APPARATUS FOR DOFFING BOBBING FROM ROVING FRAMES AND REPLACING THE DOFFED BOBBINS WITH EMPTY TUBES

Abstract: There is disclosed an apparatus for doff­ ing bobbins from roving frames and replacing the doffed bobbins with empty tubes which apparatus is able of automatically sequentially performing all of the mentioned operations. This apparatus essentially comprises an endless conveyor belt (1) mounted on a horizontal frame (5) and able of downwardly and upwardly moving, with a parallel relationship to itself. The conveyor belt (1) supports a plurality of gripping devices (2), which are evenly spaced from one another, and is vertically arranged above an underlying operating board (15). The apparatus further comprises a bobbin bearing carriage (16) able of longitudinally moving, so as to be alternatively arranged under the flyers bearing frame (18) and above the endless conveyor belt.

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present inve n tion relates to an apparatus for automatically doffing bobbins from roving frames and replacing the doffed bobbins with empty tubes. As is known,the operation of doffing bobbins from roving frames and replacing the removed bobbins with empty tubes thereon the roving is to be wound, is generally carried out in a manual manner with a great amount of labour with a consequent poor efficiency of the roving frames. Known semi-automatic doffing and replacing apparatus,on the other hand,are rather complex and of large size and do not afford the possibility of carrying out the mentioned operations in a completely automatic way. The document DE-A-37 02 265 document discloses an apparatus for doffing bobbins from a roving frame and for replacing the doffed bobbins with empty tubes having substantially the features of the pre-characterizing portion of the main claim. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly,the main object of the present invention is to overcome the above mentioned drawbacks by providing such an apparatus for automatically doffing roving bobbins from a roving frame and replacing the removed bobbins with empty tubes which is construction-wise very simple and reliable. Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for automatically doffing bobbins from a roving frame and replacing the doffed bobbins with empty tubes which comprises means for facilitating the repairing operations of broken rovings both during the bobbin forming step and during the formed bobbin doffing step. Another object of the present invention is to provide such an apparatus for automatically doffing bobbins from a roving frame and replacing the doffed bobbins with empty tubes which has very reduced maintenance requirements and can be set for operation in a very simple way. Still another object of the present invention is to provide such an apparatus for automatically doffing bobbins from a roving frame and replacing the doffed bobbins with empty tubes which is able of reducing to a minimum the time required for doffing the bobbins, thereby improving the efficiency of said apparatus. According to one aspect of the present invention,the above mentioned objects,as well as yet other objects,which will become more apparent hereinafter,are achieved by an apparatus for doffing bobbins from a roving frame and replacing the doffed bobbins with empty tubes, having the features of the characterizing portion of the main claim. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING Further characteristics and advantages of the apparatus for automatically doffing bobbins from a roving frame and replacing the doffed bobbins with empty tubes,will become more apparent hereinafter from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof which is illustrated,by way of an indicative but not limitative example,in the figure of the accompanying drawing , in which: figure 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view illustrating the apparatus according to the present invention. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT With reference to the drawing figure,the apparatus for automatically doffing bobbins from a roving frame and replacing the doffed bobbins with empty tubes according to the present invention comprises a conveyor belt,of the endless type,indicated at the reference number 1 and including two parallel legs the end portions of which are coupled by semicircular portions. This conveyor belt 1 is provided,at even spacings,with grippers 2 having their axes downwardly turned and able of gripping, from the inside, corresponding empty tubes 3 provided with a respective bottom flange 4,having any suitable structure. That same conveyor belt 1 is mounted on a respective transferring bridge 5 which is in turn supported by at least a pair of brackets 6 able of jointly sliding,upwardly and downwardly,on corresponding vertically extending guides 7. More specifically,the displacement of the mentioned brackets is preferably obtained by mounting said brackets on screw members 8 engaging with correspondingly threaded uprights 9 supported on end supporting members 10. These threaded uprights are rotated by bottom bevel gear pairs 11 which,in turn,are driven through small shafs 12 entrained by other bevel gear pairs 13 intercoupled by a suitably driven shaft 14. The mentioned conveyor belt, in particular, is arranged on a vertical line of an operating board or floor member,thereon the operators can walk,indicated at 15 and arranged at the front of a bobbin rail 16 which is a portion of the roving frame,indicated overally at the reference number 17. This bobbin bearing rail 16,in turn, is able of sliding in a direction orthogonal to its longitudinal axis,so as to be arranged,depending on the apparatus operating step,under the flyer bearing frame 18 or on said operating board 15. The bobbin rail 16 is moreover provided with spindles 19 which are arranged on two rows and are evently spaced from one another,the number of said spindles 19 corresponding to a half of the number of the grippers associated with the endless conveyor belt 1, which conveyor belt is supplied with empty tubes by means of known devices (not specifically shown). During the operation of the apparatus, the single bobbins 20 are formed on the bobbin rail 16 and then said bobbin rail 16 is lowered so as to disengage the formed bobbins from the flyers 21.Then the bobbin rail 16 is caused to slide in a direction orthogonal to its longitudinal axis to reach the operating board 15. Then the conveyor belt 1 is lowered so as to engage its grippers 2 in the inside portions of the bobbins,said conveyor belt 1 being successively raised again so as to disengage the spindles 19. During the subsequent operating step,the conveyor belt 1 is caused to slide for a distance equal to the distance of two grippers 2 so as to locate its grippers 2, therewith empty tubes are engaged,on the vertical line of the empty bobbin rotating devices. Then the conveyor belt will be lowered again, so as to arrange the empty tubes on the spindles 19 of the bobbin rail 16 which, as it is brought under the flyer bearing frame 18,will cause a new bobbin forming cycle to start. Then,the conveyor belt 1 will be brought again to a raised position so as to doff the formed bobbin and load other empty tubes 3. From the above disclosure it should be apparent that the invention fully achieves the intended objects. While the invention has been disclosed and illustrated with reference to a preferred embodiment thereof,it should be apparent that the disclosed embodiment is susceptible to many modifications and variations all of which will come within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

Claims: 1. An apparatus for doffing bobbins (20) from a roving frame (17) and replacing the doffed bobbins with empty tubes (3), comprising a bobbin rail (16) with two rows of equidistant spindles(19) for supporting said empty tubes (3), said bobbin rail (16) being vertically movable to an upper position for filling the tubes (3) with roving by flyers (21) and to a lower position, a device for moving said bobbin rail (16) being in its lower position to a particular doffing position, characterized in that said apparatus further comprises an endless horizontally arranged conveyor belt (1) with equidistant grippers (2) for gripping hanging empty tubes (3) and bobbins (20) respectively, the distance of said grippers (2) being half as long as the distance of the spindles (19) on said rail (16), said conveyor belt (1) being displaceable in its longitudinal axis for a distance equal to said distance of two said grippers (2) to transfer tubes (3) on the empty spindles (19) , said bobbin rail 16 being movable orthogonally to its longitudinal axis to a position vertically below said conveyor belt (1). 2. An apparatus according to Claim 1, characterized in that said conveyor belt (1) comprises two parallel legs coupled at the ends by semicircular portions, and is mounted on a transferring bridge (5) being supported by at least a pair of brackets (6) able of jointly sliding downwardly and upwardly along corresponding vertically extending guides (7). 3. An apparatus according to Claim 2, characterized in that said brackets (6) are mounted on screws (8) engaging with correspondingly threaded uprights (9) mounted on end supporting elements (10), said threaded uprights being rotated by bottom bevel gear pairs (11) driven by small shafts (12) in turn driven by other bevel gear pairs (13) intercoupled by a driven shaft (14). 4. An apparatus according to Claim 1, characterized in that said conveyor belt (1) is vertically arranged above an operating board (15) thereon the operators can walk and arranged at the front of said bobbin rail (16), said bobbin rail (16), in turn, being able of orthogonally sliding so as to be arranged under said flyers and above said operating board (15). 5. An apparatus according to Claim 1, characterized in that said bobbin rail (16) is provided with spindles (19) arranged on two rows and evenly spaced from one another, the number of said spindles (19) corresponding to a half of the number of said grippers (2) of said conveyor belt (1).

Inventors: BIANCHI MARZOLI, PIETRO
Applicants: FRATELLI MARZOLI & C. S.P.A.
Application year: 1988
Main classification: D01H9
IPC codes: D01H9