Winding – tensioning – or guiding – Helical or random winding of material – Including wound package or empty spool handling
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-12
2001-12-11
Walsh, Donald P. (Department: 3653)
Winding, tensioning, or guiding
Helical or random winding of material
Including wound package or empty spool handling
C242S473500, C242S473700, C242S473800
Reexamination Certificate
active
06328247
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a cheese-producing textile machine, comprising a plurality of work stations, each having a winding drum individually driven by its own respective motor and precisely controlled by a work station computer, and a service unit which automatically supplies the work stations.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Cheese-producing textile machines of the above-described type are known from various patent applications. For example, German Patent Publications DE 196 46 564 A1 and DE 196 50 932 A1 describe such textile machines, designed as automatic bobbin (cheese) winding machines. These so-called automatic cheese winders respectively have a plurality of work stations of the same type, arranged in a row next to each other. Each work station itself has a winding device with a winding drum, driven by an individual motor, as well as a work station computer.
Ring-spinning cops are rewound into cheeses of large volume in the work stations. The work stations are supplied with cops by a service unit, which can be moved along the work stations, i.e. when needed, the service unit automatically travels to the respective work station and exchanges a finished cheese for an empty cop tube which has been rewound at the work station.
Such textile machines also have a central control unit, which is connected via a machine bus with the individual respective work station computers, as well as with the control device of the service unit.
The service unit, preferably a so-called cheese changer, has numerous manipulating devices for transferring the cheeses finished on the winding device of the work stations to a cheese transport device extending over the length of the machine, as well as for the subsequent insertion of an empty cheese-winding tube into the creel.
As extensively described in German Patent Publication DE 195 33 833 A1, such cheese changers have, among other things, a yarn lifter, which is pivoted into the path of the yarn moving from the feed bobbin to the delivery bobbin at the start of the exchange process. In this operation, the yam lifter grasps the yarn, which is cross-wound from a winding drum, preferably designed as a reversing gear roller. The caught yarn is subsequently cut into an upper yarn end and a lower yarn end by a yarn cutting and clamping device arranged on the yarn lifter.
Subsequently the upper yarn end is wound on the tip of the tube of the finished cheese, for example as a top cone winding, while the bottom yarn is positioned between the tube receiver of the creel of the winding station and a fresh empty tube such that it is clamped during the subsequent locking of the empty tube. When the winding station is restarted, the tube maintained in the creel is frictionally driven by the winding drum, and in the process the lower yam end is guided by the yarn lifter in such a way that first a so-called foot or reserve winding is created on the tube foot. Thereafter, the lower yarn end, which is delivered from a ring-spinning cop, is unwound therefrom and is cross-wound in the yarn guide groove of the winding drum such that a fresh cheese is created of the “random winding” type.
Depending on the desired bobbin format, winding drums of different embodiments are used in the work stations. The winding drums used can be configured with 1.5 traverses, 2 traverses, 3 traverses, etc. However, it is disadvantageous in the known automatic cheese winders that with the yarn pick-up, which becomes necessary at the start of the exchange process, the winding drums are always driven for a fixed, predetermined length of time. This length of time is of such duration that even with winding drums with a maximum number of traverses it is still assured that the yarn is dependably fed to the yarn lifter, as a rule at least twice. Thus, the length of time, and therefore the number of revolutions which the winding drum performs during yarn pick-up, is always the same. The number of traverses of the winding drum used are completely disregarded in the yam pick-up operation.
OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Departing from textile machines of the above mentioned type, an object of the present invention is to improve such textile machines.
In accordance with the invention, this object may be attained in a cheese-producing textile machine which basically comprises a plurality of work stations; each work station having a winding drum, an individual work station computer for precisely controlling the winding drum of the respective work station, and an individual motor for individually driving the winding drum of the respective work station; and a service unit for automatically supplying the work stations. According to the present invention, means are provided for storing in a memory data regarding a number of traverses of the winding drum and a control means is provided for processing these data to determine a number of revolutions of the winding drum as a function of the stored number of traverses of the winding drum for feeding a yarn to the work station.
The described embodiment of a cheese-producing textile machine in accordance with the present invention has the advantage that, during the yarn pick-up operation (i.e., the feeding of the yarn to the work station), the revolutions of the winding drum are matched to the respectively employed type of winding drum, in particular to the number of traverses of the winding drum. In this manner, it is assured, on the one hand, that the yarn, which is being cross-wound by the winding drum, is always fed to the yarn winding drum in such a way, that the yarn can be dependably picked up by the drum and, on the other hand, that repeated, superfluous cross-winding of the yarn is avoided.
This means that the time necessary for picking up the yarn by the winding drum can be reduced up to 60% by means of the exact matching of the winding drum revolutions to the number of traverses of the respective winding drum. The resultant shortening of the cycling time of the cheese changes which thereby can be achieved has a positive effect as a whole, since the availability of the service unit to the various winding stations is increased and therefore the efficiency of the textile machine also increases.
In a preferred embodiment, the data regarding the number of traverses of the winding drum employed are stored in the central control unit of the textile machine. Since the central control unit is connected via a machine bus with the individual work station computers, as well as with the control device of the service unit, the winding drum data are always available, or can be transferred to the respective control device initially at the onset of a batch start. Thus, no additional hardware is required for the present invention.
Control of the individual electric motor drive of the winding drum as a function of the winding drum data, which preferably have been stored in the central control unit, takes place either via the work station computer of the respective winding station or via the control device of the service unit, which has been positioned at the respective winding station.
Since, as already mentioned above, the central control unit of the textile machine is connected via the machine bus with the work station computers of the individual winding stations, as well as with the control device of the service unit, a transfer of the winding drum data stored in the central control unit to these electronic control elements is possible at any time.
Therefore the control of the individual electric motor drive of the winding drum as a function of the number of traverses of the winding drum can selectively take place by means of the work station computer of the respective winding station, as well as by the control device of the service unit positioned in front of the winding station.
Further details, features and advantages of the present invention will be understood from an exemplary embodiment described hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5853137 (1998-12-01), Straaten et al.
patent: 5857637
Fechter Ulrich
Werner Bernd
Kennedy Covington Lobdell & Hickman LLP
Pham Minh-Chau
W. Schlafhorst AG & Co.
Walsh Donald P.
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