Improved Apparatus for Expanding or Stretching Woven Fabrics.
Year: 1885

page_text: COMPLETE
Improved Apparatus for Expanding or Stretching Woven
Fabrics.
We JOSEPH ARNFIELD, EDWIN ARNFIELD, and THOMAS OWEN ARNFIELD all
of New Mills in the County of Derby Millwrights and Engineers do hereby declare
the nature of our invention for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR EXPANDING OR
STRETCHING WOVEN FABRICS" 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 what are known as "Expanding rollers" which are
employed by bleachers, calico printers and others in various machines for the
purpose of expanding or stretching calico and other woven fabrics transversely
from selvage to selvage or to restore it to its original width before, after or during
bleaching, printing dyeing and other operations.
These expanding rollers have hitherto been made either of a number of
longitudinal lags or bars fitting together side by side, and capable of sliding
between each other, being acted upon by grooved discs at each end, or they have
been composed of a number of rings or bushes mounted loosely upon a shaft and
capable of being tilted at different angles to the axis of the shaft, the action of
these compound expanding rollers being that the "taking-on" side of the (or that
upon which the fabric is first received) is always the narrowest, and that as the
roller revolves and carries the cloth with it (or is carried round by the "pull" of
the cloth) it gradually expands in width, or longitudinally, until it delivers the
cloth at the opposite or "letting-off" side, after which it again gradually collapses
until it reaches the taking-on point again.
We propose to construct these expanding rollers each from two spiral springs
(one a right handed and the other a left handed spiral) the practical construction
and application of which we will now proceed to describe reference being had
to the sheet of drawings hereto annexed and to the figures and letters marked
thereon.
Fig. 1. on the drawing is an elevation of the "taking-on" side of our improved
expanding roller.
Fig. 2. is an end view of the same.
Fig. 3. is a section through the line A-B in Fig. 1.
Fig. 4. is a horizontal section through the line C-D in Fig. 2.
Fig. 5. is a section through the line, E-F in Fig. 4; and Fig. 6. is a section
through the line G-H in the same Fig.
1

page_text: The springs are further secured and connected to the pulley or drum by means of
pins f,f(see Fig. 6).
In order to prevent the cloth from falling into the spiral grooves, the edges of
the latter are not made in a straight line but are provided with tongues g, g which
fit into and are supported by corresponding pockets or recesses h, h in the edge of
the adjacent coil (see also the enlarged sections Fig. 10 and 11) and in order that
they may expand equally the inner coils of the springs are made narrowest and
they are made gradually wider towards the outer or end coils.
The surface of the rings must be roughened up into the form of teeth, so as to
take a firm hold of the cloth, preferably by planing longitudinal grooves and
turning circumferential, or spiral grooves crossing the same at a right or other
suitable angle as shown at Figs. 10 and 11.
Inside the outer coil, at each end, is rivetted or otherwise fixed an end piece i, i
(see Fig. 5) which carries three rollers j,jj running in the groove of the expanding
discs k, k, which are provided with anti-friction rollers 1, 2 running inside the end
pieces i, i (see Figs. 4 and 5).
These grooved expanding discs k, k are connected by links m m to nuts n, n
through which work screws o, o at each end of a rod which passes through the
hollow axle d, d, upon turning which by means of a winch handle the diagonal
position of the grooved discs k, k (and consequently the amount of expansion of
the springs a, a) is regulated.
The discs k, k are also provided with pins working in the slotted pieces p, p and
with what we call a "swing-gate" q, q the action of which is to keep the discs in
their correct position so as to maintain the true cylindrical form of the roller.
Fig. 7 is an enlarged side view of this part of the apparatus. Fig. 8 is a vertical
section of the same, and Fig. 9. a section through the line I-J in Fig. 8.
The "swing gate" q, q is pivotted to the disc k, k and also to the fixed bearing
and supports the disc k, k allowing it to move in a curve whilst the pin working
in the slotted piece p, p allows it to rise and fall but not to move endwise of the
axle, so that the latter acts as a fulcrum to resist the thrust or pull of the
links m, m whilst the "swing-gate" q, q controls the action of the disc k, k and
only allows it to move in the curved path requisite to maintain the proper form of
the spring cylinder at the ends.
The action of this improved expanding roller is the same as that of other rollers
of this class, that is to say as the roller revolves, the bowls j, j, j running in the
grooves of the discs k, k which are fixed in a diagonal position (as shown at Fig. 4)
cause the springs a, a to be compressed at the "taking-on" side and gradually
expanded towards the "letting-off" side continuously.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what
we claim is
First. The construction of expanding rollers from the reversed spiral springs
substantially as herein before described and illustrated by the drawing annexed.
Secondly. We claim the construction and application of the "swing-gate" for
keeping the grooved expanding discs in their correct position so as to maintain 4
the true cylindrical form of the roller and prevent undue curving of the springs at
the outer ends.