GB2437522A

GB2437522A - Lint control around textile machinery

Info

Publication number: GB2437522A
Application number: GB0703620A
Authority: GB
Inventors: William Ewart Alan Shelton
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2007-02-24
Filing date: 2007-02-24
Publication date: 2007-10-31
Anticipated expiration: 2027-02-24
Also published as: GB2437522B; GB0703620D0

Abstract

A device for separating lint from moving yarn as both pass from the end of a yarn delivery tube (20) comprises a side aperture (22) in the delivery tube, which is preferably in a tubular extension (21) to the yarn delivery tube (20). Preferably, the yarn exits over an abrasion resistant edge (24), which may be ceramic, and a continuance (26) of the tubular extension (21) conveys lint past the side aperture (22) to a lint collection zone. The extension (21) may be a push fit on the yarn delivery tube and the side aperture is preferably positioned 15 to 20 millimeters from a yarn processing or handling station. The yarn may be tensioned before entering the delivery tube. The device may be used in a wide variety of textile processes including knitting, carpet tufting, candlewick manufacture and weaving.

Description

-1-2437522

TITLE

Lint Control around Textile Machinery

DESCRIPTION

The Field of the Invention

The invention relates to a method of airborne lint control around textile machinery, and to yarn guide elements for establishing that lint control.

Background Art

In any textile factory that makes use of staple spun yams, the fact that the moving yarn can shed lint is a potential problem. Lint is created by loose fibres which separate from the yam as it is moved or handled, and which can become airborne. Many textile factories make use of yarn delivery tubes for delivering yarns individually from a yarn supply or storage location to an end use location. Initially each yam is propelled down the length of its delivery tube by a puff of compressed air, but once the yarn path down the delivery tube is established, the yarn may be drawn through the tube on demand'. As the yarn is drawn through the delivery tube in this way, spun staple yarn tends to generate a flow of entrained air along the delivery tube in the same direction and at the same rate as that of the yam movement. But in addition, the yarn moving along the delivery tube continues to shed fibres. The result is that the moving mass of air within the delivery tube does tend to carry with it a very large amount of lint which is then ejected, with the yarn, at the delivery end of the yarn delivery tube.

The above is true of a wide variety of textile processes, including knitting (warp and weft), carpet tufting, the manufacture of candlewick (apparel and domestic products) and weaving.

One example of the problem of lint ejection from the yarn delivery tubes can be found in a textile factory utilising circular knitting machines. It is a fairly conventional (but not universal) layout to group together the yarn supply cones in an enclosed area alongside the knitting machine, and to deliver yarn from each supply cone to the knitting machine through a yarn delivery tube.

When the yarn is a twisted staple yarn, lint is released from the yarn as it is drawn from the cones, but in an effort to reduce the amount of lint in the atmosphere around the knitting machine, that lint is preferably retained in the enclosed area in which the cones are located. Typically a fan would blow or draw air through that enclosed area, and through a collecting screen, so that the lint accumulates on that collecting screen and can be removed periodically rather than being allowed to contaminate the workspace around the knitting machine. There are therefore already attempts to control the amount of airborne lint generated around the textile machinery. Even such lint control measures as the yarn is withdrawn from its yarn storage cone is, however, inadequate to prevent the generation of a large amount of airborne lint around the knitting machine.

The yarns are passed down the delivery tubes and as explained above create a flow of air, and are delivered from the ends of the delivery tubes to the various knitting stations of the knitting machine. A typical circular knitting machine with a 30 inch (76 cm) diameter cylinder may have 96 knitting stations, so the individual yarn feeds from 96 yarn supply cones would be passed down 96 different yarn delivery tubes to those knitting stations.

Inevitably more lint is released from the yarn as the yarn passes down the delivery tubes, and that lint is discharged into the atmosphere immediately adjacent the knitting machine. The filtering of the lint from the air in the enclosed area surrounding the yarn delivery cones (in those establishments which use such filtering) is therefore only a partial solution to total tint control in the atmosphere around the knitting machine.

It is common practice to blow the lint from guides and mechanisms, and away from oily moving parts of the knitting machine, using fans. That practice does, however, greatly contaminate the working environment around the knitting machines, because the tint remains in the atmosphere in that working environment.

It is an object of the invention to provide a method of yarn lint control, and a device for use in that method of yarn lint control, which can significantly reduce the amount of lint contaminating the atmosphere at the yarn delivery end of any yarn delivery tube in any textile factory using spun staple yarns.

The invention The invention provides a device for separating lint from moving yarn as both pass from the end of a yarn delivery tube. The device is as defined in claim 1 herein.

The invention also provides a method for controlling the amount of airborne lint around textile machinery, as defined in claim 6 herein.

The device according to the invention may be a push-fit connection fitting externally around the exit end of the yarn delivery tube, and the abrasion-resistant edge is preferably an abrasion resistant coating, such as a ceramic guide, adjacent the side aperture.

In the method of the invention known lint control procedures can be applied to the yam as it is delivered to the delivery tube. For example, the yarn cone or cones for each feed station of the knitting machine can be provided in a yarn supply enclosure, with delivery tubes for the individual yams extending from that supply enclosure to the respective knitting stations of the knitting machine. Typically air passing from the yarn supply enclosure would be filtered, so as to remove entrained lint. Preferably the side port in the delivery tube, through which the yam is withdrawn for feeding to the knitting station, is within 15 to 25 millimetres from that knitting station.

The yarn supply to the knitting machine may be on demand, as opposed to being a positively fed yarn supply. If the method and device according to the invention are used in connection with a yarn supply to a circular knotting machine, the length of the knitted stitches created at the knitting machine may be controlled by passing the yarn over specially shaped sinkers as disclosed for example in GBO-A-2416780. That requires the input yarn to have a relatively high feed tension, which is preferably provided according to the invention by contact of the yarn with a yarn tensioner, sensor, stop-motion etc at the end of each yarn delivery tube adjacent the yarn supply cone. No further yarn tensioning or yam assist devices need to be provided between those cymbals and the circular knitting machine.

Any lint released from the yarn at the yarn cone or at the one or more yarn tensioning devices within the yarn supply enclosure is preferably removed from the atmosphere by filtering the air passing through that yarn supply enclosure. Further lint will of course be released from the yam as it passes down the respective delivery tubes, but that lint is according to the invention carried onwardly past the side port in the or each delivery tube, and is discharged to a lint collection zone which is preferably an enclosed area bounded by a filter screen through which air is drawn, so that the lint is collected on the filter screen.

Drawins In the enclosed drawings: Figure 1 is a schematic illustration of a knitting factory, incorporating one circular knitting machine 10, a creel enclosure and a yarn supply route to one of the knitting stations of that knitting machine; and Figure 2 is an enlarged section through a wall portion of (a delivery end of) the yarn delivery tube shown in Figure 1.

In the drawings, Figure 1 illustrates the general layout of a typical factory shop floor, with an enclosed area 12 immediately adjacent the knitting machine 10, and with a number of yarn supply cones 14 contained within that enclosed area 12. In the interests of clarity, only one yarn knitting station 16 is shown at the circular knitting machine 10, although it will be understood that there would be a number of such knitting stations around the periphery of the knitting machine. One wall of the yarn supply enclosure 12 is perforated at 18, to form a filter screen through which air is extracted from the yarn supply enclosure 12. Lint released into the atmosphere around the yarn cones is collected on that filter screen 18.

Yarn from each cone 14 is drawn through its own individual yarn delivery tube to the knitting machine, and as it progresses down the tube it generates a flow of air down that delivery tube 20. Only one delivery tube 20 is shown in Figure 1, although of course there would be one per knitting station 16.

Figure 2 shows how the end of each yarn delivery tube 20 adjacent the knitting machine 10 is connected to a delivery tube extension 21. At the end portion of the delivery tube 20 closest to the knitting machine 10, delivery tube extension 21 bends in a direction away from the knitting machine, and the yarn passes out through a side port 22 at the outside of the bend in the delivery tube extension 21 immediately adjacent the respective knitting station 16 of the knitting machine. There the yarn is drawn into loops by the needles 23 of the knitting machine in a conventional manner. The yarn supply may be purely on demand, in which case the loop length is preferably controlled by the interaction of needles and specially shaped sinkers as in GB-A-24 16780.

Where the yarn passes out through the side port 22 of the delivery tube extension 21, a ceramic yarn guide 24 is provided so as to ensUre smooth running of the yarn and minimal lint separation. In Figure 2 that ceramic guide is shown as being formed around the end of the delivery tube 20.

Alternatively, it could be formed around the side port 22 and could be a part of the delivery tube extension 21. Inevitably, however, much lint has separated during the passage of the yarn through the delivery tube 20, and that lint is entrained in the air flow passing down the delivery tube 20 with the yarn.

According to the invention it is carried on past the side port 22 and passes out through an end portion or continuance 26 of the delivery tube extension 21 which preferably extends into an enclosed lint collection zone 28. Preferably the lint is removed from the air at the lint collection zone 28 by filtration.

The positioning of the yarn delivery tube 20 close to the respective knitting station 16, the passage of the yarn out through a side port 22 in the yarn guide element 21, and the discharge of the lint that has separated within the delivery tube out through the end 26 of the yarn guide element 21 into the yarn lint collection zone 28, together create a working environment around the knitting machine that is significantly more lint free than any that have previously been possible. Moreover the knitting machine itself runs more freely and reliably, because there is no accumulation of lint sticking to the oily surfaces of the machine.

Claims

CLAIMS

1. A device for separating lint from moving yarn as both pass from the end of a yarn delivery tube, comprising a tubular extension to the yarn delivery tube, a side aperture in the tubular extension through which the yarn may exit the tubular extension over an abrasion resistant edge, and a continuance of the tubular extension past the side aperture to convey lint, carried by a flow of air generated by the moving yarn in the delivery tube, past the side aperture to a lint collection zone.

2. A device according to claim 1, wherein the side aperture is located in the wall of the tubular extension, adjacent the delivery end of the yam delivery tube.

3. A device according to either preceding claim, wherein the device is a push-fit connection fitting externally around the exit end of the yarn delivery tube.

4. A device according to claim 3, wherein the abrasion resistant edge is a ceramic guide fixed adjacent the side aperture.

5. A method of lint control in any environment in which spun staple yam is handled by passing it from a supply or storage station down a yarn delivery tube to a yarn processing or yarn handling station, CHARACTERISED IN THAT the delivery tube passes close to the yarn processing or yarn handling station but continues past the yarn processing or yarn handling station to a lint collection zone, and the yarn is withdrawn through a side port in the delivery tube immediately adjacent the yarn processing or yarn handling station, whereas lint that has separated from the yarn in the delivery tube is blown to the end of the yarn delivery tube by the flow of air entrained by the yarn passing down the delivery tube and is collected at the lint collection zone.

6. A method of lint control according to claim 5, wherein the side port in the delivery tube is positioned no more than from fifteen to twenty five millimetres from the yarn processing or yarn handling station.

7 A method of lint control according to claim 5 or claim 6, wherein the side port in the yarn delivery tube is adjacent the delivery end of the yarn delivery tube.

8. A method of lint control according to any of claims 5 to 7, wherein the yarn passes over a ceramic yarn guide as it passes through the side port in the delivery tube.

9. A method of lint control according to any of claims 5 to 89, wherein the yarn is tensioned by contact of the yam with a yam tensioner, sensor, stop-motion etc before it enters the yam delivery tube.

10. A method of lint control according to any of claims 5 to 9, wherein the yarn processing or yarn handling station is a feed station of a circular knitting machine.