US3561134A

US3561134A - Drive for drying cylinder assemblies

Info

Publication number: US3561134A
Application number: US767400A
Authority: US
Inventors: Walter Kruckels; Erich Gorissen
Original assignee: ZELL J KRUCKELS KG MASCHF
Current assignee: MASCHINENFABRIK ZELL J KRUCKELS KG; ZELL J KRUCKELS KG MASCHF
Priority date: 1967-10-14
Filing date: 1968-10-14
Publication date: 1971-02-09
Anticipated expiration: 1988-02-09
Also published as: GB1245006A; FR1585802A; CH491348A

Abstract

THE INVENTION PROVIDES A DRIVE FOR DRYING CYLINDER ASSEMBLIES UPON WHICH THERE CAN BE DRIED A BAND MATERIAL, PARTICULARLY TEXTILE WEBS OR BANDS OF FILAMENTS, THAT CHANGES ITS LENGTH AS IT DRIES. THIS DRIVE COMPRISES A SINGLE MOTOR FOR DRIVING THE SEVERAL CYLINDERS OF A DRYING CYLINDER

ASSEMBLY AT DIFFERENT SPEEDS BY DRIVING EACH PAIR OF CONSECUTIVE PAIRS OF SAID CYLINDERS THROUGH AT LEAST ONE DIFFERENTIAL GEAR.

Description

Feb. 9, 1971 w. KRUCKELS ETAL 3,561,134

- DRIVE FOR DRYING CYLINDER ASSEMBLIES Filed om". 14, 1968 s Sheets-Sheet 1 INVNTMf: uALreR Knacks ERwM Gums! m aw M M Feb. 9, 1971 w, KRUCKELS ETAL 3,561,134

DRIVE FOR DRYING CYLINDER ASSEMBLIES 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 v Filed Oct. 14, 1968 1 M Q aw U W FL N W; K M r m E H 8 mw m TS 3 w Ill? v a m n H kw H Xi) @W L m .Q. Q .llIvLiiHU J M QMJMVJ R \flW fi EWFQM, a 1 N1 m F E ww Q .T Q L mw v mm, Q Q v Q em aw \& Q 7 W W V. J G Q. J o k Q Q g 0 Feb. 9, 1971 I w, U L ETAL 3,561,134

DRIVE FOR DRYING CYLINDER ASSEMBLIES Filed Oct. 14, 1968 v 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 7 H I w a WLX Q l/Eryr WRLHEF Ha ERIcH Gdflmsm 73 US. Cl. 34-121 2 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The invention provides a drive for drying cylinder assemblies upon which there can be dried a band material, particularly textile webs or bands of filaments, that changes its length as it dries. This drive comprises a single motor for driving the several cylinders of a drying cylinder assembly at different speeds by driving each pair of consecutive pairs of said cylinders through at least one differential gear.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION When a material that stretches or shrinks as it dries is conveyed over an assembly of consecutive drying cylinders, the length of the travelling material changes according to the rate at which it stretches or shrinks. It follows that consecutive drying cylinders in the direction of travel of the material must be driven at different speeds if the generation of undesirable tension in the material is to be avoided.

Drive means for the drying cylinders of a sizing or like textile treating machine have already become known in the art, in which the several cylinders are driven by a driving element in the form of an endless belt or chain which is led around the cylinder journals or the pulleys firmly mounted thereon, and in which the non-positive driving engagement between the driving element and the cylinders can be partly or wholly released according to the acceleration and/ or the tension of the travelling drying material. During acceleration or retardation the several cylinders therefore continue to be driven, but the size of the pulleys which are nonpositively engaged by the driving element must be carefully chosen so as to ensure that the associated cylinder will in fact assume the peripheral speed which makes the correct allowance for the shrinkage of the material. This is difficult to effect and a special adjustment must be made for each material that is to be dried.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is the object of the present invention to provide a drive of the above specified kind in which all the cylinders are positively driven and their peripheral speeds can nevertheless precisely adjust themselves to the local speed of the travelling material.

To attain this object, the present invention provides a drive for drying cylinder assemblies upon which there can be dried a band material, particularly textile webs or hands of filaments, that changes its length as it dries, which comprises a single motor for driving the several cylinders of a drying cylinder assembly at different speeds by driving each pair of consecutive pairs of cylinders through at least one differential gear.

At least one of the cylinders, assuming an odd number of cylinders in the assembly, may preferably be driven by the common motor through an adjustably variable gearing at a selectable constant speed, whereas the differential gears for driving the remaining cylinder pairs are driven United States Patent by the common motor through at least one further adjustably variable gearing.

Moreover, the differential gears driving two consecutive pairs of the cylinders may themselves be differentially driven by the common motor through a further differential gear which in turn is driven by the common motor through the further adjustably variable gearing.

The proposed drive for drying cylinder assemblies permlts each cylinder to adjust its peripheral speed to the speed of the material running over this cylinder, notwithstanding that all the cylinders are positively driven. The generation of undesirable tension in the drying material can thus be substantially avoided.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying schematic drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of an assembly of drying cylinders and of their associated drive means, components and details not required for an understanding of the invention having been omitted;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the assembly according to FIG. 1, and

FIG. 3 is a view of the assembly, similar to FIG. 2, below a graph in an x, y-coordinate system, showing the peripheral speeds of the several cylinders.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to these drawings a continuous tape or band of material 10 that is to be treated, particularly dried, is indicated by a thick line. This material 10 may for instance be a freshly sized tape for warping which is to be dried on a drying cylinder assembly composed of drying cylinders 11 to 15. In FIG. 2 the material runs through the machine from lift to right. It is first gripped between a pair of driven fed rollers 16 which extract it from a dressing trough (not shown) and feed it to the drying cylinders. The reference numeral 17 designates a deflecting roller preceding the cylinder assembly, the roller being mounted on a tilting arm 21 loaded by a tension spring 20. This deflecting roller 17 is incidentally also used for measuring the tension of the material 10 before it enters the cylinder assembly.

The drying cylinders 11 to 15 are each partly enveloped by the material 10 that is to be treated. The material then runs over a set of driving rollers 18 and is finally wound on a beam 19'.

A common motor 22 drives, by means of a belt 23, a shaft 24 of which one end drives the set of driving rollers 18. At the same time, through transmission means 47, the shaft 24 drives an adjustably variable .gearing 48 of which the output shaft 49 is coupled to the beam 19. The adjustably variable gearing 48 is preferably so controlled that the tension in the portion of the material 10 which has been wound up is kept substantially constant. The gearing 48 may be controlled in any conventional manner known in the art.

Furthermore, through a pair of bevel gears 25 the other end of the shaft 24 drives an adjustably variable gearing 26 which permits the speed of rotation of the output shaft of bevel gears 25 to be varied, thus rendering it possible to drive the drying cylinder 15, through a further pair of bevel gears 27 and a shaft 28, at a selectable speed.

The adjustably variable gearing 26 simultaneously drives a further adjustably variable gearing 29 which in turn drives a pair of bevel gears 30. This pair of bevel gears 30 drives an input shaft 31 of a differential gear 32 of which the two outputs, through

transmissions

33 and 52, drive the

input shafts

34 and 35 of two further

differential gears

50 and 51. The outputs of these latter

differential gears

50 and 51, through transmission means 36, 37, 40, 41,

drive shafts

38, 39, 42 and 43 of the drying cylinders 11 to 14. Since all the drying cylinders 11 to 14 are thus driven through differential gears, the individual cylinders can adjust their peripheral speeds to the speed of the material 10, notwithstanding the fact that all the drying cylinders are driven. This adjustment of the peripheral speeds of the drying cylinders 11 to 14 is entirely automatic and no special adjustment or control of the transmission means is required.

Besides the pair of bevel gears 30, the further adjustably variable gearing 29 also drives another adjustably variable gearing 44 which in turn drives another pair of bevel gears 45 and a shaft 46 for rotating the pair of feed rollers 16.

It is not essential that the arrangement of the differential gears should be as shown in the drawings. As an alternative, each pair of drying cylinders could be driven by one differential gear and this differential gear could be directly driven by the common motor 22, preferably through an adjustably variable gearing. However, the described arrangement has proved to be particularly satisfactory.

It will also be understood that it is not of the essence that the final drying cylinder 15 over which the material 10 passes last should be directly or indirectly driven through an adjustably variable gearing by the common motor 22. In principle it would be quite feasible to drive any one of the drying cylinders in this way and to drive each of the remaining pairs of drying cylinders through differential gears.

Moreover, instead of the illustrated bevel-type differentials, differentials of any other form of construction could naturally be used.

A substantial advantage afforded by the invention is that each

drying cylinder

11, 12, 13, 14 and possibly 15 can adapt its peripheral speed to the linear speed of the travelling material 10, even if this should shrink or stretch during the drying process. The tension in the drying material between consecutive cylinders remains quite small, despite the fact that each cylinder is driven. Undesirable tension in the drying material, which may readily arise when the material itself drives the cylinders, is thus avoided.

The feed through the machine may be controlled by the feed roller pair 16 instead of by the pair of driving rollers 18, in which case the former would be directly connected to the driving motor 22.

Control when the tension in the material 10 varies can be effected as follows, assuming that the drying cylinder 15 is driven to revolve at a constant speed:

Let it be assumed that the material 10 travelling from the pair of feed rollers 16 to the final drying cylinder 15 stretches significantly during the drying process so that the peripheral speeds v v v12, v v 1 progressively increase. This is schematically shown in the graph in FIG. 3. The position of the x-axis need not necessarily represent a speed v=0. The curve V; will then roughly reflect the elongation of the material which in the illustrated example increases roughly linearly from the feed roller pair 16 to the final cylinder 15. Should the rate of elongation of the material become less or in some other way cease to be in accordance with the abovementioned curve V then this will lead to a change in position of the deflecting roller 17 which also serves to measure the tension of the material, and which will be hereinafter referred to as the measuring deflecting roller 17. When the tension in the material 10 rises this measuring deflecting roller 17 transmits controlling signals proportional to its deflection to the two variable gearings 44 and 29. Let it be assumed for instance that the speed v of the pair of feed rollers 16 must be raised by Av to adequately adjust the speed of entry and hence the quantity of the web of the material 10 fed into the machine by the feed rollers 16 to the stretching of the material 10 between the feed rollers 16 and the last drying cylinder 15. Since the measuring deflecting roller 17 responds both to excessively high and excessively slack tension, it is well adapted to control the pair of feed rollers 16 to the desired speed of draw-in. Since the change in length between the pair of feed rollers 16 and the final drying cylinder 15 corresponds to a change in speeds, reflected by the curve V which is substantially proportional to the previous speed curve V the two curves V and V in the illustrated example being taken as linear-the entire drive of the assembly of drying cylinders 11 to 14 must experience an average speed increase Av which can be taken from the diagram at the midway point between the speeds v and v which correspond to the speeds of the drying cylinders 11 to 14. This increase in speed Av must also be taken into account by appropriately adjusting the gearing 29 when the gearing 44 is adjusted as above described. If the elongation or shrinkage proceeds linearly, as is assumed in the diagram, then the signal for adjusting the gearing 29 should make an adjustment equal to half that of the gearing 44. If the pattern of elongation or shrinkage is different, appropriate adjustments are possible. The increase in speed is transmitted through the pair of bevel gears 30, the shaft 31, the differential gear 32 and the following differential transmissions 33 to 43 and to 52 to the drying cylinders 11 to 14.

In chain lines the graph in FIG. 3 also shows another speed curve V which corresponds to a higher peripheral speed of the feed rollers 16 than that of the final drying cylinder 15. This type of speed curve arises when the drying material 10 undergoes shrinkage in length whilst travelling from the feed rollers 16. to the final drying cylinder 15. In a system of controlling the two gearings 44 and 29 by reference to signals generated by the measuring deflecting roller 17, this control signal may, if desired, first be applied to the gearing 29 which controls the average difference in speed Av of the drying cylinders 11 to 14, and the speed difference Av required at the feed rollers 16 may be derived therefrom, or, alternatively, the difference in speed Av of the pair of feed rollers may be adjusted first and the difference in speed Av required for driving the four drying cylinders 11 to 14 may be adjusted by reference thereto. It is not absolutely necessary that the last drying cylinder 15, as seen in the direction of travel, should be the cylinder rotating at a constant peripheral speed v for an adjustment of the other speed differentials in the aforementioned system 11 to 16. In some cases it may be desirable in certain drying operations to drive the pair of driving rollers 18 at a constant reference speed and the above-described system of control may then also include the final drying cylinder 15. It may then be an advantage to provide for driving the pair of driving rollers 18 and the drying cylinder 15 at different speeds, a possibility which is available, for instance, because of the presence of the gearing at 26, and control signals for matching the peripheral speeds of the driving rollers 18 and that of the final drying cylinder 15 may if desired be derived from a further measuring and deflecting roller 17a.

The invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. The present embodiment is therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.

What is claimed is:

1. In mechanism for driving drying cylinder assemblies upon which a band material that changes its length as it dries, such as textile webs, bands and filaments, can be dried, the improvement comprising, in combination, a single motor for driving the several consecutive cylinders of said assembly at different speeds; an adjustable speed transmission connecting said motor to at least one cylinder for driving said one cylinder at an adjustable constant speed; at least one further adjustable speed transmission driven by said motor; two differential gears each having outputs connected to the cylinders of a respective pair of drying cylinders, the two pairs of drying cylinders being consecutive; and a further difierential gear having its input connected to the output of said further adjustable speed transmission, and having two outputs, each con 10 entry and delivery ends of said drying cylinder assembly of which at least one set is connected to said motor through another adjustably variable gearing.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,594,394 8/1926 Weston 226-40 2,531,644 11/1950 Rayburn 22611l 3,119,537 1/1964 Smits 226188X RICHARD A. SCHAOHER, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 226-111, 188