DEVICE FOR HYDRAULIC FEEDING OF TEXTILE MATERIAL TO CIRCULAR WILDMANN-TYPE AND SIMILAR MACHINES, WITH DIRECT HYDRAULIC RECYCLING OF THE REJECTED FIBRES, PLUS EXCLUSION OF THE CARDS

Abstract: The following are provided for the preparation and feeding of textile material to the cards (33) cooperating with the needles in the cylinder of a circular machine of the wildmann type or the like for the production of a fleece product: means (16) for opening the textile material; means (20,24,39) for hydraulic transportation of said material to the cards (33); means (63) for hydraulic recycling of the fibres not held by the needies; and in case of exclusion of the cards (33), tubing (137) for hydraulic transport of the open fibres, with a small opening toward which protrude, in the respec­ tive tubing, the raised needles (31) with the tongue open in a respective catching area of the textile material; in this way the hydraulically transported fibres engage with the hooks of the needles (31).

Description: Device for hydraulic feeding of textile material to circular wildmanetYDe and similar machines, with direct hydraulic recycling of the rejected fibres, olus exclusion of the cards. The invention concerns an installation for the preparation and feeding of textile material to circular machines (wildmann type or similar) for the production of a fleece product, comprising: means for opening the textile material; means for hydraulic transportation of said material to the cards; means for hydraulic recycling of the fibres not held by the needles; means for engaging the fibres hydraulically transported to the hooks of the needles. Operation of circular machines of the Wildmann tyDe for making fleece fabrics with knit fabric as support recuires fibres reduced to carded sliver, produced using cardina processes; generally cylindrical carding machines are used, on which the staple fibre is introduced after the mixture is prepared, to obtain a sufficiently strong sliver to be able to be introduced in the feeding stations of the Wildmann machines. The disadvantages of this process may be summarized as follows: production must be highly fractionated onto various machines and in various departments especially with regard to the cards to be slivered; this same problem anplies to the circular Wildmann (and the like) machines. The aim of this invention is to eliminate some machines from the traditional process and to add others so that the entire process of weaving occurs in a single device, once the mixture has been prepared. In this way the following problems are eliminated: (j) storage of the tops produced by the cards; (2) passage on the card; (3) frequent breaking of the slivers on the circular machines; (4) the loss of the fibres not attached to the needles of the circular machine, with elimination of a complete recycling with losses of material and quality; (5) the difficulty of making the carpets which feed the stations of the machine uniform in order to reduce weight variations in the fabric produced; (6) exclusion of short and straight fibres, which currently are difficult to card. According to the invention, a device for the preparation and feeding of textile material to the circular machines (Wildmann type and the like) for the production of a fleece product is characterized bv the fact that it comprises: means for opening the texitile material; means for hydraulic transportion of said material to the cards; and means for hydraulic transportation of the fibres not held by the needles. In practice, the hydraulically recovered fibres which had not been attached to the needles, are transferred to the other side of the opening means in the hydraulic transport system, for a direct hydraulic recvcling of said fibres. In the cases where cards are present, combined means are provided to each card, for receiving the textile material and supplying it to respective card. In practice an anular collector is provided as part of the hydraulic transport means, which is coaxial with the cylinder of the machine, receives the material form the opening -means, and has passages to the respective reception means for the respective cards. The anular collector may be fed tangentially by a single hydraulic tubing or by a double hydraulic tubing, whose branches connect in points regularly distributed along the collector, The reception means maybe developed with cylinders with rotating grill walls and with internal depression to hold the material, and devices are provided for unloading the material from the surface of the cylinders and feeding it to the cards; said unloading means are advantageously placed in an area with no depression. In an imprtant variant of the invention,inwhichcards are not used, the device includes hydraulic transport tubing for the open fibres, with small openings toward which in the respective tubing the raised needles with tongue open protrude, in a respective area for catching the textile material; in this way hydraulically transported fibres engage in the hooks of the needles. Each tubing is advantageously developed with an extension for recovery of the fibres in excess of those caught by the needles and for direct hydraulic recycling of them. All the hydraulic tubing may be fed by an anular collector for hydraulic tansport of the textile material, which is coaxial with the cylinder of the needles in the machine. The device may advantageously include means fdr adjusting the protrusion of the needles through the opening in the hydraulic transport, in case the textile machine has to be stopped. These means may include a wall whose position may be adjusted, which defines the edge of the opening first in contact- with the air current. One single wall may serve for the adjustment and the exclusion, or two walls may be provided, even one opposite the other. The device may also include combing means to stop the clumps of fibre caught by the needles, immediately after the area covered by the current from the hydraulic circuit. These combinq means may consist of blow nozzles, or of cylindrical organs with fitting, which interfere with the needles and comb the fibres engaged to them. The finding may be understood more clearly by following the description and the attached drawings, which show some practical but non-limiting examples of the finding in the variants envisioned. Figure 1 shows schematically the sector for the preliminary treatment of the textile material to be fed into the machine. Figure 2 shows a radial schematic section of the sector for feeding to a traditional card. Figure 3 shows a variant of the sector shown in figure 2. Figure 4 shows an axonometric view of a variant of the feeding sector. Figure 5 shows the sector for direct feeding to the raised needles in the variant with no cards. Figure 6 shows a schematic view along III-III of figure 5. Figures 7 and 8 show two variants of the combing system following feeding of the fibres to the needles. Figure 1 shows in detail a system for opening the staple fibre fed with textile material, to obtain opening of the fibres and hydraulic transport of them. Feeding occurs with a so-called 'blending' consisting of continuous conveyors 1, 3, 5 and a stripper cylinder 7 for the points of conveyor 3 to make the mixed fibres fall of into a volumetric chamber 9; from the bottom of the latter, by means of a pair of feeding cylinders 10, the material is supplied to a feeding carpet 12 and from Iis here to a feeder 14 of the table and cylinder type, which serves to supply the fibres to a suitably carded oDen or briseur cylinder 16. Cylinder 16 serves to oten the fibres and to begin a carding action, cooperating with feeder 1 as well as a with a flat wall 18 with suitable fitting, which follows the trajectory of the fitting of cylinder 16. The material opened by the group 14, 16, 18 is unloaded in a hydraulic aspiration chamber 20. This chamber is evacuated with aspirator 22, through which the material is transferred hydraulically to a hydraulic transport tubing to be used. As shown in figure 2, feeding of the-open fibre material from tubing 24 to the cards of the circular Wildmann-type machine is obtained as follows: indicated generically on the circular machine are a raised needle 34 in correspondence to a feed card of the traditional type 33; two sealed cylinders 35 and 37 are Dart of each card 33, the first destined to load the material fed to pass it to the second cylinder 37, which is destined with its own fitting to cooperate in a known way with the needles 31 raised with the tongue oDen to load them with clumps of fibre; the fibres engage in the upper hook of the raised needle and arrange themselves in a around the needle; the needle then receives the tying thread and is lowered to form the knit boning fabric, with the clumps of fibre which form the fleece of the product. In a preferred embodiment said cylinder 35 may be covered with cover 35', sealed with saw teeth to provide a further carding. Furthermore, according to the finding, the tubing 24 reaches an anular collector for hydraulic transport generically indicated with 39, which is coaxial with the circular machine and overlying the group of cards. The feed tubing 24 may reach the anular collector 39 tangentially in one point only, or may eventually be double to feed the collector tangentially in two opposite points. However, the hvdraulically fed material is distributed and surrounds the anular collector 39 and may feed the individual cards uniformly, as described below. In correspondence with each cards33, from the collector 39 there is a passage 41 eo chamber 43 which develops partially around a perforated cylindrical mantle 45. On the inside of the cylindrical mantle 45 an adequate vacuum is developed, while the cylindrical mantle rotates according to the arrow shown in the drawing. On the inside of the cylindrical mantle 45 a fixed wall 47 limits the arc of the neripherv of the cylindrical mantle, through which hydraulic pressure is developed from the chamber 43 to said cylindrical mantle. Bevond the fixed inclined wall 7, the cylindrical mantle is external to chamber 43 and next to a pair of discharge cylinders 49, 51 rotating on cylindrical mantle 45. Adjusting the pressure inside the cylindrical mantle a5 leads to uptake and deposit of a measured amount of fibre on the outer surface of said mantle, the fibres being removed from chamber 43 where they are fed from collector 39 through passage 41. The excess fibres that are not brought into the mantle 45 by the pressure (as the measured layer of fibre is formed) are discharged through a passage 53 in a collector 55, or in any case sent hydraulically to a tubing 57 opening into chamber 20 in the opening system shown in figure 1. In this way recycling of non-used fibre is possible. By suitably adjusting the pressure inside the cylindrical mantle 45, the thickness of the material which accumulates inside it is controlled, as is the feed load to the pertinent card. The material deposited on the cylindrical mantle 45 is discharged by means of the two cooperating stripper cylinders 49 and 51, which remove the fibres from the mantle in an area in which - due to the presence of wall 47 - the internal pressure is no longer dominant. However, the fibres are discharged in a passage 59 to be fed to a cylinder and table feeder system 61, or the like, or are removed with a rolling train of known type, which can bring the fibres to the cylinder or bottle 35 of the pertinent card 33. The fibres recovered from the system for cleaning and removing the fibres which do not anchor to the needles 31 can be added to the same tubing 57. This svstem generally involves recovery holes 53 in front of each knit forming and fibre clump recovery station in the circular machine; these recovery holes 63 are united in a single tubing, the depression of which may depend ori the depression in the chamber 20 to which the tubing is connected. Figure 3 shows a variant for feeding the cards, one of which is indicatedwith its organs 35 and 37, the latter cooperating always with the needles 31 and the recovery hole 63. In this imbodiment, the material for each card is taken from collector 39 through a passage 71 where a perforated cylinder 73 serves to depressurize the passage 71 itself and the underlying volumetric chamber 75, in which the material is accumulated for feeding to the card 33. A pair of cylinders 77 convey the fibres from the volumetric chamber 75 to the feed system such as the cylinder and table one 61 described above - for the cylinder or bottle 35 of the card 33 in question. In this case as well a recovery system such as 63, 57 may be provided. In the volumetric chamber variant shown in figure A, the perforated wall 80 allows for recovery of the air in tubing 81 while the pressurestat 82 controls the pressure. In the variant shown in figures 5 and 6, the open fibre material is fed to the cards of single machine, using a collector 39 placed above and coaxially to the needle cylinder, where a needle is indicated with 32 in figure 5, while T33 indicates the trajectory of the points of the needles in one of the areas where the needles are raised to take up the fibre which will form the fleece and to then take up the thread to form the knit bonding fabric, in figure 5 the needle 31 is in the raised position to take up the fibres which will form the fleece of the product. In correspondence to each area where the needles are raised and take up the fibres which will form the fleece, collector 39 has a derivation 137 which allows hydraulic transport as does collector 39; transPort is effected by the high pressure in the collector 39 caused bv grout 22, by aspiration which can be exerted by chamber 20 through an extension of passage 137, or by aspiration obtained in other ways, to in any case achieve a light air uptake from the window 141 discussed below. In any case, the fibres which move in the hydraulic current in passage 137 and the extension 139 are in part fed to the needles as described above and in part recycled, either directly or indirectly. In passage 137 - which may be curved or straight - in correspondence withe the trajectory of the needles, there is a small opening 141, in which the raised needles penetrate along the trajectory T33 to take un fibres. The edge of the opening first reached by the hydraulic current in the passage 137 is defined on one side by wall 143 mobile about a joint 145 in order to- be able to adjust the area reached by the ends of the raised needles 31 and affected by the hydraulic current transporting the fibres; if a certain limit is passed in raising this mobile wall 243, the-raised needles can be prevented from being in the air current and so can be prevented from taking up the textile fibres material carried by said current. By adjusting the position of the wall 143 between the position indicated with the solid line and that indicated with the dashed line 43X, the amount of fibre held by the raised needles can be adjusted quantitatively, where the latter form holding combs across the air current in passages 137 and 139. By raising the wall 143 beyond a certain limit, the needles are prevented from taking up fibre7 and so the textile machine and the feeder group can be stoned, while the hydraulic circulation is continued with the fibre density instartanously present. Moving along and into opening .141, the raised needles complex is loaded with fibres which can in part be engaged directly in a u-shaced arrangement in the hook of the needles, and is part rest from one needle to the next. Therefore, a subseauent combing effect amy be exerted on the fibres held by the needles, when these com out of the opening 141 along the trajectorv T33 along its raised section. In particular, a combing system may be provided in an area indicated with 1A9 in figure 6, adjacent and after opening 141 in the sense in which the needles move along the trajectory T33 indicated with the arrow. An air jet system with nozzles 151 as shown in figure 7 can be provided to comb the fibres, where the air jets can arrange the fibres in the shaded area to form clumps of fibre in the hooks of the raised needles. Eventual excess fibre discharged from the jets of the nozzles 51 can be recovered in the recovery tubing 139 mentioned above, which extends behind the area 149. Alternatively, instead of the system shown in figure 7, the fibres in the area 149 can be combed as shown in figure 8 using a rotating combing cylinder 153 and its fitting can interfere with the points of the needles and so with the fibres of held to the hooks of the needles, to comb them and eventually remove part of the fibre not correctly arranged. A suit8hle - discharge system may be provided to cooperate with the fitting of cylinder 153 a certain distance from the area of cooperation of said cylinder with the needles, and the recovered fibres may be recycled for example through the passage 57 shown in figure 2. In an interesting variant of the device according to this invention, the cylinder 153 may be eliminated to obtain during operation a deposit of fibre on the needles 31 only in a transverse position to the needles, giving rise to a smooth fabric with no protruding fibres. The device described above achieves the advantages mentions above as well as others, which will be evident to experts is this field from reading the above description. Of course the drawings show some examples of the practical application of the invention, and the forms and arrangements may be varied without going beyond the bounds of this invention.

Claims: Claims 1. Device for the feeding of textile material to circular machines (Wildmann type or similar) for the production of a fleece product, characterized in comprising: menas for opening the textile material; menas for hydraulic transport ion of said opening the textile material to the cards and means for hvdraulic recycling of the fibres not held by the needles. 2. Device according to claim 1 characterized bv the fact that exclusion of the cards is provided bv means of hydraulic transport tubing for the open fibres, with small oDenings toward which in the respective tubing the raised needles with tonsue open protrude, in a respective area for catching the textile material; in this way hvdraulically transported fibres engage in the hooks of the needles. 3. Device according to claim j charcterized by the fact that the hydraulically recovered fibres which had not been attached to the needles, are transferred to the other side of the opening means, in the hydraulic transport system, for a direct hydraulic recycling of said fibres. 4. Device according to claim 1 characterized by the fact combined means are provided to each card, for receiving the textile material and supplying it to respective card. 5. Device according to the precedinq claims characterized by the fact that an anular collector is provided as part of the hydraulic transport means, which is coaxial with the cylinder of the machine, receives the material from the opening means, and has passages to the respective reception means for the respective cards. 6. Device according to the preceding claims characterized by the fact that the anular collector is fed tangentially by a single hydraulic tubing 7. Device according to claim 6 characterized bv the fact that the anular collector is fed tangentially by a double hvdraulic tubing, whose branches connect in points regularly distributed along the collector. 8. Device according to claim 4 characterized by the fact that the reception means are developed with cylinders with rotating grill walls and with internal depression to hold the material, and devices are provided for unloading the material from the surface of the cylinders and feeding it to the cards, said unloading means are advantageously placed in an area with no depression. 9. Device according to claims 2 and 3 characterized bv the fact that each tubing is developed with an extension for recovery of the fibres in excess of those caught by the needles and for direct hydraulic recycling of them. 10. Device according to claim 2 characterized by te fact that the tubings are fed by an anular collector for hydraulic transportEof:the textile material, which is coaxial with the cylinder of the needles in the machine. 21. Device according to claims 2, 9 and :0 characterized by the fact that means are included for adjusting the protrusion of the needles through the opening in the hydraulic transport, and/or for excluding the needles from the flow of the hydraulic transport, in case the textile machine has to be stopped. 12. Device according to claim A j characterized by the fact that said means include a wall whose position may be adjusted, which defines the edge of the opening first in contact with the air current. 13. Device according to claims 2, 9, 10, 11 and 12 characterized by the fact that means are provided to comb the clumps of fibre caught b the needles, immediately downstream from the area covered hv the current from the hydraulic circuit, with hydraulic means for recovering the excluded fibres. 14. Device according to claim 13 characterized by the fact that the means consist of blow nozzles. 15. Device according to claim 13 characterized by the fact that the combing means consist of cylindrical organs with fittings which interfere with the needles and comb the fibres engaged to them. 16. Device according to claim 2 characterized by the fact that the cylinder 153 is eliminated in order to obtain fibre deposit only in the position transverse to the needles 31, for the preparation of smooth fabric, with no protruding fibres.

Inventors: FRATINI, GIOVANNI CESARE
Applicants: FRATINI, GIOVANNI CESARE
Application year: 1984
Main classification: D04B9
IPC codes: D01G21, D04B9