GB1595727A - Aximinster carpet and method of and apparatus for weaving the same - Google Patents

Description

(54) AXMINSTER CARPET AND METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR WEAVING THE SAME (71) We, DAVID CRABTREE & SON LIMITED, a British Company, of Dick Lane, Laisterdyke, Bradford BD4 8JD, Yorkshire, 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 particularly described in and by the following statement: This invention concerns the weaving of Axminster carpet, and has for its object to provide a method and apparatus therefor, whereby a carpet can be woven more rapidly than has hitherto been possible, as well as a corresponding fabric produced by the method.

With this object in view the invention provides a method of weaving Axminster carpet fabric which comprises forming a warp shed comprising chain warp groups with respective stuffer warps, shedding the chain warps so as to be alternately relatively above and below the stuffer warps, and, between each shed change, inserting two shots of weft into the warp shed so as to provide a first weft shot between the stuffer warps and the upper chain warps, and a second weft shot between the lower chain warps and the stuffer warps, introducing a row of individual tuft bits into the shed between the first and second weft shots in close proximity to the fell, beating up the shots of weft so that the second weft shot serves as a retainer for a previous row of tuft bits and the first weft shot serves as a tuft bit anchoring weft anchoring the present row of tuft bits in the woven fabric, and about which the tuft bits form bights which are retained by a subsequent weft shot.

For weaving the fabric aforesaid, and therefore carrying the method into effect, the invention further provides a gripper Axminster loom comprising shedding means for forming a warp shed comprising chain warp groups with respective stuffer warps, and to shed the chain warps so as to be alternately relatively above and below the stuffer warps, grippers serving, between each shed change, to take respective tuft bits from a tufting yarn supply means, and introduce them as a row into the shed adjacent and in close proximity to the fell, and weft inserter means operating, between each shed change, to insert two shots of weft into the warp shed so as to provide a first weft shot disposed between the stuffer warps and the upper chain warps and serving as a tuft bit anchoring weft to anchor the row of tuft bits in the woven fabric, and a second weft shot located between the lower chain warps and the stuffer warps and serving as a retainer for a previous row of tuft bits.

In said loom, the tufting yarn supply means preferably comprises, for each gripper, a yarn carrier controlled to present a selected tufting yarn colour for taking by the gripper.

The arrangement may conveniently be such that each yarn carrier is substantially horizontally disposed with the grippers being arranged to be raised to the respective carriers for taking respective tuft bits and to be lowered for introducing said tuft bits into the shed.

Each yarn carrier is preferably controlled by being spring-loaded to slide along a slot until arrested a respective arresting pin selected from a respective row of said pins to position a selected tufting yarn in the yarn carrier for engagement by the respective gripper.

The stop pins may conveniently be Jacquard-controlled.

The invention will be described further, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic part-sectional side elevation illustrating a gripper Axminster loom for producing the carpet fabric in accordance with the invention, this being shown with the grippers lowered, only sufficient of the loom being shown to enable the invention to be understood; Fig. 2 is a view comparable with Fig. 1 but showing the loom with the grippers raised to take tuft bits; Fig. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary detail illustrating one of the grippers of the loom in its position about to take a respective tufting yarn, as a first step in the cycle of weaving the carpet fabric of the invention;; Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3, but showing the gripper partially lowered to withdraw a portion of tufting yarn and the latter being cut off as a tuft bit as a second step in the weaving cycle; Fig. 5 is a view similar to Figs. 3 and 4 but showing the gripper lowered to introduce the tuft bit into the shed whilst weft is inserted as a subsequent step in the weaving cycle; Fig. 6 is a view similar to Figs. 3 to 5 but showing how the reed is moved to hold the inserted tuft bit whilst it is released by the gripper, as a further step in the weaving cycle; Fig. 7 is a view similar to Figs. 3 to 6 but showing the tuft bit now anchored in the fabric, and the gripper open ready to move back to the Fig. 3 position to commence the next cycle; and Fig. 8 is an enlarged diagrammatic sectional side elevation illustrating the weave of the resultant fabric.

Referring firstly to Figs. 1 and 2, the illustrated loom for producing Axminster carpet fabric in accordance with the invention comprises shedding means, indicated generally by reference numeral 10, for forming a warp sheet (which is indicated diagrammatically at 11 in Fig. 1) into a shed formed with groups of chain warps 12 and 13 having associated stuffer warps 14. The shedding means 10 is arranged to be operated so that the chain warps 12, 13 alternate, that is to say upon shed change the chain warps 12 which are shown as being the upper chain warps, above the stuffer warps 14, in the drawing are changed over with the lower chain warps 13; then, upon the next change the chain warps are brought back to the illustrated positions.

A row of grippers 15 extends transversely of the warp shed adjacent the fell 16 and between the latter and a reed 17. The grippers 15 are mounted upon a gripper bar 18 supported at each end by end brackets 19 pivotally connected to parallel links 20 which are fast upon respective shafts 21 and 22 one of which is arranged to be rotated firstly in one direction and then in the other by means of a radial arm 23 coupled by a connecting rod 24 to a swinging arm 25. The swinging arm 25 is arranged to be swung back and forth about a fixed pivot pin by a cam follower roller on said arm 25 engaging in a cam slot in the face of a cam disc (not shown) provided on a main drive shaft 27.

Each gripper 15 has a respective movable jaw 28 engaging with a gripper-actuating shaft 29 extending substantially parallel to the gripper bar 18 and operative to open and close the jaw 28 by moving it away from and towards the respective fixed jaw 30.

The reed 17 comprises reed dents 31 carried on a reed bar 32 mounted by its ends upon respective angle brackets 33 pivotally located upon a reed shaft 34. A follower roller 35 on the illustrated bracket 33 engages with a respective cam (not shown) on the main drive shaft 27, so that in each operating cycle of the loom the reed 17 is swung between a withdrawn position shown in Fig. 2 and a beating-up position shown in Fig. 1 and then back again to the withdrawn position.

Cooperating with each gripper 15 is a respective yarn carrier, indicated generally by the reference numberal 36, these yarn carriers being arranged in a side-by-side bank extending transversely of the loom above the shed. Each yarn carrier 36 comprises a strip-form head 37 through which is a row of substantially vertical holes, spaced apart along the head, each said hole accommodating a respective tufting yarn 38 with a short free end thereof projecting downwards, it being understood that these yarns 38 are of different colours. The head 37 of the yarn carrier is provided at the front end of a respective slide strip 39, on which is an upwardy-projecting bearing strip 40 locating in a respective slot 41 in the bottom surface of a bottom plate 42 of a needle box 43 which extends transversely of the loom above the rear ends of the slide strips 39.

The bottom plate 42 has, for each yarn carrier 36, a respective row of apertures, whose spacing corresponds to the spacings of the holes in the head 37 for the yarns 38, each of these apertures accommodating the bottom end of a respective arresting pin 44 which are guided in respective guide holes in top plates 45 and 46 of the needle box 43.

Respective arresting pin springs (not shown) load the arresting pins 44 downwards to their arresting positions in which their lower ends project into the slot 42 and provide abutments for arresting movement (to the right as viewed in the drawing) of the respective yarn carrier 36 by abutment of the bearing strip 40 thereagainst.

The rear end of each slide strip 39 is connected to one end of a respective tension spring 47 the other end of which is connected to a tension bar 48. This bar 48 is secured to the underside of a spaced-apart pair of racks 49 which carry, at their front ends, a transverse yarn-carrier return bar 50 which confronts the rear ends of the slide strips 39. The arresting pins 44 are connected, at their upper ends, to wires, cords, ropes or the like, indicated by numeral 51, to a Jacquard selector mechanism (not shown).The racks 49 are slidably mounted in bearings 52 supported from cross beams 53 and are engaged by respective pinions 54 arranged to be rotated alternately in the one direction and then the other by means of a radial arm 55 coupled, by a connecting rod 56, with a rocking lever 57 having a respec tive cam follower 58 engaging with a respective cam (not shown) provided on the main drive shaft 27.

A tufting yarn severing knife 59 extends transversely across the yarn carriers 36, just behind the heads 37 of the yarn carriers 36, and can be brought forward to sever tuft bits from the tufting yarns 38.

The manner of operation of the loom will readily be appreciated from the foregoing description and from consideration also of Figs. 3 to 7 of the drawings. In each cycle of operation of the loom, after appropriate shredding of the chain warps 12, 13 (which shedding serves to move the chain warps 12, 13 so as to be alternately relatively above and below the stuffer warps 14) firstly the Jacquard mechanism raises selected ones of the arresting pins 44 in each row and the pinion 54 is rotated in the anti-clockwise direction considered in Figs. 1 and 2 to move the return bar 50 away from the carriers 36.As a result, the yarn carriers 36 are moved to the right to abut against the foremost non-raised arresting pin 44 in the respective rows of such pins 44, thereby to bring each yarn carrier to a selected position with a selected one of the yarns 38 ready to be taken by the respective gripper 15. Then, as shown in Fig. 3, the grippers 15 are raised in the open condition, to approach the respective downwardly-protruding free end of the selected tufting yarn 38 (which is the first such yarn 38 in the illustrated case) whereupon the grippers 15 close to grip their respective selected yarns 38 and then move downwards a predetermined distance to draw down a respective tufting yarn length as shown at 60 in Fig. 4. The knife 59 is then actuated to cut off the drawn off yarn length as a tuft bit.

As this is done, two shots of weft are inserted into the warp shed so as to provide a first weft shot above the stuffer warps 14 and between the latter and the upper chain warps 12, and a second weft shot below the stuffer warp 14 and between the latter and the lower chain warps 13. The positions of respective rapiers 61 and 62 for inserting these wefts are indicated in Figs. 3 and 4 and it will be observed that the lower rapier 61, which enters between the stuffer warps 14 and the lower chain warps 13 is disposed forward of the grippers 15, between the latter and the fell, whilst the upper rapier 62, which enters between the stuffer warps 14 and the upper chain warps 12 is behind the grippers 15, between the latter and the reed 17.

The tufting yarn bits 60 having been taken by the grippers 15, the latter are lowered and introduced into the shed in close proximity to the fell and are simultaneously moved forward towards the fell 16, so that the grippers 15 tend to beat up the second weft shots, indicated by the numerals 63 in Fig. 8, inserted by the lower rapier 61. Each such second weft shot serves, of course, as a retainer for the preceding row of tuft bits 60. The reed 17 follows the beating up movement of the gripper 15 so that when the gripper has reached the Fig. 5 position, when the just-inserted tufting yarn bit 60 is projecting upwards through the fabric at the fell, the first weft shot inserted by the upper rapier 62 serves as a tuft bit anchoring weft anchoring said bits 60 at the fell.Thereupon, the grippers 15 are raised very slightly so as to push the lower griped end of the bit 60 up again through the warp shed thereby to form the tuft bits each into the customary U-shaped configuration to form a respective tuft. Then, a tuft rake 64 adjacent the fell is lowered to engage the inserted row of tufts and pull them very slightly forward prior to repeating the cycle for the next row of tufts.

The construction of the resultant Axminster carpet fabric is illustrated in Fig. 8 from which it will be appreciated that since only a two-shot weft is involved the process uses only about two-thirds of the weft as compared with that employed in the customary three-shot weft. Moreover, since only a two-shot weft is involved, the fabric can be produced much more rapidly than the three-shot weft fabric.

The invention is not confined to the precise details of the foregoing examples, and variations may be made thereto without departing from the scope of the following

Claims (9)

claims. For instance, instead of providing the springs 47 for displacing the yarn carriers to the right as viewed in Figs. 1 and 2 until their shoulders abut their respective selected arresting pins 44, there may be, for instance, a mechanical entraining arrangement which disengages to release the respective yarn carriers when they reach their respective selected position. Such an arrangement may comprise, for example, a transverse bar comparable with the yarncarrier return bar 50 but moving over rearward extensions of the slide strips 39 and arranged to be coupled with the slide strips 39 by a spring-loaded ball on the one part locating into a recess in the other part to form a resilient coupling, each ball disengaging from its recess when the respective carrier bar encounters its selected arresting pin 44.Obviously, the transverse bar in such an arrangement can serve also as the yarncarrier return bar. WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. A method of weaving Axminster carpet fabric which comprises forming a warp shed comprising chain warp groups with respective stuffer warps, shedding the chain warps so as to be alternately relatively above and below the stuffer warps, and, between each shed change, inserting two shots of weft into the warp shed so as to provide a first weft shot between the stuffer warps and the upper chain warps, and a second weft shot between the lower chain warps and the stuffer warps, introducing a row of individual tuft bits into the shed between the first and second weft shots in close proximity to the fell, beating up the shots of weft so that the second weft shot serves as a retainer for a previous row of tuft bits and the first weft shot serves as a tuft bit anchoring weft anchoring the present row of tuft bits in the woven fabric, and about which the tuft bits form bights which are retained by a subsequent weft shot.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein, after weft insertion, the grippers and a reed move simultaneously towards the fell so that the grippers beat up the second of the weft shots at the same time as bringing the tuft bits into the shed, and the reed then beats up the first of the weft shots to cause the latter to grip the tuft bits in the shed.

3. A gripper Axminster loom comprising shedding means for forming a warp shed comprising chain warp groups with respective stuffer warps, and to shed the chain warps so as to be alternately relatively above and below the stuffer warps, grippers serving, between each shed change, to take respective tuft bits from a tufting yarn supply means, and introduce them as a row into the shed adjacent and in close proximity to the fell, and weft inserter means operating, between each shed change, to insert two shots of weft into the warp shed so as to provide a first weft shot disposed between the stuffer warps and the upper chain warps and serving as a tuft bit anchoring weft to anchor the row of tuft bits in the woven fabric, and a second weft shot located between the lower chain warps and the stuffer warps and serving as a retainer for a previous row of tuft bits.

4. A loom as claimed in claim 3, wherein the tuft yarn supply means comprises, for each gripper, a yarn carrier controlled to present a selected tufting yarn colour for taking by the gripper.

5. A loom as claimed in claim 4, wherein each yarn carrier is substantially horizontally disposed with the grippers being arranged to be raised to the respective yarn carriers for taking respective yarn bits and to be lowered for introducing said yarn bits into the shed.

6. A loom as claimed in claim 4 or 5 wherein each yarn carrier is spring-loaded to slide along a slot until arrested by a respective arresting pin selected from a respective row of said pins to position a selected tufting yarn in the yarn carrier for engagement by the respective gripper.

7. A gripper Axminster loom substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

8. A method of weaving Axminster carpet fabric substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

9. An Axminster carpet fabric produced by the method of claim 1,2 or 8.

by the method of claim 1, 2 n or 8.