US3731395A - Apparatus for extracting liquid from cloth - Google Patents

Abstract

This invention provides a method and apparatus which may be used for vacuum extraction of liquids. The method comprises applying a radially outwardly directed vacuum suction force to cloth in rope form which has been treated with any desired solution and has said liquid content absorbed thereon. The apparatus comprises a vacuum vessel, a pipe body installed in and across said vacuum vessel and having a plurality of slits or openings formed in the peripheral wall thereof to establish communication between the interior and exterior of the pipe body, and means whereby cloth in rope form treated with any desired solution and having said liquid content absorbed thereon is moved through said pipe body at a suitable speed.

Description

Watanabe [451 May 8, 1973 [54] APPARATUS FOR EXTRACTING LIQUID FROM CLOTH [7 51 Inventor: Gentaro Watanabe, Kyoto, Japan [73] Assignee: Uenoyama Kiko Co., Ltd., Kyoto,

Japan [22] Filed: Dec. 4, 1970 [21] Appl. No.: 95,243

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data 2,117,603 5/1938 Dungler ..57/1 UN 2,304,474 12/1942 Poesl ..68/D1G. I

FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 1,101,341 3/1961 Germany ..68/20 Primary Examiner-William F. ODea Assistant ExaminerWilliam C. Anderson Att0rneyMorgan, Finnegan, Durham & Pine [57] ABSTRACT This invention provides a method and apparatus which may be used for vacuum extraction of liquids. The method comprises applying a radially outwardly directed vacuum suction force to cloth in rope form which has been treated with any desired solution and has said liquid content absorbed thereon. The apparatus comprises a vacuum vessel, a pipe body installed in and across said vacuum vessel and having a plurality of slits or openings formed in the peripheral wall thereof to establish communication between the interior and exterior of the pipe body, and means whereby cloth in rope form treated with any desired solution and having said liquid content absorbed thereon is moved through said pipe body at a suitable speed.

4 Claims, 8 Drawing Figures PATENTED MAY 8 I973 SHEET 2 OF 3 FIG. 5B

APPARATUS FOR EXTRACTING LIQUID FROM CLOTH BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION the like) and has a substantial amount of liquid content 0 absorbed thereon.

Heretofore, such extraction of liquids from cloth in rope form has been carried out mostly either by a system in which cloth is pressed by a rubber roll to extract the liquid content (padder system) or by a system in which cloth is put in a rotary tank to centrifugally extract the liquid content (centrifugal hydroextraction). The two systems, though differing in form from each other, are based on the application of a force specifically a compressive force to cloth in rope form which tends to reduce the diameter (or thickness) thereof. Consequently, this results in a wrinkled cloth, which is most undesirable.

In view of the above mentioned difficulty which is inherent in the conventional liquid extracting systems, it is a principal object of the invention to provide a method and an apparatus whereby the liquid in which has cloth a treating liquid content absorbed thereon, can be continuously extracted without creating any wrinkles.

In view of the fact that the major cause of creating wrinkles in the conventional system is the pressing of cloth to reduce its diameter (thickness) as described above, it is another object of the invention to provide a method of and an apparatus for extracting liquids, consisting in applying a force which, contrarily, tends to increase the diameter (thickness) of cloth.

In view of the fact that if the extraction of liquids from cloth in rope form is effected in a condition in which the twist imparted thereto has been eliminated, the liquid in the central region can also be extracted, it is an object of the invention to provide a liquid extracting apparatus having an untwisting action.

Further, in view of the fact that since liquid extracting treatment, as viewed from another aspect, has the merit of destroying the adhesion force exerted in cloth in rope form, the incorporation of such liquid extracting treatment in the scutching treatment step facilitates the scutching treatment. If liquid extracting treatment is effected in said scutching, step. The untwisting of cloth in rope form which is essential to the scutching of cloth in rope form can be effected along with liquid extraction. This will permit the carrying out of the processing steps such as dyeing, washing with water, etc. and the scutching step in a single continuous line.

Further, it is also an object of the invention to provide a liquid extracting apparatus which is simple in construction and inexpensive,

SUMMARY OF INVENTION In order to achieve the above mentioned objects, this invention provides a method of extracting liquids from cloth in rope form characterized in that it comprises applying a radially outwardly directed vacuum suction force to cloth in rope form treated with any desired solution and having the liquid content absorbed thereon.

Further, according to the invention, there is provided an apparatus for embodying said method comprising a vacuum vessel, a pipe body installed in and across said vacuum vessel and having a plurality of slots or openings formed in the peripheral wall thereof to establish communication between the interior and exterior of the pipe body, and means whereby cloth treated with any desired solution and having said liquid content absorbed thereon is moved through said pipe body at a suitable speed. It is desirable that said pipe body have a plurality of inward projections each provided with a plurality of slots or openings. Further, the disposition of the pipe body in the vacuum vessel may be effected either by a fixed support or by a rotatable support, but preferably the latter arrangement is employed along with means for positively driving the pipe body.

Embodiments and examples of practical application of the apparatus of this invention will be described in the concrete with reference to the accompanying drawings (like parts being indicated by like reference characters).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a longitudinal section of a basic example of the liquid extracting apparatus of this invention;

FIGS. 2 and 3 are longitudinal sections of modified forms of pipe body used in the liquid extracting apparatus of this invention;

FIG. 4 is a view of a modification of the liquid extracting apparatus similar to FIG. 1;

FIGS. 5A, 5B and 6A, 6B show examples in which the liquid extracting apparatus of this invention is applied to scutchers, wherein A's are side views of the principal portion and Bs are plan views.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS First, referring to FIG. 1, there is illustrated a basic example of the liquid extracting apparatus of this invention, wherein the numeral 1 1 denotes a vacuum vessel and 13 denotes a pipe body, with means for moving cloth (CL) in rope form being omitted. The vacuum vessel 11 is provided with an opening 12 in the lower part of the left-hand side so that the air in the vessel is sucked out by a vacuum pump (not shown) through said opening 12. The wall of the pipe body is formed with slots or openings 14 spaced at given intervals in a substantially uniform pattern over the entire area. The pipe body 13 is installed in the vacuum vessel 11 by a fitting method and at the opposite ends thereof there are guide pipes 15 fixed to the lateral walls of the vacuum vessel II by set screws 16 so as to be connected to the pipe body. The fitting disposition of the pipe body in the vacuum vesselll, or an arrangement permitting removal thereof, is from the consideration of exchange of the pipe body 13. Such arrangement permits selective exchange for a pipe body 13 having a diameter suitable for the size (thickness) of cloth in rope form required in practice for effecting efficient suction-extraction of liquids.

The apparatus in the basic example is arranged in the manner described above, when the cloth (CL) in rope form is being introduced into the pipe body 13 with the vacuum pump (not shown) operating, the cloth (CL) is caused to have its diameter increased-by the vacuum ment is continuously carried out without creating any wrinkles.

FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate two preferred modifications of the pipe body 13 of the apparatus of this invention. The pipe bodies 13 shown in the respective Figures each have a plurality of inward projections 17 each formed with a plurality of openings 14 (which may be replaced by slits). The inward projections 17 are formed by the root of an external screw thread in the case of FIG. 2, whereas in the case of FIG. 3, they are formed in such a manner that the right and left wall regions of a pipe are alternately cut out at a given pitch and the cutouts are closed with members 18 substantially conforming in shape to the cutouts. Thus when the pipe body 13 is used, the portions which exert vacuum suction forces on the cloth project into the pipe and as a result, the cloth adheres well to said portions, so that a condition suitable for suction and extraction of the absorbed liquid content exists and in view of this good form of adherence it is possible to achieve satisfactory extraction of liquids even when the diameter (thickness) of the cloth in rope form is considerably smaller than the diameter of the pipe. That is,

the advantage is obtained that the extraction of liquids from various sizes of cloth in rope form is possible.

Further, the pipe body shown in FIG. 2 may be easily produced, e.g., by (a) cutting in a roll (made of iron) a screw thread corresponding to the shape of the undulations on the surface of the pipe body, (b) applying a copper plating with a thickness of l 1.5 mm or more, over the entire surface of said roll, applying engraving corresponding to the openings in the pipe body to the copper matrix of the root of the screw thread by a knurling mill method, (d) charging said engraved portions with a resin (phenol, epoxy or the like) and polishing the surface, (e) applying a nickel plating with a thickness of 0.08 1 mm over the entire surface (it being noted that no such plating will deposit where the resin is exposed), and (f) withdrawing the layer of platin g by rotating it along the root of the screw thread.

FIG. 4 shows a modification of the apparatus, wherein the pipe body 13 which is the same as the one shown in FIG. 3 is adapted to be rotatively driven. The pipe body 13 is rotatably mounted in the vacuum vessel 11 through guide pipes 15, a pulley l9 driven, eg by a belt from a suitable driving mechanism, fastening members 20, bearings 21, hearing supports 22 and bearing clamps 23. In FIG. 4, the numeral 24 denotes an O- ring; 25a, a seal packing: and a numeral 25b denotes a packing. According to such rotative driven arrangement for the pipe body, the cloth (CL) introduced into the pipe body is attracted to the inner peripheral surface (in this case, the inward projections 17 by the vacuum suction force and is rotated substantially integrally with the pipe body 13. Therefore, by suitably selecting the direction of rotation of the pipe body, it is possible to eliminate the twist imparted to the cloth (CL). Since such untwisting action, as viewed from the aspect of the extraction of liquids, contributes to increasing the working area provided by the vacuum suction force, there is achieved a faster and more efficient liquid extracting treatment. Moreover, since untwisting is related to scutching as described below, the very useful advantage is obtained that the liquid extractingapparatus of this construction can be used as a component of a scutcher.

Finally, the fact that if the liquid extracting apparatus of this invention will be used a very desirable convenient scutcher is obtained which is described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6. A scutcher shown in FIG. 5A will first be described. This is characterized in that disposed above a turntable 27 for placing thereon a truck 26 carrying cloth (CL) in rope form containing a treating liquid and in the place of a guide or a tension adjusting device called a pot eye in the conventional scutcher, is a liquid extracting apparatus (LE) of this invention with the pipe body fixed to the vacuum vessel. To explain the overall arrangement in detail, in FIG. 5B the numeral 28 denotes a vacuum pump; 29, a pipe interconnecting the liquid extracting apparatus (LE) and the vacuum pump 29; 30, a frame for the scutcher; and the numerals 31 and 32 denote an arm and a tumbuckel, respectively, connected to the frame at one of their respective ends. The liquid extracting apparatus (LE) is fixed in any desired position above the turntable 27 by these members in such a manner that the axis of the liquid extracting apparatus extends substantially vertically. The numeral 33 denotes a handdrum-shaped guide reel, disposed, e.g. about 7 m above the level of the floor (FL) and held by a bracket 34 secured to the ceiling or the like. The numeral 35 denotes a mechanism for detecting the amount of twist of cloth, secured likewise to the bracket 34. The detecting mechanism 35, which has heretofore been generally used for such purpose, is so constructed that, though not shown in detail, it detects the amount of twist of cloth by the restoring force of the twist exerted when the cloth is in its free state at a level of about 7m. The detecting mechanism is interlocked with a reversible motor 36 which drives the turntable 27, in such a manner that the turntable 27 can be driven forwardly or reversely in accordance with the detected amount of twist so as to eliminate the twist of the cloth. The numeral 37 denotes a cloth guider for guiding cloth by gripping the opposite lateral edges thereon; 38, a guide roll; and the numeral 39 denotes a folding mechanism consisting of a wheel 40, a pressing roll 41 and delivery rolls 42, and driven by driving means 43. Further, the numeral 44 denotes a supply water tank for the vacuum pump 28 and 45 denotes a control box.

According to the scutcher arranged in the manner described above, cloth (CL) which is received in the truck 26 placed on the turntable 27 and which contains a treating liquid such as washing water for dye solution is subjected to a liquid extracting action in the manner described above at the liquid extracting apparatus (LE) of this invention immediately after it leaves the truck 26, thus establishing a condition in which the strong adhesion force due to the treating liquid being contained as observed in the conventional scutching process is completely eliminated. As a result, the cloth (CL) leaving the liquid extracting apparatus (LE) has its twist eliminated in a very simple manner between the apparatus (LE) and the detecting mechanism 35 by the actuation of the reversible motor 36 by the detection signal from the mechanism 35 indicating the amount of twist, followed by the forward or reverse rotation of the turntable 27, and on the other hand between the mechanism 35 and the cloth guider 37 it is scutched also in a very easy manner. Further, this arrangement of the liquid extracting apparatus (LE) provides the advantage that there is no difficulty, which has heretofore been observed during untwisting and scutching of cloth, of dye liquid, washing water, etc. spattering over the floor, etc. in the workshop and thereby contaminating the working environment. The cloth which has been very simply untwisted and scutched in the manner described above is downwardly guided with the opposite lateral edges thereof gripped by the cloth guider 37 and is then passed via the roll 38 to be fed to the folding mechanism 39, wherefrom it is progressively thrown off toward the floor (FL), thus completing the scutching operation.

Next, the scutcher shown in FIG. 6 will now be described. This is characterized in that the truck, the turntable for placing it thereon and the pot eye provided in the conventional arrangement are replaced by a liquid extracting apparatus (LE) of this invention. The FIG. 6 arrangement differs from the FIG. 5 arthe advantage that very efficient scutching operation can be carried out, as will be easily understood without going into details.

Further, concerning the scutcher shown in FIG. 6, although the advantage that processing treatment steps such as dyeing and washing with water etc. and the scutching step are made continuous is lost, a modification is possible such that the guide roller 46 is omitted and instead a truck is used from which cloth to be scutched is introduced into the liquid extracting apparatus LE.

While a basic example and modifications of the apparatus of this invention have been described so far, it goes without saying that in order to carry out more efficient liquid extraction in this liquid extracting apparatus, it is necessary to suitably set different condirangement in that with the turntable and truck omitted,

cloth (CL) which has under-gone dyeing, washing and other processing treatments is introduced directly into the liquid extracting apparatus (LE), that the liquid extracting apparatus (LE), which is secured to the front end of an arm 48 fixed to a horizontal frame 47, is adapted to be driven for forward and reverse rotation by a reversible motor 49 mounted on the arm 47 through a belt, and that said reversible motor 49 is in: terlocked with the detecting mechanism 35 in the same relation the turntable 27 shown in FIG. 5. According to the scutcher thus arranged, in addition, to freedom from obstructions to untwisting operation and from contamination of working environment due to the treating solution contained in the cloth as in the case of the arrangement shown in FIG. 5, since processing treatment steps such as dyeing and washing with water etc. and untwisting and scutching steps can be carried out continuously in contrast with noncontinuous treatment as in FIG. 5 and in the prior art, there is obtained tions such as the degree of vacuum in the vacuum vessel, the speed at which cloth in rope form is moved through the pipe body and, in the case of rotating the pipe body, the direction of rotation and the rotative speed thereof.

What I claim is:

1. Apparatus for extracting a liquid from cloth treated with said liquid and having said liquid content absorbed thereon comprising a vacuum vessel, an elongated tubular member arranged within said vacuum vessel and having a plurality of inwardly projected portions which are apertured with a plurality of openings, said inwardly projected portions being spaced at given intervals in a substantially uniform pattern over the entire area of the wall surface thereof so that radially outwardly directed vacuum suction force is supplied through the said openings in said inwardly projected portions to the inside of said tubular member and means for pulling said cloth in a generally rope-shaped form through said tubular member.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 in which said projected portions are formed in a continuous spiral form.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1 in which said projections are arranged in a spaced relationship in directions parallel to the axis of said tubular member.

4. Apparatus according to claim 1 in which said tubular member is carried for rotation about its axis within said vacuum vessel so that said cloth in a ropeshaped form may be untwisted.

Claims (4)

1. Apparatus for extracting a liquid from cloth treated with said liquid and having said liquid content absorbed thereon comprising a vacuum vessel, an elongated tubular member arranged within said vacuum vessel and having a plurality of inwardly projected portions which are apertured with a plurality of openings, said inwardly projected portions being spaced at given intervals in a substantially uniform pattern over the entire area of the wall surface thereof so that radially outwardly directed vacuum suction force is supplied through the said openings in said inwardly projected portions to the inside of said tubular member and means for pulling said cloth in a generally ropeshaped form through said tubular member.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1 in which said projected portions are formed in a continuous spiral form.

3. Apparatus according to claim 1 in which said projections are arranged in a spaced relationship in directions parallel to the axis of said tubular member.

4. Apparatus according to claim 1 in which said tubular member is carried for rotation about its axis within said vacuum vessel so that said cloth in a rope-shaped form may be untwisted.

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