An Improved Apparatus for Pressing and Finishing Fabrics.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 6th May, 1891
Complete Specification Left 2nd Jan. 1892-Accepted, 6th Feb., 1892
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Apparatus for Pressing and Finishing Fabrics.
We, JAMES SIDNEY CRITCHLEY, of Yew Bank, Ilkley, IGNATIUS SINGER, of
13 Holker Street, Keighley, and HENRY ATHELSTAN ACWORTH DOMBRAIN, of
High House, Addingham, near Leeds, all in the County of York, do hereby declare
the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
Our invention relates to apparatus for pressing and finishing fabrics, so arranged
as to operate rapidly and continuously without requiring any manipulation except
for introducing and removing the fabric operated on. We provide two rows of
rollers the one row above the other row, all those of the one row revolving in the
one direction and all those of the other row revolving in the opposite direction.
Round each row of rollers passes an endless aprou of flexible metal such as copper,
The rollers are
which may be tightened by an adjustable roller in each case.
hollow, some of them heated by steam or hot water, some of them cooled by cold
water passed through them, and the upper rollers are loaded by weights or springs
so as to press between them the double thickness of metal apron, and the fabric
which being introduced between the aprons at the one end of the rows of rollers,
becomes pressed, heated and cooled as it passes through between the rollers, and
is discharged in finished condition.
Dated this 6th dor of Mar 1891
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicants.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
An Improved Apparatus for Pressing and Finishing Fabrics.
We, JAMES SIDNEY CRITCHLEY, of Yew Bank, Ilkley, IGNATIUS SINGER, of
13, Holker Street, Keighley, and HENRY ATHELSTAN ACWORTH DOMBRAIN, of
High House, Addingham, near Leeds, all in the County of York, 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 :-
For pressing and finishing fabrics according to the methods usually practised
there is required a large expenditure of time and labour in the repeated folding,
papering and pressing to which the fabric has to be subjected, the folding, unfolding
and refolding involving a great amount of manipulation. Our invention has for its
object to abridge the time and reduce the labour involved in this process, by
subjecting the fabric to the action of apparatus which effects the pressing and
finishing rapidly and continuously without requiring any manipulation of the fabric
except that which is necessary for introducing it to the machine and removing it
therefrom. For this purpose we construct and work apparatus such as we shall
describe referring to the accompanying drawings.
Fig. 1 is a side elevation.
Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section.
Fig. 3 is a plan, and
Fig. 4 is a transverse section on the line Z Z of Fig. 1. of a pressing and finishing
machine according to our invention.
In suitable side frames A are provided bearings for the axes of two rows of
rollers, the bearings of the lower rollers R' being stationary, those of the upper
rollers R arranged to slide vertically and pressed down by levers L with adjustable
loads 1, which may be weights as shewn, or might be springs, so that each upper
roller R is made to bear with such pressure as may be desired on two of the lower
rollers R', and, in order that each upper roller may bear fairly on the two lower
CD

page_text: rollers the bearings of the axes of the upper rollers are made with a little side play
so that the rollers accomodate themselves to their position.
All the rollers R¹ R2 are hollow and are all provided with unions for pipes pl p
by which heating or cooling fluids can be supplied or circulated through them.
We supply steam to a number of the rollers towards the left end of the machine,
by pipes Padmitting the steam and discharging the water of condensation, and
through a smaller number towards the right we circulate cooling water admitted
and discharged by the pipes P2. The rollers R' are all driven in the one direction
as indicated by the arrow ', and the rollers R² are all driven at the same surface
speed in the opposite direction as indicated by the arrow 2 by gearing of the
following kind. B and C are two shafts geared together so as to revolve in opposite
directions, either of them having on it the fast and loose pullies D driven by belt
from any suitable motor.
By bevil gear the shaft B drives an upright shaft E, and E drives a horizontal
shaft G at one side of the machine. At the other side the shaft C drives an
upright shaft F, and F drives a horizontal shaft H. On the shafts G and H are
worms K which gear with worm wheels on the lower rollers R', the worms on each
side moving alternate rollers, and the worm wheel in each case on the axis of a
lower roller R' gears with a corresponding obliquely toothed wheel on one of the
upper rollers R. At the left end of the machine are two rollers M and at the
right end are two other rollers N the axes of which have horizontally sliding
bearings strained towards the right by adjustable springs S for which might be
substituted weights attached to cords passing over pullies. A flexible endless
apron Q which is preferably of thin sheet copper made without a joint is passed
half round the lower rollers M and N and over all the rollers R₁; and a corre-
sponding apron Q2 is passed half found the upper rollers M and N and under all
the rollers R2, these aprons being tightened by the action of the springs S or their
equivalents. The machine operates in the following manner. A web of fabric
which has to be finished on both sides, or when only one side has to be finished, two
webs of fabric back to back or a single web rigged or folded double, presenting on
the outer sides the surfaces that are to be finished, are fed in between the aprons
as they pass between the rollers M, and are carried along with them exposed to the
pressure and heating from the first set of the rollers, and to the pressure and cooling
from the last set, until the fabric issues from between the rollers N with its surfaces
more or less finished. The operation may be repeated several times if necessary
and in some cases it is of advantage to employ webs of suitable paper interposed
between the metal aprons and the fabric operated on.
In order to fix the finish on the fabric it is sometimes necessary to expose it to
the action of low pressure steam. This may be done by operating on it in a
separate machine enclosed in a casing to which steam is admitted; or a machine
such as is above described may be divided into two parts, that part which contains
the heated rollers being enclosed in a casing supplied with steam.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :-
Apparatus for pressing and finishing fabrics consisting of an upper and a lower
row of rollers, some of them heated and some cooled the upper rollers pressed down
by adjustable loads, two endless flexible metallic aprons the one passing under the
upper rollers, the other over the lower rollers, and both passing half round guide
and stretching rollers at the ends of the machine, in combination with suitable
gearing driving the upper and lower rollers in opposite directions, substantially as
and for the purposes set forth.
Dated this 2nd day of January 1809
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicants.