Patent GB-982442-A (GB)
Title: Process and apparatus for mass-producing stockings and the like from textile fabrics and other sheet materials
IPC: D06H3/16
Filed: 1961-09-22
Abstract: 982,442. Single rail vehicles; route setting. ARWA HOLDING S.A. Sept. 22, 1961 [Sept. 22, 1960], No. 34075/61. Headings B7L and B7N. [Also in Divisions B8, D1 and G5] In transporting goods, e.g. stockings, through treatment apparatus the goods are first collected according to size and gauge in respective compartments of a magazine from which they can be slipped on to forms carried by platforms as the latter are aligned with appropriate compartments of the magazine. Platforms 169a, 169b, 169c &c. are stored on respective sloping spurs 168a-168f (Fig. 2) from which they may gravitate to a common track 168 below the magazine. Each platform 169 has a depending finger 173 (Fig. 4) engageable by abutments 174, on an endless rope 175, on displacement of the platform on to track 168. Rope 175 is intermittently driven and conveys the platforms 169 to the magazine and thence to the further processing stages of the apparatus. The form platforms 169 are released from the appropriate spurs 168a-168f by corresponding solenoid means 176a-176f operated by press - buttons 178a-178f through suitable holding circuits to enable any assortment of colour, gauge and size to be selected by the operator. A further set of push-buttons 209a 209f are provided to permit independent release of single platforms. The platforms are provided with swingable supports 68<SP>11</SP> for the forms and are labelled in accordance with any convenient optical scannable code, e.g. coloured dots 207, designating their associated colour. From Fig. 6, it will be seen that after an assortment of platforms 169 have been released from spurs 168a &c. on to common track 168<SP>1</SP> and, e.g. stockings, have been deposited on the forms on the platforms from magazine 6, as indicated by arrows 110, the differently labelled platforms 169 are automatically separated at sorting station 115, individually or in groups in accordance with their colour designation and are shunted on to tracks 184a, 184b, 184c &c. for passage through plasticizing and colouring equipment in respective treatment zones 113a, 113b, 113c &c. The automatic routing of platforms 169 in accordance with their associated colours is carried out by an optical scanner 182<SP>1</SP> (Fig. 7) responsive to the coded dots 207 connected in circuit with a control network 185 consisting of a plurality of AND gates coupled with switching solenoids 186a-186f. The platforms 169 are re-classified at a re-sorting station 112, which includes optical scanning means, as to size of the stocking carried thereby and are fed along parallel tracks 35a, 35b &c. through a control station 111 where the stockings are rated as to quality by visual inspection, and then sorted at a further station 116 as to colour, while a further sorting as to size and gauge may be effected at station 109. This latter sorting may be done with the aid of photo-electric and magnetic detector means which are responsive to information strips carried by each stocking. The stockings are removed from the forms at station 108 the forms being returned to storage tracks 168a- 168f, as schematically illustrated by arrows 107 and distributed to their appropriate spurs at 106.