US3786622A

US3786622A - Yarn spinning method and apparatus therefor

Info

Publication number: US3786622A
Application number: US00306826A
Authority: US
Inventors: E Negishi
Original assignee: NEGISHI KOGYO KENKYUSHO KK
Current assignee: NEGISHI KOGYO KENKYUSHO KK
Priority date: 1971-11-16
Filing date: 1972-11-15
Publication date: 1974-01-22
Anticipated expiration: 1991-01-22
Also published as: JPS4854222A; FR2160423A1; GB1410829A; FR2160423B1; DE2255702A1; CH535844A

Abstract

A new improved yarn spinning method of the open-end spinning system, which method comprises the steps of collecting the fibers to be processed thereby to form a sliver in an inner rotor disposed in an outer rotor, said rotors being differentially rotated, transferring successively the thus formed sliver toward a spinning-out direction, and drawing said sliver in order to stretch or draft thereby to automatically twist said stretched or drafted sliver, thus producing an excellent yarn. Furthermore, an apparatus adapted to carry out effectively the aforementioned method and modifications of this apparatus are disclosed.

Description

United States Patent [191 Negishi Jan. 22, 1974 YARN SPINNING METHOD AND APPARATUS THEREFOR [75] Inventor: Eizaburo Negishi, Yono, Japan [73] Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Negishi Kogyo Kenkyusho, Urawa-shi, Saitama-ken, Japan [22] Filed: Nov. 15, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 306,826

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Nov. 15, 1971 Japan 46-91767 [52] US. Cl 57/58.89, 57/58.95, 57/156 [51] Int. Cl D0lh 1/12 [58] Field of Search 57/58.8958.95, 57/156, 90

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,368,339 2/1968 Negishi 57/58.89

3,447,299 6/1969 Negishi 57/58.89

Primary Examiner-John Petrakes Attorney, Agent, or Firml-lolman & Stern ABSTRACT A new improved yarn spinning method of the openend spinning system, which method comprises the ,tions of this apparatus are disclosed.

7 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures YARN SPINNING THEREFOR BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to improvements in a spinning method of the open-end spinning system and to apparatuses therefor.

As is well known, various studies have been made in the world in connection with the so-called open-end t ype spinning system and many methods and apparatuses forembodying said system have been proposed.

However, sufficiently satisfactory methods and apparatuses have not yet been proposed. That is, according to the conventional methods and apparatuses as mentioned above, there are disadvantages such as relatively high frequency of yarnibreakage during the spinning process, and relatively low, tensile strength of the spun yarn in comparison with those of the standard yarn thereby to cause the necessity of imparting greater twist than in the conventional case to the yarn, and relatively narrow field of use of the spun yarn.

The above-mentioned disadvantages are particularly remarkable when the spun yarn obtained by the conventional spinning methods and apparatuses of the open-end spinning system is compared with the spun yarn obtained according to the Japanese Patent No. 1 18514 invented and patented on Dec. 16, 1936 by the present inventor.

The main reason for the disadvantages as mentioned above resides in'that the sliver of the fibers is subjected to a mere rotation and twisting while being drawn, so that there is no action to transfer said sliver toward the direction of spinning out, and according, owing to the lack of this action, stretching of drafting of the sliver becomes too difficult to be put to practice.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION an improved spinning method of the open-end spinning system in which the fiber collection, transference of the sliver, and stretching or drafting of the sliver are effectively carried out thereby to remove the abovementioned disadvantages occurring in the conventional open-end spinning system.

A third object of the present invention is to provide apparatuses and parts thereof which are most efficiently adapted for embodying the methods of the present invention.

The above and other object of the present invention have been attained by supplying fibers to be processed into an inner rotor from an upper portion thereof, said inner rotor being disposed in an outer rotor having an inner screw surface so as to be differentially rotated with respect to said outer rotor, discharging successively the fibers supplied into said inner rotor from this rotor at one vertical position thereof onto said screw surface so as to cross uniformly the screw thereads of said screw surface, collecting the fibers distributed on said screw surface at another position of said inner rotor with the progression of the rotation of the rotors, transferring the thus collected fibers being so-called as sliver toward spinning-out direction, for example toward an outlet guide hole provided at the bottom part of said inner rotor, and drawing the thus transferred sliver through said guide hole by means of drawing rolls while suppressing dispersion of free ends of the fibers by the inner wall of said guide hole and twisting said sliver at the position between said guide hole and said drawing rolls.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view showing schematically the whole structure of one example of the apparatus according to the present invention;

, FIG. 2 is a sectional view along the line lI-II in FIG.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view showing exaggerately a part of the section shown in FIG. 2 thereby to show clearly the state of holding a sliver;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged sectional view showing exaggerately a part of a second example relating to the sliver transferring means;

FIG. 5 is a plan view of the part shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing a part of a third example of the sliver transferring means; and

FIG. 7 is a partial plan view of the structure shown in FIG. 1, said view showing means for differentially rotating the inner and outer rotors.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3 showing an apparatus for embodying an example of the method according to the present invention, the spinning unit comprises an outer rotor A which is supported so as to be rotated toward the arrow direction and provided at its inner wall with a right-hand screw surface 1, and an inner rotor B supported rotatably in the outer rotor A, the rotating speed of the rotor B being made lower than that of the rotor A thereby to cause differential rotation between the rotors A and B. The inner rotor B is provided with an upper hollow shaft 2, a lower shaft 8, and a whorl l3 screwed onto said hollow shaft 2, and the outer rotor A is provided with a lower whorl 12 and an upper whorl 11 having a flange 23'which is hanged on the upper edge of a pair of pulleys 14 and 14a as described later. A thrust bearing 28 for rotatably supporting the inner rotor B is put'between the whorl l3 and the flange 23. The outer rotor A is made of two parts secrewed to each other so as to be separated in the case of assembling the unit, and

bearings

27 and 27a are provided respectively between the whorl 11 and the hollow shaft 2 and between the whorl 12 and the shaft 8, whereby the inner rotor B is coaxially and rotatably supported in the outer rotor A. The upper whorl 11 is pressed and engaged with pulleys 14 and 14a (FIG. 7) which are respectively fixed to

shafts

29 and 29a and rotatably supported together with lower pulleys 15 through respective shafts l7 and 17a, said lower pulleys 15 being pressed to and engaged with the lower whorl 12, whereby the outer rotor A is rotatably supported in a vertical manner.

Furthermore, a whorl 13 attached to the upper part of the hollow shaft 2 is engaged with two pulleys l6 and 16a, whereby the whorl l3 and therefore the inner rotor B are caused to rotate.

According to the structure of the spinning unit as described above, when the pulleys (14, l5, l6) and (14a, 15a, 16a) are rotated respectively through the shafts 29 and 290 by means of driving belts stretched around the

shafts

29 and 29a, the outer and inner rotors A and B are rotated. In this case, by selecting the diameters of the

pulleys

14, 14a and 15, a so that they are larger than those of the

pulleys

16 and 16a, the rotating speed of the inner rotor B can be made lower than that of the outer rotor A. For example, the rotating speeds of the rotors A and B can be taken as 30,000 r/m and 29,500 r/m, respectively.

Any means may be used for the support of the outer rotor A. For example, the flange 23 can be used for supporting the spinning unit as shown in FIG. 1; conventional ball bearings such as those used in any type motor can be used for supporting the outer rotor; of the spinning unit can be forcibly pressed onto the driving pulleys by any means such as magnetic force adapted to attract the outer rotor A toward the pulleys (14, 14a), (15, 15a) and (16, 16a). However, since these means for the vertical support of the outer rotor A are not vital features of the invention, detailed description thereof are omitted herein.

The inner rotor B is provided therein with a first split slot 4 which is partially communicated with the inner hole of the hollow shaft 2 and opens at its side part toward the screw surface 1, the hollow shaft 2 being communicated with a conventional fiber feeding means provided on the hollow shaft 2, detailed structure of said means 20 not being shown because it is conventional art, whereby the fibers introduced into the hollow shaft 2 from said fiber supplying means are caused to be discharged out through said side part of the split slot 4 while being regulated by side wall 3 of the split slot 4.

Furthermore, the inner rotor B is provided with a second split slot 4a, and an endless apron band 6 hung around

shafts

5, 5a and 5b supported in the inner rotor B or around

pulleys

5c, 5d, and 5e supported by said shafts is disposed in the split slot 40 the apron band 6 being provided with outer teeth 6a which are engaged with the screw surface 1 of the outer rotor A, whereby the endless apron band 6 is caused to undergo rotation with a speed corresponding to the product of the screw pitch of said screw surface 1 and the difference between rotations of the inner and outer rotors A and B. The above-mentioned split slot 4a and endless apron band 6 compose a sliver forming and transferring means.

The inner rotor B is providee at its lower shaft 8 with a sliver guide hole 21 for the drawing-out of the sliver F, and a pair of drawing rolls 9 and 9a are provided below the guide hole 21 thereby to draw out the sliver discharged out from the guide hole while twisting the sliver at the position between the guide hole and the drawing rolls.

The endless apron band can be made of leather, synthetic resin, or the like flexible material and is provided at one side of its outer periphery with parallel teeth 6a each having a width corresponding to about 7 1 $6 of the width of the band thereby to leave a blank space 26 connected to the root part 25 of said side of the tooth 6a.

According to the structure of the endless apron band as mentioned above, the fibers f pressed distributedly onto the screw surface of the outer rotor A successively enter into said blank space 26 and hanged on the side face of the tooth 6a with the progression of the differential rotations of the rotors A and B, whereby the fibers collected in said blank space are formed into a sliver. On the other hand, the thus formed sliver is subjected to endless revolution together with the apron band and gradually slides down along the slope of the screw surface 1 while being held between the screw surface and the blank space, whereby the sliver is transferred toward the bottom guide hole 21 of the inner rotor.

Consequently, when the sliver is subjected to drawing-out from said guide hole 21 so as to be stretched or drafted, the fibers of the sliver are successively drawn out at a predetermined speed while being successively and regularly held.

SPINNING METHOD It is assumed that disintegrated fibers f are supplied into the hollow shaft 2 from the fiber supplying means 20, and the outer and inner rotors A and B are rotated in the same direction while a predetermined rotational difference is maintained therebetween.

Then, the air existing in the split slot 4 of the inner rotor B is discharged out, due to the sentrifugal force, toward the screw surface I of the outer rotor A. The thus discharged air is substantially discharged out through the fine holes 1b, and the remaining part of the air is guided toward the lower part of the rotor B along the screw surface 1 due to a guiding function caused by screw rotation. Then the thus guided air is discharged out through the guide hole 21.

Owing to the above-mentioned discharge of the air in the split slot 4, a suction force tending to introduce the outside air together with fibers f into the hollow shaft 2 is produced in said hollow shaft 2, whereby the fibers fsupplied from the fiber supplying means 20 are successively drawn into the hollow shaft 2 and then into the split slot 4. The fibersfintroduced into the split slot 4 are then discharged out onto the screw surface 1 while being regulated into a substantially uniform mode along the wall 3 of the slot 4. As a result, the regulated fibers f are subjected to rotation while being vertically and parallelly distributed over and pressed onto the screw thread of the screw surface 1. At the same time as this rotation of the fibers f these parallelly regulated fibers are gradually advanced from the opposite position of the slit slot 4 due to the difference between the speeds of the inner and outer rotors B and A and then approach the apron band 6 so as to be successively pressed onto the side faces of the teeth 6a of the apron band 6, whereby the fibers are collected on said side faces of the teeth 6a as shown in FIG. 3, thus forming the sliver F.

The thus formed sliver F is slidably transferred downward along the slope of the screw surface 1 while being pressed onto said screw surface and side faces of the teeth 6a of the apron band 6, whereby said sliver is in troduced into and discharged from the guide hole 21 while being subjected to revolution together with the apron band and being accompanied by the endless rotation of said apron band. The essential feature of the spinning method as described above is that the fibers are subjected to rotation in the stat wherein they are distributed aong and pressed onto the screw surface 1 of the outer rotor A, and these rotating fibers are formed into a sliver and transferred toward the spinning-out direction at a predetermined transferring speed while being subjected to collecting operation, said transferring speed corresponding to the product of 'sliver is introduced between the rotating drawing-rolls 9 and 9a, the sliver is drawn out while being twisted. In this case, if the drawing speed of the rolls 9 and 9a is n times of the transferring speed of the sliver F, the sliver will be stretched or drafted at a rate of n times. On the other hand, during the-course of the abovementioned stretching or drafting of the sliver, the single fibers composing the sliver are spun while being appropriately stretched by the friction produced therebetween.

As described above, the disadvantage involved in the spun yarn which is spun according to the conventional method as mentioned already have been effectively eliminated according to the method of the present inventionf The apron band 6 adopted in the first example shown in FIG. 1 may be replaced by pin members made of synthetic material ormetal, or by a particular airflow. In the second example in which the pin members 10 are used in the place of the apron band, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the pinmembers 10 are parallelly supported by the inner rotor Bso as to project at their ends into the respective slots 1a of the screw surface 1 of the Outer rotor A. In this example, if the outer and inner rotorsA and B are differentially rotated as in the case of the first example illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 3, each pin member 10 is firstbent as shown by 10a and then restored to its original form, this bending and restoration of the pin members being cyclically repeated, whereby the fibers are gathered on one side of the pin members asshown in FIG. 5, thus causing formation of the silver F. The thus formed silver F is then transferred downward while being slid along the slope of the screw surface 1 as disclosed in connection with the example shown in FIG. 1.

' In the third example, in which airflow is used in the place of on apron band 6, the opening end part 3b of the split slot 4 is bent toward the rotational direction of the rotors A and B as shown in FIG. 6, and the rotary speed of the outer rotor A is made lower than that of the inner rotor B contrary to the case of the first example, and screw direction of the screw surface 1 being converted to left-hand winding, whereby the fibers discharged out for the split slot 4 are pressed onto said screw surface and caused to beslide along the screw surface while being supported at the tip end of the split slot 4 by the airflow discharged from the split slot, thus forming a sliver and transferring the same toward the spinning-out direction at a predetermined speed. Means for the protection of the fibers from dispersion of their free ends Another essential feature of the invention is that during the course of spinning the sliver while it is drawn out and twisted, remarkable bending at the boundary between the sliver and the spun yarn can be avoided as much as possible and dispersion of the fiber free ends due to centrifugal force can be effectively suppressed thereby to remove nap produced on the spun yarn.

The essential feature as described above can be effectively embodied by the fiber guide hole 21 of the inner rotor B. This guide hole 21 is at its one end communicated with the split slot 4a and at its other end opened at the central portion of the lower shaft 8 of the inner rotor B.

According to the structure of the guide hole 21, there are afforded the following characteristic features.

a. The yarn spinning line consisting of the central line of the guide hole 21 and the central line of the yarn passage from the bottom center of the short 8 to the nip point 22 between the drawing rolls 9, 9a is almost straight exceptfor a slight bending of said yarn spinning line at the bottom center.

b. The sliver part Fa between the sliver F and spun yarn Fb drawn from the bottom center of the shaft 8 toward the drawing rolls 9, 9a'is surrounded by the inner surface of the guide hole 21. As is well known, in the conventional spinning system, twisting of the sliver part Fa between the tip end of the sliver F and the spun yarn Fb is carried out in such a manner that the yarn parts are first twisted by the rotation of the spinning unit and this twisting is transferred back to the sliver part Fa, so that the degree of bending of the spun yarn Fb is relatively large thereby to increase resistance against the back-transference of the twisting, whereby the back-transference of the twisting toward the sliver part Fa is retarded, thus causing insufficient twisting. Consequently, the degree of the twisting of the sliver part Fa is relatively low, thus causing frequent breaking of the yarn.

Furthermore, during the back-transference of the twisting, the free ends of the fibers are dispersed by the centrifugal force caused by the revolution of the sliver part Fa, so that there is a possibility of much nap being produced on the outer surface of the yarn.

However, by the above-mentioned characteristic feature (a) of the present invention, rapid backtransference of the twisting toward the sliver part Fa is effected thereby to remove the cause of-yarn breakage. Furthermore, according to by the above-mentioned characteristicfeature (b) of the present invention, the sliver part Fa is guided through the guide hole 21 while dispersion of free ends of the fibers is suppressed, so that production of nap is minimized.

In the practice of the present invention, the above described apparatus can be variously modified without affecting its functional performance. For example, the means for causing a difference between the rotations of the outer and inner rotors may be optionally modified, the screw surface 1 of the outer rotor A may be formed as a conical surface or cylindrical surface along the whole length thereof, the axial direction of the pulleys adatped to support the spinning unit may be horizontally or obliquely directed, the screw-winding of the screw surface 1 of the outer rotor A may be lefthanded, the speed of the inner rotor B may be made larger than that of the outer rotor A, or the inner hold of the hollow shaft 2 of the inner rotor B may have an inverted-cone shape, or the guide hole 21 may be formed as a slant split slot.

I claim:

1. A yarn spinning method of the open-end spinning system, which comprises supplying fibers tobe processed into an inner rotor from upper portion thereof,

said inner rotor being disposed in an outer rotor having an inner screw surface so as to be differentially rotated with respect to said outer rotor, discharging successively the fibers supplied into said inner rotor from this rotor at one vertical position thereof onto said screw surface of the outer rotor so as to cross uniformly the screw threads of said screw surface, collecting the fibers distributed on said screw surface at another position of said inner rotor with the progression of the rotation of the rotors thereby to form a sliver at said position, transfering the thus formed sliver toward a spinning-out direction and drawing the thus transferred sliver by means of drawing rolls while twisting said sliver.

2. A yarn spinning apparatus adapted for the openend spinning system, which comprises: a fiber supplying means for supplying the fibers to be processed into the apparatus; an outer rotor having an inner screw surface; an inner rotor disposed in said outer rotor and provided with a top hollow portion adapted to suck thereinto the fibers supplied from said fiber supplying means, a split slot adapted to discharge and press the fibers introduced therein onto the screw surface of said outer rotor owing to the centrifugal force of said inner rotor, a bottom guide hole, and means adapted to collect the fibers pressed on said screw surface thereby to form a sliver and to transfer the thus formed sliver toward said bottom guide hole of the inner rotor; means adapted to establish a difference between the same directional rotations of said outer and inner rotors thereby to cause uniform distribution of the fibers discharged from said split slot over said screw surface owing to said difference of the rotations of said outer and inner rotros; and means adapted to draw out the sliver from said guide hole while subjecting said drawn sliver to twisting.

3. A yarn spinning apparatus as claimed in claim 2, in which the inner rotor is provided with a top hollow shaft, and the split slot of the inner rotor is communicated with the inner hole of said hollow shaft and opened at its side portion so as to cross vertically the screw thread of the screw surface of the outer rotor, whereby the fiber supplied into said hollow shaft are discharged out and pressed onto said screw surface in uniformly and parallelly distributed states.

4. A yarn spinning apparatus as claimed in claim 2, in which the fiber collecting and transferring means provided in the inner rotor comprises an endless apron band which is provided at its one side with teeth adapted to be engaged with the screw surface of the outer rotor, whereby said apron band is caused to undergo rotation with a speed corresponding to product of the screw-pitch of said screw surface and the difference between the rotations of the outer and inner rotors.

5. A yarn spinning apparatus as claimed in claim 4, in which the teeth of the endless apron band are parallelly provided on one side of the outer periphery of said band, each of said teeth having a width corresponding to about A of the width of said band thereby to leave a blank space on said periphery and the thus formed blank space being connected to the root part of side face of said teeth, whereby the fibers pressed distributedly onto the screw surface of the outer rotor are collected onto said side faces of the teeth, thus forming a sliver, and the thus formed sliver, is held between said space and the screw surface of the outer rotor and successively transferred toward a spinning-out direction.

6. A yarn spinning apparatus as claimed in claim 2, in which the bottom guide hole of the inner rotor is provided in the bottom shaft of said inner rotor so as to be slanted and communicated at its top end with a split slot provided in the inner rotor and enclosing therein the endless apron band, said guide hole being opened at its bottom end to the central outlet of the bottom shaft of the inner rotor, whereby dispersion of the fiber free ends of the sliver drawn out from said guide hole while being twisted is suppressed by the inner wall of said guide hole, said dispersion being due to centrifugal force caused by said twisting.

7. A yarn spinning apparatus as claimed in claim 2, in which the outer rotor is formed of upper and lower parts which are separately assembled as one body, and the means adapted to establish a difference between the same directional rotations of the outer and inner rotors comprises whorls provided respectively at top and bottom portions of the outer rotor, pulleys, bearings inserted between said top whorl and the top hollow shaft of the inner rotor and between said bottom whorl and the bottom shaft of the inner rotor, another whorl attached to the upper part of said hollow shaft and having a diameter differing from that of the aforementioned whorls which are respectively pressed frictionally onto said pulleys, and means adapted to drive said pulleys, whereby the outer and inner rotors are caused to be differentially rotated. l

Claims

1. A yarn spinning method of the open-end spinning system, which comprises supplying fibers tobe processed into an inner rotor from upper portion thereof, said inner rotor being disposed in an outer rotor having an inner screw surface so as to be differentially rotated with respect to said outer rotor, discharging successively the fibers supplied into said inner rotor from this rotor at one vertical position thereof onto said screw surface of the outer rotor so as to cross uniformly the screw threads of said screw surface, collecting the fibers distributed on said screw surface at another position of said inner rotor with the progression of the rotation of the rotors thereby to form a sliver at said position, transfering the thus formed sliver toward a spinning-out direction and drawing the thus transferred sliver by means of drawing rolls while twisting said sliver.

2. A yarn spinning apparatus adapted for the open-end spinning system, which comprises: a fiber supplying means for supplying the fibers to be processed into the apparatus; an outer rotor having an inner screw surface; an inner rotor disposed in said outer rotor and provided with a top hollow portion adapted to suck thereinto the fibers supplied from said fiber supplying means, a split slot adapted to discharge and press the fibers introduced therein onto the screw surface of said outer rotor owing to the centrifugal force of said inner rotor, a bottom guide hole, and means adapted to collect the fibers pressed on said screw surface thereby to form a sliver and to transfer the thus formed sliver toward said bottom guide hole of the inner rotor; means adapted to establish a difference between the same directional rotations of said outer and inner rotors thereby to cause uniform distribution of the fibers discharged from said split slot over said screw surface owing to said difference of the rotations of said outer and inner rotros; and means adapted to draw out the sliver from said guide hole while subjecting said drawn sliver to twisting.

5. A yarn spinning apparatus as claimed in claim 4, in which the teeth of the endless apron band are parallelly provided on one side of the outer periphery of said band, each of said teeth having a width corresponding to about 1/4 - 1/2 of the width of said band thereby to leave a blank space on said periphery and the thus formed blank space being connected to the root part of side face of said teeth, whereby the fibers pressed distributedly onto the screw surface of the outer rotor are collected onto said side faces of the teeth, thus forming a sliver, and the thus formed sliver, is held between said space and the screw surface of the outer rotor and successively transferred toward a spinning-out direction.

7. A yarn spinning apparatus as claimed in claim 2, in which the outer rotor is formed of upper and lower parts which are separately assembled as one body, and the means adapted to establish a difference between the same directional rotations of the outer and inner rotors comprises whorls provided respectively at top and bottom portions of the outer rotor, pulleys, bearings inserted between said top whorl and the top hollow shaft of the inner rotor and between said bottom whorl and the bottom shaft of the inner rotor, another whorl attached to the upper part of said hollow shaft and having a diameter differing from that of the afore-mentioned whorls which are respectively pressed frictionally onto said pulleys, and means adapted to drive said pulleys, whereby the outer and inner rotors are caused to be differentially rotated.