US2383903A - Loom - Google Patents

Description

Aug. 28, 1945. I L. J.IZERBEIE 2,383,903

LOOM

Filed July 7, 1941 Patented Aug. 28, 1945 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE LooM Louis J. Zerbee, Bellefontaine, Ohio Application July 7, 1941, Serial No. 401,333

4 Claims.

This invention relates to a loom and more particularly to a loom adapted for weaving spring wire into a metallic screen.

An object of this invention is to weave a' wire screen from continuous length. wires used as the warp, so that the loom may operate continuously night and day without interruption normally caused by winding the warp wires upon a warp drum.

Another object of this invention is to provide a loom that is automatic in its operation, that is easily operated, that is dependable, that weaves steel wire into high quality metallic screen produced cheaply and efficiently.

Other objects and advantages reside in the construction of parts, the combination thereof and the mode of operation, as will become more apparent from the following description.

In the drawing,

Figure 1 is a side elevation of the loom assembly, together with a portion of the warp mill, with parts omitted for the sake of clearness.

Figure 2 is an enlarged sectional view of the tensioning'means and a part of the drum.

In the past, looms have been utilized for weaving screen wire from fine wire that is rather soft and flexible. Heavier wire has also been woven; but in weaving heavier wireno automatic shuttle has been used. Instead, the weft has been placed in position manually in most cases. or semi-manually. If put in by the machine or hand, it is pushed through in place of being pulled through. Furthermore. the warp of the metallic screen has been supplied from a drum that is periodically rewound, halting'the o eration of the loom during the rewinding of the drum. In some cases it has been the practice ti) operate a loom about'half of the time, the other half of the time being utilized in rewinding or rereeling the drum supplying the warp to the loom and threading the warp through the heddles and the reeds.

In the present embodiment. wire screen which may have approximately eight mesh to the inch is woven from high carbon steel wire. so as to form a metallic screen adaptable for use in the manufacture of cushions for steel porch furniture. as disclosed in my Patent No. 2,126.439. patented August 9. 1938. The steel wire used in weaving this metallic screen is comparatively stiff and cannot be woven on the same type of a loom used for weaving fly screen and the like, in that the wires are too heavy and too rigid for manipulation in such looms, 'which use bobbins on which the weft is wound.

. limited source of Warp material.

This spring screen is now woven upon a loom' that operates automatically and continuously, excepting for short stops to interchange weft coils, in that the warp is supplied from an un- Whenever a spool or reel of warp material is exhausted, another spool, having a new supply, is substituted for the old spool by merely butt welding the ends of the wire together. The butt welded joint thus produced is not much thicker than the regular wire, so that the welded wire is fed through the loom without interrupting the operation thereof The type of wire is a high carbon manganese steel wire, that is purchased in the form of coils. These coils are first rewound upon spools wire tensioning mechanism and wrapped twice around a large drum. After encircling the drum, which drum is actuated so as to supply the wire to the loom at a proper rate of speed, the wires pass through a second tensioning device, through the heddles and tlie reeds.

Broadly, the loom includes warp wire feeding and manipulating means, a beater, a weft wire source of supply and tensioning device, a weft wire crimping device, a weft feeding device. automatic shuttle driving mechanism, beater driving mechanism and wire shippers or shears, in addition to the usual loom structure, as modified. The structural details and the operation of these r ous features have been fully described in my oonending application Serial No. -287.493. filed July 24. 1939, for Loom, and ripening into United States Letters Patent No. 2,272.456 on February in. 942. Only the portion of the loom relating to the warp wire feeding and manipulating means is described herein.

Wa'rpwire feeding and manipulating means Referring to the drawing, and particularly to Figure l, the wires 20 form the warp of the web 22 that is woven from high carbon manganese steel wire. Instead of high carbon steel wire, any other spring wire may be used, providing it has the proper resiliency and the other requisites desirable in the manufacture of cushioning devices for use as seats and back rests in porch furniture. chairs, seats and other resilient shock-albsoribingdevices. The wires 20 are supplied to the'loom from spools 24, there being one spool 24 for each wire .of'the warp. These spools 24 are spool substituted therefor.

removably mounted in a pair of racks 26, only one of which has been shown. These racks 26 are arranged to the rear of the loom and extend in parallel relation. Furthermore, the amount of wire on each spool difiers, so that the wire from one spool alone becomes exhausted at one time. When the wire "on one spool is nearly exhausted, the spool is removed fro-m the rack 26 and. a new The end of the wire on the old spool and the free end of the'wire on the new spool are butt welded. In' Figure 1 the gripper jaws or terminals I20 are used to schematically illustrate the electric terminals of a butt-welding device.

One pair of terminals I engages the trailing end 20a of th wire in 'l fi the loom and the other pair of terminals l20 en gages the leading end 2617 of the wire of anew spool that is being substituted for an exhausted By mounting the spools'in-twd rackstandmounting the racks in spaced relation from each'other at the rear of thel'oo'm, a path is formed between the wires passing from the spools to the loom, which permits the attendant to replace or substitute new spools as the old ones. are exhausted.

The wires 20 constituting thewarp are passed through a tensioning device that includes a plurality of transverselydisposed bars, andtensio-ning Ibar 3|, cooperatingwith a tensioning member 32 clampd in positiom-bygsuitable adjusting screws 34 to tension the wire as it advances from the spools. From the bars 30 and the tensioning member 32, veach wire is wrapped twice around the drum 36 and then through a second tensioning device including transversely disposed bars 38 and a pair of tensioning members 40 and 41 clamped in position by screwsv 42; The drum 36 is driven through a chain of gears 44; :onl one gear of WhlCh'lS shown, from a suitable source of, power not-shown. I 1

The tensioning member 30, 3|, 32, 38,40 and 4! are mounted in close proximity tothe drum. These tensiom'ng members function as guides for the wires, preventing the wires from; creeping on the drunn-in spite of the fact thatthe drum is coated with an abrasive material; Thiscauses anend'wise thrust of the drum, which is resisted by the frame of the loom.. j

The driving mechanism .is so angular displacement .of theldrtun during each cycle of operation of thel omLis equal to the length-of wire extending betvveenjthe centers of the weft wires; If, for, example, aneight mesh screen is woven, that is, eight meshes to the inch, the periphery of the drum is rotated approximately one-eighth of arrinch duringeachcycle of the operation of the loom. ,The warp. wires being wrapped twice around thedrum and properly tensionedare advanced a distance equal to the peripheral movement of the drum. The double wrapping of each wire 20 about the drum creates sufiicientsurface friction so as to cause the wires to move inunison with the drum, no faster and no slower. The mechanism of the loom will, of course, tend to pull the wires away from the 'drum,'as will appear more fully later The wires forming the warp ofthe welb advance from the transversely disposed bars-38 through two groups of heddles 54 and 56. --Thef heddles 54 and'56; as is well known to those skilled in the art, are supported'by a flexible chain, cable or other suitableflexiblemember 58,- extending arranged that the Beater Thus far the. portion of the loom and parts associated therewith are used primarilyfin supplying the warp wires. In addition to the warp wires, it is necessary to supply the weft wires in proper relation with respect to the manipulation of the warp wires. Due to the rigidity and the stiffness ofthe spring wire used, it is necessary to form or crimp the weft wire before it is woven -'irito the material; Th'e warp wires need not be crimped, as the separation of the warp wires to forn'i the shed, in cooperation with the operation of :the beatenautomatically crimps or forms the warp wires. The crimping -me'chanismfor the weft'wire, the severing device andth'e automatic Weft feeding'devioe are allass'o'cia'ted with and mounted'upon' the beater frame. l

The standards 10 support a transversely, dis-' .posedzshaft MIL-supporting a'pair of rocker arm's I02, only one of which igshown. These rocker arms I02 support a pair of angle irons l06-and' .108 transversely 'disposed "with respect to the loom. These angle irons support the reed ele ments H0; shown schematically, forming the beater; There is one reed element between each pair of adjacent warp wires. if

j Beater satay meat-mar The beatertwhich includes a plurality of reeds I I0 panning the .distance' between 'angleirons I06 and I08, is actuated througlra pair: of links 402, onlyone ofwhich is shown inFigure 1,-havingtheir forward endspivotally attached to the upright members I02-and the rear ends-attached to a pairof crank-arm 404, one on each-end of the shaft 406-journa1led in the frame of the loom and driven insynchronism-with the shaft 16.

The shaft 406 rotates at twicethe speed of the shaftIB, as theshaft-16rotates once for one complete cycle of the operation"ofthe loom, during which cycle the beater reciprocates twice; so as to position two sueceedingweft wires; as is well known to those skilledin --the,art.

As the beater reciprocatesto position the weft wires in the shed, the beater exerts a pull upon the warp wires, So as'to pull: the -warp wires through the second ,tensioningmechanism located between the beater and the-drumfifir :Thus, it

is seen that there is-one tensioning device, in

cludingmembers 3! and 312 that tensions the" warp wires before th'e warp wiresadvance to the drum and there is a second tensioning device that tensions the wiresafte'r they leave the drum.

7 Mode of operdiionfje I .After the warp wires have been properly :threaded or-strung through the loom and a coil of weft wire-hasbeen mounted inposition with an end projecting .throughtheprimping rollers,

the driving motor which has not, been shown,

may be started. This motor drivesthedrum 36 at 'a rate of speed compatible with the mesh of the screen to-be- Woven. Asthe surface ofthe drum 36 may be-ofmetalo of wood, slippage of tho warp wires is prevented by suitable abrasive or friction producing means.- The abrasive :ma-

7o terial may be applied by covering-the periphery lengths, so that the warp wires become exhausted at different times. When the warp wire on one spool is practically exhausted, the remaining .por-

tion of the warp wire is unwound, the spool is removed, a new spool inserted and the end of the wire of the exhausted spool and the end of the wire of the new spool are butt welded, with out stopping the loom and without interrupting the operation thereof. As far as the warp wires are concerned, the loom may operate continuously without interruption, the butt weld being of such dimensions that it will pass through the loom without interference.

Instead of rewinding the steel wire upon spools or ribbons, the coils of wire as received from the factory may be inserted'upon proper dispensing reels or supports, ther being one coil for each warp wire.

Although the preferred modification of the device has been described, it will be understood that within the purview of this invention various changes may be made in the form, the combination thereof and mode of operation, which generally stated consist in a device capable of carrying out the objects set forth as disclosed and defined in the appended claims.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. A wire feeding mechanism for use in a loom having a beater, said wire feeding mechanism including a drum mounted for rotation, means for rotating said drum so that its upper surface moves in the-same direction as the warp wires are fed, means for supplying relatively stiff carbon steel wires to the drum, each warp wire being wound at least twice around the periphery of the drum, and tension means for the wires, said tension means being located betweenthe drum and the beater of the loom.

2. A wire feeding mechanism for use in a loom having a beater, said wire feeding mechanism including a drum mounted for rotation, means for rotating said drum so that its upper surface moves in the same direction as the warp wires are fed, means for supplying relatively stiff carbon .steel wires to the drum, each warp wire being wound at least twice around the periphery of the drum, and a pair of tensioning means for the wires, one of said tensioning means being located between the wire supplying means and the drum, and the other tensioning means being located between the drum and the beater of the loom.

, 3. In a loo-m for weaving a metallic screen from continuous lengthwarp wires obtained by butt weldin the trailing end of one spool to the free end of another, the combination including a plurality of supports, a plurality of spools mounted upon said supports, there being one spool for each warp wire, said spools having unequal lengths of warp wire, means for releasably supporting the spools on said supports so that as the wire on one spool becomes exhausted another spool with a fresh supply of warp wire may be substituted for the exhausted spool, the trailing end of the wire from the exhausted spool being butt welded to the free end of the substituted spool, and wire feeding means for positively feeding the warp wires from the spools to the loom, said wire feeding means including a drum around which each warp wire is wouund at least twice, means for drivingthe drum so that its upper surface moves in the same direction as the warp wires are fed, each warp wire being wound at least twice around the periphery of the drum,

and tension means for the wires, said tension means being located between-the drum and the beater of the loom.

4. In a loom for weaving a metallic screen from continuous length warp wires, the combination includin a plurality of coils of warp wires obtained by butt welding the trailing end of one spool to the free end of another, means for releasably supporting the coils so that as the wire of one coil becomes exhausted another coil with a fresh supply of warp wire may be substituted for the exhausted coil, the trailing end of the wire from the exhausted coil being butt welded to the free end of the substituted coil, wire feeding means for positively feeding the warp wires from the coils to the loom in synchronism with the operation thereof, said last mentioned means including a drum mounted for rotation, means for driving the drum so that its upper surface moves in the same direction as the warp wires 'arefed, each warp wire being wound at least twice around the periphery of the drum, and tension means for the wires, said tension means being located between the drum and beater of the loom.

LOUIS J. ZERBEE.

. CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION. Patent No. 2, 8 ,903. August as, 191

. LOUIS J. ZERBEE.

It is hereby certified that error appears in the printed specification of the above numbered patent requiring correctiori as follows: Page 5,"'f'irst column. line for "ribbons" read --b0bbins--;' and. that the said Letters Patent should be read with this correction therein that the came may conform to the record of the case in the Patent Office.

Signed and sealed this 29th da of January, A. p. i9b,6.

.Les'lie Frazer (Seal) Firs t Assistant'commissi-onez of Patents.

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