Improvements in Apparatus for Controlling the Grinding of Carding Engine Flats.
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 21st Feb., 1887
Complete Left, 21st Nov., 1887
Complete Accepted, 23rd Dec., 1887
Improvements in Apparatus for Controlling the Grinding of Carding
Engine Flats.
I JOHN MUIR HETHERINGTON C.E. of the Vulcan Works Pollard Street
Manchester in the County of Lancaster Machine Maker do hereby declare the nature
of this Invention to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to the grinding of the flats which are employed in carding
engines in the form of endless chains as is well understood. In the carding operation
these flats are guided by the sliding of surfaces upon curved guides or flexible bends
the surfaces upon each flat sometimes termed the working faces being inclined with
respect to the card surface. It is of importance that the exact relation of the working
face and of the card surface shall be exactly maintained during the grinding and
this is the object of my invention. I arrange for the working faces to be kept in
sliding contact with movable parts during the grinding of the flat and I move these
parts as the flat passes over them in such a manner and to such an extent as that the
card shall be properly ground. The said movable part may be formed or fixed upon a
lever or be arranged to slide or move toward and from the axis of the grinder. In
one arrangement faces are formed upon two levers or upon parts fixed thereto these
faces being suitable to receive the sliding contact of the working faces of the flats.
The said levers are acted upon by cams which slightly move the levers during the
grinding of each flat. Supposing for example that each flat is to be ground flat upon
the face as is usual and that the flats are travelling with the heels in advance the levers
are acted upon so that the flat is permitted to approach the grinder by a regular
motion during the grinding so that each wire as it comes toward the grinder is
brought to the same radial distance from the grinder axis as the preceding wires.
The working faces of the flat are kept in contact with the faces on the levers by means
of weighted levers or by suitable means. The cams may be formed to impart only
one to and fro movement to the levers during one revolution of the cams or more than
one to and fro movement as preferred the cams revolving in concert with the carrier
or driving wheels of the chain of flats. A lever frame or sliding carriages might be
used in place of the two levers.
Dated this 10th dow of Fehrnar 1887
DUTTON & FULTON,
1, St. James Square, Manchester,
Agents.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Controlling the Grinding of Carding
Engine Flats.
I JOHN MUIR HETHERINGTON C.E. of the Vulcan Works, Pollard Street
Manchester in the County of Lancaster, Machine Maker, 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 Invention relates to the grinding of the flats which are employed in carding
engines in the form of endless chains as is well understood. In the carding operation
these flats are guided by the sliding of surfaces formed on the flat upon curved guides
or flexible bends the said surfaces on each flat sometimes termed the working faces
being inclined with respect to the card surface. It is of importance that the relation
of such working faces and of the card surface shall be exactly maintained during the
grinding and this is the object of my invention. I arrange for the working faces to
be kept in sliding contact with movable parts during the grinding of the flat and I
move these parts as the flat passes over them in such a manner and to such an extent
as that the card shall be properly ground. The said movable part may be formed or
fixed upon a lever or be arranged to slide or move toward and from the axis of the
grinder.
My Invention will be best understood when described with reference to the
accompanying drawings of which Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the apparatus and
exhibits so much of a carding engine as is necessary to the proper illustration of the
method of application of the apparatus.
Fig. 2 shows a part of the apparatus drawn to a scale of about half the full size.
Fig. 3 in sheet 2 also drawn about half size is a view of the same parts taken on a
plane at right angles to that of Fig. 1.
In the said Figs. a is an ordinary grinding roller b is a grinding roller bracket and
c is part of the side frame or fixed bend of a carding engine. The bracket is secured
to an adjustable carriage d to which is fixed a guide rail e upon which the flats travel
when approaching and leaving the grinding roller. To the same carriage is secured a
bracket fin which is formed a bearing for one end of a cranked shaft g which extends
across the engine and is mounted by its other end in a corresponding bracket on the
other side of the engine. The shaft g is cranked back as appears most clearly in
Figs. 2 and 3 in order that it may clear the grinding roller. Upon the said shaft are
formed or fixed two short levers one on each side of the engine one of these levers
appearing at h. Upon the under side of each lever is formed a prepared face upon
which the flats travel whilst being ground. The said face is carefully finished to have
the same curve as the flexible bend upon which the flats travel the same working face
upon the flat sliding upon the curved faces of the two parts-that is to say of the
lever hand the flexible bend. As each flat whilst being ground is pressed into

page_text: contact with the two levers h these levers determine the extent of the grinding of the
flat and also the form of carding surface resulting from the grinding. In the part of
the guide rail e which is immediately below the lever h a slight concave recess is
formed in order that the chain of flats may be deflected downward to some extent at
this point. It will be seen that the tension of the chain tends to keep the chain in
sliding contact with the curved face on the lever h. To further ensure the maintainence
of this sliding contact during the grinding operation each flat whilst being ground is
pressed upward by means of two fingers which are fixed upon a shaft k which crosses
below the upper flats from one side of the engine to the other and is mounted in bear-
ings formed in the two guide rails e. Upon one end of the shaft is fixed a loaded
lever which by tending to turn the said shaft causes the fingers i to press upward
upon the back of the flat being ground. Upon the outer end of the cranked shaft g
is fixed a long lever which in the example is formed with two arms m and m¹ connected
together by means of a cross piece m². The arm m is provided with a stud n which
rests upon a cam wheel o which is fixed upon the shaft of the chain wheels over
which the chain of flat passes and which give motion to the same.
The said cam
wheel is cut or formed with a number of faces o¹ which are flat or curved or otherwise
shaped according to the form to which the carding surfaces of the flats are to be
ground. The said faces correspond in number to the number of teeth or recesses in
the wheels upon the shaft p so that the said cam wheel rotates to the extent of the
distance between the centres of two adjacent faces o'o' during the time that the
chain of flats travels a distance equal to the length of one of its links. As the cam
wheel rotates the end of the lever arm m is raised and lowered as each flat passes below
the grinding roller. The arm m¹ is provided with an adjustable stop screw r which
when the lever m drops comes in contact with a fixed part of the engine framing and
so determines the lowest position of the said lever and as a consequence of the short
levers h. The parts are so arranged and adjusted as that the lever m is being raised
during the time when a flat is being ground. On the stud n reaching the end of one of
the faces it drops off the end and the flat is thereby slightly lowered by the levers hh.
In Fig. 1 the parts are in the positions assumed when the lever has just dropped.
This occurs just at the time when the grinding of a flat has been completed and the
next flat is about coming into the range of action of the grinding roller the lowering
of the flats which are in contact with the lever h bringing the next flat into position
for the grinding to be commenced. Supposing the parts to be in the positions as
shown in Figs. 1 and 2 the flats in the latter figure will pass below the grinding
roller and be ground but it will be seen that if the levers hh were stationary one edge
only would be acted upon by the grinder owing to the inclination of the working faces
on the flat bars as is well understood. In the apparatus the levers h are slowly raised
by the action of the cam wheel upon the lever m and if it be desired that the carding
face of the flat shall be ground flat and parallel with the face of the bar to which the
card filet is secured the cam wheel is so shaped as that the rise of the levers / just
compensates for the inclination of the working faces upon the flat bar ends. When
the flat has been ground and just about the time that the next flat comes within the
range of action of the grinder the arm m is dropped as aforesaid and the lifting of the
lever recommences. It will be seen that the grinding of the flats can be controlled
so as to obtain any required form of carding face by making the cam wheel of suitable
formation. I do not confine myself to the precise curvature of the faces on the levers h
as described as such curvature might not be considered to be necessary. The
apparatus might be varied by substituting a sliding part for the lever hand connect-
ing such part with the lever m so that such part would be raised and lowered at the
required times and to a suitable extent. The arrangements for raising and lowering
the lever m may be varied so long as the necessary relation with the movement of the
chain of flats is obtained, as for example I might use a cam or tapet formed to raise
the lever only once during each revolution or to raise the lever any suitable number of
times other than the indication in the drawing or I might employ a vibrating incline
or lifter to act upon the said lever. Such an arrangement is illustrated by Fig. 4 in
sheet 2. In this example an incline t acting upon a bowl upon the lever m is carried

page_text: by a vibrating lever u. Upon this lover is mounted a catch or hook which engages
with one of the teeth of a rotating ratchet wheel to so that the lever m is carried
around with the said wheel so long as the catch remains engaged with the wheel the
incline acting upon the bowl to raise the lever m. At the time when the said lever is
to be dropped the catch is released by reason of a tail v upon the catch coming into
contact with an adjustable stop and the lever is drawn quickly back by means of a
spring. These movements being repeated each time that a flat passes below the
grinding roller a result is obtained corresponding to that obtained with the arrange-
ment illustrated in Fig. 1.
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 combination of parts constituting the apparatus for application to a carding
engine substantially as and for the purpose set forth and indicated.
(2) In apparatus for grinding the travelling flats of carding engines the shorter
levers against which the working faces on the flat bar ends are pressed during the
grinding connected with the longer lever which is acted upon by a revolving cam so
as to move each flat toward and from the grinding roller substantially as and for the
purpose set forth and indicated.
(3) In apparatus for grinding the travelling flats of carding engines controlling the
action of the grinder by keeping the working faces on the flat bar ends in sliding
contact with levers rails or parts during the grinding operation and imparting move-
ments to such levers rails or parts in directions toward and from the grinder so as to
compensate for the angular formation of the said working faces and to obtain the
desired carding surface substantially as set forth and indicated.
Dated this 19th day of November 1887
DUTTON & FULTON,
1, St. James Square, Manchester,
Agents.