US802529A - Loading device for rotary hoppers of filling-replenishing looms. - Google Patents

Description

No. 802,529 PATENTED 00124, 1905. A. E. STAFFORD. LOADING DEVICE FOR ROTARY HOPPERS OF FILLING REPLENISHING LOOMS.

APPLIOATIGN FILED JULY 3,1905.

ALFRED E. STAFFORD, OF HOPEDALE, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO DRAPER COMPANY, OF HOPEDALE, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MAINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 24, 1905.

Application filed July 3, 1905. Serial No. 268,028.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ALFRED E. STAFFORD, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Hopedale, county of Worcester, State of Mas- 5 sachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Loading Devices for Rotary Hoppers of Filling-Replenishing Looms, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like char- 1 acters on the drawings representing like parts.

This invention relates to automatic looms oi' the Northrop type; and it has for its object the production of means whereby a plurality or gang of filling-carriers or bobbins I can be simultaneously inserted in the hopper. A loom of this type is shown in United States patent to Northrop, No. 529,940, the intermittingly-rotated hopper comprising two circular and connected disks, the one having butt-receiving pockets and the other being provided with tip-holders for the filling-carriers, which are removed one" by one by a transferrer and inserted in the shuttle. The hopper-stand is provided with a flange which 2 5 overhangs the greater portion of the periphery oi the butt-supporting disk to prevent accidental derangement of the butts of the filling-carriers, and the attendant inserts the latter one by one, butt first, by placing the butt 3 under the flange and into a pocket, thereafter depressing the tip into engagement with the opposite tip-holder.

In my present invention I employ a gangloader constructed and arranged to supporta 3 5 gang of filling-carriers with their tips outermost, their butts resting against a curved base provided with a handle. The flange referred to is cut away for a portion of its lengthcorresponding to five or more pockets,

4 and the latter are radially notched. The gang of filling-carriers are applied to the hopper and pressed simultaneously into place, their butts entering the exposed pockets, into the notches of which the temporary supports for the filling-carriers enter, and by an endwise movement the attendant withdraws the supports through the notches, leaving the several filling-carriers in the hopper. This facilitates the loading operation, inasmuch as a number 5 of filling-carriers are inserted in the time now required to insert one.

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 top plan view of the greater portion of a hopper of the type referred to and showing a gang of filling-carriers about to be inserted therein by means of a loading device embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is an inner side elevation of a portion of the buttreceiving disk of the hopper, showing the cutaway flange and the loading device in position; and Fig. 3 is a detached View in elevation of the loading device, one of the lillingcarriers being shown in place thereon by dotted lines.

Referring to Fig. 1, the hopper-stand A rigidly mounted on the breast-beam A, the hopper rotatably mounted on the stand and comprising two connected circular disks, the inner disk a, having a circularly-arranged series of peripheral open-ended pockets 2 for the butts b of the filling-carriers or bobbins, and the outer disk a, shown by dotted lines and in practice provided with tip-holding devices, may be and are all of well-known construction and of the familiar Northrop type referred to.

The stand A is provided with an annular flange c, which usually overhangs the greater part of the periphery of the disk a, to prevent accidental displacement of the butts of the bobbins, the latter being inserted-one by one by first placing the butt under the flange into a pocket and then depressing the tip into engagement with the opposite tip-holder on the disk (1/. 1 have cut away a portion of this flange at the upper part of the hopper, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2, to expose a length oi arc of the disk at corresponding to six or seven of the pockets 2, and the ends of the latter are radially notched, as shown at 3. (See Fig. 2.)

The loading device embodying my present invention is herein shown as comprising a curved base 4, having an overl'langing lip 5 projecting beyond one side, a rigidly-attached handle 6 on the other side of the base, and a series of straight parallel supports 7, fixedly mounted on the base and projecting from it oppositely to the handle. These supports 7 are conveniently made as cylindrical rods of a diameter greater than that 01" the bore at the tip end of a bobbin, but which will loosely enter the butt-end thereof, and I have shown tubular or socketed bosses 8, Fig. 3, forming an integral part of the base t, in which the rods are fixedly held. The lip 5 overhangs the bosses, as shown in Fig. 3, and serves as a stop to simultaneously engage the butts of the bobbins when mounted on the supports 7, positioning the group of bobbins in readiness for insertion in the hopper.

In operation the attendant places a bobbin on each support, holding the loading device by its handle in the left hand, and then by a single movement places it on the hopper in the position shown in Fig. 1, so that the butts of the group of bobbins will enter a corresponding number of pockets 2, exposed or unprotected by the cutting away of the flange 0. lVith the right hand the operative presses the bobbins down into place, seating the butts in the pockets and bringing the tips into operative engagement with the corresponding tipholders. This action carries the inner ends of the supports down into the notches 3, as will be seen from an inspection of Fig. 2, and then by an endwise movement of the left hand the loading device is drawn to the left, Fig. 1, withdrawing the supports 7 through said notches 3 and out from the bores of the bobbins, leaving the latter in the hopper. Thus the group or gang of bobbins is loaded into the hopper in the time now required to load one.

It should be stated that the spaces between the supports 7 are equal to the distances between adjacent notches of the pockets, so that not only are the bobbins centered when inserted, but the supports can be withdrawn from the bobbins through such notches.

The hands of the operator are indicated in Fig. 1 by dotted lines to more clearly illustrate the loading operation.

After the bobbins are inserted and the loading device withdrawn the filling ends from the several bobbins are carried over to the endholding disk Z2 (see dotted lines Fig. 1) and fastened, as is usual.

The size of the temporary supports prevents the operative from applying the bobbins tip end first, so that no care has to be taken in this respect, as the only way the bobbins will slip onto the supports is butt first.

The construction of the loading device is simple, strong, and durable, and it greatly facilitates the loading of the hopper.

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

1. In a loom, a rotatable hopper comprising two connected circular disks one of which is provided with a series of peripheral pockets to receive the butts of the filling-carriers, each pocket having a radial notch, a fixed flange overhanging the edge of said disk and cut away near its top to expose a plurality of positely-extended handle on the base, the

temporarily -sustained fillingcarriers being inserted simultaneously in the hopper at the cut-away portion of the flange, the notches in the pockets permitting withdrawal of the supports when the butts of the filling-carriers are seated in the pockets.

2. In a loom, a rotatable hopper comprising connected tip and butt supporting disks, the latter having a circularly-arranged series of radially-notched, open-ended pockets adjacent its periphery, a hopper-stand having aflange overhanging a portion of the periphery of said disk, and a removable hopper-loader comprising a curved base having an attached handle, a plurality of straight, parallel supports to loosely enter the butt-ends of a gang of filling-carriers, said supports being rigidly secured to the base, and a lip or stop on the latter to position the butts, the gang of filling-carriers being inserted in the hopper simultaneously, their butts being seated in the pockets exposed or unprotected by the over hanging flange, the inner ends of the supports entering the radial notches and being withdrawn endwise from the filling carriers through said notches.

3. A loading device for rotary loom-hoppers, consisting of a longitudinally-curved base having an attached handle, and a series of straight, parallel supports rigidly attached to the base and projecting therefrom oppositely to the handle, to loosely enter the butt ends of a series of filling-carriers and temporarily support the samein position to be simultaneously inserted in the loom-hopper.

4:. A loading device for rotary loom-hoppers, consisting of a longitudinally-curved base having an attached handle, a series of socketed bosses on the opposite side of the base, a straight supporting-rod fixedly secured in each boss and extending from the base in parallelism, and a lip on the base extending from one to the other end thereof and overhanging the bosses, each rod being adapted to loosely enter the butt-end of and temporarily support a filling-carrier, the lip positioning the same in readiness to be inserted simultaneously in the hopper, the curvature of the base corresponding to the curvature of the hopper.

5. A loading device for rotary loom-hoppers, consisting of a longitudinally-curved base having an attached handle, and aseries of straight cylindrical rods rigidly attached to the base and projecting in parallelism therefrom oppositely to the handle, the diameter of the rods being greater than the bore of a filling-carrier at the tip end thereof, said rods being adapted to loosely enter the butt-ends seams only of a plurality of filling-carriers, and temporarily support them in position to be inserted simultaneously in the hopper.

6. A loom-hopper, and a loading device therefor consisting of a base shaped to lit the hopper, and a series of straight, parallel supports rigidly attached to the base and projecting at right angles to it, adapted to enter the interiors of filling-earriers and temporarily support the same in position to be simultaneously inserted in the hopper.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

ALFRED E. STAFFORD.

Witnesses:

GEORGE OTIS DRAPER, ERNEsT NV. 001).

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