Textiles: manufacturing – Textile product fabrication or treatment – Fiber entangling and interlocking
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-07
2001-10-23
Vanatta, Amy B. (Department: 3765)
Textiles: manufacturing
Textile product fabrication or treatment
Fiber entangling and interlocking
C028S111000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06305058
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention refers to a facility for needling of a patterned width of felt by means of a needling facility, which comprises at least one needle board and a felt guide between a felt rest and a stripper, with the felt bed either consisting of lamellas running in felt feed direction or of a circulating brush-type bed moving along with the width of felt in felt feed direction.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
To produce patterned widths of felt, the needles of a needle board pushing through the width of felt form thread loops projecting over the felt surface on the exit side of the needles and developing a pattern corresponding with the respective distribution of the needles. In order to prevent that looping is adversely affected by the felt bed, it is generally usual to provide lamellas for the felt bed running in felt feed direction, between which the needles of the needle boards push through the width of felt forming loops, without adversely affecting the thread loops when the width of felt is conveyed during felt release on part of the needles or without inadmissibly increasing the resistance of the delivered felt. A felt bed for needling of loops through a width of felt can also be developed as a brush-type bed so that the loops are needled in between the bristles of the brush-type bed, which in this case must be moved along with the width of felt and consequently must describe a circulating movement. In terms of production engineering, the major drawback of these known needling facilities for patterned widths of felt is the fact that the distribution of the needles on the needle board determines a pattern for the width of felt, which can only be repeated.
To be able to produce patterns with pattern sections of different threads, it is known (AT 347 704 B) to arrange several needling facilities in tandem in felt feed direction and to equip the needle boards of the individual needling facilities only with the needles necessary for one pattern section. This measure permits to apply the fibers necessary for the relevant pattern section to the felt before each needling sequence and to remove by suction the fibers not needled into the width of felt after the needling sequence, so that an overall pattern can be composed of individual sections which must be needled separately. Needling of the individual pattern sections is carried out during standstill of the width of felt. Although, by means of such facilities consisting of several needling units patterns with sections of various fibers can be needled, the pattern proper can only be repeated.
Finally, to be able to subject a width of fleece to a pre-needling, a main needling and subsequent sewing up sequence in one operation to form pile threads, it is known (DE 22 63 949 A) to feed the fleece guided on one common felt bed to needle boards arranged in tandem and equipped with the needles provided for the relevant processing sequence. In the area of the individual needle boards the desired needling conditions are achieved independent of the needle boards arranged upstream and downstream, so that there are identical conditions for needling of pile threads on the delivery side as there are for pile thread formation in case of separate needling units. This means that any pattern of the delivered width of felt depends only on the needle distribution of the needle board provided for that purpose.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, the invention has the task to design a facility for needling of a patterned width of felt of the above mentioned kind in such a way that the diversity of the patterns to be produced by needling can be considerably increased.
The invention solves the task by the fact that the needling unit is equipped with at least two independently driven needle boards, arranged in tandem in felt feed direction at a distance to each other, with needle distributions for preferably different patterns, and that the two needle boards have one common continuous felt bed arranged between them.
By providing at least two needle boards arranged in tandem in felt feed direction at a distance to each other with needle distributions for different patterns, the patterns of the two needle boards can be applied alternately, which not only increases the diversity of patterns, but also permits patterns, which as yet could not be produced in one needling sequence. This is especially true for carpet production, as it is now possible to needle patterns in the form of an ornamental border going all around and clearly distinguished from the pattern field enclosed on all sides by the ornamental border. For this purpose it is sufficient that the feed side needle board has a needle distribution corresponding with the ornamental border, while the subsequent delivery-side needle board has a needle arrangement for the ornamental border at the two opposite outside edges, and a needle distribution to form the pattern field proper of the carpet between these edge areas. However, care must be taken that needling of the pattern by the downstream needle board does not adversely affect the already needled pattern of the upstream needle board. For this purpose the two needle boards must be controlled as a function of the feed of the width of felt to ensure an accurate joining of the patterns of the individual needle boards according to the respective register. However, this measure alone is not sufficient, as an alignment of the patterns of the consecutive needle boards over the width of the felt is necessary, too. This requirement is easily met by the fact that the felt bed between the two needle boards is a continuous one, so that the fiber loops between the lamellas of the felt bed and/or the fiber loops needled into the brush-type bed are preserved between the needle boards. Although, in most cases, the needle boards will have needle distributions for different patterns, this is by no means imperative, since different patterns can be obtained with identical needle distributions, for example, if needling is done either overlapping or with different pricking depths or different feeds.
The two needle boards can be driven via a common drive, provided that it is seen to it that the needle boards can be coupled to or uncoupled from the common drive independent of each other. However, simpler construction features are achieved, if the two needle boards are driven via separate drives.
As already specified, sufficient guiding of the pattern-forming fiber loops between the two needle boards must be provided for to ensure an accurate joining of the patterns assigned to the individual needle boards. This means that the width of felt must be kept engaged with the felt bed between the needle boards. To this end a common continuous stripper of both needle boards might be arranged. However, it is recommended to provide a holding-down device for the width of felt guided on the continuous felt bed between the strippers assigned to the two needle boards, to be able to adjust the strippers according to the prevailing conditions with respect to the needles withdrawing from the width of felt.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The drawing depicts an example of the subject matter of the invention, showing a facility for needling of a patterned width of felt according to the invention in a schematic longitudinal section.
REFERENCES:
patent: 1745739 (1930-02-01), Chase
patent: 2142728 (1939-01-01), Kienzle
patent: 3368256 (1968-02-01), Fehrer et al.
patent: 3909891 (1975-10-01), Dilo
patent: 4038728 (1977-08-01), Fehrer
patent: 4047269 (1977-09-01), Lochner
patent: 4384393 (1983-05-01), Asselin
patent: 5873152 (1999-02-01), Jourde et al.
patent: 5909883 (1999-06-01), Jourde et al.
patent: 6161269 (2000-12-01), Dilo et al.
patent: 347 704 (1978-05-01), None
patent: 2 263 949 (1974-07-01), None
Collard & Roe, PC.
Vanatta Amy B.
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