US769648A - Apparatus for handling tubular fabric. - Google Patents

Description

No. 769,648. A PATENTED SEPT. 6, 1904. O. W. GOVE. APPARATUS FOR HANDLING TUBULAR FABRIC.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 2, 1904.

N0 MODEL.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

HTIIHIII No. 769,648. PATENTED SEPT. 6, 1904. G. W. GOVE.

APPARATUS FOR HANDLING TUBULAR FABRIC.

APYLIOATION FILED JAN. 2, 1904.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

UNiTep STATES Patented September 6, 1904.

ATENT OFFICE.

APPARATUS FOR HANDLING TUBULAR FABRIC;

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 769,648, dated September 6, 1904. Application filed January 2, 1904. Serial No. 187,536. No model.)

To all witmw it may calmer/L.-

Be it known that I, CHARLES \V. Govt a citizen of the United States, residing at Manchester, in the county of Hillsboro and State of New Hampshire, have invented an Improvement in Apparatus for Handling Tubular Fabric, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanyingdrawings, is a specification, like characters on the drawings representing like parts.

Knit fabric is made in great quantities in tubular form to be subsequently cut longitudinally and form a flat web from which undergarments, &c., are made, and it is common practice to subject the fabric to various treatments while in tubular form that is, such fabric is washed, napped, and otherwise treatedand after one face of the tube has been acted upon the tube is turned inside out to expose its other face for treatment. In order to turn a long piece of tubular fabric, it is common practice to draw the same onto a tubular support or receiver by manual labor, the operatives drawing the fabric thereon and pushing it together until a tube of fabric many yards in length may be pushed and drawn onto a support fifteen or twenty feet long. \Vhen the fabric has thus been fulled onto the receiver, it is drawn over one end of the latter and pulled through it, thereby turning the tube of fabric inside out. The manual operation of drawing or fulling the fabric onto the receiver is tedious and requires the operator or operators to pull on a quantity and then push the accumulated fabric along the receiver, then pull on more and push it along, and so on, until the whole length of the web is on the receiver.

My present invention has for its object the production of simple and effective mechanism for rapidly and easily placing a tubular fabric or web on a receiver of the character specified as a preparatory step to turning the web inside out.

As will be understood more fully hereinafter, my invention is not restricted to handling knit or woven fabric in tubular form, as it is adapted to handle fabric of any character in tubular form which for any reason must be turned inside out.

Inasmuch as the tubular web may be turned inside out by any suitable means, with which my invention has nothing to do, I have not illustrated any such means in the accompanying drawings.

The various novel features of my invention will be fully described in the subjoined specification and particularly pointed out in the following claims.

Figure 1 is a perspective view of an apparatus for handling tubular fabric and embodying one form of my invention, the tubular web beingshown in readiness to be applied to the apparatus, the drawing being broken out at the upper part to economize space. Fig. 2 is also a perspective view, on a smaller scale, of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1, but viewed from the back and disconnected from the receiver. Fig. 3 is an enlarged longitudinal section on the line 3 3, Fig. 1, through the center of the apparatus. Fig. 4: is a sectional view of a modification of the web-feeding means to be described; and Fig. 5 is a sectional detail showing the boxes of the presser-rolls illustrated in Fig. 4:, said rolls being omitted, the means for connecting the spreader and its body with the swinging support being shown.

In Figs. 1 and 2 one end of the tubular receiver it is shown, said receiver being made, preferably, of metal and supported in any suitable manner. Near one end of the receiver a frame A is secured to the floor of the room in which the apparatus is located, said frame having a cross-piece A on which is mounted the roll B of fabric to be treated, the tubular fabric or web being loosely rolled up for convenience in handling, and the rod or cross-piece A is passed through the center thereof and detachably connected with the frame A.

Referring to Fig. I, a swinging support comprising upright parallel side pieces a and cross-bars 0 rigidly connecting them, is suspended from pivot-pins C, which for convenience may be secured to the ceiling of the room, and when the apparatus is in operation the swinging support depends from its pivots in substantially vertical position, (see Fig. 1,)

i with the lower ends of the uprights c resting rob against stops secured to the floor. Atoggle connection is herein shown between the swinging support and the frame A and comprises an arm 0 fulcrumed at c on the base of the frame A, and a crank-arm 0*, journaled in bearings 0 on the uprights, the crank pass-' ing through a longitudinal slot 0 in the arm 0 The latter arm at its free end is shown in Fig. 2 as provided with laterally-extended lugs 0 for a purpose to be described.

A spring S is fastened at one end to the swinging support and at its other end to any fixed object as, for instance, the floor. (See Fig. 2.) The spring normally tends to swing thelower end of the support toward the frame; but when the toggle comprising the arm 0 and crank-arm 0 are straightened, as shown in Fig. 1, the swinging support is moved into its operative position, with the lower ends of the uprights 0 against the stops 0, and at such time the lugs c on the arm 0 bear against the under side of the adjacent part of the crank arm, the toggle at such time being slightly beyond dead-center, the spring tendingto retain it in such position. One of the journals of the crank arm 0 is extended through its bearing 0 and has'secured to it a handle 0 by which the toggle can be readily operated.

A spreader to enter and open or distend the tubular web,.so that the same may be acted upon by suitable feeding means to be clescribed, is interposed between the frame A and the nearer end of the receiverR and, with the feeding means, is mounted on the swinging support hereinbefore described. The spreader proper is herein shown as an elongated box-like member D, having'a tapered extremity (Z to enter and gradually distend or expand the web, the latter in Fig. 3 being indicated at WV by dot-and-dash lines. This spreader is secured to the front end of a hollow body D in any suitable manner, as by rivets 3, the body being cut away to leave opposite openings, as D D Fig. 3, in its top and bottom, respectively. The sides of the body are parallel and practically form a continuation of the side walls of the larger portion of the spreader, while from top to bottom the main portion of the body D is somewhat less in height than the height of the spreader D. A coupling, herein shown as a cylindrical boss D is rigidly secured to the rear end of and projects beyond the body, the diameter of the boss being such that it will easily enter the adjacent end of the receiver, as clearly shown in Fig. 3.

Within the body two presser-rolls (Z d are shown, having particular reference to Fig. 3, their journals 20 and 30 being mounted in blocks 21 and 31, respectively, slidable in fixed guides 22 32, secured to the sides of the body. (See Fig. 5.) A substantially crescent-shaped spring S is rigidly secured to the inner end of the boss B the free ends of the spring bearing against the journal-blocks 21 31 to normally move the rolls away from each other. As shown in Fig. 3, said presser-rolls are located adjacent the openings D?D and project part way through the same, while the i guides 22 and 32 limit such outward movement. l body D and passes thence to the receiver the l presser-rolls bear upon the inner face of the fabric and maintain it pressed outward in frictional engagement with feed-rolls F G, located above and below the body.

The shaft of the feed-roll F is mounted in bearings 8 on the upright portions 0 of the swinging support and is extended at one side to receive a pulley F. The feed-roll Gr has its shaft 9 extended beyond one of its bearings 10, and a pulley G is secured thereto, and by reference to Figs. 1 and 2 it will be seen that the pulleys are located at the same side of the swinging support and substantially one above the other. An idler-pulley G is mounted on a stud 9 secured to one of the uprights 0, and a driving-belt M, driven from any suitable source of power, (not herein shown,) is passed around the idler G and then up, over, and around pulley F I and down and around pulley G and thence I up again to an overhead pulley or drum,which- I ever may be most convenient, by which movement is imparted to the belt. The direction of movement of the belt and feed-rolls is shown by the arrows in Fig. 3, the feed-rolls F and G rotating in opposite directions in such a way as to feed the fabric over the body D and onto the receiver.

In the operation of the machine, supposing the parts are to be in the position shown in Fig. 1, the operator takes the free end of the tubular web W opens it out and draws it onto the tapered end (Z of the spreader and up over the main portion D thereof,.drawing l the thus-distended fabric far enough to introduce the leading end thereof to the nip of the two pairs of rolls hereinbefore described. The belt M is then started and the nip of the feed-rolls on the exterior face of the web is l maintained by the yielding outward pressure I imparted to the presser-rolls d d The feeding is effected with great rapidity and uniformity, the web piling up or fulling upon the receiver as it is fed thereonto, so that a web of many yards in -length can be quickly and easily applied to the receiver. When a Web has thus been applied to the receiver. the toggle c 0 is broken, as indicated in Fig. 2, so that the springS will move the swinging support away from the receiver, thereby drawing the boss D out of the end of the receiver, as shown in Fig. 2. The fabric on the receiver can then be turned inside out in usual manner.

Referring to Figs. 3 and 5, a shaft d 15 is extended through the body D near the inner end of the boss D, the opposite ends of the As the tubular web is fed over the shaft projecting beyond the body and entering holes in ears (Z secured to the uprights c of the swinging frame, to thereby connect the body and spreader to the support, while permitting a slight tipping movement of the body relatively thereto, which tipping movement is necessary when coupling or uncoupling the body and the receiver.

Instead of the feeding means shown in Figs. 1, 2, and 3 I may use spring-pressers in place of the presser-rollsd (Z and, referring to Fig. 4:, I have shown spring-pressers a a mounted on the body and extended across the openings D D therein, said pressers acting upon the inner face of the fabric and pushing it outward into feeding engagement with the upper and lower feed-rolls F Gr. The latter may be mounted and operated substantially as in Fig. 2.

Horizontal bars it 71, Figs. 1 and 2, are secured in parallelism one above the other on standards lt rigidly secured to the swinging uprights c c, said bars constituting a guide which is located in front of the tapered end of the spreader. The guide supports and directs the web as it passes from the roll B to the spreader.

My invention is not restricted to the precise construction and arrangement herein shown and described, as so far as I am aware it is broadly new to feed a tubular fabric onto a receiver other than by drawing and pushing the fabric onto the receiver by hand. Accordingly various changes or modifications maybe made in the apparatus by those skilled in the 1 art without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention.

Having fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In apparatus of the class described, an elongated receiver for and to internally sustain the web, a spreader located at one end of the receiver to enter and open the tubular web, and fixedly-positioned means located between the spreader and receiver to engage successive portions of the web and feed the same longitudinally upon the receiver.

2. In apparatus of the class described, an

tain the web, a spreader located at one end of the receiver and having a tapered nose, to enter and open the tubular web of fabric, and fixedly-positioned means located between the spreader and receiver to engage the web with rolling contact and feed the same longitudinally upon the receiver.

3. In apparatus of the class described, an

elongated tubular receiver, aspreader located K at one end thereof to enter and open the tubular web, and means to engage the interior and exterior faces of the opened web and feed the same from the spreader onto the receiver.

4. In apparatus of the class described, an

elongated tubular receiver, a spreader located at one end thereof to enter and open the tubular web, rotatable feed-rolls to engage the exterior of and feed the opened web onto the receiver, and means to yieldingly act upon the inner face of and press the web against the feed-rolls.

5. In apparatus of the class described, an elongated receiver having a tubular end, a spreader located at the tubular end thereof and having a tapered nose, to enter and open the tubular web of fabric, and fixedly-positioned means located between the spreader and the adjacent end of the receiver to continuously engage and act upon successive portions of the web on opposite sides of the spreader and feed the same longitudinally upon the receiver.

6. In apparatus of the class described, an elongated tubular receiver, a spreader located at one end thereof and having a hollow body provided with opposite openings, means within the body to engage and yieldingly press the web outward, and rotatable feed-rolls located opposite said means to engage and feed the web longitudinally onto the receiver.

7. In apparatus of the class described, a tubular receiver, a spreader detachably connected with one end thereof and having a hollow body provided with opposite openings, positively-driven feed-rolls to engage the exterior of the tubular web when drawn over the spreader and feed the web onto the receiver, and means within the spreader-body to act through the openings thereof and press the web against the feed-rolls.

8. In apparatus of the class described, a stationary tubular receiver, a spreader to enter and open the tubular web and having a hollow body provided with opposite openings, a swinging support for the spreader, means to connect the body thereof with the adjacent end of the receiver, feed-rolls to exteriorly engage the web and feed the same onto the receiver, and yieldingly-controlled pressers within the body of the spreader to act internally upon the web through the openings in the body and press the web against the 'feed rolls.

9. In apparatus of the class described, an

elongated tubular recei ver,a tapering spreader elongated receiver for and to externally sus- 1 having a hollow body provided with opposite openings, presserrolls yieldingly mounted therein to project partly through said openings. and positively-driven feed-rolls mounted outside the body to cooperate with the presserrolls and thereby feed the tubular web over the spreader and its body onto the receiver.

10. In apparatus of the class described, a tu bular receiver, a spreader detachably connected with one end thereof and having a hollow body provided with opposite openings, a cylindrical boss on the body to enter the adjacent end of the receiver, yielding pressers within the body and located opposite the openings therein, and feed-rolls outside of the body to &

cooperate with the pressers and feed the tubular web over the spreader and onto the receiver.

11. In apparatus of the class described, an elongated stationary, tubular receiver, a swinging support, a spreader mounted thereon and tapered to enter and open the web, means to connect the spreader and the adjacent end of the receiver, whereby the web can be moved over the spreader onto the receiver, and means mounted on the spreader-support to engage and feed the web onto the receiver.

12. In apparatus of the class described, an elongated stationary, tubular receiver, a swinging support, a spreader mounted thereon and tapered to enter and open the web, means to connect the spreader and the adjacent end of the receiver, whereby the web can be moved over the spreader onto the receiver, feed-rolls to engage the web internally and externally between the spreader and receiver, means to positively drive one set of rolls, and yielding supporting means for the other set.

13. In apparatus of the class described, an elongated stationary, tubular receiver, a tapering spreader to enter and open the web and having a hollow body detachably connected with the receiver, and provided with opposite openings, a stand in front of the spreader to sustain a roll of tubular fabric or Web, positively-driven feed-rolls to engage the web externally as it passes across the openings in the body, and yielding means within the latter to act upon the web through said openings and maintain said web in engagement with the feed-rolls.

14. In apparatus of the class described, an elongated tubular receiver, a spreader located at one end thereof to enter and open the tubular web, said spreader having a hollow body detachably connected with the adjacent end of the receiver and having upper and lower openings, freely-rotatable presser-rolls within the body and yieldingly supported to project part way through the openings, and positively driven upper and -lower feed rolls mounted outside the body in cooperative relation with said presser-rolls, the fabric being engaged by the two sets of rolls and thereby drawn over the spreader and its body and fed onto the receiver.

In testimony whereof I havesigned my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

CHARLES W. GOVE.

Witnesses:

WM. N. JoHNsoN, EDWARD DoRsEY.

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