Patent GB-191220960-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in Apparatus for Hackling and Spreading Flax and other Long Staple Fibres.
IPC: D01B5/00
Filed: 1912-09-14
Granted: 1913-09-11
Abstract: 20,960. Greeves, J. & T. M., and Eves, J. V. Sept. 14. Heckling-machines; gill boxes and frames; feeding and transferring flax &c.-In apparatus, such as is described in Specification 4447/11, for automatically transferring the heckled stricks of flax from the holders of a heckling- machine to the spread board or other machine, the grippers, which withdraw the stricks from the holders, comprise a pair of bars, one capable of movement towards the other to grip the strick, carried by radial arms which are swung about a common centre, either to give the stricks to a pair of nippers, which deposit them on an apron for conveyance to the spread board, or to lay the stricks directly upon the teeth of a set of fallers, or to lay the stricks directly upon an apron. The grippers employed comprise bars D, D', Fig. 1, carried by arms d<1> centred at d'. The bar D is moved towards the bar D', to grip the flax, by a rod d<4> and cam d<5> on the shaft d<3>, which is operated by a cam on the shaft A. The grippers are swung about the centre d' by a quadrant c' gearing with a wheel c<2> on the shaft d' and operated by a second cam on the shaft A. An apron E may be provided to carry forward the depending end of the material, and this apron may hang freely or be provided with runners e engaging guide-rails e<1>. The grippers are opened by the cam d<5> during their swinging movement, either to lay the flax upon the lattice H of the spreadboard &c., or in the teeth of a spreadboard, or to deliver it to a pair of nippers. The radial arms carrying the gripper bars may be mounted upon the end of a cam-operated lever, or upon one arm of a cam-operated bell-crank lever. In another modification, one gripper bar D, Fig. 10, is carried by a stud d<2> suspended by links c from the shaft C, and the necessary movement to grip the flax is obtained by movement of the links c through a cam and connecting-link a. The bar D' is supported by a stud d<3>, and the rotary movement of the gripper is obtained by the rotation of the quadrant c<1>. In these constructions, if the grippers are delivering direct to the lattice of a spreadboard, a roller R, Fig. 1, operated by a cam is brought against the end of the strick on the lattice and holds it there as the grippers open and pass forward leaving the strick on the lattice. The grippers may be in the form of an intermittently rotated cylindrical member D<4>, Fig. 19, having an openended longitudinal slot in its periphery, and a member D<5> co-operating with it, such member being carried round by the member D<4> and controlled by a stationary cam D. The tail end of the strick is held upon the cylinder by rollers R. In all cases, the gripping-members are arranged in such a manner that the flax in its hanging vertical position may slide in between the jaws. When the stricks are laid upon the teeth of the fallers K, a grid M, Fig. 16, is arranged to dab the flax into the teeth. The grid M is carried by a shaft m<1>, which is rotated against the action of springs m<6> by cam-operated racks engaging the pinions m<4>. An arm m<5> is adapted to engage with conical pins k on the fallers K, to move the grid longitudinally, if necessary, to avoid the bars m of the grid falling upon the teeth of the fallers. If the grippers deliver the stricks to a pair of nippers, the nippers may be divided into two parts capable of relative transverse movement to deliver the divided strick to two separate machines. The grippers as a whole may be capable of transverse movement to deliver successive stricks to two or more separate machines. In order to spread the stricks out laterally before they are passed to the spreadboard or other machine, one of the gripper jaws D<1>, Fig. 23, may be supplied with pins S mounted upon a lazy-tongs arrangement and operating through slots in the jaws D, D<1>. These pins engage the flax before it is gripped, and are moved apart by cams T<1> acting through levers t and sliding bars T engaging lugs s'. The pins may be mounted upon the nipper jaws.