US1422106A - Thread-cleaner - Google Patents

Description

W. J. KLOTS.

THREAD CLEANER. APPLICATION FILED MAYIS. 1922.

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6 INIZINTOR.

I A TTORNEYS.

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arsaw. 3. KLO'IS, or SCRANTTON, rnnnsr LVANIA, ASSIGNOB. T W. J. JKLO'ES RAW SILK CLEANER (10., INC., A CORPORATION OF DELAW Application filed my 13,

foall-wlziom it'may concern: I

- Be it"knownthat'l, VVAL'rEii clear, and exact description,

' The invention of this application, which is a continuation in part ofmy application, Se-

rial No. 499,107 filed September 7, 1921, relates to a device for cleaning threads, yarns or the like, and particularly silk thread as it is being wound on a quill or bobbin reparatory to weaving, and the purpose 0 the invention is to provide a device which will be i positive its action in catching slubs or slugs, snarls, accumulations of wax, gum and. the like, bad knots, etc., which would show in the woven cloth, and in breaking the, thread at that point, thereby enabling the operator toremove the imperfect portion of the thread and tie the ends together in order to continue theoperation.

This cleaning action is commonly performed by running the thread through a slot of the proper size and the cleaners for this purpose, which have heretofore been used in the silk industry, have almost universally consisted of two separate plates or jaws, one of which is adjustable to and from the other, and which are provided with clamping means to secure them the proper distance apart. These are not satisfactory, however, for the reason that the vibration of the machines and the exigencies of use in a short time displace the'movable jaw sufiiciently to affect the operation of the cleaner, and for the further reason that they are susceptible of being tampered with by the operator after once they have been properly adjusted.

Efforts have been made to make cleaning platesof one integral structure, that is, a

single plate having a slot or slit of the proper width therein, but these have not proved satisfactory for the silk industry. Such plates heretofore tried in the silk industry have been produced by a stamping operation, a suitable die being used to cut the slit in the plate. The material is therefore of necessity sufiiciently soft and thin to permit such an operation, with the result that they have not possessed the sturdiness or accuracy of shape and size of slot requisite for the careful work required in the silk industry.

' Specification of Letters Patent.

THREAD-0L 5 1922. sa a no. 560,797.

with-the walls of the slot therein joining the face of the plate in a sharp right angle. It has common y to round ofl these corners somewhat to avoid been supposed'to be necessary:

Patented aaiy 111.1922.

of very hard steel...'

injury to the thread from running over a sharp corner, with the been a tendency for the the slot and pass the thread; and,'indee if the corners were not purposely rounded off they have soon become'round due to the soft character of the material from which the unitary or integral cleaning plates have been made.

To cause the thread to run straight or practically so through the slot with a minimum of contact with the sharp edges or corners of the plate, my invention also comprehends an improved bracket and thread slubs to squeeze into guide supporting structure which is ex-' tremely simple and inexpensive in its construction and is 1 easily attachable to the proper part of the winding or other machine, and which serves to properly guide the thread throu h the slot in the cleaner plate. My inventlon also includes details of construction of the bracket itself, as well as various other details of construction as will hereinafter more fully appear.

I shall now describe the illustrated embodiments of my invention and shall thereafter point out my invention in claims.

Fig. l is a side elevation of a complete assembly of all the elements of my invention, illustrating schematically the operation of the cleaner plate;

F ig. 2 is a plan of my improved bracket and cleaner plate;

Fig. 3 is a section of the same taken substantially along the line of a-a of Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a section of the same taken substantially along the line of 6 6 of Fig. 2;.

Fig. 5 is a plan of the cleaner plate on a larger scale;

Fig. 6 is a section of the plate taken substantially along the line of cc of Fig. 5 and Fig. 7 is a perspective of an assembly similar to Fig. 1, but with a modified form of support for the plate bracket and thread guides.

My improved cleaner plate is made in accordance with the method which forms the subject matter of my application No. 560,798,

result that there hasthrough without breaking filed May 13,1922. The stock from which it is made is known in the trade as tire steel, a steel containing substantially of 1% of carbon. This stock is secured in strip form of the proper width and substantially of an inch thick, and is then cut in the proper lengths and a re-entrant angle of 90 is cut in one end, forming the two guide faces 2 and 3. A screw hole 4 and a clearance'hole 5 are then drilled after which the narrow slit or slot 6 is milled or sawed along the longitudinal center line of the plate, joining the juncture of the faces 2 and 3 with the clearance hole 5. The corners formed by the juncture of the walls of the slit 6 with the circular wall of opening 5 are then filed away or otherwise removed, as shown at 7 and 8 in Figure 5, to form a V-shaped entrance from the opening 5 into the slot 6, the function of which, will hereinafter appear. The plate is then treated, preferably by a case hardening process, to render it very hard so as to fix the size and configura tion of the slot as it has been accurately formed, following which any slight change in the width of the slot effected by the heat treatment may be corrected, as with a slight blow of a hammer. It will be observed that due to the fact that the slot 6 is sawed into the plate, the corners formed between the face ofthe plate and the walls of the slot are sharp right angles, and due to the subsequent hardening of the material, these corners will remain sharp and will not wear round from use.

The plate, when in use, is held in-a bracket 9 which is secured to a suitable supporting bracket or element 10 which also carries the thread guides. The bracket member 9 is an angle member provided in one arm with an aperture 11 through which suitable securing means, such as a screw 12, may be passed to secure the bracket 2 to the bracket 10, also with an aperture l3' which may also receive a screw threaded into the supporting ele ment 10 to hold the angle bracket against rotation upon the screw 12. The other arm of the bracket member 9 is provided upon its outer face with a channel 14 having plain sides in which the cleaner plate 1 may be disposed. If desired a small pin 15 may be disposed within the channel to limit the movement of the cleaner plate therein in one direction and thereby act as a positioning member for properly locating the platewithin the channel. A headed screw 16 passes through the hole 4 in the plate and is threaded into the bracket member for removably securing the cleaner plate within the channel and against the positioning pin 15. The arm of the bracket member having the channel therein is provided with a cutout or clearance portion 17 extending inwardly from the outer end of the arm to a point beyond the waste hole 5 when the cleaner plate is in position upon the bracket, so as to permit of the free passage of the material discharged from the waste aperture and the slot of the cleaner plate.

T'he plate bracket or support 10 also carr1 es two porcelain thread guides 18 and 19, disposed respectively above and below the plate 1 with their guide openings accurately aligned with the slot 6. These thread guides may be secured to the bracket member 10 in any suitable way, and, as shown, the screw stem of the upper thread guide 18 screws into a threaded opening in a boss at the top of the bracket 10, while the screw stem of the lower thread guide passes through a hole 20 in the arm of the bracket 9 and is threaded into the bracket 10. If this mode of attachment of the lower thread guide is em-' ployed, it is manifest that the opening 13 and the screw therein may be dispensed with. The bracket member 10 in Fig. 1 is adapted for attachment in the manner shown, to a longitudinal rod 21 on the winding machine.

In the operation of the device, the thread, whlch contains knots, slubs, snarls, accumula-tions of wax, gum etc., is cleaned during its transference from the bobbin 22 to a rece ving quill or bobbin 23. On leaving the bobbin 22, the thread 24 passes through the upper thread guide 18, through the slot 6 of the cleaner plate and thence through the lower thread guide 19 and is wound upon the quill 23, the thread guides, as above stated, being so disposed as to minimize the contact of the thread with the edges or corners of the slot 6. As the thread passes through the slot 6 of the cleaner plate, any loose fuzz orexcess wax, gum .or oil will be scraped along until it causes the thread to break, when the operator will remove the defective material and tie the clean ends together, and continue the winding operation. Similarly any slub, knot or snarl which will not travel along the thread will be caught and the thread will be broken. The sharp corners of the slot eliminate any tendency of the defective materials to squeeze into the slot, and the cleaning operation is positive.

Some of the gum or wax will naturally rub off from the thread and accumulate along the faces of the slot 6. Each threading operation tends to force these accumulations of gum or wax toward the clearance hole 5. 11 starting the operation the operator directs the thread against one or the other of the converging faces 2, 3, and the tension of the thread causes it to be drawn into the slot 6, and it is this inward motion of the thread which forces the accumulation of wax in the slot 6 toward the clear.- ance hole 5. It will be understood that if the wax is not thus automatically removed, it soon'becomes of suflicientquantity to efproper thickness.

sufficient tension to cause it to return to the slot 6 as soon as it is released, and the guide faces 7 and 8 facilitate this return movement of the thread.

I have found that the 45 angle formed by the faces- 2 and 3 with the respective walls of the slot 6 is the proper angle to assure that the thread will be guided into the slot 6 whenever the operator places the thread upon one or the other of these surfaces in starting the operation. If the angle is more than 45, the thread will be drawn too rapidly along the face toward the slot and will strike the other face and be broken, while if the angle is less than L59, the thread will not move quickly enough into the slot and will drag over the guide face and be injured and often times broken before it reaches the cleaning slot.

I have found that the thickness of substantially Q; of an inch for the plate is the If substantially thinner than this, the two 'aws soon get out of alignment in use, whlle if it is substantially thicker, it puts too much tension on the thread and will stretch it and affect its value It is well understood in the silk industry that it is disadvantageous to stretch silk as it is being cleaned and wound, since stretched silk will not take the dye properly and is in other ways inferior.

It will be understood that the cleaner plates will be formed with slots of various sizes therein, according to the size of the thread that is to be cleaned, and by my method I am able to make the slot in the plates as small as a of an inch, or as large as necessary for the larger sizes of threads to be'cleaned. The cleaner plate 1 may be removed by taking out the screw 16, and may be replaced by other plates having the desired width of slot.

The fiat bracket 25 shown in Fig. 7, differs from the bracket 10 of Fig. 1 in that it isadapted to be attached to a flat surface of a beam or other part of the winding machine, instead of to a rod 21. The bracket is provided with two outstanding arms or wings which have screw holes drilled therein for the reception of attaching screws.

It is obvious that various changes in the details and arrangements herein described and illustrated may be made by those skilled in the art within the principle and scope of my invention.

I claim:

1. A thread cleaner comprising an integral flat plate of treatment hardened steel substantially of an inch in thickness hav ing an open ended narrow slot therein the walls of which meet the face of the plate toward which the thread is moved at sharp right angles.

2. A thread cleaner comprising an integral flat plate of treatment hardened steel substantially e of an inch in thickness having an open ended narrow slot therein the walls of which meet the face of the plate toward which the thread is moved at sharp right angles and which terminates at its inner end in a clearance hole of a diametersubstantially greater than the Width of the slot, and having converging guide faces leading to the open end of the slot disposed at substantially 45 to the respective wall of the slot.

-3. A thread cleaner comprising a bracket member having in one arm provision for attachment of the member to a support and in the other arm a positioning channel, a cleaning plate disposed in said channel, a pin-on said member for limiting movement of the plate in one direction in the channel, and a screw passing throu h the plate and threaded into the member for clamping the plate to the member.

45. A thread cleaner comprising a bracket member having in one arm provision for attachment of the member to a support and in the other arm a clearance passage .and an open channel in its face, a cleaning plate having therein a cleaning slotand dlsposed in said channel with its slot inalignment with the passage of the member, and a screw for clamping the plate within the channel.

5. A thread cleaner comprising a supporting member arranged to be attached to a winding machine or the like, two spaced thread guides attached to the supporting member with their guide openings in alignment, an angle bracket member having in one arm a clearance passage and an open channel in its face, a cleaning plate having therein a cleaning slit and secured in sa1d channel with its slot opposing the clearance passage in said arm, and means'securing the other arm of the angle-bracket member to the supporting member between the two thread guides with the slot aligned with the guide openings of the thread guide.

In witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe my signature.

\ WALTER .J. KLOTS.

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