Patent GB-190902876-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or connected with Machinery for Hackling and Spreading Flax and other Long Stapled Fibres.
Inventor: EVES JOSHUA VALENTINE
IPC: D01B5/00
Filed: 1909-02-06
Granted: 1910-02-03
Abstract: 2876. Eves, J. V. Feb. 6. [Cognate Application 13;484/09.] Heckling - machines; feeding and transferring flax etc.; gill frames. - In automatic heckling-machines, such as those described in Specifications 17,437/99 and 16,010/01, the flax is automatically removed from the holder in Which it has been heckled, and is deposited upon a travelling apron or travelling table and fed between the rollers of an apparatus by which the stricks of flax are divided or spread out laterally by means of faller pins mounted on blocks, which, as the faller bars move through the apparatus, are moved away from one another. The screwed holder B, Fig. 1, as it emerges from the machine along the cross channel A, is operated upon by the unscrewing-apparatus C. A series of travelling-tables D carried by an endless chain d<1> are arranged to come, as the holders are unscrewed, up under the ends of the stricks b and lift them up and carry them forward. A pair of heavy rollers F, F', carried by levers f, f<1> operated by a cam F<2>, are lowered on to the flax on the table, and hold it so that it is withdrawn from the holder B. The end of the strick when withdrawn hangs over the end of the table D and rests on a slowly travelling apron G. As the table D travels along, it passes from under the rollers, which are allowed by the cam F<2> to drop on the apron G and grip the end of the flax resting on it, and then it moves away from under the flax and lays it on the apron. This operation is repeated, each table D taking a strick of flax from a holder and laying it on the apron G. A knife E, operated either separately or in conjunction with the box key c of the unscrewing - apparatus divides the strick into two portions. A second travelling apron G<1> transfers the flax to a gill frame K constructed with expanding fallers R, which widen and thin the pieces of flax before they are passed into the spreading- machine H. The stricks of flax may be transferred from the holder B to the apron which feeds the machine K by a suction plate or nozzle operated by a cam-and-lever arrangement so as to come down upon the flax as it is supported upon a table, which is at the right instant caused by a cam to occupy an horizontal position under the strick, and then so as to transfer it to the apron where it is deposited. A further modification comprises a cam-operated table which is first brought up under the strick and raised into a horizontal position and then pushed forwards, carrying the strick with it to the feed rollers of the machine K. A weighted roller is arranged to rest on the flax on the table to grip the flax. The fallers R of the gill frame K are constructed of two bars r', Fig. 13, between which are arranged blocks R' carrying pins r. The blocks R<1> are mounted upon a lazy-tongs arrangement a<3>, as shown in Fig. 11, or upon the coils of a spiral spring which are passed through slots in the blocks as shown in Fig. 15. Blocks r<4> on the bottom of certain of the blocks R' engage oblique cam-grooves p', Fig. 11, or ridges p<1>, Fig. 15, arranged on the faller slide P, and cause the faller pins r to separate one from the other as the faller bars pass through the machine. The faller pins r, Fig. 19, may be mounted directly on the coils of spiral springs s, the ends of which are attached to endless chains s<1>, arranged at an angle to one another. The faller pins are arranged in two separate sets to deal with the two stricks divided by the knife E, Fig. 1. In the case of the spring arrangement, a section of weaker spring which will expand more easily, divides the two portions. To regulate the thickness of the sheet of flax delivered to the machine K, it is only necessary to alter the rate of the delivery from the heckling-machine or the rate of travel of the apron of the machine K. The machines may be driven independently, or the machine K may be driven from the heckling-machine by a train of gear in which is incorporated a change gear. According to the first Provisional Specification, the strick of flax may be seized between a pair of reciprocating cam-operated grips and transferred to the apron of the spreading-machine, or, after being brought into an horizontal position, it may be pressed down on the apron by a grip or roller and so drawn out of the holder. The stricks may bo removed from the holders by a pivoted cam-operated grip and deposited upon the apron of the spreading- machine which may be arranged at any convenient angle with the cross channel of the heckling - machine. According to the second Provisional Specification, the stricks may be gripped between the roughened surfaces of two elastic strips and spread out as the strips are expanded in their passage through the machine. The faller pins may be mounted upon lazy-tongs or elastic substances attached at each end to endless chains set at an angle to each other.