Improvements in or relating to Carding Machines.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 24th Aug., 1894-Accepted, 29th Sept., 1894
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to Carding Machines.
I, OSCAR BARTHOLEMY, Spinner, of Otto Strasse 80, Aachen, in the Empire
of Germany, 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:-
Hitherto the practice has been to sweep together the waste filaments dropped
from the carding-machine, and to pass them once more through the devil, or
straight under the cards. This, however, is attended with many disadvantages and
drawbacks.
The risk of fire is materially enhanced by the filamentous heap beneath the
cards; and further there is danger of spontaneous combustion among the filaments
if kept for a short time in baskets bales or boxes. Moreover the card-clothing is
not infrequently damaged by the brush in the sweeping operations. On the one
hand, when the mass of fibres is returned to be devilled over again, the already-
oiled filaments, being oiled again, become too greasy and are no longer delivered in
the form of fleece, but are apt to stick fast in the card clothing and thus interrupt
the carding process. On the other hand, when the heap of fibres is transferred, at
once, directly to the preliminary stage of carding, they are not freed from all
impurities, whence results irregularity in the fleece, and consequently, unevenness
in the yarn.
All these drawbacks and disadvantages are met and avoided by the present
invention and the apparatus illustrated by the accompanying drawings, inasmuch
as the filaments, as they fall, are continuously conveyed away, cleaned, and at short
intervals returned to undergo the preliminary stage of the carding process anew.
The construction and working of the apparatus are set forth in the following
description ;-
Under each carding engine an endless horizontal travelling web or lattice-
cloth A is arranged to work in a direction transverse to the axis of the drum so as
to intercept and remove the loose fibres, delivering them to another endless
travelling web B, working in a direction parallel with the drum axis and
transporting the filamentous mass received by it from A to a third endless web C,
travelling in the same direction as A, which finally delivers the material into the
cleaning apparatus D. The latter consists of a cylinder v, provided with sharp
teeth or spikes, and rotating inside the drun w. The foreign matters and impurities
shaken out of the fibrous mass by this device fall through a siever in the bottom
of the drun into a box or tray y which is emptied at intervals. As soon as there .
is a sufficient accumulation of cleaned filaments in the drum w, the latter is
automatically opened at G by a device hereinafter described, the motion of the
feed mechanism C being momentarily arrested, and the cleaned material is
discharged from the drum w on to the endless web E, after which the drum w is
again closed and the cleaning operation renewed. Meanwhile the travelling web E,
in co-operation with a similar and parallel web F, conveys away the cleaned
material between them, raising and delivering it to the point of supply to the
carding engine.
The automatic opening and closure of the drum w and the stoppage of the feed-
web C are brought about in the following manner.
The cover G is mounted on one end of a lever H which is connected at its other
end with the sliding rod J. The latter at specified times, is caused to slide in the
required direction for example towards the right of the apparatus illustrated in the
drawing for the purpose of opening the cover G by means of the crank M driven

page_text: by the bevel-gear K L, rotating and pressing the roller N, which it carries on its
outer end, against the projection O fixed to the sliding bar J. Inasmuch as the
process of cleaning the filaments in the drum occupies a longer time than their
delivery to the travelling web E when cleaned, and the drum w requires to be kept
just as much longer closed than open, the bevel-wheel L is provided with only just
a sufficient number of teeth to rotate the crank continuously in one direction so far
as may enable it, when it encounters the projection O, to displace the latter, and
with it the sliding bar, towards the right (of the drawing) and then leave it there,
whereby the cover G is opened, being subsequently closed by the action of its own
weight and the tension-spring P after the roller N has been moved away from O.
The further revolution of the crank M takes place only at intervals, a number of
idle revolutions of the wheel L being required before the crank again brings its
roller N in contact with the projection O to reopen the cover G of the drum w.
In order to prevent the supply of material to the cleaning apparatus while the
drum is opened, the endless web C is thrown out of gear by means of an engaging
and disengaging device or clutch S mounted on its driving shaft and operated by a
laterally projecting cam or equivalent Q on the sliding bar J, acting on the fork-
lever R of the clutch S so as to throw it out of gear on the displacement of the
bar J towards the right (of the drawing) and the consequent opening of the
cover G; while on the closing of the cover by the return movement of J, a spring,
controlling the lever R, operates to throw the clutch into gear again whereupon
the travelling feed web C is again set in operation.
For the purpose of the prompt previous removal of the coarser and heavier
impurities and foreign matters which fall from the fibrous material under treatment
between the carding drum and the doffing cylinder, a slanting wire-screen T is
arranged over one end of the travelling web A to intercept such grosser matters
and deliver them into the conveniently sheet-iron discharge-channel V and allow
the finer particles to pass through.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is ;-
1. An apparatus for the automatic interception removal and cleaning of the
waste fibres discarded in the carding process and whereby these latter by means of
endless travelling webs or their equivalent are conveyed to a cleaning apparatus
which delivers the same after they have been cleaned to other endless travelling
webs or the like which return them to the card cylinder.
2. The combination and arrangement of parts constituting the complete apparatus
for intercepting conveying cleaning and after cleaning returning to the carding
cylinder the waste filaments discharged from a carding machine substantially as
described and illustrated in the accompanying drawing.
Dated this 24th day of August 1894.
W. P. THOMPSON & BOULT,
Agents for the Applicant.