Advancing material of indeterminate length – With material-responsive control means – Detector means
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-09
2001-10-23
Mansen, Michael R. (Department: 3653)
Advancing material of indeterminate length
With material-responsive control means
Detector means
C226S100000, C226S187000, C226S193000, C068S178000, C242S361400
Reexamination Certificate
active
06305592
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the manufacture of died cloth and more particularly to the handling of such cloth between the dye machine and the wet box used for transporting such cloth. In greater particularity, the present invention relates to an apparatus for feeding the cloth to the dye wet box over a superajacent roller assembly. In still greater particularity, the present invention relates to the disposition of a driven and idler roller to maximize the throughput speed of fabric being so handled.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Historically, wet dyed cloth in long strands was draped over a driver roller and passed from the dye kettle to a waiting box. The elongated cloth was allowed to pile into the bottom of the box and seek its own natural resting point; thus, when the cloth was later withdrawn from the box, it was often found to be looped or tangled about itself and thus required some time and effort to remove, deloop and untangle before it could be further processed. To solve this problem Russell Corporation developed a festooner arrangement which received the cloth between a pair of vertically aligned rollers, the bottom being a driven roller and the top an idler roller and fed the cloth to an oscillating funnel to distribute the cloth evenly in the box. The rollers were able to handle cloth rapidly; however, the festooner assembly fed cloth to the funnel faster than the cloth could drop under the influence of gravity; therefore, although the problem of piling into the bottom of the carriage was substantially eliminated, additional problems were encountered. As the cloth passed through the rollers it was rapidly expelled against a baffle such that it would be deflected into the waiting funnel, for transfer into the box. Since the cloth could be expelled faster than it could fall, it would tend to bunch at the baffle and downstream of the rollers. In normal circumstances and during bunching conditions, the cloth has a tendency to cling to the driven roller, resulting in occasional wrapping of the cloth about the rotor. It has been estimated that such an event, which requires stoppage of the equipment for the time needed to clear the roller and possibly cut out any cloth damaged by the wrap, happened two or three times an hour. Further, the faster the rollers went, the more likely a wrap would occur. Therefore, the speed of the transport apparatus was limited by the speed at which the material would fall. Since removal of the cloth from the dye machines is a necessary function, it became clear that the existing situation created a bottleneck, resulting in idle time for the dyeing machinery while unloading transpires or the downstream processing machinery may be waiting on cloth to be delivered. In either event the prior festooner assembly needed improvement to optimize the process throughput. Further, it should be understood that the existing systems used a metal funnel below the driven roller to oscillate as the cloth passed therethrough to attempt to lay the cloth in a regular pattern and reduce coiling and tangling. As the festooner was moved from dye machine to dye machine, the lower end of the funnel would be susceptible to damage from collisions with other machinery. The metallic funnel would be deformed and could become unusable if the deformation were extensive or likely to damage the cloth as it passes through the funnel. Also forces on the rigid funnels are transmitted readily to the festooning mechanism causing serious machine damage.
From the forgoing it may be seen that the existing festooner assemblies known to the inventor required improvement to reduce the downtime, to increase the productivity, and to provide less wasted product and equipment damage.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to increase the throughput speed of cloth moving from a dye machine to a transfer box.
Another object of the invention is to reduce the amount of cloth damaged by improper handling of the cloth as it is removed from the dye machine.
Still another object of the invention is to optimize plant operations by increasing the availability of a festooner assembly for servicing a plurality of dye machines.
A further object of the invention is to reduce the risk of damage to the festooner assembly by making the lower end thereof resilient.
These and other objects and advantages of my invention are accomplished by the beneficial combination of several elements of the invention in a novel and unobvious manner. Specifically, the problem of cloth wrapping about a driven roller and a relatively low speed of operation, created a catch 22 situation, to wit, to increase the speed of the rollers increased the potential for wrapping, which reduced overall speed and caused delays, whereas operating the festooner at reduced speeds reduced the potential for wrapping but reduced overall speed below acceptable levels. Intuitively, the problem appeared to be solvable by minimizing the contact between the driven roller and the cloth; thus, if the cloth could be kept from draping about a large arch of the roller it would be less likely to wrap, thus creating a pinch point at the top of the roller and expelling the cloth against the baffle provided the minimum carry of the cloth by the driven roller. However, the gravitational limitation caused efforts toward optimization in this direction to be fruitless.
When it was determined that the gravitational acceleration of the cloth was the limiting factor in throughput and that consequential downstream sag caused the cloth to wrap, the present invention was proposed to generate a downward expulsion of the cloth from between the rollers. However, this entailed allowing the cloth to be carried by the driven roller, which was a smooth surfaced roller, for more than ninety degrees, thus causing significant concern with cloth adhering to the roller and wrapping after the cloth is discharged from between the rollers. In the present invention the smooth surfaced roller of the prior system was replaced by a grooved roller, thereby providing less surface area for adherence between the carried cloth and the roller and allowing air to enter between the two. As a result of the horizontal displacement of the idler roller, the throughput speed has essentially doubled and, cloth wraps have been virtually eliminated.
REFERENCES:
patent: 1768414 (1930-06-01), Lyth
patent: 2787368 (1957-04-01), Clark, Jr. et al.
patent: 2977112 (1961-03-01), Offner
patent: 3765614 (1973-10-01), Bartl et al.
patent: 4165830 (1979-08-01), Svendsen
patent: 4427404 (1984-01-01), Yamada
patent: 5483730 (1996-01-01), Hoover
patent: 5762252 (1998-06-01), Reitano
Burr & Forman LLP
Holland Christopher A.
Mansen Michael R.
Russell Corporation
Veal Robert J.
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