US3409957A

US3409957A - Continuous yarn treatment process and apparatus

Info

Publication number: US3409957A
Application number: US571759A
Authority: US
Inventors: Ralph H Carter
Original assignee: NORTHEASTERN ENGINEERING AND D
Current assignee: NORTHEASTERN ENGINEERING AND D; NORTHEASTERN ENGINEERING AND DEVELOPMENT Co Inc
Priority date: 1966-08-11
Filing date: 1966-08-11
Publication date: 1968-11-12
Anticipated expiration: 1985-11-12

Description

R. H. CARTER Nov. 12, 1968 CONTINUOUS YARN TREATMENT PROCESS AND APPARATUS 6 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Aug. 11, 1966 INVENTOR Ralph H Carter ATTORNEYS Nov. 12, 1968 R. H. CARTER CONTINUOUS YARN TREATMENT PROCESS AND APPARATUS 6 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Aug. 11, 1966 INVENTOR Ralph/ Carter ATTORNEYS Nov. 12, 1968 H. CARTER 3,409,957

CONTINUOUS YARN TREATMENT PROCESS AND APPARATUS I Filed Aug. 11, 1966 e Sheets-Sheet s- INVENTOR Ralph/aware! JAM f ATTORNEYS R. H. CARTER 3,409,957

1355 AND APPARATUS Nov. 12, 1968' CONTINUOUS YARN TREATMENT PROC 6 Sheets-Sheet Filed Aug. 11, 1966 INVENTOR Ralph hf Carter ATTORNEYS CONTINUOUS YARN TREATMENT PROCESS AND APPARATUS Filed Aug. 11, 1966 6 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR Ralph H. Car/er ATTORNEYS R. H. CARTER Nov. 12, 1968 CONTINUOUS YARN TREATMENT PROCESS AND APPARATUS 6 Sheets-Sheet 6 Filed Aug; 11, 1966 IOI INVENTOR Ralph H. Carter IOI United States Patent 3,409,957 CONTINUOUS YARN TREATMENT PROCESS AND APPARATUS Ralph H. Carter, Sanford, N.C., assignor t Northeastern Engineering and Development Co., Inc., Pawtucket,

R.I., a corporation of Rhode Island Filed Aug. 11, 1966, Ser. No. 571,759 21 Claims. (Cl. 28-4) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A method and apparatus for treating a synthetic and/ or a thermoplastic yarn for providing a continuous treatment of the yarn in the form that it leaves a spinning or extruding device until the treated yarn is wound upon a take-up package.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for treating a synthetic and/ or a thermoplastic yarn and more particularly to such a process and method and apparatus for providing a continuous treatment of the yarn in the form that it leaves a spinning or extruding device until the bulked or otherwise treated yarn is wound upon a take-up package.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a machine or apparatus that uses as a raw material a continuous filament of undrawn yarn in the same form as it leaves a spinning or extruding device and will heat the yarn to improve its pliability or will draw it at room temperature to give it the desired characteristics, after which it will be pre-heated if desired, before entering a crimping apparatus or bulking device. The bulking apparatus may be a mechanical stufiing box type, or a high pressure steam crimping type, or a gear crimping device or any other type of device for crimping or entangling for increasing the bulkiness of the yarn.

In accordance with the present invention there is provided a single end or may be multi-end continuous process machine or apparatus for treating a bundle of filaments or a monofilament, such as yarn or thread, to produce a yarn of greatly increased dyeability. The invention produces a bulky or stretch yarn composed of a plurality of individual crimped filaments having random dimensions and configurations and improved level dyeing characteristics and a fast dye rate.

Artificial filaments are normally produced more easily as continuous filaments. These continuous filament yarns are very strong because of the absence of loose ends that are unable to transmit imposed stresses. Their extreme uniformity and lack of discontinuity, however, make conventional continuous filament yarns much more compact than yarns made for instance from out or staple fibers.

The production of yarn from staple fibers is, however, time consuming and requires a complex series of operations to crimp the fibers, align the fibers into an elongated bundle and then to draw the bundle to successive smaller diameters. The final spinning operation which involves a high degree of twist finally binds these discontinuous fibers together to produce a coherent yarn with considerably increased bulk. The occluded air spaces give them a lightness, covering power and Warmth giving bulk not normally possible with continuous filament yarn. Thus, to get staple fibers that can be processed on conventional wool or cotton spinning equipment, it has been the practice to cut continuous filament yarns, such as rayon, acetate, nylon, as well as the polyacrylic and polyester fibers, to short lengths for spinning into staple yarns via the cotton or worsted system.

Recent developments in the textile industry have provided useful methods on improving the bulk and covering power and recoverability, elongation of continuous filament yarns Without resorting to the staple spinning system of the prior art. A well-known process for making stretch yarns involves the steps of twisting, heatsetting, then back-twisting to a low final twist level. Another yarn of improved bulk, is prepared commercially by steps of twisting, heat-setting and back-twisting onthe-run using a false twisting apparatus. This end product can be further modified by hot stretching to improve the bulk and handling. Still another bulk yarn is being prepared by the well-known stuffer box technique wherein the yarn is steamed or otherwise heated or heat-set while it is in a compressed state in the stutter box. Another is the so-called blade method where the yarn is drawn over a sharp edge, imparting a crimp to the yarn. All of these yarns of the prior art are produced by a process which has common elements of deforming the yarn mechanically and then attempts are made to heatset either with or without an after-relaxing step.

According to the present invention, there is obtained synthetic organic filamentary strands having high tenacity and an improved rate of dyeability which has not been obtained heretofore. These products may be produced by starting with undrawn synthetic organic filamentary strands, drawing the filament bundle to between 3:1 to 5:1 of its length, then passing it to a crimping or bulking device and thereafter to a heat stabilizing unit where the yarn may be stored from 1 to 5 seconds while being heated in a dry heat to a fixation optimum temperaturefor example-nylon 6, C.;

nylon

6, 6, 225 C.; polyester, 220 C. These temperatures are standard published figures but may vary Widely depending on the type of thermoplastic yarn, and the end product for which the yarn may be used.

After leaving the heating chamber the strand is then passed to mechanically driven rollers and stored there until the mass reaches substantially room temperature. The product at this stage of the process possesses a rate of dyeability about 60% greater than that of yarn that has not been treated in this manner. By increasing the overfeed, the filamentary product produced contains, in addition to the high rate of dyeability set forth above, fibers possessing an independent, random persistent 3-dimensional nonhelical curvilinear configuration along the length of the filamentary strand and is substantially free of staple crunodal, the characteristics of which are dependent on the type bulking device used.

The single or multi-end continuous process and apparatus of this invention represent a substantial improvement over known step-wise methods which consist essentially of equipment for drawing, twisting or winding, bulking, heat-setting, cooling, adding finish and producing a yarn package ready for subsequent operations. Because of the superior quality and uniformity of the product produced and also because of the high rate of production and loW manufacturing cost which the apparatus makes possible, a user will have tremendous advantages over a competitor who uses the step-wise method.

When running single ends through the different stages of the apparatus there may be slight differences in the yarn from position to position or these are known in the art as mechanical irregularities, and to produce a more uniform product; a number of ends are usually blended together 1:2 1:31:4-1:51:6, etc., which results in a product uniformity in relation to the number of ends blended together. It is common practice in the textile industry to blend like products to get maximum uniformity.

The process and apparatus of this invention can be used to crimp and bulk any natural or synthetic plasticizable filamentary material. Thermoplastic materials such as polyamides, e.g., poly (epsilon caproamide), poly (hexamethylene adipamide); cellulose esters; polyesters, e.g.,

polyethylene terephthalate, poly (hexahydrop-zylylene terephthalate), etc., polyvinyls and polyacryclics, e.g. polyethylene and polyacrylonitrile, as well as copolymers thereof can be crimped to give the three-dimensional random, curvilinear configuration described herein. While the preferred form of raw material is continuou thermoplastic filaments, the process and resultant improvements oc.cur.with staple yarns as well. Both types of material can bemade into bulky yarns and fabrics having improved bulk covering power (opacity) and hand.

This apparatus and process of the present invention is useful for both monofilament yarns in textile deniers as well as the heavier carpet and industrial yarn sizes either singly or combined in the form of a heavy tow. Fine count and heavy count staple yarns can be processed both singles and plied. The process and product are also not restricted in the case of the synthetic materials to any one particular type of filament cross section. Cruciform, Y-shaped, delta-shaped, ribbon, and dumbbell and other such filamentary cross sections can be processed at least as well as round filaments and usually contribute still more bulk and resulting covering power than is obtained with round filaments. By proper design of the bulking device and process, multiple ends of yarn may be handled either in the form of warp sheets, ribbons, or tows.

The temperature of the heat stabilization zone or medium must be regulated so that the yarn temperatures do not reach the melting point of the fiber but are in most cases equal to or above the softening point. However, with fibers made from fusible polymers, the most effective bulking and the greatest productivity is obtained when the temperature of the stabilization device is not above the melting point of the fiber. In this case the yarn speeds residence time in a heating zone should be great enough so that melting does not occur. Temperatures lower than the second order transition temperature (Tg) of the yarn material should usually not be employed because under these conditions any crimping or bulking of the filaments is not permanent and utility of the fibers is reduced.

The stabilization area may be operated at any temperature up to, but usually not in excess of, the softening temperature of the yarn being treated. High rates of yarn throughput must be taken into account when setting up temperature. The threadline during this string-up on-the- 'run"one of the simplest being the use of a sucker gun to take up the yarn while stringing up the angle axis rolls. The use of a drive motor having two or more speeds is an advantage because at slow speed the string up is simpler and there is a corresponding less waste until the machine reaches equilibrium in all its phases.

For high speed operation, it is frequently desirable to preheat the yarn bundle prior to drawing or to its entry into the bulking device of the subject invention. This preheating can be accomplished by any number of means, one of the simplest being where electrically heated contact heaters are used or the use of a so-called hot pin. Other heating media such as steam, may be used for the preheat'ers can take the form of heated rolls, hot plates, infrared radiation, and many others commonly known in the art. Either heating or post cooling can be utilized on the yarn immediately after it emerges from the crimping device to improve the crimped or convoluted configuration of the filaments in the yarn bundle. Use of preheating, p'recooling, or a combination depends on the physical characteristics and fiber morphology of the filament material being treated a well as the finished product desired.

The configuration and accompanying characteristics of yarn treated by the apparatus of this invention depend in part upon the type of bulking used. I

It is desirable to have the various surfaces with which the yarn comes in contact made of especially hard material to reduce wear. These yarn surfaces may be made of high-carbon steel and hard chrome plated or ceramic types of material.

As an example when a 12-00 denier/8 filament yarn of polyhexamethylene adipamide is processed using a device similar to that shown in FIGURE 1, the yarn speed may be in the range of 300 to 1000 meters pm. to give an effective overfeed, based on feed speed. The bulked yarn product is characterized by a'random three-dimensional curvilinear crimp of the type and the'amplitude, permanence, and number of crimps per unit of length in the filaments make the yarn particularly suitable for the purpose intended. I

Another object of the present invention is to provide a continuous process for treating. a continuous filament of yarn consisting of providing holder or creel means for undrawn yarn and means forfeeding the undrawn yarn to a suitable pretension device after. which the yarn is fed to hold back roll means. Thereafter the yarn is passed over draw roll means and preheating means after which it is passed into a crimping device. The crimping device is provided with crimp level means controlled by pressure and speed control means. The crimped material after'passing out of the crimping device passes overshake-out bars and over-feed means are provided for passing the yarn into a heat stabilizing area or zone at substantially zero tension. Heat stabilizing roll means are provided for passing the yarn through the heat stabilizing area, over-tapered rolls and allowed to shrink to predetermined level after which the yarn is passed out of the heating chamber to cooling roll means. Thereafter the yarn is passed on to suitable take-up means for producing a suitable self-supporting package on a tube member.

Various other objects and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent from the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings forming a part thereof and in which:'

FIGURE 1 is a front elevational view of the continuous treatment apparatus embodying the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a side elevational view taken along the line 3-3 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a view of the apparatus of the invention taken along the line 22 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 4 is a view of the drive arrangements of the apparatus taken along line 4-4 of FIGURE 2;

FIGURE 5 is a detailed view of the heat stabilizing rollers shown in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 6 is a view taken along the line 6-6 of FIGURE 5;

FIGURE 7 is a view of the surface heater and draw rolls shown in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 8 is a view taken along the line 88 of FIGURE 7; and

FIGURES 9 and 10 are views of the draw roll assembly embodied in the invention.

Referring to the drawing (see FIG. 1) the reference numeral 10 generally designates a continuous yarn treatment apparatus provided with a substantially vertical elongated housing 12 having a front wall 14 and a base support member 16. The housing contains the drive mechanism (see FIG. 4) as described hereinafter and the yarn treating apparatus is disposed on the wall 14 of the housing.

Disposed within the interior of the housing 12 is a roll of undrawn yarn 18, as best seen in FIGURE 2 Which is fed or threaded through an eyelet in the wall 14. The undrawn yarn 18 is disposed on a tube so as to be freely rotatable thereon and is also positioned on the sleeve at an :angle with respect to a horizontal axis through the housing, as best seen in FIGURE 2. The undrawn yarn after passing through the slot or opening in the wall 14 is carried on a plurality of pretension devices generally indicated at 20 of any well known type so as to maintain a tension on the thread. The pretension devices are disposed on wall 14 adjacent the lower left side thereof, as best seen in FIGURE 1.

Disposed above the pretensioning devices and on the of the apparatus same side thereof is a pre-finish applicator 22 of wellknown construction and above this applicator are complementary holdback rollers 24 with one roller being disposed vertically above the other roller or may be horizontal. The hold-back rollers are wrapped a number of times with the undrawn yarn, and the rollers are also set at a slight angle or have a converging or angle axis which allows the wrapped yarn to travel or move toward the front end of the rollers.

The continuous thread or yarn after leaving the rollers 24 is passed upwardly over a draw pin 26 of well-known construction. This pin is usually spaced vertically above the rollers 24. The yarn is wrapped 300 degrees to 720 degrees over the draw pin and the draw pin maybe heated for drawing certain types of yarn or a surface heater may be disposed adjacent the draw pin.

After leaving the draw pin 26 the continuous thread or yarn 28 is wrapped around a pair of spaced draw rolls or rollers 30. The rolls 30 are carried by an elongated member 32 as best seen in FIGS. 7 and 8. The rolls 30 extend substantially beyond the front surface of the member 32 so as to provide sufiicient space between the draw rollers 30 to receive a heater 34 therein. The heater 34 is elongated and is provided with V-shaped notches 36 adjacent its opposite ends and adjacent the draw rollers 30.

The draw rollers 30 and the heater 34 are disposed so as to extend above and below the draw pin 26 and to be disposed in spaced relationship therewith and to the right thereof. The draw rollers and the heater 34 are also disposed at an angle or is diagonally inclined with respect to a vertical axis passing through the housing.

In passing from the hold-back rollers 24 to the draw rollers 30, the draw ratio of the yarn 28 is established at approximately 4:1. This ratio may be as much as a plus or minus 75% of the yarn length 28, when in an undrawn state, so as to give the desired physical prop erties to the yarn. After the yarn is passed several times around the rollers 30, it is then fed upwardly to the bulking device 38. The crimper device 38 is disposed vertically above the upper roller 30 so that the yarn 28 as it comes off of the roller is passed between the

crimper rollers

40 and 42 and into the transparent tube, glass or plastic chamber of the crimper device in the tube 44 of the crimper device, the yarn is forced into th mass of filaments packed in the chamber, thereby causing the tow or yarn to fold over and form fine crimps, the fineness and frequency of which depends upon the nature of the material and the back pressure which is maintained in the crimping chamber 44. If the material is pre-heated to or near the softening temperature the crimps will be finer and of greater frequency then if the material is less highly pre-heated and is stiffer as it is forced into the crimping chamber. The preferred type crimping device consists of a conventional stuffing box-type of crimper with a gravity gate control. The crimped yarn is stored in the vertical transparent tube or chamber 44 and the level of yarn therein actuates electric eyes 46 of wellknown construction which in turn control the speed variations of the speed control device 130, FIG. 4, the component parts of the device by well-known means, not forming the invention. When the yarn leaves the chamber 44 it is then moved upwardly over and around spaced shakeout bars 48, to open the crimped filaments of yarn, which are disposed adjacent the upper end of the wall 14 and with a middle or central lower bar 48 so as to form a V configuration. The yarn 28 passes over the top of the two upper bars and below the middle bar 48. There-.

after the drawn and crimped yarn travels downwardly and is wrapped around tension rolls 50. The yarn then passes downwardly into the heating chamber or housing 54. The heating chamber or housing 54 extends outwardly of the wall 14, as best seen in FIGURE 3 and is substantially rectangular in configuration and has power driven heater rollers 56 disposed therein. The housing 54 is disposed vertically below the tension or over feed 6 rollers 50 and adjacent the crimping device 38. The rollers 56, as best seen in FIGURES 5 and 6 have a larger diameter inner end portion 58 and are tapered to smaller outer end portion 60. Between the spaced rollers 56 is a heater element 62. The heater element 62 is provided with the notches 64 adjacent each end thereof and is adapted to fit snugly between the rollers 56. The yarn may be wrapped around the rollers 56 as it travels through th heater housing a sufficient time so that the proper heat is imparted to the yarn. Thus the yarn is wrapped around the rollers a suificient number of times so that its path of travel through the housing will give the required residence time at a given temperature and speed to properly stabilize the yarn at a given rate of speed of the rollers. The rate of speed of the entire unit may be within the range of to 1000 meters per minute, depending on the mechanical application of the vital elements of the apparatus and the type of filamentary strands being processed. The treated yarn leaves the bottom of the heating housing 54 and is then wrapped around cooling rollers 66. The cooling rollers 66 are disposed directly below the housing 54. The rollers 66 are of the converging or angle axis type, already described in connection with the hold-back rollers 24. An automatic drop wire stop '69 of well-known construction is provided for stopping the flow of current to the main drive motor and automatically stopping the entire unit, in case of an interruption in the thread line. The drop wire 69 is of the conventional type in which it acts as an electric switch to cut off the power. After passing the drop wire the drawn yarn is then wound upon a take-up sleeve'70. The take-up sleeve 70 is rotated or driven by a surface roller member 72, as best seen in FIGURE 1 which is of well-known construction and causes the yarn to be wound up on the sleeve 70. A traverse guide 74 of Wellknown construction is provided for the take-up device so that the continuous piece of yarn does not become entangled as it is wrapped up on the sleeve 70.

The drive mechanism consists of an electric motor of well-known construction having a drive sprocket member 74, as best seen in FIGURE 4. The driving mechanism is housed in the housing 12 disposed rearwardly of the wall 14. The electric motor is preferably four speed allowing for a creep type start upon string-up at slow speeds, so as to reduce waste and allow for easy stringup. Then when all of the phases of the unit reach equilibrium, a conventional time relay or manual switch, not forming part of the invention, may be used to change the machine to the proper running speed. The drive sprocket wheel 74 drives' the jack shaft 76 (see FIG. 4), which jack shaft through a belt drives the drive shaft 78 of the mechanical crimping device. The mechanical crimping device may have any number of arrangements such as rolls and stuifing box, gear or fluted rolls, high pressure steam or any other well-known means of imparting the so-called crimp or bulk to the yarn. The draw rollers 30 are driven by a belt drive through the drive shaft 80. The hold-back rollers 24 are also driven by a drive shaft 82. The tension control rollers 50 are driven through a belt drive and the drive shaft 84. The heat stabilizing rolls or rollers 56 are driven by a belt drive through the drive shaft 86. The cooling roll drive or rollers 66 are driven by a belt drive through the drive shaft 88. The apparatus may be provided with a conventional reversing gear indicated at 90. The surface drive member 72 is rotatably driven by the surface drive shaft 92. The traverse drive is driven by a traverse drive shaft. 94.

Referring to FIGS. 9 and 10, the draw roll assembly is shown embodied in the invention and includes power input shaft 101 connected to timer belt pulleys 102 and 103 which drive timer belt pulleys 104 and 105 which are mounted on the end of spindles 106-106. These spindles are carried by bearings 107 and onto the spindles is pressed a godet roller 108. In order to cause the thread to travel outwardly on this pair of rolls, a wedge shaped washer 109 is used causing the rolls to be mounted on plate 110 at an angle to each other.

When the godet 108 operates at comparatively high speeds, 6000 rpm. or 1000 meter take up, it has been found good practice to use a two to one ratio between input shaft 101 and the godets proper 108.

The device finish applicator 68 may, as shown in FIG. 1, be a roller contact or a conventional air spray device containing a high percentage of finish travelling at high velocity so as to be directed against the moving filamentary strands so that the finish is forced against the yarn into a cup shaped container which abruptly changes the direction of the movement of the highly saturated gas or air.

The strand after leaving the treating chamber may then have the correct amount of finish imparted thereon depending on the concentration and velocity of the finish solution. At overfeeds of between and about 50%. the product still possesses the astonishingly high dyeability rate and tenacity characteristics of the crimped product. At an overfeed of at least 10% to about 30% the heating elements soften the filamentary material, reducing the energy necessary to accomplish filament crimping.

From the foregoing description it is apparent that the present invention provides a continuous method and apparatus for treating a continuous tow of yarn providing many advantages over the prior art.

Inasmuch as various changes may be made in the location and relative arrangements of the parts of the apparatus of the invention, and in the sequence of steps in the process of the invention, it is not meant to limit the invention except by the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A method of continuous treatment of a filament of undetermined length of undrawn yarn comprising the steps of; passing the continuous strand of undrawn yarn to a pre-tensioning device, thereafter passing the yarn over hold back members and then to draw rolls and drawing out the filaments of yarn to a pre-determined ratio, heating the yarn to an optimum crimping tempera ture, thereafter crimping the yarn, then passing the crimped yarn to shakeout members to open the filaments after crimping, then passing the crimped yarn to tensioning means, then heating said tensioned yarn to the optimum fixation temperature, and thereafter cooling said yarn to below the fixation minimum temperature before subjecting the yarn to the mechanical stresses caused by the traverse motion of the zero twist take-up or other winding device.

2. The method of claim 1' wherein the undrawn yarn is first passed to a prefinish applicator before being fed to the hold-back members.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the yarn is wrapped around the hold-back members and the draw rolls a predetermined numbers of times.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the draw rolls are spaced apart and said yarn encircles the space between the draw rolls, and heat is supplied to the yarn through a heater in said space.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the yarn is fed in an upward direction to said pretensioning device, and in an upward direction from said hold-back members to said draw rolls.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein said yarn is fed in an upward direction from said draw rolls to the point of crimping.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the crimped yarn is fed in a downward direction to be heated after tensioning, and passes into and through a heating chamber.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said yarn is heated in said chamber by wrapping a number of turns of it around spaced rollers therein, and supplying heat centrally of the turns.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said heated yarn passes out of the bottom of the chamber and is fed in a downward direction to the point of cooling.

10. An apparatus for continuous treatment of undrawn yarn of undetermined length comprising heating means, feed rollers disposed thereon for receiving the undrawn yarn, a pair of draw rollers spaced from said feed rollers for receiving said yarn to cause it to be drawn, heating means for heating said yarn when it is drawn to a prede termined ratio, a crimping device positioned to receive drawn yarn from said draw rollers for crimping it, tension rod members positioned to receive bulked yarn from said crimping device, tension control roller means disposed to receive said yarn after leaving said rod members, a heating compartment positioned to receive an excess amount of over fed yarn from said tension control means, cooling rollers disposed to receive said yarn from said heating chamber, and yarn take-up means disposed to receive said yarn from said cooling rollers.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 wherein said draw rollers are spaced a substantial distance from each other to provide a space therebetween, and a heater element is disposed in said space between said draw rollers and forms said heating means.

12. The apparatus of claim 11 wherein said draw rollers are positioned above and to one side of said feed rollers.

13. The apparatus of claim 12 wherein said draw rollers are disposed in a vertically inclined direction.

14. The apparatus of claim 13 wherein said crimper device is provided with a lower inlet end vertically above and in alignment with the uppermost of said pair of draw rollers.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein said crimper device is provided with a pair of feed rollers adjacent said inlet and has a vertical chamber extending above its feed rollers.

16. The apparatus of claim 15 wherein said heating compartment is disposed laterally of said crimper device and draw rollers.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said heating compartment is provided with a pair of spaced rollers therein forming an open area between the rollers, and a heating member is disposed between the spaced compartment rollers for heating yarn wrapped thereon.

18. The apparatus of claim 17 wherein said compartment is completely closed and has an inlet opening in its top and an outlet opening in its bottom for passing yarn therethrough.

19. The apparatus of claim 18 wherein said cooling rollers are disposed below the compartment bottom.

20. The apparatus of claim 19 wherein said tension control roller means are disposed above the compartment top, and below said tension rod members.

21. The apparatus of claim 20 wherein said take-up means includes a wind-up sleeve and a surface roller for engaging yarn strands as it is wound on said sleeve, and said sleeve and surface rollers are disposed below said cooling rollers.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,099,064 7/1963 Haynes. 3,311,961 4/1967 Iwnicki et al. 3,317,977 5/ 1967 Stanley. 3,337,930 8/1967 Aelion et al.

LOUIS K. RIMRODT, Primary Examiner.