GB1563899A

GB1563899A - Tandem carding machine

Info

Publication number: GB1563899A
Application number: GB4382776A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: NAGOYA KINZOKU SHINPU KK
Current assignee: NAGOYA KINZOKU SHINPU KK
Priority date: 1975-11-03
Filing date: 1976-10-21
Publication date: 1980-04-02
Also published as: JPS5255727A; DE2649518A1

Description

(54) TANDEM CARDING NTACHINE (71) We, NAGOYA KINZOKU SHINPU K. \BTTSHIKI KAISTIA, a Japanese body corporate, of 499 Tokinoshinden-minaminakano Shinkawamachi Nishi-kasugaigun Aichi-ken, Japan, do hereby declare the invention, for which we pray that a patent may be granted to us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particu larly described in and by the following statement : This invention relates to a tandem carding machine, more particularly to a tandem carding machine having a higher productivity of sliver.

Recently, a tandem carding machine consisting of two component conventional carding engines, with one arranged behind the other, has been used to prepare a carded sliver for an open end spinning frame. In the case of a conventional ring spinning frame, a sliver is directly drafted and spun into a yarn, and in the case of an open end spinning frame, a sliver is firstly broken up into individual fibers which in turn are collected and spun into a yarn. In general, three stages of drawing are required for the sliver for the ring spinning frame. On the other hand, a sliver of only one stage of drawing is effected for the open end spinning frame. It is evident that the three stage sliver will have fewer irregularities therein and a higher degree of alignement of the fibers compared with the one stage sliver.

In operation of the open end spinning frame which is supplied such a one stage sliver, the frequency of bobbin doffing is lower than that in the ordinary ring spinning frame so that the open end spinning frame must be operated at a higher rate of output.

In operation of a usual tandem carding machine including two conventional carding engines, a sliver delivered therefrom has short term and long term irregularities.

Because, in the first carding engine of such a tandem carding machine, neps, dusts and impurities are not completely extracted from the fibers, and there are some uneven portions in the web spread along the surface of the cylinder roller, the irregularities along the sliver spun in the second carding engine, that is the web transferred from the first carding engine to the second carding engine, are not completely removed to the extent to be suitable for the open end spinning frame.

The present applicant has patents entitled "High speed carding engine"patented in Japan under Patent No. 766, 643, in U. S. A. under Patent No. 3, 792,502 and in Great Britain under Patent No. 1, 289,278. The tandem carding machine of the present invention is an application of this high speed carding engine.

According to the present invention there is provided a tandem carding machine including first and second carding engines, one engine being arranged behind the other, each of said carding engines having a takerin roller, a cylinder roller provided with flats and a doffer assembled, wherein fibrous material carded in said first carding engine is doffed from the doffer assembly of said first carding engine to be subse quently transferred to said second carding engine so as to be carded again therein, said first carding engine including an opening and dust extracting assembly including an evener roller adjacent to said cylinder roller and said taker-in roller and having a surface co-operating with the surface of said cylinder roller and with the upper surface of said taker-in roller, a perforated casing extending adjacent to the underside of said taker-in roller from a point adjacent to said cylinder roller to a point spaced from a mote knife located at the underside of said take-in roller, the gap between the casing and the taker-in roller converging towards the cylinder roller, a division sheet extending vertically downwardly from the end of said casing remote from the cylinder roller to partition the upper portion of the space beneath said taker-in roller ; and each of said doffer assembles comprising a take-off roller having the axis thereof located above and extending parallel to the axis of a doffer roller and being arranged to rotate at a peripheral speed not lower than the peripheral speed of said doffer roller and further hav ing a plurality of helical grooves along the surface thereof for co-operation with the surface of a doffer roller, a wiper roller having the axis thereof located below and extending parallel to the axis of said takeoff roller and being arranged to rotate at a peripheral speed not lower than that of said take-off roller and further having a plura- lity of proturbances along the surface thereof for co-operation with said helical grooves of said take-off roller, and a web roller hav- ing the axis thereof located between the axis of said wiper roller and doffer roller and below the axis of said take-off roller and extending parallel to said axes and being arranged to rotate at a peripheral speed lower than that of any of said wiper roller, doffer roller and take-off roller for co-operation with the doffer roller.

As the tandem carding machine of the present invention is constructed in the manner described above, the web transferred on to the cylinder roller of the first carding engine, after extraction of dust or impurities in the taker-in part, is carded with flats in an evenly spread state and then peeled off from the surface of the doffer roller by a helically grooved surface of the take-off roller so as to be smoothly transferred to the second carding engine. Accordingly. in the second carding engine, the peripheral surface speed of the cylinder roller can be higher than that of the cylinder roller of the first carding engine to produce a sliver suitable for an open end spinning frame.

For a better understanding of the present invention and to show more clearly how it may be carried into effect reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying drawings, in which :- Fig. 1 is a general diagrammatic side view of a tandem carding machine in accordance with the present invention; Fig. 2 is an enlarged side view showing a portion of a taker-in roller part of the machine; Fig. 2a is an enlarged view of the portion of"A"of Fig. 2; Fig. 3 is an enlarged side view of a fibre transferring portion of the machine ; Fig. 4 is an enlarged side view of a doffer assembly of the second carding engine; Figs. 5 and 6 are each enlarged side v iews showing the action of a take-off roller ; Fig. 7 is fragmentary, developed view of a part of metallic wire clothing for a wiper roller ; and Fig. 7a is a side view of Fig. 7.

A tandem carding machine of the present invention consists of a first carding engine and a second carding engine with one engine arranged behind the other.

The first carding engine has a dish plate 1, a feed roller 2, a taker-in roller 3, flats 4, a cylinder roller 5 and a doffer roller 6 in the same manner as a conventional carding engine. The construction of an opening and dust extracting assembly for the first carding engine will be described with reference to Fig. 2. As shown in Figure 2, the opening and dust extracting assembly includes the taker-in roller 3, on the underside of which there are provided a perforated casing 7 covering one quarter of the cylinder roller 5, a clearance between the casing 7 and the peripheral surface converging towards that end of the casing close to the cylinder roller, a mote knife 8 disposed between the case 7 and the dish plate 1, and a division sheet 9 extending downwardly from that end of the casing 7 close to the mote knife 8 to partition the space beneath the taker-in roller 3.

On the other hand, above the taker-in roller is provided an evener roller 10 adjacent to the peripheral surfaces of the takerin roller and the cylinder roller. The evener roller 10 rotates in a direction opposite to that of the cylinder roller and has a metallic wire clothing wound around the peripheral surface thereof. The teeth of the metallic wire clothing incline in the opposite direction to the direction of the rotation of the evener roller 10. An evener roller cover 12 is provided to cover the evener roller 10 and a taker-in roller cover 13 is provided extending from one end of the cover 12 to cover both the takerin roller 3 and the feed roller 2, whereby a reduced pressure can be provided in a space between the cover 13 and the taker-in roller 3 during operation of the first carding engine. Further a baffle board 11 of a triangular section is provided in the space adjacent to the feed roller 2 and the take-in roller 3 with a slight clearance therebetween The opening and dust extracting assembly described above operates in the following manner: Fibrous material fed on the dish plate 1 is scraped and opened by the metallic wire on the taker-in roller 3 at the nose of the dish plate I and the resultant fibrous material taken off from the dish plate is successively transferred on the taker-in roller. When the fibrous material is uniformly held on the peripheral surface of the taker-in roller, coarse impurities such as broken leaves, neps or naps gradually come out on the surface of fibrous material and are released from the taker-in roller under centrifugal force due to the rotation of the roller, because the impurities have a greater soecific gravity than the fibrous material. Therefore, the impurities run against the mote knife 8 to fall in a space B between the dish plate and the mote knife.

The fibrous material thus transferred on the perinheral surface of the taker-in roller and held by the metallic wires, passes through a gap between the mote knife and the taker-in roller. In this construction, as the casing 7 covers the underside of the taker-in rol ! er leaving uncovered portion C between the other end of the casing and said mote knife, an air stream is sucked from the gap between the other end and the peripheral surface of the taker-in roller 3 and flows along the clearance between the peripheral surface and the casing accompanied by the rotation of the taker-in roller.

Since the clearance converges from the end of the casing close to the mote knife towards the end of the casing adjacent to the cylinder roller, the pressure of the air stream flowing therethrough becomes progressively higher towards the end of the casing adjacent to the cylinder roller. Accordingly, a part of the air stream passes out through the perforations of the casing 7 while entraining therewith shorter fibers separated from the fibrous material being carried on the peripheral surface of the taker-in roller. The shorter fibers passing out along with the air accumulated on the floor between the division sheet 9 and the cylinder roller, since after passing through the perforations of the casing 7, the speed of the air stream rapidly becomes slower so that the air is unable to carry the fibers further. The air stream, after dropping the shorter fibers, passes around the lower end of the division sheet 9 and returns to the space C between the division sheet and the mote knife 8 to recycle again. In the manner stated above, the dust and shorter fibers are sufficiently removed from the fibrous material and a large quantity of c'eaned fibrous material only is transferred on to the peripheral surface of the cylinder roller 5 to undergo the action of the evener roller.

Of the fibrous material transferred onto the peripheral surface of the cylinder roller 5 and held thereon, some uneven portions of the fibrous material swell up over the tons of the metallic wire on the cvlinder roller and are subiected to the onening action of the evener roller 10 which is rotating slowly in the same direction as the taker-in roller.

Such portions where the fibers are exces sivelv thick are scraped by the rotating action of the evener roller to scrane the excess fibers therefrom so as to make the thickness of fibers even over the nerinhera surface of the cylinder roller. Then the fibrous materials are subiected to the cardine action of the flats 4 without being overloaded therebv effectively redueing the growth of nens or naps. The fiber thus transferred onto the evener roller is strinDed hv the taker-in roller at the nroxi- mate ooint between the taker-in roller 3 and evener roller 10 and discharged towards the baffle board 11 to he accumulated in a space defined by the board 11 and the upper surface of the feed roller 2. The fiber thus accumulated on the feed roller is gradually added to the newly fed fibrous material on the dish plate 1 through a gap between the feed roller 2 and the cover 13 under its own weight and the rotating action of the feed roller 2, and is again transferred onto the cylinder roller 5 by the feed roller 2 and the taker-in roller 3 upon being subjected to the action of the taker-in roller.

The greater portions of the fibrous ma terial, however, are transferred onto the cylinder reller to be carried thereon by the flats 4 and doffed from the doffer assembly so as to be delivered to the second carding engine. Tn this case, since the fibrous material on the cylinder roller is subjected to scraping by the action of the evener roller to remove the neps or naps therefrom before they reach the flats 4, the cylinder roller will not be partially overloaded dur- ing the carding action by the flats.

Now the doffing assembly will be described with reference to Figure 3. In Figure 3, numeral 14 designates a take-off roller which is located adjacent to a doffer roller 6 and on the opposite side in relation to the cylinder roller 5 and above the axis of the doffer roller, with the peripheral surface of the take-off roller being adiacent to the peripheral surface of the doffer roller so that a fibrous material or web on the doffer roller is stripped by the take-off roller. The take-off roller is a grooved roller such as a helical gear. One embodiment of the take-off roller is a roller of 143 mm of outer diameter having fifty seven teeth formed around the periphery thereof, each of which is 55 mm deep and is arranged at an inclination angle of 2 degrees to the axial direction. When the take-off roller is rotated in the same direction as the doffer roller at a circumferential surface speed equal to or slightly higher than that of the doffer roller, the take-off roller acts to peel the web from the peripheral surface of the doffer roller. A wiper roller 15 is located on the opposite side of the doffer roller in relation to the take-off roller and adiacent thereto, maintaining a slight clear- ance to the extent not to contact with the take-off roller. The wiper roller is arranged for the purnose of preventinz winding of the web around the peripheral surface of the take-off roller, and rotates in the same direction as the take-off roller at a neripheral surface speed eaual to or slightlv higher than that of the take-off roller. Tr is preferable to cover the oeriphera ! surface of the wir er roaler with a metallic wire clothm ? having teeth, each tooth of wh ! ch has the shane of an isosceles triangle having a round aoex of 120 degr s.

Below a nnt where the take-off roller 14 and the doffer roller 6 are closest to each other there is provided a web roller 16 which maintains a required clearance from the take-off roller, the doffer roller and the wiper roller 15. The web roller, which has a smooth circumferential surface, rotates in a direction opposite to the doffer roller at a circumferential surface speed lower than that of any of the aforesaid rollers 14 and 15 and serves to lead the web peeled from the doffer roller to a succeeding series of rollers without allowing the web to dangle. The web thus peeled by the takeoff roller from the doffer roller is delivered through a space D defined by the take-off roller, the wiper roller and the web roller to a pair of crushing rollers 17 and 18 (Fig.

5).

At the beginning of a carding operation, the thickness of the web W peeled off by the take-off roller from the doffer roller is so thin that the free end of the web becomes curled in a triangular space E defined by the take-off roller 14, the doffer roller 6 and the web roller 16, and is retained therein in a spiral configuration (Fig.

5). When the triangular space E becomes filled with the curled web, the friction between the web and the web roller gradually becomes so large that the entire curled web is discharged at one time from this space.

Accordingly, dangling of the web, which occurs in a conventional doffing process, never appears.

The web delivered from the web roller is fed to the pair of crushing rollers 17 and 18, each of which is a cylindrical roller having a smooth peripheral surface thereon and is urged towards the other by means of a spring system or a weight lever system or the like. In this case, since a portion of the web is crushed by the crushing rollers, the sticky wax oozes out from fiber ele- ments, which causes the fibers to adhere around the peripheral surface of the rollers. It is preferable to provide means for cleaning the surface of the rollers by urging the edge of a steel plate onto the surface of each of the rollers. After passing between the crushing rollers, the fibrous material is further transferred by two transport rollers 19 and 20 so as to be fed to the second carding engine.

The carding process in the second carding engine is almost the same as that in the first carding engine. Each of the members in the second carding engine is indicated bv a numeral which is twenty higher than that of the corresponding member in the first carding engine. Since the web to he au) lied to the second carding engine has already been carded in the first carding eneine, it is possible to onerate the second carding engine by rotating the cvlinder roller 25 at a perioheral sneed faster bv 25% than that of the cylinder roller 5 of the first carding engine and by using flats having clothing wires having an increased number of teeth per unit area. In other words, the number of needle points per unit area in the flats can be increased. The doffer assembly in the second carding engine includes a take-off roller 34, a wiper roller 35, a web roller 36 and a pair of of the roller is identical to that of those in the first carding engine. The web carded in the second carding engine and delivered from the pair of crushing rollers thereof slides down under its own weight on the slanting surface of a diagonal guide plate 21 and is condensed by a pair of calender rollers 22 disposed substantially perpendicular to the guide plate 21 for making a sliver to be fed to a coiler 24.

As explained in detail above, the tandem carding machine of the present invention can be operated to give a higher productivity than that of the conventional tandem carding machine. Namely, it is possible uniformly to supply the fibrous material onto the cylinder roller owing to the enhancement of the fiber opening and the dust extraction at the taker-in part, thereby preventing damage to the wire clothing in the flats, while transferring a web of good quality to the inter-connecting part of the two carding engines. Moreover, a flexible wire is not used for peeling off the web from the doffer roller at the doffer assembly, and contact between the surface of the take-off roller and the wire of the doffer resulting from rising up of the wire clothing of the take-off roller is prevented.

Concerning the insertion of the web lip doffed from the doffer on to the pair of crushing rollers at the initial stage of operation, in each of the carding engines the free end of the web is curled in the space defined by the doffer roller, the take-off roller and the web roller, then after several turns of the free end of web, the entire curled portion of the web is immediately discharged therefrom to be delivered to the next process. Therefore, the trouble of insertion of the web lip between the pair of rollers is obviated and the starting operation of both carding engines is easily carried out. The web transferred to the second carding engine is carded at a higher speed after the beneflcial carding effect on the web in the first carding engine. Accordingly, the drawing action acts upon the web during the carding process, whereby a sliver having a higher degree of alignment of the fibers and a higher strength, and which may therefore be used in an open end spinning frame can be obtained without a drawing process of the carded sliver.

Claims

WHAT WE CLAIM IS : 1. A tandem carding machine includ ing first and second carding engines, one engine being arranged behind the other, each of said carding engines having a t'akerin roller, a cylinder roller provided with flats and a doffer assembly, wherein fibrous material carded in said first carding engine is doffed from the doffer assembly of said first carding engine to be subsequently transferred to said second carding engine so as to be carded again therein, said first carding engine including an opening and dust extracting assembly including an evener roller adjacent to said cylinder roller and said take-in roller and having a surface co-operating with the surface of said cylinder roller and with the upper surface of said taker-in roller, a perforated casing extending adjacent to the underside of said takerin roller from a point adjacent to said cylinder roller to a point spaced from a motc knife located at the underside of said takerin roller, the gap between the casing and the taker-in roller converging towards the cylinder roller, a division sheet extending vertically downwardly from the end of said casing remote from the cylinder roller to partition the upper portion of the space beneath said taker-in roller ; and each or said doffer assemblies comprising a takeoff roller having the axis thereof located above and extending parallel to the axis of a doffer roller and being arranged to rotate at a peripheral speed not lower than the peripheral speed of said doffer roller and further having a plurality of helical grooves along the surface thereof for co-operation with the surface of a doffer roller, a wiper roller having the axis thereof located below and extending parallel to the axis of said take-off roller and being arranged to rotate at a peripheral speed not lower than that of said take-off roller and further having a plurality of proturbances along the surface thereof for co-operation with said helical grooves of said take-off roller, and a web roller having the axis thereof located between the axis of said wiper roller and doffer roller and below the axis of said take-of' roller and extending parallel to said axes and being arranged to rotate at a peripheral speed lower than that of any of said wiper roller, doffer roller and take-off roller for co-operation with the doffer roller.
2. A tandem carding machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said first carding engine further comprises a dish plate and a feed roller, and said opening and dust extracting assembly further comprises an evener roller cover provided above said evener roller and a taker-in roller cover having one end thereof connected to one end of said evener roller cover and the other end thereof terminating so as to cover said feed roller, both said covers together defining a reduced pressure air space above said taker-in roller.
3. A tandem carding machine as claimed in claim 2, wherein a baffle board is provided within said reduced pressure air space at a position between said taker-in roller and said feed roller and adjacent to the upper surface of said taker-in roller for guiding the fibrous material delivered into said reduced pressure air space towards said feed roller.
4. A tandem carding machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein each of said doffer as semblies further comprises a pair of crushing rollers for crushing impurities in the web delivered from said web roller.
5. A tandem carding machine as claimed in claim 4, wherein the doffer assembly of said second carding engine further comprises a downwardly incline web guide plate for guiding the web delivered from said pair of crushing rollers.
6. A tandem carding machine as claimed in claim 5, wherein a pair of calender rollers are provided at the lower end of said web guide plate for condensing and guiding the web to a coiler, each of said calender rollers rotating about an axis extending at substantially perpendicular to the surface of the guide plate.
7. A tandem carding machine substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to, and as shown in, the accompanying drawings.