US3433272A - Device for automatically unwinding a weft out of a bobbin and an automatic bobbin changing device and a special bobbin therefor - Google Patents

Description

March 18, 1969 OSAMU NAKAKO 3,433,272

DEVICE FOR AUTOMATICALLY UNWINDING A WEFT OUT OF A BOBBIN AND AN AUTOMATIC BOBBIN CHANGING DEVICE AND A SPECIAL BOBBIN THEREFOR v Filed May 13, 1966 Sheet 0f 2 March 18, 1969 OSAMU NAKAKO 3,433,272

DEVICE FOR AUTOMATICALLY UNWINDING A WEFT OUT OF A BOBBIN AND AN AUTOMATIC BOBBIN CHANGING DEVICE AND A SPECIAL BOBBIN THEREFOR Filed May 13, 1966 Sheet 2 of 2 United States Patent 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The end of a weft is wound around a retractable bushing to form the nose bunch of the weft on a bobbin. The bushing is retracted into a funnel suction opening of an unwinding pipe by means of a projection at the opening. When the bushing is retracted into the guide pipe, tension between the nose bunch and the weft wound on the bobbin is released so that the weft can be easily and smoothly unwound from the bobbin.

This invention relates to automatic bobbin changing looms, and more particularly, to looms associated with a device for automatically unwinding a weft out of a bobbin and feeding said weft into a shuttle and a device for automatically changing said device as well as a special bobbin.

Various means and processes have been conventionally proposed to unwind an end of a weft wound around the top portion of the bobbin or a nose bunch of weft wound around the bobbin. According to the ordinary process, a nose bunch of weft is nipped by a nipper and subjected to an opposite rotation to the winding direction of the weft of the bobbin. In this case, when the nose bunch of the weft is too firmly wound around the top portion of the bobbin, it becomes difiicult to unwind the weft, and especially it is more difficult to unwind the Weft having many rough cotton strands or fuzzes. On the other hand, when the weft is wound so loosely around the bobbin in order to make the unwinding action with ease, the nose bunch of weft may slip off during the delivery of the bobbin, stopping the loom and also resulting in the imcomplete weave of the fabric thus woven. According to another process, the nose bunch of weft is frictionally rotated by a brush into the opposite direction to the winding one of the weft so as to wind the weft, but it makes almost impossible to unwind the weft due to the quality of the weft. Even if the weft may be unwound by means of the brushing process several times, some weft remain in the brush so that it results in the inferior unwinding of the weft. In another process, the nose bunch of the weft is frictionally unwound by means of an endless brush, but when the nose bunch of the weft is too firmly wound around the bobbin, and the remaining weft thus entangled the brush would make the unwinding action impossible. The unwinding of the nose bunch of the weft only through a suction pipe is quite difiicult, and more especially it is almost impossible to unwind the weft having many rough cotton strands or fuzzes. In accordance with another process, an unwinding pipe provided with a resilient means at an inlet portion of a suction secured at said pipe is adapted to make into contact with a top portion of the bobbin in such a manner that the nose bunch of the weft may be fed into the suction pipe so that the nose bunch of the weft may be nipped by the resilient means and unwound by means of suction. In this process, it is necessary to strongly unwind the nose bunch of weft firmly wound around the bobbin so that it is liable to deteriorate the top portion of the bobbin, caus- 3,433,272 Patented Mar. 18, 1969 ing to cut off the weft between the wound portion and the nose bunch of the weft around said bobbin and also fail ing to carry out the perfect unwinding and feeding of the weft into a shuttle. At the same time, it needs to provide special means to prevent the bobbin from moving and also to secure another means for shifting the unwinding pipe, whereby there are caused many troubles in the loom itself.

The present invention embraces an automatic bobbin changing loom, a device for unwinding a nose bunch of a weft and a special bobbin which may be supplied into the present automatic bobbin changing loom.

An object of the invention is the provision of an automatic bobbin changing loom associated with a device adapted to easily unwind a nose bunch of a weft out of a top portion of the bobbin and to feed the weft into a shuttle of the loom.

Another object of the invention is to provide a special bobbin which may be readily supplied into the present automatic bobbin changing loom so as to smoothly carry out said winding action of weft.

Another object of this invention is to provide a transferring device for automatically changing the bobbin when the weft around said bobbin is out.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a device adapted to cooperate with an unwinding pipe to smoothly unwind the nose bunch of weft wound around a retractable bushing at a top portion of the bobbin.

A further object of this invention is to provide a special device for carrying out the smooth unwinding of the weft without giving a cut, causing neither fuzzes nor deterioration of the weft, whereby a splendid cloth having complete weave maybe obtained.

Another object of the present invention is to provide structural embodiments of the device which are readily constructed and permit efficient use and operation thereof. Other objects of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.

The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combination of elements and arrangement of parts, which will be exemplified in the construction hereinafter set forth, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.

For a fuller understanding of the nature and object of the invention, reference should be had to the following detailed description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view, with parts broken away, of an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view, partly in section, of a bobbin guide conduit of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view illustrating a part of a top portion of the bobbin made into contact with an opening of an unwinding pipe of this invention;

FIG. 4 is a front view of the opening portion of the unwinding pipe shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a side elevational View, with a middle part broken away, and also a sectional view on line X--X of the bobbin shown in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3; and

FIG. 6 is a longitudinal sectional view of a modified form of the top portion of the bobbin.

Referring to the drawings, in which like numerals identify similar parts throughout, reference numeral 1 designates a bobbin, shown especially in FIGS. 5 and 6, and a guide pipe 2 is integrally secured into a top bore of the bobbin 1. An end portion of a central shaft 4 having a tenon portion 3 at its other end is axially disposed into an opening of the guide pipe 2 through a retractable bushing 6 and a coil spring 7 in such a manner that the bushing 6 having a flange 5 at its inner end periphery may be slidably guided through the coil spring 3 7 along the central shaft 4 until the flange 5 of said bushing 5 is stopped by the tenon portion of the central shaft 4.

An end portion of a weft 8 is wound several times around an outer periphery of the protrudent bushing 6 in order to form a nose bunch 9 of the weft. For unwinding the weft out of the bobbin A, said bobbin A is delivered to the desired unwinding section of the device, then a top portion of the bushing 6 is fitted into the guide pipe 2 so that the nose bunch 9 of weft around the outer periphery of the retractable bushing 6 may be readily drawn out by a leading peripheral edge of the guide pipe 2.

The arrangement and function of the present unwinding device are explained with reference to FIGS. 1 to 4 inclusive, and a guide conduit 11 communicatnig with a bottom corner of a box extends downwards near the bobbin guide 12, and a bobbin support 13 is provided at a lower edge of the elongated guide conduit 11. The first stopper 15 is rotatably pivoted on a shaft 16 in such a way that a head of said stopper 15 may be reciprocally projected into the conduit 11 through its bottom opening 14. Said first stopper 15 is connected through a rod 18 to a base portion of a transferrer 17 mounted on one side of the guide conduit 11. The stopper 15 is adapted to support the bobbin A, preventing said bobbin A from dropping down through the guide conduit 11. Rotatably disposed is the second stopper 19 over the guide conduit 11 by a pin 20, said stopper 19 being slightly put on a top leg portion of the transferrer 17 so as to be always lifted up out of the guide conduit 11. The transferrer 17 is rotatably mounted on a shaft 21, which transferrer 17 is always kept to the same position by means of a plate spring 22 working into a counterclockwise direction. One end of a ratchet pawl 23 is secured to a bottom portion of the transferrer 17 by a pin 24. A driving shaft 25 is mounted parallelly with the shaft 21 of the transferrer 17, each end of the shaft 21 being mounted into one side of a frame 26, respectively. A disc 27 and a ratchet wheel 28 are integrally secured at one end portion of the driving shaft 25, and a guide plate 29 is mounted on a top portion periphery of the disc 27, said guide plate 29 being large enough to cover one or two pawls of the ratchet wheel 28. Rotatably arranged is an L-shaped lever 30 to the driving shaft 25 and adjacent to the disc 27 mounted at an opposite side of the ratchet wheel 28. A ratchet pawl 31 is secured by a pin 32 to an end portion of the L-shaped lever 30 and a vertical rod 33 is connected by a pin 34 to another end portion of the lever, and these members are so arranged that the ratchet wheel 28 may be rotated by each one pawl by means of a plate spring 35. A cam 36 is secured at another end portion of the driving shaft 25 and at an opposite side of the ratchet wheel 28, while a groove 37 is formed around a cylindrical surface of said cam 36 in such a manner that a sliding contact 41 at an end portion of a lever pivoted at its intermediate position by a lever arm 39 may make one reciprocal motion through the groove 37 by one rotation of the grooved cam 36. To this end, one rotation of the sliding contact 41 through the groove 37 may result in one reciprocal motion of the lever pivoted by the lever arm 39 secured to a bracket 38 so that another end portion of the lever 40 is adapted to fit into a shifting ring 42 of an unwinding pipe B.

As shown in FIG. 1, a slay sword 53 pivoted by a rocking shaft 52 as a fulcrum is adapted to make a front and rear reciprocating motion, and said rocking shaft 52 is connected to the vertical rod 33 by means of said slay sword 53, link 54 and bell crank lever 55, said vertical rod 33 being adapted to make vertical movement through the front and rear reciprocating motion of the slay sword 53.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are illustrative of the unwinding pipe B of the present invention, said unwinding pipe B being arranged at one side of the guide conduit 11 of the box 10, into which a number of the bobbins A are laterally supplied and overlapped. Integrally secured at one end portion of the unwinding pipe B (or suction pipe 43) is a suction nozzle 45 having a funneled suction opening 44, into which inner bottom periphery is so provided a projection 47 as to form a space 46 communicating into the suction pipe 43. A coil spring 48, the shifting ring 42 and a securing ring 49 are slidably fitted around said suction pipe 43 in this order, while the securing ring 49 is fixed by means of a bolt so as to stop the shifting ring 42. Another end of the suction pipe 43 is slidably fitted into a holding pipe 50, which is further connected into a suction pipe 51, and these members are so arranged that one rotation of the grooved cam 36 results in one reciprocating movement of the lever 40 so that the suction nozzle 45 may extend through the lever action of the lever 40 and plunge into the device through an opening of the frame 26, as shown in FIG. 1.

The working function of the device and the bobbin of this invention will be explained with reference to the accompanying drawings, especially FIGS. 1 and 2. An end of the weft 8 is wound several times around the outer periphery of the retractable bushing 6 secured at the end portion of the bobbin A in order to form a nose bunch of the weft 9. The desired number of the bobbins A are laterally supplied into the box 10 with the top portion of each bobbin facing on the unwinding pipe B, and each bobbin A is adapted to roll down one by one through the guide conduit 11 of the box 10. Through the changing motion of the bobbin, the transferrer 17 is driven to rotate as shown by an arrow in FIG. 2, then the first stopper 15 is falling outwards by means of the rod 18 connected to the transferrer 17. The second stopper 19 is arranged over the first stopper 15 and the shaft 20 of the second stopper 19 is located a little distant from the shaft 21 of the transferrer 17 so that the second stopper 19 may make the early movement than the first stopper 15, resulting in that the second stopper 19 is rotatably falling down clockwise into the guide conduit 11 before the first stopper 15 comes out of the bottom opening 14 of the guide conduit 11, then it is ready for the second stopper 19 to support the bobbin A In other words, the first stopper 15 falls down outwards a little after the second stopper 19 has fallen down into the bottom portion of the guide conduit 11 so that the extreme front bobbin A supported by the head of the first stopper 15 is released from said first stopper, whereby the bobbin A is falling down to the second stopper 19 so as to be supported by the stopper (shown as A in the drawings). The transferrer 17 makes further rotation till the bottom limit to interrupt the communication with the bobbin changing motion so that the transferrer 17 is rapidly raised up by the spring 22 to return to the normal position. By virtue of the rapidly upward returning motion of the transferrer 17, the head of the first stopper 15 plunges into the bobbin guide 11 through the bottom opening 14 thereof a little earlier than the second stopper 19 lifting up through the similar dilference of the motion between the first and second stoppers, whereby the bobbin A next the bobbin A held by the second stopper 19 may be held by the head portion of the first stopper 15 and the bobbin A held by the second stopper 19 is adapted to roll down a bobbin support 13, then the bobbin A is stopped by a bobbin guide 12 so as to be ready to the unwinding action of the nose bunch 9 of weft wound around the top portion of the bobbin A Irrespective of the action of the transferrer 17, the vertical rod 33 is continuing the vertical motion by means of the slay sword 53 through the motion of the loom, while by virtue of the vertical motion of the vertical rod 33, the ratchet pawl 31 is driven through the L-shaped lever 30 to make a slidable and reciprocating motion on the guide 29 secured to the disc 27 so that the ratchet pawl 31 may not be engaged with the ratchet wheel 28, which is not driven to rotate by the ratchet pawl 31. On the other hand, by virtue of the falling down and rapidly returning motions of the transferrer 17 adapted to operate the first and second stoppers, the ratchet pawl 31 is made to engage with the ratchet wheel 28. More particularly, when the transferrer .17 is rotatably falling down, the ratchet pawl 23 secured to the base portion of the transferrer 17 is driven to slide on the ratchet wheel 28 by one cog into a counterclockwise direction so as to engage with the next cog of the wheel 28, while the ratchet wheel 28 is driven to rotate into a clockwise direction by the ratchet pawl 23 through the upward returning action of the transferrer 17.

Through the clockwise rotation of the ratchet wheel 28, the disc 27 is also driven to rotate so that the position of the guide 29 is shifted, then the ratchet pawl 31 slidably reciprocating on the guide 29 is detached from said guide to engage with the ratchet wheel 28. To this end, the ratchet wheel 28 is driven to rotate into a clockwise direction through the downward motion of the vertical rod 33, while the ratchet wheel 28 is made to rotate through the reciprocating action of the vertical rod 33, resulting in the rotation of the driving shaft 25. When the ratchet wheel 28 has made one rotation, the ratchet pawl 31 of the L- shaped lever 30 comes on the guide 29 of the disc 27 again, then the ratchet pawl 31 engaged with the ratchet wheel 28 is released and the ratchet pawl 21 makes the slidably reciprocating movement on the guide 29, stopping the rotation of the driving shaft 25 and the ratchet wheel 28. In this manner, the driving shaft 25 is adapted to make one rotation and the grooved cam 36 secured at one end of said shaft 25 is driven to rotate once so that the lever 40 is adapted to make one lever action with the lever arm 39 as its center by means of the contact 41 sliding through the groove 37. At the same time, the top portion of the unwinding pipe B provided at another end of the lever 40 is adapted to approach the top portion of the unwinding pipe B plunges into the top portion of the bobbin.

The end portion of the bobbin A is so held by an inside wall of the frame 26 that the central shaft 4 of the bobbin A is fitted into the innermost bottom of the funneled opening 44 to hold the bobbin A itself, whereby the retractable bushing 6 is pushed by the projection 47 and retracted into the guide pipe 2. The nose bunch 9 of weft wound around the periphery of the bushing 6 is drawn out by means of the retracting bushing and the opening edge of the guide pipe 2, into which the bushing 6 having the nose bunch 9 of Weft is plunged. At the same time, the lever 40 is returned back to the normal position through the rotation of the grooved cam 36 so that the unwinding pipe B is retracted to release compressive stress of the bushing 6, then said bushing 6 is projected through returning resiliency of the coil spring 7 to push the drawn out nose bunch 9 of weft into the funneled suction opening 44 within the unwinding of pipe B, resulting in that the drawn out nose bunch 9 of weft may be deeply absorbed into the suction pipe 43 with the aid of suction of said pipe and the end of the weft 8 around the bushing 6 of the bobbin A may be held securely. Thus, the bobbin A held by the bobbin guide 12 is ready for the next bobbin changing motion. The bobbin A the end of the weft of which has been drawn out, is rolled down by the rotatably falling transferrer 17 during the bobbin changing motion, then said bobbin is delivered down into a shuttle on account of the downward elastic flexibility of the bobbin support 13.

In the embodiment of this invention, the retractable bushing 6 is provided at the top portion of the bobbin A, the end of the weft 8 is wound around said retractable bushing 6 to form the nose bunch 9 of the weft, and said bushing may be retracted into the funneled suction opening 44 of the unwinding pipe B by means of the projection 47 arranged at the innermost bottom of said opening 44. While the bushing 6 is retracting into the guide pipe 2, tension between the nose bunch 9 of weft and the weft 8 wound around the body of the bobbin 1 is loosened and said nose bunch 9 of the weft is drawn off by the retracting bushing 6 and the peripheral edge of the guide pipe 2 so that over tension is not given to the weft 8, said weft can be easily and smoothly unwound from the retractile bushing 6 of the bobbin A and cutting off of the weft 8 may be completely eliminated.

In addition, the unwinding action through the device of this invention is not influenced either by the unwinding strength and hardness of the nose bunch 9 of weft around the retractile bushing 6 at the top portion of the bobbin A, while the present device can be applied to the weft of any yarn count. Moreover, an outside diameter of the nose bunch 9 of weft wound around the retractable bushing 6 can be made as small as possible so that slipping as well as deterioration of the weft during delivery of the bobbin A can be eliminated. As particularly shown in FIGS. 3, 5 and 6, the central shaft 4 is provided into the top central portion of the bobbin A, while said central shaft 4 is adapted to fit into the funneled suction opening 44 of the unwinding pipe B during the unwinding action so that the wrong movement, slipping, displacement or inclination of the bobbin A may be completely eliminated and said bobbin A is subjected to the unwinding action under the normal position, whereby the weft can be unwound from the bobbin under some pressure from the top portion of said bobbin, which is maintained at the determined position and the bobbin changing motion can be fully carried out without special holding means.

In accordance with the unwinding device of this invention, it is neither necessary to hold the nose bunch 9 of weft through the nippers, nor to frictionally treat the nose bunch by any brush so that the top portion of the bobbin A may not be damaged, completely eliminating cutting of the weft 8 during the unwinding motion. As fully explained in the foregoing paragraphs, the device of this invention enables the easy and smooth unwinding of the nose bunch of weft from the bobbin, giving no damage, cutting, fuzz or deterioration to the weft so that a woven fabric having superior quality can be obtained.

What I claim:

1. A device for automatically unwinding a nose bunch of a weft from a retractable bushing of a bobbin, which comprises a frame having at a side plate thereof an opening, a driving shaft rotatably secured into said frame, said shaft having at one end a ratchet wheel, a disc and an L-shaped lever, said disc having a guide plate on a top portion periphery, a ratchet pawl secured by a pin to an end portion of said L-shaped lever, a vertical rod connected by another pin to another end of said Lshaped lever, a plate spring being in wedging contact with a cog of said ratchet wheel, said vertical rod being con nected to a rocking shaft through a slay sword, a rod and an L-shaped lever, respectively, a ratchet pawl secured by a pin to a bottom portion of a transferrer, wherein the ratchet wheel is driven to make a clockwise rotation by the vertical rod, said transferrer pivoted on a shaft and biased by a plate spring, a second stopper pivoted on a shaft and connected by a rod to a top base portion of the transferrer, a head of the first stopper being projected into a guide conduit through its bottom opening, wherein said head is projected by means of the rod through a sectional reciprocating motion of the transferrer in order to hold a bobbin, a cam secured at another end of the driving shaft, a groove formed around a cylindrical surface of said cam, wherein a sliding contact of a lever pivoted at its intermediate position by a lever arm is driven to make one reciprocating motion by means of said contact sliding cylindrically through said groove, an unwinding pipe secured at another end of the lever and reciprocally brought into contact with the bobbin through the opening of the side plate of the frame by said lever so as to unwind a nose bunch of weft out of the bobbin and subsequently feeding said bobbin into a shuttle.

2. An automatic bobbin changing device comprising, in

combination, a frame having at a side plate thereof an opening, a driving shaft rotatably secured into said frame, said shaft having at one end a ratchet wheel, a disc and an L-shaped lever, said disc having a guide plate on a top portion periphery, a ratchet pawl secured by a pin to an end portion of said L-shaped lever, a vertical rod connected by another pin to another end of said L-shaped lever, a plate spring being in wedging contact with a cog of said ratchet wheel, said vertical rod being connected bore of said bobbin, and a central shaft having a tenon to a rocking shaft through a slay sword, a link and a bell 10 crank lever, respectively, a ratchet pawl secured by a pin to a bottom portion of a transferrer, wherein the ratchet wheel is driven to make a clockwise rotation by the vertical rod, said transferrer pivoted on a shaft and biased by a plate spring, a second stopper arranged over and slightly put on said transferrer, a first stopper pivoted on a shaft and connected by a rod to a top base portion of the transferrer, a head of the first stopper being projected into a guide conduit through its bottom opening, wherein said head is projected by means of the rod through a sectional reciprocating motion of the transferrer in order to hold a bobbin, a plate spring working in a counterclockwise direction on said transferrer to keep said transferrer normally in position, so that when the transferrer is rotatably falling down, the bobbin is delivered down into a shuttle.

3. In combination with a bobbin changing device according to claim 2, a bobbin construction comprising, in combination, a guide pipe integrally secured into a top portion at its other end, wherein the central shaft is axially disposed into an opening of said guide pipe through a retractable bushing and a coil spring in such a manner that the retractable bushing having a flange at its inner end periphery may be slidably guided through the coil spring along the central shaft until the flange of said bushing is stopped by the tenon portion of said central shaft, thereby unwinding a nose bunch of weft out of the retractable bushing and subsequently enabling the supplying of the weft into a shuttle.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,101,099 8/1963 Payne 139-257 X 3,199,545 8/ 1965 Kohler 139-257 3,208,480 9/1965 Zollinger 139-257 3,233,636 2/ 1966' Bulcock 139-256 3,240,236 3/ 1966 Okajima et a1 139-257 FOREIGN PATENTS 603,784 10/ 1934 Germany. 1,252,045 12/ 1960 France.

JAMES KEE CHI, Primary Examiner.

U.S. Cl. X.R.

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