GB800049A - Improvements in method and apparatus for treating continuous lengths of textile fabric - Google Patents

Abstract

800,049. Shrinking fabrics. SAMCOE HOLDING CORPORATION. Feb. 13, 1956 [Feb. 24, 1955], No. 4463/56. Class 42 (1). [Also in Group XIII] A textile fabric 16, Fig. 1, is advanced through a treating zone by tossing a number of successive increments of the fabric, or alternatively the whole of the fabric, forwards and backwards in the plane of travel of the fabric. In the preferred embodiment, a continuous length of woven or tubular knitted fabric having a moisture content of not more than 40 per cent by weight is shrunk by passing it through a housing 10 divided by a partition 11 to form a closed path for air circulated by a series of fans 14 which may be heated by units 13. Moisturesaturated air may be continuously replaced by fresh air in the fan chamber. A roll 17 having a variable speed drive feeds the fabric on to fabric tossing means 18 which toss the fabric alternately forwards and backwards, the forward toss being greater than the backward toss so as to feed the fabric through the housing on to a conveyer 20 of an open mesh material running at a sufficiently slow speed to prevent tension in the fabric The means 18 consists of elements 24 which are mounted on shafts 25 connected together by chain drives 26 and oscillated from a crank 33 connected by a rod 34 to a crank 35 rotated through a gear reducer 37 and a chain drive 41 by an electric motor 43. A variable speed motor 50 rotates the motor 43 and the mechanism connecting it to crank 33 about the axis of the latter so that the forward movements of the elements 24 are greater than the backward movements. The housing 10 may include a steam chamber for increasing the moisture content of the fabric and have more than one row of tossing means to pass the fabric in opposite directions prior to discharge.