Abstract:
A device for starting a work station ( 2 ) of a cheese-producing textile machine, in particular after a batch change, wherein the work station ( 2 ) has a creel ( 18 ) for rotatably holding a bobbin tube ( 34 ), a splicing device ( 13 ) for connecting yarn ends, and manipulating means ( 12, 24 ) for inserting the yarn ends into the splicing device ( 13 ). A yarn ( 28 ) connected with a feed bobbin ( 9 ) is placed into the splicing device ( 13 ) by means of a gripper tube ( 24 ). The winding station has a device ( 30 ) for cutting the yarn ( 28 ), and a device ( 26 ) for receiving the cut yarn ( 28 ). A special suction tube ( 1 ) makes possible the transfer of the cut yarn ( 28 ) to a second clamping and cutting device ( 23 ) arranged in the area of the creel ( 18 ).

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims the benefit of German patent application 10007950.4 filed Feb. 22, 2000, herein incorporated by reference. 
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to a device for starting a work station of a cheese-producing textile machine, especially after a batch change, and relates more particularly to such a device wherein the work station has a creel for rotatably holding a bobbin tube on which a cheese of yarn is to be wound from a feeding bobbin or cop, a splicing or yarn connecting device for connecting yarn ends form the cheese and the cop, and manipulating means for inserting the yarn ends into the splicing device, for example a gripper tubes or other like devices for inserting a trailing yarn end from the cheese and a leading yarn end from a feeding cop into a yarn clamping and cutting device arranged in the area of the splicing device. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     In connection with the operation of cheese-producing textile machines, in particular automatic cheese winders, it is customary in case of a yarn break or a change of the feeding bobbin to initially activate an automatic yarn splicer or like yarn connecting device via a computer associated with the respective bobbin winding head, as described, for example, in German Patent Publication DE 40 05 752 A1. More specifically, a suction nozzle is first placed into contact with the surface of the upper winding bobbin, also referred to as a cheese, which slowly rotates opposite the normal winding direction, in order to unwind a length of the trailing yarn end from the cheese to be aspirated into the suction nozzle. After the upper yarn end from the upper cheese has been grasped, the suction nozzle is pivoted back into its initial position, in which the suction nozzle opening is positioned below a splicing device. In the process, the section of yarn extending between the cheese and the suction nozzle is pulled into an electronic cleaner arranged above the splicing device and into a clamping and cutting device positioned in this area and, also is guided by appropriate guide contours of yarn guide plates and yarn guide hoops, into the cutter portion of a cutting device located below the splicing device. 
     Almost simultaneously with the suction nozzle, a gripper tube, which is positioned in a lower initial position, pivots into an upper work position and in the process brings along a leading end of the bottom yarn from the feeding bobbin, also referred to as a cop, which theretofore had been drawn off the cop and had been held in a yarn tensioner. In the course of the gripper tube pivoting into its upper work position, the leading end of the bottom yarn from the cop is also guided by appropriate yarn guide contours and slides into an opened yarn clamp, as well as an opened cutting device. Subsequently the upper and lower yarn ends are cut to the correct length, are prepared in so-called opening tubes and are connected with each other in the splicing device. 
     Accordingly, an upper yarn brought downwardly from the cheese and a lower yam brought upwardly from the feeding cop are always needed in order to be able to automatically continue the operation at the work stations of an automatic cheese winder, for example after a yam break. Likewise, when a fully wound cheese is to be replaced with an empty bobbin tube, it must be correspondingly assured that the bottom yarn from the feeding cop extends sufficiently into the area of the empty cheese tube held in the creel of the respective work station so as to be fastened on the empty tube. 
     In bobbin winding machines which have an automatically operating service traveler, generally called a cheese changer, it is known (e.g., from German Patent Publication DE 195 33 833 A1) that, in case of a cheese/empty tube change, the yarn still tensed between the feeding cop and the finished cheese is initially picked up by a special manipulating device of the service traveler, a so called yarn lifter, and is severed by cutting and clamping elements arranged on the yarn lifter. In the process the yarn end from the feeding cop is retained and is subsequently placed against the new empty tube positioned in the creel. 
     It is furthermore known, for example from German Patent Publication DE 24 63 461 C2, to respectively install a separate clamping and cutting device dedicated to the bobbin winding head in the area of the creel of each individual work station which, in case of a cheese/empty tube change, fixes the yarn in place prior to ejecting the cheese so that thereafter the yarn is ready to be placed against a new empty tube. 
     However, the above described devices have the disadvantage that they are ineffective in case of a batch change, i.e. when the yam material is changed in a bobbin winding machine and the appropriate new feeding cops are brought into the work stations. In such batch changes, it will therefore be understood that neither an upper nor a bottom yam will be present to start each work station. Therefore, a manual intervention by the operators has always been required heretofore in the case of a batch change in order to start up every individual bobbin winding head. 
     OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Based on the above mentioned state of the art, it is an object of the present invention to further improve the known work stations of cheese-producing textile machines. 
     This object is attained in accordance with the present invention by means of a device having the particular advantage that, after a batch change, the individual work stations of the cheese-producing textile machines can be automatically returned to operation without any manual intervention by the operators. Thus, not only is the length of time for restarting the automatic cheese winder considerably shortened in this manner, and therefore the efficiency of the respective textile machine clearly increased, but the workload of the operators is also noticeably relieved. 
     In a preferred embodiment, the device has an additional suction tube, defined by a stepper motor and pivotable from a yarn pick-up position into a yarn transfer position. This suction tube, which can be charged with a vacuum, automatically picks up the yarn end which previously had been brought from the gripper tube to the splicing device and had been cut by a cutting device arranged thereat, and which then lies on an interim location of deposit, i.e. a deposit plate, and transports it to a clamping and cutting device arranged in the area of the cheese creel, which subsequently makes the yarn available for transfer to the empty tube. 
     Further details, features and advantages of the present invention will be understood from an exemplary embodiment described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a schematic lateral view of a work station of an automatic cheese winder with a device in accordance with the present invention, and 
     FIGS. 2 to  6  sequentially represent the individual process steps when employing the device in accordance with the invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     A work station  2  of a cheese-producing textile machine, in the exemplary embodiment an automatic cheese winder, is schematically represented in a lateral view in FIG.  1 . Such automatic cheese winders customarily have a plurality of such identical work stations, in this case bobbin winding heads  2 , aligned with one another between their end frames. The spinning cops  9 , produced on a ring spinning machine (not represented), are rewound into larger volume cheeses  11  at these bobbin winding heads  2 , in a manner which is known and therefore need not be further explained herein. 
     After the cheeses  11 , which are held in a pivotably seated creel  18  during the winding process, are finished, they are transferred by means of an appropriate pivoting of the creel  18  around a pivot shaft  19  to a cheese transporting device  21 , which is arranged behind the winding devices of the work stations  2 . The cheeses  11  are then transported by means of the cheese transporting device  21  to a bobbin loading station or the like (also not represented), which is arranged at the end of the textile machine. 
     As a rule, such automatic cheese winders in addition have a logistic device in the form of a bobbin and tube transport system  3 . Yarn-wound spinning cops  9 , or empty unwound cop tubes  9 , are supported in vertical orientation on transport plates  8  to be circulated in this bobbin and tube transport system  3 . 
     Furthermore, such automatic cheese winders have a central control unit in most cases, which is connected via a machine bus with the individual work station computers  39  of the bobbin winding heads  2 . 
     Of the relatively extensive bobbin and tube transport system  3  mentioned above, only the cop feed track  4  which extends over the length of the machine, the reversible storage track  5  which extends behind the bobbin winding heads  2 , one of the transverse transport tracks  6  which leads to the bobbin winding heads  2 , and the tube return track  7 , are represented in FIG.  1 . 
     The spinning cops  9  delivered over the cop feed track  4  are rewound into larger volume cheeses  11  in unwinding positions  10 , each of which is located in the area of a respective one of the transverse transport tracks  6  at the bobbin winding heads  2 . To this end, the individual work stations have various devices, which are known per se and are therefore not explained, and which assure the correct operation of these work stations  2 . 
     For example, in FIG. 1 a suction nozzle is indicated at  12 , a gripper tube at  24 , a splicing device at  13 , a yarn tensioning device at  14 , a yarn cleaner with a yarn cutting device at  15 , and a paraffin application device at  16 . The winding drive which, in the present embodiment is integrated into the creel  18 , is designated by the reference numeral  17 . 
     During the winding process, the cheese  11  is held in bobbin receiver plates of the creel  18  and rests with its surface on a support roller  20 . In the course of this operation, the support roller  20  is moved along by being frictional connection with the driven cheese  11 . 
     A yarn traversing device  22 , such as is described in German Patent Publication DE 198 58 528 A1, for example, has been installed in the area of the support roller  20 . 
     Furthermore, the individual bobbin winding heads  2  each have definitively controllable clamping and cutting devices  23  in the area of their support rollers  20 . Such clamping and cutting devices are the subject of a parallel patent application of Applicant. 
     As can be additionally seen from FIG. 1, the individual bobbin winding heads  2  have their own empty tube reservoir  25 , which can be acted upon by the creel  18  of the bobbin winding head to remove empty tubes therefrom, such as is known from German Patent Publication DE 25 57 304 B. 
     In accordance with the present invention, each bobbin winding head  2  is also equipped with a definitively controllable suction tube I; as well as with a deposit plate  26 , which is arranged in the area of the yarn tensioner  14 . 
     The device of the present invention functions as follows. At the start of the winding operation, i.e. after a batch change, the individual bobbin winding heads  2  of the automatic cheese winder are first provided with spinning cops  9  from the fresh yam batch. 
     Thus, every bobbin winding head  2  receives at least one spinning cop  9  via the transverse transport track  6 , which cop is then fixed in place in an unwinding position  10  in the area of the bobbin winding head  2 . 
     Thereafter, the leading end of yarn  28  from each cop which, for example, is made available at the tube tip of the spinning cop  9 , is blown upward in a customary manner by a yarn end removal device  31  arranged in the unwinding position  10  of the work station  2 , and is received by the gripper tube  24 . 
     Subsequently, the gripper tube  24  is pivoted upward in the direction S and positions the yarn  28 , also in a known manner, into a splicing device  13 , which has upper and lower cutting devices  30 , as is customary. 
     The cutting devices  30  of the splicing device  13  are operated by an additional bobbin winding head circuit (see FIG.  3 ), wherein the suction nozzle  12  is pivoted upwardly for fetching the upper yarn (not provided) and to place it into the splicing device  13 , and in the process the yarn  28  contained in the gripper tube  24  is cut off. As indicated in FIG. 3, the yarn  28  falls on a deposit plate  26 , which is arranged on the yarn tensioner  14 , for example. Thus, the deposit plate  26  functions as an intermediate deposit location for the severed yarn  28 , which is pneumatically picked up by the suction tube  1 . 
     While the gripper tube  24  and the suction nozzle  12  are pivoted back into their initial positions, the suction tube  1 , which is seated so that it is pivotable in a limited way around a pivot axis  32 , and can be positioned in the correct position by means of a stepper motor  29 , is pivoted out of the yarn receiving position I (FIG. 3) into the yarn transfer position II (FIG.  4 ), and the yarn  28  is transferred to a clamping and cutting device, identified as a whole by the reference numeral  23 , arranged in the area of the creel  18  (FIGS.  4  and  5 ). 
     The clamping and cutting device  23  which, as indicated in FIG. 5, has a clamping/cutting element  35  arranged on a scissors lever  36  and a yarn guide lever  37 , processes the yarn  28  such that a length  38  of the yarn  28  is created, and, as indicated in FIG. 6, the yarn length  38  is positioned such that, when the creel  18  is closed, the yarn length  38  is clamped between the foot of an empty tube  34 , which the creel  18  had previously removed from its own empty tube reservoir  25 , and a tube receiving plate of the creel  18 . In this manner, the yarn of the fresh yarn batch is fixed in place on a fresh bobbin tube  34  and a fresh winding process can then be started at the respective bobbin winding head. 
     It will therefore be readily understood by those persons skilled in the art that the present invention is susceptible of broad utility and application. Many embodiments and adaptations of the present invention other than those herein described, as well as many variations, modifications and equivalent arrangements, will be apparent from or reasonably suggested by the present invention and the foregoing description thereof, without departing from the substance or scope of the present invention. Accordingly, while the present invention has been described herein in detail in relation to its preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that this disclosure is only illustrative and exemplary of the present invention and is made merely for purposes of providing a full and enabling disclosure of the invention. The foregoing disclosure is not intended or to be construed to limit the present invention or otherwise to exclude any such other embodiments, adaptations, variations, modifications and equivalent arrangements, the present invention being limited only by the claims appended hereto and the equivalents thereof.