Improvements in Apparatus for Cutting Chenille.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 30th Dec., 1893
Complete Specification Left, 12th Sept., 1894-Accepted, 13th Oct., 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Cutting Chenille.
I HOWARD LEES of Slackcote, Delph near Oldham, in the County of
Lancaster, Bookkeeper, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
My said invention relates to improvements in apparatus for cutting up suitable
fabric into chenille as is well understood. It will be remembered that chenille
which is usually made from silk has the appearance of a pile cord, and is obtained
by cutting the chenille fabric across the weft into narrow strips, each strip having a
central warp thread which is intertwisted with and securely holds the severed weft
ends, which form the pile of the chenille strip or cord. The most obvious method
of cutting these strips and the method which is most commonly practised, is to cut
the strips with scissors and by hand. This is so costly and laborious an operation
that attempts have been made to supersede the scissors by cutting machines.
Nevertheless such machines have not been generally successful owing to their
defective design, and are besides the cause of frequent injury to the fabric in the
operation of cutting.
For example the cutters are very apt to encroach on one side or the other and
sometimes to cut the central warp threads of the strips and destroy that portion of
the piece.
According to my invention I provide means whereby any such accidental cutting
of the warp threads is entirely obviated. In an apparatus made in accordance with
my improvements, the cutters consist of a number of thin steel discs having
sharpened cutting edges or peripheries, which discs are strung upon a central
mandril, and are separated from each other by distance washers of such a thickness
as to hold the discs at the required pitch apart. This pitch of the discs may be
varied in accordance with the desired breadth of chenille strip, by putting discs of
the corresponding necessary thickness between the discs, or otherwise the discs
might be adjusted to the required distance apart by any other suitable or convenient
means. In front of the cutters is a bench plate having a series of slits or gates
into which the disc cutters enter. The pitch of the said slits or gates must corre-
spond exactly to the pitch of the discs, and I may provide means whereby the
pitch of the said slits or gates may be altered or adjusted to correspond with the
altered pitch of the discs. The chief feature of my improvements lies however in
the employment of guides which are fixed in the said bench plate or otherwise
immediately in front of the discs in such a manner that the aforesaid central warp
thread of each strip is guided and maintained always in a position equi-distant from
the discs. The said guides might be upright pegs or wire staples or projections
from the plate. Their form or arrangement is immaterial so long as they fulfil the
described function, that is to say so long as they guide and direct each central warp
thread between the discs so as to be equi-distant or about equi-distant therefrom, or at
least so long as they prevent the warp threads from coming in contact with the cutting
discs. An advantage arising from the use of the said cutting discs is that not only is
accidental destruction of the piece prevented but the chenille is turned out with an
equal length of pile on each side and with a better appearance than that of chenille
cut by hand or by existing processes. The other parts of the apparatus scarcely
fall within the province of my invention and may be dismissed with brief notice.
The fabric to be cut up into chenille strips is coiled on a braked beam or roller at
one end of the machine and is drawn forward by a taking-up roller at the other end
of the machine and upon which the cut chenille is wound. The cutters, bench

page_text: plate and guides lie about midway between the letting-off and taking-up rollers.
The fabric is passed over and under proper stenting bars on its way to the
cutters.
The warp threads passing between the guides are at all times prevented from
being touched by the cutters, which are permitted to operate only on the weft.
The aforesaid guides might be used not only in conjunction with the revolving disc
cutters described but also in conjunction with any other cutting means capable of
being similarly used. For example it might be used in conjunction with recipro
cating blades or jogging knives or other convenient means for dividing the weft
between the central warp threads.
Dated this 29th day of December 1893.
E. K. DUTTON & Co.,
5, John Dalton Street, Manchester, Agents.
COMPLETE
SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Cutting Chenille.
I HOWARD LEES of Slackcote, Delph near Oldham, in the County of
Lancaster, Bookkeeper, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement and accompanying drawings :-
:-
My said invention relates to improvements in apparatus for cutting up chenille
web or fabric into strips as is well understood. The said chenille fabric is usually
but not always made from silk, and the strips into which it is cut have the
appearance of piled cords, each strip having a central warp thread or threads inter-
twisted with and securely holding the severed weft ends which form the pile of the
chenille strip or cord.
As an example, and to assist even the uon-technical reader to a thorough under-
standing of my invention I have sketched a rough diagrammatic plan of the scheme
of manufacture in the production of chenille fabrics.
This appears as Fig. 1 in Sheet 1 of the annexed two sheets of drawings. The
binding warps are marked A and the wefts B. In the process of weaving, these
wefts Bare locked by or intertwisted with the warps A the wefts floating between
the spaced warps.
To form chenille strips such as represented in Fig. 2, this fabric
is cut up along the dotted lines r, each of the resulting strips having a warp A in
the centre, holding and binding the several weft ends B which project from the
warp on both sides as clearly shown in Fig 2.
The most obvious plan of cutting these strips and the method which is most
commonly practised is to cut the strips with scissors and by hand. This is so costly
and laborious an operation, that attempts have been made to supersede the scissors
by mechanical cutting arrangements.
Nevertheless, such machines have not been generally successful owing to the
defective nature of their design and appliances, and are besides very apt to divide
the wefts to uneven lengths and to cut the central warps of the strips and so destroy
that portion of the fabric.
The chief points of my invention are, that I in the first place provide means
whereby such uneven division of the wefts or any accidental cutting of the central
warp threads is entirely obviated. In addition to these safeguards I also adopt an
improved form of cutters for dividing the wefts, such cutters consisting of a number
of thin steel discs having sharpened cutting edges or peripheries, and strung upon
a central mandril, the discs being separated from each other by distance washers of
such a thickness as to maintain the discs at the required distance apart. As these
elements form so important a part of my invention, I have shown the guides and
the discs in a separate and enlarged perspective view in Fig. 3, Sheet 1. The
cutting discs are marked C: the guides D: the mandril E and the separating

page_text: washers F. A piece of chenille fabric is shown being passed through the cutters,
the four resulting strips appearing at the back of the cutters. The pitch of the
dises C may be varied in accordance with the pitch of the warps A and
consequently with the desired breadth of chenille strip, by putting separating
washers F of the necessary thickness, between the discs, or otherwise the cutting
discs might be adjusted to the required distance apart by any other suitable or
convenient means.
In front of the cutters C is a plate G having a series of slits or gates G¹into
which the disc cutters enter. The pitch of the said slits or gates G¹ must corre-
spond exactly to the pitch of the cutters.
The chief feature of my improvement lies however in the employment of the.
guides D which are fixed in the plate G or otherwise immediately in front of the
cutters in such a manner that the central warps A of the chenille fabric are
guided and maintained always in a position equi-distant from the cutters. The said
guides might be upright pegs or wire staples as shown in Fig. 3 or projections
from or formed in one piece with the plate G as shown for example in Fig. 4
Sheet 1.
In all cases, what is necessary is, to provide gateways or passages H for the
warps A, between and equi-distant from the cutting dises C, so that each warp A
shall be always maintained in a position equi-distant from the disc on each side,
thereby preventing the warps from ever coming in contact with the cutters and
ensuring an equal length of pile or cut weft on each side of each warp A. It will
be noticed that the form of guide plate G³ illustrated at Fig. 4 is practically the
same as the plate G with staple guides D as shown in Fig. 3.
For example the uprights D in Fig. 4 are only staples similar to D in Fig. 3
and the openings H between the uprights D are merely repetitions of the
openings H in Fig. 3. The slit G2 in Fig. 4 is a continuation of the space between
the staple legs of D' and the cutter C enters this slit as shown by the dotted circle
in Fig. 4.
As a matter of fact I prefer the latter form of guide plate and have shown it
applied to the complete mechanism which I will now proceed to describe and which
the reader will find illustrated on Sheet 2 of the drawings.
The figs. on Sheet 2 are as follows.
Fig. 5 is a longitudinal section of the machine.
Fig. 6 is a side elevation.
Fig. 7 is an elevation of the end marked X Fig. 6.
Fig. 8 is an enlarged sectional view of the guide plate, cutting discs, and
mandril.
Fig. 9 is a plan view of Fig. 8.
Fig. 10 is an edge view of several of the cutters C shown strung on the mandril
with spacing washers F between.
Fig. 11 is a separate front view of the guide plate.
Figs. 12 and 13, show straight pegs used as guides for the warps A.
The parts of the apparatus are supported in side frames a hell apart by stays in
any suitable manner.
At one end of the machine is a flanged roller beam upon which is coiled the
chenille fabric A-B. The beam may either belong properly to the machine or
it may be the roller upon which the fabric is coiled as it is woven in the loon, the
roller being afterwards removed from the loom and placed in the bearings on the
frame a.
The axis of the roller has a handwheel by which the roller can be
turned so as to wind on the fabric A-B when that is preferred. As it is wound
on, the fabric may be passed through stenting bars d which hold the fabric taut
and stretch it as it is wound on. To effect this stretching the top bar or top bars
of the bars d might be formed with a right and left screw from the centre towards
the ends so as to pull the cloth out as it passes over. In some cases however I
might pass the fabric direct from the loom to the cutters.

page_text: Adhering however to the arrangement shown, the fabric is drawn from the beam
towards the cutters C, the beam having a brake e which can be adjusted by the
screw and nuts so as to give the fabric any desired tension.
Upon leaving the beam the fabric passes successively over the bars g, h, i the
latter bar being grooved as shown in Fig. 7 to a pitch similar to the pitch of the
warp threads A of the fabric. This assists to keep the fabric steady. The fabrie
next passes over the guide plate G', the warps passing between the staple uprights D'
and the wefts encountering the cutters C whereby the wefts are severed and the
fabric divided into a number of chenille strips A x B. Upon leaving the cutters
the strips pass between drawing rollers the upper drawing roller & being pressed
upon the lower roller by a spring and adjusting means as clearly shown in
Fig. 5. The driving of the cutters C and of the drawing rollers is effected in
the following manner.
First as to the cutters C; these are strung upon a mandril E supported in
bearings upon the framing a, the respective cutters being kept apart by spacing
washers Fall as already described with reference to Sheet 1 and as illustrated in
their true proportions in Figs. 8, 9 and 10 in Sheet 2. One end of the mandril E
carries a pinion m which gears with a spur wheel n on the end of a cross spindle o.
The opposite end of the spindle o carries a belt pulley p having a clutch sleeve pl
and running loosely on the spindle o. A peg extending from the pulley p enables
it to engage with the disc r keyed to the spindle o when the pulley is thrust forward
by the clutch levers (see Fig. 7).
Thus by manipulating the clutch levers I can start or stop the machine at
pleasure. I might however use a friction clutch or any other means of starting
and stopping. The spindle also carries a hand wheel t for driving the spindle o
when power is not available.
The drawing rollers kk' are driven from the same spindle o by means of a pinion u
on the spindle which gears with a spur wheels on the axis of the drawing roller k¹.
The rollers kk are geared together by pinions ww at the opposite ends of the
rollers. The rollers are so geared as to give the necessary speed of draw and as
the strips are drawn forward they are coiled upon a roller supported in bearings
at the back of the machine as plainly appears in Fig. 5. The taking-up roller
may be driven by a slip belt or by any other suitable means which will take into
account the varying surface speed of its contents.
The machine which I have just described is at present working with perfect
success, but I do not of course confine myself to its details as these may be varied
without departing from my invention. The enlarged figs. 8 to 12 are drawn in
their true proportions and are intended to be supplementary to the figs. in Sheet 1,
which are rather of the nature of diagrams than true representations of the parts.
In Figs. 12 and 13 I show straight guiding pegs y instead of the wire staples or
staple uprights which i have already described, but as herein before said the mere
form of these guiding parts is not an essential as any means for guiding the warp
threads equidistantly from or in a fixed relative position between the cutters would
represent my invention.
Guides of this nature might be used not only in conjunction with the revolving
disc cutters hereinbefore described, but also in conjunction with any other cutting
nicans capable of being similarly used.
For example such guides might be used in combination with the sectional cutters
which it has been attempted to use in chenille cutting, or with reciprocating blades
or jogging knives such as are used sometimes to sever the pile of pile fabrics during
the operation of weaving.
In using my apparatus, when the pitch apart of the cutters is altered, it is
necessary also to alter the pitch of the guides and gates, and this can be most
conveniently done by removing the guide plate and substituting another of the
correct pitch. I might however have a series of separate guides moving and
capable of being adjusted with the cutters. One important advantage arising from

page_text: the use of the circular disc cutters C is that they can be speedily sharpened without
removing them from the machine, all that is necessary being to set them in motion
and apply a set-stone to the edges.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what 1
claim is
1. In apparatus for cutting chenille fabric into strips, the employment of guides
or means of the indicated nature for maintaining the warp threads of the chenille,
equidistant from or in a fixed relative position to the cutters.
2. In apparatus for cutting chenille fabric into strips, the employment of
revolving cutters composed of discs of thin sheet steel or other suitable metal, and
having sharpened edges or peripheries, arranged in the manner set forth and used in
combination with guides or means for maintaining the warps of the chenille equi-
distant from or in a fixed relative position to the cutters, substantially as described
and as illustrated in the drawings.
3. Mounting the aforesaid disc cutters upon a central mandril with interposed
separating and interchangeable washers, whereby the pitch or distance apart of the
cutter discs can be altered at pleasure, for the purposes and substantially as
described and shown.
5. The general arrangement construction and combination of parts comprising
the improved machine or mechanism for cutting chenille fabric into strips, substan-
tially as described with reference to the figs. on Sheet 2 of the drawings.
Cantanha 1901
E. K. DUTTON & Co.,
5, John Dalton Street, Manchester, Agents.
E. K. DUTTON & Co.,
5, John Dalton Street, Manchester, Agents.