US1253999A - Apparatus for treating yarn. - Google Patents

Description

R. K. CLARK.

APPARATUS FOR TREATING YARN.

APPLICATION FILED APR-4,1917.

Patented Jan. 15, 1918.

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R. K. CLARK.

APPARATUS FOR TREATING YARN.

APPLICATION FILED APR.4, I917.

Patented Jan. 15, 1918.

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ROBERT K. CLARK, OF WEST SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO THE AMERICAN THREAD COMPANY, OF JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY, A. GORPORA- TION OF NEW JERSEY.

APPARATUS FOR TREATING YARN.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. f5, 1918 To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, ROBERT K. CLARK, a citizen of the United States, residing at West Springfield, county ofHampden, State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for Treating Yarn, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to the manufacture of cotton yarn and has for its object to provide apparatus for producing a cotton yarn having a twisted core with a flocculent exterio adherin thereto capable of being used in the production of thick and flufi'y fabrics, sweaters and the like, of a warm and soft nature, in which the interstices of the fabric when loosely knit or woven shall be largely filled up with a flocculent material adhering to the surface of the yarn. Cotton yarn of such nature may be described as fluifed yarn, and the action by which it is produced may be called flufling by which I mean the partial combing out of enough of the fibers of a strand of yarn to produce a continuous flocculent surface thereon, which is secured thereto. I believe such fluffed yarn, as well as the apparatus and method which I have devised for producing it, to be novel with me.

The following is a description of my invention, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, WhlCh show apparatus embodying the mechanical features of my invention and suitable for carrying out my process and also show the product produced thereby. In these drawings,

Figure 1' shows a side elevation of a machine embodying my improved apparatus; Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section of the same;

Fig. 3 is a plan view;

Fig. 4 i a diagrammatic view of the apparatus, and

Fig. 5 is a view of the product.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, 1 is a frame carrying a creel 2 supporting a series of bobbings 3, having wound thereon loosely twisted yarn 4. This loosely twisted yarn is made up of a plurality of loosely twisted strands which are themselves loosely twisted together, the yarn preferably being a two-ply yarn. Mounted upon the frame is a guide tension bar 5, beneath which the strands 4 of yarn pass to a grooved guidebar 6, from which they pass to other guide bars 7 and 8, the latter being also grooved, and to leather covered nip or pulling rollers 9 and 10 between which they pass. The nip roll are power-driven by gearing from the shaft of an adjacent roller 12 reducing from about 5 to 1. The tension bar 5 alines the various strands so that they thereafter lie in a common plane and creates enough tension to prevent irregularities of pull of the yarn coming 03 the spools being transmitted to the rest of the machine. The guide- bars 6, 7 and 8 are shown in the form of rolls, which may be mounted so as to freely revolve. Between the bars 6 and 7 is a roller 11 covered with projecting needles of springy tempered wire so as to have a fiuffing or napping surface and between the bars 7 and 8 is a second similar flufiing roller 12, the two rollers being geared together, by gears 13 and the shaft of one of them is provided with a pulley 14 which is driven by a belt from the motor 15. The wire teeth or needles of these flufling or napping rollers are preferably straight instead of bent as in ordinary card clothing and are substantially perpendicular to the surfaces of their rollers. The flutfing rollers are substantially the same as in regular gigging machines for finishing woven fabrics, except that I preferably make the needles straight. The roller 11, as shown in Fig. 2, operates clockwise, while the other roller 12 operates counter-clockwise, so that their movements are in opposite directions, the first roller turning toward the point from which the yarn passes and its movement thus being against or in opposition to the movement of the yarn. The bars 6, 7 and 8 are vertically adjustable and are so adjusted that the strands of yarn passing over them are in proper engagement with the needle points upon the fluffing rollers 11 and 12 to raise the fiber onthe yarn exterior. The bar 7 positions the strands for the two rollers 11 and 12 and acts to prevent the yarn from getting slack and entan led in the needles. The amount of flocculent material formed on the exterior of the yarn can be varied somewhat by changing the positions of the strands relatively to the needles by 1 rollers 11 and 12 revolve at a relatively high rate of speed so that their peripheral surfaces move at about the rate of 1,000 feet a minute, While the yarn passes forward at the rate of about 75 feet a minute, due to the corresponding peripheral speed of the nip rolls 9 and 10. The teeth upon the fiufling rollers engaging fibers upon the exterior of the strands partially free them from the twisted strands with the result that there is produced upon the surface of the strands a flocculent exterior composed of a multiplicity of fibers, one end of each of which extends into the twisted core, so as to be intermingled with the fibers thereof, resulting in a product which is represented, as well as it can be, in Fig. 5. Each strand after this flocculent exterior has been produced thereon passes between the nip rollers 9 and 10 and is then wound into cylinders or other suitable form by any suitable take-up mechanism 16, preferably a drum winder having a suitable traverse. The strands of yarn as they pass from the bar 6 are kept under a light tension so as to prevent the strands from being caught upon the flufling rollers. The action of the flufling roller 11 increases this tension in the strands of yarn that have assed it, but should not stretch them so tig tly as to interfere with the fluffing, needles getting hold of fibers on their exteriors and partially freeing the same from the twisted cores. The machine treats a multiplicity of strands at the same time, the strands being kept parallel and treated independently a they pass between the bars 6 and 8.

In carrying out my'process I supply a plurality of separate strands of loosely twisted multiple-ply yarn to the machine in the manner above described andsubject the strands as they pass between the points on the bars 6 and 8 under the tension as above specified, to the fluffing action of rollers 11 and 12 so as to artially comb out and free enough of the fi ers extending to the exterior of the untreated yarn to produce the desired flocculent result. I preferably cause the roller 11 first engaging the yarn to rotate in the direction of the point from which the yarn comes, i. 6., in opposition to the movement of the yarn, and the other roller 12 to rotate in the opposite direction. This results-in a counter-balancing pull on the intervening portion of the yarn so that the pull necessary'to draw the-yarn through the machine is not seriously aflected by the action of the fiufiing rollers and a slack which may become entangled is not likely to be produced. This relation of peripheral rotation also accomplishes the result of raising the fibers in more than one direction, thus producing a more general flufling- As the yarn pa'sses between the two points 6 and 8, 1t revolves slightly on its own axis on aclengths of masses count of the twist therein and the tension under which it is placed, and also on account of the action of the fluffing cylinders thereon, With the result that substantially all sides of the strands are subjected to the fiufling or napping action of the wire needles so that the flocculent surface extends to all sides of the strand.

The yarn after being treated so as to constitute my new product, is composed of a loosely twisted core 17 having afluffy or flocculent'surface 18 comprising a multiplicity of fibers which have ends extending into the strands of said twisted core and free ends presenting a woolly external surface. The outer ends of these partially released fibers are free while the inner ends extend into the twisted core so as to be intermingled with the fibers of the strands of which it is composed and secure the flocculent exterior to the core. With cotton treated by this process, the length of the exposed ends of the fibers constituting said flocculent surface. may on the average exceed twice the diameter of the core when the core does not exceed one sixteenth Fig. 5.

While I am aware that woven fabrics have been teazeled by machinery, and a teazeled product produced thereby, I am not aware that anyone has devised an appara-' tus for or process of teazeling unfabricated yarn, or produced. a length of yarn having a continuous teazeled surface consisting of fibers which were originally within a twisted strand, but have been pulled out so as to be, as in my product, partially but not wholly detached.

The process and product described herein. are claimed in a divisional application filed;

b me on the 21st day of June, 1917, Serial As will be evident to those skilled in the art, my invention permits of various modifications without departing from the spirit thereof or the scope of the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. In an apparatus for treating yarn, the combination of a package holder for a wound strand of yarn, means for continu ously passing an extended length of said ,yarn held under tension between two points,

a flufling surface engaging said yarn as it passes between said points, and means for moving said flufling surface toward one of said two points so as to partially free fibers extending to the surface of said yarn, and a take-up for an individual strand of yarn.

2. In an apparatus for'treating yarn, the combination of a package holder for a wound strand of yarn, means for continuously passing an extended length of said yarn between two points, a fluffing surface engaging said yarn as it passes between said points, means for moving said fluffing surof an inch, as shown inv asaspea a face continuously toward the point from which said yarn comes so as to partially free fibers extending to the surface of said yarn, and a take-up for an individual strand of yarn.

3. In an apparatus for treating yarn, the combination of a package holder for a wound strand of yarn, means for continuously passing an extended length of said yarn between two points, two fiufiing rollers engaging said yarn as it passes between said two points, means for rotating said flufiing rollers in opposite directions so as to pari tially free fibers extending to the surface of said yarn, and a take-up for an individual strand of yarn.

4:. In an apparatus for treating yarn, the combination of a package holder for a wound strand of yarn, means for continuously passing an extended length of said yarn between two points, two flufiing rollers engaging said yarn as it passes between said two points, means for rotating the first of said fiufiing rollers in opposition to the movement of said yarn, and the other roller in the opposite direction so as to partially free fibers extending to the surface of said' yarn, and a take-up for an individual strand of yarn.

5. In an apparatus for treating yarn, the combination of means for supporting a plurality of packages of wound yarn to be treated, means for holding a plurality of extended lengths of said yarn parallel and moving them between two points, a flufiing roller engaging said strands as they move between said two points, means for rotating said fluffing roller, and take-ups for the individual strands of yarn.

6. In an apparatus for treating yarn, the combination of means for supporting a plurality of packages of wound yarn to be treated, means for holding a plurality of extended lengths of. said yarn parallel and moving them between two points, two flufiing rollers engaging said strands as they pass between sald two points, means for rotating said fiufling rollers, supporting means engaging said strands at points between said flufling rollers and holding said strands away from theaxis of said rollers, and take-ups for the individual strands of yarn.

ROBERT K. CLARK. K

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