US2579563A - Fabric conveying apparatus - Google Patents

Description

1951 c. T. GALLINGER 9,

FABRIC CONVEYING APPARATUS Filed Oct. 18, 1947 C'f d If Gar/finger INVENTOR.

ATTORNEY Patented Dec. 25, 1951 FABRIC CONVEYING APPARATUS Clyde T. Gallinger, Wilmington, Del., assignor to E. I. du Pont de Nemours mington, Del.,

& Company, Wila corporation of Delaware Application October 18, 1947, Serial No. 780,736

1 Claim.

This invention relates to fabric conveying apparatus, and more particularly it relates to improvements in apparatus for the continuous movement of fabric through a storage member between fabric treatment operations, for example, between operations involving steaming, scouring, bleaching, and dyeing of fabrics.

In the continuous treatment of fabrics it is frequently necessary to store the fabric between treating operations at given temperature conditions for extended periods of time. Since the fabric must be in continuous movement and yet must be stored under given conditions, the fabric is customarily passed through a storage chamber, for example, a conventional storage J-box, into which the fabric is plaited to greatly reduce its rate of movement for the necessary time interval. Such storage chambers are often of large dimensions and the fabric in continuous rope form is plaited back and forth in one dimension of the chamber and simultaneously traversed back and forth in the other dimension of the chamber, thus packing a great quantity of fabric into the storage chamber through which the packed fabric mass moves very slowly. After moving through the chamber, the continuous fabric rope is drawn from the other end of the chamber to the next processing operation. In order to operate such a continuous fabric treating process, involving a number of treating operations and one or more storage periods, economically it is necessary that the linear speed of the continuous fabric rope, wet with treating solution, be as fast as possible and the storage chamher have a correspondingly large size to give the necessary storage delay. Moreover, in order that such a large mass of fabric may move slowly through a large storage chamber without objectionable tension or stress on the fabric, it must be forwarded, plaited, and traversed in a substantially positive and uniform manner.

The combined forwarding, plaiting, and traversing apparatus heretofore used in transporting and piling fabric in continuous rope form into storage chambers has been unsatisfactory for several reasons. Such previously known apparatus was either too slow in fabric-forwarding speed because the fabric was not forwarded in a sufficiently positive manner, or it was forwarded in a too positive manner and thereby imparted undesirable tension on the wet fabric. The plaiting mechanism of previously known apparatus often failed to lay the fabric uniformly from side to side of the storage chamber or caused the wet fabric to be slapped against the sidewalls of the chamber and thereby imparted undesirable stresses on the fabric and resulted in piling of the fabric higher at the sidewalls than through the center portion of the chamber.

It is, therefore, an object of this invention to bution member 24 is connected 2 provide a fabric forwarding and plaiting mechanism for the piling of a wet fabric rope in a storage chamber, which mechanism will forward the fabric in a rapid and uniform manner without imparting undesirable tension or stress on the fabric and which will pile the fabric in the storage chamber in a rapid and uniform manner.

Other objects of the invention will appear hereinafter.

The invention will be more easily understood by reference to the following detailed description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view, with parts cut away, of one form of apparatus embodying the structure of this invention, showing a fabric treating apparatus for a continuous fabric rope and comprising a steaming mechanism, fabric forwarding, traversing, and plaiting mechanisms, and a storage J-box;

Fig. 2 is a partial sectional the line A-A of Fig. 3;

Fig. 3 is a side elevational view taken from position BB of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 4 is a perspective view, showing a, driving mechanism for the yarn forwarding and plaiting mechanism of this invention.

Referring to the drawings, in which like parts are designated by like reference characters. numeral l0 designates a fabric gathered together in continuous rope form for steaming and storage in a J-box II. The fabric in is forwarded and guided by rolls l4 and I6 into a steaming receptacle 18. The receptacle I8 is sufficiently large in cross-sectional dimensions that the fabric rope Ill doubles up and packs into a relatively slow moving mass that will take up the steam as it moves therethrough, thereby avoiding waste leakage of steam to the atmosphere. The steaming receptacle is shown square in cross-section and in the approximate form of the letter J. The exit end of receptacle I8 is preferably tapered, as shown, and is connected to a steaming tube 22 through which the fabric is passed in the form of a single linear strand for preliminary steaming. A steam Supply and distrito the steaming tube 22. This member 24 may be of the type disclosed in Poesl Patent No. 2,304,474, or it may supply a mixture of steam and air as disclosed in Poesl Patent No. 2,346,186.

The fabric rope is passed from the exit end of tube 22 through the guide ring 25 of a traversing mechanism. Guide ring 25 is positioned at view taken along the end of oscillating traversing lever 28 which is mountedx on shaft 30 on the inside of the enclosed J-box l2. The shaft 30 is journaled in the side-wail" of the J-box II, as shown, and is rotated back and forth by means of reversing motor 32, single-threaded drive shaft I, inter- .nally threaded follower 55, and slotted bar 58,

all of which are mounted on the outside of the J-box I2.

The fabric rope I is drawn from the steaming receptacle l8, through tube 22 and guide ring 26 by means of a pair of slatted draw reels 0. Each of the reels 40 is comprised of shafts 42, a pair of spaced discs 44, and a plurality of axially extending spaced slats 46. The two shafts 42 are journalled in and project through the end walls of the J-box near the top thereof, The reels are both mounted for positive rotation in the direction of the arrows shown in Fig. 2 with the slats on the two reels intermeshing so as to impart a semi positive pull on the fabric rope. The two reels are preferably made adjustable toward and away from each other by means of an adjusting means 61 comprising a journal for one of the reel shafts which journal can be fixed at any position along a horizontal slot and thereby adapted to move the shafts 42 toward and away from each other'so that the degree of pull on the fabric rope may be adjusted to give the desired positiveness of pull without undue stress or tension on the fabric.

From the slatted reels 40, the fabric rope drops down by gravity toward the approximate center between the walls I3 and I5 of the J-box. The fall of the fabric rope from the reels 40 is interrupted by two oscillating plaiting wings 50. These two plaitin wings 50 are fixed on shafts 52 which are journaled in and project through the end walls of the J-box approximately below the two reel shafts 42. The shafts 52 are rotated back and forth in unison with each other by means of an adjustable four-bar linkage comprising fixed bars 54, 56, and 58, and adjustable bar 69. The driving motion is imparted to the four-bar linkage by connection of bar 58 to an eccentrically-mounted pin 62 on rotating wheel 64, as shown in Fig. 4.

A pair of sprocket wheels 66 and 68 are fixed on the projecting ends of reel shafts 42. The sprocket wheels 56 and 68 are driven by means of chain connecting the same to a sprocket wheel 12 positioned on main drive shaft 14. An idler sprocket 16 mounted on a stub shaft 18 is also preferably provided for carrying chain I0. Wheel 64 may be a sprocket or pulley mounted on shaft 80, and is also driven from main drive shaft 14 by a chain or belt driven by drive wheel 82 positioned on shaft 14. If desired, a duplicate drive such as shown in Fig. 4 may be provided on both ends of J-box I2.

The fabric rope forwarding mechanism, comprising the slatted reels, and the fabric plaiting mechanism, comprising the synchronized plaiting wings described above, function, in combination with each other, to forward the fabric rope at a high, uniform rate of speed and to pile the rope in the J-box in fiat, even, uniform mass from wall to wall which will move through the J-box without tension and without entanglement. This improved mechanism operates as follows:

The fabric rope I0 is drawn from the steaming tube, or other apparatus, in a semi-positive manner by the slatted reels 40, the slats of opposing reels intermeshing somewhat in the manner of intermeshing gear teeth. The shafts of the reels are spaced from each other at such a distance that the intermeshing slats take a semi-positive bite on the rope to forward the same in a rapid, uniform manner without undue slippage; yet the fabric will not be squeezed to remove any material amount of liquid contained therein, or to place any objectionable amount of tension on the fabric. The plaiting wings guide the fabric from side to side of the J-box. Since the two wings move in unison with each other, one wing functions to move the fabric rope in one direction of movement and the other wi functions to move the rope in the other direction of movement. Furthermore, the two wings always function together so that one wing moves the fabric across the J-box and the other wing prevents the moving fabric from being slapped against the side wall of the J-box.

Many modifications of the apparatus abovedescribed can be made within the scope of the invention. For example, the slats on the slatted reels may be round, as shown, or they may be square, triangular, semi-circular, or of any other configuration. The plaiting wings may have solid surfaces as shown, or they may be perforated, or have a slatted construction. The driving means may consist of a chain and sprocket mechanism, as shown, or it may consist of a series of intermeshing gears, as desired.

Since it is obvious that many changes and modifications can be made in the above-described mechanism without departing from the nature and spirit of the invention, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the details above described except as set forth in the appended claim.

What is claimed is:

In an apparatus for the forwarding and plaiting of fabric downwardly into an open end of a vertical leg of a J-shaped storage receptacle, a pair of intermeshing slatted fabric forwarding reels positioned adjacent the open end of said leg with the intersecting sections of said reels above the approximate center of said open end, means for rotating said reels in a direction to forward a fabric passing'between said reels downwardly into the approximate center of the said open end, means for traversing said fabric back and forth axially between said reels, a winglike plaiting member oscillatably mounted approximately beneath the axis of each of said reels to intercept the downwardly passing fabric and plait the same between the walls of said leg said plaiting members connected to each other to oscillate in unison, and means for oscillating said members, the rate of oscillation of said members being synchronized with the rate of rotation of said reels.

CLYDE T. GALLINGER.

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

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 994,245 Butler June 6, 1911 1,074,567 Gantt Sept. 30, 1913 1,613,196 Riggs et al Jan. 4, 1927 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 502,428 Great Britain Mar. 17, 1939

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