GB789192A - Improvements in or relating to machines for folding and measuring cloth - Google Patents

Abstract

789,192. Folding fabrics. GILLET-THAON. Nov. 18, 1955 [Dec. 4, 1954], No. 33128/55. Class 42 (2). In a cloth-folding machine, operation of a seam detecting device disposed in the path of cloth pieces seamed into a continuous length and being fed to the machine, actuates means whereby a vertically slidable table is lowered and folded cloth thereon is ejected. As shown, cloth A passed by a drive roller 15 and guided by a roller 14 is stacked in superposed folds on a table 10 (carrying smooth plates 52) by a reciprocating arm 13 the travel of which (and therefore the length of each fold) may be adjusted. A seam in the cloth causes a finger 17 to operate a switch 19 thereby energizing a system of electrical relays (which have adjustable time-lags to compensate for the travel of the detected seam to the end of the table) to energize a motor 25 which drives through pulleys 26 and 28 and belts 27 to lower the table 10 (by means of chains 30 by which crosspieces 29 are attached to cams 31) until it is level with the top of an inclined plane 16 whereat the folded cloth is ejected by movement of an endless belt 39 of rubber or like flexible material which is supported on guide rollers 40, 41, 42, 43 and driven by a slidably mounted roller 44, pulleys 45 and 47 and belts 46 from a motor 48 itself actuated through a relay by a cam-operated contact and stopped thereby when the displacement of the belt 39 is sufficient to eject the cloth. The spring 32, which during the lowering of the table was compressed by the rotation of the cams 31, then (with the motor 25 de-energized by operation of a cam 33- operated limit switch) reverses the drive to restore the table to its raised position. During the vertical movements of the table 10, the feed of the cloth A is interrupted, to avoid accumulation thereof in the space between the roller 15 and the machine entry, by means of an electromagnetic clutch 35 which is operated through a relay by the engagement of a cam 38 with an electrical contact. The actuation by the finger 17 of the main relay system may be selective, e.g. operative only after passage of two successive seams as may be required in the folding of doubled pieces, according to the setting of a micro-contact (in the relay circuit) with respect to a needle on a dial cr counter operated by the machine, Fig. 2 (not shown). On breakage of the cloth or passage of a false seam a detecting roller bearing on the surface of the cloth closes a relay circuit to stop the machine.