US1422581A

US1422581A - Process of and apparatus for preparing textile fibers for spinning

Info

Publication number: US1422581A
Application number: US472851A
Authority: US
Inventors: Laurency Guillaume Clement; Vigier Marcel
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1921-05-26
Filing date: 1921-05-26
Publication date: 1922-07-11
Anticipated expiration: 1939-07-11

Description

G. C. LAURENCY AND M. VIGIEB.

PROCESS OF AND APPARATUS FOR PREPARING TEXTILE FIBERS F OR SPINNING.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 26, I921.

"1,422,5 1, PatentedJuly 11, 1922 PROCESS or AND Armin-earns Eon- ZPBEPARING TEXTILE EIBEns EOE srnvmns.

AppIication filed May 26,

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July 111, iaaa 1921. Serial no. 472,851.

(GRANTED 1mm THE rnovrsroiis or TEE ACT or Manon 3', 1921, 4.1 s'rar. 1., 1313.

T 0 all whom it may concern I Be it known that we, GUILLAUME CLEMENT LAURENOY, a subject of the King of Belgium,

and MAnoEL VIGIER, a French citizen, both residents of London, in the county of London, England, have invented certain Improvements in the Processes of and Apparatus for Preparing Textile Fibers for Spinning (for which we have filed an application in England on November 24:, 1919, Patent Iva-147,393), of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in the process of and apparatus for preparing textile fibers for spinning and whilst it has particular reference to the treatment of wool fibers may be applied to other fibers in which the process and apparatus are applicable or useful, the object being to card, comb, smooth and double the fibers in a single continuous operation and leave the resultant doubled ribbon or sliver with the fibers in parallel order and of equal density throughout its total length.

With the aforesaid objects in view the steps of our improved process and apparatus comprise the removal of the fibers from the carding engine cylinder in a series of separate tufts, carding and combing a portion of said tufts during removal, retaining the tufts by sectional combs whilst carrying themaway from the card, ironing said tufts underv the application of heat and friction and removing the fibers from the carrying meansby friction whilst their forward ends are combed, seizing said forward ends to enable the rear ends of the tufts to be combed,

joining the combed tufts together so as-to} form a continuous wide sheet and finally dividing up said sheet into narrow ribbons doubled or. superimposed one upon the other to form a sliver ready for spinning or for further attenuation by other known processes prior to spinning.

Our invention will be fully described with referenceto theaccompanying drawing in which,v

F ig; 1, is a sectional side elevation of ap paratus constructed in accordance with our invention to carry 'outthe process referred to Fig.2, partialelevation from two points looking. away from the cylinder of the cardingi engine and Fig. 3, front elevation of a plate detail hereinafter referred to. r X In accordance with our invention Aindicates the cylinder of a carding engine covered with wire filleting in the usual way and having in close proximity wit a cylinder B,.both rotating at the required speeds in the direction of the arrows. Cylinder B may be appropriately termed the combing cyllnder its periphery being provided with sections 1 of card wire alternating avith plain smooth or polished sections 2. The card wire sections have the wires in pro gresslvely closer formation at the rear in the direction of rotation than at the front and the smooth sections have their periph eral surfaces in a true circlewith the card wires. The cylinder B is heated internally as by a steam coil 3, the pipe passing through the trunnlon bearings, of the cylinder to allow of steam admission and for the discharge of the water of condensation.

The object of the card wire sections 1 on cylinder B is to detach the fibers. from card cylinder A in separate and distinct tufts and whilst this is being done each suc ceeding smooth zone 2 supports the fibers during withdrawal to enable therear ends of the tufts tobe carded or combed, cleaned and parallelized by the card wire on cylinder A whilst the front ends of the tufts are held in the wire sections 1. As the comb arrows. The band or apron 0 travels in,v

contact with the cylinder B at a slower peripheral speed thanthe latter, the object of'this being to set upsufiicient friction to enable the fibers to beironed or smoothed by the heated zones 2, to be kept inparallel form and finally to detach the forward ends of the tufts from the comb zones 1 during" which latter action, such forward ends are combed out asth'e wires theyfare leaning,

passforward at a rate'of speed in excess of the band C. At the same time the tufts of fibers progress towards the right and at a predetermined point are met by a second band or apron D of leather or other su1t- 5 ablematerial mounted upon rollers o (l with a roller 6 between them to keep them straight. The band D travels in the opposite direction to band C, its forward loop being in direct contact with the latter at its rear end. The object of this arrangement is to grip the forward ends of the tufts to detach the latter from cylinder B and also whilst gripping them in this manner to allow the rear ends of the tufts to be again combed by the zones 1. By the time these actions are taking place the succeeding tufts have travelled forward and it is at this 7 point that the forward ends of such tufts are attached to the rear ends of the first set of tufts. These actions take place successively and in this way the tufts are formed into a complete web of combed, cleaned and parallelized fibers.

The fibers which are too short to stretch across the smooth zones 2 are retained by the wire Zones 1 along with dirt and other matter. They are each subsequently 1 removed by a rotating brush t which discharges the dirt and the like into a trough 5 whilst the short fibers are detached from brush 1 by a wire stripping brush 6 from whose surface they are removed by a rapidly reciprocating comb 7 such as is employed 7 in connection with the doffer cylinder of a cotton carding engine, into a second trough 8. Both troughs are fitted with travelling lattices which remove the dirt and short fibers separately to suitable places.

4:, is a rotating brush driven more slowly than the band C to retard the fibers slightly so that they may be straightened before passing between the band and cylinder B.

The web in sheet form is subsequently divided up into equal narrow ribbons which aresuperposed one upon the other to form a single sliver ready to pass to a spinning operation or to any other machine in which it may be desired to further attenuate it prior to spinning.

Thus on coming out from the bands C and D in the form of web or in a continuous sheet, the fibers are deposited on an apron formed by an endless band E which moves round on the cylinders 10 and 11 advanc ing laterally each time that it passes round them and receiving each time an additional layer or ribbon of fibers. After having traversed the whole length of the cylinders, it is relieved of its fibers and brought back to its starting point by the small pulleys 12, 13, 1a where it begins the same passage again. The layers of superposed fibers which this bandE brings at the end of its passage are all the more numerous in pro portion as it has passed more frequently the separation of ribbon.

from one cylinder to the other, and as giving a slight width only to this band Wlll permit of its making this passage more than 100 times. In order to cover the working width of an ordinary machine the ribbon that it brings will always be formed very exactly by 100 layers of rlbbons collected together on all the working width of the machine. As a result of this fact, the I111};- ture of the fibers becomes more perfect than in any system known and the 190 layers of superposed ribbons corresponding to 100 doublings of ribbons in preparation for the spinning of combed fibers, suppresses radically all irregularities of sectlon 1n the ribbon, even in the case of a defective'feeding at the carding machlne.

After its lastpassage the band E 1s relieved of its fibers by the pulley 151wh1ch conveys them to the rubbing aprons 16-1(' to be then wound on bobbins 18 or put in their cans 19 in the usual way. The roller 15 is covered with leather and it glides over a metallic piece 20 Figs. 1 and 8 to effect The high speed which can be given to the combing cylinder B in consequence of its manner of working with the main card cylinder secures a high production on the machine and at the sametime a very fine ribbon which permits of a greater inl ly of doublings at the drawing operations;

In the usual types of carding machines, the superficial speed of the main cyllnder varies according to the nature andv quality of the fibers being dealt with, is about 500 to 600 yards per minute for W001 and 800 to 1200 yards per minute for cotton. The superficial speed of the doffer equals about 1/31 or 1/32 that of'the main cylinder. This relation between the speeds of the main cylinder and of the dofi'er cannot be modified eithermore or less without lessening the production or the power of the carding machines as they are. By our method, on the contrary, the superficial speed of the wool-comber cylinder B lends itself to endless variations. It can be below or above the speed of A and-an increase of production follows on every increase of speed. The speed given to this cylinder B is generallysuch as to throw ofl almost all the fibers carded by the machine. Now as it is estimated that the existing doffer throws off, on an average, only about one quarter of the fibers carded which are on themain cylinder, the superficial speed of the woolcomber cylinder B should be, equal to about one quarter of that of the main cylinder A the speed of which is not modified. 125, V

A for cotton :800 to 1200 yards per minute, superficial speed of cylinder B for cotton 200 to 300 yards per minute.

The principle that we have described for cleaning, combing, sorting and smoothing the fibers as well as that for mixing and doubling these fibers and transforming them' into a combed ribbon, can be applied, according to the needs of the case, entirely or in part, in combination with known 1nachines for the preparation of textile fibers for spinning.

lVhat we claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1. The process of preparing textile fibers for spinning consisting in the removal of the fibers from the carding engine cylinder in a series of separate tufts, carding and combing a portion of said tufts during removal, retaining the tufts by sectional combs whilst carrying them away from the card, ironing said tufts under the application of heat and friction and removing the fibers from the carrying means by friction whilst their forward ends are combed, seizing said forward ends to enable the rear ends of the tufts to be combed, and joining the combed fleeces together so as to form a continuous wide sheet.

2. The process of forming the web sheet according to claim 1 into a sliver, consisting in dividing said sheet into narrow ribbons doubled or superimposed one upon the other to form a sliver ready for spinning or for further attenuation by other known processes prior to spinning.

3. In apparatus for carrying out the process claimed in claim 1, a carding engine cylinder, a combing cylinder co-acting therewith having its periphery divided up into alternating card wire or needle zones and smooth zones, means for heating the comb cylinder, a band or apron co-acting with the comb cylinder and travelling at a less superficial speed than the latter and a second band travelling in the opposite direction to the first band and co-acting there with to remove the fibers from the comb cylinder.

4c. The combination with the apparatus claimed in claim 3, of the means for carrying out the process claimed in claim 2, consisting of a narrow endless band co-acting i with the travelling hands referred to in claim 3, means for supporting and traversing the band laterally to superimpose or double the ribbons of fiber and means for removing the doubled ribbons from the band and transferring them to a roller or to a sliver can.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands in the presence of two wit nesses.

G. C. LAURENCY. M. VIGIER.

Witnesses Koss EssoN, FREDK BUSHLY.