GB2034364A - Special spun yarn and method and apparatus for producing same - Google Patents

Abstract

A spun yarn has alternate regions 36, 37 along its length of different kinds of fibre, adjacent such regions being joined by a region in which the two kinds of fibre are mixed. The region 36, 37 are of non-uniform length. The yarn is formed by two (or more) slivers of different fibres being intermittently fed to a connecting zone such that the sliver ends overlap, the compound sliver then being drafted, twisted and wound up. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Special spun yarn and method and apparatus for producing same Background of the Invention This invention relates to a spun yarn having a special appearance and a method and apparatus for producing the same.

A method of giving form and hue variations to spun yarns wherein a slab or nep is formed by partly feeding another fiber material to a sliver while being drafted in a spinning step is widely known. However, in such method, the slab or nep is so likely to drop that it is difficult to form a large slab or nep and therefore no yarn rich in the design effect has been able to be obtained.

Also a method of twisting spun yarns consisting of different kinds of fibers in a twisting step is widely known. But, in this method, there has been a problem that the step is so complicated that the productivity remarkably reduces.

Further, as a method of solving such problems, a space dye for spun yarns has been recently suggested, is high in such effects as the productivity improvement and special surface pattern development and is often used.

However, in this case, it is so difficult to dye the boundary part of a hue that, if a clear boundary part is to be obtained, a high dyeing technique will be required and such problem as reducing the productivity will remain.

Even if a hue variation is obtained, it will be far away to obtain a form variation of a yarn and the design yarn effect will not be able to be said to be sufficient.

Further, a means of totally solving such various problems wherein different kinds of slivers are alternately fed to a draft zone at the time of spinning to obtain a yarn in which different kind component fiber parts are alternately formed in the axial direction of the yarn is attempted. However, in this method, it is so difficult to connect the slivers that the yarn strength in the connecting part will become irregular, if the connecting parts are increased, the yarn will be likely to be broken by the strength reduced part and thus it will be far away to merchandize the product practically though it may be theoretically possible.

Summary of the Invention An object of the present invention is to provide a special spun yarn in which the above mentioned sliver connecting part is made more positive and the practicability and design effect are high and method and apparatus for producing the same.

Such object is attained with a special spun yarn characterized in that two or more kinds of single component fiber parts are present alternately in the lengthwise direction through a different kind component fiber mixed part and the lengths of the single component fiber parts are nonuniform.

Brief Description of the Drawings Figures 1 and 2 are model side views showing various examples of special spun yarns of the present invention.

Figure 3 is a partical perspective veiw showing an example of an apparatus for producing special spun yanrs of the present invention.

Figure 4 is an explanatory view showing a physical action to which the component fibers of a sliver will be subjected in case the sliver is draft-cut.

Figure 5 is a partical side view showing an example of a random signal generating device in a producing apparatus of the present invention.

Figure 6 is an explanatory view showing the generation of random signals to a clutch by the random signal generating device.

Figure 7 is a circuit diagram showing an example of a time lag generating mechanism in the producing apparatus of the present invention.

Figure 8 is an explanatory view showing the generation of a time lag by the time lag generating mechanism in Fig. 7.

Description of the Preferred Embodiment The present invention shall be explained in detail with reference to the drawings. In Fig.

1 which is a model side view showing an example of a special spun yarn according to the present invention, reference numeral 36 indicates a part formed of only fibers A, 37 indicates a part formed of only fibers B different in the kind from the fibers A and 38 indicates a part in which the fibers A and B are present as mixed. The special spun yarn of the present invention is characterized in that, as in the drawing, the single component fiber parts 36 and 37 are present alternately in the lengthwise direction through the different kind component fiber mixed part 38 and the lengths of the single component fiber parts 36 and 37 are nonuniform.The great feature of the special spun yarn in Fig. 1 is that the thicknesses of the single component fiber parts 36 and 37 are substantially the same as the thickness of the different kind component fiber mixed part 38 so that the step passability in the later work may be high.

The special spun yarn in Fig. 2 is characterized in that, as different from the yarn in Fig.

1, the thicknesses of the single component fiber parts 36' and 37' are smaller than of the different kind component fiber mixed part 38' and the design effect is higher.

Further, it is also a great feature of the present invention that, in both yarns in Figs.

1 and 2, at least one part wherein the ratio of the length of the single component fiber parts to the length of the different kind component fiber mixed part is less than 1 can be formed and that, as in Fig. 2, the length of the different kind component fiber mixed part 38' can be made nonuniform.

As an example of the combination of the fibers A and B, there can be shown a combi nation of fibers different in the hue, dyeabil ity, shrinkage, melting point, softening point, luster, denier and sliver weight. The kinds of the fibers to be used are not limited to the two kinds A and B but can be made 3 or more.

An advantageous method of producing spe cial spun yarns of the present invention shall be explained in the following.

In Fig. 3 showing the case of suing two slivers of different component fibers in the present invention, first of all when slivers and are fed respectively to rollers 3 and 4, the respective slivers will be drawin out to be of any lengths alternately and intermittently while being drafted respectively between the rollers 3 and 7 and between the roller 4 and 7 and will be fed to a sliver connecting zone 12.

In this case, instead of drawing them while drafting the, it is also possible to merely draw them by predetermined lengths and feed them to the sliver connecting zone. However, if a sliver weight used for the ordinary production is used, as a predetermined denier yarn is made by enlarging the draft in the spinning step, the respective yarn lengths of the different kind component fiber mixed part 38 and simple component fiber parts 36 and 37 shown in Fig. 1 will become so long as to be likely to be impractical.

Needless to say, if the fed sliver weight is reduced in advance according to the object, it will be possible to reduce the lengths of the single component fiber part and different kind fiber mixed part in the axial direction of the yarn. However, if such means is to be taken, the fed sliver weight will have to be varied each time according to the object, not only the work will be complicated but also the production balance of the prespinning step and spinning step will be lost and it will be actually difficult.

Therefore, it is more preferable to draw out them while drafting them and feed them to the sliver connecting zone than to feed them to the sliver connecting zone by merely drawing them by predetermined lengths.

Further, in order to obtain a stabilized spinnability, it is necessary that the jointing parts of the connected slivers should be positively overlapped on each other. Therefore, it is indispensable to provide a time lag so that the other sliver should be fed to the sliver connecting zone before the feed of one sliver to the above mentioned sliver connecting zone perfectly stops.

The reason is that the fibers will be drawn with the crimps stretched but will immediately thereafter begin to recover the crimps and the degree of the recovery will become high with the lapse of time after the drawing and the substantial fiber lengths will become shorter than at the time of drawing. This state is shown as a model in Fig. 4 wherein (a) shows the fed sliver forming fibers as crimped, (b) shows the fibers as the crimps are stretched at the time of drawing and (c) shows the fibers as the crimps are recovered after the drawing.

In this case, when the sliver is being fed to the sliver connecting zone while being drafted between the rollers 3 and 7, the ends of the fibers drawn from the sliver the sliver will be about to be fed immediately to the roller 7 but will enlarge the distance from the roller 7 with the lapse of time since just after the drawing.In this state, even if the sliver can move toward the sliver connecting zone at the same time as the sliver is drawn, the time when the sliver is held by the roller 7 will lag by the reduction of the substantial fiber length by the crimp recovery, after all, the amount of the sliver fibers of the different kind fiber mixed part formed of different kinds of fibers in the sliver connecting zone will become much smaller than the amount of the fibers of the sliver parts consisting of the single component fibers, the amount of the fibers of a series of slivers in the sliver connecting zone will fluctuate so much that, in the case of drafting in the spinning step, the drafting will fluctuate and the yarn will break.

In the present invention, in order to prevent such yarn break, a time lag is so set that, before the feed of one sliver to the sliver connecting zone perfectly stops, the other sliver may be fed to said sliver connecting zone. When the slivers are thus fed intermittently while being drafted alternately, are connected at the ends to be a series of slivers by providing a time lag and further take spinning drafting, twisting and winding steps, there will be obtained a spun yarn wherein single component fiber parts are alternately nonuniformly present in the axial direction of the yarn through a different component fiber mixed part. By providing a time lag, the yarn break can be prevented and it is possible to vary the form of the yarn. By a proper time lag, a yarn in which the thickness of the single component fiber part is substantially the same as the thickness of the different kind component fiber mixed part can be made.

In the case of connecting two or more kinds of slivers in the axial direction of the fibers, if the overlap of the slivers by the time lag is made large, such slab-like yarn as is shown in Fig. 2 will be able to be obtained.

The slub-like yarn can be obtained also by making one part of the fibers to be used shrunk fibers.

Further, by properly varying the combination of the fibers to be used, a designed yarnlike spinning yarn rich in variations can be obtained.

If slivers different in the hue are used, not only an already generally used space dye-like spun yarn will be obtained but also a yarn of a hue so excellent as to be unable to be obtained with a space dye yarn will be easily obtained. If the hue is combined with such physical property elements of fibers as the shrinkage and luster, a yarn higher in the design effect will be obtained.

More effective in the present invention is that, when slivers of predetermined lengths are drawn from slivers being drafted as described above, the drafting magnification in the spinning step will be able to be set to be lower than the ordinary spinning drafting magnification and, as a result, it will be possible to increase the frequency of alternately forming different kind fibers. In the case of the present invention, it is possible to make the ratio of the length of the single component fiber part to the length of the different kind fiber mixed part less than 1. It is also possible to apply this ratio of the lengths to the entire yarn to be obtained and to partly apply it.

It is also complicate and difficult in the mechanism to make the size of the different kind component fiber mixed part random.

However, if the time lag at the time of alternately feeding the slivers is utilized, it will be possible to vary the size.

The apparatus of the present invention shall be explained in detail in the following.

In Fig. 3 which is a partial perspective view showing an example of an apparatus for producing special spun yarns according to the present invention, slivers and drawn out of canes 1 and 2 containing them are overlapped on each other just before a pair of nip rollers 7 and 7' through pairs of nip rollers 3 and 3' and 4 and 4' driven respectively alternately intermittently and apron rollers 5, 5', 6 and 6' rotating as synchronized with them and are drawn and taken by a pair of back rollers 8 and 8' of a spinning machine.

The respective slivers are drafted as predetermined between these pairs of rollers 3 and 3' and 4 and 4' and nip rollers 7 and 7' and are shifted to a pair of middle rollers 9 and 9' through the pair of back rollers 8 and 8' rotating at the same velocity as of the pair of nip rollers 7 and 7'. Air apron band 10 for smoothly shifting the slivers is set between the pair of back rollers 8 and 8' and the pair of nip rollers 7 and 7' but may be omitted depending on the state of the slivers.The slivers are then sent to a fron roller 1 3 through the bank rollers 8 and 8', middle roller 9 and 9' and apron rollers 11 and 11' of the spinning machine, are again drafted as predetermined meanwhile, are given a predetermined number of twists by a rotating spindle 1 7 and traveler 1 6 through a guide 14 and a ballooning preventing guide 1 5 and are wound nip on a cup.

A feature of this apparatus is that a sliver feeding mechanism having a drafting part is added to the spinning machine so that different kinds of slivers may be alternately cut while being drafted to obtain slivers connected in turn in the axial direction of the fibers. This mechanism shall be explained in detail in the following.

A torque from a driving source (not illustrated) is transmitted to a gear 1 8 to drive a gear 19. Clutches 20 and 21 are respectively set coaxially on the gears 18 and 19. Gears 24 and 25 are set on drive transmitting side shafts 22 and 23 of the respective clutches.

By gears 26 and 27 meshing with the gears 24 and 25, bottom rollers 3' and 4' of a pair of nip rollers coaxial with these gears 26 and 27 are driven. Clutch plates (not illustrated) are alternately closely contacted with and separated from each other by signals sent to the clutches 20 and 21 by a separately later described electic signal issuing device so that the drive transmitting side shaft 22 and 23 may be alternately intermittently driven and the bottom rollers 3' and 4' of the pairs of nip rollers 3 and 3' and 4 and 4' may be driven according to the above described driving system. Therefore, when the sliver is being sent by the pair of nip rollers 4 and 4', the pair of nip rollers 3 and 3' holding the sliver will stop and this will be repeated vice versa in turn.

The electric signal issuing device for operating the clutches 20 and 21 shall be described in the following. Fig. 5 is of the simplest example of a device for electrically sending signals which is formed of a disk 28 formed of a material (for example, a metal) high in the conductivity and a disk 29 rotating in contact with it and provided on the periphery with a material (such as, for example, a rubber or plastic) 30 high in the insulation and a material 31 high in the conductivity at proper intervals. As both disks 28 and 29 rotate in contact with each other, while the periphery 30 high in the insulation of the disk 29 is in contact with the disk 28, the contact piece of a relay R will not work and, on the contrary, while the periphery 31 high in the conductivity of the disk 29 is in contact with the disk 28, the contact piece of the relay R will work to send signals.Therefore, by properly changing the distance between the insulating part 30 of the periphery of the disk 29 and the conducting part 31 or varying the number of revolutions of the disk rotating in contact, various signals can be obtained.

Fig. 6 shows an example of issuing such signals.

The abscissa X-X' denotes the time while signals are being sent. If in the upper hatched zones 32, 32', 32" and 32"', for example, now the relay R acts on the clutch 20 in Fig.

3, signals are sent, the pair of nip rollers 4 and 4' are driven and the sliver is drawn out, in each lower zone against each upper hatched zone X-X', the clutch 21 will not act, the pair of nip rollers 3 and 3' will stop and the sliver will not be drawn out. Further, on the contrary, in case, in the parts of the lower hatched zones 33, 33', 33" and 33"', the clutch is operated by passing the current, the pair of nip rollers 3 and 3' are driven and the sliver is drawn out, the sliver will not be drawn out and will stop. These states will be repeated alternately at proper intervals only for the time of receiving signals to the clutch corresponding to the current passing parts provided on the surface of the disk.

However, in this case, in case the drive of the pair of nip rollers 3 and 3' or 4 and 4' starts only after the drive of the pair of nip rollers 4 and 4' or 3 and 3' stops, in the spinning step, the sliver will break so often that the spinning will be impossible. Therefore, a time lag generating device for properly delaying the stop signal from the electric signal issuing device will be required. Fig. 7 is to explain this. Various time lag generating devices can be considered. The simplest one is to set a lag timer.

In Fig. 7, when a relay R acts and an issued signal is received, a clutch C2 will act, a stop signal will be received in a lag timer T2, then after a proper set time, a relay T2 in the lag timer will be cut off and the clutch C2 will be disengaged.

On the contrary, when the relay R acts and a clutch C, receives a signal, the clutch C2 will act, a stop signal will be received in a lag timer T1, then, after a proper set time, a relay T1 in the lag timer will be cut off and the clutch C, will be disengaged.

These will be alternately and intermittently repeated.

An example of this state is graphed in Fig.

8.

The abscissa X-X' represents the time when the signal is being sent. If, in the upper hatched zones 34, 34', 34" and 34"', a signals is sent to a clutch 20, for example, in Fig. 3, the pair of nip rollers 4 and 4' are driven and the sliver is drawn out, only when the time until the time X2 to X3 set in the above described lag timer is added to the section X to X2 when the signal is actually sent until it stops, the clutch 20 will be disengaged and the pair of nip rollers 4 and 4' will stop.On the other hand, if, in the lower hatched zones, 35, 35' and 35" of X-X', a signal is sent to a clutch 21, for example, in Fig. 3, the pair of nip rollers 3 and 4' are driven and the sliver is drawn out, as described above, in X2 in the upper hatched zones, the signal will have been already received, the clutch 21 will act, the pair of nip rollers 3 and 3' will be driven and the sliver will be drawn out. Only when the time until the time X'2 to Xr3 set in the lag timer is added to the time X'1 to X'2 until the stop signal is received, the clutch 21 will be disengaged and the pair of nip rollers 3 and 3' will stop.

That is to say, for the time of X2 to X3 or X'2 to X"2 in Fig. 8, the slivers and will be both fed.

By properly setting the respective set times of the lag timer, the time when the slivers and are both fed can be independently changed and special spun yanrs of various patterns can be obtained.

In the present invention, a positive connection is made possible by providing a time lag at the time of connecting slivers, therefore the unstable state in the jointing position which has been the greatest problem is eliminated, spun yarns high in the design effect in the range of flats to slabs can be freely produced as required by properly varying the feed of slivers in the jointing part, the yarns obtained thereby in the case of flats are high in the step passability, are low in the occurrence of such troubles as a friction and resistance, are not limited in the uses, are utilized in the fields for such many purposes as of carpets, pile yarns, handicraft yarns, out wears and interior materials and will be high in the effects if a hue difference is also utilized.

If slabs of surfaces of large irregularities are utilized in such fields as of interiors and handicraft yarns, the design effect will be higher together with the hue variation.

The apparatus of the present invention is obtained by setting a sliver feeding mechanism having a drafting part in a conventional spinning machine, can be easily added to any conventional spinning machine without requiring to newly set a spinning machine itself or to greatly modify it and is high in the utility value in the spinning industry which is worldwidely in excess of equipments.

Further, in the present invention, various design spun yarns can be obtained with only spinning machine parts without requiring any special twisting machine and the contribution to the step rationalization and cost reduction is high.

Example 1: When two slivers (of 4g/m.) of a single fiber thickness of 1 5 deniers different in the hue were drawn alternately at random intervals of 0.6 second on the average while being drafted to be 5 times as long between rollers 3 and 7 and between rollers 4 and 7 by using the apparatus in Fig. 3 and, at the same time, a spun yarn of 1 /4.5MC was made of them by providing a time lag of 0.3 second, in the obtained spun yarn, the single component fiber part intermittently appeared at intervals of 10 to 40 cm. in the axial direction of the yarn and the length of the different component fiber mixed part was 10 cm. on the average. The thicknesses of the single component fiber part and different component fiber mixed part were substantially the same.When a tufted carpet was formed of said spun yanrs, the different hue parts appeared at random on the carpet surface and, at the same time, the mixed hue parts appeared as of intermediate colors and a three-color effect was shown.

Example 2: A spun yarn of 1 /4.5MC was made under the same conditions as in Example 1 by using two slivers (of 4g/m.) of a single fiber thickness of 1 5 deniers and shrinkage difference of 25% different in the hue. When a tufted carpet was formed of the obtained spun yarn and was treated with steam, a carpet having random concavoconvex designs together with the hue variation of the carpet obtained in Example 1 was obtained.

Example 3: When two slivers of a single fiber thickness of 3 deniers different in the hue were alternately drawn at random intervals of 0.6 second on the average while being drafted to be 5 times as long between the rollers 3 and 7 and between the rollers 4 and 7 in the same manner as in Example a and, at the same time, a spun yarn of 1 /2.5MC was made of them by providing a time lag of 0.3 second, in the obtained spun yarn, the single component fiber part intermittenlly appeared at intervals of 3 to 1 5 cm. in the axial direction of the yarn and the different component fiber mixed part formed a slab with a length of 8 cm. on the average.

Example 4: When two slivers of a single fiber thickness of 5 deniers different in the hue were alternately drawn at random intervals of 0.6 second on the average while being drafted between the rollers 3 and 7 and between the rollers 4 and 7 by using the apparatus in Fig.

3 and, at the same time, a spun yarn of 1 /5.5MC was made of them by providing a time lag of 0.2 second, in the obtained spun yarn, the single component fiber part and different component fiber mixed part were of stubstantially the same thickness and the parts in which the ratio of the length of the single component fiber part to the length of the different component fiber mixed part was less than 1 were present at a rate of 6 to 9 per meter.

Claims (4)

1. A special spun yarn characterized in that two or more kinds of single component fiber parts are present alternately in the lengthwise direction through a different kind component fiber mixed part and the lengths of the single component fiber parts are nonuniform.

2. A special spun yarn according to claim 1 wherein the thickness of the single component fiber part is substantially the same as the thickness of the different kind component fiber mixed part.

3. A special spun yarn according to claim 1 wherein the thickness of the single component fiber part is smaller than the thickness of the different kind component fiber mixed part.

4. Apparatus according to claim 2 substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.

4. A special spun yarn according to claim 1 wherein the ratio of the length of the single component fiber part to the length of the different kind component fiber mixed part is less than 1 at least partly.

5. A method of producing special spun yarns characterized in that by providing a time lag so that, before the feed of one sliver to a sliver connecting zone perfectly stops, the other sliver may be fed to the above mentioned sliver connecting zone, two or more slivers of component fibers of different kinds are drawn by a predetermined length while being drafted alternately and intermittently and are fed to the sliver connecting zone so as to be a series of slivers and then said slivers are drafted, twisted and wound up.

6. An apparatus for producing special spun yarns characterized by comprising a spinning machine, two or more sets of drafting devices set before the back rollers of said spinning machine, an electric signal issuing device for alternately and intermittently driving said drafting device and a time lag generating device for properly delaying the issuing of a stop signal from said electric signal issuing device.

CLAIMS (2 Jul 1979)

1. A method of producing a spun yarn having two or more component fibers present alternately in the lengthwise direction, in which two or more slivers having component fibers of different kinds are drawn to a predetermined length while being drafted alternately and intermittently and are fed to a sliver connecting zone, and a time lag is provided so that one fiber is fed to the connecting zone before the feed of the previous fiber completely stops, and then said slivers are drafted, twisted and wound up.

2. An apparatus for producing a spun yarn having two or more component fibers present alternately in the lengthwise direction, comprising a spinning machine, two or more sets of drafting devices set before the back rollers of said spinning machine, an electric signal issuing device for alternately and intermittently driving said drafting devices and a time lag generating device for delaying the issuing of a stop signal from said electric signal issuing device.

3. A method according to claim 1 substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.