US3408022A - Skein-holder for unwinding skeins of thread - Google Patents

Description

Oct. 29, 1968 P. GILBOS SKEIN-HOLDER FOR UNWINDING SKEINS OF THREAD 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed April 6, 1966 //VV/VTOE p404. 1. 50.!

5 V Wasmt MMwzg ATTQE V YJ Oct. 29, 1968 P. GILBOS 3,408,022

SKEIN-HOLDER FOR UNWINDING SKEINS OF THREAD Filed April 6, 1966 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 'nvvewi-ae 1 ,404 6/4 60.;

United States Patent 3,408,022 SKEIN-HOLDER FOR UNWINDIN G SKEINS 0F THREAD Paul Gilbos, Herdersem, Belgium, assignor to Constructiewerkhuizen Gilbos P.V.B.A., Aalst, Belgium Filed Apr. 6, 1966, Ser. No. 545,201 Claims priority, appligzztoizlgelgium, Apr. 7, 1965,

6 Claims. 01. 242-1101 ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE For unwinding skeins which have been dyed or processed in any other way, use has been made until now of skein-holders with extensible arms, which are rotated together with the skein during unwinding of the thread.

If, in the course of this process, a place is met where the skein is entangled, the latter and its support must be brought to a standstill as fast as possible in order to prevent the thread from breaking. It follows therefrom that it is important to limit the inertia by making use of a narrow skein and of a light support. This however prevents applying to the skein-holder a fairly heavy mechanism for expanding the arms.

When dealing with wide skeins of which the width is at least equal to half the diameter and in which the thread crosses at an angle of to 30 degrees, useful advantage can be taken of the fact that the cross disposition of the thread practically excludes any possibility of entanglement of the latter by unwinding it at high speed over the head of the skein without requiring the skein-holder to partake in the rotary motion during unwinding as was done before.

Due to the fact that the skein-holder may now stay put, it is no longer necessary to overcome its inertia, which means that it is now possible to apply to said skein-holder a fairly heavy and sturdy mechanism which is not only capable of gathering entirely the arms at the middle of the skein-holder, thus enabling the skein suspended to pins during the dyeing and such like processes to pass readily over said arms, but which might moreover be able to maintain a steady tension between said arms during the unwinding process.

It is with this purpose in view that, according to the main characteristic feature of the present invention, the skein-holder derived from the latter mainly consists of the following parts and devices, viz: a shaft with disc, which can be rotated by hand, several bearing cylinders which can rotate about their respective center lines and arranged about the periphery of said disc, whereby the centerlines of all discs are parallel to that of said shaft; in each one of said cylinders, an arm fitted parallel to and protruding from the centerline of the cylinder; a crank mounted onto one of said cylinders; a transmission device provided between all bearing cylinders in order to ensure their synchronous operation, and a driving device operating in such way together with said crank that all bearing cylinders bring simultaneously, by rotation, all arms either in stretched or retracted position.

By making use of driving mechanism as a pneumatic or hydraulic cylinder, the tension applied to the skein from the beginning to the end of the unwinding operation can be kept very accurately constant by adjusting the pneu- 3,408,022 Patented Oct. 29, 1968 matic or such like cylinder, and thisindependently of the diameter of the skein.

Merely by way of example and without implying any restrictive meaning, a detailed description of one of the possible forms of embodiment of the skein-holder conforming of the present invention shall be given below, whereby this description will be based on the appended drawings of which:

FIGURE 1 is a side-view with partial cross-section of a skein-holder conforming to the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a front view which illustrates the skeinholder as seen in the direction of the arrow II of FIG. 1;

FIGURE 3 is a cross-section by a plane of which the trace follows the straight line III-III of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 4 shows the same front view as that which is represented by FIGURE 2, with this difference that the arms of the skein-holder are shown in the retracted position.

In these figures it will be noticed that hOllSillg 1 contains a shaft 2 carrying a disc 3. The latter is fitted along its periphery with several recesses 4 placed at equal distances of each other. In each one of these recesses there is a bearing cylinder 5 capable of rotating about its centerline and ending in a shaft 6. In front, each bearing cylinder has an opening 7 in which is fastened an arm 8 bent at right angles. Onto each shaft 6 of each bearing cylinder 5, a sprocket wheel 9 is fastened. A common chain 10 runs over all these sprocket wheels. On the axis of one of the bearing cylinders 5 there is a crank 11 of which the free end is coupled to the piston rod 12 of a pneumatic cylinder 13. This pneumatic cylinder is hinged to disc 3 by means of a pivot 14.

When it is now required to unwind a skein A which has been dyed, impregnated or bleached, it is passed over the arms 8, and pneumatic cylinder 13 is actuated, whence it follows that by means of crank 11, shafts 6, sprocket wheels 9, chain 10 and bearing cylinders 5, the arms 8 are caused to extend until the skein is sufficiently tight.

The discs 5, together with the arms 8 which are mounted thereon, are now rotated by hand until all the fixing threads have passed in front of the operator whose duty it is to cut them through and remove them. The thread B is then passed over the head of the skein and through the guiding eyelet C toward a winding machine or unit, known as such and not represented. The distance between said eyelet and the skein-holder is adjustable according to the size of the latter and the speed with which it will be unwound. When the winding machine has been started, the thread is unwound from the fixed arms 8 over the head of the skein as shown in dotted lines in FIG. 1. The loop D which the thread forms during the unwinding process can, if required, be limited by some ring or other (nonrepresented), in the well known way.

During the unwinding operation of the thread, the tension which the arms 8 exert on the skein A can be steadily altered in any required proportion by the cylinder 13 which is able to bring very accurately the arms 8 into any extended position. Hence it is now possible to readily keep the thread under constant tension right from the beginning to the end of the unwinding process.

It is obvious that the shape, the dimensions and the relative positions of the devices described above may be altered in various fashions without in any way exceeding the scope of the present invention. It is quite as evident that some of the parts which have been described above may be replaced by other parts which answer the same purpose. In this connection, the pneumatic cylinder could quite well be replaced by a hydraulic cylinder or similar device. In the same way of thought, nothing should prevent the addition of complementary parts which might contribute to an improved operation of the machine.

I claim: 7

1. A skein-holder for unwinding skeins of thread, comprising a rotatable shaft having a disc thereon in fixed relation thereto, a plurality of bearing cylinders each rotatably mounted in spaced relation upon the disc substantially adjacent the periphery of the disc, the bearing cylinders each having a longitudinal centerline and being rotatable thereabout, the centerline of each bearing cylinder being parallel to the rotatable shaft, an elongated arm attached to each bearing cylinder to extend in a generally radial direction therefrom and having a free portion extending outwardly therefrom parallel to the centerline of the bearing cylinder, the free portion of the arm being offset from the, centerline of each respective cylinder, driving chain means interconnecting all bearing cylinders to provide concurrent rotation of all of said bearing cylinders at predetermined times, crank means and actuating means connected to one of the bearing cylinders to provide a rotative force to said one bearing cylinder wherein when the actuating means is operated the crank means causes each bearing cylinder to be rotated by the driving chain means thereby causing the free portion of the arm to be radially extended outwardly from the centerline of the rotatable shaft.

2. A skein-holder according to claim 1 wherein each arm comprises a cylindrical rod bent at right angles to form the free portion and to form a fixed portion, the fixed portion being substantially perpendicular to the centerline of the bearing cylinder;

3. A skein-holder according to claim 1 wherein the actuating means comprisesa pneumatic cylinder operatively connected to the crank means. 1 i

4. A skein-holder according to claim 1 wherein the driving chain is connected to each bearing cylinder-by a sprocket wheelattached to a shaft extending from one end of each bearing cylinder.

5. The invention of claim 4 wherein each of said sprockets and each of said arms are located on opposite sides of said disc.

6. The invention of claim 5 wherein each of said arms is mounted in a generally radially extending aperture in each of said bearing cylinders.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,638,283 5/1953 Bebech 242-72 3,126,607 3/1964 Jenny 2421l0.1 X

FOREIGN PATENTS 983,389 2/1965 Great Britain.

GEORGE F. MAUTZ, Primary Examiner.

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