or carded ribbon; able to be introduced into the feeding stations of the Wildmann machines. This process therefore requires a high fractioning of the production in several machines, i.e. carding machines, Wildmann machines, and also various departments.
At the state of art there are some systems known, such as that of the patent U.S.A. 3 014 355 and that of French patent 2 218 768, referring to the pneumatical feeding of fibres to the different carding units in circular pile looms; the French patent 2 218 768 has also a removal system for the fibres not held by the needles, and the following redistribution to the different carding units of the machine by storing said fibres onto the conveyor belt for the fibres feeding the above mentioned units. Both the above mentioned patents do not solve the problem of a uniform production, of the continuity and of the homogenizing of the flow of fibres fed to the different carding units, whereas said premises are basic to have a regular operation of the loom and to obtain a product with a uniform aspect both in the colour percentage and in fibre quantity per surface unit.
Indeed in the different forms of the invention as described in U.S.A. patent 3 014 355 the system provides feeding units, wherein the air has the function of a transport means for a short length, and mainly to open the fibres in mass or as a ribbon, supplying the fibres to the different carding units with independent operating modes between the same, such as the feeding units are described in a number which is equal to the carding units.
Moreover, this system will be able to operate only with such fibres being easily desintegrated by the air, thus excluding all those fibres which, due to their nature and features, such as wool, synthetic fibres etc., require to be desintegrated and to be homogenized before being fed to the carding units. For what concerns the possibility of recovering the fibres not held by the needles, as it is provided by French patent 2 218 768, the recovered fibres are redistributed to the feeding through chamber 51 having at the base thereof a number of outlet openings 53 which do not secure any uniform distribution since in the ducts 54 ending in 22 it will be impossible to establish a flow of air and fibres being equal on all return ducts.
Therefore, the fibres brought back on an already formed ribbon shall determine two not uniform layers with differences in density and also in the colour percentage.
The device provided by the present invention, on the contrary, brings the recovered material back to the input of the ring-like or annular collector in such a way that it is mixed with the new material, the same as now are operating the carding machines which are separated from the Wildmann type machines.
The aim of the present invention is to eliminate some machines of the traditional process and to combine others so that the entire process of knitting occurs in a single device, once the mixture has been prepared. Thus the following problems are eliminated: the storage of the fibres produced by the carding machines and the use of the same carding machines; the frequent breaking of the slivers in the circular machines; the loss of the fibres not attached to the needles of the circular machines; the difficulty of giving the feeding station carded ribbons with a high percentage of uniformity; and the exclusion of the short and smooth fibres which currently are difficult to card.
According to the present invention, a device for the preparation and feeding of textile material to the circular machines (Wildmann type and the like) for the production of a high pile fabrics is characterized in that it comprises: means for opening the textile material, means for the pneumatic transportation of said material to the carding units and means for the pneumatic recycling of the fibres not held by the needles, so as to realize the processing by a single installation. The pneumatically recovered fibres which had not been attached to the needles, are transferred again to the side of the opening means in the pneumatic transport system, for a direct pneumatic recycling of said fibres.
An annular collector is provided as part of the pneumatic transport means, which is coaxial with the cylinder of the machine, receives the material directly from the opening means, and has passages to the respective reception means for the respective cards. The annular collector may be fed tangentially by a single pneumatic tubing or by a double pneumatic tubing.
The reception means may consist in cylinders with rotating perforated walls and with internal depression to hold the material, and devices are provided for unloading the material and devices are provided for unloading the material from the surface of the cylinders and feeding it to the cards.
In an important variant of the invention, in case of material escaped from the cards, a tubing is provided for the pneumatic transport of the open fibres, said tubing having a small opening towards which protrude the raised needles with the tongue opened; in this way the pneumatically transported fibres engage with the hooks of the needles. Each tubing is advantageously develop- ped with an extension for recovery of the fibres in excess of those caught by the needles and for the direct pneumatic recycling of the same.
All the pneumatic tubings may be fed by an annular collector for the pneumatic transport of the textile material, which is coaxial with the cylinder of the needles in the machine.
The device may be advantageously including means for adjusting the projection of the needles through the opening in the pneumatic conduit and/or for preventing the needles from the flow of the pneumatic transportation, should the textile machine be stopped. These means include a wall whose position may be adjusted in correspondence with the edge of the opening first in contact with the flowing air. One single wall may serve for the adjustment and the exclusion, or two walls may be provided.
The device may also include combing means to stop the clumps of fibre caught by the needles; immediately after the area covered by the pneumatic flow and to the direct recovery of the fibres. These combing means may consist of blow nozzles, or of cylindrical organs with fitting, which interfere with the needles and comb the fibres engaged with them.
The present invention will be described more in detail hereinbelow referring to the attached drawings in which some preferred embodiments are shown.

Figure 1 shows a scheme of the detail for the preliminary treatment of the textile material to be fed into the machine.
Figure 2 shows a scheme of a radial section of the detail of the device for feeding to a traditional carding unit.
Figure 3 shows a variant of the detail shown in figure 2.
Figure 4 shows an axonometric view of a variant of the detail for the feeding.
Figure 5 shows the detail for direct feeding to the raised needles in the variant with no carding units.
Figure 6 shows a schematic view along III-III of figure 5.
Figures 7 and 8 show two variants of the combing system following the feeding of the fibres to the needles.

Figure 1 shows in detail a system for opening the staple fibre fed with textile material, to obtain the opening of the fibres and pneumatic transport of the same. Feeding occurs with a so-called 'blending' consisting of continuous conveyors 1, 3, 5 and a stripper cylinder 7 for the points conveyor 3 to make the mixed fibres fall off into a volumetric chamber 9; from the bottom of said chamber by means of a pair of feeding cylinders 10, the material is supplied to a feeding carpet 12 and from here to a feeder 14 which serves to supply the fibres to an opening cylinder or a briseur cylinder 16. Cylinder 16 serves to open the fibres and to perform the carding action, cooperating with the feeder 14 as well as with a wall 18 which follows the trajectory of the fitting of the cylinder 16. The material opened by elements 14, 16, 18 is unloaded in a pneumatic aspiration chamber 20. This chamber is evacuated with aspirator 22, through which the material is transferred pneumatically to a pneumatic transport tubing 24 for the utilization.
As shown in figure 2, feeding of the open fibre material from tubing 24 to the cards of the circular Wildmann-type machine is obtained as follows, and the main elements are: a raised needle 31 in correspondence to a feeding card of the traditional type 33; two sealed cylinders 35 and 37 which are part of each card 33, the first cylinder being provided for loading the material to be passed to the second cylinder 37, which is provided, with its own fitting, to cooperate in a known way with the needles 31 raised with the tongue opened to load them with clumps of fibres; the fibres engage in the upper hook of the raised needle; the needle then receives the tying thread and is lowered to form the knit bonding fabric, with the clumps of fibre which form the high pile of the product.
In a preferred embodiment said cylinder 35 may be covered with a cover 35', equipped with saw teeth to provide a further carding.
Furthermore according to the present invention the tubing 24 reaches an annular collector for the pneumatic transport, generically indicated with 39, which is coaxial with the circular machine and overlying the group of cards.^.The feeding tubing 24 may reach the annular collector 39 tangentially in one poin only, or may eventually be double to feed the collector tangentially in two opposite points. However the pneumatically fed material is distributed and surrounds the annular collector 39 and may feed the individual cards 33 uniformly, as described below.
In correspondence with each card 33, from the collector 39 there is a passage 41 to chamber 43 which develops partially around a perforated cylindrical mantle 45. On the inside of the cylindrical mantle 45 an adequate vacuum is developed, while the cylindrical mantle rotates according to the arrow shown in the drawing. On the inside of the cylindrical mantle 45 a fixed wall 47 limits the arc of the periphery of the cylindrical mantle, through which pneumatic pressure is developed from the chamber 43 to said cylindrical mantle. Beyond the fixed inclined wall 47, the cylindrical mantle is external to the chamber 43 and next to a pair of dischare cylinders 49, 51 rotating of the cylindrical mantle 45.
Adjusting the vacuum inside the cylindrical mantle 45 a return and a deposit is obtained of a measured amount of fibre on the outer surface of said mantle, the fibres being removed from chamber 43 where they are fed from collector 39 through passage 41. The excess fibres that are not brought onto the mantle 45 by the pressure (when the layer of fibres is formed) are discharged through a passage 53 in a collector 55, or in any case sent pneumatically to a tubing 57 opening into chamber 20 in the opening system shown in figure 1. In this way recycling of not used fibres is possible. By suitably adjusting the vacuum inside the cylindrical mantle 45, the thickness of the material which accumulates inside is controlled, as is controlled the feed load to the relative card.
The material deposited on the cylindrical mantle 45 is discharged by means of the two cooperating stripper cylinders 49 and 51, which remove the fibres from the mantle in an area in which/due to the presence of wall 47, the internal pressure is no longer dominant. However the fibres are discharged in a passage 59 to be fed to a cylinder and table feeder system 61, or the like, or are removed with a rollingtrain of known type, which can bring the fibres to the cylinder 35 of the relative card 33.
The fibres recovered from the system for cleaning and removing the fibres which do not anchor to the needles 31 can be added to the same tubing 57. This system generally provides recovery holes 63 in front of each knit forming and fibre clump recovery station in the circular machine; these recovery holes 63 are united in a single tubing, the depression of which may depend on the depression in the chamber 20 to which the tubing is connected.
Figure 3 shows a variant for feeding the cards, one of which is indicated with its organs 35 and 37, the latter cooperating always with the needles 31 and the recovery hole 63. In this embodiment the material for each card is taken from collector 39 through a passage 71 where a perforated cylinder 73 serves to depressurize the passage 71 itself and the underlying volumetric chamber 75, in which the material is accumulated for feeding to the card 33. A pair of cylinders 77 convey the fibres from the volumetric chamber 75 to the feeding system - as the cylinder and table on 61 described above - for the cylinder 35 of said card 33. In this case also a recovery system such as 63, 57 may be provided.
In the volumetric chamber variant shown in figure 4, the perforated wall 80 allows the recovery of the air in tubing 81 while the pressurestat 82 controls the pressure.
In the variant shown in figures 5 and 6, the open fibre material is fed to the cards in a single machine using a collector 39 placed above and coaxially to the needles cylinder, where a needle is indicated with 31 in figure 5, while T33 indicated the trajectory of the points of the needles in one of the areas where the needles are raised to take up the fibre which will form the high pile and then to take up the thread to form the knit bonding fabric, in the figure 5 the needle 31 is in the raised position to take up the fibres which will form the high pile of the product.
In correspondence to each area where the needles are raised and take up the fibres which will form the fleence, the collector 39 has a derivation 137 which allows pneumatic transport as does collector 39; transport is effected by the high pressure in the collector 39 caused by the group 22, by aspiration which can be exerted by chamber 20 through an extension 139 of passage 137, or by aspiration obtained in other ways, in any case to achieve a light air uptake from the window 141 described hereinbelow. In any case the fibres which move in the pneumatic current in passage 137 and the extension 139 are in part fed to the needles as described below and in part recycled, either directly or indirectly.
In passage 137 - which may be curved or straight - in correspondence with the trajectory of the needles, there is a small opening 141, in which the raised needles penetrate along the trajectory T33 to take up the fibres. The edge of the opening 141 first reached by the pneumatic current in the passage 137 is defined on one side by the wall 143 mobile about a joint 145 in order to adjust the amount of fibres to be engaged by the raised needles 31; if a certain limit is passed in raising this mobile wall 143, the raised needles can be prevented from being in the current air and so can also be prevented from taking up the textile fibres material carried by said current. By adjusting the position of the wall 143 between the position indicated with the solid line and that indicated with the dashed line 43X, the amount of fibres held by the raised needles can be adjusted quantitatively, where said needles form holding combs across the air current in passage 137 and 139. By raising the wall 143 beyond a certain limit, the needles are prevented from taking up fibre, and so the textile machine and feeder group can be stopped, while the pneumatic circulation is continued with the fibre density immediately present.
Moving along and into opening 141, the raised needles complex is loaded with the fibres which can in part be engaged directly in a U-shaped arrangement in the hook of the needles and in part rest from one needle to the next. Therefore, a subsequent combing effect may be exerted on the fibres held by the needles, when these come out of the opening 141 along the trajectory T33 along its raised section. In particular, a combing system may be provided in an area indicated with 149 in figure 6, adjacent and after opening 141 in the sense in which the needles move along the trajectory T33 indicated by the arrow.
An air jet system with nozzles 151 as shown in figure 8 can be provided to comb the fibres, where the air jets can arrange the fibres to form clumps of fibre in the hooks of the raised needles. Eventual excess fibre discharged from the jets of the nozzles 151 can be recovered in the recovery tubing 139 mentioned above, which extends behind the area 149.
Alternatively, instead of the system shown in figure 8, the fibres in the area 149 can be combed as shown in figure 7 using a rotating combing cylinder 153 and its fitting can interfere with the points of the needles and therefore with the fibres F held to the hooks of the needles, to comb them and eventually remove part of the fibre not correctly arranged.
A suitable discharge system may be provided to cooperate with the fitting of cylinder 153 at a certain distance from the area of cooperation of said cylinder with the needles, and the recovered fibres may be recycled for example through the passage 57 shown in figure 1.
In an interesting variant of the device according to the present invention, the cylinder 153 may be eliminated to obtain, during operation, a deposit of fibre on the needles 31 only in a transverse position to the needles, giving rise to a smooth fabric with no projecting fibres.

Claims

1. A device for feeding textile material in staples to the circular knitting machines of the Wildmann type or similar kind, for the production of high pile products, comprising means for opening the textile material, means for the pneumatic transportation of said material to the carding units and means for the pneumatic recycling of the fibres not held by the needles, characterized in a continuous process due to the fact that the recovered fibres are mixed again in a pneumatic chamber (20) with the-opened material coming directly from the textile material opening means, thus performing the carding function, and then fed pneumatically to the input of a ring-like or annular collector (39) from which material is distributed, to the knitting machine.

2. A device according to claim 1 characterized in that the preparatory means for feeding textile material to the machine consist of several continuous conveyors (1, 5); a stripper cylinder (7) of the cards of the conveyor (3) to load a volumetric chamber (9) of fibres; a pair of feeder cylinders (10) to supply fibres to a feeding carpet (12) and then to a feeder (14) in such a way that they can reach the opening cylinder (16) and then the pneumatic chamber (20) where an aspirator (22) realises a depression for transferring the open fibre material to a tubing (24).

3. A device according to claim 1 characterized in that the means for feeding a card consist of an annular collector (39) for the pneumatic transportation reached tangentially by a feeding tubing (24); an opening (41) towards a chamber (43) which develops partially around a perforated cylindrical mantle (45) inside of which an adequate vacuum is maintained; a pair of discharge cylinders (49, 51), rotating; a passage (53) in a collector (55) in which the excess of fibre material not brought by the depression onto the mantle (45) is discharged, in such a way that it pneumatically reaches through a tubing (57) the chamber (20) for the recycling of the not used fibres; a passage (59) for the fibres discharged by said stripper cylinders (49, 51) through which the fibres reach a feeding system (61) of the cylinder (35) of the cards (33); a second cylinder (37) opposed to said cylinder (35) to cooperate with the needles (31) raised with the tongue opened to lead them with clumps of fibres; a duct (63) connected with said chamber (20) where a depression is present which depends on the depression of said chamber (20).

4. A devce according to claims 1 and 2 characterized in that the feeding of the cards is performed by the following means: a passage (71) connected to said collector (39) having a perforated cylinder (73) for depressurizing the passage (71) and an underlying volumetric chamber (75); a pair of cylinders (77) for conveying the fibres from said volumetric chamber (75) to the feeding system (61) and then to the cards (33) of said cylinders (35, 37); a recovery duct (63) for recycling the material escaped.

5. A device according to claim 1, characterized by the fact that the fibres not held by the needles (31) through a recovery duct (63), a tubing (57), the pneumatic chamber (20), an aspirator (22), a pneumatic transport tubing (24) and a passage (41) are brought back to a chamber (43).