US3901286A

US3901286A - Weft tensioning and cutting means

Info

Publication number: US3901286A
Application number: US390144A
Authority: US
Inventors: Geert Jan Vermeulen; Hubertus Henricus Aarts
Original assignee: Rueti Te Strake BV
Current assignee: Rueti Te Strake BV
Priority date: 1973-08-20
Filing date: 1973-08-20
Publication date: 1975-08-26
Anticipated expiration: 1992-08-26

Abstract

A weaving machine comprising a weft-inserting device on one side and means carried by the reed on the opposite side adapted to catch, grasp and tension the weft yarn inserted through the weaving shed, wherein the means for catching, grasping and tensioning the wefts comprises an air injector, the suction opening of which is located at the end of the weft inserting passage way and the outlet of which is bent towards the beating up line in the cloth, a slit in the side wall of said air injector extending from the suction opening along a portion of the length of the injector into the beating up direction of the reed, a thread clamp being located in a fixed position between the lateral edge of the cloth and the air injector, such that with the reed in the beating up position the thread clamp is positioned in the path of the end portion of the inserted weft extending from the lateral edge of the cloth towards the air injector.

Description

United States Patent 1191 Vermeulen et al.

[ Aug. 26, 1975 l l WEFI' TENSIONING AND CUTTING MEANS [75] Inventors: Geert Jan Vermeulen; Hubertus Henricus Aarts, both of Deurne, Netherlands [73] Assignec: Ruti-Te Strake B.V., Deurnc,

Netherlands l Filed: Aug. 20, 1973 1 1 Appl. No.: 390,144

Mullekom 1 139/194 Yano et al. 139/194 Primary E.\'uminerHenry S. Jaudon Atmrney, Agenl, or Firm-Marshall & Yeasting l ABSTRACT A weaving machine comprising a weft-inserting device on one side and means carried by the reed on the 0pposite side adapted to catch, grasp and tension the weft yarn inserted through the weaving shed, wherein the means for catching, grasping and tensioning the wefts comprises an air injector, the suction opening of which is located at the end of the weft inserting passage way and the outlet of which is bent towards the beating up line in the cloth, a slit in the side wall of said air injector extending from the suction opening along a portion of the length of the injector into the beating up direction of the reed, a thread clamp being located in a fixed position between the lateral edge of the cloth and the air injector, such that with the reed in the beating up position the thread clamp is positioned in the path of the end portion of the inserted weft extending from the lateral edge of the cloth towards the air injector.

3 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures PATENTEU AUEZSIHYS SI'EU 1 OF BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a weaving machine comprising a weft-inserting device on one side and means car ried by the reed on the opposite side adapted to catch, grasp and tension the weft yarn inserted through the weaving shed.

A weaving machine of this type has been proposed, in which the means for catching, grasping and tensioning the weft yarn comprises a catching element carried by the reed and cooperating with a stationary clamping member. During the beating movement of the reed the weft which has been inserted into the weaving shed is tensioned due to the cooperation between the catching and clamping members. It is a drawback of this device that the weft, after it has been beaten up into the cloth and after the reed has started to move to its retracted position may become untensioned, so that the ultimate interlacing may be insufficiently tight.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is a main object of the invention to overcome this drawback. For this purpose in accordance with the present invention the means for catching, grasping and tensioning the wefts comprises an air injector, the suction opening of which is located at the end of the weft inserting passage way and the outlet of which is bent towards the beating up line in the cloth, a slit in the side wall of said air injector extending from the suction opening along a portion of the length of the injector into the beating up direction of the reed, a thread clamp being located in a fixed position between the lateral edge of the cloth and the air injector such, that with the reed in the beating up position the thread clamp is positioned in the path of the end portion of the inserted weft extending from the lateral edge of the cloth towards the air injector.

With this device the air injector effects a uniform tensioning of the successively inserted weft threads. Due to the injector being bent in the beating up direction, the said end portion of the inserted weft extends obliquely from the lateral edge of the cloth. As a result of this the tensioning injector will keep the inserted weft, after it has been beaten up into the cloth and upon initiating of the retracting movement of the reed, in a tensioned state. Thus there is ample time for the thread clamp to engage the portion of the inserted weft extending beyond the lateral edge of the cloth, thereby maintaining the tensioned state and the position of the weft beaten up into the cloth, e.g. until this weft has been ultimately interlaced into the cloth as a result of the changing of the weaving shed.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention a guide piece is carried by the reed and mounted so as to be slidably adjustable in the weft inserting direction, said guide piece having a catching channel in alignment ous weaving widths by simply slidingly adjusting the guide piece.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a part of a weaving machine according to the inention;

FIG. 2 shows a plan view of a part of the cloth, as well as a partly sectional plan view of the tensioning injector and the thread clamp and the cutting device cooperating therewith, with the reed in the beating up position and FIG. 3 represents a vertical cross-sectional view along the line III-III of FIG. 2.

With reference to FIG. 1, 1 and 2 each designate a side portion of the frame of the weaving machine. 3 designates the reed, which may be reciprocated according to the arrow I about an axis not shown, between a beating up position and a retracted position, the latter being shown in the drawing.

The reed is formed, in a manner known per se, by a plurality of reed blades 4, disposed side by side, with their lower ends inserted in the reed beam 5 and with their upper ends held together by a mounting rail 6.

7 indicates the weaving shed which is confined by the upper warps 8, the lower warps 9 and the reed blades 4. The cloth is indicated at 10 and passes through the temple 12 mounted on a stationary part 11 of the machine. 13 indicates the beating up line, i.e. the line along which a weft thread inserted through the weaving shed is beaten up by the reed when the latter is moved to its beating up position.

The weft insertion is effected eg by means of a flowing fluid, such as pressurized air. For this purpose in the embodiment shown in the drawings a nozzle 14 is applied on one side of the weaving machine.

The transportation of a weft thread by means of the nozzle 14 in fact takes place through a tunnel 15, which is confined by the U-shaped beating up edges of the reed blades 4, said tunnel being longitudinally open towards said beating up line 13. If desired a number of auxiliary nozzles may be applied across the weaving width and mounted onto the reed so as to assist in transporting the weft thread through the weaving shed. Such auxiliary nozzles, however, have not been shown in the drawing.

At the end of the reed remote from the nozzle 14 a guide piece 16 is slidably mounted on the rail 6 by means of a bracket 16a. This guide piece 16 has a projecting rib 17, fitting in the reed tunnel 15 and provided with a catching passage way 18, the end of which facing the nozzle 14 merges into the reed tunnel 15, while its opposite end is bent in the beating up direction and merges into an opening 18a. The catching passage way 18 communicates along its entire length with a lateral slit 18b facing towards the beating up line 13.

Depending on the desired weaving width the guide piece may be fixed at a larger or smaller distance from the nozzle 14 onto the reed.

With reference to FIG. 2 and 3, the device for tensioning a weft that has been inserted through the weaving shed 7, comprises an air injector 19, which may be of a well-known construction. This air injector is mounted onto the guide piece 16 in such a way that the suction opening 19a of said injector coincides with the opening 18a of the guide piece, while the suction passage confined by the outer tube 19b of the injector constitutes an extension of the catching passage way 18 of the guide piece. The injector 19 is positioned with its axis parallel to the lateral edge 20 of the cloth. The injector 19 may be connected as at 190 to a compressed air hose on the side facing away from lateral edge 20 of the cloth in order to force an annular jet of air through the annular nozzle 19f. The injector 19 has a slit 19d forming an extension of the slit 18b of the guide piece 16.

Beside the edge 20 of the cloth there is a support 21 which may be fixed to the breast beam, not shown in the drawing. On this support the bearing block 22 for the shaft 23 of the rotary cutting member, indicated at 24, is mounted. The cutting member 24 cooperates in a scissors-like manner with the stationary cutting member 25, carried by a fixed frame portion 26. The rotary cutting member 24 is driven by the shaft 23 which in turn is driven, through transmission means not shown, by an intermediary shaft coupled with the main shaft of the weaving machine.

The support 21 also carries a solenoid-controlled thread clamp 28. This thread clamp comprises a clamping lever 30 which is rotatably mounted about a shaft 29 and is provided with a clamping pad 30a cooperating with a clamping surface on the lower side of the fixed frame portion 26. A spring 32 extending between a fixed screw 31 on one hand and a short vertical extension of the clamping lever 30 on the other hand tends to keep the clamping lever in its opened position. An actuating arm 33 is connected with the clamping lever 30. Upon energization of the solenoid indicated at 34 the actuating arm 33 is pulled against the action of the spring 32 and urges the clamping lever 30 into its clamping position in which it is shown in FIG. 3.

In FIGS. 2 and 3 the reed is in its beating up position. As shown more particularly in FIG. 2 the end portion of the inserted weft thread w projecting beyond the lateral edge 20 of the cloth extends obliquely towards the injector 19 which keeps the weft thread w under tension. The projecting weft thread portion abuts the end 19e of the slit 19d, so that the position of the projecting weft thread portion is exactly defined. As is also shown in FIG. 2 the operative parts of the thread clamp and of the cutting device are positioned in the path of the projecting weft thread portion. The suction opening of the conduit 35 for sucking off the cut weft thread end portions is also positioned in this path. 37 designates the mouth of said conduit, in which an injector 36 provides for the desired suction power.

A weft thread inserted through the weaving shed 7 by means of the nozzle 14 while the reed is taking its retracted position (FIG. 1) will, at the completion of the inserting phase, at its leading end be deviated by the guide piece 16 in the beating up direction (warp direction) and introduced into the air injector 19, the latter exerting the desired tension on the so caught weft thread. The inserted weft w is then beaten up in this tensioned state into the cloth by the reed. As mentioned before the portion of the weft thread w projecting laterally beyond the edge of the cloth extends obliquely in the cloth rolling up direction at the time the beating up operation takes place. Instantly after the beating up operation the solenoid 34 is energized, due to which the thread clamp 30, 30a which at that time is in the path of the projecting weft thread portion, is closed and clamps the said thread portion in its still tensioned state. The energization of the solenoid 34 is con tinued until the changing of the shed has taken place and as a consequence the weft thread beaten up into the cloth has been also interlaced. In the meantime the reed and the air injector 19 have returned to the retracted position, whereby the laterally extending weft thread portion which is clamped in the stationary clamp 30a, has been prevented from following the re tracting movement of the reed and the air injector 19 and therefore has been withdrawn from said injector through the slit 19d. Before the deenergizing of the solenoid 34 and thus before the discontinuing of the clamping action of the thread clamp, the movable cutting member 24 is rotated upward from the inclined position shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, so that the cutting member 24 swings against the lower side of the weft thread w, whereby the projecting weft thread end portion is cut between the movable cutting member 24 and the overlying stationary cutting member 25 at a short distance from the edge 20 of the cloth. The timing of the actuation of the movable cutting member 24 is correspondingly chosen. In the meantime the injector 36 is energized and the weft thread portion to be cut off is in the sphere of influence of the suction opening 37 of the conduit 35 and will be sucked into the latter as soon as the cutting off has taken place and the thread clamp has become inoperative.

It is finally remarked that in the catching passage way 18 an optical weft thread detection device may be installed, such as diagrammatically shown at 38 in FIG. 2. A correctly inserted weft thread will, when it is deviated at its leading end in the catching passage way 18 and pulled by the tensioning injector 19, pass such detection device and then produce the required signal for initiating the following weft insertion.

We claim:

1. A weaving machine comprising a reciprocable reed, two sheets of warp threads which are momentarily held in diverging planes to form with the reed a weaving shed, a weft-inserting device on one side of the machine and means carried by the reed on the opposite side of the machine adapted to catch, grasp and tension a weft yarn inserted through the weaving shed, characterized in that the means for catching, grasping and tensioning the weft comprises an air injector, the suction opening of which is located at the end of the weft inserting passage way and the outlet of which is bent toward the beating up line in the cloth, a slit in the side wall of said air injector extending from the suction opening along a portion of the length of the injector in the beating up direction of the reed, a thread clamp mounted on the machine in a fixed position, between the lateral edge of the cloth and the path of reciprocation of the air injector, such that with the reed in the beating up position the thread clamp is positioned in the path of the end portion of the inserted weft extending from the lateral edge of the cloth toward the air injector.

2. A weaving machine according to claim 1, characterized in that a guide piece mounted on the reed is slidably adjustable in the weft inserting direction and has a catching channel in alignment with the weft inserting path, said catching channel at the end remote from the weft inserting device being bent in the beating up direction, and being laterally open along its entire length in the beating up direction, the air injector being transversely connected to the catching channel of the guide piece, and the slit of said injector forming an extension of the open side of the catching channel.

3. A weaving machine according to claim 1 in which a cutting device, a thread clamp and a device for sucking off the cut thread ends are mounted on the side of the machine remote from the weft inserting device,

positioned between the lateral edge of the cloth and the path of reciprocation of the tensioning injector, in the path of the weft thread portion extending from the edge characterized in that the operative parts of the cutting 5 of the Cloth toward the tensioning injectordevice, the thread clamp and the sucking off device are

Claims

3. A weaving machine according to claim 1 in which a cutting device, a thread clamp and a device for sucking off the cut thread ends are mounted on the side of the machine remote from the weft inserting device, characterized in that the operative parts of the cutting device, the thread clamp and the sucking off device are positioned between the lateral edge of the cloth and the path of reciprocation of the tensioning injector, in the path of the weft thread portion extending from the edge of the cloth toward the tensioning injector.