GB2126335A - Control of loose fly or lint in textile manufacture - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a yarn handling arrangement in which the yarn is subjected to conditioning in a humid atmosphere before and as it is drawn off bobbins for use in a textile machine. The apparatus comprises a housing (30) in which are a plurality of pairs of bobbins 4 on support rods, and a sleeve member (14) of fabric which is kept constantly moist by a water distributing device (32). Air is circulated round the housing in a path indicated by arrows C. Air passing through the sleeve member (14) becomes moist and escapes from the sleeve through openings corresponding to the levels at which the bobbins are supported. A screen 28 filters fly or lint from the circulating air. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Improvements in or relating to the handling of textile yarn The invention is concerned with improvements in or relating to the handling of textile yarn, particularly the control of humidity in the conditioning of yarns during a textile manufacturing process, for example in respect of the reduction or regulation of the production of loose fly or lint from the yarn.

In the supply of yarn to a textile machine it is customary, for example to mount a plurality of yarn bobbins upon support members in a creel arrangement, yarn drawn off from the bobbins travelling through yarn guides, feed devices, tensioners, stop motions and the like before it is used by the textile machine.

During this travel, loose fibres are inclined to fall away from the main fibres of the yarn, for instance when they pass over contact points such as the yarn guides and the like mentioned above. These loose fibres are known as 'lint' or'fly'.

Various suggestions have been put forward to minimise the problem. For example in the specification of co-pending U.K. patent application No.

8133912 (Serial No. 2087543) there is described enclosure means for the control of loose lint or fly released by textile yarns during travel between stations in a textile manufacturing process, comprising a housing, divided into a plurality of interconnected compartments, at least one of which is traversed by a yarn during its travel, means to circulate air in a continuous path through the compartments, a partition being provided between two adjacent compartments comprising a filter screen capable of trapping fly or lint carried by air passing therethrough.

However, in most textile manufacturing processes, the yarn travel is rapid and therefore because of the shortness of the time during which the yarn is present in the compartments, it was also found advantageous under many circumstances to establish a high level of humidity within the housing. The effect of this has been to reduce to a minimum the effect of static electricity upon the yarn thus removing a major contributory cause of the lint problem. At the same time, the moisture is partially absorbed into the cell structure ofthe yarn fibres in a manner similar to that of the conditioning of yarn in storage cabinets, but in a fraction of the time. Thus the yarn is strengthened as compared with yarn taken from creels in a conventional arrangement, and the performance of the knitting process is thus improved.

The present invention therefore sets out to provide improved humidifying apparatus, suitable for use, but not exclusively for use, in association with enclosure means as described in the above mentioned patent specification.

The invention provides apparatus for the introduction of humidity to a flow of air impinging upon a textile yarn wound upon or being unwound from a bobbin supported within a humid atmosphere upon support rods for travel of the yarn between stations in a textile manufacturing process, comprising a sleeve member of fabric adapted to provide a passageway for a portion of the path of said flow of air, and a water supply means adapted to supply water to the fabric of the sleeve member to maintain said fabric in a moist condition despite evaporation therefrom into said flow of air.

Advantageously, means are provided to monitor the supply of water to the sleeve member, so as to permit appropriate adjustment of the rate of supply shouldthefabricbecometoo moist ortoo dry.

It will be appreciated that in using the invention it becomes possible to begin conditioning the yarn within an enclosure means even before it starts to be unwound from the bobbin.

As mentioned above, groups of yarn bobbins may be mounted upon support members of a creel.

Conveniently, the bobbins may be mounted in pairs so that yarn is drawn from a first bobbin of the pair while the second is held in reserve. The changeover from the first to the second bobbin is accomplished by joining the final end of the yarn on the bobbin to the leading end of the yarn on the second bobbin.

Lint is found to accumulate at the join in the yarn and in particular on the reserve bobbin. This lint is then liable eventually to be carried forward on the yarn, to cause probable contamination of the various delicate mechanisms and may even be carried through to the end point of the manufacturing step to become incorporated into the fabric, causing faults therein.

Thus the support rods for each pair of bobbins are arranged in pairs which are superimposed to form a plurality of side-by-side columns, the rods being arranged so that axial centre-lines of each of a pair of bobbins converge at a single yarn-receiving point, and so that a columnar space is formed between a bobbin of one pair of bobbins and a bobbin of an adjacent pair of bobbins.

Advantageously, the sleeve member may be arranged so as at least partially to occupy the columnar space and may be provided with apertures in the walls thereof, each of said apertures being located at least substantially adjacent to an appropriate one of the bobbins. Air supply means provide air under pressure to a chamber at least partially defined by an inner surface of the sleeve walls so that it is forced through the apertures in the sleeve member walls to impinge upon the bobbin.

In such an arrangement, it is preferable for the sleeve member to be triangular, or substantially so, in cross section, having three conjoined walls, the conjoined region of two walls projecting into and substantially occupying the columnar space.

Conveniently, the sleeve member may comprise a framework, on which the fabric of the sleeve member may be supported. It will be found particularly advantageous if the fabric is a moisture retaining fabric in which the apertures are formed as slots cut at levels corresponding to the heightwise position of each pair of bobbins.

There will now be described an example of apparatus according to the invention. it will be understood that the description, which is to be read with reference to the drawings, is given by way of example only and not by way of limitation.

In the drawings: Figure 1 shows a fragmentary plan view of a creel supporting pairs of bobbins in columns, and indicating a columnar space; Figure 2 shows apparatus according to the invention in position in the columnar space of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a perspective view of a portion of an apparatus according to the invention; Figure 4 is a side view illustrating the relative position of parts of the arrangement shown in Figure 3; Figure 5 shows a detail of the water distributing device of the apparatus; and Figure 6 is a diagrammatic side view of the apparatus, showing its general layout.

In the drawings, Figure 1 shows a creel arrangement 2 supporting a plurality of pairs of bobbins 4, of which only the top pair is visible in the Figure. The centre line 6 of each bobbin in a pair on a yarn guide 8 through yarn passes as it is drawn from the bobbin. As one bobbin is exhausted, so the drawing action is transferred to the second bobbin of each pair since the final end of the first bobbin yarn is tied to the leading end of the second bobbin yarn in a conventional manner. It will be observed that the above described arrangement provides a columnar space indicated at 10 in Figure 1 and shown as triangular in cross section.

Figure 2 shows the arrangement of Figure 1 with the inclusion of a sleeve structure enclosing a chamber 18 defined by walls 14 which are formed from moisture-retaining fabric material supported upon a framework 20 and provided with slots 22 in a region 24 at which two walls are conjoined, this region projecting into the columnar space 10 of Figure 1. The slots 22 are arranged so that when air from a blower 26 situated beneath the open lower end of the structure 12 fills the chamber 18, a jet of air issues from each slot (see arrows) and impinges directly upon the bobbin immediately adjacent to that slot (see Figure 4). However, the force of air flow is sufficient to cause its benefit to extend at least to the next bobbin of each pair causing sufficient air turbulence to minimise the adherence of lint to the yarn Y drawn off from the operative bobbins.

The arrangement described above is supported within a housing 30 comprising a creel cabinet (see Figure 6). The interior of the housing is divided into two compartments, A and B, by means of a lint filter screen 28.

Air is circulated within the housing 30 in a path indicated by arrows C by means of the fan 26. Lint released by the yarn as it is pulled from the bobbins is carried by the air flow so that it is entrained in the filter screen 28 of the partition.

The sleeve 14, which is made of moistureretaining knitted cotton fabric in the present example, is secured at its upper end to a waterdistributing device 32 in the upper portion of the housing. The fabric of the sleeve 14 is thus maintained in a moist condition, by means to be described below, and air passing upwardly through the sleeve is caused to entrain moisture which is then distributed abouttheyarn bobbins.

The means whereby the sleeve fabric is maintained in a moistened condition will now be described. Water is supplied through a pipe 34 from which droplets are received in a funnel 36 communicating with the hollow interior of the water distributing device which comprises a perforated tube 38 formed into a triangular planform. Water seeping from the perforations 40 thus travels downwardly through the fabric of the sleeve 14 from which it evaporates into the upwardly and outwardly directed airflow. The degree of partial-saturation of the fabric may be regulated by the arrangement illustrated in Figure Sin which the pipe 34 is provided with a valve 42 to regulate the water entering the tube 38. The valve is operated by means of a spring loaded, two-armed lever 44 mounted upon the housing, a free arm of which supports the weight of the tube 34 and the fabric sleeve. When the fabric is saturated the weight thereof will maintain the valve in the OFF position, but when the evaporation rate is greater than the rate of supply of water, the weight of the sleeve will be reduced until the lever is permitted to move to the ON position in which further water is drip-fed until the weight of the sleeve has increased sufficiently.

Claims (9)

1. Yarn handling apparatus for the introduction of humidity to a flow of air impinging upon a textile yarn wound upon or being unwound from a bobbin supported within a humid atmosphere upon support rods for travel of the yarn between stations in a textile manufacturing process, comprising a sleeve member of fabric adapted to provide a passageway for a portion of the path of said flow of air, and a water supply means adapted to supply water to the fabric of the sleeve member to maintain said fabric in a moist condition despite evaporation therefrom into said flow of air.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1,wherein there is provided means to monitor the supply of water to the sleeve member, so as to permit appropriate adjustment of the rate of supply should the fabric become too moist or too dry.

3. Apparatus as claimed in either one of claims 1 and 2, wherein the bobbin support rods are mounted in pairs, said pairs being superimposed to form a number of side-by-side columns, said support rods being arranged so that axial centre-lines of each of a pair of bobbins converge at a single yarn-receiving point, and so that a columnar space is formed between a bobbin of one pair of bobbins and a bobbin of an adjacent pair of bobbins, wherein the sleeve member is arranged so as at least partially to occupy said columnar space, and wherein said sleeve is provided with apertures therein, each of said apertures being located at least substantially adjacent to an appropriate one of said bobbins, and air supply means to provide air pressure to the interior of the sleeve member so that it is forced through the apertures therein to impinge upon the bobbins.

4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 wherein the sleeve member is triangular, or substantially so, in cross-section, having three conjoined walls, the conjoined region of two of which projects into and substantially occupie#s said columnar space.

5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the sleeve member comprises a framework on which the fabric of the sleeve member is supported said fabric being a moisture retaining material, in which slots are formed at levels corresponding to the heightwise positions of each pair of bobbins.

6. Apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims when arranged within a housing internally divided into at least two compartments by means of a lint filter screen, there being present in use an airflow path which in a first compartment passes through the sleeve member and in a second compartment travels over and past the bobbins on the support rods.

7. Apparatus as claimed in claim 6 wherein the sleeve member is secured at its upper end to a water distributing device to maintain the sleeve fabric in a moist condition.

8. Apparatus as claimed in claim 7 wherein the water distributing device is provided with flow control means responsive to increase or decrease in the weight of the sleeve member according to whether it is over-moist or dry.

9. Yarn handling apparatus substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in the drawings.