Patent CA-2967724-A1 (CA)
Inventor: SEGUIN DENIS
IPC: D03C3/00
Filed: 2017-05-23
Abstract: 1. A Heddle Actuating Mechanism for automatic or semi-automatic looms, consisting in an improved actuating mechanism usable for selectively raising and lowering one or more heddles in a loom, that comprises few components, and thus involves lesser prospective problems, components such as a rotatable heddle driving shaft, a driving member coaxially mounted on the heddle driving shaft, an annular pulley, an actuator, a locking member (70) and a locking mechanism (42). 2. A Heddle Actuating Mechanism for looms, according to claim 1, wherein the recess leading edge portion (58) dynamically angularly engages the locking member protrusion (82) in a substantially hooked fashion, presenting a engagement configuration whereby a direct mechanical contact occurs between the locking member and the driving member without significant translational friction forces occurring between the contacting edges, and whereby the locking member is forced into the position by the angle of the leading edge portion, the said angle minimizing the risk of unhooking of the locking member. 3. A Heddle Actuating Mechanism for looms, according to claims 1 and 2, wherein said locking mechanism (42) may include at least one magnetic retention means (130) for magnetically retaining the locking member (70) in at least one of the retracted position, extended position and contacting the recess intermediate portion (62), with each one the at least one magnetic retention means (130) including a pair of mutually magnetically attracted elements (132) that are urging a sufficient magnetic force between them for retaining the locking member (70) against the gravitational pull of its own weight (as illustrated in FIGS. 11A to 14B inclusively). 4. A Heddle Actuating Mechanism for looms, according to claims 1 to 3, wherein said locking member (70) will preserve its retracted position even though the locking member leading edge portion (72) is substantially oriented downwardly and facing the recess intermediate edge portion (62) of the driving member (50). 5. A Heddle Actuating Mechanism for looms, according to claims 1 to 3, wherein said locking member (70) will preserve its extended position even though the locking member leading edge portion (72) is substantially oriented upwardly and contacting the recess intermediate edge portion (62) of the driving member (50). 6. A Heddle Actuating mechanism for looms, according to claims 1 to 5, that requires no use of a spring to return the locking member to its initial position, thanks to the circular arc shape, 1R-Shape or other form (non-limiting) of said driving member. 7. A Heddle Actuating Mechanism for looms, according to claims 1 to 6, wherein a position reset is performed with the engine mechanically pushing the driving member whose recess trailing edge portion (60), either D-shaped or spiral-shaped (or other shape), angularly pushes the locking member (70) radially outwardly back into its retracted position, making the reset operation faster depending on the shape chosen (D-Shape or spiral-shaped, or other). 8. A Heddle Actuating Mechanism for looms, according to claims 1 to 7, wherein said heddle frame(s) are not pulled upon, therefore exercising no weight on the equipment and letting the driving member turn without a weighing charge being exercised on the pulley. 9. A Heddle Actuating Mechanism for looms, according to claims 1 to 8, installable in several directions, either vertically, horizontally or in different angles: The first angle value may range between about 5 and 358 degree, the second angle value may range between about 6 and 359 degree, and the release angle value may range between about 1 and 360 degree. Preferably, as best illustrated in FIGS. 9A to 10D inclusively, the first angle value is about 180 degree, the second angle value is about 225 degree, and the release angle value is about 45 degree. Other relative' angles values for the first, second and release angle values are also possible. 10. A Heddle Actuating Mechanism for looms, according to claims 1 to 9, wherein the two part housing (94) of an annular pulley defines at least one, and possibly several cord engaging structures (102). Each one in the at least one cord engaging structure (92) having a pair of cooperating cord engaging groove (104) and cooperating cord engaging ridge (106) combination extending partially radially inwardly along the opposed inner surfaces (96) of the two-part housing (94), between a peripheral portion of the annular pulley (26) and an intermediate position towards the pulley central aperture (64). 11. A Heddle Actuating Mechanism for looms, according to claims 1 to 10, wherein each heddle frame's height can be chosen, according to the rotation angle of the driving member: The more it is turned, the higher the heddle frame can get. 12. A Heddle Actuating Mechanism for looms, according to claims 1 to 11, wherein the back angle of the locking member forces the actuator back in place, in the cases when the actuator does not fall back in place, thus preventing the twisting of the actuator's metal rod. 13. A Heddle Actuating Mechanism for looms, according to claims 1 to 12, wherein said pulleys are designed to be very thin, therefore occupying little space on the shaft, allowing to place several pulleys (up to 24, non limiting) in parallel on the same shaft, and reducing the distance between the heddle frames. 14. A Heddle Actuating Mechanism for looms, according to claims 1 to 13, whereby only one engine can be enough to activate all pulleys, given claim 13, thus limiting the costs, while not excluding the use of more than one engine. 15. A Heddle Actuating Mechanism for looms, according to claims 1 to 14, characterized by the fact that it causes less operational problems, requires less general maintenance and occurs less downtime costs issues than prior art heddle actuating mechanisms. 16. A Heddle Actuating Mechanism for looms, according to claims 1 to 14, characterized by the fact that it is less expensive to manufacture than prior art heddle actuating mechanisms. 17. A Heddle Actuating Mechanism for looms, according to claims 1 to 14, characterized by the fact that, in the case that any one of the above claims is not used or applied on the device, then all other claims still remain valid and applicable.