US2371032A - Armored loom shuttle - Google Patents

Description

N MM A March 6, 1945. A DAVIS ARMORED LOOM SHUTTLE Filed Dec. 51, 1943 Patented Mar. 6, 1945 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ARMORED LOOM SHUTTLE Harry A. Davis, Hopedale, Mass. .Application December 31, 1943, Serial No. 516,386 4 claims. l(o1. 139-196) This invention relates to improvements in loom shuttles, and the general object of the vinvention is to provide an armored loom shuttle which is less likely to become damaged vor fractured .when in normal use by the impact of the picker mechanism and which will therefore be less likely to be diverted from the proper direction of flight than shuttles heretofore produced.

The object of the invention-therefore broadly is to provide a loom shuttle of longer life, greater accuracy of operation when in use, and which will enable the production of more uniform and perfect fabric than shuttles heretofore employed.

More specically the object of the invention is to provide a loom shuttle with a stronger point structure and increased bearing surfaces to en gage the walls and binder ofthe shuttle box so that the wear of the shuttle andthe shuttle box and binder will be greatly minimized. l

A further object ofthe invention is to provide a loom shuttle of such rigid construction and contour as will avoid defective shuttle operations which result in smashes, breakages, snagging of the yarn, etc., which results in producing imperfect cloth as well as delays in the operation of the loom resulting therefrom.

ln the manufacture of usual armored loom shuttles .a block of wood of rectangular cross section and of suitable length is shaped to pro vide a vsubstantially rectangular body or core portion which when the armored facing or facings are secured to the surfaces thereof will be of the desired standard size and the end portions of the block convergingly curved to a truncated end. A plate or plates of tough grainless or laminated facings of uniform thickness are then bonded to the desired side or sides and the con- Vergingly end portions of the Wooden body or core throughout their lengths. Each end of the -body or core is then drilled axially to receive the shank of the conical metal tip andat a narrow distance therefrom is provided with a concentric groove to receive a ferrule or Wire coil to prevent rupture of the thin shell of wood remaining between-the shank of the tip and the ferrule as the shank of the tip is forced into place. The end portions of the armored body are'then sized down to the size and shape of the base of the metal tip and the shuttle nally smoothly finished. By reason of this construction only` a small restricted area of Wood remains, in usual armored shuttles, tov abut the base of the metal tip or the fibre or soft metal washer which is usually interposed therebetween.

Furthermore the sizing down of theconical end portions of usual armored shuttles frequently so thins the end of the armor as to eX- pose portions of the wood at the adjacent thin edges of the facing which, because of repeated impact of the picker stick `upon the metal tip,

. frequently results', when the shuttle is in use, 'in

` is to provide a loom shuttle construction in which the truncated ends of the wooden body or core present a sufficiently large area to withstand the impactof the picker'stick mechanismv without deformation or fracture and thereforev to insure longer life of the shuttle and accuracy in its flight and also to provide a facing or armor having su'icient thickness to completely surround the truncated end of the body or core at the base of the shuttle tip or the washer which is interposed between the truncated end of the body and the metal shuttle tip.

AUsual loom shuttles comprise a rectangular chambered body having conoidally converging end portions which merge into the fiat surfaces of the body and even if the shuttle is -in perfect alinement in its flight the rounded surfaces vof the end portion engage the binder and walls of the shuttle box with a tangential point contact which in the continuous use of the shuttle re sults in the wearing and fraying of the portions of the shuttle thus engaged and alsoinwearf ing a groove in the binding material which requires frequent replacement of the binder andl also necessitates the squaring up ofthe shuttle and consequent weakening of the same." The pertinence of this trouble can be no better em phasized than. from the fact that mills of any size are equipped'with shuttle sanding or other devices to redress the shuttles by squaring them and frequently Sizing them to another standard y 'gage so that first-class goods can be woven.' Such repairs of the shuttle box require the stoppage of the loom with consequent hold-up in production and together with the replacement andrepair of shuttles further increase the cost of production of acceptable fabric.

Another object of the invention is to provide a loom shuttle in which the curvedly converging end portions willpresent fiat faces to engage the shuttle box and binder and thus with ya contact -whichfwill avoid `such wearing of the wallsf of the shuttle and the' binder and consequently further insure accuracy of ight of the shuttle.

These and other objects 'and features of thel invention vwill more fully appear from the fol' lowing description and the accompanying drawing and will be particularly pointed out in the j A preferred embodiment of the invention is Y illustrated in the drawing as applied to a selfthreading. shuttle of the Draper type.

,In the drawing: f Fig. 1 is a plan view of a ,typical automatic self-threading shuttle embodying the invention centrally broken away to indicate that the shut-` tle may be of any desired length;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view of an end portionv of the iibre covering or armor employed in the present invention show-' ing in dotted lines the shape of the end' portion of an armored plate for shuttles heretofore employed; v l s Fig; Sis a view, mainly in horizontal central section, of one end portion of an armored wooden shuttle` embodying the invention, the metal tip being shown 'in elevation and indicating by a dotted line the'contour of the end portion of the y chamber 2 extending vertically through the body to receive the bobbin with a bobbin holder4 3 having a forked end 4 extending intol the chamber 2,130 receive and holdv the base of the bobbin andto permit replacement of the bobbin in Yan automatic loom. The opposite end of the body is provided with a suitable recess 5 (Fig. 2) `to receive the threading block 6 (Fig. 1) With the usual groove 'I extending from the thread eye toward the front lof the shuttle and the usual longitudinal channel in which the thread runs duringy ,the flight of the shuttle, The main rec'- tangular body I of theshuttle has continuing convergingly curved end portions 9 extending diversion of the axis of the tip with that of the shuttle body as to vcause misalinenent 'of the shuttle in its flight.

In the nal turning down of the usual conoidal ends of the armor fibre-clad shuttle theyadjacent edges of the armor plate are frequently so cut away. as to expose unreinforced portions of the truncated end o-f the wooden body therebylenabling said ends to be more easily fractured. Furthermore.. the thin adjacent edges of the armored facings are likely to become loosened or detached and will present frayed or roughened edges which in the flight of the shuttle will snag or break the warp by the shuttle. v

In theV present invention, the armor plate or or the filling which is carried A.plates Il are of uniform thickness throughoutr therectangular bodyportion of the shuttle andk are gradually diminished in thickness at the respective end portions to provide flat faces I9 as shown inxFig. 2; to bebonded-to theconverging end portions ofthe core; orbody.' By'reason of this construction the converging end portionsof the body may be of greater thickness than in usual constructions as. is shown by the 'solidline 2B', thereby greatly increasing theA wooden area of the truncated endwhich engages the washer I8 or the baseof the shuttle tipi.` t

In' the.,preferredxembodiment of the invention illustratedthe'flat faces of the rectangular/shuttle body'continue in rectangular cross section to the truncatedends thereof and thethickness of the armored facing progressively diminishes from i the main'body toitstruncated end. lInthis construction theshuttle tip instead of beingroonical is of pyramidal form complementary toxthe rectangular truncated end ofthe shuttle body; In

to thetruncated ends l0. In usual constructions the armor plate or plates II of grainless bre ,or of laminated construction are4 of uniform thickness-throughout their length as indicated.

by the dotted line I2, Fig. 2, and when applied to the continually converging end portion of the 'body necessitate the cutting; down of the converging wooden portion of the body or core along the dotted lines I3, as illustrated in Fig. 3, so

that the truncateclend of the wooden body is:

ofy restricted area. As all shuttles are necesf sarily vprovided with a hard 'metal tip Ill the shank, I5 of which extends axially into the trun.

cated end of theV shuttle body, and. usually are provided with a ferrule or wire -coil I6 located in'. a channel'which is narrowly spaced from the shank of the shuttle to prevent the annular layerV ofwood I'l therebetween from splitting,y the elective area of the truncated end which abuts the base of the metal tip or a Washer I8l interposed between the truncated end and the base ofthe tip is greatly restricted and during `the use of the-"shuttle is likely to be deformed or broken by the repeated hammering of the picker sti-ck mechanism thereby causing such such'constructions the greater wooden area ofthe end of the shuttlerbody orcore is'maintained, and the relatively Vthin end of thefacing which terminates flush with the endof the body or core and Aabuts a vwasherwhich is interposed betweenv the base of the rectangular; tip, is, of uniform thickness throughout and the wooden end of the shuttle is uninterruptedly covered and reinforced.

'Desirably the armor facing is of hard,l tough grainless brous material which presents a smooth polished surface. It will be understood however that other types of armor may be em yployed such as suitable plastic material or the lilre which is of grainless construction and sufficiently tough and hard to withstand ,usage to lwhich the .shuttle is put'and which willpresentasmooth surface. y v By reason of this/rectangular crosssectional i yconstruction of the tapering end portion. of the of the shuttle box or binderorxthe local wearing- I of the shuttlel as in thecase ofshuttles having-aA y convergingendportion ofrounded contour; ,Y

The 'additional wood at the end of the-shuttle block provided bythe present invention enables the shuttle to withstand theiimpa'ct'offtheblows of the picker mechanism without. thelikelihood ofl fracture or breakage and thereby greatly in1 creasesr the accuracy of operation: of: the. shuttleand the length of its life.v l f 1' Furthermore by providing the bottom and a' side or sidesv of the shuttle with grainlesszfacing. the friction of-the' shuttle upon th'elayrand shutel tle box is greatly reduced. f

In the embodiments of `theinvention'- the upper edgeor edges; of the facing presentagaf smooth grainless surface which will avoid snagging and breakage of the threads with which it comes in contact.

The above and other advantages of the present invention Will be readily appreciated by those skilled in the art.

It Will be understood that While the invention is illustrated herein as embodied in an automatic loom shuttle it may be employed in other types of shuttles, that the armor facing may be of any suitable preferably grainless material, that the facing may be applied to one or more sides of the shuttle including the bottom and top, and that the particular embodiments of the invention shown and described herein are of an illustrative character and not restrictive of the meaning andv prising a main chambered portion of substan.

tially rectangular cross section and integral continuing end portions of rectangular cross section curvedly converging to truncated ends of said body, a facing of hard tough armoring fibrous material bonded throughout its area to a side of said main portion and to the continuing end portions thereof progressively decreasing in thickness from said main portion to the truncated ends of the body and pyramidal metal tips xedly se-y cured to the truncatedends in axial alinement with the body having a base conforming to and abutting the truncated ends of said `body and facing, whereby the converging flat sidesof the shuttle will engage the wall and binder of the shuttle box.

2. A loom shuttle having a wooden body comprising a main chambered portion of substantially rectangular cross section and integral con- 1 tinuing end portions of rectangular cross section curvedly converging to the truncated ends of said body, facings of hard tough grainless fibrous material bonded throughout its area to the bottom and an adjacent side or sides of said main portion and the continuing end portions thereof, the facings for the main areas of said bottom and sides being of uniform thickness with the thickness of said fa'cings progressively decreasing from abutting the respective truncated end of said body and facing and each having an integral shank firmly embedded in said body in axial aline# n ment therewith.

3. A loom shuttle of that type having a chambered integral Wooden body of substantially rectangular cross section With the end portions curvedly converging to truncated ends, a facing of tough armoring material conforming to and bonded throughout its` area to a side of said body, and tapering metal tips' having bases conforming to and abutting the respective ends of the armored body, in which the armoring material progressively decreases in thickness along the curvedly converging portions of said side of the body to the ends thereof which abut the'bases of the tips to provide at each end a greater wooden end area engaging the base of the tip than if the facing were of uniform thickness throughout its length and thereby increasing the resistancejof the shutf tle to the shocks imparted by the picker mech- -conforming to and abutting the respective ends' of the faced body, in which the said flat facings progressivelyV decrease in thickness along vthe curvedly converging portions of'said sides of the body to the ends thereof Which abut the bases of the tips to provide at each end a greater Wooden end area engaging the base of the tip than if the facings were of uniform thickness throughout their lengths and thereby increasing the re'sist-v ance of the shuttle to the shocks imparted by the picker mechanism of the loom.

HARRY 'A. DAVIS.

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