Tow feeding apparatus

A tow feeding apparatus which requires no continuous observation, shortens the reset time when tow is wound around pinch rolls for feeding into a case, and operates safely, includes guide rolls for leading a tow to a winding roll or pinch rolls, a winding roll apparatus provided between the guide rolls and pinch rolls at a normal position for winding up a tow around a winding roll when wrapping trouble occurs at the pinch rolls. A pinch roll apparatus for feeding the tow from the guide rolls through the winding roll apparatus into a case, and a transport device for transporting the winding roll apparatus from the normal position to a reset position behind the pinch roll apparatus when wrapping trouble occurs. A cutter shears the tow along the tow route before the pinch roll apparatus. An exchanger for substituting the pinch roll apparatus with another set of pinch rolls, and a detector for detecting wrapping of a tow around the pinch rolls are further included. A controller receives a signal from said detector to actuate the cutter and the driving motor for driving the winding roll, stops the pinch roll apparatus, drives the exchanger, actuates the transport device for moving the winding roll apparatus from the normal position to the reset position, starts the pinch roll apparatus at the same time as the winding roll apparatus is stopped, and returns the winding roll to the normal position.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
This invention relates to a tow feeding apparatus. More particularly, it 
relates to a tow feeding apparatus wherein continuous watching of the tow 
fed into a case through pinch rolls is made unnecessary, a resetting time 
of the tow is shortened when the tow winds around the pinch roll, and a 
safe operation is assured. 
2. Description of the Related Art 
Melt-spinning of general-purpose synthetic fibers such as those of 
polyesters, polypropylene, etc. has generally been carried out by 
extruding a molten polymer through a number of spinning nozzles to obtain 
a number of filaments, and collecting the filaments in a form of a tow 
which is then stored in a case. 
FIG. 2 shows a schematic view illustrating a conventional apparatus for 
feeding a tow into a case. In the figure, a number of filaments 2 extended 
from spinning nozzles 1 are cooled, drawn by a take-up roll 3 and 
collected to form a tow 4. The tow 4 is then fed into a case 12 via guide 
rolls 5 by means of pinch rolls, that is a pair of rolls 8 and 9 rotating 
at a high speed. 
The total denier of tow is generally as large as several thousand to 
several hundred thousand deniers in order to raise productivity. The 
feeding conditions of pinch rolls 8, 9 have been carefully set by choosing 
the nip pressure thereof and the speed ratio thereof relative to guide 
rolls 5 or by choosing spinning oils, etc. However, due to single filament 
breaks or wrapping of single filaments n the tow around the rolls, 
wrapping of a tow around the pinch rolls often occurs during operation. 
Once wrapping around the pinch rolls 8, 9 has occurred, the pinch rolls 8, 
9 are stopped in operation, and then a tow is wound around a winding roll 
6 via a tow-passing route E by hand or by an air sucker, followed by 
removing tow wastes wrapped on the pinch rolls, changing a tow-passing 
route to a route F by hand, and again starting the pinch rolls as well as 
stopping the winding roll 6. 
According to the conventional apparatus, once wrapping on the pinch rolls 
8, 9 has occurred, the pinch rolls have to be stopped in operation and the 
wrapped tow wastes removed. Further, when the pinch rolls 8, 9 are stopped 
late, the tow stored in the case may also have become wrapped on the pinch 
rolls. When wrappings of tow on all rotating bodies occur, all rotating 
parts such as takeup rolls 3 and guide rolls 5 have to be stopped. For 
returning such a state to a normal one, it has been necessary to remove 
the wrapped wastes from the rotating parts. Further, when the time for 
resetting a tow is prolonged, the extrusion of a molten polymer has to be 
stopped. Thus, until the resetting has been attained, a rather long time 
has been required, resulting in the waste of a large quantity of tow. 
Further, since an extraordinary load has been applied to the gears in the 
gear box of the pinch rolls due to the wrapped tow, the gears have often 
been broken. Thus, continuous watching has been required for minimizing 
the wrapping around the pinch rolls, and much labor has been required for 
the reset operations, which may be dangerous. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The object of the present invention is to provide a tow feeding apparatus 
with means for rapidly removing a tow wrapped around pinch rolls, and 
rapidly resetting a tow with high safety. 
The present invention has the following main constitution: 
a tow feeding apparatus having pinch rolls for feeding a tow into a case, 
which comprises 
guide rolls for leading a tow to a winding roll or pinch rolls; 
a winding roll apparatus which is provided between said guide rolls and 
pinch rolls, that is at a normal position, for winding up a tow around a 
winding roll at the time of wrapping trouble of said pinch rolls, 
comprising a winding roll and a driving motor for driving said winding 
roll; 
a pinch rolls apparatus for feeding said tow from the guide rolls through 
said winding roll apparatus into a case; 
a transporting means for said winding roll apparatus to go over said pinch 
rolls apparatus from said normal position to a reset position behind the 
pinch rolls apparatus at the time of wrapping trouble; 
a cutter for shearing the tow provided at the tow route before said pinch 
rolls apparatus; 
an exchanger of said pinch rolls apparatus for another one; 
a detector for detecting the wrapping of a tow around the pinch rolls; and 
control means for receiving a signal from said detector, actuating said 
cutter, actuating said driving motor for driving the winding roll, 
stopping the pinch rolls apparatus, driving said exchanger for exchanging 
the pinch rolls apparatus for another one, actuating said transporting 
means for moving the winding roll apparatus from said normal position to 
the reset position, starting the pinch rolls apparatus at the same time as 
the winding roll apparatus is stopped, and returning the winding roll to 
said normal position.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
The present invention will be described in more detail referring to the 
accompanying drawings. 
As shown in FIG. 1, the apparatus of the present invention comprises the 
following components: 
guide rolls 5 for leading a tow 4 to a winding roll or pinch rolls 8, 9; 
a winding roll apparatus 25 which is provided between said guide rolls 5 
and pinch rolls 8, 9, that is at a normal position 6A, for winding up a 
tow around a winding roll 6, comprising a winding roll 6, a driving motor 
21 for driving said winding roll 6, and a pusher 22 optionally provided 
for moving said winding roll 6 in the axial direction thereof by a 
predetermined length; 
a pinch roll apparatus located at a pinch roll station for feeding said tow 
from the guide rolls 5 through said winding roll apparatus 25 into a case 
12; 
a transporting means 11 for said winding roll apparatus 25 to go over said 
pinch roll apparatus from said normal position 6A to a reset position 6D 
behind the pinch roll apparatus at the time of wrapping trouble; 
a cutter 7 for shearing the tow provided at the tow route before said pinch 
roll apparatus; 
an exchanger 54 (shown in FIGS. 3 and 4) of said pinch roll apparatus for 
another one; 
a detector 16 (shown in FIGS. 3 and 4) for detecting wrapping of a tow 
around the pinch rolls 8, 9; and 
control means (not explicitly shown) for receiving a signal from said 
detector 16, actuating said cutter 7, actuating said driving motor 21 for 
driving the winding roll 16 (and the pusher 22), stopping the pinch roll 
apparatus, driving said exchanger for exchanging the pinch roll apparatus 
for another one, actuating said transporting means 11 for moving the 
winding roll apparatus from said normal position 6A to the reset position 
6D, starting the pinch roll apparatus at the same time as stopping the 
winding roll apparatus 25, and returning the winding roll 6 (with the 
pusher 22) to said normal position 6A. 
A series of guide rolls 5 are provided for leading the tow 4 from spinning 
nozzles 1 to the winding roll 6, and further to the pinch rolls 8, 9. 
A tow guide 20 is preferably provided at the inlet side of the winding roll 
6. This guide 20 has a pair of guide bars 70 (see FIG. 5) as a traverse 
means for traversing the tow within the width of the winding roll 6 in 
order to wind up a tow uniformly on the roll. In FIG. 4, the tow guide 20 
is shown to be fixed to the winding roll apparatus 25 via a traverse motor 
71. 
The winding roll 6 of the present invention may have a smooth plain surface 
without any projection and depression (see FIGS. 4 and 5) or have a 
surface consisting of two different surface sections as shown in FIG. 8, 
one of them having a smooth surface section 23 substantially without any 
projection and depression and the other having a fluted surface section 24 
as a rough surface section. The smooth surface section 23 is positioned so 
as to include the end part of the winding roll 6, while the fluted surface 
section 24 is oppositely positioned as shown in FIG. 8. The smooth surface 
section 23 preferably has electroplated chrome finish or an electroplated 
satin finish. The tow is wound around the fluted surface section 24 of the 
roll when the winding roll 6 is pushed by a predetermined length, and the 
tow is passed through the smooth surface section 23 to the pinch roll 
apparatus when the winding roll 6 is returned to the original position. 
The winding roll 6 also may have a collar 19 (FIG. 8) for inhibiting a tow 
from winding around the shaft of a motor 21. 
Referring to FIG. 5, the winding roll apparatus 25 consists of a winding 
roll 6, a driving motor 21 for driving the winding roll 6 and a pusher 22 
for moving the winding roll 6 in the axial direction by a predetermined 
length. The motor 21 for driving the winding roll 6 is installed on a 
pedestal 43 by the medium of wheels 42 which is supported on rails 
provided on the pedestal 43. Further, the rear part of the motor 21 is 
connected to the pusher 22 consisting of an air cylinder for pushing 
forward or pulling back the motor 21. 
The detector 16, shown in FIG. 3, for detecting wrapping of a tow around a 
pinch roll may be a sensor for detecting yarn wrapping or tow wrapping, a 
means for detecting an abnormal current value of the driving motor, of the 
pinch roll apparatus, or a detecting means for detecting image information 
from an image sensor at the time of the above wrapping troubles, and 
further, both detecting means may be provided. 
The cutter 7 used in the present invention is automatically actuated by a 
signal sent from the detector 16 indicating the wrapping trouble of the 
tow around the pinch rolls 8, 9. The cutter 7 may be fixed onto the tow 
route so that the blade of the cutter shears the tow at the time of a 
wrapping trouble, or may be located at the side of the tow route at the 
time of normal operation and pushed out onto the tow route by means of a 
cutter-moving means like a pusher 15 (FIG. 3) at the time of a wrapping 
trouble. In order to help the tow cut by the cutter 7 to wind around a 
winding roll 6, air-jet means for blowing air toward the cutter may by 
provided as shown in FIGS. 3 and 7. In FIG. 7, a cutter blade 7A and a 
support 7B are joined together by means of a hinge joint 40. The support 
7B has an air opening 14 that communicates with to the air-jet means. A 
tow A is passed between the cutter blade 7A and the support 7B, and at the 
time of cutting, it is sheared by a hinging motion of the cutter blade 7A. 
The cutter and the air-jet means may be actuated by means of an 
electromagnetic valve. Further, it is possible to arrange a plurality of 
cutters 7 corresponding to the number of pinch roll apparatuses. Further, 
the cutter may be provided on a housing 13 or independently of the housing 
13 (FIG. 3). 
The transporting means 11 may be any means capable of transporting the 
winding roll apparatus between the normal position 6A and the reset 
position 6D. A typical example of the means is shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, and 
comprises a platform 33 laterally installed over said pinch roll 
apparatus; a truck 17 provided on said platform 33 by means of wheels 32; 
an elevator 44 operably associated with said truck 17, for moving said 
winding roll apparatus upward or downward; and driving means of said truck 
17 and said elevator 44 between said normal position 6A and said reset 
position 6D of the winding roll apparatus. 
The elevator 44 for moving the winding roll apparatus 25 upward or downward 
comprises an air cylinder 26 and a piston 27 incorporated thereinto. The 
piston 27 is fixed to the winding roll apparatus 25 at the lower end 
thereof. The air cylinder 26 engages a supporting plate of a truck 17. A 
guide 28, the upper end of which is fixed to the truck 17, is engaged with 
a guide rail 29 which is provided vertically and fixed to the winding roll 
apparatus 25. The guide 28 further operably engages the air cylinder 26. 
The guide 28 and the guide rail 29 inhibit the lateral movement or 
vibration of the winding apparatus 25 when it is moving. The winding roll 
apparatus 25 can ascend or descend in accordance with the movement of the 
piston 27 of the air cylinder 26. 
The platform 33 is laterally supported on columns 46 over the pinch roll 
apparatus and in parallel with the tow route (FIG. 5). 
A motor 30 as a driving source for traversing the elevator 44 is provided 
at the elevator 44. A pinion 31 attached to the shaft of the motor 30 is 
in mesh with a rack 47 fixed to the platform 33 (FIG. 5). 
Returning to FIGS. 3 and 4, the pinch rolls apparatus comprises pinch rolls 
8 and 9 for feeding a tow into a case 12, a driving motor 51 joined to the 
shaft of the pinch rolls, a housing 13 of the motor 51, a turntable 48 on 
which the driving motor 51 is installed, and pins 72 for fixing the 
turntable. The turntable 48 is rotatable around a shaft 52 by means of a 
motor 49 through a bevel gear 50. The other set of pinch roll apparatus 
(pinch rolls 8A, 9A and Motor 51A) is installed on the same turntable so 
that it is exchangeable with the former by rotating the turntable. 
As an exchanging method of the pinch roll apparatus, besides the above 
method of employing a turntable, a method of running pinch rolls 
apparatuses on a rail one after another at the time of exchange may be 
employed. The number of pinch rolls apparatuses is preferred to be larger, 
but two thereof are usually employed from the point of economy. 
Examples of pinch rolls 8 and 9 are those of metal rolls each having a flat 
surface, those of a gear type (FIG. 9A), those of a cage type having bars 
bridging the ridges of corrugated side plates (FIG. 9B), and the like. The 
width of the pinch roll 8 is usually larger than that of the pinch roll 9. 
A guide bar 18 is preferably provided on the housing 13 at the forward side 
of the pinch roll 9 as shown in FIGS. 3, 4 and 6. This guide bar 18 makes 
it possible to inhibit the tow from wrapping around the shaft of the pinch 
rolls 8, 9, and guides the tow along an exact tow route via the upper 
surface of the pinch roll 8, which is wider than the winding roll 6, when 
the winding roll 6 descends from the position 6C to the position 6D as 
shown in FIG. 3. 
The control means of the present invention includes an actuator of the 
cutter 7 for shearing the tow in response to a signal from said detector 
16 when said wrapping of the tow on the pinch rolls is detected, an 
actuator of said winding roll apparatus 25 actuated by a signal from the 
detector 16, and a stopping means for stopping said winding roll apparatus 
25 after cutting of the tow. A controller of the exchanger of the pinch 
roll apparatus functions so that the pinch roll apparatus is exchanged for 
another one at the same time as the winding roll apparatus 25 is stopped. 
A controller of said elevator and said driving means of said truck 17, 
which is actuated after the shearing of the tow and functions so that said 
winding roll apparatus 25 moves upward from the backward side of the pinch 
roll apparatus (normal position 6A) moves laterally over said pinch roll 
apparatus along the tow route, and further moves downward to the forward 
side of the pinch roll apparatus (reset position 6D). A starting means 
starts the pinch rolls apparatus when the winding roll apparatus 6 reaches 
said reset position 6D, and a stopping means stops the winding roll 
apparatus 25 at the same time. Finally, a controller is also provided for 
returning the winding roll 6 to position 6A after removal of waste from 
the winding roll. 
Control systems of the respective devices of the present invention may 
include those for controlling rotating speeds of pinch rolls, a winding 
roll, guide rolls and the like, and those for positional relationship, 
actuation order relationship, and a time relationship of the respective 
devices. Some of the above control systems may be incorporated into 
sequence process controls or microcomputers. 
The air cylinder 26 may be replaced by a hydraulic cylinder and the like. 
Next, the function of the present invention will be described referring to 
the embodiments of FIGS. 3 to 5. 
When a tow is normally fed into the pinch rolls 8 and 9, the tow 4 from a 
take-up roll 3 is introduced into a series of guide rolls 5 and then 
passed through a smooth surface section 23 of the winding roll 6 rotating 
at a normal position 6A as a normal roll position. Then the tow is fed to 
the pinch rolls 8 and 9 through a tow route A and stored in a case 12. Tow 
guide 20 provided before the winding roll 6 has been stopped and the tow 
is passed through the middle part of the tow guide (FIG. 1). The rotating 
speeds of the respective guide rolls 5 are the same as that of the take-up 
roll 3 or set to slightly higher values in the order of the pinch rolls 8, 
9, the winding roll 6 and the guide roll 5. 
When the tow has wrapped around the pinch rolls 8, 9 by accident, a signal 
received from a detector 16 is received by a controller, a cutter-moving 
means 15 is actuated, and a cutter 7 is pushed forward and enters the tow 
route A. At the same time, a pusher 22 in the winding roll apparatus 25 
(FIG. 5) is actuated and the winding roll 6 is pushed forward so that is 
changes the tow route from the smooth surface section 23 to the fluted 
surface section 24 (FIG. 8). At the same time, an electromagnetic valve of 
an air-jet means is opened to blow air from the opening 14 to the tow. 
Further, the cutter 7 is actuated by the electro-magnetic valve to shear 
the tow, and at the same time, tow is wound around the fluted surface 
section 24 of the winding roll 6. The air-jet means helps the tow to wind 
around the winding roll 6. Further, a tow guide 20 is actuated and the tow 
starts to traverse in the width direction of the winding roll 6, whereby 
the tow is uniformly wound around the winding roll 6. After a certain time 
lag, the pinch rolls 8, 9 are stopped in rotation, whereby the first stage 
automatic operation for resetting a tow is finished. 
Next, after the tow cutting, right and left pins 12 for fixing the 
turntable 48 are retracted (FIG. 4). Thereafter, a driving motor 49 for 
turning the turntable is driven, and the turntable 48 is slowly rotated by 
an angle of 180.degree. by the medium of gears 50 around the shaft 52 of 
the turntable (FIG. 3) so that the pinch rolls 8, 9 are exchanged for the 
others 8A, 9A (FIG. 4). The pins 72 for fixing the turntable 48 are set 
again and the tow feeding apparatus is in the state of awaiting until the 
setting of the winding roll apparatus mentioned below is finished. 
The winding roll 6 having a tow wound therearound ascends slowly up to 
position 6B (FIG. 3) together with the tow guide 20 by actuation of the 
air cylinder 26 of the elevator 44 (FIG. 5). Thereafter, a traverse motor 
30 for traversing the track 17 (FIG. 5) is driven to rotate the pinion 31 
on the rack 47 fixed to the platform 33 whereby the winding roll apparatus 
reaches position 6C (FIG. 3) where the tow guide 20 is stopped in motion 
and the tow takes a passageway to 6C. Thereafter, the winding roll 6 
descends slowly by actuation of the air cylinder 26 of the elevator to 
reach position 6D (FIG. 3). Then the tow is guided by a guide bar 18 to 
exactly pass through the top surface of the pinch roll 8 having a larger 
width than the other pinch roll 9, and is wound around the winding roll 6 
having moved to position 6D and the tow route takes a passageway of 6D. 
At the same time when the winding roll 6 reaches position 6D, the pinch 
rolls 8, 9 start to rotate in response to a signal from a controller. At 
the same time, the winding roll 6 is stopped and the tow passes between 
the pinch rolls 8 and 9 and is fed into the case. 
Thereafter, the tow left between the case 60 and the winding roll 6 and the 
yarn wastes wound around the winding roll 6 are cut by an automatic cutter 
or by a scissors and removed. Thereafter a signal to return to the normal 
position (6A) of the winding roll 6 is sent to a controller, whereby the 
winding roll 6 is pulled inward by actuation of the pusher 22 (FIG. 5), 
and the winding roll apparatus 25 moves from the position 6D to the 
positions 6C, 6B and 6A in this order by the operation of the elevator 44 
and the truck 17 for ascending or descending, and also by traversing. 
Thus, the winding roll apparatus 25 returns to the normal position 6A 
where the winding roll 6 is stopped. Further, the yarn wastes wrapped 
around the pinch rolls 8A, 9A on the back side of the housing 13 (FIG. 4) 
are cut by a secondary cutter and removed. Thus, the total operation of 
the tow resetting is completed. 
In the present invention, it goes without saying that operations of 
ascending, descending, rotation, starting and stopping of the winding 
roll, traverse of the truck, and like operations or various operations of 
the pinch rolls apparatus may be carried out manually in part. 
In the present invention, the foregoing description has been made referring 
to the embodiment using a winding roll 6 having two different roll surface 
sections, but the tow may be wound around a winding roll having an 
entirely smooth surface or may be wound up around a winding roll without 
any tow guide. 
According to the embodiments of the present invention, when a tow has been 
tangled around the pinch rolls, it is possible to reset a tow 
automatically with an exchange of the pinch rolls for another to make 
continuous watching or monitoring of a tow unnecessary and to lessen the 
labors of operators. The time required for resetting a tow to the pinch 
rolls is saved by the automatic operation to reduce labor for removing 
yarn wastes. For example, while according to a conventional apparatus, 
about 15 to 25 minutes or longer has been required for removing yarn 
wastes wrapped around the pinch rolls and the like, according to the 
apparatus of the present invention, about 50 seconds to 2 minutes are 
sufficient, so that production efficiency has increased notably. 
Further, according to the embodiment of the present invention, by arranging 
the tow guide 20 with the winding roll, it is possible to wind up a tow as 
far as the utmost of the effective width of the winding roll. Thus, even 
in the case of a very fine tow, the time required for resetting a tow is 
sufficient so that resetting can be carried out safely. 
Further, according to the embodiment of the present invention, by using a 
winding roll having a smooth surface section and a rough surface section, 
the former being for passing a tow to the pinch rolls and the latter being 
for winding up a tow therearound, it is possible to completely carry out 
winding up of the two around the winding roll without any failure. 
According to the present invention, by shortening the rest time of the 
apparatus, it has been possible to reduce the quantity of yarn wastes from 
several hundred Kg in the case of a conventional apparatus down to several 
tens of Kg, for example. 
Further, when a tow has been tangled around pinch rolls, at least several 
operators have been required for resetting them, whereas according to the 
apparatus of the present invention, only one operator may reset the 
apparatus. 
The apparatus of the present invention can be broadly applied to a handling 
process for not only a tow of synthetic fibers prepared by melt-spinning, 
but also to a crimped tow having a fineness of several thousand to several 
hundred thousand deniers, and the like material such as multifilament, 
cotton yarns, tape yarn, fiber rod, etc.