US2617170A

US2617170A - Cloth texturing apparatus

Info

Publication number: US2617170A
Application number: US162490A
Authority: US
Inventors: David E Mulholland
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1950-05-17
Filing date: 1950-05-17
Publication date: 1952-11-11
Anticipated expiration: 1969-11-11

Description

Nov. 11, 1952 D. E. MULHOLLARID 2,617,170

CLOTH TEXTURING APPARATUS Filed May 17, 1950 2 SHEETSSHEET l IN VENTOR o I /7/ V BY f 1 *3 HIS ATTORNEY NOV. 11, 1952 D, MULHOLLAND 2,617,170

/ CLOTH TEXTURING APPARATUS Filed May 17, 1950 2 SHEETS-SHEE'1' 2 IN VENTOR HIS ATTORNEY Patented Nov. 11, 1952 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 1:5 Claims. (CI. 26-28) This invention relates to cloth texturing apparatus and has as its primary object the provision of improved apparatus for texturing cloth uniformly and as a continuous process.

Another object of the invention is to provide improved apparatus for texturing cloth wherein the degree of texturing can be controlled with extreme accuracy.

An additional object of the invention is to provide improved apparatus for texturing cloth in continuous sheet form wherein the tension on the cloth is controlled throughout its path of travel, enabling the cloth to be textured uniformly.

A further object of the invention is to provide improved apparatus for texturing cloth in continuous sheet form wherein the cloth is maintained under longitudinal and transverse tension, whereby the cloth is presented as a smooth, unwrinkled sheet to both the texturing apparatus and the final wind-up roll.

Another object of the invention is to provide in cloth texturing apparatus means for varying the extent of wrap of the cloth about a back-up roll, thereby to determine the driving engagement of the back-up roll with the cloth and eliminate any wrinkles in said cloth before presentation thereof to a texturing roll.

A further object of the invention is to provide cloth texturing apparatus having improved means for cooling the texturing device whereby the rate of texturing is inherently increased without detriment to the texturing.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear hereinafter in the detailed description, be particularly pointedout in the appended claims and illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic view in side elevation of a preferred embodiment of the cloth texturing apparatus of the present invention;

Figure 2 is a fragmentary isometric view of the texturing and back-up rolls of Figure 1, showing the details of the improved cooling apparatus; and

Figure 3 is a schematic front elevational view of the cloth-steering roll of Figure 1.

Referring now in detail to the drawings in which like reference characters designate like parts, the improved texturing apparatus of the present invention in its illustrated embodiment is particularly adapted to texture cloth and other organic material, hereinafter termed generally cloth. The apparatus is comprised generally of a feed roll I and a take up roll 2, marking the ends of the path of travel of the cloth through" the apparatus, and texturing meansintermediate these ends by which the cloth is sueded or other-' wise textured during its travel.

The unfinished cloth is introduced into the apparatus from the unwind or feed roll 1 which is preferably driven at a uniform linear speed. For this purpose, the roll of unfinished cloth'may be supported on a pair of spaced drive rolls 3 driven from a source of power (not shown with the'spindle '4 of the unwind roll slidably guided such that the periphery of the roll will float on and drivably contact the driving rolls. In this manner, it is possible by controlling the drive of the drive rolls, to feed the cloth into the apparatus at a constant linear speed regardless of the amount of the material on the unwind roll. To"

prevent overrunning of the unwind roll, there is provided a friction brake 5 in the form of a guiders 9 of the conventional type which engagethe opposite edges of the cloth and spread it laterally or transversely. After passing under a second idler roll ill, the cloth passes over one or more spiral spreaders ll having the usual opposed helical ribbed surfaces by which the cloth is spread outwardly on either side of its longitudinal center line. The cloth then passes over one or more rubber covered, driven nip rolls 12 which afford an intermediate drive for the cloth While the swinging guiders and spiral spreaders together tend to maintain the cloth centered. such centering is assured by leading the cloth beyond the nip rolls l2 over a steering roll [3 which, as shown in Figure 3, is tiltable on its axle l4. By tilting this roll towardone side or the other under suitable manual orvautomatic controls, by which both the direction and extent of the tilting can be varied as necessary, the steer ing roll is enabled to drive the cloth toward either side to maintain it centered laterallyrelative to its path of travel.

Beyond the steering roll, the cloth enters the texturing portion of the apparatus wherein it is carried or supported on a billy, back-up or supporting roll 15 having a yieldable cloth-engaging surface l6 of soft rubber or like material. The billy roll is the principal cloth-driving means of the apparatus, to the peripheral speed of which the speeds of all other cloth-driving devices are correlated. Opposing the billy roll is a texturing or work roll l! between which rolls the cloth passes and is textured. The texturing roll preferably acts on the cloth in the direction of movement or travel of the latter and, therefore, must rotate at a higher speed than the billy roll to be effective. For most efiicient action, it is necessary that there be no slippage of the cloth relative to the billy roll as it undergoes treatment and that all wrinkles be removed from the cloth before it is treated.

To the above ends, the billy roll it is provided with the aforementioned relatively soft rubber peripheral layer IE, not only to accommodate any variations in thickness of the cloth and thus present a level surface to the texturing roll, but to afford greater adhesion or adherence with the cloth than that obtained by the texturing surface of the texturing roll. However, in practice ithas beenfound that thisdiiference in adhesion, alone, is inadequate, unless the circumferential area or are over which it acts on the billy roll is also carefully controlled. Accordingly, between the steering roll it and the billy roll, the cloth is caused to travel over a grip or drive-control roll [-8, whereby the wrapof the cloth about the hilly roll, and-thereby the extent of the frictional engagement therebetween, can be adjusted or varied within limits found to be critical. As indicated in Figure l, the critical limits of the wrap of the cloth about the billy roll are from a minimum of about 200 to a maximum of about 270 of the total circumference of the roll, depending upon the-character of the cloth. Variation of the extent of the wrap between these limits to suit the particular cloth may be obtained by suitably journaling or mounting the ends of the shaft M of the control roll so that it can be adjusted over an arcuate or other path by which it can determine the point of'the initial engagement of the clothwith the billy roll relative to the zone in which the cloth is textured, and thus the extent of the total wrap. With the texturing roll rotating at aperipheral speed of as much as 1500 feet per minute and the cloth travelling at a maximum linear speed of about 90 feet per minute, as is possible with the type of cooling hereinafter described, it will be evident that the texturing roll will exert a considerable pull on the cloth. This pull is opposed by the adhesion between .the cloth and the billy roll developed by the wrap, coupled with the drag applied to the cloth by the brake 5 on the unwind roll. While the wrap and character of the surface of the billy roll would enable the latter to control the speed of travel-of the cloth, the addition of the forces of the texturing roll and the brake effectively removes any wrinkles in the cloth in its passage over the billy roll in advance of its engagement with the texturing roll.

Inthe past it has been the practice to suede or otherwise texturecloth by a texturing roll utilizing as its texturing medium a sandpaper or like sleeve, in which a single thickness of abrasive grains is bonded to a paper or other backing. While satisfactory for relatively rough work such as knitted materials, this texturing medium is unsuitable for texturing relatively sheer materials and cannot texture any materials with exact uniformity because of the unevenness of the projection of the abrasive grains forming its texturing surface and the impossibility of truing such surfaces without destroying them.

truly cylindrical by rotating the roll while passing a diamond point across its peripheral surface at a fixed radial distance from its axis.

Since trueness of the surface of the texturin layer iiirof the texturing roll, alone, would render the action upon the cloth subject to variations in the'surface of the rubber layer 16 of the billy roll, it is necessary that the latter also be true and that the surfaces of the two rolls rotate about axes which are maintained in absolute parallelism. In both respects, the preferred structure is similar to that of my aforementioned patent, the

- billy roll being ground true by the texturing roll and both rolls being journaled in precision bearings. As in the patent, the texturing roll is mounted on a fixed axis and the hilly roll is floatingly mounted on pivots sufilciently removed from its axis of rotation that the path of reciprocable movement of the billy roll relative to the texturing roll, for practical purposes, will always be a straight line normal to a tangent to the texturing roll, drawn at the midpoint of contact of the latter with the cloth. Similarly, diaphragms or like finely adjustable fluid pressure means are employed for controlling through the billy roll the pressure applied to the cloth by which the depth of cut or extent of texturing by the texturing roll is determined. With this construction, it is possible to apply pressure of over 2000 pounds per square inch and to accurately control the depth of cut down to a millionth of an inch, enabling cloth of any fineness to be textured uniformly.

In texturing, the friction between the texturlng roll and the cloth generates heat which, if not dissipated, is sufficient both to damage the cloth undergoing treatment by fusing or melting its fibers and to soften the normally hard rubber of the texturing layer I9 such that its surface sags out of cylindrical and by deterioration of the bond on its abrasive particles, ultimately disintegrates. A liquid would obviously not be a satisfactory coolant, since it would damage the cloth. Air or the like gaseous coolant is, therefore, required. However, if the air is permitted to expand freely, its contained moisture will condense and deposit on the texturin roll, spotting the cloth and matting its nap. Accordingly, an important aspect of the present invention is the means by which the texturing roll is adequately cooled and enabled to maintain the uniformity of its texturing at a relatively high speed. For this purpose, there is utilized the cooling device shown in Figure 2 in which the texturing roll is partially enclosed in a hood 2%. As shown, this hood is closed at both ends, with the end closure members 2! approaching as closely as possible the periphery of the roll. Intermediate these ends, the somewhat U-shaped body portion 22 of the hood is spaced radially outwardly of the periphery of the roll to provide an enclosed space 23 of considerable extent therebetween. In the illustrated embodiment, the body 22 of the hood encompasses or encloses considerably in excess of 180 of the periphery of the roll and is sealed at its leading and trailing edges by inturned flanges 24, which also approach the periphery of the roll as closely as possible. At its leading edge 25, the hood extends slightly below the lower extremity of the roll so as to cool the roll immediately prior to contact of its surface with the cloth, in the manner hereinafter to be described. The trailing edge 26 of the hood terminates intermediate the upper and lower extremities of the roll so as to afford adequate clearance from the cloth and space for other portions of the cooling device. The hood is connected through its upper portion to a suitable source of suction or subatmospheric pressure, through a suction exhaust 27.

For cooling the texturing roll, there are mounted on either side of the cloth-texturing zone a set of jets 28 for applying air or other gaseous coolant to the roll. In the form shown, these jets are spaced holes or openings in a pair of pipes, one, 20, enclosed within the hood 20 adjacent its leading edge 25 and the other, 30, exterior of the hood. These pipes extend substantially the full length of the roll so as to cool its surface and preferably include in the cooling zone between them some 300 of the circumference of the roll. It has been found that if the gas issuing from the jets impinges directly upon the roll, each jet will produce a corresponding ribbon or strip in the texture of the cloth. Consequently, the jets 28 of both pipes are directed, not at the roll, but against deflectors or baffle plates 3! by which the air or other gas is diffused before contacting the surface of the roll. While under certain circumstances it might be necessary to inject chilled or refrigerated gas into the hood to cool the texturing roll, compressed air normally will be adequate, its rapid expansion as it leaves the holes 28 reducing the temperature of the boundary air layer about the roll sufficiently for effective cooling under normal circumstances. However, such cooling by expansion not only dissipates the heat of the roll, but would normally cause condensation of moisture from the surrounding air with consequent detriment to the action of the roll. This is avoided by the aforementioned suction by which the pressure within the hood is reduced sufiiciently to maintain any moisture from the pipe 29 in the vapor state and to vaporize any condensate deposited on the roll by the exterior pipe 30. A further advantage of the use of suction is that it permits the air released within the hood by the leading pipe 29 to expand relatively rapidly, thereby further reducing its temperature and more effectively cooling the texturing roll.

After being textured as it passes between the texturing and billy rolls, l1 and I5, the cloth is led between a second set of swinging guiders 32, by which its edges are spread so as to present a smooth surface to the next element of the apparatus, a rotary cloth brush 33 enclosed within a suction hood 3%, by which the textured surface is cleaned of linters and other loose particles. This cloth brush is followed by a set of nip rolls 35, between which the cloth passes, the cloth next passing around a pair of direction-changing idler rolls 38. Thereafter, the cloth is preferably led over an expander roll 31 having a flexible shaft 38, by which the roll can be bowed as necessary to spread the cloth laterally, the cloth then finally being wound on the wind-up or take-up roll 2. To maintain the cloth under tension between the texturing zone and the wind-up roll 6'1 and thus avoid any slack at the texturing zone, there is interposed between the idler rolls 36 and the expander roll 31 a floating or gravity roll 39 which is freely movable vertically, and

- by which any slack in the cloth is automatically taken up.

With the friction brake 5, the floating roll 39 and the control roll l8 maintaining the cloth under longitudinal tension between the unwind roll and take-up roll, I and 2, the swinging uiders, 9 and 32, and the spiral spreaders ll tensioning it laterally, and the steering roll I3 centering it in the texturing zone, the cloth is presented in smooth, unwrinkled form both for texturing and ultimate wind-up. "By utilizing also texturing and billy rolls, l1 and 15, of the character described and effectively .dissipating any heat generated by the texturing roll by the described cooling device, the apparatus of the present invention is made capable of texturing cloth at linear speeds up to about feet per minute and of making continuous runs of as much as 30,000 yards of cloth of a particular type, with assurance that the last yard will be textured as uniformly as the first.

From the above detailed description, it will be apparent that there has been provided an improved cloth texturing apparatus which is adapted to texture cloth uniformly and is effective alike on heavy and sheer materials. It should be understood that the described and disclosed embodiment is merely exemplary of the invention and that all modifications are intended to be included which do not depart either from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the appended claims.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. Cloth texturin apparatus comprising feed, back-up and take-up rolls arranged to support cloth in sequence, texturing means associated with said back-up roll for texturing cloth supported thereon, adjustable means for varying the extent of wrap of said cloth around said backup roll, and tensioning means associated with said feed and take-up rolls and coacting with said adjustable means for maintaining said cloth under tension throughout the path of travel thereof.

2. Cloth texturing apparatus comprising feed, back-up and take-up rolls arranged to support cloth in sequence, a texturing roll associated with said back-up roll for texturing cloth supported thereon, gaseous means for cooling said texturing roll, adjustable means for varying the extent of wrap of said cloth around said back-up roll, and tensioning means associated with said feed and take-up rolls and coacting with said adjustable means for maintaining said cloth under tension throughout the path of travel thereof.

3. Cloth texturing apparatus comprising feed, back-up and take-up rolls arranged to support cloth in sequence, a texturing roll associated with said back-up roll for texturing cloth supported thereon, gas expansion means for cooling said texturing roll, suction means associated with said gas expansion means for removing moisture therefrom, texturing means associated with said back-up roll for texturin cloth supported thereon, adjustable means for varying the extent of wrap of said cloth around said back-up roll, and tensioning means associated with said feed and take-up rolls and coacting with said adjustable means for maintaining said cloth under tension throughout the path of travel thereof.

4. Cloth texturing apparatus comprising feed and take-up rolls, gravity tensioning means associated with each of said rolls for tensioning cloth travelling therebetween, a back-up roll for supporting said cloth intermediate said feed and take-up rolls and presenting a face thereof for texturing, a texturing roll confronting said backup roll for texturing said face of said cloth, a hood enclosing a portion of said texturing roll, means for injecting air into said hood for cooling said texturing roll, suction means for applying suction to said hood and removing said air therefrom, and adjustable means for varying the extent of wrap of said cloth about said back-up roll, said adjustable means coacting with said gravity means for maintaining said cloth under tension throughout the path of travel thereof.

5. Cloth texturing apparatus comprising feed and take-up rolls, gravity tensioning means associated with each of said rolls for tensioning cloth travelling therebetween, a back-up roll for supporting said cloth intermediate said feed and take-up rolls and presenting the face thereof for texturing, a texturing roll confronting said backup roll for texturing cloth in a texturing zone therebetween, jet means disposed on opposite sides of said zone for applying compressed air to said texturing roll, a suction hood enclosing a portion of said texturin roll and certain of said jet means, and adjustable means for varying the extent of wrap of said cloth about said back-up roll, said adjustable means coacting with said gravity means for maintaining said cloth under tension throughout the path of travel thereof.

6. Cloth texturing apparatus comprising a feed roll, means for driving said feed roll at a constant peripheral speed, brake means associated with said feed roll for tensioning cloth fed therefrom, a back-up roll adapted to support and be partially encircled by cloth from said feed roll, a texturing roll confronting said back-up roll and acting on said cloth in the direction of travel thereof, said texturing roll rotating at a higher speed than said back-up roll and having an abrasive impregnated surface less adherent to said cloth than the surface of said back-up roll, and adjustable means for controlling the extent of wrap of said cloth about said back-up roll, said wrap coacting with said brake means for opposing pull exerted on said cloth by said texturing roll and presentin said cloth to said texturing roll inunwrinkled form.

'7. Cloth texturing apparatus comprising a feed roll, brake means associated with said feed roll for tensioning cloth fed therefrom, a back-up roll having a relatively soft peripheral surface, said back-up roll supporting and being partially encircled by cloth fed thereto from said feed roll, a texturing roll confronting said back-up roll and having a relatively hard abrasive impregnated surface for texturing cloth supported on said back-up roll, and an adjustable control roll interposed between said feed and back-up rolls for varying the extent of wrap of said cloth about said back-up roll.

8. Cloth texturing apparatus comprising a feed roll, brake means associated with said feed roll for tensioning cloth fed therefrom, a back-up roll having a relatively soft peripheral surface, said back-up r011 supporting and being partially encircled by cloth fed thereto from said feed roll, a texturing roll confronting said back-up roll and having a relatively hard abrasive impregnated surface for texturing cloth supported on said back-up roll, and an adjustable control roll interposed between said feed and back-up rolls 8 for varying the extent of Wrap of said cloth about said back-up roll between 200 and 270 of the circumference of said back-up roll.

9. Cloth texturing apparatus comprising a feed roll, brake means associated with said feed roll for tensioning cloth fed therefrom, a back-up roll having a relatively soft rubber peripheral surface, said back-up roll supporting and being partially encircled by cloth fed thereto from said feed roll, a texturing r011 confronting said backup roll and having a relatively hard abrasive impregnated rubber surface for texturing cloth supported on said back-up roll, said texturing surface having less adherence to said cloth than said peripheral surface, and an adjustable control roll interposed between said feed and back-up rolls for varying the extent of wrap of said cloth about said back-up roll.

10. Cloth texturing apparatus comprising a feed roll, a back-up roll for supporting cloth fed thereto from said feed roll, said back-up roll having a realtively soft rubber peripheral layer, a texturing roll confronting said back-up roll having a relatively hard rubber peripheral layer homogeneously impregnated with abrasive for texturing cloth supported on said back-up roll in a texturing zone therebetween, a plurality of jets positioned on opposite sides of said texturing zone for applying compressed air to and cooling said texturing roll, and a suction hood enclosing a portion of the periphery of said texturing roll and certain of said jet means.

11. Cloth texturing apparatus comprising a feed roll, a back-up roll for supporting cloth fed thereto from said feed roll, said back-up roll having a relatively soft rubber peripheral layer, a texturing roll confronting said back-up roll having a relatively hard rubber peripheral layer homogeneously impregnated with abrasive for texturing cloth supported on said back-up roll in a texturin zone therebetween, a plurality of jet means for applying compressed air to said roll, deflector means positioned between each of said jet means and the texturing roll for diffusing said air before contact thereof with said texturing roll, and a suction hood enclosing a portion of the periphery of said texturing roll and certain of said jet means.

12. Cloth texturing apparatus comprising a feed roll, a back-up roll for supporting cloth fed thereto from said feed roll, said back-up having a relatively soft rubber peripheral layer, a texturing roll confronting said back-up roll for texturing cloth in a texturing zone therebetween,

a pair of jet means positioned on opposite sides of said treating zone for directing compressed air against said texturing roll, said pair including therebetween beyond said zone at least 300 of the circumference of said texturing roll, and a suction hood enclosing a portion of the periphcry of said texturing roll and certain of said jet means.

13. Cloth texturing apparatus comprising a feed roll, a back-up roll for supporting cloth fed thereto from said feed roll, said back-up roll having a relatively soft rubber peripheral layer, a texturing roll confronting said back-up roll for texturing cloth in a texturing zone therebetween, and a pair of jet means positioned on opposite sides of said treating zone for directing compressed air against said texturing roll, said pair including therebetween beyond said zone at least 300 of the circumference of said texturing roll.

14. In cloth texturing apparatus having a backup roll and a texturing roll having an abrasive 9 10 impregnated rubber texturing layer; the combi- REFERENCES CITED nation of a hood enclosing a portion of the The following references are of record in the riphery of said texturing roll, and means for me of this patent:

I t gggigtirglglgas into said hood for cooling sai ex 5 UNITED STATES PATENTS 15. In cloth texturing apparatus having a back- Number Name Date up roll and a texturing r011 having an abrasive 1,974,400 Knowland et a1. Sept. 18, 1934 impregnated rubber texturing layer; the combi- 2,035,641 Dickie et a1. Mar. 31, 1936 nation of a suction hood enclosing a portion of 2,187,463 Mulholland Jan. 16, 1940 the periphery of said texturing roll, and means 10 2,253,559 Curtin Aug. 26, 1941 for admitting gas under pressure into said hood for cooling said texturing r011 by expansion of said gas therewithin.

DAVID E. MULHOLLAND.