Contact bar for the warp stop motion

The contact bar comprises an outer bar having a U-shaped cross-section and a plurality of bar portions located therein and separated therefrom by an insulating layer. The bar portions are insulated against each other by intermediate insulating layers in partition planes extending laterally as well as parallel to the longitudinal edge. The bar portions are produced suitably by a punching out of a bar such that they, when fitted into each other, will supplement themselves again to a bar such that a shorter bar portion cut proceeding from the upper longitudinal edge of a longer bar portion fits into the longer bar portion. The longer bar portion is at the side facing the end of the contact bar, at which only the connecting contact for a power source is located is considerably narrower than at the opposite side where the drop wires will contact the bar portion upon a yarn breakage. The bar portion which are fitted into each other have, therefore, their connecting contacts located at the ends of the contact bars and a connection leading therefrom to a separately located optical annunciator device is provided, which device displays in which at the bar portions which are insulated against each other a drop wire has led to the triggering of the stopping of the machine.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention relates to a contact bar of textile machines, 
including a plurality of bar shaped bodies extending parallel to each 
other, which bar shaped bodies are insulated against each other and are 
connected to a power source and extend collectively through the contact 
slots of a plurality of drop wires arranged on the warp ends, which bar 
shaped bodies are insulated against each other and will be connected 
electrically by a drop wire upon a break of a warp end such to trigger a 
stopping of the machine, of which bar shaped bodies one is divided in 
longitudinal direction thereof into portions which are electrically 
insulated against each other allowing a localizing of the drop wire which 
triggered the stopping of the machine in one of the mentioned portions. 
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART 
The bar shaped bodies of known apparatuses of this kind for the electrical 
warp stop motion consist of an outer bar having a U-shaped cross-section 
and an inner bar located therewithin in an insulated manner which, 
however, is divided into portions which are electrically insulated against 
each other. The outer bar is connected to the one pole of a power source 
and the portions of the inner bar which are insulated against each other 
are connected in parallel to the other pole of the power source via a main 
line and a series of distribution points as well as the branch lines which 
are branched off thereof. A control lamp is located at every respective 
bar partition area between adjacent portions and the lamps are 
respectively connected electrically to the adjoining distribution points, 
whereby due to the electrical circuit the two lamps at the ends of 
mentioned portion will be illuminated upon a drop of the drop wire onto 
said portion such that a detection can be made of that portion where which 
a warp has broken. An apparatus of this kind is disclosed in the German 
Utility Model DE-GM No. 80 10 814. 
In a further apparatus of this kind as disclosed in the German Patent 
Specification DE-PS No. 32 10 333 the monitoring lamps allocated to the 
individual partition areas of the bar portions are not connected to 
parallel, there rather are provided light emitting diodes bridging the 
partition areas and connected electrically in series. Furthermore, a 
partition area and an allocated light emitting diode are located at the 
begin of the bar, such that the drop of a drop wire in this section, too, 
may be detected by the illumination of the first diode. 
The drawback of these known apparatuses is the necessity of providing 
connections for lines to the control lamps or light emitting diodes, resp. 
at all partition area between the portions of the bar. In view of the 
rough operation of a textile mill and of the vibrations which the 
equipment for the warp stop motion must experience the arranging of lamps 
or light emitting diodes along a plurality of contact bars, having a 
length of several meters and located adjacent of and parallel to each 
other in an apparatus for the warp stop motion is quite unsuitable. If the 
light emitting diodes or the lamps are not installed directly above the 
contact bar but rather at a different location, it is necessary to lead 
lines from all bar portions and bridging the partition areas to the light 
emitting diodes located at a more distant or better protected, resp. 
location. Lines leading from the individual bar portions form also no 
advantageous solution, they rather cause such an apparatus or arrangement, 
resp. to be still more prone to disturbances. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
Hence, it is a general object of the present invention to provide a bar 
which is divided into mutually insulated portions which is insensible to 
the rough operation encountered in a textile mill and is designed as to 
its structure such that the bar portions arranged subsequentially and 
insulated in the longitudinal direction of the contact bar have their 
connecting points at the end of the contact bar. These connecting points 
may then be connected to annunciators located instantly therefrom and can 
be located not in the immediate surrounding of the machine or above the 
machine, but rather at a distance or at a suitable location within the 
field of vision of the operator, whereby the annunication can be 
accomplished in various ways including a digital display. 
A further object is to provide a contact bar in which at least two bar 
portions are received in one outer bar forming a bar shaped body and 
having a U-shaped cross-section, which at least two bar portions are 
formed by a separating from a bar parallel partition planes proceeding 
from its longitudinal edge and extending at a mutual distance laterally 
and longitudinally in an edge parallel fashion, which bar portions are 
insulated against each other along said partition planes, fit into each 
other and supplement each other to a bar shaped structure and are 
insulated against said U-shaped outer bar. 
By separating an originally rectilinear bar having a constant cross-section 
in its longitudinal extent into bar portions located deck-wise above each 
other and which fit into each other such to supplement each other to the 
original shape, whereby the separating is done preferably by punching, an 
extremely rugged contact bar structure is arrived at in a most easy way, 
which is suitable for the rough environment of a textile mill, and in 
which the bar portions located remote from the ends of the bar have their 
connection points located at the end of the bar. 
Yet a further object of the invention is to provide such a contact bar in 
which the at least two bar portions extend preferably along one half of 
the length of the contact bar, and in which a substantially homologous 
arrangement of at least two bar portions extends along the other half of 
the contact bar. Quite obviously a bar may be separated by a 
correspondingly larger number of parallel separating cuts into more than 
two bar portions fitting into each other, which is applicable for both 
contact bar halves in case of a homologous design, i.e. it is possible to 
provide in accordance with a preferred embodiment without any further ado 
still more bar portions of similar shape, located decks-wise above each 
other and fitting into each other, such that in case of a homologous 
design totally not only four but rather six or eight bar portions are 
present in each contact bar half.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
The contact bar illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 consists of an outer bar 1 
having a U-shaped cross-section and which extends along the entire contact 
bar length, of an insulating layer 2 having the same length by means of 
which the U-shaped outer bar is clad, and of a plurality of bar portions 
A, B, C and D which together form the inner bar. In FIG. 1 the outer bar 1 
and the insulating layer 2 are illustrated partly broken away such to 
render the bar portions forming the inner bar visible at the left hand 
side of FIG. 1. The bar portions A, B, C and D are produced by a 
dissecting of a bar shaped body, preferably by punching cuts. The bar 
portions are separated from each other by partition planes 3, 4, 5, 6 and 
7 proceeding laterally from a longitudinal edge and which do not run 
completely through and by partition planes 8 and 9 extending parallel to 
the edge and are insulated against each other by an insulating 
intermediate layer located in these partition planes. The dissecting of 
the bar portions has thereby been made such that they supplement each 
other again to a bar shaped body. The bar portions A fits into the bar 
portion B and the bar portion D fits into the bar portion C. The partition 
planes between the bar portions are located such that the bar portion B 
which adjoins at both ends the bar portion A is substantially narrower at 
the side facing the end of the contact bar than at the opposite side. The 
connecting contact 10 for the connection of the rail portion B to a power 
source is located at the end of the narrow zone. The connection contact 
for the bar portion A is located directly adjacent thereof, but separated 
by the insulating partition plane 3. The bar portion A and B extend along 
one half of the length of the contact bar and the other half thereof is 
taken up by the two bar sections C and D, and the connection contact 12 of 
the bar portion D is also located close to the end of the contact bar in 
the substantially homologous arrangement. 
In case of correspondingly more partition planes and more than two bar 
portions set into each other on each contact bar half, the contact bar can 
be divided into more than totally four bar portions. The drop wires which 
are not illustrated in the drawing will not come into contact with the 
zones of the bar portions located at the two ends of the contact bar of 
which the upper edge is located somewhat lower at the connection contacts 
10-13. In order to definitely establish a contact and to prevent a drop 
wire from catching in one of the laterally extending partition planes 4, 5 
or 6 these partition planes 4, 5 and 6 extend at an angle obliquely to the 
longitudinal edge of the bar. This design incorporates, furthermore, the 
advantage that bending forces have less influence on the contact bar. 
The outer bar 1 having a U-shaped cross-section is connected via the 
connection contact 14 to one of the poles of the power source 15, and the 
bar portion A, B, C and D are connected via the connecting contacts 10-13 
to the other pole thereof. According to the well known operation regarding 
the electrical warp stop motion device 20 of a textile machine 21 of FIG. 
3, while the device has, for example, four contact bars 22 (see also FIG. 
5), the drop wire 23 dropping onto the contact bar upon a brake of a warp 
end 24, the inner bar portions B (FIG.4) will be connected in an 
electrically conducting fashion to the outer bar, (shown in FIG. 5 at an 
enlarged scale) such that the stopping of the machine is triggered. By 
means of the indicating means as (FIG. 4) which can be structured in 
accordance with any of the various known designs such as a lamp it, 
thereafter, is possible to detect on which of the bar portions A, B, C or 
D a drop wire rests on the contact bar 22 due to a yarn breakage, such 
that the broken yarn can be found and repaired faster. 
While there is shown and described a present preferred embodiment of the 
invention, it is to be distinctly understood that the invention is not 
limited thereto, but may be otherwise variously embodied and practiced 
within the scope of the following claims.