US2534340A - Warp-winding from cakes - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 19, 1950 J. S. CHAYA ETAL WARP-WINDING FROM CAKES Original Filed April 4, 1944 INVENTORS. JOHN k5. CHAYA /LL/AM L. \sPAN/y Patented Dec. 19, 1950 WARP-WINDING FROM CAKES John S. Chaya, Springfield, Pa., and William L. Spann, deceased, late of Concord Township, Delaware County, Pa., by Marian L. Spann, executrix, Chester, Pa., assignors to American Viscose Corporation, Wilmington, Del., a corporation of Delaware Original application April 4, 1944,. Serial No. 529,448. Divided and this application August 13, 1947, Serial No. 768,326

1 Claim.

This invention relates toan improved method for warping filamentary material such as thread, yarn, or the like. More particularly the invention relates to a method of directly warping filamentary material collected in a spinning pot in the form of a package having a cylindrical inner periphery, wherein the material is unwound over the ends of a multiplicity of such packages mounted in stationary position on a creel and directly fed to the warp-beam. This is a division of our pending application, Serial Number 529,448, filed April 4, 1944.

In some methods of producing artificial yarn, thread or the like, as for example in accordance with the viscose process, the material is collected in a spinning pot or bucket in the form of an annular package having a cylindrical inner periphery and known as a cake. It is desirable to warp the material directly from such cakes, in order to avoid undue handling of the thread which presents added opportunity for breaks to occur, thus increasing the possibility that the warped material will possess imperfections such as knots due to pieced ends and also increasing the manufacturing costs as a result of waste, and in order to effect a reduction in the amount of time and labor required in preparing the material for the textile mills.

However, in order to produce a satisfactory warp beam, and avoid varying degrees of stretching along the length of the yarn wound thereon, the thread must be unwound from package form and fed to the warp beam under conditions of substantially constant and uniform tension. Great difliculty has been experienced, heretofore, in unwinding the freshly spun material from the cake obtained from the spinning bucket under such uniform and constant tension conditions, especially when the unwinding operation is effected at high speed. lhe freshly spun cakes comprise a plurality of layers of thread superimposed on each other, which may be more or less irregularly wound and which, at high speed, have a tendency not to be evenly and cleanly drawn oil, the material unwinding from the surface of the package having a tendency to balloon irregularly so that the unwinding loops jam up and become entangled'or snarled. thus subjecting the unwinding thread, at some points thereof, to

undue tension or even causing the thread to drag fore, it is the practice to rewind the material from the cake form onto a plurality of cones, and to then feed the material to the warp-beam from the regularly wound cone-packages mounted on a creel.

It has been suggested to rotatably support a plurality of rayon cakes on a specially constructed creel and unwind the material tangentially from the cakes, at right angles to their axes, dependence being placed on the tangential pull of the unwinding material to effect rotation. That method may be useful for certain purposes, but it is entirely unsuitable for practical use in large scale warping where extremely high operating speeds are an essential requirement because, as the cake rotates, the yarn is subjected to a constant jerking action which, at high operating speeds, causes uncontrollable variations of tension, and thus of stretching, in the unwinding thread and leads to frequent breaks therein. Further, the use of such rotated cakes in high speed warping has the disadvantage that if operation of the warp beam is interrupted temporarily for any reason, the rotation of the cakes, and unwinding of, material therefrom, continues and the loosened or unwound loops of material build up and become tangled, which necessitates discarding a considerable quantity of thread.

Moreover, it is impossible to transfer warp ends from one rotating package to another without twisting and tangling the thread and hence rotating packages are not suitable for use with creels of the magazine type, such as are preferred for large scale warping operations.

One object of the present invention is to provide a method for directly. warping artificial filamentary material. under controlled tension from a multiplicity of rayon cakes obtained by collecting the freshly-spun material in a spinning pot or bucket. facilitate high-speed warping of artificial filamentary material from such rayon cakes without the steps of unwinding the material from the cakes initially obtained and re-winding it on cones, prior to the warping operation.

Another object is to feed yarns or the like directly to a warp-beam over the ends of a plurality of cakes supported on the novel holders mounted to occur and thus reduce the number of imperfec Another object of the invention is to i companying drawing, in which Figure l is an isometric view of a package holder constructed in accordance with our invention;

Figure 2 is a view, in cross-section, of the holder of our invention having a rayon cake supported thereon; and

Figure 3 is a plan view of two elements of a conventional creel and warp-beam set up, the creel having mounted thereon supported rayon cakes in accordance with our invention.

Broadly, the new package holder which constitutes one feature of our invention, comprises a hollow member having a tapered inner surface adapted to grip a cone-shaped holder, such as the holder of a standard cone creel, and a member surrounding at least a portion of said cone-shaped member and having a cylindrical exterior surface for supporting a supply package in the form of a cake, obtained by collecting filamentary material in a spinning pot or bucket. The holder may also include a member associated with the hollow interiorly tapered member and adapted to control the tension by controlling the ballooning, of thread or yarn unwinding over the end of the package, when the holder is used to support a rayon cake or the like during an over-end unwinding operation.

Referring more particularly to Figure 1, the new package holder may comprise an outer cylindrical shell I mounted on a c rcular apertured base plate 2 and surrounding a hol ow inner cone 3 which is fitted into and projects axially from the centrally disposed aperture in base plate 2. Gone 3 is adapted to fit over and grip a standard type of cone holder 4 and is preferably provided at its smaller end with an inturned annular portion 3a presenting a cylindrical internal surface or bore extending axially of the cone a substantial distance. Rigid reinforcing members 6 and 1 are fitted between the outside surface of cone 3 and the inside surface of shell I. An annular recess 8 may be formed between the shell and cone as shown or the member 6 may be flush with the end of the shell I. The axial length of shell I is shown considerably less than the corres onding length of the cone 3. However, the shell may be even shorter than shown or it may be fully as long as the cone ,or even somewhat longer. When it approaches the length of the cone or is of greater length than the cone, it is preferable that the member 6 be disposed some distance within the end of the shell so that, an annular recess is provided about the cone similar to that shown in Figures 1 and 2. It is preferable to use a shell having a length less than that of the cone since such a holder is adaptable for supporting cakes having axial lengths within a wide range of sizes. The tension controlling means comprises a guide I6 spaced axially from the cake and an annular guiding surface which may take the form of an edge or rim of a plate I which may be of any form or shape, but must have a diameter at least as great as, and preferably greater than, the outside diameter of the supply package. so that it projects outwardly with respect thereto. As shown, the tensioncontrolling guiding member I II takes the form of a dished or cupped cover centered with respect to cone 3 having an outer rim projecting backwardly over cake I I Cover I0 is provided with retaining means I2 which pro- Jects into and is held by frictional engagement in the internal surface of the annular portion 3a of cone 3, and serves to retain the cover firmly in place on the holder during an unwinding operation. Cover III is also provided with a knob I3 to facilitate removal and replacement thereof on the holder.

As shown in Figure 2, the rayon cake I I may be supported on the holder by placing the same over shell I. A flexible cufi 9 which may be of any suitable material such as vulcanized fiber, cellulose or the like, may be inserted between shell I and the cake and, due to its ability to contract or expand as required, it automatically adapts the holder to use with otherwise unsupported packages or cakes of any diameter. During warping, the cakes of rayon, which may be wrapped in the usual protective fabric sleeve 20, are placed upon the cake-holders constructed in accordance with the invention and mounted on a conventional creel I4 as shown in Figure 3. The protective fabric is unfolded from the outside of the cake and one end of the fabric is tucked into annular recess 8, while the other end of the fabric is folded around and back of circular or annular base plate 2. The yarn or thread I5 is led oil over the end of each cake, guided around and over the edge of member ID and thence through the guide I6. The guide is adjustable as shown at 2i. The strands from a multiplicity of cakes are carried to a warpbeam II, on which they are wound in the usual manner.

As the yarn or thread is unwound and led over the end of the cake, it tends to balloon out between the cake and guide I6. A certain amount of such ballooning is permissible and even desirable, since it prevents undue tension or pull on the yarn unwinding from the surface of the cake and traveling to the warp-beam. However, ballooning is often irregular, due to irregularities in the windings comprising the cake, and, further, such irregularity is apt to become excessive as the diameter of the cake decreases during the unwinding of the yarn from the surface thereof, or as the result of other variations in the unwinding conditions. When irregularities in the winding are reached during unwinding, they sometimes cause sudden increases in tension causing temporary complete collapse of the balloon. Also, as the rate of revolution of the balloon increases because of decreasing diameter of the cake, the balloon progressively decreases until the point is reached at which the balloon is completely collapsed. When this collapse occurs, regardless of cause, the unwinding yarn drags across the windings at the outer peripheral surface of the cake, and tension is excessive. This dragging from a partially exhausted cake is referred to in the art as run-out drag. Such irregular ballooning must be avoided during warping of the thread in order to ensure constant and uniform tension of the unwinding yarn, and to prevent the yarn from becoming entangled and thus broken or otherwise damaged. Member II! which has a diameter greater than the outside diameter of the rayon cake, and which may be of any shape but projects back over the feeding end of the cake, especially in the case of cakes consisting of heavy yarns, serves as a thread guiding means and holds the ballooning above a predetermined minimum thus ensuring at least a minimum angle of take-off of the yarn as the cake diameter diminishes; so that run-out drag is substantially non-existent. By holding the ballooning of the unwinding yarn above a predetermined minimum, member I0 serves, in conjunction with the adjustable guide IE, to maintain the tension on the thread or yarn substantially uniform throughout the entire unwinding and warping operation.

The invention offers a distinct improvement in the usual methods of preparing yarn or the like produced according to the viscose process for use as the warp of a woven material in subsequent textile operations, since it permits high speed warping directly from the cake initially obtained by after-treating and drying in cake form the freely spun material collected in a spinning pot, and avoids entirely the necessity for coning the material prior to warping the same.

The package holder of our invention may be adapted for use with creels of any type in which the unwinding packages are stationary and may 'be used in any desired position such as horizontal or vertical and in either of such positions the yarn or thread may be unwound over either the top or bottom end :of the package. The method of warping and the novel package holder of our invention are particularly suitable for use in connection with creels of the magazine type where the yarn may be fed continuously in succession over the ends of stationary rayon cakes, the inside end of the feeding yarn or thread of one cake being attached to the outside end of the yarn of a reserve cake as shown at 18 in Figure 3. As shown there the cake-holders are supported in a plurality of pairs, the axes of each cake in a pair being disposed so that they converge, and the guide I6 which cooperates therewith is disposed so, that it is adjustable along the bisectrix of the angle between the two converging axes of the pair.

The over-end unwinding from non-rotating packages permits high operating speeds without undue tension in the yarn and the yarn may be unwound over the ends of the cakes and continuously fed to the warp-beamat lineal speeds of 300 to 350 yards per minute or more under controlled tension and ballooning conditions and with a minimum of breaks. Due to elimination of the step of intermediately transferring the yarn to a cone-shaped package, when it is obtained in the form of a cake from a spinning pot or bucket, the amount of handling to which the yarn is subjected is substantially reduced and as a consequence the warped yarn is of better quality and has fewer knots due to pieced ends, for any given length thereof, than has ordinarily been the case.

The method of the present invention may be applied in the warping of natural or artificial filamentary material, such as yarn or thread ,consisting of cotton, hemp, etc.,: or consisting of regenerated cellulose obtained from viscose, cuprammonium or nitrocellulose; cellulose esters such as cellulose acetate, cellulose butyrate, and mixed cellulose esters such as cellulose acetatebutyrate; cellulose ethers such as ethyl and benzyl cellulose; fibroin, casein, and other protein threads, linear polymers such as nylon; etc.

Although the package holder is shown and described herein more particularly in combination with a thread-guiding and tension controlling means, and as used for supporting a rayon cake or the like during a direct cake to warp-beam unwinding operation, and is of special advantage for that purpose, it is not limited to such use but may be used in coning, copping, doubling, reeling, or any other textile operation where it is desired to support a package in the form of a cake, in any position from vertical to horizontal, and with orwithout the thread tension and balloon controlling means.

Changes and modifications may be made in the device specifically illustrated in the drawing. For example, the thread-guiding and tension controlling member l0 may be of any form or shape provided its diameter is as great as or greater than the outer diameter of the supply package of fila mentary material. Obviously,- also, it may be associated with the holder and maintained in place thereon during the unwinding and warping operation, in any convenient manner. All such changes and modifications are within the scope I of the above-described invention which is not to be limited except as set forth in the appended claim.

We claim:

A method of warpingfrom cakes of yarn mounted in a creel by a plurality of supports having outer annular bases, each cake being carried by the annular base with one end of the cake in direct contact with the base, comprising unwinding the yarn from each cake by guiding it over the end thereof opposite to the end in contact with the base of the support, passing the yarn unwinding from the cake around an annular guiding surface lying between the opposite ends of the cake and having a diameter greater than that of a full cake, to prevent sloughing-ofl of the yarn from the end of the cake over which the yarn is unwound during the unwinding operation, to control the angle of take-off of the yarn from the cake, and to hold ballooning of the yarn above a predetermined minimum during the entire unwinding operation, passing the yarn proceeding around the annular guiding surface through a guide spaced generally axially from the end of the cake over which the yarn is being unwound, and then guiding the several unwinding yarns to a rotating warp beam.

JOHN S. CHAYA.

MARIAN L. SPANN. Executriz of the Estate of William L. Sperm.

Deceased.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the Snyder Nov. 16, 1937

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