IL100645A - Device and method for wool treatment - Google Patents

Description

DEVICE AND METHOD FOR WOOL TREATMENT ABSTRACT Wool A method and apparatus for combing wool in which the wool is heated prior to being fed to the combing The wool is by heated rollers to a temperature such that the lanolin in the wool liquefies and acts as a lubricant to reduce friction between the wool and the The time between the heating and the combing of the wool is such that the lanolin is able to flow on the wool As a result of this process there is a reduction in the amount of noil WOOL COMBING The present invention relates to combing of the avoidance of the term as used herein and in the claims is intended to cover any animal based natural such as wool Wool combing is a long established procedure used as one step in the manufacture of worsted The most commonly used combing machine is the French machine which is typically used for combing of fibres with a length of 60mm to although the English combing machine still has limited use for the combing of fibres with a length of 90mm to Whatever type of combing machine a will generally comprise a plurality of tines or the is drawn relatively through the previously carded wool During this combing the long wool fibres in the sliver are arranged in generally parallel formation and unwanted material is removed from the This unwanted material includes short the which need to be eliminated because it is the longer fibres which contribute to the strength of the the mechanical action of tho comb in passing through the wool will cause some fibre breakage resulting in production of additional It has previously been proposed to heat the pins of a Noble Comb with a view to improving combing see for example Sir Isaac Pitman Sons 1964 which discloses at page 45 the provision of a beneath the large circle to provide heat for softening the oil on the fibres and facilitating the drawing of the fibres through the The fact that a slightly lower percentage of noil is obtained by heating the pins of the Noble Comb has been confirmed by et scientist looks at the Wool 11 A study on the effect of heating the top comb in rectilinear combing has been reported by and Turple Sawtrl September pages who conclude that percentage noil decreased slightly as the temperature of the top comb was increased from room temperature to with apparently no further reduction when the top comb was heated above 2 It is an object of the present invention to reduce production of noil during a combing According to the present invention there provided a method of combing wool wherein the wool fed to the comb has been heated to a temperature such that the lanolin acts as a lubricant to reduce friction between the wool and the According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided wool combing apparatus wherein upstream of the combing mechanism there provided heating means to heat the wool to be combed to a temperature such that the lanolin in the wool acts as a lubricant to reduce friction between the wool and the The invention has been based on our discovery that significant Improvement in the reduction of noil may be obtained by heating the wool upstream of the In contrast to the prior art discussed above in which the tines of the comb are we believe that the improvements obtained by this invention are due to the increased time available for heat transfer within the wool between the actual heating stage and the action of the comb as well as the increased time for lanolin to flow on the we do not wish to be bound by this theory of our explanation of the The wool is preferably heated by a contact heated but may be heated in other by microwave or radio frequency Whatever heating method is its purpose is to heat the wool to a sufficient temperature so that the lanolin improves the lubricity of the wool thereby reducing friction between the wool and the As a result there is less fibre Typically the wool will be heated to a temperature at which the lanolin Generally this temperature will not be above The invention will be further by way of example with reference to the accompanying in 1 illustrates a roller assembly for heating wool 2 schematically illustrates the construction of one of the rollers of Pig 1 3a illustrates the roller nf Fig 1 in a and 3b is similar to 3a but illustrates the roller assembly in an 3 Referring to there is illustrated a roller assembly 1 which is provided upstream of a conventional wool comb which will for preference be of the Continental The roller assembly 1 is in the form of a tower of four heated rollers 5 in vertically spaced relationship also Each roller is of the construction illustrated in 2 and will be seen to comprise a hollow cylinder which is rotatable about a thermostatically controlled heating element 7 connected to an electrical supply In use of the illustrated a plurality of carded slivers 8 are fed from cans 9 and combined together before being passed in a downward serpentine path around the rollers which are at a sufficiently high temperature to heat the wool to a maximum of about At this the lanolin of the wool will have melted and is therefore able to flow on the During the subsequent combing the molten lanolin acts as a lubricant and therefore reduces friction between the comb and the As a there is less fibre breakage and few short fibres are removed in the form of Typically the amount of noil reduced to based on the weight of wool compared to the identical process but in wool is not the average length of the combed fibres increases by about thus resulting in yarns of improved In the illustrated method of heating by means of is the further advantage that the fibres are effectively by their contact with the heated rollers so that any crimp is This crimp removal also reduces There is no reduction in production speed using the illustrated There is however a potential disadvantage with the illustrated apparatus in that if the combing machine should for any reason there will still be wool in contact with the heated rollers 5 and contact therewith could result in the destruction of the To overcome this the rollers are associated with pneumatic actuators such that when the machine the actuators move the rollers from the position shown in 3a which the wool passes round the to the position shown in 3b in which there is no contact between the wool and the Although the invention has been specifically described with reference to the use of heated it should be appreciated that other contact methods may be heated as well as 5 insufficientOCRQuality

Claims (17)

1. Λ method of combing wool wherein the wool fed to the comb hats been heated to a temperature such that the lanolin in the Wool acts as a lubricant to reduce friction hfitweon the wnnl and the comb.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the wool is heated by a contact method.

3. A method as claimed in claim 2, wherein the wool is heated by at least one heated roller.

4. A method as claimed In claim 3, wherein the wool is passed in a Gorpcntine path around a plurality of heated rollers.

5. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the temperature to which the wool is heated is such that the lanolin in the wool liquefies.

6. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the temperature to which the wool is heated is not greater than 90eC.

7. A method as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the time between the heating and the combing of the wool is such that the lanolin is able to flow on the wool fibres.

8. A wool combing apparatus wherein upstream of the combing mechanism there is provided heating means to heat the wool to be combed.

9. An apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein the heating means comprises at least one heatable roller.

10. An apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein the heatable roller comprises a hollow cylinder rotatable about a stationary heating element. 1J.

11. An apparatus as claimed in claim 9 or claim 10, wherein a plurality of heatable rollers are provided.

12. An apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein the heatable rollers are positioned such that a serpentine path is provided for travel of the wool over the rollers.

13. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 9 to 12, wherein means are provided to move the or each heatable roller out of contact with the wool if the travel of wool over the rollers stops.

14. An apparatus as claimed in claim 13, wherein the moans to move the or each heatable roller is a pneumatic actuator. 6

15. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 8 to 14, wherein the comb is a French type comb.

16. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 8 to 14, wherein the comb is a Continental type comb.

17. An apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 8 to 14, wherein the comb is an English type comb.