US3066517A - Apparatus for the fluid treatment of textile webs of varying widths - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 1962 DEYBER 3,066,517

APPARATUS FOR THE FLUID TREATMENT OF TEXTILE WEBS 0F VARYING WIDTHS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed NOV. 20, 1959 POE Dec. 4, 1962 DEYBER 3,066,517

APPARATUS FOR THE FLUID TREATMENT OF TEXTILE WEBS 0F VARYING WIDTHS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed NOV. 20, 1959 nitol States te 3,065,517 APPARATUS FOR THE FLUSH) F TEXTKLE WEES (HF ENG WIDTHEE Louis Deyber, Hochstatt, France, assignor to ociete Aisacienn-e de tConstrnctions Mecaniques, Muihouse,

Han't-Rhin, France, a company of France Fiied Nov. 21?, 19599, Ser. No. 854,388 Claims priority, appiication France Nov. 26, 1958 4- i'llaims. ((1 685) The invention relates to continuous fluid treatment or pervious strip materials such as fabrics, principally for bleaching, dyeing, and for fixing dyes by steaming.

As concerns, for instance, continuous steaming for fixing dyes in fabrics, the conventional installations are constituted by an enclosure fed with steam in which the fabric to be treated travels along a path having a configuration such that each portion of the fabric stays within the enclosure as long as possible.

It is desirable that the fabric first travels in a zone of the enclosure containing saturated or live steam for the initiation of the chemical reaction and, then, that it travels in the rest of the enclosure where the reaction already initiated is being completed. In some installations, the travel of the fabric takes place on upper and lower rolls, the fabric passing in vertically undulated course alternately around an upper roll and around a lower roll. The various layers of steam inside the enclosure do not have all the same features, but since the fabric uninterruptedly and rapidly travels throughout all these layers, it is, however, subjected to an average treatment substantially homogeneous. Nevertheless, it is during the first seconds when the fabric comes into contact with the steam, that the major portion of the chemical reaction for fixing the dye in the fibres of the fabric takes place. Now, during these first few seconds, the saturated steam impinges against one side of the fabric, or against both sides thereof, according to the type of considered installation, but it does not impregnate the fabric immediately to the core, which is a drawback.

Furthermore, in other installations, the travel of the fabric within the enclosure consists in a horizontal translation of vertically suspended folds, principally for dellcate fabrics and in the case when only the back of the fabric is allowed to come into engagement with supports. In such installations, the dyes run the risk of not becoming fixed under similar conditions in the upper portions and in the lower portions of the folds, by reason of differences in the temperature of the steam between the higher portions and the lower portions of the enclosure.

Attempts for removing this drawback have been made by stirring the steam within the enclosure, for instance by means of blowers, and also by providing an excess of steam but these are expensive makeshifts altogether.

The aim of the invention is to ensure an impregnation of the fabric to the core, at the moment of the very first contact of the fabric and the saturated steam.

The invention has also for its aim, to provide apparatus that will ensure a rapid impregnation to the core of fabrics and other pervious strip materials of varying widths, for treatments other than steaming and, for instance, for bleaching or dyeing.

For this purpose, the invention provides means for making the material to be treated travel over a pervious support and means for passing fluid through the material to be treated and through the support including means for directing the fluid against one side of the supporting material and means for applying suction to the opposite side thereof, whereby the material is treated to the core by the fluid.

Accordingly, the invention has for an object to provide an apparatus for treating textile fabric webs which includes means defining an enclosure containing the treatment fluid, a rotary drum within the enclosure, the cylindrical wall of which drum is perforated or of other construction such as mesh type construction or otherwise provided with openings therethrough so that the treatment fluid can pass from the exerio-r into the interior of the drum, means for rotating the drum, im pervious partitions arranged inside the drum in engagement with both generatrices of the latter which determine the flexing arc of the web of material around the drum, said partitions and the portion. of the cylindrical wall of the drum which extends along said are defining a vacuum chamber, and means for ensuring a vacuum in said chamber, whereby the drum serves both as a driving member and as a support for the material being treated.

In a machine specially designed for steaming fabrics, the enclosure contains, furthermore, means for directing the saturated steam against the portion of the fabric which is in on the drum, and, for effecting the complementary step, means for making the fabric travel in the rest of the enclosure, and means for feeding said enclosure with steam.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description together with the accompanying drawings, submitted for purpose of illustration only and not intended to define the scope of the invention, reference being had, for that purpose, to the subjoined claims.

In these drawings:

FIG. 1 diagrammatically shows, in vertical section, an installation for steaming fabrics according to the invention,

FIG. 2 is a cross-section of a drum for driving and supporting the fabric, which may be used in the installation of FIG. 1, said sections being made along the line 2-2 of FIG. 3, and

FIG. 3 is a corresponding axial section made along the line 3-3 of FIG. 2.

in the steaming installation illustrated in FIG. 1, the lower portion of a chamber 15 contains water fed by a pipe 14 and is provided with means adapted to boil the water, for instance a coil pipe 16 immersed in the water and containing pressure fed-steam. One of the vertical walls of the chamber 15 is provided with means which make it possible to project steam preferably over the full height of this wall. In the example shown, these means are constituted by vertical pipes 17 fed with live or saturated steam and having perforations oriented toward the inside of the chamber.

The lower portion of the chamber and the neighbourhood of the aforesaid vertical wall constitute, together, a first zone adapted for carrying out the initiation step of the treatment for impregnating the fabric with saturated steam.

The vertical wall of the chamber 15, remote from that which is provided with the steam pipes 17 has, at its lower portion, an opening 23 through which the fabric enters and leaves the chamber.

The fabric to be treated is, for instance, folded in an accordion-like manner on a carriage 2s, passes over de fiection rolls 27, through a tension regulating device 28, and then over a guiding roll 29 before entering the chamber by the action of a takeup drum 31 arranged in the upper portion of the first zone of treatment. A deflection roll 32 is arranged between both portions of the first zone of treatment. The take-up drum 31 is of a special type described hereinunder and serves also as a. support for treating the fabric to the core. The second zone adapted for carrying out the complementary step of the treatment is constituted by the rest of the chamber; it encloses a device which enables the fabric to be suspended in successive folds forming a vertically undulated course and which may be of any suitable conventional type. In the embodiment represented, this device comprises a chain of rolls 21 which passes on four drums 22 and which is intermittently fed under the action of a cam 40 driven by a motor 2! in such a manner that the rolls keep immovable during the formation of each fold of fabric and move only at the moment when a new fold is initiated. The fabric, therefore, is supported by the rolls during its travel in the upper horizontal portion of its path in the machine.

When the fabric leaves the take-up drum 31, it is shaped into folds by the sinking movement of a rod 41 supported at each end thereof by a lever 42 pivoted on a horizontal shaft 44 and subjected to the action of a cam 43. The motion of this cam is synchronised with that of the cam 40 in such a manner that, as soon as the chain of rolls has moved a distance equal to the width of a fold, the rod 41 drops onto the fabric and initiates the formation of a new fold.

Upon completion of the treatment in the second zone, the fabric passes over two deflection rolls 33, 34, leaves the chambers through the opening 23, passes over idle rolls 35, 36, over a roll 37, and then, between the rolls 38 of a folding device of any suitable conventional type. The treated fabric accumulates in accordion-like formation on a carriage 3?.

The take-up drum 31 is illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3; its cylindrical wall 1112 is air-pervious and closed by two air-tight endwalls 103 removably mounted. The cylindrical wall 1192 of the drum is constituted, for instance, by a foraminated metal sheet or a wire mesh. The endwalls 1% of the drum are journalled on a stationary tubular axle 1114- mounted on two supports 1%. Rotation of the drum is ensured by means such as, for instance, a chain drive 1116 with a chain wheel 107 secured to one of the endwalls of the drum.

Mounted on the stationary axle, are two baffie plates 111 each in the shape of a circular sector having a radius substantially equal to that of the inner cylindrical surface of the drum and the arc of which has a length substantially equal to that of the flexing arc of the fabric over the drum. The edges of these baflle plates are lined with a seal strip 112 made of a flexible and resilient material, for instance rubber, adapted to bear in frictional engagement against the drum.

The axle 104 also carries two radial partitions 113 which extend substantially to both generatrices of the drum along which reaches the fabric in contact with the drum and moves away from it, that is to say, the generatrices which define the flexing arc of the fabric around the drum. The edges of the partition 113 near said generatrices are also lined with a sealing strip 114.

The baflle plates 111 and radial partitions 113 thus define, inside the drum, a stationary chamber permanently located in the bottom of the loop of fabric flexing around the drum. The portion of the tubular axle 1% adjacent this chamber has perforations 115 while a pipe 11 6 enables the interior of this axle and, therefore, the aforesaid chamber, to communicate with any suitable vacuumpump, so that the pressure within the chamber be lower than the atmospheric pressure.

Under these conditions, the fabric is heavily applied by the atmospheric pressure against the only portion of the cylindrical surface of the drum which corresponds to the flexing arc of the fabric around said drum. The rotational movement of the drum, therefore, ensures an etficient feed of the fabric while the steam sucked into the drum passes principally throughout the fabric which it treats to the core.

Furthermore, in the embodiment represented, the baffle plates 111 are adjustable in axial direction on the axle 164; which carries them.

It is, thus, possible to move them toward and away from each other by means of a rotary control spindle 117 coaxially mounted within the axle 104 and provided with a handwheel 118. The spindle 117 has two portions 121, 122 provided with screw-threads of opposite pitch and respectively in engagement with two nuts 123, 124 secured to the baflles 111. By rotating the handwheel 113 in one direction the bafl'ies are moved nearer each other and the effective width of the drum is, therefore, reduced, whereas by rotating the handwheel in the opposite direction, the baffles are moved away from each other and the effective width of the drum is increased. The dimensions and therefore the volume of the vacuum chamber, may be varied so as to be adapted to the width of the strip material to be treated.

The radial edges of the baffles are made to slide against the partition 113, so that the latter may stay in place and not have to be replaced by others of different lengths when it is necessary to modify the effective width of the drum.

The perforations of the central axle are located near the middle portion of the latter so as to stay within the vacuum chamber, even when the latter is made very short in axial direction. The baffles 111, as represented, may also be provided with part baflies or collars 125 in engagement with the axle and arranged in such a manner as to cover the outer perforations as the baffies are brought nearer the middle of the axle.

A brush, for instance a rotary brush 126 in engagement with the outer cylindrical surface of the drum, between the two runs of the fabric, maintains the drum under clean condition and principally eliminates plushy material which is likely to reduce the permeability of the drum and, therefore, be detrimental to the suctional eifect which produces the driving force for the fabric.

Briefly, in the chamber 15 (FIG. 1), the fabric is first under stretched condition in contact with the saturated steam in the first zone 16, 17 and is impregnated to the core on the drum 31; then, the treatment is carried on and completed on the fabric in suspended folds in the second zone of treatment, under the action of the steam coming from the first Zone.

By suitably adjusting the 'value of vacuum in the rotary drum, it is possible to obtain any desired feature for the initiating step of treatment.

In a simplified embodiment, the fabric does not travel flat over the lower boiling water stretch, and is not subjected to the action of; saturated steam jets prior to passing on the rotary drum 31, so that the initiating step of treatment takes place only on the rotary drum.

As many changes could be made in the above construction and many widely different embodiments of this invention could be made without departing from the scope of the claims, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description, or shown in the accompanying drawings, shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for treating textile fabric webs with a fluid treating agent comprising a web supporting drum over which the web to be treated is passed, said drum having axially spaced end walls and a cylindrical wall, said cylindrical wall having openings therein adapted to permit the, passage of a treating fluid from the exterior of the drum into the interior thereof, a stationary tubular axle, means mounting said drum on said axle for rotational movement thereabout, fixed partition means on the interior of the drum, supported by said axle and dividing the interior of said drum into two spaces of sector shaped cross-section, said axle having openings therein providing communication between the interior of the axle, and one interior space within the drum on one side of said partition means, conduit means communicating with the interior of the axle and through which a vacuum condition can be established within the drum, two baffle members each in the shape of a sector of a cylinder and having radial edges in sliding engagement with the partition means on said one side thereof, means mounting said baffle members for axial movement relative to said axle in directions towards and away from one another and means operably connected to said baffle members for so moving said bafile members so as to adjust the distance between the same to a distance equal to the Width of a web to be treated and to simultaneously vary the volume of the space in which the vacuum condition exists.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which the means operably connected to said bafile members to move the same includes a control screw mounted co-axially within said axle and having two axially spaced screw threaded portions of opposite pitch and nut means secured to the respective baffle members and respectively in threaded engagernent with said two screw threaded portions, so that responsive to turning of said control screw said baffle members are simultaneously moved towards or away from one another.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which said axle and drum are each disposed in a horizontal relationship and a cleaning brush in engagement with the outer surface of the drum at a position beneath said axle and thus at a location outside the arc around which a web to be treated flexes around the drum.

4. In apparatus for treating textile fabric webs, a chamber adapted to contain a fluid treatment agent, a stationary hollow shaft within said chamber, a web supporting drum including a cylindrical wall and two axially spaced end walls mounted for rotation on said shaft, said cylindrical Wall being provided with a plurality of axially and circumferentially spaced perforations, a fixed partition means supported by said shaft to divide the interior of said drum into two substantially half-cylindrical spaces, a pair of substantially sector-shaped axially movable: wall members disposed in one of said half-cylindrical spaces in parallel relationship with said two end Walls to define with said cylindrical wall and said partition means a centrally located substantially half-cylindrical suction chamber of variable volume, means positioned in said shaft for reciprocating said wall members simultaneously in two opposite axial directions, means connected to said shaft to create therein a pressure lower than atmospheric pressure, and means for establishing a communication between the interior of said shaft and said suction chamber in all positions of said movable wall members relative to said stationary shaft.

References Qited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 246,547 Patterson Aug. 30, 1881 488,787 Clay Dec. 27, 1892 2,447,993 Viera Aug. 24, 1948 2,453,332 Millhiser Nov. 9, 1948 2,494,807 Haeberlin Jan. 17, 1950 2,543,098 Dulken Feb. 27, 1951 2,737,042 Mathewson Mar. 6, 1956 2,953,952 Alexander Sept. 27, 1960 FOREIGN PATENTS 601,858 Germany Aug. 25, 1934

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