US1203699A

US1203699A - Electric-circuit-closing device.

Info

Publication number: US1203699A
Application number: US8677916A
Authority: US
Inventors: William W Burke
Original assignee: COOPER Manufacturing Co
Current assignee: COOPER Manufacturing Co
Priority date: 1916-03-25
Filing date: 1916-03-25
Publication date: 1916-11-07
Anticipated expiration: 1933-11-07

Description

W. W. BURKE.

ELECTRIC CIRCUIT CLOSING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED MAR-25, I916.

Patented Nov. 7, 1916.

V W W UNITED STATES PATENT oFFroE;

WILLIALI W. BURKE, 0F BENNINGTGN, VERMONT, ASSIGNOR T0 COOPER MANUFAC- TURING COMPANY, OF BENNINGTON, VERMONT, A CORPORATION OF VERMONT.

ELECTRIC-GIRCUIT-GLOSING DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. *7, 1916.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM W. BURKE, a citizen of the United States, residing at Bennington, in the county of Bennington and State of Vermont, have invented new and useful Improvements in Electric-Circuit-ClosingDevices, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to an electric circuit closing device particularly adapted to be used in machines employing a thread or a strand of yarn such as knitting machines, said device embodying in its construction a drop device which is adapted to open and close said electric circuit, the device being so constructed and arranged that when a thread or yarn breaks or when abnormal. tension is brought to bear upon said thread or yarn the drop device will be operated to close the circuit. Said circuit when closed will operate a tripper which, in turn, will operate to release a stop motion mechanism and allow the same to operate to stop the machine.

The invention is an improvement upon the stop motion mechanism for knitting machines disclosed in my United States Patents Nos. 1,096,890 and 1,096,891, patented May 19, 191%, stop motion mechanism for knitting machines and circuit closing device, to which reference may be had. The present invention is an improvement upon that particular portion of said stop motion mechanism which includes the drop device and assists in its operation. In that invention, however, a thread guide which was located between the drop device and another thread guide located on a lever was stationary. Inthis embodiment of my invention I mount two thread guides upon said lever, the thread guide which is adjacent to the drop device being adjustable on said lever toward and away from the drop device, the object of this construction being to provide a guide or support for the thread as close to the drop wire as possible, and to provide a means of support on which said guide is adjustable toward and away from the drop wire.

In knitting the finer counts of yarn the thread guide adjacent to the drop wire should be set very close to the drop wire in order that as fine a drop wire as is possible may be used and, when knitting heavy counts of yarn the support or thread guide adjacent to the drop device should be set much farther away, as there are more or less bunches of waste found on said heavy yarns. Therefore, if the support or guide for the yarn is set too close to the drop wire this will catch between said thread guide and the drop wire and prevent the wire from dropping.

With these objects in view the invention consists in the combination and arrangement of parts set forth in the following specification and particularly pointed out in the claims.

Referring to the drawings: Figure 1 is a plan view of my improved stop motion mechanism. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the same. Fig. 3 is a sectional elevation taken on line 8-3 of Fig. 2.

Like numerals refer to like parts through out the several views of the drawings.

In the drawings. 5 is a base preferably constructed in two

parts

6 and 7 and containing mercury cups 8 constituting con tacts for an electric circuit. 9 and 10 are wires forming a portion of said electric circuit connected to

contact sgrews

11 and 12, respectively, which contact screws engage the bottoms of bushings 13 in which the contact cups 8 are located. The contact cups 8 contain mercury lt. Connection is made to complete the circuit between the mercury contacts 14: by the two legs 15 of a drop wire 16, said legs being connected by a cross-bar 17 which constitutes a guide for a strand of yarn. The yarn 18 is led over a guide 19 to the drop wire 16 and thence over a guide and support 20. The strand of yarn passes from the guide 20 to a guide eye 21 and from the guide eye 21 said yarn passes to the needles of the knitting machine. Said yarn is suitably guided by other yarn guides as illustrated in said Patent No. 1,096,890.

The

guides

20 and 21 are supported upon a lever 22 which consists of two side arms connected by a cross-bar 24: and pivoted at 25 to the upper portion 6 'of the base. Said lever 22 has an arm 26 and upon this arm is supported the guide 20, said guide being adjustable upon said arm toward and away from the drop wire 16 and being locked in. position on said arm by means of a set-screw 27. Said arm 26 extends above the drop wire 16 and under certain condi tions hereinafter fully set forth engages said drop wire and pushes the same downwardly until its legs contact with the mercury in the cups 8 and thus, complete the electric circuit whereby the stop motion mechanism for stopping the machine is ac.- tuated. Said arm 26 extends through the cross-bar 2d and upon the rear side there of is screw-threaded to receive one or more adjustable weights 28 which have screwthreaded engagement with said arm 26 and may be used where a very heavy tension is required upon the yarn. The guide 20, however, is for many sizes of yarn all the counterweight that is supplied to the lever 2i and it will be noted that as said guide 20 is moved toward or away i'rom the drop wire 16 it simultaneously moves nearer to or farther from the center of the pivots 25, so that said guide 20peri orms not only 'thefunction of guiding the yarn but also acts as a counterweight for the lever lVhen a heavy yarn is used in a machine a greater tension has to be applied to said yarn than where a light yarn is used, and where a heavy yarn is used it is desirable to have the guide 20 farther away from the drop wire than when a light yarn is used. Therefore, the adjustmentoi' the rude. 2O automatically performs two functions. One is to increase the effective weight upon the lever 22 and thus apply greater tension to the yarn. The other is to make more space between the guide and the drop wire 16. On the other hand when the guide 20 is moved toward the drop wire it lessens the effective weight upon the lever 22 and decreases the distance between said guide and the drop wire to render the device more practical for handling the finer yarns. In order to still further render it possible to bring the yarn guide 20 close to the drop Wire it is flattened off on the side toward said drop wire while being left rounded on its top so that it forms a rounded surface for guiding the yarn and at the same time provides a greater space between the yarn guide and the drop wire.

The operation of the device is as follows: The yarn passes over the guide 19 through the drop wire 16, thence over the guide and support 20, thence through the guide eye 21 and through suitable stationary guide eyes to the needles of tl e knitting machine. The yarn is led to the guide 19 through suitable guide eyes from bobbins on the ma chine as particularly illustrated in my said Patent No. 1,096,890, Fig. 2.

When a machine is in operation under normal conditions the parts will be in the position illustrated in full lines (Fig. 2). When, however, abnormal tension is brought to bear upon the yarn 18 for any reason the yarn will cause the lever 22 to tip upon its pivot 25 and move upwardly from the position illustrated in full lines (Fig. 2) to that illustrated in dotted lines in said figure. When the lever has been tipped as hereinbefore described, by reason of abnormal tension on the yarn, the end of the arm 26 which bears against the drop wire 16 will push said drop wire downwardly until the points oil? the legs 15 of said drop wire contact with the mercury l-ft in the cups 8, the circuit will then be completed and the ma chine will be stopped by mechanism actuated by the closing of said circuit as fully described in said Letters Patent No. 1,096,890.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire by Letters Patentto secure is 1. A circuit closingdevice having, in combination, an electric circuit including a drop device adapted to open and close said circuit and constituting a guide for a strand of yarn, a. plurality of guides for said yarn, a lever, and a plurality of guides for said yarn mounted on said lever whereby under abnormal. tension said lever may be rocked by said yarn, one of said last-named guides being adjustable toward and away from said drop device.

2. A circuitclosing device having, in com bination, an electric circuit including a drop device adapted to open and close said circuit and constituting a guide for a strand of yarn, a plurality of guides for said yarn, a lever adapted to engage said drop device, and a plurality of guides for said yarn mounted on said lever whereby when under abnormal tension said lever may be rocked by said yarn to move said drop device to close said circuit, one of said last-named yarn guides being adjustable on said lever toward and away from said drop device.

3. A circuit closing device having, in combination, an electric circuit including a drop device adapted to open and close said circuit and constituting a guide for a strand of yarn, a. stationary guide for said yarn at one side of said drop device, a pair of movable guides for said yarn on the opposite side of said drop device and means connected with said movable guides and engaging said drop device adapted to be actuated by an abnormal tension on said yarn to move said drop device to close said circuit.

4. A circuit closing device having, in combination, an electric circuit including a drop device adapted to open and close said circuit and constituting a guide for a strand of yarn, a stationary guide for said yarn at one side of said drop device, a pair of movable guides for said yarn on the opposite side of said drop device and means connected with said movable guides and engaging said drop device adapted to be actuated by an abnormal tension on said yarn to move said drop device to close said circuit, one of said movable guides being adjustable toward and away from said drop device.

5. A circuit closing device having, in combination, an electric circuit including a drop device adapted to open and close said circuit and constituting a guide for a strand of yarn, a plurality of guides for said yarn, a lever, a pivot for said lever and a pair of guides for said yarn mounted on said lever, one of said last-named pair of guides being movable toward and away from said drop device whereby the weight at one side of said pivot may be varied.

6. A circuit closing device having, in combination, an electric circuit including a drop device adapted to open and close said circuit and constituting a guide for a strand of yarn, a plurality of guides for said yarn, a lever adapted to engage said drop device, a pivot for said lever, a pair of guides for said yarn mounted on said lever, one of said pair of guides being adjustable toward and away from said drop device whereby when under abnormal tension said lever may be rocked by said yarn to move said drop device to close said circuit.

7. A circuit closing device having, in combination, an electric circuit including a drop device adapted to open and close said circuit and constituting a guide for a strand of yarn, a plurality 0]": guides for said yarn, a lever, an arm on said lever adapted to engage said drop device, a pair of guides mounted on said lever, one of said pair of guides being adjustably mounted on said arm and adjustable toward and away from said drop device whereby when under abnormal tension said lever may be rocked by said yarn to move said drop device to close said circuit.

8. A circuit closing device having, in com bination, an electric circuit including a drop device adapted to open and close said circuit and constituting a guide for a strand of yarn, a plurality of guides for said yarn, a lever, an arm on said lever, a pair of guides for said yarn mounted on said lever, one of said pair of guides being mounted on said arm and movable on said arm toward and away from said drop device.

9. A circuit closing device having, in combination, an electric circuit including a drop device adapted to open and close said circuit and constituting a guide for a strand of yarn, a plurality of guides for said yarn, a lever, an arm on said lever, a pair of guides for said yarn mounted on said lever, one of said pair of guides being mounted on said arm and movable on said arm toward and away from said drop device, said last named guide being rounded upon its upper side and flattened on the side toward said drop device.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

' WILLIAM W. BURKE. Witnesses:

CHARLES S. Knnon, CHARLES H. PATCH.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G.