Textiles: manufacturing – Textile product fabrication or treatment – Of thread interlaced article or fabric
Reexamination Certificate
2001-02-26
2001-11-27
Vanatta, Amy B. (Department: 3765)
Textiles: manufacturing
Textile product fabrication or treatment
Of thread interlaced article or fabric
C068S200000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06321426
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A device for applying a treatment medium to a moving strip of material is known from German Patent 33 15 770 C2. In that device, an application beam extends perpendicular over a strip of carpet that forms a strip of material and is curved forward relative to it. The beam contains an application slit that opens towards the strip of material. A treatment medium, dye bath in the exemplary embodiment, is passed to the application slit by a plurality of feed pipes at locations distributed over the width of the strip of material. Below the strip of carpet, an elastic pillow, for example an inflatable pillow, is provided. The elastic pillow presses the strip of material against the application beam on both sides of the application slit. An equilibrium situation results via the force. In other words, it is not possible to set a pre-determined gap between the application beam and the contact pressure element. In particular, it is difficult, in view of the great width of strips of carpet (about 5 m), to keep the conditions uniform over the width of the gap.
This problem also exists in the device shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,646. In that device, a strip of carpet, with the nap down, is passed over a housing supported in a machine frame. A feed pipe that extends across the width of the strip of material is arranged in the housing. The top of the feed pipe is aligned with the top of the housing. The housing supports the strip of carpet on both sides of the feed pipe, over a short distance. At the peak of the feed pipe, there are many small perforations, through which the dye bath penetrates from the feed pipe into the nap of the carpet. A roller that runs along with the strip of material, provides support on the back of the side opposite the exit region of the dye bath. The roller is mounted in pivot levers affixed at the rollers′ ends, and can be adjusted relative to the exit region by pivoting these levers. The bearing blocks of the pivot levers are vertically adjustable in order to determine the gap width between the support roller and the exit region. Given the large width of the strip of carpet, uniformity of the situation in the gap over the entire width is difficult to achieve.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is based on the objective of creating an application device in which the application conditions can be made as constant as possible over the width of the strip of material.
In accordance with this objective, a device for applying a treatment medium to a moving strip of material has a rigid support that is securely arranged in a machine frame. The rigid support extends in a perpendicular position with respect to the strip of material. An inflatable pressure cushion extends on the rigid support. A less rigid supporting beam is arranged on the pressure cushion. The ends of the less rigid supporting beam are mounted in an articulating manner on the machine frame around axes that are parallel to the strip of material. An application beam is placed on the supporting beam in a perpendicular position with respect to the strip of material and running parallel to the surface thereof. The application beam rests upon the strip of material with the aid of a sliding surface. The application beam has an application slit that opens out in the region of the sliding surface onto the surface. Feed pipes for the treatment medium are arranged along the length of the application slit, and the feed pipes are in fluid communication with the application slit. A support roller runs parallel to the application slit and is located opposite the application slit on the other side of the strip of material. A device engages with the support roller for adjusting the gap between the support roller and the application beam.
The rigid support is so resistant to bending that it does not bend to any noticeable degree under the line load that occurs between the support roller and the application beam. The supporting beam, on the other hand, which is supported on the rigid support via the inflatable pressure cushion, is supposed to demonstrate a lower bending resistance, so that it can bend slightly under the forces that occur, for example in order to be able to adapt itself to any bending of the support roller that occurs under the uniform stress of the pressure cushion.
Using the device, the gap can be adjusted to a specific value and opened to draw in the strip of material. To close the gap, the piston/cylinder units are moved to a stop, with a defined gap remaining between the support roller and the application beam, through which the strip of material passes. In other words, the support roller is not moved to rest against the application beam until an equilibrium of force occurs.
A beam along which the strip of material passes, and which is supported on a rigid support via an inflatable pressure cushion, and is pressed against the strip of material by a roller that runs along with the strip of material, is actually known from German Patent 30 30 233 A1. However, this known beam is not an application beam, but rather merely a beam that forms an extended nip in a wet press for removing water from strips of fiber material.
In the present invention, the support roller can be arranged similar to U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,646, on two pivot levers arranged at its two ends, which can pivot around a crosswise axis, and can be moved to open the gap, using piston/cylinder units.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the closed ends of the piston/cylinder units are supported on the machine frame via a self-inhibiting mechanical lengthwise drive.
The advance of these drives determines the gap width at the support roller. Spindle drives or taper drives, in particular, are possible drives that can be used as self-inhibiting mechanical lengthwise drives.
An important further development is that the mechanical lengthwise drives can be separately controlled to adjust the gap in width perpendicular to the strip of material.
In this way, the gap can be changed in many different ways. It can, of course, be set to be uniform over the width, but it can also be made narrower on the right side or the left side, for example. In combination with the slight bending of the supporting beam that carries the application beam, this results in the ability to control the application conditions in the gap, in such a way that the strip of material is uniformly treated with treatment medium over its entire width.
The drawings shows an exemplary embodiment of the invention, in schematic form.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3340140 (1967-09-01), Heys
patent: 3587458 (1971-06-01), Feier
patent: 3854441 (1974-12-01), Park
patent: 4497249 (1985-02-01), Mitter
patent: 4576112 (1986-03-01), Funger et al.
patent: 4872325 (1989-10-01), Moser et al.
patent: 5063646 (1991-11-01), Zeiffer et al.
patent: 5195225 (1993-03-01), Zeiffer et al.
patent: 5366161 (1994-11-01), Potter et al.
patent: 5737789 (1998-04-01), Fleissner
patent: 5737945 (1998-04-01), Fleissner
patent: 30 30 233 (1982-02-01), None
patent: 33 15 770 (1984-10-01), None
patent: 38 39 100 (1990-05-01), None
patent: 196 04 934 (1997-01-01), None
patent: 2 174 929 (1986-11-01), None
Eduard Kusters Maschinenfabrik GmbH & Co. KG
Kenyon & Kenyon
Vanatta Amy B.
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