US3018973A - Winding apparatus - Google Patents

Description

Jan. 30, 1962 FIG. I.

FIG. 3

D. G. BRADLEY WINDING APPARATUS Filed June 26, 1959 INVENTOR:

Don a/d Gordon B BYWM ATTORNEYS.

nited States Patent 3,018,973 WINDING APPARATUS Donald Gordon Bradley, Harrogate, England, assignor to Imperial Chemical Industries Limited, London, England, a corporation of Great Britain Filed June 26, 1959, Ser. No. 823,031 Claims priority, application Great Britain June 27, 1958 3 Claims. (Cl. 242-48) This invention relates to an improved winding apparatus.

In the manufacture of fabrics, particularly warp knitted fabrics it is necessary for the yarn packages to be so wound that it is possible to join together the ends of yarn from the bobbins being processed to the beginning of other full bobbins. For this purpose it is useful to have a short end of loose yarn on each full bobbin. This loose yarn is known in the trade as a transfer tail.

When winding yarns, for example, in a drawing process, it is common practice to collect the yarns by means of a temporary collecting device beyond the wind-up point until stable operating conditions are obtained and then to bring the yarn into contact with an entrainment device, so that the yarn going to the temporary collecting device is cut or broken and the yarn winds onto the bobbin via a traverse mechanism. Such a process is described in British Patent 643,625 wherein the temporary collecting device is a suction tube.

Using the known entrainment devices the tail of yarn formed when the yarn is cut or broken is wrapped around the base of the spindle where it becomes contaminated and damaged and is generally too difficult to remove for use as a transfer tail, although the winding machines must be stopped periodically to allow the spindles to be cleaned and the contaminated yarn removed.

An object of the present invention is to provide a winding apparatus and process which can produce a transfer tail. Another object of our invention is to provide a winding process whereby the spindle wharfe remains free of yarn during the string up.

According to our invention we provide a winding apparatus for filamentary material being collected onto a rotating receiving bobbin via a traverse mechanism wherein the filamentary material on the receiving bobbin is provided with a trans-fer tail by means of an entrainment device positioned between the limit of the traverse mechanism and a temporary collecting means for said filamentary material, characterised in that the entrainment device is a member projecting radially to the axis of the bobbin and arranged to rotate with the bobbin in the region between the end of the traverse path and the end of the bobbin.

Furthermore we provide a process for winding filamentary material onto a rotating receiving bobbin via a traverse mechanism wherein the filamentary material on the receiving bobbin is provided with a transfer tail by means of the entrainment device as hereinbefore described.

The entrainment means may comprise a device such as a notched ring or a peg which may be either attached to the bobbin surface or loosely held by a key-hole shaped slot. The peg may be made of any suitable material such as wood, metal, rubber or plastic. In a preferred embodiment of our invention the entrainment means comprises a peg forming an integral part of a rubber band which may be placed around a bobbin, thus allowing the peg to be positioned without the bobbin having to be modified. The peg and band may be fabricated as a single moulding.

The temporary collecting means for the filamentary material may be any suitable device which is capable of collecting the filamentary material at the required linear 3,018,973 Patented Jan. 30, 1962 speed. We have found a suction tube such as that described in our British Patent No. 643,625 is satisfactory but we prefer to use the improved suction tube described in co-pending United States application Serial No. 769,334, filed October 24, 1958, now Patent No. 2,955,- 409, whereby a known amount of thread may be with drawn from the suction tube before the thread is broken in a controlled manner.

Our invention may be used on many types of yarn winding machines and we have found that it is particularly suitable when drawing filaments of polyethylene terephthalates and polyamides on drawtwisting machines.

When winding bobbins of polyethylene terephthalate yarns, for example, on a drawtwister, the yarn passes from the supply package over rotating delivery rolls to a heating zone, over rotating draw rolls and then to a ring and traveller traverse and a suction gun. The bobbin carrying spindle is then set in motion and the yarn being collected by the suction gun is displaced so that it engages with the projecting entrainment means. As the entrainment means and bobbin rotate a fixed length of filamentary material is withdrawn from the suction gun and is wound around the lower portion of the bobbin and provides a transfer tail.

The attached drawings illustrate but do not limit our invention.

FIGURE 1 is an elevation view of the winding apparatus according to the invention;

FIGURE 2 is a view similar to FIGURE 1 showing the apparatus in a subsequent step of winding;

FIGURE 3 is an elevation view of the apparatus in FIGURES 1 and 2, axially displaced, and showing the apparatus in still a subsequent step of winding; and

FIGURE 4 is an elevation view of a modified embodiment of the apparatus shown in FIGURES 1-3.

In FIG. 1 a moving thread of yarn 1 from a delivery means, not shown, passes through the traveller 2 of a ring traverse 3 to a suction tube 4 located tangentially to the bobbin surface a short distance below the level of a rubber peg 5. The rubber peg 5 is integral with an elastic member such as a rubber band 6 or the like and said peg protrudes substantially radially from the bobbin 7 at a position below the lower traverse limit of the ring 3 and said bobbin is located on a rotatable spindle, not shown.

Referring now to FIG. 2. When it is required to wind the thread 1 onto the bobbin, said bobbin is set in motion in the direction of the arrow and the thread of yarn 1 between the ring 3 and suction gun 4 is displaced either manually or automatically, so that the peg 5 engages With said yarn 1.

As the bobbin and peg 5 rotate the yarn tension between the peg 5 and suction tube 4 increases and the thread within the suction tube is broken and this length of thread is wound onto the bobbin at 8 (FIG. 3). At the same time the ring traverse 3 and traveller 2 start to wind on the yarn to the bobbin in the usual manner.

We have found that when using the apparatus as described above there is a tendency for the tail to become unwound when the bobbin is removed from its spindle. This fault may be corrected by providing a second peg 9 diametrically opposite peg 5 whereby the band 6 may be raised easily and slipped over the tail to prevent it unwinding. This is illustrated in FIG. 4.

From the foregoing description of the various embodiments of this invention, it is evident that the objects of this invention, together'with many practical advantages are successfully achieved. While preferred embodiments of my invention have been described, numerous further modifications may be made without departing from the scope of this invention.

Therefore, it is to be understood that all matters herein set forth or shown in the accompanyinng drawings are to be interpreted in an illustrative, and not in a limiting sense.

What I claim is:

1. In a winding apparatus for filamentary material, said apparatus having a rotating receiving bobbin, a traverse mechanism to guide the material for collection upon the bobbin, and a temporary collecting means for said material; an entrainment device comprising an elastic member encircling and secured by friction and its resilience to the bobbin in the region between the lower limit of the traverse mechanism path and the bottom of the bobbin, and means on said member for entraining the material and providing that collected on the receiving bobbin with a transfer tail, the resiliency of said member permitting its repositioning upon a formed transfer tail to hold the same in place upon the bobbin.

2. An apparatus according to claim 1, and further including gripping means upon said member for facilitating repositioning of the same.

3. An apparatus as in claim 2, wherein said member is a rubber band, and said means are pegs projecting outwardly from and integral with said band.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,431,323 Graybeal Nov. 25, 1947 2,706,090 Blok Apr. 12, 1955 2,763,442 Bruestle Sept. 18, 1956 2,855,747 Rich Oct. 14, 1958 FOREIGN PATENTS 332,936 Great Britain July 30, 1930

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