Yarn texturing machine

Each station of a row on a multistation yarn texturing machine comprises a common support unit for all driven members of that station, the driven members being interconnected for synchronous operation by a transmission system which includes a coupling member such as a toothed belt, and the support unit being movable for engaging or releasing the coupling member from a single machine drive member common to all the stations of a row and preferably consisting of a shaft with toothed wheels for driving the coupling members.

This invention relates to a yarn texturing machine of the kind in which 
yarns from supply packages run through texturing zones under the control 
of driven members operating as rotating forwarding means such as nip 
rolls, feed capstans, or apron feeds. A texturing zone may be of the kind 
which effects false twist crimping of yarn, for example the texturing zone 
may comprise a heating zone, a cooling zone, and a false twisting device 
in that order, the device itself being another driven member such as a 
false twist spindle or a friction false twister, or alternatively the 
texturing zone may include or consist of a fluid jet yarn bulking device. 
Known devices comprise multiple processing stations at each of which one or 
more yarns are textured, and usually the machines are double-sided, having 
a row of stations at each side. Thus the machine textures many yarns 
simultaneously, and each station has driven yarn forwarding members such 
as infeed rolls, intermediate rolls, delivery rolls, and in some cases 
draw rolls when the feed yarn is undrawn or only partially drawn and the 
yarn is being drawn as well as being textured. The drawing step may occur 
immediately before texturing or may occur simultaneously with texturing. 
Also in known machines it is usual to have a main drive motor and gearbox 
at one end of the machine, from which drive is transmitted to the yarn 
forwarding means of the multiple stations as by several parallel shafts 
running along the length of the machine, and usually at various levels 
where such as infeed rolls, intermediate rolls and delivery rolls are 
located. Similarly, drive to false twist devices of the individual 
stations is usually transmitted by a running endless belt engaging wharves 
of the devices, the latter usually being movable to engage or disengage 
their drives. Yarn forwarding rolls have provision for an operator to make 
them operative or inoperative at will, as when threading up a station for 
start-up or re-threading after a yarn breakage, and as machine development 
constantly progresses to provide higher output rates by higher operating 
speeds, heating and cooling zones become longer and longer, and yarn 
forwarding roll sets of each station further and further apart with 
consequential inconvenience to operators working on the machines. 
Equally or more important than operator convenience is that machines are 
required to be operated according to predetermined specifications as to 
the relative running speeds of yarn forwarding means and false twist 
devices. For uniformity of quality of textured yarn from an individual 
station, and for regularity of yarns from all stations, optimum 
synchronisation has to be aimed for, both within each station and as 
between all the stations. A gearbox transmitting drive to several parallel 
shafts, which in turn drive the yarn forwarding means of all stations, and 
to a flexible endless belt frictionally driving the wharves of false twist 
devices, falls far short of being a drive system which maintains 
synchronism. Backlash in gears, which increases with wear, torque in the 
several shafts, and a flexible friction belt drive to the false twist 
devices, are all factors which go against maintaining the desired 
conditions of synchronism. 
The object of the present invention is to provide a yarn texturing machine 
of the kind referred to which is both more convenient for operators, and 
also achieves high standards in maintaining synchronism within each 
processing station and as between all stations. 
According to the invention, in a multistation yarn texturing machine having 
at least one row of processing stations, each station includes a common 
discrete support unit for all drive members of that station, all of which 
members are interconnected for synchronous operation by a transmission 
system which includes a coupling member, the coupling member of any 
transmission system of any station being individually operable to provide 
that its transmission system is connectable and releasable from a single 
machine drive member common to a row of processing stations. 
Thus by operating the coupling member of a processing station to release 
its transmission from the machine drive member, all the drive members on 
the common support unit decelerate to a halt and that station can be 
serviced much more easily by an operator than hitherto, and similarly by 
operating the coupling member to re-connect its transmission system with 
the drive member, all the driven members start up together and remain 
synchronous as they accelerate up to and finally reach their operating 
speeds. 
In a preferred arrangement the single machine drive member is a shaft 
common to all processing stations, and for each station provided with a 
respective toothed timing belt wheel, the driven members on the common 
support unit being interconnected by having toothed wheels in mesh with 
toothed timing belts, and one of said belts serving as a coupling member 
operable to be brought into or out of mesh with a toothed timing belt 
wheel on the machine drive shaft. In this latter connection the common 
support unit may be movable, for example pivotally or slidably, to operate 
the coupling member. 
It is envisaged that a coupling member of alternative form is possible, 
such as a mechanical slipping clutch or a magnetic clutch, but the 
preferred coupling member is one of the timing belts of the transmission 
system, engageable with or releasable from the toothed timing belt wheel 
on the machine drive shaft by bodily pivoting a common support unit having 
all the driven members thereon and closely adjacent one another. 
We have overcome the problem of accelerating the timing belt coupling 
member, and with it the remainder of the transmission system, up to 
approximately the same speed as the toothed timing belt wheel on the drive 
shaft before engaging the teeth of the belt with those of the wheel. 
In one arrangement the toothed timing belt wheel is formed, alongside the 
teeth, with a coaxial plain wheel portion of diameter equal to or 
preferably slightly greater than the pitch circle of the wheel tooth 
crests, and the timing belt serving as the coupling member is movable 
laterally by being entrained over toothed wheels of length at least twice 
the belt width. Thus the belt can first be moved against the plain portion 
of the wheel, which accelerates the belt up to speed by the slippable 
friction contact of one with the other, and then the belt can be moved 
laterally for its teeth to mesh with those of the wheel. Obviously the 
belt can be moved away from the wheel, to disengage them, without needing 
to move the belt laterally. 
In another arrangement the toothed timing belt wheel is again formed with a 
coaxial plain wheel portion, or is coaxial with a plain wheel adjacent to 
the toothed wheel and on the drive shaft. The coupling member is again a 
timing belt running over at least two spaced toothed pulleys, and the belt 
is not movable laterally but lies in the same plane as the teeth of the 
toothed timing belt wheel on the drive shaft. The support unit which 
mounts the two spaced toothed pulleys and the timing belt is movable 
bodily towards and away from the timing belt wheel, so that a span of the 
belt between the two toothed pulleys is presentable to the teeth on the 
timing belt wheel. One toothed pulley is carried on a pivot arm biased as 
by a spring in direction to keep the belt tensioned and coaxial with this 
toothed pulley and on the same shaft is a friction wheel, such as a wheel 
with a rubber tyre, which lies in the plane of the plain wheel portion, or 
the plain wheel, associated with the toothed timing belt wheel on the 
drive shaft. The friction wheel is of larger diameter than its coaxial 
toothed pulley, and the plain wheel portion, or the plain wheel, is of 
slightly larger diameter than the toothed timing belt wheel. When the 
support unit is moved to operate the coupling member, the friction wheel 
first contacts the plain wheel portion, or the plain wheel, by which the 
friction wheel and its coaxial toothed pulley are rotated to accelerate 
the timing belt up to speed while it is still disengaged from the toothed 
timing belt wheel. Further movement of the support engages the belt with 
the wheel teeth and the friction wheel begins to "walk round" the 
periphery of the plain wheel portion or the plain wheel, the pivot arm of 
the pulley accommodating this movement and deflection of the belt span 
from a straight path, by pivoting against the action of its loading 
spring. Eventually the pivot arm engages a fixed cam member which pivots 
it still further firstly to lift the friction wheel off the plain wheel 
portion, or the plain wheel, and secondly to lock the arm against being 
returned by the spring. Preferably the second toothed pulley is also on a 
second pivot arm, biased as by a spring in direction to tension the belt. 
In both the arrangements above described, the timing belt which serves as 
a coupling member is run up to a speed frictionally faster than that of 
the toothed timing belt wheel on the drive shaft, so that the teeth align 
and interengage readily and the belt is subjected only to a slight 
deceleration rather than an acceleration.

Referring to FIG. 1., this end view of one side of a yarn false twist 
crimping machine shows one processing station of a row of closely spaced 
stations extending along that side of the machine. This arrangement is 
quite usual, current machines being available with up to 100 or more 
stations at each side. 
In the machine illustrated, a frame base unit 10 supports frame uprights 11 
which in turn support bearers 12, cross-members 13, superstructure 
uprights 14 and cross-bearers 15. A common discrete support unit, for all 
driven members of the processing station shown and their transmission 
system, is indicated generally by the reference numeral 16, and is shown 
in full lines in its operative position, and in chain-dot lines in an 
inoperative position in which it is moved bodily away from a single 
machine drive shaft 17 common to the row of stations. This support unit 16 
is at a convenient height for operatives, and besides carrying all the 
driven members of that station it also carries a transmission system 
interconnecting all the driven members for synchronous operation, this 
transmission system including a coupling member which is connected with or 
released from the machine drive shaft 17 by the action of bodily moving 
the common support unit into or out of its operative position. 
In FIG. 1. the support unit 16 is pivotally mounted at its upper region 
upon the machine frame bearer 12. 
Also shown in FIG. 1., is a yarn heater 18 carried by the machine frame 
superstructure, vacuum manifolds 19 and intake pipes 20 to both ends of 
the heater 18 for fume removal, an electricity supply cable 21 to the 
heater 18, a yarn oiling attachment 22, yarn package winder systems 23, 
and a suction doffer tube 24 into which yarn is entrained to waste during 
service operations such as threading up or repairing yarn breaks. 
FIG. 1. shows the path of a yarn 25 through the entire processing station 
while FIG. 2. shows the path of the yarn 25 relative to the driven members 
on the support unit 16 of the processing station. 
Referring both to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2., yarn 25 is forwarded from a supply 
bobbin on a stand-off creel (not shown) by a conventional feed roll pair 
26 on the support unit 16, and from this feed roll pair the yarn runs 
about a snubber pin 27 (FIG. 2) to a conventional draw roll assembly 28. 
Thus the yarn is drawn at the snubber pin 27 because the draw rolls rotate 
faster than the feed rolls. From the draw rolls 28 the drawn yarn runs 
upwardly via guides to the top end of the heater 18, and then runs 
downwardly through the heater to a driven false-twist unit 29 on the 
support unit 16. As seen most clearly in FIG. 2. the false-twist unit 
comprises sets of overlapping friction discs, but it could be a 
false-twist spindle or any other yarn crimping or bulking device, whether 
rotatably driven or not. 
As is well-known in the art, twist inserted into the yarn by the 
false-twist unit 29, upstream of itself is propagated through a cooling 
zone consisting of the air space between the false-twist unit 29 and the 
bottom end of the heater 18, and also through the heater 18 which sets the 
twist in the yarn. 
A delivery rolls assembly 30 is on the support unit 16, after the 
false-twist unit 29 in the yarn travel direction, and from these delivery 
rolls 30 the textured yarn runs downwardly over the oiling attachment 22 
to a package winder system 23 having its own drive arrangement common to 
the row of stations. 
Processing of yarn as above described is known in the art as sequential 
draw-texturing, the feed yarn being undrawn or partly drawn yarn, drawing 
of which is effected in the draw zone between the feed rolls 26 and draw 
rolls 28 before the yarn runs to the texturing heater 18. By omitting the 
draw rolls 28 and using the delivery rolls 30 as draw rolls, the yarn can 
be simultaneously draw-textured i.e. drawn on the heater 18 simultaneously 
with false-twist crimping. 
When the feed yarn is fully drawn yarn, draw rolls 28 are again omitted and 
the delivery rolls 30 are merely operated as such without imparting draw 
to the yarn. 
It will be appreciated from the foregoing description, that in a 
multistation machine according to this invention, the discrete support 
unit 16 of each station, carrying all driven yarn forwarding members, 
transmission system of that station and also a driven false-twist unit, 
provides a self-contained module which an operator can manipulate easily 
and with great convenience to himself as regards servicing. 
As already stated previously, the transmission system of each support unit 
includes a coupling member individually operable for connecting or 
releasing the transmission system from the common drive member provided by 
the shaft 17. 
Referring now to FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 which show the support unit 16 of FIG. 1. 
to a larger scale, it can be seen that the unit comprises an upright 
support plate 31 with a hole 32 at its upper region for pivoting it to the 
machine frame and a handle 33 at one bottom corner. FIG. 2. has already 
been described and FIG. 3. shows part of a synchronous drive transmission 
for the driven members of FIG. 2., whereas FIG. 4. shows the complete 
transmission. 
By comparing FIG. 2. with FIG. 3. it can be seen that the delivery rolls 30 
are being driven by being on a drive shaft carrying a toothed wheel 34, 
and that the false twist unit 29 is being driven from one or other of two 
further toothed wheels 35 and 36, as will be explained later. Another 
toothed wheel 37 is an idler and jockey wheel, and is carried on a pivot 
arm 38 loaded by a spring 39 to tension a double-sided toothed timing belt 
40 entrained over these toothed wheels and therefore interconnecting them 
and their associated driven members for synchronous operation. 
The machine drive shaft 17 carries, for each support unit 16 of each 
processing station, a toothed timing belt wheel 41, in co-operation with 
which the belt 40 serves as a coupling member, operable to connect or 
disconnect the transmission system of the support unit 16 to or from the 
drive shaft 17 by pivoting the support plate 31 bodily about the pivot 
point 32. 
When the support unit 16 is pivoted outwardly of the machine frame to the 
inoperative position shown in chain dot lines in FIG. 1., the toothed belt 
40 is moved out of mesh with the toothed timing belt wheel 41, and the 
span of the belt between the toothed wheels 35 and 37 is straight, due to 
the spring-loaded pivot arm 38 with its jockey wheel 37. The toothed 
wheels 34, 35, 36 and 37 are all at least twice as long as the width of 
the belt 40, which therefore can be moved laterally along the wheels. The 
belt 40 is also entrained over a toothed belt-shifter wheel 42 with side 
flanges 43, the wheel 42 being freely rotatable on a shaft 44 which can be 
moved endwise, to shift the belt 40 laterally, as by a cam and lever 
mechanism shown diagrammatically at 45 in FIG. 2. 
Before the support plate 31 is pivoted in direction to engage the belt with 
the rotating toothed timing belt wheel 41, the belt is shifted laterally 
to the position shown in FIG. 3., so that the belt is aligned with a plain 
portion 46 alongside the teeth of wheel 41. This plain portion 46 is at 
least of diameter equal to the pitch circle of the teeth tips, but 
preferably is of slightly greater diameter. As the support plate 31 is 
pivoted towards the wheel 41, the belt 40 engages this plain portion 46 
and the belt commences to be driven, by friction and with initial slipping 
which progressively reduces, until the belt, the transmission system and 
the driven members are brought up to their operating speeds. When the 
plain portion 46 of the wheel is of slightly larger diameter than the 
pitch circle of the teeth tips, the belt 40 when driven by the plain 
portion 46 is travelling slightly faster than the toothed portion of the 
wheel 41, so that the belt teeth are always moving into alignment with the 
spaces between the wheel teeth, in synchromesh fashion. When the cam and 
lever mechanism is operated to move the toothed belt-shifter wheel 42 
laterally in the appropriate direction, the belt is also moved laterally 
off the plain portion 46 and laterally into mesh with the teeth of wheel 
41. Since the belt is moving slightly faster than the wheel teeth, any 
slight engagement shock is due to deceleration of the belt 40 and not 
acceleration, which is desirable. 
Referring now to FIG. 4., the complete synchronous transmission is shown 
diagrammatically in relation to the driven members 26, 28, 29 and 30 of 
FIG. 2., which are also seen in dotted lines in FIG. 4. The toothed timing 
belt wheel 41 on machine drive shaft 7 is also shown in FIG. 4., and also 
the toothed belt 40 which serves as the coupling member of the 
transmission with the wheel 41. Belt 40 is driving toothed wheels 35 and 
36 in opposite directions. Coaxial with wheel 35 and rotating with it is a 
larger toothed wheel 47, and a similar larger toothed wheel 48 is coaxial 
with and rotates with wheel 36. A timing belt 49 couples toothed wheel 48 
with toothed wheels 50 which drive the shafts of the friction discs of 
false-twist unit 29 all in the same direction, i.e. clockwise as seen in 
FIG. 4. An idler wheel over which the belt 49 also runs is shown at 51. 
When it is desired to reverse the direction of rotation of the shafts 50 
of friction discs false-twister 29, the belt 49 is removed from the wheel 
36 and placed in the wheel 35 as indicated in chain-dot lines, a second 
idler wheel 52 then being brought into use. This arrangement provides that 
the false-twister can apply either S or Z twist to the yarn. Belt 40 also 
runs over toothed wheel 34 to rotate the delivery rolls 30, and coaxial 
with wheel 34 and rotating with it is a larger toothed wheel 53 over which 
runs a timing belt 54 coupling wheel 53 to another toothed wheel 55 which 
rotates the draw rolls 28. Coaxial with the toothed wheel 55 and rotating 
with it is a smaller toothed wheel 56, over which runs a timing belt 57 
coupling the wheel 56 with a larger toothed wheel 58 which is rotating the 
feed rolls 26. 
Safeguards can be provided against operator mistakes, such as moving the 
support unit 16 into its operative position with the belt 40 aligned with 
the teeth of the wheel 41 and not with the plain portion 46. 
For example a catch mechanism could be incorporated which prevents complete 
or significant movement of the unit 16 towards its inoperative position 
unless the cam and lever mechanism is operated to shift the belt into 
alignment with the plain portion 46. Similarly means may be provided to 
ensure that the operator cannot move the unit 16 into its operative 
position and leave it with the belt 40 engaging the plain portion 46, 
omitting to mesh the belt with the teeth by operating the belt-shifter 
mechanism. For example the unit 16 may be spring-loaded outwardly and 
needs to be locked in its inward operative position by a releasable latch 
mechanism, operation of which to lock the unit is not possible unless the 
belt-shifter mechanism is first operated to mesh the belt 40 with the 
teeth 41, or the releasable latch mechanism may be connected with the 
belt-shifter mechanism so that applying the latch mechanism automatically 
operates the belt-shifter mechanism. 
FIG. 5. diagrammatically shows an alternative arrangement to that of FIG. 
3. There is the same machine drive shaft 17 carrying a toothed timing belt 
wheel 41 alongside which is a plain wheel portion 46 of slightly larger 
diameter. The support unit 16 again consists of a support plate 31 pivoted 
at 32 to be movable between an operative position shown in full lines and 
an inoperative position shown in chain-dot lines. The transmission system, 
which is shown only in part (as in FIG. 2.) again includes a toothed 
timing belt 40 operating as a coupling member with the toothed timing belt 
wheel 41 of the machine drive shaft 17. Toothed wheels 59, 60 and 61 over 
which the belt 40 runs correspond with wheels 34, 35 and 36 of FIG. 2. The 
belt 40 is always aligned with the teeth of wheel 41 and need not be 
shifted laterally. The belt 40 runs over two spaced toothed pulleys 62 and 
63, each carried by a respective pivot arm 64 and 65. Each arm has a 
respective loading spring 66 and 67 urging the arms in direction to 
tension the belt 40, the span of which between the pulleys is presentable 
to the teeth of the wheel 41. 
Coaxial with the toothed pulley 62 and rotating with it is a friction wheel 
68, such as a wheel with a rubber tyre, which firstly is of slightly 
larger diameter than its coaxial toothed pulley 62 and secondly lies in 
the plane of the plain portion 46 of the toothed timing belt wheel 41. 
FIG. 5. illustrates how the belt 40 is engaged with the toothed timing 
belt wheel 41 as the support plate 31 is pivoted inwardly from its 
inoperative position, shown in chain-dot lines, into its operative 
position shown in full lines, intermediate positions of the belt 40 and 
the pulleys 62 and 63 being also shown in broken chain lines. The drawing 
shows that as the support plate is pivoted inwardly the friction wheel 68 
first engages the plain portion 46 of the toothed wheel 41, the span of 
the belt 40 between the toothed pulleys 62 and 63 still being straight and 
out of contact with the toothed wheel 41, so that frictional contact 
between the friction wheel 68 and the plain portion 46 of the rotating 
toothed wheel 41 causes the pulley 62 to rotate and accelerates the belt 
40 up to speed. Further inward pivoting of the support plate 31 engages 
the belt 40 with the toothed timing belt wheel 41, the belt 40 by then 
being run up to a speed fractionally faster than the wheel 41 so that 
their teeth align and interengage readily and the belt is subjected only 
to slight deceleration rather than any acceleration shock. As the belt and 
wheel teeth are brought into mesh the friction wheel 68 begins to "walk 
round" the periphery of the plain wheel portion 46, the spring-loaded 
pivot arms 64 and 65 accomodating this movement, and also deflection of 
the belt span between the pulleys 62 and 63 from a straight path. 
Eventually the pivot arm 64 of the pulley 62 engages a fixed cam member 69 
which pivots the arm still further, firstly to lift the friction wheel 68 
off the plain portion 46 of the toothed timing belt wheel 41, and secondly 
to lock the arm against the returning action of the spring 68. Pulley 63 
then operates as a belt tensioning pulley, in the "return" run of the belt 
40, pulley 62 being desirably locked against any movement attributable to 
belt tension or belt transmission forces since this pulley 62 is in the 
"driving" run of the belt 40. 
Safeguards can be incorporated to guard against operator errors, such as 
pivoting the support plate inwardly too rapidly and "crashing" belt 40 
against toothed wheel 41 before the belt has run up to speed. A dwell 
period of a few second is desirable, after friction wheel 68 first 
contacts plain wheel portion 46, for the belt to run up to speed. Support 
plate 31 can be arranged to engage an abutment, stop or the like, when or 
shortly after friction wheel 68 contacts plain wheel portion 46 and before 
the belt 40 engages toothed wheel 41, this abutment or stop needing to be 
retracted manually before the support plate 31 can be further pivoted 
inwardly. This abutment or stop could be prevented from retraction by a 
catch which is releasable only by inward pivoting of the support plate 31. 
Alternatively a dashpot mechanism could be included to prevent rapid 
inward pivoting of support plate 31 through its arc of movement when the 
friction wheel 68 is engaging plain wheel portion 46. 
An operator might move support plate 31 not fully into its operative 
position, for example leaving friction wheel 68 still in contact with 
plain wheel portion 46 but with the belt 40 in mesh with toothed wheel 41, 
which is undesirable, and to prevent this the support plate can be 
subjected to outward spring-loading or other resilient force urging it 
towards its inoperative position, sufficiently to bring the belt 40 out of 
mesh unless the operator has moved support plate 31 fully into its 
operative position and a releasable latch or catch has been applied, 
automatically or manually, to hold the support plate 31 in its operative 
position.