Improvements relating to the Manufacture of Wire Healds for Looms.
Year: 1895

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements relating to the Manufacture of Wire Healds
for Looms.
1, MAX ALFRED FICKER, Manufacturer, of Mathildenstrasse, Chemnitz, in the
Kingdom of Saxony, 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 :-
In forming the mail or eye of heddles which are composed of double wire soldered
together, it has been usual, to hold the said wire fast, then to force a sharp pin into
the soldered joint, and then to twist the wire on both sides of the mail by turning
the said pin.
During this manipulation, care must be taken, to hold the double wire in such a
manner, that the soldered joint will not split or open behind the twisted portions of
the wire, because otherwise the eye will not assume the desired shape and the wires
will twist together so imperfectly at the eye, that during the process of weaving the
warp is liable to be caught between these windings, and that on one side of the eye
the double wire will not be situated in the same plane as on the opposite side.
According to my experience, these faults cannot be avoided with the usual
method, in which the double wire is pressed either only in a horizontal direction or
only in a vertical direction.
In order to obtain perfectly uniform mails or heddle-eyes, I have modified the
process by holding the wire on both sides of the eye with three-sided clips which
that
press on the double wire both horizontally and vertically in such a manner,
while the length of the double wire between the two clips is being reduced by the
splitting and twisting operation, the wire cannot slip through the clips, and that
the slit in the soldered joint is securely limited. In order to avoid the rupture of
the wire during this process, the clips are adapted to slide in the direction of the
wire and are kept in place by spring pressure, so that the shortening of the wire is
attended with the compression of the springs.
In further describing the invention, reference will be made to the accompanying
drawings, in which
Fig. 1 is a side view showing the arrangement of the clips,
Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the device for forming the mail or eye,
Fig. 3 is a plan of the same,
Figs. 4 to 7 are detail views showing the device for splitting and twisting the
double wire.
Fig. 8 shows the clip when closed.
Figs. 9 to 11 illustrate the action of the clips on the double wire.
Two sets of steel-clips are adapted to hold the wire on opposite sides of the
eye or mail. One set, a, a, a, is clearly shown in the drawings, while of the
corresponding parts 1, 3, only 62 and are shown. The cheeks a¹ and bare
screwed to cast iron plates d¹ and d* respectively, which are mounted on brackets c¹ c²
and adapted to slide along dove-tail guides fixed to the said brackets.
cheeks a and a, and 3 are mounted in pairs on two-armed clip levers e¹, e³, g', 9³,
adapted to turn on the fulcrum pins x', x, y¹, y².
The
Motion is imparted to the said levers by means of two-armed levers h¹ and h³
pivoted at 22 and set in operation by rods 1, 2, in such a manner, that one arm of
11
1.2
tent with an inclined projection or lug n¹ or n² (Fio. 1).

page_text: while the other end meets a curved steel-plate q¹ or q³ acting as a spring, whenever
the said levers assume the position shown in Fig. 8.
Springs ff and are provided for carrying the clip-levers back into the
open position, as soon as the operating levers return into the position represented by
Figs. 1 and 2. The splitting and twisting of the wires is produced by means of the
device represented by Figs. 4 to 7.
Said
It comprises a stationary casing 'made of two parts and slotted on one side, said
casing or frame serving as a bearing for a toothwheel 7 provided with an angular
recess, containing a radially movable slide o which carries a pin s.
toothwheel gears into a toothed sector or wheel, of which only the pitch circle tis
indicated in Fig. 4, and which is adapted to turn the wheel l.
Into the slide piece o is inserted a screw o', which can be drawn upward and
downward by the lever, when the short arm of the slot is vertical.
The mechanism described above works as follows for the formation of a heddle
eye or mail.
While the double wire is held in the axis of the wheel by the clips or
cheeks a, a, a, b, 6, 63, the pin is pushed upward by means of the lever p, (Fig. 7)
which may be set in motion by the hand or the foot of the workman, or by
eccentrics, and thereby the double wire is split.
Subsequently the wheel is turned round once or several times, and thereby the
wires situated right and left of the eye are twisted (round the axis of the wire), by
which operation the length of the wire between the clips is reduced and at the same
time the springs m² m² compressed.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is-
1. The improvement in the production of the mail or eye of heddles composed of
soldered double wire, which consists in holding the double wire during the operation
of splitting and twisting by means of two sets of clips, each having three cheeks
adapted to press the wire both vertically and horizontally, said clips being capable
of elastic adjustment parallel to the heddle in accordance with the shortening of
the piece of wire situated between the two sets of clips, substantially as described.
2. Apparatus for forming heddle-eyes, comprising in its construction a pair of
three-cheeked clips a¹ a³ a, and b, a spur wheel mounted in a disc k and
having an angular recess 1°, said wheel carrying a radially movable splitting pin s,
and a lever p adapted to propel a sliding block o, substantially as described.
Dated this 11th day of April 1895.
FAIRFAX & WETTER,
433, Strand, London, Agents.