US2986779A

US2986779A - Cleaning device for the top comb of combing machines

Info

Publication number: US2986779A
Application number: US763975A
Authority: US
Inventors: Lettermann Charles
Original assignee: Alsacienne de Constructions Mecaniques SA
Current assignee: Alsacienne de Constructions Mecaniques SA
Priority date: 1957-10-04
Filing date: 1958-09-29
Publication date: 1961-06-06
Anticipated expiration: 1978-06-06

Description

June 6, 1961 c. LETTERMANN 2,986,779

CLEANING DEVICE FOR THE TOP COMB 0F COMBING MACHINES Filed Sept. 29, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 June 6, 1961 c. LETTERMANN 2,986,779

CLEANING DEVICE FOR THE TOP COMB OF COMBING MACHINES Filed Sept. 29, 1958 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 CLEANING DEVICE FOR THE TOP COMB OF COMBING MACHINES Charles Lettermann, Mulhouse, France, assignor to S- ciete Alsacienne de Constructions Mecaniques, Mulhouse, Haut-Rhin, France, a company of France Filed Sept. 29, 1958, Ser. No. 763,975 Claims priority, application France Oct. 4, 1957 3 Claims. (Cl. 19-116) This invention relates to the cleaning of the top comb of combing machines. This operation essentially consists in removing from the teeth of the top comb, after each combing operation, the residual noils and dirts.

It is known to use for this cleaning operation devices comprising a cleaning blade the active or cleaning edge of which wipes along the comb teeth from the roots to the very tips.

Now, such cleaning blades operating from but one side of the comb have proved insutficient, since some kinds of noils are too light to be easily torn out under a wiping action exerted only on one face of the teeth, such noils merely yielding under this action to freely protrude on the other side of the comb between the teeth of the latter.

To overcome this drawback, attempts have heretofore been made to clean the comb by means of a double set of :blades operating from its opposite sides. With this type of cleaning device, it has been possible to suitably extract any kind of noils and dirts by simultaneously acting on their protruding parts on both faces of the comb.

Now, it has been demonstrated that matters of tension coupled with the precise relative position of the comb with relation to the cleaning blades during successive stages of operation are of paramount importance, not only for successfully effecting the cleaning operation, but also for the purpose of preventing injury to the blades and especially for preventing wear upon the teeth of the comb which are more or less delicate in character.

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide .a suitable variation of the tension of the pressure exerted by the blades upon the comb teeth as well as suitable relative positions of the comb with relation to the blades during successive stages of operation by mounting the blades on the feeding gill bar of the combing machine, of which the relative motion with respect to that of the top comb precisely meets the required conditions.

Unfortunately, new difficulties have arisen, due to the fact that the cleaning blades, after a while, are unavoidably clogged with dirts, so that they have to be cleaned in turn.

Another object of the invention is to provide a cleaning device of the type described, wherein the cleaning blades which are normally urged towards each other are moved away from each other after each cleaning operation, so that the dirts or noils may freely fall and thus not remain squeezed between the blades.

Such a device requires a suitable timing, on the one hand, of the operation of a mechanism adapted to periodically separate the cleaning blades from each other and, on the other hand, of the cycle of the relative displacement of the top comb with respect to the cleaning blades.

Since the cleaning blades are carried by the feeding gill bar, the functional motion of the comb and that of the said gill bar are sufficient to ensure the required relative displacement between the comb and the cleaning blades, without it being necessary to provide any additional means for this purpose.

On the other hand, the cyclic separation of the blades should take place without any shock and as smoothly as possible, in particular when the combing machine is is possible to prevent the blades from being clamped against each other as they leave the top comb, so as to" avoid any squeezing of dirts, which is particularly efli; cacious in the case of combing more or less greasy fibres.

operated at a high speed, which is the modern trend in the art.

A further object of the invention is to ensure the cyclic separation of the blades by meansof a stopping member which is mounted on a part of the combing machine that does not follow the feeding motion of the gill bar, the said stopping member being so arranged as to be interposed behind the outer cleaning blade before the beginning of the gill bar withdrawal stroke and once the cleaning operation has been completed.

With this arrangement, the separation between the cleaning blades is obtained by the simultaneous displacements, in one direction, of the inner blade as the same follows the gill bar when the latter is withdrawn and, in the opposite direction, of the active end of the outer blade under tilting of the said outer blade about the active end of the stopping member.

Thus, the separating motion does not give rise to any shock nor any noticeable friction since the inner blade merely moves freely in space and since the outer blade merely oscillates about the pivoting surface offered by the stopping member.

On the other hand, it is interesting to cyclically separate the blades to an extent sufficient for safely ensuring the drop of any kind of dirts or noils liable to'be squeezed therebetween.

Now, the magnitude of the gill bar stroke is comparatively reduced (it usually amounts to about 3 mm. in aconventional l-Ieilmann combing machine), so that the mere withdrawal of the gill bar may happen to be insufficient for ensuring the required wide separation of the blades.

It is another object of the invention to overcome this drawback without introducing any material friction nor stroke multiplying objectionable stresses.

A more specific object of the invention is therefore to mount the stopping member on the top nipper and to' sodesign the said stopping member that during the closing stroke of the said top nipper on the bottom nipper blade and as soon as the cleaning operation is completed, the' said stopping member is smoothly brought into contact with the outer cleaning blade behind the latter alonga continuous motion, which however comprises two steps,

viz. a first step extremely progressive due to the nearly tangential action described above of the stopping member on the outer blade and a second step which does not comprise any shock nor noticeable friction since it essentially" takes place by a tilting motion of the outer blade around the active end of the stopping member.

Still another object of the invention isto make'both steps still smoother, by so designing the active end of the stopping member as to facilitate the oscillation'of the outer blade during the second step and/ or reduce the? friction of the stopping member on the said blade during the first step.

It is to be noted that by a mere suitable choice of the.

arrangement of the stopping member on the top nipper, it

Conversely, it is also possible to delay the cyclic separation of the blades, so that it only takes place after they have been clamped elastically against each other and I atente'a June 6, 1961;

With this arrange after they have left the comb teeth by a certain distance;

this second mode of working is more adapted to the case of combining cotton fibres, the noils of which may remain squeezed between the comb teeth, so that their ejection requires a tearing action.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be hereinafter described with reference to the accompanying drawings, given merely by way of example.

In these drawings:

FIGS. 1 to 4 show the successive steps of the operation of a cleaning device according to the invention and FIG. 5 is a view corresponding to FIG. 4, but showing a more constructive embodiment of the stopping member.

Referring first to FIG. 1, the top comb 1 is carried by an arm 2 oscillating around a horizontal pivot (not shown). The slivers to be combed are fed into the machine by a feedinggill bar 3. The combing of their front ends is ensured by a combing cylinder 4, while the top comb 1 ensures the combing of their back ends. While the front ends are being combed, the slivers are held stationary by mean of nippers including a bottom nipper blade 5 and a top nipper 6 carried by an arm 7 pivoted about a horizontal axle (not shown).

A first flexible cleaning blade 8, which is called in this specification the inner cleaning blade because it is located between the top comb 1 and the top nipper 6, is secured at its upper edge on a bracket 9 fixedly mounted on the feeding gill bar 3 of the combing machine, the arrangement being such that said inner cleaning blade be brought into contact with the top comb 1 in the vicinity of the roots of the teeth before the top comb rises again once its work is completed. The lower edge of the inner blade 8 is fitted, with a strip of leather or plastic material 11. A second cleaning blade 12, which is called in this specification the outer blade, disposed on the opposite side of the top comb 1, is carried by a yoke 13 pivoted around a pivot 14, carried by the bracket 9 and its lower edge is also fitted with a strip of leather or plastic material 15. The outer blade is continuously urged towards the inner one by a spring 16.

A stopping member 17 is fixedly mounted on the top nipper 6 so as to prevent the wiping edge of the outer blade 12 from following the inner blade 8 as the gill bar 3 is withdrawn (second step of the separating motion, which will be described in detail hereinafter).

A pair of flut d rollers 18 and 19 are provided for detaching the combed slivers, while 21 denotes a belt that cooperates therewith.

This device operates as follows:

During the active phase of the top comb cycle, the said top comb stands in its lowermost position and the clean ing blades 8 and 12 are located above the roots of its teeth. The nippers 5, 6 are open and the stopping member 17 is far from the outer blade 12.

The combed fibres are then taken away by the rollers 18, 19, whereupon a new feeding cycle begins.

The feeding gill bar 3, and hence the cleaning blades bracketed thereon, move towards the fibre-detaching rollers. The inner blade 8 is brought into contact with the comb (Fig. 1) so that the same rises, both cleaning blades have their Wiping edges operatively engaged with its teeth, whereby the dirts and noils are scraped away and fall on the combing cylinder 4. The nippers 5, 6 begin to close again and the stopping member 17 carried by the top nipper begins to wipe smoothly behind the outer blade 12 along a path to which the latter is nearly tangential (FIG. 2). The nippers 6, 5 complete their closing and the stopping member 17 causes slight tilting of the wiping end of the blade 12 outwardly about the pivot 14 up to the position shown in FIG. 3, wherein the blade 12 is held slightly apart from the blade 8 by 4 being held against the stopping member 17 due to the action of the spring 16.

The feeding gill bar 3 then withdraws, which results, on the one hand, in moving the inner blade 8 towards the right, as shown in the drawings and, on the other hand, in withdrawing the pivot 14 and thus tilting towards the left the wiping edge of the blade 12. These simultaneous opposed displacements finally move the blades 12 and 8 apart to an extent which is sufiicient for ensuring the drop of any dirts or noils previously extracted from the comb teeth.

It is to be noted that, with this cycle, the drop of the dirts and noils coincides with the combining of the sliver front ends so that they are evacuated together with the noils of these front ends.

In the constructive embodiment shown in FIG. 5, the stopping member, provided for preventing the wiping edge of the outer blade from being withdrawn with the gill bar and the inner blade, includes a loose roller 23 freely pivoted on a plate 24 adjustably secured on the top nipper arm 7 by means of screws 25 passing through elongated holes of the plate 24.

While there is in this application specifically described one form which the invention may assume in practice, it will be understood that this form of the same is shown for purposes of illustration, and that the invention may be modified and embodied in various other forms without departing from its spirit or the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. In a combining machine of the type including a top comb mounted for lowering and raising movement during cleaning, nipper means including a nipper bottom plate and an alternately closing and opening top nipper, a gill bar mounted on said nipper bottom plate and adapted to receive a feeding reciprocating motion with respect to the path of movement of said top comb, a cleaning arrangement for said top comb comprising, in combination, a first flexible cleaning blade having a free cleaning end, a support means fixedly mounting said first blade on said gill bar, so that said cleaning end can make an angular cleaning engagement with the teeth of said top comb on that side of the latter facing towards said nipper means, a second flexible cleaning blade having a free cleaning end, means freely pivoting said second blade on said support means for movement toward and away from said first blade, spring means continuously urging said second blade towards said first blade for making an angular cleaning engagement of the cleaning end of said second blade with the teeth of said top comb on the side thereof opposite that engaged by the cleaning end of the first blade, and a stopping member fixedly mounted on said top nipper and having an active end to engage said second blade to slightly tilt said second blade away from said first blade during closing movement of said top nipper, after completion of the cleaning phase fraction of the comb raising stroke and to maintain contact with said second blade to tilt the same further away from said first blade as said gill bar, said pivot means and said first blade move away from the path of movement of said top comb.

2. A combing machine as claimed in claim 1, and said second blade normally extending nearly tangential to the path of movement of the active end of said stopping member.

3. A combing machine as claimed in claim 1, and said stopping member comprising a freely rotatable roller.

References Cited in the file of this patent FOREIGN PATENTS