GB2141153A - A fabric fulling and washing machine - Google Patents

Abstract

A fabric fulling and washing machine with a pair of grooved fabric compressing cylinders (1,2) which deliver the fabric to a retaining box (10,10,11,12) and with a bottom vat (23) containing a treatment bath, this machine comprising a fabric conveyor 18 after the retaining box, a fabric impregnating and guiding device (19) to which is pumped the fluid of the bottom vat 23 and a conveyor 27 handling without tension the fabric over the bottom vat 23 while maintaining the fabric away from any contact with the vat fluid 22. The machine includes fabric knocking over elements 8,9 portions of which are accommodated in the grooves of cylinders 1,2, a wall 11 or 12 of the box constituting a conveying element and a fabric squeezing device (39,40) Fig. 9 (not shown), after the conveyor 18. The treatment fluid 22 which is pumped through a conduit 25 by the pump 24 flows over an edge 21 associated with the device 19 and cause an opening effect on fabric folds. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION A fabric fulling and washing machine The present invention relates to a fabric fulling and washing machine in endless rope form.

The fabric fulling mills and washing machines usually comprise one or more pairs of compressing cylinders feeding the fabric rope arranged as a closed ring to a retaining box at the inside of which the fabric is lengthwisely compressed, falling at the outlet of this retaining box into a bottom vat containing water or another treatment fluid, for example, a soap solution and the fabric rope is accummulated in this vat wherein it is impregnated with the treatment fluid and it is extracted therefrom and raised by the feeding-compressing cylinders which send it again to the retaining box.

In these known machines, the retaining box has its access located as near as possible to the contact area between the two feedingcompressing cylinders, and generally it is made up with two fixed sidewalls, a fixed bottom or lower wall and a hinged upper wall cover subjected to a pressure against such fixed bottom wall, so that the fabric rope fed by the feeding cylinders is accumulated at the inside of the retaining box until compression undergone is enough to overcome the pressure or the movable upper wall or cover, and when the fabric compression is thus decreased inside the retaining box it comes again to be retained due to the higher pressure of said movable cover.The outlet of the fabric in the retaining box is thus intermittently made, falling thereby into the vat by jerks, and this causes longitudinal tensions in the fabric at this part of its travel through the machine inside.

To improve and make quicker the fulling action several modifications in the conventional fulling machines have been proposed which mainly affect the retaining box. In the U.S. Patent specification No. 3,471,908 is disclosed a fulling and washing machine wherein feeding cylinders are grooved and in the grooves of these cylinders respective curved elongated members are housed and joined by one end to the inlet edge of the bottom and upper walls of the retaining box, with the purpose to reduce height in the retaining box as of the same contact point of the feeding cylinders and restrict fabric deflections when this is subjected to a lengthwisely compression strain inside the retaining box.

In the previous U.S. Patent specification No. 4,1 61.054, of Jose Maria Serracant Clermont, one of the present coinventors, is disclosed a method for forming folds and compress them in a textile material which is circulated through an enclosure, such as the retaining box of a fulling mill, being the purpose of this method to obtain a better uniformity in the build-up of the textile material folds, a higher compression grade in these folds and increase advance speed of the textile material, such a method consisting in the positive transport of the folds of the textile material, while they are concurrently compressed, and to this end the enclosure or retaining box comprises conveying means driven at a controlled speed which act on the textile material at least from two opposite sides of the enclosure, and said conveying means can be continuous conveying bands or a series of rollers, for instance.

In spite of the improvements made in the fulling and washing machines it happens that the fluid amount driven by the fabric increases remarkably the weight of the fabric rope, and as this weight being added to the tractive pull exerted on the fabric by the feeding cylinders when the fabric goes out from the bottom vat, a tension is thereby caused in the fabric in the direction of the warp, which tension opposes the compression in the direction of the warp made in the retaining box, this resulting in an extension of the fabric treatment time.

The object of the present invention is a fabric fulling and washing machine wherein fabric tensions due to the fabric weight are greatly reduced so that fulling action is more effective and the treatment time is thus decreased.

Another object of the present invention is a fabric fulling machine wherein a reduced amount of treatment bath is used, and thus is decreased the consumption of said bath.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a fabric fulling machine allowing to make a fabric squeezing when a fabric washing is desired before the fulling operation.

Still another object of the invention is to provide an in-rope fabric fulling-washing machine that alternatively can operate as an open-width fabric scouring machine.

With all these purposes the machine of the invention comprises a pair of fabric grooved feeding-compressing cylinders with a resilient surface, two series of convex elongated elements extending through the grooves of said cylinders in a tangential way to their contact point and joined at one end to the inlet of upper and bottom walls of a retaining box; fabric converging means at one of the walls of the retaining box; fabric conveying means between the inlet of the retaining box and a point located at the upper side of the machine; a device to open and impregnate the fabric rope by projecting a treatment fluid over this rope while said rope goes downwardly a lower vat in the machine and means to convey the fabric in relaxed and orderly folds over said vat keeping the fabric out of contact with the treatment bath, and allowing at the same time a fabric draining so that the fabric be delivered to the feeding-compressing cylinders free from the non-absorbed treat ment liquid.

Preferably, the machine further comprises at the outlet of the fabric conveying means located after the retaining box, a pair of fabric squeezing cylinders which can be operated or remain inactive as required. This squeezing device can be used to squeeze in rope fabrics when a previous washing to the fulling operation is made and it can be suppressed during fulling action.

The presence of this squeezing device further allows to convert the machine into an open-width fabric scouring machine by the simple arrangement of fabric aligners and expanders and the required guide rollers to have it circulated without going by the feeding-compressing cilinders and retaining box.

These and other objects, embodiments and advantages of the invention will be made more clear with the following description of the invention with reference to the attached drawings, in which Figure 1 is a schematic view of the assembly of the machine of the invention.

Figures 2, 3, 4 and 5 are views schematically illustrating several possible embodiments of the assembly of the feeding-compressing cylinders and retaining box.

Figures 6, 7 and 8 are views schematically illustrating several possible embodiments of the fabric lower conveying means.

Figure 9 is another analogous view of that of Fig. 1, with the machine being operated as an open-width fabric scouring machine.

The fulling-washing machine shown in the Fig. 1, comprises a pair of feeding-compress ing cylinders 1, 2 for an endless fabric in rope form 3, arranged with the ends joined to make up a closed ring. Said cylinders 1, 2 have horizonfal shafts 4, 5 the shaft 5 of the lower cylinder 2 being mounted in fixed sup ports and the shaft 4 of the upper cylinder 1 in supports provided with pressure means shown by reference 6 in the Fig. 1 and by the arrow F1 in the Figs. 2 to 5.

Said cylinders 1, 2 are provided in a way per se known with a series of transverse grooves 7 wherein are housed a portion of respective upper 8 and lower 9 knocking over tongues, this arrangement avoiding the fabric could be nipped between the cylinders and the tongue edges as it usually happens iri the conventional machines.

Tongues 9 associated to the lower cylinder 2 are fixedly fitted to inlet of a retaining box essentially consisting of two side-walls 10; a lower wall 11 and an upper wall 12, and tongues 8 associated to the upper cylinder 1 -are hinged to the retaining box opening itself and joined to the shaft support 4 of said upper cylinder, so that its position as regards this cylinder is kept unchanged.

According to the invention, one of the walls of the retaining box for instance the lower one 11 as can be seen in the Figs. 2 and 3, or the upper one 1 2 as can be seen in the Figs. 4 and 5, is provided with conveying means of the fabric rope 3 at the box inside, said means can be an apron 1 3 operated at a suitable speed in the direction of fabric advance as can be seen in the Figs. 2 and 4, or in a series of rollers 14 projecting out between some fixed tongues 1 5 as can be seen in the Figs. 3 and 5, these rollers being preferably operated at a suitable speed which progressively increases in the direction of the fabric advance, whereas the opposite wall consists in a plate 1 6 hinged at 1 7 and subjected to a pressure shown by the arrow F2, in the direction to the first wall, causing compression of the fabric 3 accummulated at the inside of the retaining box. Said conveying means 13, 1 5 of the fabric rope provide to the rope a continuous advance motion at the inside of the retaining box, avoiding in this way that the fabric goes out from the box in an intermittent way.

At the outlet of the retaining box there is provided an apron 1 8 over which is deposited the rope, forming or not folds 31 according to the advance speed, this apron conveying the rope towards the machine upper side, wherefrom it falls a small length 32 to an inclined guide channel 1 9 wherein it is collected making up uniform and orderly arranged folds 33.

At this downwardly short length 32 is arranged an opening-impregnating device of the fabric rope consisting for example in opposing channels 20 having at the internal side an over flow edge 21 and fed by the treatment liquid 22 contained in a vat 23 located at the lower side of the machine, by means of a pump 24 and a conduit 25. Projection over fabric rope 32 of the fluid poured by the edge 21 causes an opening effect of the fabric folds cooperating with the fabric impregnation with said liquid and the fabric impregnation operation is thus increased at a minimum timo and with a fluid amount also minimum.

The guide channel 1 9 places the fabric rope in a lower conveying element which conveys the rope in relaxed and orderly arranged folds 34 i.e. without longitudinal tension over said vat 23 keeping the fabric away of contact with the bath 22 and allowing the draining of the fabric, up to the extreme portion of the machine wherewin the rope is pulled, through a guiding roller 26 by the feeding-compressing cylinders 1, 2.

Said lower conveying element consists of an arrangement capable to convey or advance the fabric rolls 34 in such a manner that they are not subjected to any tension. This can be achieved arranging over the vat 23 an apron 27- as can schematically be seen in the Fig. 6, of open structure, for instance an apron made with transverse stick as can be seen in the Fig. 1, either by means of an assembly of driven rollers 28 as can be seen in the Fig. 7, each of said rollers being driven at a higher speed that the speed of the immediately previ ous roller, or else as can be seen in the Fig. 8 arranging a first series of spaced, fixed, paral lel and longitudinal bars 29 between which are arranged the bars of a second series of movable bars 36 moved with a longitudinally reciprocating movement and a synchronized upwardly and downwardly movement to cause intermittent advance of the fabric folds 34, this combined movement, for instance can be obtained by means of a cam device 37 as shown in the Fig. 8.

Another solution for this lower conveying element can be an annular platform of open structure which rotates passing under the out let of the guiding channel 1 9 and under the guiding roller 26 preceding to the compress ing cylinders.

As can be seen the fabric is only subjected to longitudinal tension due to its own weight and to the entrained liquid weight in the downward length 32 and in the upward length 35 from the lower conveying element to the feeding-compressing cylinders and as said lengths are short and the amount of liquid entrained by the fabric in said lengths is very small the effect of said longitudinal tension on the fulling efficiency is minimized.

The machine according to the invention also comprises immediately after the upper conveying apron 1 8 a fabric squeezing device consisting as shown in Fig. 9 of a pair of cylinders, namely a first driven lower cylinder 38 with its axis fixedly mounted and a second upper cylinder 39 having its axis displaceable mounted by means illustrated as 40 whereby said second cylinder 39 can be placed in pressure engagement with said first cylinder 38 to squeeze the fabric when is desired to wash the fabric prior the fulling operation and can be removed inactivating the squeezer while the fulling operation is carry out.

The presence of said cylinders 38, 39 further allows to adapt the machine as an openwidth fabric scouring machine without replacing or changing any of machine parts but simply arranging at the fabric upwardly length 35 fabric aligning and expanding devices which can be of any known type schematically shown in Fig. 9 by 41 and guiding means consisting of rollers 42 and an inclined plate 43 for guiding the open-width fabric on the outside of the compressing cylinders 1, 2 and the retaining box 10, 11, 1 2 said openwidth fabric also arranged in a closed ring, being advanced by said squeezing cylinders 38 and 39 at their operating position.

Claims (14)

1. A fabric fulling and washing machine wherein the fabric runs in an endless closed rope form and comprising a pair of grooved feeding-compressing cylinders, two series of fabric knocking over elongated elements, a portion of which is housed into the grooves of said grooved cylinders, a fabric retaining box at the outlet of said cylinders and a lower vat containing a treatment bath, wherein there is further provided a conveying element at one of the walls of the retaining box to positively convey the fabric through said box; a fabric conveying element at smooth speed and free of tension from the retaining box outlet to the machine upper side; a fabric squeezing device arranged immediately after said conveying element; a fabric opening and impregnating device by means of fluid projection and comprising a guiding-channel to lead the fabric in orderly arranged folds to the lower side of the machine and a lower conveying element to convey the fabric in relaxed and orderly arranged folds to the proximity of the feedingcompressing cylinders, said fabric being kept away from contact with the treatment liquid contained in the vat.

2. A fabric fulling and washing machine according to claim 1, wherein said retaining box wall comprises a driven apron.

3. A fabric fulling and washing machine according to claim 1, wherein said retaining box wall comprises a series of driven cylinders.

4. A fabric fulling and washing machine according to claim 3 wherein each of these cylinders is driven at a higher speed than that of the immediately previous cylinder in the sense of fabric advance.

5. A fabric fulling and washing machine according to claim 1, wherein the fabric conveying element from the retaining box outlet to the machine upper side consists of an apron.

6. A fabric fulling and washing machine according to claims 1 and 5, wherein said fabric squeezing device consists of a pair of cylinders, one contiguous to the front driven cylinder of said apron and being driven and having a fixed position and another one of an upper variable position between a position in which applies pressure against the lower cylinder and another position where it remains inactive and separated therefrom.

7. A fabric fulling and washing machine according to claim 1, wherein the opening and impregnating device of the fabric rope comprises overflowing channels fed with the treatment liquid contained in the lower vat and which project said liquid at opposing directions on the fabric falling from the upper conveying element.

8. A fabric fulling and washing machine according to claim 1, wherein said lower conveying element comprises an opened apron which allows fluid pass therebetween and is moved over the bath level contained in the vat.

9. A fabric fulling and washing machine according to claim 1, wherein said lower conveying element comprises a series of driven parallel cylinders, located over the bath level contained in the vat.

10. A fabric fulling and washing machine according to claim 9, wherein each of said cylinder is driven at a higher speed than that of the immediately previous cylinder in the sense of fabric advance.

11. A fabric fulling and washing machine according to claim 1, wherein said lower conveying element comprises a series of spaced, parallel and fixed bars located over the bath level contained in the vat, being arranged therebetween other similar bars driven by a longitudinally reciprocating movement and a synchronized upwardly-downwardly movement.

12. A fabric fulling and washing machine according to claim 1, wherein said lower comprises an annular platform of open structure placed over the bath level contained in the vat and driven with a rotating motion.

1 3. A fabric fulling and washing machine according to claims 1 and 6 to 12, for alternative use in open-width fabric treatment where it comprises in combination with the fabric squeezing device and between the lower conveying element and said squeezing device, fabric aligning and expanding means and guiding means to guide the open-width fabric on the outside of the feeding-compressing cylinders and retaining box.

14. A fabric fulling and washing machine, constructed and arranged substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as shown in the drawings.