Patent GB-190116010-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in Hackling Machines for Flax and other Long Staple Fibres
Inventor: READE ROBERT HENRY STURROCK
Filed: 1901-08-09
Granted: 1902-02-06
Abstract: 16,010. Reade. R. H. S., Crawford, J. G., and McKibbin, A. Aug. 9. Heckling-machines.-Reference is made to Specifications No. 3202, A.D. 1898, and No. 17,437, A.D. 1899. The flax holder 3, Fig. 20, is reversible, and has two gripping-edges. It is provided with a central screw 7, the nut 9 of which rotates on ball bearings and is prevented from falling away by plates which engage in a groove in the sides of the nut. Two machines are connected together by side channels and swivelling brackets, by which the holders 3 are automatically transferred from one machine to the other. At the feeding-end of the machines, the nuts 9 of the holders containing the finished flax are automatically loosened, while those of the holders containing new material are tightened, and the top plate of a holder is automatically removed to allow of the finished material being removed and replaced by fresh material, and is again placed in position. At the opposite end, the nuts of the holders are loosened, and the material is drawn through the holders to an extent sufficient to enable the untreated ends of flax to be heckled in the second machine, when the nuts are again tightened and the holders moved onwards. The side channels 4 are level with the rising and falling channels 2 when the latter are in their lowest position, and the swivelling brackets are carried by the channels 2. The holders are transferred along the channels 4 by reciprocating catches p, and are screwed up and loosened by wrenches c, which are rotated through bevel gearing from a shaft 11, and are raised and lowered intermittently, by cam and lever mechanism. The wrench c for screwing up the holder is driven through a spring clutch i, which slips out of gear when the nut of the holder has been screwed up sufficiently, and is then held out of gear by a catch which is liberated at the next intermittent movement of the wrenches. Between the wrenches c is arranged the lifter m, which carries the top plate of the holder into the position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 5, while the finished material is removed from the holder and fresh material put in its place. At the opposite end of the machines the nut of the holder is loosened and afterwards tightened by a wrench u similar to c, the wrench being rotated first in one direction and then the other by a reciprocating rack and pinion, which actuates the wrench through a clutch. Between the two movements of the wrench, the material is drawn through a holder by a pair of nippers 14, 15, Fig. 8, of which the jaw 14 is carried by the axle 16 operated by a cam and lever, while the jaw 15 is operated by a weighted cord 17. When the material has been drawn through the loosened holder and the nippers are returning to their starting position, the weighted jaw 15 is opened by means of a cam and lever &c. to allow the holder to be moved and another one to take its place. Two arrangements of swivelling brackets are described. In the arrangement shown in Figs. 12 and 13,. a channelshaped bracket 44 carrying the holder is moved as the channel 2 rises and falls about a vertical axis from the position shown in Fig. 12 to that shown in Fig. 13, and vice versÔ, and also about a horizontal axis from an edgewise to a flat position or the contrary, according as the holder is moved from a channel 2 to a channel 4 or vice versÔ. The motion about a vertical axis is obtained by the sliding of a helical-shaped band in a fixed guide as the channel 2 rises and falls, and the motion about a horizontal axis is obtained by bevel gearing 51, 52, of which the wheel 52 is fixed and the wheel 51 rotates round it with the swivelling of the bracket 44. In the second arrangement, the bracket carrying the swivelling channel is curved and is made in two parts, of which one cam slides telescopically on the other. As the bracket is turned through a right-angle by the helical blade, the outer portion of the bracket which carries the holder is caused to slide on the other part, so as to turn the holder through a right-angle about a horizontal axis.