REED OPERATING SYSTEM FOR LOOM

Abstract: A reed operating system for a loom of the type wherein the advance position of a reed (7) is altered. The reed operating system is comprised of a generally V-shaped swingable link (18) through which the movement of a crank (9) is transmitted to a sley sword (5) to make swinging motion of the reed (7). The swingable link (18) is rotatably mounted on and swingable around a pivot shaft (10) which is mechanically connected to a hydraulic cylinder (15). The hydraulic cylinder (15) so operates as to shift the position of the pivot shaft (10) in a predetermined distance in a predetermined direction in accordance with a predetermined pattern, thus altering the advance position of the reed (7) while hardly altering the backdown position of the reed (7).

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention This invention relates generally to a reed operating system for a loom, and more particularly to a mechanism for altering the advance position of a reed without largely altering the backdown position of the reed. 2. Description of the Prior Art A variety of reed operating systems for weaving looms have been proposed and put into practical use. From NL-A-80 05 031 a reed operating system for a loom is known, including a crank for driving a reed, a swingable link through which a sley sword is connected to the crank, a pivot shaft on which the swingable link is mounted so as to be swingably rotatable around the axis of the pivot shaft, the pivot shaft includes a first shaft section and a second shaft section on which the link is mounted, the second shaft section being eccentric to the first shaft section. The reed operating system for a loom according, to this document, further on comprises means for shifting location of said pivot shaft in a predetermined distance in a predetermined direction in accordance with a predetermined pattern. The means for shifting the location of the pivot shaft of the reed operating system known from NL-A-80 05 031 includes a lever fixed to the first shaft section of the pivot shaft. The lever is swingingly driven by a cam, thereby altering the forward movement position of the reed. Thus, in the arrangement of this document, the location of the second shaft is altered by the cam. In case of using a cam for altering the second shaft section of the pivot shaft, according to the prior art, a cam itself must be substituted with another cam in order to alter a beating-up pattern by a reed in the beating-up position of the reed. Such substitution of the cam is not easy and therefore the altering of the beating-up pattern and the beating-up position is difficult. It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a reed operating system for a loom in which an alteration of the second shaft section location is achieved easily. The solution of this object is given by the characterizing features of claim 1. According to the present invention, the location of the second shaft section is altered by a worm gear rotated by a servo-motor and the sector gear engaged with the worm gear. Accordingly, the second shaft section of the pivot shaft is altered only operating the servo-motor. In other words, such alteration of the second shaft section location is achieved by changing a setting condition of the servo-motor. This operation is very easily accomplished and can be carried out even during operation of the loom. In the drawings, the same reference numerals designate the corresponding elements and parts throughout all the Figures, in which: Figure 1 is a schematic front elevation of a loom euipped with the reed operating system according to the present invention; Figures 2 and 3 are side elevations illustrating the operation of the reed operating system according to the present invention; Figure 4 is a side elevation of an embodiment of the reed operating system in accordance with the present invention; Figure 5 is a fragmentary front elevation of an essential part of the reed operating system of Figure 4. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Referring now to Figs. 1 to 5, there is shown an embodiment of a reed operating system for a weaving loom, in accordance with the present invention. The reed operating system is incorporated in the weaving loom having a frame. The frame includes a pair of opposite sections 1, 1 between which a stay 2 extends to connect the opposite sections 1, 1. A sley sword shaft 3 is rotatably supported by bearing members 4 which are fixed to the stay 2. Sley swords 5 are rotatably mounted on the sley sword shaft 3. A reed holder 6 is fixedly secured to the free ends of the sley swords 5 and securely holds a reed 7 in such a manner as to move with the reed holder 6. A crank 9 is fixedly mounted on a rotating shaft 8 which is rotatable in timed relation to a main shaft (not shown) of the loom. The crank 9 has a crank pin 9a which rotates around the rotating shaft 8. A pivot shaft 10 is rotatably supported to a fixed member (not shown) of the loom by means of bearing members 15 as shown in Fig. 5. The pivot shaft 10 is integrally formed with an eccentric shaft 12 which is eccentric relative to the pivot shaft 10. A swingable link 18 having a generally V-shaped cross-section (in Fig. 2 to 4) is pivotally mounted on the eccentric shaft 12. More specifically, the link 18 has a central section 18a which is pivotally mounted on the eccentric shaft 12. Two opposite lower arm sections 18b are integral with and extend from the central section 18a. Two opposite upper arm sections 18c are integral with and extend from the central section 18a. Each lower arm section 18b and each upper arm section 18c are so arranged that the axes of them intersects to form an acute angle. A pin 19 is secured to connect the lower arm sections 18b at the free end. A pin 21 is secured to connect the upper arm sections 18c at the free end. The pin 19 is connected through a connecting rod 20 with the crank pin 9a of the crank 9. The pin 21 is connected through a connecting rod 24 with a pin 23 secured to a lever 22 which is projected downwardly from the sley sword 5. The lever 22 projects generally in the opposite direction to the sley sword 5 with respect to the sley sword shaft 3. The manner of operation of the thus arranged reed operating system will be discussed. When the rotating shaft 8 rotates in the direction of an arrow C in Fig. 4, the crank 9 rotates together in the same direction, so that the swingable link 18 swings around the eccentric shaft 12 in the direction of an arrow D in Fig. 2 through the crank pin 9a, the connecting rod 20, and the pin 19. Accordingly, the sley sword 5 is rotated in the direction of an arrow E in Fig. 2 through the pin 21, the connecting rod 24, the pin 23 and the lever 22, so that the reed 7 also swings in the directions of a two-headed arrow F in Fig. 2. In such an operation, Figs. 2 and 4 shows a state in which the reed 7 reaches its advance position for accomplishing beating-up, while Fig. 3 shows another state in which the reed 7 reaches its backdown position or rear-most position. The states indicated by solid lines in Figs. 2, 3 and 4 are established as follows: A sector gear 26 (Fig. 4 and 5) serving as a worm wheel, is fixedly mounted on the end portion of the pivot shaft 10 in such a manner as to be coaxial with the pivot shaft 10. A worm gear 27 fixedly mounted on an output shaft 25a of a servo-motor 25 is engaged with the sector gear 26. Accordingly, the pivot shaft 10 is rotated to shift the location of the eccentric shaft 12 by operating the servo-motor 25. The reference numerals 28, 29 denote stoppers which are brought into contact with the both side ends of the sector gear 26. In this connection, the servo-motor 25 is arranged such that its operation or rotation is stopped when the rotational resistance of the motor 25 increases upon the sector gear 26 comming into contact with the stopper 28, 29. Otherwise, an encoder (not shown) may be provided to detect the rotational amount of the servo-motor 25 so as to stop the servo-motor 25 upon reaching a predetermined rotational position. As a result, a link system of this reed operating system is changed from the state indicated by the solid lines to the state indicated in phantom. This operation of the state changing is the same also in Figs. 2 and 3. Thus, the advance position of the reed 7 is changed to be further advanced as shown in Fig. 2 when the sector gear 26 is moved accordingly. However, the backdown position of the red 7 is not so changed as indicated in phantom in Figs. 3. The operation of the servo-motor 25 to turn the worm gear 27 is carried out in accordance with a predetermined pattern. For example, in case of a pile fabric weaving loom, the predetermined pattern is such that two times beating-up are continuously made in the state of the solid lines and subsequently one time beating-up is made in the state shown in phantom. It will be understood that the servo-motor 25 is operated to accomplish the predetermined pattern under the action of a control device (not shown) which is known per se. In other words, the control device causes the servo-motor 25 to operate in accordance with the predetermined pattern. Otherwise in order to remove filling bar, the predetermined pattern may be such that beating-up is made in the state shown in phantom in a time period during loom starting and thereafter beating-up is made in the state of the solid lines. Conversely the predetermined pattern may be such that beating-up is made in the state of the solid lines in the time period during loom starting and thereafter beating-up is made in the state shown in phantom. It will be understood that the states indicated by solid lines and in phantom are adjustable by suitably selecting a rotating amount of the pivot shaft 10 and/or an eccentric degree of the eccentric shaft 12 relative to the pivot shaft 10. Next discussion will be made in case where the reed operating system of the present invention is applied to the pile fabric weaving loom which is operated in accordance with the above predetermined pattern. In the state of the solid lines, the swingable link 18 swings around the eccentric shaft 12 under rotation of the crank 9, thereby causing the sley sword 5 and the reed 7 to swing forward and rearward. At this time, the pivot shaft 10 and the eccentric shaft 12 are located in the positions of the solid lines, and therefore the reed 7 swings between the advance position AF and the backdown position AB as shown in Figs. 2 and 3. Under this state, beating-up is made two times, and there after by a timing of the next beating-up thereby to shift the eccentric shaft 12 into the position shown in phantom. This moves the eccentric shaft 12 upwardly, so that the advance position BF largely shifts forward relative to the above-mentioned advance position AF, in which the backdown position BB only slightly shifts forward relative to the backdown position BB. Under this state, the reed 7 swings between the advance position BF and the backdown position BB. Accordingly at this time, beating-up is made at the advance position BF with two weft yarns beated up at the advance position AF. Thus, pile yarn projects in loop-shape as same as in known pile fabric weaving looms. During a time between this beating-up and the next beating-up, the worm gear 27 is driven to restore the eccentric shaft 12 into the position of the solid lines. Accordingly in this case, weft picking is accomplished within a weft picking possible angle ϑ formed between the reed 7 at the advance position AF and the reed 7 at the backdown position BB. In this connection, according to the present invention, the shifting amount of the reed 7 from the backdown position AB to the backdown position BB is less and therefore a larger weft picking possible angle ϑ can be obtained than in case of conventional reed operating systems. As a result, weft picking can be securely accomplished even at a high loom operational speed. Furthermore, since the shifting amount between the backdown positions AB, BB is smaller, the size of warp shed is nearly the same in both cases of being decided in accordance with the backdown position AB and with the other backdown position BB. As a result, according to the present invention, the size of the warp shed cannot be enlarged over a desired size. In addition, in the above-discussed embodiments, it is possible that the length of pile of a pile fabric is varied by suitably selecting the advance position BF of the reed 7 upon suitable selection of the location of the pivot shaft 10, thereby obtaining high decorative pile fabric having piles of different lengths.

Claims: A reed operating system for a loom, comprising: a crank (9) for driving a reed (7); a swingable link (18) through which a sley sword (5) is connected to said crank (9); a pivot shaft (10) on which said swingable link (18) is mounted so as to be swingably rotatable around an axis of said pivot shaft (10), said pivot shaft (10) including a first shaft section (10), and a second shaft section (12) on which said link (18) is mounted, said second shaft section (12) being eccentric relative to said first shaft section (10); and means (15) for shifting location of said pivot shaft (10) in a predetermined distance in a predetermined direction in accordance with a predetermined pattern, characterized in that, said pivot shaft location shifting means including a servo-motor (25), means for driving said servo-motor (25) in accordance with said predetermined pattern, a sector gear (26) fixed to said pivot shaft first section (10), and a worm gear (27) engaged with said sector gear (26) and driven by an output shaft (25a) of said servo-motor (25). A reed operating system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said link (18) includes a central section rotatably mounted on said pivot shaft (10), a first arm section (18b) integral with said central section (18a), and connected through a first connecting rod (20) with said crank (9), and a second arm section (18c) integral with said central section (18a) and connected through a second connecting rod (24) with said sley sword (5). A reed operating system as claimed in claim 2, wherein said first arm section (18b) is angular to said second arm section (18c). A reed operating system as claimed in claim 2, further comprising a sley sword lever (22) fixedly connected to said sley sword (5) and located opposite to said sley sword (5) with respect to a sley sword shaft (3) around which said sley sword (5) is swingable. A reed operating system as claimed in claim 4, wherein an end of said sley sword lever (22) is movably connected to an end of said second connecting rod (24).

Inventors: KATO, TAKATUGU, TAKAHASHI, TAKAO, TERUSHIMA, SHIGERU
Applicants: NISSAN MOTOR CO., LTD.
Application year: 1988
Main classification: D03D49
IPC codes: D03D49