US2497786A - Take-up and folding mechanism - Google Patents

Description

C. F. MILLER TAKE-UP AND FOLDING MECHANISM Filed March 1, 1946 Feb. 14, 1950 Patented Feb. 14, 1950 TAKE-UP AND FOLDING MECHANISM Charles F. Miller, Philadelphia, Pa., assignor to Jacquard Knitting Machine 00., Inc., Philadelphia, Pa., a corporation of New York Application March 1, 1946, Serial No. 651,239

4 Claims.

' This invention relates especially to knitting and like machines, and more particularly to the takeup mechanisms, so called of such machines.

The take-up mechanisms of knitting machines direct or withdraw the fabric from the needles as the fabric is formed. The take-ups employed heretofore, at least usually, drop the fabric in a *heap on the floor, and beneath the machines where oil dropping from the machine can fall on the fabric and soil it.

Speaking generally the present invention provides for delivery of the fabric to a spot out of reach of oil falling from the machine, and may deliver it folded.

The accompanying drawings illustrate a preferred form of my invention in which: Fig. 1 is a I rather diagrammatic fragmentary sectional elevation of a conventional circular knitting machine with my take-up applied to it. Fig. 2 is a fragmentary isometric view of the take-up of Fig. l.

As will be recognized, the invention is not limited to any particular form of knitting machine of the type indicated. The machine illustrated is a circular knitting machine of a simple conventional form in which the needles I are carried in a stationary cylinder 2. For the sake of clarity many parts of the machine have been omitted from the drawing, even certain parts necessary to cause the machine to knit, as will be recognized. From the needles I the take-up, as usual, draws the fabric 3 downwardly, within the cylinder 2, the fabric is formed. Primarily the take-up of my invention has at least three rollers providing at least two bites through which the cloth passes; at each bite the two rolls forming it are placed sufficiently close together, relative to the thickness of the cloth, to squeeze the cloth sllfliciently to exert traction on the cloth, or traction is secured at each bite in some other way; and at least one of the two rolls of each bite is driven. Also preferably the intermediate roller of the series-(and each of them, if there are more than three rollers in the series) takes part in forming two bites, so that in passing from bite to bite the cloth passes over and is pulled tight to a considerable part of the surface of the intermediate roller (or each of them), and each such intermediate roller is driven; this construction causes the intermediate roller and each of them to exert pull on the cloth and thereby supplement the pull on the cloth exerted by the bite. Thus there may be three horizontal rolls 4, and 6, at least one and preferably all of which are driven, and which may be carried by the shafts 4a, 5a and Ba respectively. The tube of 2 cloth, flattening as it progresses, passes first through the bite formed by rolls 4 and 5, then underneath and tight to 5, and then through the bite of rolls 5 and t; it may then pass over 6 and thence, as in the present instance, out from underneath the machine.

Power for driving the three rolls 4, 5 and 6 may be suppli d by a motor or other suitable source (not shown) to a shaft 8, Fig. 1, and thence through a pulley 9 and belt I0 to the shaft 5a and roller 5, and shaft 5a may be provided with a gear l2 which meshes with gears l3 and I4 mounted on the shafts of the rollers 4 and 6 respectively for driving the latter, Rolls 4 and 5 are mounted to squeeze the cloth between them, and likewise rolls 5 and 6 are mounted to squeeze the cloth between them. Accordingly rotation of the rolls draws the cloth 3 from the needles I. In order to correlate the rate of cloth delivery by the take-up to the rate of cloth formation at the needles I, the speed of the pulley 9 may be made such as to drive the rolls 4, 5 and 6 a little too fast, and these three rollers may be mounted for rotation in a swinging roll frame which consists of, say, side plates i7 and I8 and tie and spacing cross rods 1% and 20, and which is pivoted at one end, i. e. at 22, to a pair of arms 23 depending from the main framing of the machine. The weight of the roll frame and rolls etc. then establish the amount of tension on the cloth, and the incipient effort of the rollers to withdraw and deliver cloth faster than cloth is formed at the needles l causes the take-up to swing upwards on its pivot or fulcrum 22 until the resulting loosening of the belt 10 causes the belt to slip on one or both its pulleys to such an extent that the average delivery rate of the takeup just equals the average rate of cloth formation. This action correlating the roll delivery rate to the rate of cloth formation is quite similar to prior practices as will be apparent. The tension on the cloth can be increased as desired by adding weights 28 to the frame, e. g., by suspension from the frame cross rod 20.

Preferably the end rolls 4 and 6 are pressed yieldingly to the center roll 5. To this end the shafts of the rolls 4 and 6 may be mounted in journal blocks 3% arranged to slide in grooves in the side plates i1 and i8 of the swinging roll frame and the blocks 38 may be pressed toward the rolls and 6 of course. greater than this; if greater the ends of the arms For a given tension on the cloth 3 the combined tendencies of the roll pairs 4, 5 and 5, 6 to crease the cloth at the edges of its fiat form can be much less than the creasing tendency of a single pair of take-up rolls. This is due to the fact that the tension on the cloth, at the needles, is equal to the pull on the cloth between rolls 4 and 5 plus the pull by reason of the cloth running tight against the lower half of the roll 5 plus the pull on the cloth between rolls 5 and 6. Accordingly the squeezing of the edges of the flattened cloth by 4 and 5, and by 5 and 6, can be much less than the squeezing by a single pair of rolls required to exert the whole tension on the cloth. While the rolls 4, 5 and 6 are shown smooth in the drawings, it is to be understood that they may be provided with serrations or other forms of roughening and cloth gripping if desired.

I prefer the foregoing mechanism for putting tension on the fabric from the needles, and for flattening a tube of fabric to sheet-form where, as in the case of circular machines, the fabric is produced in the form of a tube. The reasons for this preference appear above. The present invention is not limited to such mechanism however as will appear.

In the present instance the mechanism which, per se, carries the fabric from the take-up rolls consists of one or more plates 35 fixed upon a driven shaft 36 which is journaled in the roll frame side plates 1! and I8 and which may be made with an enlarged center portion 31 for convenience in attaching the plates 35. Two plates,

extending diametrically from each other, are adequate. To drive the shaft 36, it may be provided with a pulley 38 and this pulley 38 connected by a vbelt 39 to a pulley 40 fast upon roll shaft 6a. Thus as the shaft 611 turns, the shaft 36 and the plates 35 are turned also. The peripheral speed of the plates 35 should be sufficient to carry away the cloth at the rate cloth is delivered from between However it may be slip underneath the cloth suihciently to compensate. A cloth conveyor of this type tends to fold the cloth delivered by it as indicated in Fig. 1. Speaking generally the smaller the number of plates 35 employed, down to two, the wider are :the folds (dimension 4|, Fig. 1); the slower the speed of the conveyor the wider are the folds; the wider the plates 35 (the farther they extend from the shaft 36) the wider are the folds.

The plates 35 are shown herein with smooth, rounded outer edges 56, but they can have roughened surfaces at these points, and in certain instances this may be advantageous since such roughness tends to increase the traction or pull of the plates on the cloth.

A device of such (one or more) rotating plates 35 can be used to convey cloth, or to fold cloth, or both to convey and to fold, independent of a knitting machine.

It will be understood that my invention is not machine, comprising at least two substantially parallel cooperating rollers, at least one of which ls driven, to receive the cloth in the bite between them and deliver the same in sheet form, a. shaft disposed substantially parallel to said rollers and displaced from said rollers substantially horizontally and in a position to be intersected by planes perpendicular to the axis of at least one of said rollers at the two ends thereof, at least one plate projecting from and extending axially along said shaft, an outer edge of said plate being parallel to said shaft and in length at least substantially equal to the width of the sheet form of cloth leaving the said rollers and power mechanism to rotate said shaft in such a direction as to convey away from said rollers cloth fed from the rollers and extending over the shaft and plate, said plate being sufiiciently rigid to substantially support the cloth when the plate extends substantially horizontally from the shaft.

2. The combination with a knitting machine and at least two substantially parallel cooperating rollers, located beneath the machine and at least one of which is driven, to receive in the bite between them the cloth coming from the machine and deliver the same in sheet form, of a driven shaft disposed at one side of the machine and substantially parallel to said rollers and in a position to be intersected by planes perpendicular to the axis of at least one of said rollers at the two ends thereof, at least one plate projecting from and extending axially along said shaft, an outer edge of said plate being parallel to said shaft and in length at least substantially equal to the width of the sheet form of cloth leaving the said rollers and power mechanism to rotate said shaft in a direction to convey from said rollers cloth fed from the rollers and extending over the shaft and plate, the plate being sufficiently rigid to substantially support the cloth when the plate extends substantially horizontally from the shaft.

3. The subject matter of claim 2, characterized by the fact that two plates project from said shaft, substantially diametrically opposite each other, and extend axially along the shaft.

4. The subject matter of claim 2 characterized by the fact that said power mechanism revolves the plate at a peripheral speed greater than the peripheral speed of said rollers.

CHARLES F. MILLER.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date Re. 15,901 Springthorpe Aug. 26, 1924 206,651 Warth July 30, 1878 393,189 Stowe Nov. 20, 1888 472,900 Millet Apr. 12, 1892 568,307 Meisel Sept. 22, 1896 850,855 Steber Apr. 16, 1907 1,015,580 Nichols Jan. 23, 1912 1,436,302 Wheeler Nov. 21, 1922 1,613,196 Riggs et a1 Jan. 4, 1927 1,706,426 Vorck Mar. 26, 1929 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 70,136 Switzerland Dec. 11, 1914 454,219 Great Britain Sept. 22, 1936

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