US532749A - Cotton-press - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.) z'sneets-sheet 2.

C. BANISTER.

GOTTON'PRBSS, Y No. 532,749. l Patented Jan. 22, 1895.

@www Bix/WWW,

5T NITED,

PATENT OFFICE.

CHARLES BANISTER, or wAco, TEXAS.

COTTON-PRESS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of 'Lettesrateut No. samadatd January 22,1895. Appnauon medium. 15,1394. Senn 110.514.632. (No man.)

To all whom it may concern: Y

Be it known that I, CHARLES BANISTER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Waco, in the countyof McLennan and State of Texas, have invented certainl new and useful Improvements in Cotton-Presses; and Ido hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains'to make and use the same.

My invention relates to certain newand useful improvements in cotton presses, and is designed to produce tightly wound bales from the cotton bats formed upon the condenser, and fed into the press. To this end I have devised the construction and arrangement of parts illustrated in the-accompanying drawings, wherein- Figure 1 represents a side elevation ofa cotton press embodying my improvements. Fig;

2 represents an end elevation thereof. Fig.^`3

represents a section on the line 3-3 of Fig. l, showing the location of the parts at the termination of the bale-forming operation. Fig. 4 represents a like View at the beginning of the operation, and shows also a modified construction of the press rollers. Fig. 5 represents a detached side elevation of 'one of the 'slotted plates through which the upper roller shaft passes. y

Similar letters ofreference indicate similar parts throughout the several views. l

The salient or main characteristic feature of my improvement is its capacity not only to compress the bale by the weight applied throughthe upper roller and to wind it by the jointaction of the three rollers,but,by graduating the relative speed of the rollers with which the bat successively comes in contact,

to thereby cause each roller to more tightly lwind the'bat as the bale is being formed,

In thedrawin gs, A indicates vthe framework of the press, which may be mounted as usual npon the gin floor B above the basement C. Within thesidemembers of the frame are mounted, in stationary bearings, the rollers D, D constituting the roller'gbed and above them in adjustable bearings the roller D2, `thesefthree rollers constituting, in my preferred form, the .bale-making elements, although, for reasons hereinafter set forth I do notrestrict myself tothe use of threerollers.v

The rollers may, as shown in Fig. 4, have a comparativelysmooth periphery, although 1n any event they should not be too smooth to lack the necessary friction to permit them to carry the bat forward from one to the other.

In practice, however, to insure this result, I corrugate the rollers longitudinally, as lllus- Qtrated in Figs. 1 to 3, or in lieu thereof, or in addition thereto, I provide the shell offthe` rollers with perforations o. extending 1nto the open interior. These perforations engage ,with small projecting fibers of the bat pressed the pressbetween the roller D and an idle D' D2 are revolved by sprocket chaingb whose links engage the teeth o'f cogs c, c', c2, fixed upon the` ends of the roller shafts, said chains passing over the slack take-up idlers G. These idlers Gare mounted upon an arbor H, which ,is thus suspended from the chains with capacity for vertical movement between guides d. Upon the shaft H are hung suitable Weights as e, both for the purpose of keeping the chains taut and for applying additional Weight tothe upper roller D2 so as to render its compressive action the more eectual.

It will be noted that by reason of the difference in the number of gear teethv on the several rollers, the roller D2 receives a faster rotation than the roller D', and that the roller' D receives a faster rotationthan the roller D. It will be seen that by this arrangement the roller D serves to more effectually strip the bat from the roller D, and at the same `time to wind or Wrap the bat more tightly,

and, inlike manner, the rollerD2 more effectually strips the batfrom the roller D. and still further increases the tightness of wind- The rollers D.

4denser bat and carries it down so as to enter vroller F, journaled loosely in oblique or inf I clined bearings in the frame.

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ing of the bale.V So far as I am aware it is broadly new to thus run any two rolls acting upon the same bat at different speeds for the purpose of more tightly winding the bale, and I desire therefore to be understood as claiming the feature broadly wherever it is used in cotton presses for such purpose, whether the number of rollers acting upon the bat be two or more than two. The power for actuating the rollers may be supplied to any of themin any suitable manner, as for instance by means of the belt pulley I.

The upper roller D2 is passed `at its opposite 'ends through two vertically movable heads L, having slots Z which incline downwardly from the vertical and correspond in that respect with similar slots Z2 in the frame. The purpose of this inclination is to carry the roller D2, when in its lowered position, over toward the roller D as indicated in Fig. it, thereby preventing the bat from being carried out of the press by the roller D', and also furnishing the necessary enlargement of the throat of the press on the opposite side.

On entering the press the bat, passing between the idler roller G and the pressure roller D, is carried into contact with the roller D,which thereupon,as shown in Fig.4brings it into contact with the roller D2. The effect is that the forward edge of the bat is folded, as shown, and such folded edge serves as a center upon which the outer layers of the bale are subsequently wound, a core being thereby wholly dispensed with. As the operation continues, the increasing diameter of the bale causes the upper roller D2 to rise, and while the bale is being formed it becomes the more tightly wound through the action of the successively faster rollers D and D2 until the operation is completed and the bale has reached its desired diameter. During the formation of the bale its ends rest against the heads L, and as the roller D2 rises it carries the heads up with it; the downward projec-` tion l of the heads, however, serving still as surfaces of abutment for the ends of the bale. Vhen the bale is completed it becomes necessary to raise the upper roller in order to remove the bale. This may be effected in a number of ways, for instance by throwing into gear with the pinion F', on the power shaft, a gear wheel F2 upon a shaft F3 which carries the winding drums m, said shaft being mounted in bearings, one of which m is movable. From the winding drums, cords or chains m3 pass over the pulleys n', and thence connect with the hangers 'n2 for the upper roller shaft. When the winding drum shaft is thus thrown into engagement, the cords n.2 are wound on the drums and the roller D2 thereby elevated so that the bale may be removed. After the removal of the bale, the upper roller is permitted to return to its original positionby unclutching the winding drum shaft. To graduate the velocity of descent, I may employ a strap brake s, passing from the clutch lever about a brake pulley, as indicated in Fig. 2; or a more gradual descent may be secured, and one that can be readily regulated, by providing at the summit of the press, a pair of cylinders M fitted with pistons fu, connected by depending rods with loose collars w upon the shaft of the roller D2. The cylinders are connected at top and bottom by pipes w', to2, having a by-pass pipe w2 provided with a valve w", and water is supplied to the entire system of pipes and cylinders from a tank orother source of supply, as through the pipe U15, having a valve w which is only opened to supply additional water when any part of the original supply has been lost by leakage` or evaporation. During the rising of the roller D2, the pistons t are carried upward, and the water passes from the upper ends of the cylinders and along the pipe w and thence downward through the pipe wi and' pipe 102 into the lower ends of the cylinders, so that when the roller D2 is in its upper position the pistons are at the tops of the cylinders. Now, to graduate the descent of the roller D2, I par tially close the valve tu" thereby restricting the opening through which the water must be forced by the descent of the roller, it being evident that the more the valve is closed the slower' will be the downward movement.

It is, of course, evident that both the rais ing and lowering of the roller D2 could be effected by a hydraulic or otherV pump suitably connected to the cylinders, but the means proposed by me are available in cases where it would not be practicable or economical to employ such a pump.

Having thus described the invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

l. A cotton press provided with a plurality of rollers, one receiving the bat from the other, and acting upon different parts of the bale as it is being formed, and means for rotating the second roller faster than the first; substann tially as described.

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2. A cotton press, provided with an upper roller, lower rollers, one of said lower rollers receiving the bat from the other, and acting upon different parts of the bale as it is being formed, and means for rotating the second of said lower rollers at a greater rate of speed than the irst, and the upper roller at a greater rate of speed than the second of the lower rollers; substantially as described.

3. A cotton press, provided with lower roll ers located at substantially the same height, one of said rollers arranged to receive the bat from the other, and adapted to act upon a different part of the bale as it is being formed and an upwardly movable roller located above the lower rollers and adapted to act upon the upper part of the bale, and means for rotating combination with a bed composed of a plurality of rollers, and means for rotating the upper roller at a greater vs peed than that of the rollers composing the bed; substantially as described.

' 5. A cotton press comprising three rollers,

two of them being at substantially the same height, and the third being located above them and being upwardly movable, gears of a suc# cessively decreasing number of teeth ou the respective rollers, a sprocket chain engaging the gears, an idler over which said chain travels, and a weight upon the idler; substantially as described.

6. A cotton press, having two lower rollers, an upper movable roller, and heads at the ends of the rollers covering the space between said rollers, said heads having openings through which the shaft of the upper roller passes, and being adapted to move with the upper roller; substantially as described. y

-7. A cotton press, having lower rollers, an upper movable roller between which and the lower rollers the material is fed and the bale formed, heads covering the space between the upper and lower rollers at the ends, and means for guiding said upper roller in its vertical movement obliquely, so that in its lower position it will rest in such proximity to the second of said lower rollers as not to permit the further passage of thev material; substantially as described.

8. A cotton press, having lower rollers, an upper movable roller between which and the lower rollers the material is fed and the bale formed, and means for guiding said upper roller in its vertical movement obliquely, so that in its lower position it will rest in such proximity to the second of said lower rollers as not to permit the further passage of the material; substantially as described.

9. A cotton press, comprising lower rollers, and an upper roller, a winding shaft, a clutch for throwing said shaft into engagement with the power mechanism of the press, and connections from the winding shaft to the upper V roller for raising the latter when the clutch is thrown into engagement; substantially as described.

lO. A cotton press, comprising lower rollers, landan upper roller, a winding'shaft, a clutch for throwing said shaft into engagement with the power mechanism of the press, connectionsl from the winding shaft to the upper roller for raising the latter when the clutch is thrown into engagement, and means for graduating `the subsequent descent of the upper roller when the clutch is disengaged; substantially as described.

1l. In a cotton press, the combination with the upper roller, of means for graduating its 13. Acotton press provided with bale-form-l` A I ing rollers having corrugated and perforated peripheries; substantially as described.

14. A cotton press, having two lower rollers, an upper movable roller, and heads at the ends of the rollers covering the space between said rollers, said heads having slots through which the shaft of the upper roller passes, whereby the saidv roller moves inde;- pendently of the heads until its shaft reaches the end of the slots when its continued movement carries the heads with it; substantially as described. l

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

' CHARLES BANISTER.

*.Witnesses:

J. A. GoLDsBoRoUGH, JOHN O. PENNIE.

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