US2097540A

US2097540A - Treating composite strands

Info

Publication number: US2097540A
Application number: US121399A
Authority: US
Inventors: Homer D Tracy
Original assignee: LINEN THREAD CO Inc
Current assignee: LINEN THREAD CO Inc
Priority date: 1937-01-21
Filing date: 1937-01-21
Publication date: 1937-11-02
Anticipated expiration: 1954-11-02

Description

Nov. 2, 1937. H. D. TRACY TREATING COMPOSITE STRANDS Fil ed Jan. 21, "1937 4 Sheets-Sheet l R Y E W W m c o m W T A D V v Iv m a w 7 R Nov. 2, 1937.

D. TRACY TREATING COMPOSITE STRANDS Filed Jan. 21, 1937 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR, l/omerD Trac BY ATTORNEY Nov.-2, 1937. v H, Q RACY 2,097,540

TREATING COMPOSITE STRA N DS Filed Jan. 21, 1937 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR, flam w I. y-

ATTORNEY.

Nov. 2, 1937. H, D, A 2,097,540

I TREATING COMPOSITE STRANDS Filed Jan. 21, 1937 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTOR, f/omarD Tracy,

ATTORNEY.

Patented Nov. 2, 1937 TREATING COMPOSITE STRANDS Homer D. Tracy, Ridgewood, N. J., assignor to The Linen) Thread Co. Inc., New York, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware Application January zl 1937, Serial No. 121,399

7 Claims.

This invention relates to the manufacture of twine, thread, cord and the like from long-fiber.

material, as best fibers of jute, hemp, flax and the like.

After softening jute and subjecting it to the action of a breaker card the resulting sliver,=according to the prevailing practice, undergoes the following treatments: It is subjected toa number of drawing operations in drawing machines by which the sliver is drawn out or extended, involving longitudinal displacement of its fibers relatively to each other, and in one or more of these operations it is usually doubled with another sliver or slivers with the purpose of providing a sliver as uniform in structure as possible upon completion of the drawing treatment. sliver resulting from the final drawing is deposited in a can which is then conveyed to a roving machine; as it issues from the final drawing the sliver is left having tensile strength which is suflicient for undergoing such depositing and also for its subsequent withdrawal from the can. In the roving machine it undergoes further drawing (to wit, to a size suitable for the next or spinning step) and, to offset the frailty or weakness it would otherwise now have, making it troublesome to spin it, it is given a slight twist, and is simultaneously wound on a bobbin. If, on the final drawing, it were drawn fine enough for spinning .it would lack the tensile strength necessary to insure its beingcontinuously pulled and hence lifted from the can without disruption thereof. There is usually a large number of bobbins to a roving frame. When the bobbins of such frame havefall been filled with the roves or slightly twisted slivers theyv are con-' veyed to a spinning machine, being placed on a creel therein, and from them the slivers pass to the spinning operation. I V I I 1 It is obvious that the rovingstep not only de-, lays the procedure but that considerable power is required for operation of the roving machine; for these reasons and also on account of the large amount of labor required to transfer the bobbins from the roving to the spinning. machine, it is manifestly desirable to eliminate the roving step altogether and if possible convey the slivers from the drawing directly to the spinning machine, as in the cans into which they are delivered by the latter machine and each of which has a capacity equal to a considerable number of bobbins.

By this invention it is found possible to eliminate the roving step, the slivers being taken directly from the masses thereof, as in the cans, to the spinning machine. Thus: Each sliver is as! Such sumed to be already drawn to a state in which,

as so merely drawn, it is too weak to withstand continuously the strain imposed thereon when it is pulled upwardly from the sliver mass or indeed the can. Therefore it is torsioned at .a point at or approximately at the upper terminus of the course of its upward travel and relatively to the mass and thereby twisted from the point of such torsioning toward the mass, or backward, and to a degree suflicient to prevent disruption of the portion of the sliver at any time, within such course. I

My method does not create in the sliver or its constituent filaments anything objectionable as more or less perman'ent'bends, since the 'twist therein need not'be more tightlyieifected than ina rovingoperation. In fact, the method hasthis advantage over forming the sliver into a rove that in the latter case the rove comes to thespinning machine with a twist which hasto be eliminated, at least if gill-spinning is resorted to, whereas according to my inventionthe twist that is de-' veloped in the sliver anterior to the point at which the torsion is applied will be eliminated, so that the sliver will come to the means, as retaining rolls, first encountered therebyin the spinning I machine in substantially the same untwisted state in which it exists as delivered, drawn, to the can. r j

As will appear, the twisting of the sliver in the.

indicated course may be accompanied by an in; termittent pulling of .the sliver .from the can,; which has the advantage of loosening the sliver from the mass thereof in the can in case it should tend not to pay off with the desired freedom from suchmass. I I 1' Usually, in the spinning machine there is provision for effecting drawing of the sliver just prior to actual spinning, as by the use of retaining and drawing rolls. My inventiorr further contemplates maintaining a twist in the sliver between the media (as such retaining and drawing rolls) by which the drawing of the sliver is effected, which involvesthis further advantage, that drawing takes place with the sliver in a compacted state, with a consequently more uniform displacement of the fibers longitudinally.

In the drawings,

Fig. 1 is a vertical front-to-rear sectional view of one type of spinning machine with the cans, illustrating the invention; f

Fig. 2 is a similar view, though partly in elevation, of another type of spinning machine with the cans, illustrating the invention; 1

Fig. 3 is an enlarged view of a portionof what the corresponding mass thereof.

is shown in Fig. 2, being also a vertical front-torear sectional view and showing certain parts like those in Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a front elevation of the system of elements whereby the slivers are subjected to torsion; and

Fig. 5 a diagram illustrative of a feature of the invention. i

In Fig. l the invention is shown applied to plain spinning. That is, I designates any suitable and well known type of spinning unit arranged in the frame 2 of the machine and with merely retaining rolls 3 and drawing rolls 4 operating on the sliver next before the actual spinning effected by said spinning unit." 5 designates cans containing the sliver masses delivered thereto (by the last drawing machine) and from which the slivers are respectively supplied'to spinning units such as l by the advancing action of the retaining and drawing rolls, such slivers having the size required for introduction to the spinning machine. 6 designates sliver guides arranged on the frame respectively over the cans. On the rail 2a of the frame 2, to wit, at an elevation above the tops of the cans and here also approximating that of the retaining rolls 2, is arranged the means for applying torsion to the slivers and for directing each sliver in a upward course from The zone in which disruption is most likely to ensue may here be taken as extending from said means to guide 6, which means takes the following form in the present example (see Figs. 3 and 4).

A housing, comprising front and'rear

sections

1 and 8, is afiixed to the frame by arms 8a on the rear section, the two sections'having a horizontal series of opposed bearing openings 9' in whichare to be journaled the elements which are to apply torsion to the slivers. Each such element includes a gear l0 having hubs lfl'a journaled in the openings 9 and an axial bore lllb, theseveral gears meshing with each other. The several elements rotate in an upright plane and each includes an arm H which projects from the rear face of the gear-hub at about a 45 angle, the arm having a bent-off extension I la by which it is secured to said hub. Each element also includes a tubular sliver-guide l2 fast in the end of the arm at angle of thereto. Each sliver a extends from its guide 6 up and through the guide l2 for such sliver, is then bent toward the bore lllb, and is then again bent to pass through the bore to and between the retaining and drawing rolls and finally to the spinning unit. The train of elements'may be driven by a worm I3 on a shaft l4 suitably journaled in a bearing 15 on the frame and driven, as through gearing l6,

from some suitably rotated shaft'll of the machine. V

As each sliver travels from the sliver mass in its'can to the corresponding spinning unit the constantly rotated and above described element forapplying torsion to the sliver maintains a twist in the sliver which usually extends down from said element past the guide 6 to the sliver mass in the can, which twist gives the necessary added strength'to the part of the sliver at any time affected thereby, to wit, to enable the sliver,

though otherwise too weak for the purpose, continuously to be pulled from the can. The action of each torsion element is as follows: It carries the part of the sliver at any time contained in its guide around in the orbit of such guide, which of course would not be responsible for the twisting if the sliver were free of the guide in. the

sense that the guide, in its orbital movement, rotated relatively to the said part of the sliver. But said part of the sliver is confined to the guide so that incident to each complete orbital movement it also undergoes some if not complete ro-' tation around its own axis. This confining is not due to any appreciable all-around constricting of the sliver by the guide, which would possibly result in disruption of the sliver, but togthe friction existing between the two and incident to the mentioned bends which it maintains therein. Of course I do not wish to be limited to this particular form of torsion element, but it has the advantage indicated that, on account of the orbital movement of the entrance to its guide, it

.causes intermittent displacement of the sliver and so tends to loosen it from the mass thereof in the can.

When any given point in the twisted portion of a sliver attains the torsion element the latter acts at that point to untwist, wherefore the sliver may assume a flat form for contact 'with'the' re-' taining rolls, or it may be some'such guide as I B in Fig. 2. See Fig. 5, where it will be evident that when the volute at point'x, there developed righthand, attains the torsion element the latter will tend to develop it left-hand, or untwist it. In practice, and as shown by Fig. 3, the twist at'the anterior side of the torsion element may"spill over or carry into and somewhat beyond said element, for which purpose said element andthe element in contact with which the sliver is next, to pass in flat form are su'itably spaced. "Fig.1 5 is present to show'the tendency 'of, thetorsiori element to double twist, as right-hand at the left and left-hand at the right, which would be the result if the sliver were not. moving as per the arrow. But once the sliver is in motion the twist at theleft progressively is dissipated, as "ex: plained.

In Fig. 1 is shown atorsion element l9, being a worm-gear journaled in a fixed housing Ml and driven by a suitably driven worm 2|, the gear having a bore l9a oblique to and crossing its axis and being arranged between the retaining and drawing rolls. This, when in rotation, also forms a twist anterior to it and actsto'dissipate such twist progressively as already described. The result here is to compact and thus strengthen the portion of the sliver undergoing draft. The torsion element is here placed sufficiently 'close to the drawing rolls so that the fibers, not so strengthened between said element anddrawing rolls, may bridge the interventing gap, thus to in-,

sure against parting of the sliver in thatSpace.

In Figs. 2 and 3 the constructionis all essen tially the same as in Fig.1 excepting that here the sliver, in passing from the retaining to the drawing rolls, is acted on" by gill mechanism l9; which maybe of any standard construction and needs no description here. In such a case the sliver would also come to the gill mechanism without twist, as is'necessary, as explained When a sliver is formed into a rove' any fiber ends that might otherwise project fro'mits selvage (others that might so project become more or less impacted into the sliver by the pressure the sliver undergoes before it is actually spun) are more or less bound in, or held unproj ecting, by the twisting effected to form the rove. Ac; cording to this invention fibers which might otherwise be left projecting from the selvage ,of the sliver as it comes from the last drawing become pressed into and hence bound in' the sliver by the pressure, with more or less torsion present, which the sliver undergoes in passing through the torsion element.

In the case where, as usual, a portion of the slivers course is in an upward direction the tersion element forms a guide up to which the sliver travels and through which (viz, the passage of guide l2 and the bore lob) it is reeved, so that a part of the sliver is always pendant from such guide.

Having thus fully described my invention what I claim is:

1. The method of converting a sliver into a spun product which consists in drawing the sliver to a state in which it is too weak continously to withstand the strain imposed thereon when it is pulled in an upward direction, depositing the thus-drawn sliver in a mass, pulling the thusdrawn sliver from such mass and spinning it and in so pulling the sliver directing it from said mass in an upwardly reaching course, and meanwhile continually twisting the portion of the sliver at any time in such course to a degree sufiicient to prevent disruption of such portion.

2. The method of converting a sliver into a spun product which consists in drawing the sliver to a state in which it is too weak continuously to withstand the strain imposed thereon when it is pulled in an upward direction, depositing the thus-drawn sliver in a mass, pulling the thusdrawn sliver from such mass and spinning it and in so pulling the sliver directing it from said mass in an upwardly reaching course, and meanwhile continually torsioning the sliver at a point approximating the upper terminus of such course and relatively to the mass and thereby twisting the sliver from such point toward the mass and to a degree sufiicient to prevent disruption of the portion of the sliver at any time within said course.

3. The method of converting a sliver into a spun product which consists in drawing the sliver to a state in which it is too weak' continuously to withstand the strain imposed thereon when it is pulled in an upward direction, depositing the thus-drawn sliver in a mass, pulling thethusdrawn sliver from such mass and spinning it and in so pulling the sliver directing it from said mass in an upwardly reaching course, and meanwhile continually twisting the portion of the sliver at any time in such course to a degree sufficient to prevent disruption of such portion and also exerting intermittent pulls on the sliver in a direction from the mass;

4. In combination, with a machine for exerting pulling efiort on and forming into a spun product a sliver drawn to a state too weak, as merely so drawn, to withstand as to a portion thereof at any time in pendant state the strain thereon, constantly rotatingsliver guidingmeans up to and through which the sliver travels and from which a portion thereof exists in pendant state, said means having a sliver guide whose entrance is eccentric to the axis of rotation of said means..-

5. In combination, With .a machine for exerting pulling effort on and forming into a spun product a sliver drawn to a state too Weak, as merely so drawn, to withstand as to a portion thereof at any time in pendant state the strain thereon, constantly rotating sliver guiding means up to and through which the sliver travels and from which a portion thereof exists in pendant state, said means having its axis extending laterally with respect to said portion of the sliver and a sliver guide whose entrance is eccentric of the axis of said means.

6. The combination set forth in claim 4 characterized by said guiding means being also a sliver torsion means.

'7. The combination set forth in claim 5 characterized by said guiding means being also a sliver torsion means.

HOMER D. TRACY.