Spreading equipment having selvage engaging independently rotated needle wheels

This invention relates to the improvements of a spreading equipment which unwinds textile material wound on a material roller by making patterns and cutting the materials and spreads it on a table. These improvements especially relates to such a construction as is that the equipment provided with a material support shaft at the rear edge position and a feed-out roller at the middle position is equipped with a pair of needle wheels symmetrically located so that they correspond to both selvages of material mounted on the material support shaft at the middle parts on the equipment body and can independently freely rotate and that, under such conditions, the selvage portions of materials pass on the needle wheels semicircularly as being caught on the wheels.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
A spreading equipment is an equipment that spreads and piles cloth on a 
table so as to be cut down multi-layered spread cloth at once when cutting 
it according to a pattern having a certain fixed dimension. Almost all the 
conventional spreading equipment are those shown in FIG. 1. 
Namely, in FIG. 1, the table is indicated at (1) and is provided with rails 
(2) and (2') alongside the length direction at both sides. The whole 
equipment is indicated with (3) and it is equipped with travelling wheels 
(4) in engagement with the above rails (2) and (2'). This travelling 
wheels are so composed that it can automatically reciprocate through a 
certain fixed distance, which is determined to the need, by means of a 
drive motor and a drive mechanism (not shown in the illustration) of this 
equipment. The cutting device (5) is installed at the forward position of 
the above equipment (3). 
On the other hand, the material support members (6) and (6') are installed 
at the top part of the equipment body (3) and supports the material (7) 
universally (freely) in its width direction. And the catcher (8) is placed 
and arranged apart by a certain fixed distance from the equipment (3) on 
the table and the said catcher (8) is used so that it can fix the starting 
end (m) of the material (7) by the swinging movements of the push lever 
(8a) at a certain fixed position on the table (1) when the equipment (3) 
reciprocates on the table. Accordingly, a control panel (9) built in one 
side of the equipment (3) is used to operate the equipment itself. And the 
push roller is shown with (10) and the feed-out roller is shown with (11). 
The spreading equipment of the above construction reciprocates through a 
certain fixed distance which is instructed and commanded by the control 
panel (9). At this time, the leading edge (7) of the material supported on 
the material support members (6) and (6') is caught and fixed by the 
catcher (8) at the most forwarded end and the material is repeatedly cut 
down by the cutter (5a) of the cutting device (5) at the terminating end 
of the backward movement when the equipment reciprocates, thus causing the 
material to be cut down to a certain same fixed dimension and to be piled 
on the table (1). 
By the way, in the above repeatedly spreading works in the conventional 
spreading machines like the above, there exist some problems, that is, 
such a equipment will produce faults in cutting such as discrepancy and/or 
inclination of images on cloth as the material is not always wound in a 
uniform condition and as the material is not uniformly spread due to other 
reason. Furthermore, a serious problem exists internally in the 
conventional way of spreading. That is, synthetic textile fabrics of thin 
material, which has been recently popularized especially is apt to be 
easily inclined when spreading, being not limited to imaged cloth. 
OBJECTS OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
This new and improved spreading equipment can solve those problems. One of 
the principal objects is to propose a means to uniformly spread the 
materials even though it is not necessarily wound uniformly on the 
material roller. 
Another object of this present invention is to prevent discrepancies and/or 
inclination from being occurred when spreading imaged textile fabrics. 
And still another object of the prevention invention is to spread even thin 
textile fabric so that it can be smoothly and accurately spread without 
any inclination of texture. 
These and other objects of the present invention will be made clearer in 
the following description, referring to the drawings attached hereto.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT OF THE PRESENT INVENTION 
As clearly shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, a pair of brackets (12) and (12') are 
mounted at both rear edge sides of the equipment (3) as being projected 
rearwards. Said brackets is provided with notch portions (13) and (13'), 
respectively, on the rear top surface thereof. The material (7) placed and 
arranged on the equipment is retracted to said position and is supported 
on a bar member (i.e., a member like roller) so as to be freely rotated. 
The needle wheels (14) and (14') are symmetrically placed on the equipment 
body. When installing said needle wheels (14) and (14'), slider base (16) 
that is provided with two slit grooves (15) and (15') of a certain fixed 
length at a position subject to the width corresponding to the cross 
dimension (width) "L" of the material (7) is mounted between said brackets 
(12) and (12'), and sliders (17) and (17') are placed in said slit grooves 
(15) and (15') so that these sliders (17) and (17') can be universally 
moved and can be fixed at any position in said grooves, respectively, by 
means of flanged bolts (18a) and (18'a) and nuts (18b) and (18'b). 
Turning plates (19) and (19') are rotatably arranged in a certain 
determined range of angle on said sliders (17) and (17'). The turning axes 
(20) and (20') thereof are provided with arcuate slits (21) and (21') at 
respective internal side of said turning plates. The fixing bolts (22) and 
(22') which are respectively fixed on said sliders (17) and (17') are 
provided so that they may be projected upwards. And said turning plates 
(19) and (19') are fixed at any point of the arcuate movement thereof by 
means of butterfly nuts (23) and (23'). The bearing plates (24) and (24') 
are mounted at the outer opposite side of each fulcrum and rotatably 
support respective needle wheels (14) and (14') at a certain fixed height. 
Now said needle wheels (14) and (14') are made light in weight and may be 
like a thin disk and are provided with needles which are arranged in a row 
at pitch of about 7 mm on the rim thereof. 
Namely, the material (7) placed at the rear part of the equipment is sent 
out or taken out forwards with the selvages of the material caught by said 
needle wheels (14) and (14'). For this purpose, the following devices are 
installed and mounted between the material roller and the feed-out roller 
(11) of the equipment. 
Namely, an unbinding roller is indicated with (25) and is rotatably 
supported at the bracket plates (12) and (12'). Said unbinding roller is 
connected with the rotary shaft of a motor (26) having reduction gears, 
which is fixed at one of said bracket plates ((12') in the illustration). 
Guide plates (27a) and (27b) are installed to be V-shaped between said 
unbinding roller (25) and said needle wheels (14),(14') and are so 
composed that a certain slackening length (f) may be formed on said 
material (7) taken out by rotation of said unbinding roller before said 
material arrives at said needle wheels (14) and (14'). At this time, photo 
tube sensors (28a) and (28b) are placed at the lower part of said guide 
plates so that said photo tube sensors may be faced each other and that 
said sensors (28a) and (28b) may be operated in connection with said 
unbinding roller (25) to enable that said slackening length (f) may be 
kept on being fixed at all times. 
Guide rollers (29) and (30) are provided at the forward position of said 
needle wheels (14) and (14') so that said guide rollers may freely rotate. 
A pushing roller (31) is also provided. All these three rollers are so 
composed in order to give a certain fixed tension to said material until 
said material reaches the feed-out roller (11). 
Though not illustrated in the drawings attached hereto, said feed-out 
roller (11) interconnectedly rotates together with the rotation of said 
travelling wheels (4) in said equipment body (3). 
In practical use of this equipment, said sliders (17) and (17') and said 
turning plates (19) and (19') are so set up on said slide base (16) and 
(16') as to locate said needle wheels (14) and (14') at the position 
equivalent in the width direction to said selvages of said material. In 
addition, said turning plates (19) and (19') are symmetrically located so 
that they may be a little open toward said feed-out roller (11) in order 
to give some tension to said material in the width direction thereof. Said 
turning plates are set and located by turning them up to a certain fixed 
angle (.theta.) on said sliders (17) and (17') after loosening said 
butterfly nuts (23) and (23'). (See FIG. 3). 
The mechanism disclosed by the present invention is so composed as shown in 
the above description. Namely, the material is sent out as the width 
thereof is being aligned for said feed-out roller (11). That is, even 
though the selvages of said material are twisted or strained in the width 
direction thereof, this discrepancy can be adjusted by virtue of the 
difference of the rotating speed of said needle wheels can be 
independently rotated each other. Namely, in case it is considered in the 
micro level, several threads of warp of said material will have sent out 
by said needle wheels (14) and (14') and strains or inclination in the 
texture of said material can be automatically corrected and compensated 
through passing through on said needle wheels (14) and (14'). 
In the above preferred embodiment, it has dealt with a equipment which is 
built by mounting an attachment device such as bracket plates and other 
improvements disclosed by the present invention. FIG. 5 is a side view 
showing another embodiment where all the improvements disclosed by the 
present invention are built in the equipment body to be made much more 
compact than any remodels of the conventional machines. 
As described in the aboves, the equipment and improvements therefor 
disclosed by the present invention can automatically and smoothly correct 
and compensate any biased inclination of cloth texture when spreading and 
can take remarkably great effects for spreading imaged cloth or, 
especially, thin one. 
Also the above description has dealt with a equipment where a slackening of 
a certain fixed length is provided between said unbinding roller and said 
needle wheels. Actually however, said unbinding roller can be omitted and 
the material roller itself can be so composed that it may automatically 
rotate so as to bring a material cloth a certain fixed slackening between 
said material roller and said needle wheels. And it can be easily 
understood that various modifications, additions and improvements are made 
without departing from the scope of the present invention.