US2725980A - Stuffer warp ribbon for pile fabric and method of making same - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 6, 1955 B. M. KIMBALL STUFFER WARP RIBBON FOR PILE FABRIC AND METHOD OF riled Dec.

MAKING SAME l8 1951 INVENTOR. BENJAMIN M. K/MEALL HTTOENEY n ted States Patent Benjamin M.. Kimball, Gilman, Vt., assignor to The (Iellucord Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation Application December 18, 1951, Serial No. 262,249

Claims. (Cl..206-'--59) This, invention relates to laminated creped paper ribbons for use as stufier warp ribbons in pile fabric backings.

It is conventional to employ st'uiier warp yarns, in the pile. fabric of floor coverings. An inherent disadvantage in. the use of stuffer warp yarns is their tendency to arrange themselves in random order instead of side by side in a horizontal plane. Furthermore, the conventional method in rug mills today is to have a so called creel set up that will take up to as high as 4,000 spools of" yarn, and" these 4,000 spools of yarn are all drawn together on a. beam. These beams vary in Width from perhaps 28" up to 90" or possibly wider depending on the width of 100m that the beam will supply. Efforts have been made to substitute ribbons for the yarn but satisfactory ribbons for. this'purpose have not heretofore been developed. Thus it is, that although pile fabric manufacturers would very definitely prefer to use ribbons in the place and stead of yarn, they find it necessary, for want of suitable ribbons to continue to employ yarn exclusively.

Stuffer warp ribbon must possess certain important properties. In the first place, it must. be strongand its useful life must correspond to the useful life of stuffer warp yarn. In the second place, it must be relatively stiff so as to impart such rigidity to the pile fabric that it will lie flat upon a floor under all conditions of normal use and abuse. But the stifiness of the ribbon must not be excessive since some measure of flexibility is also to be desired. Furthermore, the ribbon must be stretchable, Within reasonable limitations, otherwise there is serious interference with the loom operations. Other important properties which the ribbon must possess'are the following: It is necessary that the ribbon be of uniform thickness throughout. and of uniform width. Insofar as the looming operations are concerned, it is absolutely essential that the ribbon be made available in a plurality of parallel, adjacent strips which are fed simultaneously to the loom.

The ribbon which has thus far been triedv is a folded paper ribbon, wherein a strip of paper is folded upon itself several times along parallel, longitudinally extending folding lines. Ribbon of this type has proved to be unsatisfactory. For one thing, it lacks sufficient stretchability. Secondly, it is not flexible enough for the looming operations and it is not uniform either in thickness or in width. It has also been found very diificult to wind such ribbon into suitable rolls and to provide a beam of such rolls toproperly feed the ribbon to the loom. Other disadvantages have been encountered in ribbon made of folded paper.

It is accordingly the principal object of this invention to provide a stuffer warp ribbon in which all of the disadvantages above mentioned are avoided.

Another important object of this invention is the provision of a slit roll of ribbon of the character described. When ribbon is used in the place of stufifer Warp yarn, it is necessary to feed the ribbon from a plurality of ribbon rolls. When the ribbon is made of folded paper, it is necessary to wind each ribbon roll individually and then to incorporate the individual rolls into a single composite Ice llatented, ,Dec. 6,, 195.5

roll consisting of a plurality of individual rolls mounted side by side on a common corev or shaft. The task of winding the individual rolls and then uniting. the. individual rolls into a single. composite roll, which operation is known as beaming, is most difii'cult, and this problem alone has discouraged the use of ribbon in they place and stead of stuffer warp yarn.

In the present invention, the beaming operation is eliminated. A single master roll of laminated crepe paper of any convenient width, is produced in conventional equipment and without the slightest bit of difiiculty. The laminated crepe paper is then fed from this roll to a second roll, but once this unrolling and rolling operation gets underway, the paper is split or slit into a plurality of parallel ribbons which are simultaneously wound onto the second roll.

The end result of the present invention is. not only an improved pile fabric, but also an improved method of making the same. The benefits both to the ultimate consumer and the manufacturer are manifest.

A preferred form of this invention showing. both the stuffer warp ribbon in its formative and final stages and the apparatus for making the same, is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. l is a fragmentary perspective view of a laminated.

ribbon made in accordance with the present invention.

Fig. la is a similar view showing how a sheet of laminated material is slit along parallel lines to form a pillrality of ribbons of the kind shown. in Fig. 1.

Fig. 2 is a somewhat diagrammatic view of apparatus for making the laminated sheet material of Fig. la and rolling it up into a single roll.

Fig. 3 is another diagrammatic view showing how said roll of laminated sheet material is slit and rolled into a second roll, and the apparatus for performing this opera tion is also shown therein.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary perspective View showing how the unsl'itted leading end of the first-mentioned roll is wound up upon a core in the process of forming the second mentioned roll, and also showing that the slitting of the material takes place only after the second mentioned roll is begun.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary perspective view of the second mentioned roll showing that the opposite end of the sheet material from the end shown in Fig- 4 is also unslitted, Figs. 4 and 5 being intended 'to show that the ends of the ribbons are all integral with each other in the second roll.

The laminated sheet 10 shown in Fig. la is made on the apparatus shown in Fig. 2. It will 'there be seen that three rolls 12, 14 and 15, respectively, of crepe paper, are mounted for rotation on three parallel shafts l3, 2%) and 22, respectively. in the preferred form of this apparatus, the three rolls of crepe paper are mounted one above the other in a common vertical plane. The uppermost roll 12 feeds its crepe paper 24 between two rollers 26 and 28 which function as idlers. The paper then passes over an adhesive-applying roller 30 which is in contact with another roller 32, the latter roller being adapted to roll in liquid adhesive 34 carried in container 3d.

It will be noted that the undersidev of paper 24 engages roller 30 and consequently it is the underside of said paper to which the adhesive is applied. The adhesive coated paper 24 then passes under an idler 38 and it is thereby brought into engagement with paper 40 fed from roll 14. This. paper 4-0 passes over an idler 42 after it leaves roll 14, and it then passes under an idler 4.4 and .over an idler 46. It is at the moment that paper 4% passes over idler 46 that it engagesv the adhesive coated underside f p per 24. Sim ltaneous y, pape e from roll 16 also passes over idler 46 and enters into engagement with the underside of paper 49. It will be noted, however, that the top surface of paper 48, at the time contact is made with the underside of paper 4 3, is coated with adhesive as the apparatus for producing this condition is similar to the apparatus above described for coating with adhesive the underside of paper 24. it will be seen that after paper 48 leaves roll 16, it passes over an idler 50, under a second idler 52, over a third idler 54 and under a fourth idler 56. It then passes over an adhesive-applying roller 58 which corresponds to roller 30, said roller 58 being in rolling engagement with roller 60 which corresponds to roller 32 above mentioned. Roller 60 rolls in liquid adhesive 62 carried in container 64. It is the underside of paper 48 which receives the adhesive but said paper then passes around roller 46 and its adhesive-coated underside becomes its upper surface which enters into engagement with the underside of paper 40.

Summarizing the foregoing, it will be seen that paper web 24 has a coating of adhesive applied to its underside and paper web 48 has a coating of adhesive applied to its upper side. No adhesive is applied to paper web 40 but since both of its surfaces are brought into contact with the adhesive-coated sides of web 24 and web 48, it is clear that all three webs of paper will tend to adhere to each other following their engagement with roller 46. The three webs of paper then pass over idler 66 and through dryer 68 where the adhesive sets. Adhesion is now complete and what was previously three sheets of paper is now a single web of laminated paper 10. This laminated paper web then passes between idlers 7t) and 72 and it is finally rolled up into roll 74.

A fragment of laminated web is shown in enlarged sectional view in Fig. la and it will there be seen that the three layers or larninations 24, 4t) and 48 of crepe paper adhere together to form the single web 1! of laminated crepe paper. In other words, not only is each lamination creped in appearance and construction, but the laminated sheet or web is itself a creped composite structure.

It will be noted in Fig. la that slitting lines 76 are indicated inlaminated web 10, and it will be understood that the apparatus shown in Fig. 3 slits the material along said slitting lines to form a plurality of individual ribbons 78. Since these ribbons are cut from a laminated creped sheet, they themselves are laminated and creped. It is important to note, however, that there are no folds in ribbons 78 and that their laminated creped structure is substantially uniform throughout. The physical characteristics of the ribbons depend both on their creped laminated structure and on the nature of the ma terial of which the individual laminations are made. Creped paper is, of course, to be preferred but other sheet material may also be found suitable for the purposes of this invention. When paper is used, it should be of rather substantial stock, preferably of wet strength. Kraft paper has been found to be very suitable for this purpose. Among the important characteristics of laminated creped ribbon 78 is its stretchability. It has been found that a ribbon of this type made from creped kraft paper of wet strength is stretchable or extensible to the extent of approximately 3 /2%, It is this characteristic, taken together with the fact that the ribbon is just stiff enough and yet not too stilf, sufiiciently pliable and yet not too pliable, strong, durable and dimensionally uniform throughout, that render this laminated creped ribbon very useful and highly satisfactory for stuffer warp purposes.

Turning now to Fig. 3, it will be seen that roll 74 is rotatably mounted for feeding its laminated creped web 10 over idler 80 and then under and around idler 82. Web 10 then passes between rotary slitting knives 84 and 86 where it is slit along lines 76 shown in Fig. 1a. The slit sheet then passes around roller 88 and on to roll 90 which constitutes the finished product of the process herein claimed. It will be noted that roll 90 is mounted on a core or shaft 92 and that said core or shaft is mounted in vertical guides 94. The shaft is free to rotate in said guides and to move vertically therein. As the roll increases in diameter, shaft 92 moves upwardly in compensation thereof. It will be seen that this arrangement dove-tails with the fact that roll is rotatably cradled between and supported by roller 88, above mentioned, and roller 96 which corresponds thereto.

An extremely important feature of this invention resides in the fact that the slitting operation does not extend to the very ends of laminated sheet 10. One end 10a of said laminated sheet is shown in Fig. 4 and the opposite end 10b of said laminated sheet is shown in Fig. 5. The actual slits 76 are shown in both of said figures, and it will be seen that said slits extend up to but not into said end portions 100 and 10b. The exact length of these end portions is not critical, but end portion 10a should be sufficiently long so as to encircle or wrap around core 92 at least several times or enough to secure itself to said core. The opposite end 10b should be long enough to be Wrapped around roll 90 several times and thereby to protect the individual ribbons and to hold them together. Thus, although roll 90 is really a series of individual rolls of ribbon mounted together on a common core, it may be handled and used as a single composite entity.

When the winding of roll 90 takes place, unslit end 10a is the leading or forward end. However, on unwinding, unslit end 10b becomes the leading or forward end. It will, of course, be. understood that end 10b must be detached from the roll in order to feed the individual ribbons into the loom.

The foregoing is illustrative of the basic principles of this invention. It will be understood that modifications therein may be had, both in the product and in the apparatus or method, within the broad spirit of the invention and the broad scope of the claims.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. A beam of stuffer warp ribbon material for use in pile fabric, said beam comprising a sheet slit longitudinally of itself intermediate its end portions to form a plurality of stutter warp ribbons which are connected to each other only at their respective ends, said sheet encircling a core and constituting a roll of stuffer warp ribbons, one of the ends of said sheet encircling and gripping the core on the inside of said roll and the opposite end of said sheet.

encircling and embracingly enclosing the ribbons on the outside of said roll to protect the ribbons and hold them in place.

2. A sheet of stuffer warp ribbon material in accordance with claim 1, said sheet being of laminated crepe pat/pile; and being extensible to the extent of approximately 3. A beam of stufier warp ribbons for use in pile fabric, said beam consisting of a plurality of individual rolls of ribbon mounted side by side on a common core, all of the ribbons of said individual rolls being integrally connected to each other at their respective ends, both inside and outside their said rolls.

A roll of stutfer warp ribbons in accordance with, claim 3, wherein said ribbons are made of laminated crepe. paper and are stretchable to the extent of approximately 5. The method of making in one operation a beam suitable for direct use on a rug loom, comprising the steps of laminating a plurality of layers of sheet material to form a single laminated web, winding said web into a roll, then winding the trailing end of said roll around a core a number of turns, then slitting said sheet intermediate its ends longitudinally of itself and along parallel slitting lines to produce a plurality of ribbons which are separate from each other along said slitting lines, said slitting operation being performed simultaneously with the unwinding of the web from the roll and the rewinding of the ribbons onto the core, then discontinuing the slitting operation before the expiring end of the roll is reached, and then continuing the rewinding operation to wind the expiring unslit portion of the web a few turns to form a wrapper completely around the beam of ribbons to hold all in position uniformly flat and tight and to protect the ribbons from damage in handling, said unslit portion of the web also serving as a leading end of the beam for attachment to an expiring end of a preceding beam.

453,003 Hicks May 26, 1891 6 Wheeler June 16, 1891 Curnfer et a1. Feb. 26, 1918 Kasuga Apr. 1, 1924 Humphner Aug. 11, 1936 Rowe Sept. 7, 1937 Miller Oct. 5, 1937 Miller July 18, 1939 Gilfillan Apr. 8, 1941 Marcin Apr. 15, 1941 Heygel Jan. 21, 1947 Nichols Sept. 18, 1951

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