US363405A - Tension-regulating device for spindle-driving bands - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

A. MCDONALD.

TENSION REGULATING DEVICE FOR SPINDLE DRIVING BANDS. No. 363,405;

Patented May 24, 1887..

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ARTHUR MCDONALD, OF HOLYOKE, MASSACHUSETTS.

TENSION-REGULATING DEVICE FOR SPlNDLE-DRIVING BANDS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 368,405, dated May 24, 1887.

Application filed December 27, 1886. Serial No. 222,616. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

t Be it known that I, ARTHUR MeDoNALD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Holyoke, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Tension-Regulating Devices for Spindle-Driving Bands, of which the following is a specification.

Thisinvention relates to spinningmachines, andpertains to improved tension-regulating devices to be used in connection with the endless band of a spinning-machine, which drives all or nearly all of the spindles thereof; and the invention consistsin the peculiar construction and arrangement of said tensionregulating devices in combination with said endless band.

In the drawings forming part of this speci fication, Figure 1 is a plan view of portions of the frame of a spinning-machine having applied thereto spindle-driving mechanism constructed according to my invention. Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the devices which govern the tension of the spindle-band, and is hereinafter fully described.

In the drawings, 2 indicates portions of the frame of a spinning-machine, and 3 the bolster-rail thereof. A shaft, 4, having suitable bearings in said frame parts 2,has fixed thereon a series of grooved pulleys, a, which serve to drive the spindles 5, as below described.

Portions of the central part of the frame 2 extend rearwardly, as shown, and are provided with boxes 15, in which the drivingshaft 8 of the machine runs, actuated by a suitable belt applied to a driving-pulley, 9, fixed on said shaft. Said driving-shaft 8 is provided with a longitudinal groove, 14, and has thereon two beveled gears, 10 and 12, in each of the hubs of which is a set-screw, 13. Said set-screws pass through one side of said hub, and their points enter the said groove 14, thereby securing said beveled gears on said shaft, so that they rotate therewith, and

said groove provides means for moving said gears on the shaft, so that either one of them may be brought into engagement with a pinion on the end of the intermediate shaft, 7, which is hung in suitable bearings connected with said frame 2, and a pinion on the opposite end of said shaft 7 engages with a beveled gear, 2, on the said spindledriving shaft 4.

With the beveled gears 10 and 12 in the posi tions on the shaft 8 shown in Fig. 1, the

shaft 4 and the spindles 5 are rotated in one u direction; but their direction of rotation is reversed by loosening the set-screw of gear 12 and moving the latter out of engagement with said pinion on the shaft 7, and by moving the gear 10 into engagement with said pinion and securing said gear in that position.

The above-described simple means for re-' versing the rotation of the spindles of spinning-machines is of great convenience, practically, for reversing the twist of yarns, and is easily manipulated.

The said grooved pulleys a are provided on the spindledriving shaft 4 for driving the spindles, instead of the usual drum, for the reason that the spindle-band adheres better to said pulleys than to a drum, and consequently said band can be run with said pulleys under a more moderate tension, thereby avoiding such strain upon the spindle-bearings as ere ates an inconvenient friction and increases the power required to drive the machine.

Instead of using a driving-pulley, a, and a separate band connected therewith and with each spindle, I employ, in combination with the belt-tension devices below described, the series of pulleys a, as shown, and a single endless band, 17, of any suitable material, which engages with a guide-pulley, 6, at each end of that part of the frame 2 in which each series of spindles 5 is located, as shown, said band passing alternately around the whirls c of the spindles and said pulleys a, as shown, said driving-band being then carried around an idler-pulley, 20, which rotates by said belt on the belt-tension devices 16, which are secured on any suitable support at the rear of the driving-shaft 4. The said belt-tension devices are illustrated in Fig. 2, and they consist of a me tallic box, 18, having a projecting part, d, which provides means for attaching it to said support, in which boX is a rack, 19, which is adapted to slide longitudinally therein, and 011 which is pivoted the said idler-pulley 20. A shaft, 22, passes through said box 18 to one side of said rack, and has a pinion, 21, thereon, which engages with the latter. Aspiral spring, 23, is coiled around said shaft 22, and one end thereof is attached to the box 18 and one end to said shaft. When the band 17 is placed on the idler-pulley 20, the latter, together with the rack 19, is drawn toward the driving-shaft 5 4:, thereby more or less winding up the spring 23 on the shaft 22 by means of the engagement of the pinion 21 with said rack, and consequently when the rack is freed said spring opcrates to draw it in a direction from said driving-shaft, thereby tightening the driving-band 17 and causing it to so remain, the spring 23 constantly acting to cause the rack 19 to so move as to take up any slacknesswhich may be occasioned by the stretching of the drivingband.

When an endless band, asabove set forth,

is used for driving the spindles of a spinningframe, and is combined with suitable mechanism for taking up the slack occasioned by the stretching of said band and for maintaining substantially an unvarying tension between the driving-shaft and the spindle-whirls, many inconveniences which arise from the use of single bands--one for each spindle-are obviated- 2 5 as, for instance, the time required for the frequent tying up of the ends of broken single bands on a machine and frequently replacing old by new ones, and consequent stoppage of the machine while such changes and repairs are being made, and the variable tension which always exists among the many bands of the machine when the spindles are handed up singly, whereby the twist which the various single-banded spindles impartvto the yarn is far from uniform, whereas by the use of the above-described endless band and regulating devices a. uniform twist is produced by all the spindles which are run thereby.

The driving-band 17 is run in the direction shown between the whirls c of the spindles and the pulleys athat is to say, crossed in the rear of each whirlin order to give the band a contact with as much of the periphery of each whirl as possible, in order to permit of running the driving'band as slack as may 5 be, to obviate undue friction between the spindles and their bearings by lateral strain.

What I claim as my invention is-- The spindles 5, provided with the usual whirls, c, the shaft 4, having driving-pulleys 5o thereon, the guide-pulleys 6, the endless spindle-driving band 17, engaging with said driving-pulleys, spindlewhirls, and guide-pulleys, combined with the box 18, the rack 19, having an endwise movement in said box,the idlerpulley 20, hung to rotate on said rack and engaging with said band, the shaft 22, having a pinion thereon engaging with said rack, and the spring 23, engaging with said shaft and box, substantially as set forth.

ARTHUR MODONALD.

\Vitnesses:

G. M. CHAMBERL kIN, H. A. OHAPIN.

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