Improvements in Means for Automatically Changing Shuttles on Failure of Weft in Looms for Weaving.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 20th Jan., 1899-Accepted, 20th May, 1899
Improvements in Means for Automatically Changing Shuttles on
Failure of Weft in Looms for Weaving.
A communication from abroad by CAMILLE BRUN and GUSTAVE BRUN, both of
19, Rue Cambon, Paris, in the Republic of France, Ribbon Manufacturers.
1, JOHN CORRY FELL, of Messrs. Fell and James, of 1, Queen Victoria Street,
London, E.C., Chartered Patent Agents, 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: -
This invention relates to mechanism for the continuous feed of weft thread
and consists of an automatic shuttle distributor wphich is applicable to all kinds
of power looms and particularly to those having superimposed shuttles.
I will now describe my invention as applied to a loom with two superposed
shuttles, transformed according to my invention, which is limited to the part of
the driver carrying the shuttle-boxes and to the left part of such driver. In
the accompanying drawings, the well known parts of the loom are omitted in order
to show alone the whole of the invention.
And in order that my invention may be the better understood, I will now pro-
ceed to describe the same with reference to the accompanying drawings and to
the letters and figures marked thereon.
Fig. 1 is a front elevation of my device in working position with the side of
the boxes removed for the sake of clearness.
Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional elevation at the arrow f in Fig. 1.
Fig. 3 is a back elevation of the same device in the working position of Fig. 1,
with shuttle magazine omitted.
Fig. 4 is a front elevation of my device as seen at the moment when the
replacing of one shuttle by another is taking place.
In all these drawings the same letters refer to the same parts in the various
figures.
My invention consists essentially of the distributor which will replace in a
loom one shuttle of which the thread has just broken or is on the point of being
used up, by a shuttle fully wound with weft thread. This replacing can be
effected either by the action of an ordinary weft fork or by the mechanical action
resulting especially in the method of incompletely unwinding the thread from
the shuttle bobbin which has been devised and for which a previous application has
been filed under No. 621 and dated Jan. 10, 1899, or by any other motion what-
ever.
This method of changing the shuttles before the shuttle thread is entirely
finished is used in order to avoid the production of the "loose ends" of weft
thread which are almost always produced in ordinary kinds of looms.
All that is necessary is that this preliminary or starting motion should cause
the vertical movement of the lever which operates my replacing device. This

page_text: action can be produced in many ways; as an example one may cite the well
known mechanism for changing the shuttles of loomis having two or several shuttles,
and this mechanism will enter into movement at the time of breaking or just
before the end of a weft thread is unwound but always at the moment of a "foul"
and when the opposite picker drives the shuttle towards my distributor.
The upward movement of the boxes does not present anything new this taking
place in the case of boxes with several shuttles; but as will be seen it is made to
enter into action only at the moment when it is needed to operate the exchange
of an empty shuttle for a full one and I will confine myself exclusively within
the limits of the parts constituting my invention.
This is composed of three essential parts; 1st A magazine containing shuttles
wound with weft-thread and which feed the shuttle-box; 2nd the shuttle-box;
3rd a device for disengagement causing the arrived of.a full .shuttle immediately
followed by the discharge of the empty shuttle from the loom.
The only novelty presented. by the magazine is the method of discharging the
shuttles, which..will..be .described. ., It, is composed of two adjacent frames rr
between which the full shuttles are piled up in reserve, in readiness to escape
below. The shuttles are maintained in position by the lower shuttle which is
supported near its points on the two lower pins g of the releasing device.
This double franie is fixed on the lay, with which it moves; its lower part
being pivotted at the sides on the two pivots P. p. At its upper part are two
slides, sliding on a horizontal guide fixed to the top of the frame of the loom.
I may nevertheless adopt an arrangement which allows this double frame to
remain stationary. while causing it to discharge at the same time the same functions
as the movable frame discharges.
The shuttle-box is composed of three parts directed superposed one upon another
the principal.one of which is the middle one a which forms the ordinary box
for the working shuttle ». The upper part b communicates directly and without
an intermediate partition with the part a and constitutes a simple directing
passage to guide the replacing shuttle, when it is just replacing in a the one
which has just disappeared from the third compartment c, as is afterwards de-
scribed. The compartment which is exactly below the first has no communication
with the intermediate one of which the ledge s is under ordinary working con-
ditions on the same level as the ledge s¹ of the driver.
The bottom of this compartment c is open in order to allow the unwound shuttle
to escape.
This shuttle falls in a box d in communication with c and slides outside
the loom down the inclined plane which closes the lower part of this box as is
shown in Fig. 1. The whole of this system of superposed boxes is connected with
the lever and receives the various upward and downward movements of the latter.
A second lever is fixed to the first and carries on its upper part a piece e of the
shape shown in Fig. 2 ending in an inclined plane el which in its upward movement
will have direct action on the successive disengagements of the wound shuttles.
To the left and right of the distributing frame is a duplicate arrangement of
pins g g¹ joined in pairs, and capable of moving horizontally in guides in the
frames. Each pair is fixed to a small lever pivotted at its centre o
two levers are connected to one another by a rod t reaching the breadth of the
These
frame and which receives an impulse from the inclined plane e¹ of the piece c.
The springs h h¹ reestablish the position of the pieces when they have discharged
their functions.
Under the conditions of ordinary working the various active parts of the loom
and of the distributor are in the positions shown in Figs. 1 to 3.
one shuttle by another is controlled first by the arrival of a shuttle in the box
The replacing of
opposite the distributor; this shuttle, at this moment raises a small picker which
puts in action for the following stroke the ascending movement the levers
and the simultaneous consequences of this movement are as follows:-The three
parts a brise by a determined amount and the compartment e takes the place
of the compartment a, in order to receive by means of the flycord the shuttle which

page_text: must leave the loom (see Fig. 4). This compartment being open below the shuttle
In order to avoid
would fall immediately but would disturb the movements.
Fig. 3B
this, the lever l', on rising carries with it a horizontal plate 9 Fig. 3.
This horizontal plate has fixed on its upper surface two lugs or collars
which are adapted to slide on the guides which latter slant inwards towards
the compartments and are fixed below the plate 9 to the bridging piece. These
slanting guide rods cause the plate 9 as it rises with the lever to travel
inwards towards the boxes through a slit in the driver and to just close the lower
part of the compartment c. At the same moment the inclined plane el acting on
the rod, raises it and this movement causes the disengagement of the lower
pins which liberates the bottom shuttle of the supply in the frame and this
shuttle on falling traverses the guide band takes the place of the preceding shuttle
in a. During this time however the upper pins g' on the contrary become engaged
with another shuttle and support in their turn the supply of shuttles. Immediately
the preceding movements are effected, reverse movements take place by reason of
the regulation of the arrangement acting on. These levers descend again, the
plate returns to its first position and the shuttle in c being no longer supported
falls into the space d and leaves the loom in the direction of the arrow.
box o takes its normal position again and the new shuttle is ready to receive the
impulse from the fly-cord. The inclined plane el on redescending liberates the rod t:
consequently the pins g by means of the spring action relieve and take the
place of the pins g' and again support, until the next cycle of movements, the
supply of shuttles of the magazine r. The whole of this cycle of distribution and
replacing must necessarily take place in the short space of time of two strokes of
the driver so as not to produce any loose ends a great fault which must be done
away with.
q
The
It may be noted that the weft-fork acts as usual in stopping the loom and we
can make use of it to operate the change of shuttles but the object is while con-
tinually feeding the loom with weft thread, to avoid the loose ends of weft-thread,
that is why we prefer to apply to it as means for determining the operation of
the change mechanism shuttles with bobbins wound by a method which has
previously been made the subject of an application for Letters Patent to give
notice before the weft thread has been entirely unwound from the shuttle.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I claim
is:-
1st. A device for replacing and exchanging shuttles in looms consisting of, in
combination, a magazine of wound shuttles, means for intermittently feeding a
shuttle to the shuttle-box, a shuttle-box having three compartments, the upper of
which serves as a feed-passage, the middle one as the working part of the box
under normal working conditions and the lowest as an outlet for the unwound
shuttle, and means for operating said shuttle box to effect replacement, sub-
stantially as described.
2nd. In a loom, a shuttle-box having three compartments the upper compart-
ment 6 of which communicates freely below with the middle box a which has no com-
munication with the lowest compartment e, said compartment being alternately
adapted to receive the unwound shuttle and to allow it to escape from the loom,
by means of a reciprocating plate which alternately closes and opens the bottom
of the compartment e substantially as described.
3rd. In a loom, a device for the intermittent feeding of shuttles from a magazine
of superposed shuttles consisting of a pair of upper and a pair of lower pins
adapted to alternately project under and support the lowest shuttle and to after-
nately release the same, one or other pair of pins, always serving to support the
pile, said upper and lower pairs of pins being attached to the upper and lower
ends respectively of centrally pivotted and spring controlled levers adapted to
be operated by a rod engaging with the same, substantially as described.

page_text: 4th. The construction and arrangement of parts, of a device for the replacing and
exchange of shuttles in looms, substantially as described and illustrated in the
accompanying drawings.