GB1596532A

GB1596532A - Textile opening rollers

Info

Publication number: GB1596532A
Application number: GB21676/80A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Eadie Bros and Co Ltd
Current assignee: Eadie Bros and Co Ltd
Priority date: 1978-05-26
Filing date: 1978-05-26
Publication date: 1981-08-26

Description

(54) IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO TEXTILE OPENING ROLLERS (71) We, EADIE BROS & CO. LIMITED, of Victoria Works, P.O. Box 22, Paisley, Scotland, a British Company, 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 relates to opening rollers for open-end spinning apparatus, that is to say, rollers which have a cylindrical surface from which teeth project for engagement with the sliver of fibrous material, which is fed through the apparatus.

A commonly used opening roller has its teeth formed by individual pins located in radial holes formed in the body of the roller, but such a roller is relatively expensive to construct because of the method of manufacturing and locating the pins, and because of the necessity to balance the roller due to the high angular velocity of the roller in use. It is known to employ metallic wire type cardclothing wrapped around the roller (see for example United Kingdom Specification No: 1.387,627) to provide the toothed surface and although this method of construction is cheaper than constructing a pinned roller, it is still necessary to balance the roller.

The teeth of an opening roller are sometimes subject to quite severe wear, and when the teeth are too badly worn to function effectively, the entire roller has to be replaced. The process of removing the roller from the machine spindle (on which it has to be a press fit) replacing it with a new roller and rebalancing the refurbished roller is time consuming and expensive. Moreover, it is very often carried out without correct balancing which has a deleterious effect on the opening roller assembly, or if correct balancing is required, the roller usually has to be returned to the manufacturer.

In the published German Patent Specification OLS 2528485 an opening roller is described in which card-clothing is wrapped on to a thin metal sleeve, and this sleeve is supported partly on a narrow shoulder formed on the roller body, and mainly on a clamping ring, which is secured to the body by a series of screws. The card-clothing sleeve is held in place by a radially slit spring ring which is distended outwardly into frictinal engagement with the inside of the cardclothed sleeve. This enables the card-clothed sleeve to be replaced without replacing the entire roller, but the roller construction is itself relatively complex, and since the roller will almost certainly require rebalancing every time a fresh card-clothed sleeve is fitted.

According to one aspect of this invention, an opening roller for an open-end spinning apparatus comprises a support part adapted to be drivingly attached to the spindle of the apparatus, and an adapter constructed for releaseable driving connection to the support part, and having teeth secured to a cylindrical external surface thereof, providing the fibre engaging teeth of the roller, the support part and the adapter having mating location surfaces which locate the adapter on the support part, the driving connection comprising a head of a screw engaging in a recess formed partly in the support part and partly in the adapter.

Preferably the support part comprises a single element and the effective length of the location surfaces (i.e. the length from one end to the other irrespective of any relieving) is at least half the length of the toothed surface of the adapter.

This construction of the opening roller is relatively inexpensive, because of its simplicity, and it is possible to remove the adapter when the teeth are worn, and to replace it by another toothed adapter without having to dismantle, re-assemble and rebalance the roller assembly. Thus it becomes possible to maintain a stock of toothed adapters at the mill, and to replace an adapter on which the teeth have become worn, from this stock, thus ensuring a minimum loss of production on the spinning machine.

According to a preferred feature of the invention, the mating location surfaces are cylindrical, and one or both of these surfaces may be relieved along part of its length.

Metallic wire type card-clothing may be applied to the external surface of the adapter to provide the teeth but it is to be understood that the invention also includes the use of flexible foundation type card-clothing or pins or indeed any other method whereby teeth are provided on the external surfaces.

An opening roller for use on open-end spinning apparatus constructed in accordance with the invention, will now be described by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a section through an opening roller, with the spindle shown in chaindotted lines, and Figure 2 is an end view looking in the direction of the arrow II in Figure 1.

The opening roller has a support part 90, and an adapter 92, both of which are formed in aluminium or aluminium alloy. The support part 90 comprises a single element intended to fit on a plain cylindrical shaft of a spindle assembly, and for this purpose it has a through bore 91 which is a press fit on a driving spindle, shown at 93. so that when the support part is pressed on to the spindle, it becomes drivingly connected thereto. The support part has a flange 94 at its inner end.

Outwardly of the flange 94, the support part has a plain cylindrical location surface 96, which extends to the outer end of the support part.

An adapter 92 takes the form of a ring, which in this instance does not have an end flange. but which is fitted with metallic wire type card-clothing 98. A rectangular crosssection helical groove is formed in the periphery of the adapter 92. The metallic wire type card-clothing 98 is wound into the groove so that its teeth project radially from the adapter. The groove serves to locate the card-clothing wire, so that there are the required comparatively wide spaces between adjacent convolutions of the wire. In a carding machine, the card-clothing is normally wound with adjacent convolutions abutting each other, but if this is attempted on an opening roller for an open-end spinning device, it is found that the spaces between adjacent convolutions of the wire are not wide enough. For this reason, some spacing expedient such as the helical groove has to be adopted.When the card-clothing 98 has been fitted, the adapter presents the cardclothed cylindrical surface required by an opening roller in an open-end spinning device. The adapter 92 has a plain cylindrical bore 100 which provides a radial location on the cylindrical location surface of the support part 90, and the location extends throughout the length of the adapter 92. It will of course be understood, that either of the surfaces 96 and 100 could be relieved along part of their lengths. Clearly, the adapter will be accurately located on the support part, but provision has to be made to ensure that it will not slide off the support part, and for transmitting drive from the support part to the adapter.For this purpose, a screwthreaded hole 102 is formed in the support part, from the outer end, closely adjacent to the location periphery 96 of the support part, and a circular recess 104 is formed largely in the support part, but a small portion of the recess 104 is formed in the adapter 92. A screw 106 is screwed into the hole 102, after the adapter 92 has been placed on the support part, and when this screw is tightened into position, its head seats snugly in the recess 104, part of the head being thus established in the support part, and part in the adapter. The screw then performs two functions. Firstly, it prevents the adapter sliding off the outer end of the support part, and secondly it provides an effective key which transmits rotary motion from the support part to the adapter.

When it is necessary to service the roller, for example by changing the card-clothing, it is only necessary to unfasten the screw 106, and the adapter 92 can then be slid off its location on the support part, and replaced by a fresh adapter.

It is to be understood, that the invention is not limited to any particular manner of securing the card-clothing on the adapter.

For instance, instead of locating the rib of the metallic wire type card-clothing in a groove, the card-clothing could be preformed into a coil, and then applied to an external cylindrical surface of the adapter. Also, so-called flexible foundation type card-clothing could be secured to the external surface of the adapter, although so far, flexible foundation type card-clothing has not been successfully used with opening rollers for open-end spinning apparatus. Furthermore, instead of using card-clothing, the adapter could be drilled, and fitted with pins in known manner.

WHAT WE CLAIM IS: 1. , An opening roller for an open-end spinning apparatus comprising a support part adapted to be drivingly attached to the spindle of the apparatus, and an adapter constructed for releaseable driving connection to the support part and having teeth secured to a cylindrical external surface thereof, providing the fibre engaging teeth of the roller, the support part and the adapter having mating location surfaces which locate the adapter on the support part, the driving connection comprising a head of a screw engaging on a recess formed partly in the support part and partly in the adapter.

2. An opening roller for an open-end spinning apparatus as claimed in Claim 1, in which the support part comprises a single element and the effective length of the location surfaces (i.e. the length from one

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. to provide the teeth but it is to be understood that the invention also includes the use of flexible foundation type card-clothing or pins or indeed any other method whereby teeth are provided on the external surfaces. An opening roller for use on open-end spinning apparatus constructed in accordance with the invention, will now be described by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a section through an opening roller, with the spindle shown in chaindotted lines, and Figure 2 is an end view looking in the direction of the arrow II in Figure 1. The opening roller has a support part 90, and an adapter 92, both of which are formed in aluminium or aluminium alloy. The support part 90 comprises a single element intended to fit on a plain cylindrical shaft of a spindle assembly, and for this purpose it has a through bore 91 which is a press fit on a driving spindle, shown at 93. so that when the support part is pressed on to the spindle, it becomes drivingly connected thereto. The support part has a flange 94 at its inner end. Outwardly of the flange 94, the support part has a plain cylindrical location surface 96, which extends to the outer end of the support part. An adapter 92 takes the form of a ring, which in this instance does not have an end flange. but which is fitted with metallic wire type card-clothing 98. A rectangular crosssection helical groove is formed in the periphery of the adapter 92. The metallic wire type card-clothing 98 is wound into the groove so that its teeth project radially from the adapter. The groove serves to locate the card-clothing wire, so that there are the required comparatively wide spaces between adjacent convolutions of the wire. In a carding machine, the card-clothing is normally wound with adjacent convolutions abutting each other, but if this is attempted on an opening roller for an open-end spinning device, it is found that the spaces between adjacent convolutions of the wire are not wide enough. For this reason, some spacing expedient such as the helical groove has to be adopted.When the card-clothing 98 has been fitted, the adapter presents the cardclothed cylindrical surface required by an opening roller in an open-end spinning device. The adapter 92 has a plain cylindrical bore 100 which provides a radial location on the cylindrical location surface of the support part 90, and the location extends throughout the length of the adapter 92. It will of course be understood, that either of the surfaces 96 and 100 could be relieved along part of their lengths. Clearly, the adapter will be accurately located on the support part, but provision has to be made to ensure that it will not slide off the support part, and for transmitting drive from the support part to the adapter.For this purpose, a screwthreaded hole 102 is formed in the support part, from the outer end, closely adjacent to the location periphery 96 of the support part, and a circular recess 104 is formed largely in the support part, but a small portion of the recess 104 is formed in the adapter 92. A screw 106 is screwed into the hole 102, after the adapter 92 has been placed on the support part, and when this screw is tightened into position, its head seats snugly in the recess 104, part of the head being thus established in the support part, and part in the adapter. The screw then performs two functions. Firstly, it prevents the adapter sliding off the outer end of the support part, and secondly it provides an effective key which transmits rotary motion from the support part to the adapter. When it is necessary to service the roller, for example by changing the card-clothing, it is only necessary to unfasten the screw 106, and the adapter 92 can then be slid off its location on the support part, and replaced by a fresh adapter. It is to be understood, that the invention is not limited to any particular manner of securing the card-clothing on the adapter. For instance, instead of locating the rib of the metallic wire type card-clothing in a groove, the card-clothing could be preformed into a coil, and then applied to an external cylindrical surface of the adapter. Also, so-called flexible foundation type card-clothing could be secured to the external surface of the adapter, although so far, flexible foundation type card-clothing has not been successfully used with opening rollers for open-end spinning apparatus. Furthermore, instead of using card-clothing, the adapter could be drilled, and fitted with pins in known manner. WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. , An opening roller for an open-end spinning apparatus comprising a support part adapted to be drivingly attached to the spindle of the apparatus, and an adapter constructed for releaseable driving connection to the support part and having teeth secured to a cylindrical external surface thereof, providing the fibre engaging teeth of the roller, the support part and the adapter having mating location surfaces which locate the adapter on the support part, the driving connection comprising a head of a screw engaging on a recess formed partly in the support part and partly in the adapter.

end to the other irrespective of any relieving) is at least half the length of the toothed surface of the adapter.

3. An opening roller for an open-end spinning apparatus as claimed in Claim 1, in which the teeth are formed by metallic wire type card-clothing applied to an external surface of the adapter.

4. An opening roller for an open-end spinning apparatus constructed and arranged substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.