GB2359310A

GB2359310A - Cloth folding apparatus

Info

Publication number: GB2359310A
Application number: GB0003668A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Charles Douglas Ormiston
Original assignee: LEEDS DYERS Ltd
Current assignee: LEEDS DYERS Ltd
Priority date: 2000-02-17
Filing date: 2000-02-17
Publication date: 2001-08-22
Also published as: GB0003668D0

Abstract

A cloth folding apparatus 1 for folding into a concertina type folded pile a substantially elongate length of material 76 formed from a plurality of discrete interconnected panels 78, has a material handling apparatus 12 with a guide device 14, which guides the material 76 onto the material support member 16, 18, 84 with the beginning and end of each discrete panel 78 being in a predetermined position on the support member 16, 18, 84. There is also a sensing device 72 formed and arranged for detecting the end of one of a discrete panel 78 and the beginning of a next adjacent discrete panel 78 in the length of material 76 as it passes through said apparatus 1. Control apparatus is provided which is formed and arranged with drive pistons 24 for driving the guide means 14 between the first and second positions in response to signals received from the sensing device. The panels 78 may be scarves joined by warp fringes 82.

Description

1 FOLDING APPARATUS 2359310 The present invention relates to a material

folding apparatus particularly suitable for use with woven fabric material such 5 as lamb's- wool and cashmere.

Woven fabrics formed from expensive and delicate materials such as lamb'swool and cashmere are particularly susceptible to marking or imprinting during the manufacturing process if the woven fabric is placed on an uneven surface. moreover where a stack of pieces of lamb's-wool or cashmere fabric items are placed one on top of another, as frequentlyhappens during manufacturing/processing, the material edges and/or fringes will cause the material in contact with the fringe or edges to mark or imprint the delicate fabric with the impression of the edges or fringes due to the weight of the stack of material pieces. Marking or imprinting of fabric materials is undesirable as it makes the fabric and/or any finished product unmarketable or at least substantially reduces its value.

The problem of marking or imprinting is particularly prevalent in the manufacture of scarves and stoles and the like from lamb's-wool and/or cashmere. Scarves and stoles more often than not have fringes at the ends thereof and these fringes 1 1 are formed from the warp yarns which, in addition to the weft yarns, form the material from which the scarves or stoles are woven.

The process for manufacture of scarves and stoles and/or the treatment of such fabric material involves processing of a single, substantially elongate length of woven material comprising a series of interconnected discrete panels of woven material. Individual discrete panels of material are interconnected at each end, between adjoining panels, by a plurality longitudinally extending.warp yarns. To form the fringes, each.panel. ofthe elongate.Iength of. material.is folded at its midpoint so as to superimpose,.one on top of.the other, the edges or the fringes of adjacent discrete panels.

The interconnecting warp yarns between each of the adjoining discrete panels are presented outwardly at a common outer edge of the stack of folded material and the warp yarns are then cut and tied to form the fringes at the ends of the scarves. It is at this stage that materials formed from cashmere and/or lamb's-wool are particularly vulnerable and susceptible to marking/imprinting as a result of incorrect folding of the material, that is the interconnecting warp yarns may be folded underneath or beneath adjacent discrete panels. Where this occurs the interconnecting warp yarns invariably cause marking or imprinting of the panels located immediately above and -3below the warp yarns. This can extend also to marking or imprinting of other panels adjacent the panels above and below the warp yarns.

In the production of scarves it is not uncommon f or an elongate length of the scarf material comprising a plurality of discrete panels, for the discrete panels to be different lengths, i.e. not every panel is of a uniform and equal length. Accordingly there is a problem of folding a succession of panels of different lengths to ensure that the interconnecting warp yarns are not folded under or between adjacent panels and resulting in associated marking. or. imprinting of the delicate material. Folding machinery is available for folding a length of woven material but such machinery is inflexible and does not lend itself for use with woven material having discrete panels of differing lengths.

Accordingly it is known to use manual labour to fold such material. In practice this involves at least one, but more often two workers working together to ensure that the material exiting a manufacturing or processing stage is folded in such a way that the edges and/or fringes constituting the interconnecting warp yarns are not folded under or between adjacent panels. This can be a slow process, especially where the material produced is relatively heavy and/or large in size. Furthermore, the speed at which the material is processed or produced is limited to the speed at which it can be manually folded.

It will be appreciated that in addition to the foregoing drawbacks and limitations, the folding process is labour intensive and requires workers to work doing a very repetitive procedure. This can lead to mistakes arising from fatigue or loss of concentration of the workers which may introduce further unwanted variations in the quality of the finished product by marking or imprinting.

It is an object of the present invention to avoid or minimise one or more of the foregoing disadvantages.

The present invention provides an apparatus for folding into a concertina type folded pile a substantially elongate length of material comprising a plurality of discrete interconnected panels, said apparatus comprising a material handling means having a guide means formed and arranged for directing material, in use of the apparatus, onto a material support member, said guide means being displaceable between a first position to the left side of said material support member and a second position to the right side of said material support member, said apparatus having sensing means formed and -5arranged for detecting the end of one of a discrete panel in a said length of material and the beginning of a next adjacent discrete panel of a said length of material in use of the apparatus as it passes through said apparatus and control means formed and arranged with drive means for driving said guide means between said first and second positions in response to signals received from said sensing means, whereby in use, said guide means might guide material onto said material support member with the beginning and end of each said discrete panel being in a predetermined position on said support member.

Thus with an apparatus according to the present invention a substantially elongate length of material having a plurality of discrete interconnected panels, having differing lengths, may be folded in such a way that the edges of ends or fringes of said panels may be placed in a predetermined position on said support member without the need for manual intervention.

Preferably said material handling means is formed and arranged for receiving material manufactured or processed by an earlier stage in a production cycle for producing the material. Such manufacturing and processing procedures will be known to those skilled in the art.

-6Preferably said guide means is in the form of two spaced apart parallel bars through which material in use of the apparatus may pass. Desirably there is provided upwardly extending in a V-shape, side panels formed and arranged for holding and guiding material before it passes through the guide means itself.

Preferably said guide means is mounted on a vertically extending swinging arm formed and arranged with said drive means so as to drive the guide.means between said first and second positions.

Suitable drive means will be readily known to%those skilled in the art and will generally comprise a pneumatically powered ram, pistons and the like.

Preferably the material support members are in the form of a horizontally extending and substantially flat surface or table. Desirably though, the material support member has a central portion and two, left and right, hinged planar portions, formed and arranged in a similar way to a leaf table wherein the left a right planar portions may be raised from a lowered position to a substantially horizontal position. The left and right table portions may be raised and lowered using pneumatically operated ram. This arrangement of the material 1 -7support member is particularly desirable insofar as with the left and right hinged planar table portions hinged downwardly, material exiting the guide means can fall onto said material support member, with said left and right table portions in a downwardly hinged position, the weight of the material being sufficient to retain it in position on the material support member.

A yet further advantage of this arrangement of the material support member is that it facilitates the removal of folded material in one of two ways. With the left and right table portions in a downwardly hinged.positionthe material support member has a more or less inverted U- shape which is formed and arranged desirably so as to correspond with "horses" found commonly in lamb's-wool and cashmere manufacturing and processing environments. Such horses will be generally known to those skilled in the art and are used to transport processed cloth material around a factory. In use, with the left and right portions in a downwardly hinged position, cloth material supported thereon may be readily slid horizontally onto a said horse positioned end on to the material support member. Alternatively with the left and right planar table portions in a substantially horizontal condition, a table having a height corresponding to the height of the substantially horizontal material support member may be brought up adjacent to the material support member and cloth material supported thereon more or less readily slid in a substantially horizontal direction onto said table for further processing and cutting of material supported thereon.

Desirably the apparatus according to the invention is provided with wheels or castors or the like so as to facilitate movement of the apparatus around a processing or manufacturing facility.

Preferably said material support member has a central portion having a multiplicity of vertically extending pin members,, said pin members being formed and arranged for passing through material in use of the apparatus and for locating folded material on said material support member. In use of the apparatus for folding a substantially elongate length of material, said vertically extending pin members extend proud of the material support member. When it is required to remove a folded length of material supported thereon,--- saidvertically extending pin members are formed and arranged so as to be displaceable in a downward direction so that they do not extend beyond the surface level of the material support member.

-9Preferably there is provided a single row of vertically extending pin members extending across the width of the material support member. Alternatively there may be provided two, spaced apart, rows of vertically extending pin members, again formed and arranged so as to be displaceable between a vertically extending position above the surface of the material support member and a lowered position below the surface of the material support member. Said pin members may be raised and lowered using pneumatically operated rams and the like.

Any suitable form of sensing means may be used though preferably there is used a photoelectric cell formed and arranged for detecting light. Such an arrangement is particularly desirable insofar as it is generally known when manufacturing a substantially elongate length of material for use as scarves or stoles, to form the discrete panels of the scarves or stoles so as to be separated by a fringe portion. It will be readily apparent that a length of material comprising a plurality of said discrete panels and corresponding fringe portions passing over a given point will present itself as a series of sections through which light may pass (the fringe portions) and a series of portions through which light may not pass (the discrete panels of the material). By co-ordinating the sensing means with the -10control means it is possible to arrange the drive means for driving the guide means in such a way as to position the guide means above the material support member at a given or desired position for any given or desired type of folding of the 5 length of material desired.

Preferably said control means is formed and arranged for driving said drive means and said guide means such that the portion of material between the end of one said discrete panel of any said length of material and the beginning of a next adjacent discrete panel of said length of material is positioned on a more or less central portion. of.said material support member. Most desirably though the control means is formed and arranged for placing said portion of material onto said upwardly extending pin members. Alternatively though said control means may be formed and arranged whereby the portion of material between one panel and the next panel is folded at, for example the left hand side of the material support member, and the next portion of material between a subsequent and adjacent discrete panel folded at the right hand side of the material support member and so on. Such an arrangement would result in a folded length of material in a concertina type folded pile with the portions or fringe portions between adjacent discrete panels being presented on 25 each side of said folded pile. Alternatively the control 1 1 -11means may be formed and arranged such that the portion of material between the adjacent discrete panels is presented at one side only of the material support member.

Further preferred features and advantages of the present invention will appear from the following detailed description giving by way of a example of some preferred embodiments illustrated with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:-

Fig. 1 is a side view of oneembodiment of the apparatus according to the invention; Fig. 7is a front view of the apparatus shown.An Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a plan view of a typical continuous length of woven material consisting of a series of interconnected discrete cloth panels; Fig. 4 is a side view of the material shown in Fig. 3 in a folded concertina type arrangement following folding by the apparatus shown in Fig. 1 & 2; Fig.5 is a side view of a second embodiment of the invention generally similar to that shown in Fig. 1; and Fig.6 is a detailed side view of a pin rail for use in the embodiment shown in Fig. 5.

The folding apparatus, generally indicated by reference number 25 1, is shown in Fig. 1. The apparatus 1 is particularly -12suitable for use in folding into a concertina type folded pile an elongate length of cloth material of the type shown in Fig. 3 which comprises discrete panels interconnected by fringe portions.

The apparatus 1 comprises a wheeled 11 support frame structure 2. A material handling apparatus 12 in the form of a swinging arm 3 supported by the upper portion 4 of the support frame 2 and depends downwardly therefrom. The material handling apparatus 12 consists of a displaceable guide 14 for directing the substantially continuously length of material (see below and Fig. 3) onto left and right hinged material receiving tables 16, 18 respectively, which are positioned below the displaceable guide 14. Each material receiving table 16, 18 is rectangular in shape.

The displaceable guide 14 is attached at an upper end 20 to the upper portion 4 of the frame 2 by a pivot 22. The guide 14 is displaced about the pivot 22 by a pneumatic piston 24.

The piston 24 is pivotally attached at a first end thereof 26 to the guide 14 at an intermediate point 28, and a second end 30 of the piston 24 is attached to the left side 8 of the frame 2 at a point extending horizontally therefrom.

-13The piston 24, displaces the guide 14 from a neutral position (as shown in Fig. 1), by retracting the first and second ends 26, 30 of the piston 24 towards each other, with a lower end 32 of the guide 14 pointing substantially towards the lower portion 6 of the frame 2, to a position where the lower end 32 is pointing substantially to the left side 8 of the frame 2 which results in the guide 14 pivoting about the pivot 22 in the direction of arrow A. Conversely, the piston 14 can be extended to pivot the guide 14 in the direction of arrow B so that the lower end of the guide 14 points substantially towards the right side 10 of the frame 2.

When the guide 14 is in the neutral position as shown in Fig. 1, the lower end 32 of the guide 14 points directly to a single pin rail 84 located directly below the guide 14.

The single pin rail 84 is located between the left and right material receiving tables 16, 18 and is provided with a single row of a plurality of vertically extending pins 86. Each of the pins 86 is straight along its entire length.

A vertically extensible ram 52 (shown in the extended position, Fig.1) supports the pin rail 84, so that it can be raised or lowered in use of the present invention.

1 -14The left and right material receiving tables 16, 18 are provided with a left and right upwardly extending pneumatic rams 58, 60 respectively. Each pneumatic ram 58, 60 is located and pivotally attached at an upper portion 62, 64 thereof to the underside of the respective material receiving table 16, 18. A lower portion 66, 68 of each pneumatic ram 58, 60 is pivotally attached to the lower portion 6 of the frame 2. Each pneumatic ram 58, 60 can in use be extended or retracted to raise or lower respectively the left and right material receiving tables 16, 18 about the hinged inner edges 38, 40 thereof as indicated by each doubled headed arrow C and D (Fig. 1).

A photo-sensor arrangement comprising a light emitter 70 located and attached to the top right hand corner of the frame 2 and directs a beam of light (71 shown by broken line) towards a sensor 72 located on the upper portion 4 towards the left side portion 10 of the frame 2.

In use, as the material to be folded passes through the apparatus 1, and the beam of light 71 is alternately blocked from being received by the sensor 72 by each discrete panel of material, and received by the sensor 72 as the light passes through warp yarns 82 (see Fig. 3) located between each of the discrete panels 78. The warp yarns 82 do not form a complete -15panel of material and allow the passage of the light beam from the emitter 70, through the warp yarns 82 to be detected by the sensor 72.

The photo-sensor arrangement is in electrical communication with the pneumatic piston 24, which moves the guide 14 from its first and second positions above the left and right material receiving tables 16, 18 respectively. When light is received by the light sensor 72 from the emitter 70, a signal is sent to the pneumatic piston 24 to move the guide 14 from the first position to the second position.

A length of woven fabric 76 comprising a series of interconnected discrete panels 78 of non-uniform length is shown in Fig. 3. Each discrete panel 78 is interconnected at adjacent edges 80 by warp yarns 82, which extend substantially continuously along the continuous length of the woven fabric 76.

Fig. 4 shows a pile of woven fabric 76 in a concertina-like folded condition after folding and removal from the apparatus 1 of the present invention. Each of the discrete panels 78 is folded across its width at a point halfway along the length of the panel 78 so that the warp yarns 82 between each of the 1 -16panels 78 are stacked on top each other in a single vertically extending pile.

Another embodiment of the present invention generally similar to that in Fig. 1 is shown in Fig. 5. In this embodiment there is provided left and right pin rails 34, 36 respectively (viewed from the side), which are located below the guide 14.

The left and right pins rails 34, 36 are located between the lef t and right material receiving tables 16-,.18 which are hinged at inner edges 38, 40 respectively which inner.edges 38, 40 are closest to the left and right pin-rails 34,-36' respectively.

Each pin rail comprises a plurality of substantially upright pins 42 which are in a linear arrangement and retained within a receiving block 44 provided with a plurality of openings (not shown) to receive each pin 42 therein. Each pin 42 at its upper portion 46 (approximately 15% of the total length of the pin 42) is bent at an angle of approximately 15 degrees from the vertical (Fig. 6). All of the pins 42 in the left pin rail 34 are directed towards the left side 8 of the frame 2 whereas all of the pins 42 in the right pin rail 36 are directed towards the right side 10 of the frame 2.

-17The left and right pin rails 32, 34 are mutually connected through a horizontally extending pneumatic ram 48 which operates to move the left and right pin rails 32, 34 apart or together.

The left and right pin rails 32, 34 and the horizontally extending pneumatic ram 48 are supported on a cradle 50 which is supported on a pair of central vertically extending pneumatic rams 52 (see Fig. 5). The central vertically extending rams 52 are fixed at bottom portions 54 to the lower portion 6 of the frame 2, and at an upper end 56 to the underside of the.cradle 50. In use, the.central ver.tically extending pneumatic ram 52 raise and lower the pin rails 32, 34.

The present invention provides a substantially quicker, more efficient and more reliable means of folding material in the manner described herein than is presently available using traditional techniques.

For example the folding of a typical 60 metre length of material using traditional techniques (folding by hand) will take two manual workers 15 minutes to complete. By contrast, the present invention folding an equivalent 60 metre length of material will require only one worker (to monitor the folding -18process) and will require only 8 minutes to complete the folding of the material. This is a significant improvement in terms of time and manual labour costs.

The scope of the present invention is intended to extend to those variations and embodiments not specifically referred to herein, but which would be readily apparent to a person skilled in the art.

Claims

CLAIMS 1. An apparatus for folding into a concertina type folded pile a

substantially elongate length of material comprising a plurality of discrete interconnected panels, said apparatus comprising a material handling means having a guide means formed and arranged for directing material, in use of the apparatus, onto a material support member, said guide means being displaceable between a first position to the left side of said material support member and a second position to the right side of said material support member, said apparatus having sensing means formed and arranged for detecting the end of one of a discrete panel in a said length of material and the beginning of a next adjacent discrete panel of a said length of material in use of the apparatus as it passes through said apparatus and control means formed and arranged with drive means for driving said guide means between said first and second positions in response to signals received from said sensing means, whereby in use, said guide means guides said material onto said material support member with the beginning and end of each said discrete panel being in a predetermined position on said support member.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said guide means is in the form of two spaced apart parallel bars through which material in use of the apparatus may pass.

3. Apparatus as claimed in either one of claims 1 and 2 wherein there is provided upwardly extending in a V-shape, side panels formed and arranged for holding and guiding 5 material before it passes through the guide means.

4. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein said guide means is mounted on a vertically extending swinging arm formed and arranged with said drive means so as to drive 10 the guide means between said first and second positions.

5. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4 wherein said drive means comprises a pneumatically powered ram or piston.

6. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5 wherein the material support members are in the form of a horizontall extending and substantially flat surface/table.

7. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6 wherein the material support member has a central portion and two, left and right, hinged planar portions, formed and arranged to be raised from a lowered position to a substantially horizontal position. 25 -218. Apparatus as claimed in claim 7 wherein a pneumatically operated ram is provided to raise and lower the left and right table portions.

9. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8 wherein the apparatus has wheels or castors to facilitate movement of the apparatus- 10. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 9 wherein said material support member has a central portion having a multiplicity of vertically extending pin members, said pin members being formed and arranged for passing through said material in use of the apparatus and for locating folded material on said material support member. 15 11. Apparatus as claimed in claim 10 wherein said vertically extending pin members extend proud of the material support member.

12. Apparatus as claimed in either one of claims 10 and 11 wherein said vertically extending pin members are formed and arranged so as to be displaceable in a downward direction so that they do not extend beyond the surface level of the material support member.

-2213. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 10 to 12 wherein there is provided a single row of vertically extending pin members extending across the width of the material support member.

14. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 10 to 12 wherein there are two, spaced apart, rows of vertically extending pin members, formed and arranged so as to be displaceable between a vertically extending position above the surface of the material support member and a lowered position below the surface of the material support member.

15. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 10 to 14 wherein said central portion comprises a plurality of substantially upright pins which are in a linear arrangement and retained within a receiving block provided with a plurality of openings to receive each pin therein.

16. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 10 to 15 wherein said pin members are raised and lowered by pneumatically operated rams.

17. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 16 wherein said sensing means is a photoelectric cell formed and arranged for detecting light.

18. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 16 wherein said sensing means comprises a photo-sensor arrangement comprising a light emitter formed and arranged to direct a beam of light towards a light sensor.

19. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 18 wherein the control means is formed and arranged so as to co-ordinate the drive means to drive the guide means into a desired poXtion above the material support member, in use of the apparatus, for a desired type of folding of a said length of material in response to receiving a signal from said sensing means.

20. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 10 to 19 wherein the control means is formed and arranged for placing a said portion of material onto said upwardly extending pin members.

21. Apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 10 to 20 wherein each pin has an upper portion which is bent at an angle of approximately 15 degrees from the vertical.

22. Apparatus as claimed in claim 21 when dependent on any 25 one of claims 14 to 20 wherein said upper portion of the pins -24in a left pin receiving block are directed towards the left side of the apparatus and whereas said upper portion of all of the pins in a right pin receiving block are directed towards the right side of the apparatus.

23. A cloth folding apparatus substantially as described herein before and with reference to Figs. 1 to 4 of the accompanying drawings.

24. A cloth folding apparatus substantially as described herein before and with reference to Figs. 5 and 6 of the accompanying drawings.