FR2467898A1 - Weaving loom - has individually lifted rigid bar healds sliding in grooves in opposed beds - Google Patents

Abstract

A weaving loom has individually lifted rigid bar healds each having an opening for one or more warp yarns. The healds are guided in opposed grooves in two parallel beds and lifting means are provided at both ends of the heald on each bed, co-operating with selection means. The lifting means push or pull the bar healds from one bed to the other so that they engage the second bed without leaving the first; the selection means raises and drops the lifting means selectively by a pivoting movement. Healds may be selected and lifted individually as in a travelling wave shed, or together as in a standard loom with heald frames.

Description

 The subject of the invention is a weaving loom realizing the interweaving of chaste threads and weft threads, in which the heddles which cause the formation of the crowd are rigid bars each having a passage opening of one or more chair wires.

 We already know from French patents Nos 2 023 179 and 2 193 895 weaving looms with rigid heddles slidingly mounted each in a guide path and each having an eye for the passage of a fleshy thread. In the first patent mentioned above, the beams are combined in groups and all the beams of each group are operated simultaneously.

In the second patent mentioned, the heddles are maneuvered individually by means of a selection member.

 The loom of the present invention is of the type with beams operated individually. It differs from the aforementioned patent No. 2,193,895 in that the heddles are individually guided in the opposite grooves located opposite each other two parallel needle beds between which these healds are tooth. Individual means for operating the healds are arranged on each needle bed at each of the two ends of each heald; a selection means is associated with each individual maneuvering means in order to selectively make this means active or inactive with respect to the corresponding beam.

 According to a first aspect of the invention, each stringer is a bar having substantially in its middle a hole for the passage of a string wire; each operating means is capable of pushing the heddle associated with it in the groove of a first needle bed in order to engage it further in the groove of the opposite needle bed without causing it to leave the first needle bed.

 According to a second aspect of the invention, each stringer is a bar having a longitudinal slot extending from the vicinity of one end to the vicinity of the opposite end; each maneuvering means is capable of selectively pulling or pushing the heddle which is associated therewith in the groove of a needle bed by causing it to leave, by pulling it, the groove of the opposite needle bed.

 In both aspects of the invention, each maneuvering means is pivotally mounted, by its end remote from the arm, on a control bar with alternative strokes and each selection means associated with each maneuvering means. is able to raise and / or lower by a pivoting movement the operating means associated with it in order to make it active or inactive during its movement.

To better understand the invention and to appreciate its advantages, a description will now be given of two exemplary embodiments of one and the other aspect of the invention. Reference is made to the appended drawings in which:
FIGS. 1 to 3 are side views in section through a plane passing through the grooves situated opposite one another of two opposite needle beds of a loom in accordance with the first aspect of the invention,
- Figures 4 to 8 are side views in section through a plane passing through the grooves located opposite one another of two opposite needle beds of a loom according to the second aspect of the invention.

 In both cases, views 5 to 3 and 4 to 8 show the successive positions of the healds.

during weaving.

The invention does not make any modification to the organs of the looms. who are not represented. These organs will therefore not be described, which may be of an appropriate conventional type. As in any weaving loom, the warp threads start from a beam or a bobbin creel and arrive at the heddles, in the crowd formation area, and the weaving itself. The passage of the weft threads in the opening of the warp threads can be carried out by any known means, the invention
Nothing imposing in this regard. Similarly, the striking combs and their means of operation are of any known suitable type. the fabric is made up to a roll where it is wound: this is done using known elements that it is not necessary to describe.

 the invention provides for the use, for guiding the healds in rectilinear displacement, of needle beds which are already known per se in other machines, for example in knitting machines. It is therefore not essential either to describe in detail the needle beds of the invention. Their essential characteristic is to present numerous grooves, narrow and elongated, arranged side by side; these grooves are intended to receive rectilinear elements which they guide during the movements of these along alternative races.

 A basic characteristic of the invention is the combination of needle beds with rigid and straight healds mounted to be displaced in the grooves of these needle beds. According to the invention, two parallel needle beds are used, arranged one opposite the other, with their grooves matched by an open end.

 According to the first aspect of the invention, illustrated by Figures 1 to 3, a first needle bed 1 is placed opposite a second needle bed 2; the grooves, respectively 3 and 4, of these needle beds are brought into alignment on either side of an interval 5 which separates them.

The grooves are directed towards each other by their open end, respectively 6, 7, so that rigid, straight beams 8 are engaged both in each pair of two grooves 3, 4 aligned, spanning the gap 5. In practice, the heddles 8 are bars of rectangular cross section having a width sufficient to be guided correctly, without excessive friction, in the grooves 3, 4. Two bridges, respectively 9 and 10, extend above all the grooves of the two needle beds 1, 2, near the open ends 6, 7 in order to maintain the healds in their grooves.

 Each heald 8 has substantially in its middle a hole II for the passage of a chain wire 12, 13. In these figures, the wire 12 of the heald 8 has been drawn in a finer line, it being understood that this wire represents all those of the rails which occupy the same position, and in larger line the wire 13 of the next rail, this wire also representing all the other wires.

 On its upper face, on the same side with respect to the hole 11, each heddle 8 has two spaced notches 14, 15 intended to receive a retaining bar 16 which extends transversely to the set of grooves 3 of the needle bed 1 If necessary, the walls which limit the grooves 3 are themselves notched, at 17, to allow the bar 16 to penetrate into the notches 14, or 15, depending on the position of the heddles 8.

 Each needle bed 1, 2 comprises a load-bearing sole 18, 19, which leaves the space below the interval 5 free so that the threads 12, 13 and the fabric formed pass freely through it. A comb 21 of the conventional type and moved by conventional means is placed under the soles 18, 19 with sufficient clearance.

 Each heald 8 is associated with two individual operating means, which are mounted on one and the other needle bed 1, 2. Each operating means comprises a pushing finger, respectively 22, 23, which is pivotally mounted around a transverse axis 24, 25, by its end remote from the corresponding rail. Each transverse axis 24 or 25 extends over the entire length of the loom through the thrust fingers 22 or 23 and also through a pair, respectively 26 or 27, due to guides which are arranged at the ends of the loom. In each pair 26 or 27 of these guides. a slot 24A or 25A is formed through which the corresponding axis 24 or 25 passes. Each axis 24, 25 extends beyond the guides 26, 27 and it is coupled by its end portions to maneuvering means (not shown) such as connecting rods capable of imposing on it an alternating displacement along the slots 24A, 25A. In this way, the control of the axes 24 or 25 by sliding in the slots 24A or 25A makes it possible to simultaneously move all of the operating fingers 22 or 23 in the grooves of one needle bed or the other.

 The stroke of each actuating finger 22, 23 is determined so that, at its position of maximum distance from the interval 5 separating the needle beds 1, 2, its free end 22A, 23A, distant from the axis 24, 25, is set back behind the free end adjacent to the heddle 8 as can be seen on the left-hand side of FIG. 2.

 Each pushing finger 22, 23 is thin enough to enter the groove 3, 4 which corresponds to it and to slide through its front end part.

During the advance movement of the axes 24, 25 the free ends 22A, 23A of the fingers 22, 23 slide in the grooves and push the beams 8e The stroke is such that the beams 8 pushed pass from an extreme position where the holes Il and the threads are close to the needle bed 1 at the opposite extreme position where the holes 11 are close to the opposite needle clip 2, as suggested by the threads 13 in FIG. 1.

 What has just been described occurs when the push fingers are active. Each finger is associated with a selection means which makes it possible to make it active or inactive, at will. To make a finger 22 inactive, it suffices to rotate it in any way around its axis 24, before its advance movement so that its free end 22A does not meet the free end of the heddle 8 but passes to the above her. it is not necessary to hold finger 22 raised during its entire stroke.

As soon as the extreme part of the heald 8 has been crossed, one could release the finger 22 which would then slide on the upper face of the heald.

 Given the simplicity of the role of each selection means, it is easy to make this means according to many equivalent variants, mechanical, electromagnetic, pneumatic. The invention envisages adopting selection means each comprising a motor of any suitable type acting on a rod 28, 29 slidably mounted in the sole 18, 19 below each of the thrust fingers 22, 23. The rods 28, 29 are placed behind each needle bed 1, 2 at the desired location to hold the fingers 22, 23 raised, at least during the start of their advance stroke, when they must not meet the healds 8. It is therefore sufficient for the rods 28, 29 to have two distinct positions, a lifting position (rod 28 in FIG. 1) making the corresponding finger 22 inactive, and a lowering position (rod 29 in FIG. 1) making the finger active. 23 correspondent. This design makes it very easy and very quick to select each stringer and therefore each thread. Consequently, it is possible to modify with the greatest flexibility the weave of a fabric to be produced, or the design of a fabric being woven, or even to change weave during the making of a fabric. a selection means with only two positions is easy to control from a programmer containing instructions in the binary system, mainly when the motor of each rod 28, 29 is a pneumatic cylinder or an electromagnet.

 The operation will now be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. In FIG. 1, the stringer 8 shown has been pushed to the left by the finger 23 made active since the rod 29 was lowered while the finger 22 was made inactive by the rod 28 raised. Before these movements the bar 16 was raised; after their execution, it is lowered and it then immobilizes all the heddles 8 by penetrating either into the notches 15 or into the notches 14. Rows of wires 12, 13 are separated to open a crowd 30 in which a pick is passed 31, below the comb 21.

 Figure 2 shows that during the passage of pick 31 the fingers 22, 23 were moved back; the comb was moved to strike pick 31; the bar 16 is ready to be moved in the direction of the arrow F out of the notches 14, 15 to release the healds 8. For the following operation the wires 12 must be pushed back to the right; consequently the rods 28 are lowered to make the fingers 22 active and the rods 29 are raised to make the fingers 23 inactive. The reverse arrangements are made for the wires 13.

 FIG. 3 shows the end of the execution of the movements prepared as explained above after lifting the bar 16 and during the ascent of the comb 21 the fingers 22, 23 repel the healds 8 so as to reform a crowd after reversing the positions wires 12, 13.

 It would be possible to simplify the profession that has just been described, on condition of accepting a decrease in its walking speed and a reduction in the possibility of selecting the healds, by eliminating the operating fingers 23, the axis 25 and the guides 27 on one of the sides of the loom, for example that of the needle bed 2> and by replacing these parts with return springs which would have the sole role of tending to always return the healds 8 in the direction of the opposite side. A spring of rsppel would be associated with each heald 8; the selection and the selective thrust of the heddles 8-could be done, against the action of the return springs, by the thrust fingers 22 kept on one side of the loom.

 According to the second aspect of the invention illustrated by FIGS. 4 to 8, essentially the same parts are used which will therefore not be described again and which will be designated by the same references. Rather, we will explain in detail the differences compared to the example in Figures 3.

 In the heddles 8, instead of a hole, there is a longitudinal slot 110 which extends from the vicinity of one end to the vicinity of the opposite end of the heddle. the two opposite end portions of each stringer 8 end in a hook, respectively 32, 33, open opposite the bottom of the grooves 3, 4.

 the push fingers 22, 23 are always pivotally mounted at one end around axes 24, 25 carried by pushers (not shown here) but their free end ends in a hook 220A, 230A open towards the bottom of the grooves 3 , 4 and in profile complementary to that of the hooks 32, 33. Thus, when the hooks of the fingers and healds are engaged together, the fingers can push or pull the healds, as the case may be.

 the hooks 32, 33 of the healds as well as the hooks 220A, 230A of the pushing fingers 22, 23 have a profile having on either side of a rounded top slopes which are small enough for these hooks to engage or disengage as a result of a relative movement in the longitudinal direction during which the thrust fingers 22, 23 are left free to lift by pivoting about their axis 24, 25, as can be seen on the right-hand side of FIG. 6. For that the hooks do not engage or for them to engage together, it suffices that the fingers 22, 23 are left free to lift or that they are not, under the action of a selection (not shown in Figures 4 to 8) capable of tolerating or prohibiting the movement in the vertical direction of the end portions of the thrust fingers 22, 23; for example this selection member could allow or prohibit the raising of the ends 220A, 230, or the lowering of the opposite ends beyond the axes 24, 25.

 One could, as a variant, give the hooks 220Â, 230A on the one hand and 32, 33 on the other hand profiles which do not allow their engagement or their automatic disengagement following a relative displacement in the longitudinal direction. In this case, the selection members could be analogous to the rods 28, 29 selectively causing the lifting and lowering of the operating fingers 22, 23 so that they engage with the heddles or disengage therefrom.

 In addition, the interval 5 between the needle beds 1, 2, the length of the heddles 8, that of the slots 110 and the strokes of the fingers 22, 23 are chosen so that, during operation, the heddles 8 are completely transferred from one to the other at each change of position of the warp threads. In other words, when the crowd is fully open, the heddles 8 which separate the wires (12) (FIG. 4) are engaged as much as possible in the grooves 3 of the needle bed 1, leaving only the hooks 33 and the outside of these grooves. extreme part of the slots 110 where the wires 12 are located.

 When the wires 12 have to be spread in the opposite direction to form a new shed, the hooks 220A of the pushing fingers 22 are engaged with the hooks 32 of the heddles 8 (FIG. 5) and the pushing fingers 22 displaced by the axis 24 (not shown in FIGS. 4 and 5) push the healds 8 until they begin to bring these into the grooves 4 of the needle bed 2 by their end provided with the hook 33. At the same time the fingers 23 of the needle bed are moved to the beams 8 (Figure 6). At a certain moment (FIG. 6), the heddle 8 meets the pushing finger 23 which is left free to lift by pivoting around the axis 25; therefore hooks 230A and 33 engage together.

 When the axes 24, 25 have reached their extreme position in advance in the direction of the interval 5 separating the needle beds 1, 2, the hooks 32, 33 of the heddles 8 are engaged with the hooks 220A and 230A and the heddles occupy a position symmetrical in which they cross the interval 5 by resting by their extreme hooks 32, 33 respectively on the needle beds I and 2 (Figure 7). At this time the wires 12 are substantially in the middle of the slots 110 of the heddles 8.

 It is at this point that the beams 8 are selected by means of the selection members which authorize or not the pivoting of the thrust fingers 22, 23 at the start of their recoil and which determine or not the release of the hooks 220cet 32 or 230A and 33.

 Thus, as can be seen in FIG. 8, the finger 22 has been left free to lift by pivoting about its axis; it was therefore released from the heald 8. On the contrary, the finger 23 was prevented from lifting, it therefore remained engaged with the heald 8 and, during its recoil movement under the effect of the axis 25, it pulls the stringer 8 which leaves the needle bed behind him. The same is true for each arm so that, at the end of this movement, the situation is symmetrical to that of FIG. 4 and the threads 12 are spread towards the needle plate 2 through the left end of the slots 110.

 This second aspect of the invention brings the same advantages as those provided by the first aspect but, in addition, with each new crowd, each needle bed 1, 2 is released from the heddles which are engaged in the opposite needle bed, as is seen in Figures 4 and 8. It is therefore possible, at this time, to produce by any suitable means known per se, a transverse offset of one needle bed with respect to the other, so that the heddles 8 then penetrate not in the same grooves 4 that they left but in neighboring grooves. It is then possible to make fabrics in which the warp threads are no longer constantly rectilinear but are offset and inclined on one side and then on the other in successive sections of the fabric. It will be noted that the invention does not impose the type of needle beds 1, 2 used to guide the healds 8. It is possible to adopt at will straight or curved needle beds or even completely circular without this changing the characteristics of the invention and without this diminishing the advantages. In the case of two circular beds arranged concentrically, it becomes possible to move one of the beds, by a rotational movement, each time in the interval of a groove. A fabric of the so-called triaxial type is then obtained in which the warp threads are inclined relative to the weft threads and are no longer perpendicular to them.

 It will be noted that, in its two aspects, the invention allows not only the individual selection of the beams but also their individual operation. It is therefore easy either to move all the beams together as in the conventional trades, or one after the other as in the trades with undulating crowd.

Claims (10)

 R DICADIOY  n weaving stall comprising individual rigid heddles, each having an opening for the passage of the warp threads and each mounted to slide in a guide path, each heddle being associated with an operating means and a selection means, characterized in that each stringer is a bar (18) having between its end portions an opening (11, 110) for the passage of a warp thread and the bars (18) are guided in the grooves (3, 4) of two needle beds (1, 2) parallel, arranged face to face with their grooves (3, 4) matched by their open ends, each operating means comprising a finger (22), movable in the groove (3) for guiding the heald (8) corresponding to carry out alternating movements of advance and retreat with respect to the interval (5) separating the needle beds (1, 2), each finger (22) having a free end (22A), capable of cooperating with the end next to the corresponding boom (8) and being pivotally mounted ant around an axis (24) to be able to occupy a position in which it is active and cooperates with the heald (8) to move it and a position in which it is inactive and does not cooperate with the heald (8) corresponding, the selection means being able to give the corresponding finger one or the other of its two positions.  2) A weaving machine according to claim 1, characterized in that the bars (8) are constantly contained in the grooves (3, 4) of the two islands (1, 2) during their movements, the passage opening of the warp threads being a hole (11) provided in the middle of each bar (8) and the fingers (22) acting when they are in the activity position by pushing carried out by their free end (22A) on the end close to the corresponding bar (8).  3) weaving stall according to claim 2, characterized in that it comprises maneuvering and selection means according to claim 1, arranged on one side of the loom in cooperation with a single needle bed 1, while return springs are respectively associated with each of the heddles to return these to these operating means.  4) Weaving machine according to claim 2, characterized in that it comprises maneuvering and selection means according to claim 1 arranged on both sides of the loom in cooperation with each of the needle beds 1, 2, the maneuvering means acting on the heddles 8 in opposite directions towards one another.  5) weaving stallion according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the selection means associated with each heald is a rod (28) slidably mounted under each finger (22) and capable of lifting the latter up to 'to put its free end 22A above the arm, each rod (28) being guided in a hole in the sole (18) of the needle beds in correspondence with the grooves (3).  6) A weaving machine according to claim 1, characterized in that the bars (8) are alternately contained, in their extreme positions of movement, in the grooves (3, 4) of one or the other of the needle beds ( 1, 2), the passage opening for the warp threads being a longitudinal slot (110) extending from the vicinity of one end to the vicinity of the opposite end of each bar (8), the fingers (22, 23) being provided at their free end with a hook (220A, 230A) open towards the bottom of the grooves (3, 4) and the ends of the bars (8) each having a ratchet (32, 33) open to opposite the bottom of the grooves (3, 4), the fingers (22, 23) thus being able to pull or push the bars (8) when the hooks are engaged together.  7) A weaving loom according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the axes (24) of articulation of the operating fingers (22) pass through slots (24A) of guides (26) and are coupled -a control members by their ends.  8) A weaving loom according to claim 6, characterized in that the hooks (32, 33) of the bars (8) and the hooks (220A, 23où) of the operating fingers (22, 23) have a profile allowing their engagement or their release as a result of a relative movement in the longitudinal direction and the selection means associated with each bar (8) is capable of allowing or prohibiting the pivoting of the operating fingers (22, 23) authorizing or not the release of the hooks moment when the operating fingers move back with respect to the bars (8).  9) Weaving machine according to claims 1 and 6 together, characterized in that the needle beds are arranged parallel one opposite the other along any route chosen between the straight, curved, circular traces.  10) Loom according to claim 9, characterized in that at least one of the needle beds is movable transversely relative to the other so that the heddles change grooves during operation.