Warp changing apparatus

Details Warp changing apparatus Warp changing apparatus

1999-12-02

2001-11-13

Vanatta, Amy B. (Department: 3765)

Textiles: manufacturing

Warp preparing or handling

Machine replenishing

C028S201000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06314628

ABSTRACT:

The present invention relates to a warp changing apparatus.
Woven fabrics are woven on the loom by passing the weft yarns through a shed formed between adjacent warp yarns, the warp yarns running perpendicular to the length of the loom. These warp yarns are threaded through healds which each consist of a vertically oriented wire having an eyelet at the base thereof through which an individual warp yarn is threaded. During weaving a shed is formed by raising a heald and consequently the warp yarn threaded through the heald eyelet. After passing through the healds the warp yarns also pass through a reed to ensure a straight path for these yarns.
Warp yarns are stored on cannisters, often referred to as cans, which are large spools. The cans are mounted on a beam running parallel with and behind the loom. The warp yarn is loaded onto the cans in the so-called warping process in which a plurality of yarns are fed onto each can from a series of individual bobbins. These yarns are fed from the bobbins through a reed and are then wound onto the can.
In some prior art installations the cans are stored in the loom on two beams, one above the other, with each beam being made up of smaller shafts each supporting two cans. A mobile gantry is moved into position behind the loom to support the empty cans whilst the shaft is removed. The empty cans are then loaded onto carts in order to return them to the warping area. Full cans are then moved into position and the shaft re-inserted back into the pair of cans. This is repeated along the entire length of the loom which may contain in the region of 30 warp cans on one beam. Warp cans need to be replaced on both the upper and lower beams, with the operators replacing both the upper and lower can pairs in an alternating fashion. This is a very time consuming task taking around 8 to 16 hours per loom.
With the full cans moved into position the warp yarns then have to be threaded through the loom. In brief this is done by passing each yarn from the upper and lower cans around several guide rolls and finally a master guide roll and then through the healds and through the reed. This is another time consuming job requiring a minimum of two operators, one “the reacher” at the back of the loom to pass yarns through the healds and another “the drawer” at the front of the loom to take yarns from the machine and pass them through the reed. This would typically take one to three weeks.
A new loom design aims to solve this problem by providing larger beams with a central flange. The beam is at least 5.0 m in length having a 300-700 mm diameter shaft holding up to 30 cans (e.g. 27 cans split into sections of 13 and 14 cans on either side of the central flange) or a full beam. This type of loom allows the healds to be lowered into the top of the loom. A standard loom does not allow this because the healds are loaded from underneath, since a so-called superstructure is normally present in the top of the loom, running along its entire length, to weigh down the loom and prevent it from lifting up during weaving. The support structure for the top beam also lifts back to aid installation of the bottom beam.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,910,837 (Fujimoto et al) describes a warp beam carriage towed by an unmanned tractor, and guided by tracks parallel to the back of the loom, being halted automatically and the required positions to exchange a loaded beam for an empty beam. This installation is inflexible, and if a tractor fails on the track, it cannot be bypassed to continue with loading.
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a warp changing apparatus comprising a warp beam support and a hoverpad operative to facilitate or aid movement of the warp beam support along the ground.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention the hoverpad is located at the underside of the base of the warp beam support. One or more hoverpads may be used.
The hoverpad or hoverpads are ideally located substantially in the middle of the underside of the warp beam support. Wheels and/or rollers may further be provided at the underside of the warp beam support.
Advantageously a warp changing apparatus of the invention further comprises a warp beam support, a reed support and a heald support, the reed support and heald support being mounted on an arm such that the reed support and heald support may be moved between a raised position and a lowered position.
The arm preferably comprises two pivot joints which facilitates the collapse of the arm in a manner which does not affect the orientation of the reed support and heald support. The reed support and heald support preferably comprise a housing.
A warp changing apparatus according to the invention may further comprise a warp beam support, wherein the warp changing apparatus further comprises at least one drive shaft operable to cause rotation of at least one cannister or roll beam located on the warp beam so as to adjust the tension of the warp wrapped around the said cannister or roll beam, wherein means are provided for causing rotation of the drive shaft, said means being located on the warp beam support at a location that does not obstruct access to the support by the beam.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention an individual drive wheel is provided on the shaft for engagement with each cannister to be located thereon.
The apparatus of the invention facilitates a far quicker change of warp yarns, taking less than 24 hours, compared with the standard 1-3 weeks using conventional apparatus. Hoverpad trucks enable heavy loads of between 10-30 tonnes to be easily maneuvered by a single operator. The trucks are relatively small and are therefore easy to store and guide around the factory, and are useful for transporting any item of heavy machinery, or component such as rollers, shafts, beams, etc., for instance during filament winding or wire drawing.
Furthermore, packages of healds, reeds and drawn-in yarns can be removed as single units. For example, if a relatively uncommon warp yarn was being woven on the loom, rather than having the loom sit idle for weeks waiting for another order, the partly-full beams could be removed together with the reed, healds and yarns (still in the healds and reed), due to the collapsible arm and ability to allow for giving or taking off slack on the warp yarns during maneuvering. Then the warp yarns are cut between the heald and cans, allowing the heald/reed, drawn-in yarns and partly-full cans to be stored separately for later use when these entities would be replaced in the loom and the yarns knotted together, saving the need to re-draw in all the yarns through the healds and reed again.
The collapsible bracket avoids the need to lift the bottom beam to allow the truck to leave the loom, and it can also be removed to allow the truck to transport cans or beam-supported cans to conventional looms. Cannisters are easy to load onto the trucks, especially since they are not end-driven. Therefore there is no gear box or bearing at the end of the trucks to drive the rollers. These would normally have to be removed before putting the cans on the shaft. The warp changing apparatus may be used for example in weaving papermaking fabrics or weaving of carpets.


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