WO2017134645A1

WO2017134645A1 - Oscillating sley mounted weft cutter for shuttle-less rapier weaving machines

Info

Publication number: WO2017134645A1
Application number: PCT/IB2017/050922
Authority: WO
Inventors: Sanjay KURKUTE
Original assignee: Kurkute Sanjay
Priority date: 2016-02-05
Filing date: 2017-02-17
Publication date: 2017-08-10

Abstract

This invention is about an arrangement of weft cutting mechanism for application on all types of shuttle-less rapier weaving machines, amongst the novel features, the most significant ones being, the location of weft cutting scissors or blades on the oscillating sley and in front of the reed itself, which eliminates need for cutting of reeds (or limitations on actual length of the reed) as per width of the fabric woven on the machine. All the driving and timing setting mechanism is isolated and placed away stationary on/in the machine frame/body which further brings in ease of operation, simplicity of setting and also improves overall reliability and life of the weft cutting device.

Description

TITLE OF I NVENTION

"OSCILLATING SLEY MOUNTED WEFT CUTTER

FOR SHUTTLE-LESS RAPIER WEAVING MACHINES"

Author : Mr. SANJAY ANANT KURKUTE

An Indian Citizen residing at permanent address:

21/1615, "Bhagyashree", Opp. Deccan Co-Op. Spinning Mills, Jawaharnagar, ICHALKARANJI-416 117, Kolhapur, Dist. Maharashtra State, INDIA.

The following specification particularly describes and ascertains the nature of this inventions and manner in which it is to be performed.

DESCRIPTION:

A. TECHNICAL FIELD OF INVENTION:

The invention relates to textile engineering field and more specifically to the weft cutting arrangement used for cutting weft thread at each new "pick" on Rapier type shuttle-less weaving machines used in fabric manufacture in textile weaving applications.

B. PRIOR ART:

1. Indian Patents - No prior art with even the slightest resemblance in textile and weaving machine field.

2. United States Patent - US 4875507 A - Process and apparatus for guiding the weft threads in weaving looms (This prior are is described and claimed for double cloth production and although the cutters are mounted on the sley, the major differences are that they are mounted besides the reed and not in front of reed and above all their weft cutting timing is at the beat up; where as in this invention, the cutter is not only positioned in front of the reed but the cutting timing is when sley is at the back center timing of the weaving machine so the construction, purpose and application of this prior art is entirely different than this invention.)

3. Chinese Patent - CN 203700669 U - Weft cutting device of rapier loom (This prior art describes and claims a weft cutting device wherein only one blade is mounted on upper half of sley and another is mounted on machine frame. There is no mention made whether it is in front of the reed or besides the reed; this prior art states weft cutting and beat up happening together hence the comment above that "the construction, purpose and application of this prior art is entirely different than this invention" applies equally good, here as well.)

The conventional arrangement for cutting weft is as described below. It is known that conventionally the weft cutters in all rapier shuttle-less weaving machines are clumsy and sizeable and bigger mechanism fitted in equally bigger box on any shuttle-less weaving machine needing delicate and precise timing setting. Furthermore disadvantages are as stated below:

1) The weft cutter is mechanism is most commonly mounted rigidly on the machine frame. It contains two blades crossing each other creating a scissor action. All this mechanism needs cams springs and timing links and all are fitted in a box, which becomes considerably bigger with all the mechanical elements needed. Hence the box has to be fitted outside cloth width line.

2) The weft is to be cut near edge of cloth, and mechanism is bigger in size, so all the blade carrying levers are bent on one side from their mounting pivots, so as to reach the desired cutting place or point, this creates considerable overhang from cutting levers' fulcrum point to the blade position. Hence they need to be made heavy. There is a confined space and producing critical small movements in that place, that too remotely, brings in so many mechanical limitations and parts become too heavy, despite the only task achieved is cutting a tiny weft thread.

3) The size and layout of the weft cutter box in conventional design makes it necessary to cut the Reed length as per width woven. As cutting is done in front of reed the reed had to be shorter in length, unless the beat up will bang the reed on weft cutter itself. Hence the reeds are often cut to length to overcome this major disadvantage of all of the prior arts, which this invention completely eliminates and altogether eliminated the need to cut the reeds.

C. WHAT'S NOVEL IN THIS INVENTION:

The present Invention solves all of above problems related with conventional weft cutting systems by:

1. mounting a very small scissor type weft cutter on the oscillating sley itself and the drive motion and timing setting device of the weft cutter is placed stationary in the machine body structure away from the reed and sley. This is a novel and inventive approach never used hereinbefore.

2. The sley and weft cutter move in unison and this itself avoids complications which arise from interference of the two.

3. It automatically comes to intersect the weft thread due to this novel positioning of this weft cutter.

4. The additional advantage of this new inventive set up over the conventional set up and that cutter never interferes with the reed's angular motion path and eventually writes off the need to cut the reed according to the width of the fabric woven. Same holds equally good for colour selector mechanism which gets freedom of space with the weft cutting drive parts located away from the colour selector, just no interference of any kind with adjacent parts.

D. OBJECTIVES OF THE INVENTION:

1. Wherein, the objective of the invention is to satisfy the basic needs of precise timing of cutting but still device a weft cutter arrangement which is much small in size and to revolutionize its mounting place for it so that the need for reed length to be as per weaving width can be avoided. This is a very unique and distinct feature never attained herein before.

2. Where in the main route taken for reducing size is by separating the rotating shafts, links and cams away from the main cutter arrangement and keep the cutter simple and easy to move around according to varying widths of cloth woven on a weaving machine.

3. Wherein the supplementary objective of the invention is to achieve simple timing setting procedure so that the same can be carried out by even a lay man rather than needing a qualified technician and can be performed by machine operator himself.

E. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS:

The invention will now be described with the help of a drawing accompanying this specification wherein salient features have been shown by suitable numerals and referred to appropriately in the following description.

The Patent Illustration comprises 2 Diagrams:

Description on Diagram 1: Arrangement of weft cutter on sley -

Diagram 1 shows how the weft cutter is mounted on sley which swivels around shaft Numbered 1 to which brackets Numbered 2 attached to which are the Brackets for mounting Reed holder Numbered 3. A long tee slot arrangement numbered 4 having length between 150 to 750 mm and having a tee slot suitable for bolts from metric specifications M6 to M12 is attached to Brackets numbered 2 in such a manner that the tee slot runs across the width of the weaving machine and swivels along with the brackets numbered 2. An adjustable part numbered 5 sits on the Tee slot part 4 such that it can be adjusted at desired position in T slot widthwise by means of two fasteners at places 6 and 7 and secured to the tee slot in set position while operation. Scissor blade arrangement Numbered 8 fits in the top portion of part 5 in such a manner that the scissors opening projects towards the top to receive the weft to be cut automatically as it is lowered for pick up by rapier head (not shown in diagram) a weft presenter numbered

9 in the diagram (Colour selector mechanism not shown fully in the attached diagram only one needle is shown for simplicity). The tee slot part 4 has two brackets numbered

10 and 11 at its two extreme ends fitted to the tee slot part 4 in such a way that a long but small diameter shaft of diameter 8 to 15 mm numbered 12 runs through them and through the Part 5 in such a manner that the shaft slides freely in all of these three guides formed by parts 5, 10 and 11. Part 13 is fixed securely to the Shaft by means of a slot and screw clamping arrangement on part 13 itself such a manner that it can be set at desired position widthwise on the shaft relative to the Part 5. A spring having length between 10 to 50 mm, numbered 14 sits on shaft 12 in such a manner that it gets in between part 5 and part 13 so as to create return arrangement for shaft 12 when it is pushed forward. Same function is repeated for another similar spring 15 at the extreme end of rod 12 but this remains fixed by a simple collar in place of part 13 and no setting is required here as nothing moves on changing position of part 5. Link numbered 16 which has a length between 30 to 150 mm is fitted on a projection on part 13 and to one end of scissor blade 8 in such a manner that when shaft is pushed to the right (forward) the lever actuates the scissor blade to cutting of weft thread as Plate 17 is secured on part 5 and one end of this plate has an attachment to arrests the free end of scissor blades so that the movement of this side of scissor blade is blocked, thus bringing in cutting action of the weft thread which has fallen in the scissors. Numbered 18 is the shaft having diameter between 10 and 20 mm, driven axially forward and backward by means of surface Cam numbered 19 mounted on machine frame / body and has a projection "P" on its surface for displacing roller follower in its angular movement over cam surface. Disc Surface Cam 19 is adjustable in angular position by means of slots in machine body / frame numbered 21 and secured after setting by plate numbered 20 mounted above this arrangement from other side of body/frame 21. An eccentric cam numbered 22, having eccentricity 10 to 50 mm, is mounted on a shaft running equal to rotational speed of machine equal to weaving cycles drives the Shaft 18 through arrangement of link numbered 23, special drive sleeve 24 having keyway connection, in such a manner that the shaft 18 is free to move forward and backward along its axis without disengaging the axial drive input by of special drive sleeve 24. A strong spring numbered 25 Presses the shaft on to the surface cam 19, Bearing and follower numbered 26 is securely mounted on shaft 18 is arranged as shown in diagram. Shaft 18 comes in front of the shaft 12 described above at backward most position of the sley, the position at which the weft cutting is required and has a clearance of 0.5 to 5 mm so that it can move freely from in front of the shaft 18 and away from in front of shaft 18. When the cam 19 imparts forward thrust to shaft 18, it gets transferred to shaft 12 and through link and scissor arrangement as described in diagram 1 above the weft is cut at precise timing.

Description of Diagram 2: The position of weft cutter arrangement at Beat - up position - (cross section view of weaving machine) Number 3 is Reed holder at beat up position and Number 3 shows reed holder or race board at beat up position and similarly number 2 shows sley bracket at beat up position Number 8 is weft cutter at beat up position it goes below the temple assembly. Number 9 is weft presenter needle in raised position at beat up to get clear of reed passage.. Number 20 is setting part number 20 which is easily accessible for setting weft cut timing. Further number 27 is position of weft cutter, reed holder and rapier guides at beat up position. This is shown in translucent way. Number 28 is temple assembly. 29 is curve on which the tip of scissor blade passed during beat up. Number 30 are heald frames.

Description of Working: At the backward most position of sley, the weft cutter blades 8 swing in to cutting position by virtue of its placement on the beat up mechanism or sley. When the beat up operation is done the cutter blades hide themselves as it escapes below the temple and adjacent assemblies just like the rapier guides. At the backward most position shaft weft cutter actuation shaft 12 and cam driven push rod 18 coming from the cam spring and follower assembly are in the same axis separated by a clearance of 0.5 to 5 mm, and at this time the roller follower 26 is riding on the projection "?" on the surface cam. When the follower bearing escapes the projection "?" on surface cam, the spring 25 is decompressed and imparts rapid axial thrust to shaft 18, as the roller escapes the projection "P", this motion gets transferred on shaft 12 which is in the same axis at this time of weaving cycle. This activates link 16 through part 13 fitted on shaft 12 resulting in snap type cutting action. When the cam 22 takes back the follower in its return stroke, roller follower rides back on projection "?" on surface cam, shaft 18 gets retracted back compressing the spring again. Shaft 12 also returns back to its rest position with a clearance gap between its driver face and face of shaft 18 thus opening the scissor blades. Sley moves to beat up position and comes back to rest position repeating the cycle all over for next pick. There is no interference with any adjacent part or motions of weaving involved here. And because reed moves in unison with the cutter blades, there is no need to cut the reed as per weaving widths.

The descriptions on diagram and description of working above clearly demonstrate the all main and additional objectives of the invention are achieved and fully complied with. NOMENCLATURE: Description on Diagram 1: Arrangement of weft cutter on sley -

Number 1 is sley shaft

Number 2 are brackets on sley shaft

Number 3 is reed holder used for fixing reed

Number 4 is a long tee slot arrangement attached to Brackets numbered 2

Number 5 is an adjustable part serving as mounting for scissors

Number 6 and 7 are fasteners

Number 8 are Scissor blade arrangement

Number 9 is a weft presenter

Number 10 and 11 are end brackets

Number 12 is shaft running freely through Part 5, part 10 and part 11

Number 13 is a Part fixed securely to the Shaft 12

Number 14 is a spring which sits on shaft 12

Number 15 is another spring which sits on shaft 12

Number 16 is a Link driving scissor action

Number 17 is plate blocking movement of other end of scissor

Number 18 is the shaft driven axially forward and backward

Number 19 is a Cam

Number 20 are adjustable slots in machine body / frame

Number 21 is machine body / frame

Number 22 is an eccentric cam n mounted on a shaft running at weaving cycles

Number 23 is Connecting link

Number 24 is special drive sleeve 25 having keyed connection

Number 25 is Strong Spring

Number 26 is bearing and follower arrangement fixed on shaft 18

Number "P" is curved cam like projection on surface cam 19

Description of Diagram 2: The position of weft cutter arrangement at Beat -up position

(Repeating numerals 1 to 26 in this diagram should please be referred to diagram 1 above)

Number 27 is weft cutter, reed holder and rapier guides at beat up position.

Number 28 is temple assembly

Number 29 is curve on which the tip of scissor blade passes

Number 30 are heald frames.

Claims

CLAIMS: The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed in connection with articulations of this invention for its application in textiles field are specifically defined as follows:

1. It is prominently claimed that because the cutter is directly mounted on the moving sley, which is having oscillation motion on a circular arc path, and the weft cutter is so specifically positioned, that it rises to meet the weft thread at the time of cutting when sley is at the backward most position and gets lowered during subsequent beat up operation, so as to clear the path for the reed to complete the beating up of inserted weft till the fell of the cloth, which completely removes interference of the weft cutter and the reed during beat up operation, which eliminates need for cutting of reeds (or limitations on actual length of the reed) as per width of the fabric woven on the machine and this is claimed to be major and one of the most significant achievements of this invention, which had not even been thought about hereinbefore.

2. It is further claimed that the weft cutter is mounted on sley which swivels around shaft (1) to which brackets (2) attached to which are the Brackets for mounting Reed holder (3), a long tee slot arrangement (4) having length between 150 to 750 mm and having a tee slot suitable for bolts from metric specifications M6 to M12 is attached to Brackets (2) in such a manner that the tee slot runs across the width of the weaving machine and swivels along with the brackets (2), an adjustable part (5) sits on the tee slot part (4) such that it can be adjusted at desired position in tee slot widthwise by means of two fasteners at places (6 & 7) and secured to the tee slot in set position while operation. Scissor blade arrangement (8) fits in the top portion of part (5) in such a manner that the scissors opening projects towards the top to receive the weft to be cut automatically as colour selector finger (9) is lowered for weft pick-up by gripper head.

3. It is sequentially claimed that the tee slot part (4) has two brackets (10 & 11) at its two extreme ends fitted to the tee slot part (4) in such a way that a long but thin shaft of diameter 8 to 15 mm (12) runs through them and through the part (5) in such a manner that the shaft slides freely in all of these three guides formed by parts (5, 10 & 11). Part 13 is fixed securely to the Shaft by means of a slot and screw clamping arrangement on part (13) itself, in such a manner that it can be set at desired position widthwise on the shaft relative to the Part (5). A spring (14) having length between 10 to 50 mm sits on shaft (12) in such a manner that it gets in between part (5) and part (13) so as to create return arrangement for shaft (12), after it is pushed forward and same function is repeated for another similar spring (15) at the extreme end of rod (12) but this remains fixed by a simple collar in place of part (13) and no setting is required here as nothing moves on changing position of part (5) for fabric width setting.

4. More over it is claimed that the link (16) which has a length between 30 to 150 mm is fitted on a projection on part (13) and to one end of scissor blade (8) in such a manner that when shaft is pushed to the right (or forward), the lever actuates the scissor blade to cutting of weft thread as plate (17) is secured on part (5) and one end of this plate has an attachment to arrests the free end of scissor blades so that the movement of this side of scissor blade is blocked, thus bringing in cutting action of the weft thread which has fallen in the scissors.

5. It is thus claimed that a shaft (18) having diameter between 10 and 20 mm, driven axially forward and backward by means of surface Cam (19) mounted on machine frame/body and has a projection "?" on its surface for displacing roller follower in its angular movement over cam surface and it is specifically claimed that disc surface cam (19) is adjustable in angular position by means of slots in machine body / frame (21) and secured after setting by plate (20) mounted above this arrangement from other side of body/frame (21) and further to it an eccentric cam (22), which is having eccentricity between 10 to 50 mm, and is mounted on a shaft running equal to rotational speed of machine, which is again, equal to weaving cycles.

6. It is further claimed that the cam (22) drives the Shaft (18) through arrangement of link (13), special drive sleeve (24) having keyway connection, in such a manner that the shaft (18) is free to move forward and backward along its axis without disengaging the axial drive input by of special drive sleeve (24) and another strong spring numbered (25) Presses the shaft on to the surface cam (19), bearing and follower (26) is securely mounted on shaft (18) is arranged as shown in diagram, shaft (18) comes in front of the shaft (12) described above at backward most position of the sley, and this is the exactly position at which the weft cutting is required which is again co-incident to a position, where gripper had just moved forward and taken the weft thread and the other end of weft thread catched and carried by the selvedge forming device is to be cut so that the picked weft is carried through.

7. Further to above claim, it is subsequently claimed that these shafts (18 & 12) have a clearance of 0.5 to 5 mm, tip to tip, in front of each other, to allow shaft (12) to move freely to come in front of the shaft (18) and then move away from in front of shaft (18), and further when the cam (19) imparts forward thrust to shaft (18), it gets transferred to shaft (12) and through link and scissor arrangement as described in Diagram 1 above the weft is cut at precise timing set by angular position of surface cam (19) relative to machine body /frame (21).

8. It is subsequently claimed that at the backward most position of sley, the weft cutter blades (8) swing in to cutting position by virtue of its placement on the beat up mechanism or sley. When the beat up operation is done the cutter blade escapes below the temple and adjacent assemblies just like the rapier guides. At the backward most position shaft weft cutter actuation shaft (12) and cam driven push rod (18) coming from the cam spring and follower assembly are in the same axis separated by a clearance of 0.5 to 5 mm, and at this time the roller follower (26) is riding on the projection "?" on the surface cam and further when the follower bearing escapes the projection "?" on surface cam, the spring (25) is decompressed and imparts rapid axial thrust to shaft (18), as the roller escapes the projection "P", this motion gets transferred on shaft (12) which is in the same axis at this time of weaving cycle and this activates link (16) through part (13) fitted on shaft (12) resulting in snap type cutting action at the right moment set by the angular position cam (19) around its mounting axis.

9. It is claimed in furtherance that when the cam (22) takes back the follower in its return stroke, roller follower rides back on projection "?" on surface cam, shaft (18) gets retracted back compressing the spring (25) again, thus shaft (12) also returns back to its rest position as springs () push it back to normal and a clearance gap of 0.5 to 5 mm is opened again between tip to tip between shaft (12) & shaft (18) thus opening the scissor blades and remain in that position until the sley completes beat up cycle all over and comes back in backward most position for next pick and new weft thread is picked up by the gripper and scissors are back in cutting timing position.

10. It is finally and typically claimed that setting of cutter position for a given weaving width of a fabric is done by loosening fasteners at places (6), (7) & fastener for part (13), the machine is manually turned until a point that a colour selector presenter comes down, gripper picks the weft thread, and at this point, fasteners (6) and (7) only are fastened, part (13) is clamped next on shaft (12) with weft cutter scissors kept open, further fasteners clamping part (20) on to the machine body are loosened, the machine is turned back through a few degrees and turned forward again until a moment when the cutting of weft is desired, manually through diametrical holes on the part (20) is turned, the cam (19) also turns along with it, this is done until the follower (26) falls off projection "?" on the cam, and this is the moment when shaft (18) thrusts shaft (12) for cutting action, and part (20) is clamped to body at this moment, this completes setting procedure which can even done by a layman as it is simple enough.

It is thus claimed in continuation that this is novel weft cutter is an omnipotent device and can be applied and used for all types of rapier weaving machines and capable to be articulated for use on flexible rapiers, rigid rapiers and telescopic rapier weaving machines as alternative embodiments of this invention .

Dated - 05^tn February, 2016. Inventor Signature: SANJAY ANANT KURKUTE.