IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR DRYING CUT PILE FABRICS
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Worrall, of Ordsall, Salford, in the County of
Lancaster, Dyer, for an Invention of "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR DRYING
CUT PILE FABRICS,"
E
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Worrall at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 29th September 1881.
JAMES WORRALL, of Ordsall, Salford, in the County of Lancaster, Dyer.
IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR DRYING CUT PILE FABRICS."
The main object of this Invention is to provide a means for drying cut pile fabrics
after undergoing any or all of the processes of scouring, bleaching, padding, dyeing,
printing, and finishing in a manner that will ensure their being kept from curling
and creasing while subjected to the heat of the stove or drying chamber and
for preventing the pile from being crushed while in a wet or damp state.
The Invention also provides for the running of fabrics of different widths, in
succession, through the stove without its being requisite, as heretofore, to readjust
the tension apparatus to suit the various widths of fabric.
In attaining these advantages I propose to employ a pair or pairs of endless
tenter chains for carrying the fabrics into, through, and out of the stove, which
chains I so arrange by passing them over rollers or pullies and over pendent guides,
that they will carry the fabrics through the stove without subjecting their faces to
the pressure of any guide bar or roller.
The stove or heated chamber may be built of some 60 feet or more in height,
and of a width to receive one, two, or more pairs of chains.
In the upper part of this chamber I mount a set of some twenty rollers (more or
less) for supporting the fabrics on their chains in pendent folds, and I provide chain
wheels for guiding and driving the chains in their passage through the chamber.
Pendent from the upper part of the chamber are pairs of guide bars, over which
the chains, as they leave one roller and approach the other, pass.
These guide bars are intended to hold the chains apart, and thereby to secure a
proper lateral tension for the fabrics which they carry while under treatment in
the stove.

page_text: For this purpose the guide bars are constructed of jointed pieces which will give
them a flexibility in the direction of the width of the fabric.
These guide bars are curved backwards at their lower ends, so that the bars
which are placed back to back will form at their lower ends curved guides for the
chains to pass under.
Sliding over the outer edges of all these guide bars are lateral hooked extensions
of the chains, and each section of guide bar is caused by a weight or spring pressure
to set the chains as far apart as the width of the fabric that is applied thereto will
allow. Thus the guide bars will give the chains a tendency to adapt themselves
to any width of fabric, the guide bars yielding to suit variations in the width.
The heating of the stove or chamber will be effected preferably by dry air heated
by fire or by means of gas burners supplied with air so as to produce a blue flame.
The leated air or gases of combustion may be guided upwards and out of the
chamber by any suitable arrangement of pipes pendent between the folds of the
fabric to be dried.
The fabrics for which the above described apparatus is specially adapted are silk
and cotton unions, cotton plushes, commonly known as plushes, velvets, velveteens,
cords, and cotton twills with raised or napped surface.
For a certain class of cut pile fabrics when they have no selvages, or selvages so
woven as to be equal on opposite edges of the fabric and not very liable to curl or
turn in, the tension chains may be dispensed with, card rollers or roughened rollers
acting upon the back of the fabrics being used to traverse the fabrics through the
stove or heated chamber. The fabrics will as above described. hang down in folds
froin the overhead rollers, and they may with advantage be drawn over "fish back
-plates, or an equivalent contrivance for giving them a lateral tension both before
reaching and after passing the card rollers.
"
Provision must be made for stripping-the-fabric-from-the-card-rollers,_as_the_
fabric will have a tendency to adhere to and lap around the rollers. Various means
may be adopted for this purpose, as, for example, rotary beaters or a reciprocating
dofting bar.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said James Worrall in the Great Soal Patent Office on the 29th March
1882.
JAMES WORRALL, of Ordsall, Salford, in the County of Lancaster, Dyer.
"IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR DRYING CUT PILE FABRICS."
The main object of this Invention is to provide a means for drying cut pile fabrics
after undergoing any or all of the processes of scouring, bleaching, padding, dyeing,
printing, and finishing in a manner that will insure their being kept from curling
and creasing while subjected to the heat of the stove or drying chamber, and for
preventing the pile from being crushed while in a wet or damp state.
The Invention also provides for the running of fabrics of different widths in suc-
cession through the stove without its being requisite as heretofore to readjust the
tension apparatus to suit the various widths of fabric.
In attaining these advantages I propose to employ a pair or pairs of endless
tenter chains for carrying the fabrics into, through, and out of the stove, which chains
I so arrange by passing them over rollers or pullies and over pendent guides that
they will carry the fabrics through the stove without subjecting their faces to the
pressure of any guide-bar or roller.
The stove or heated chamber may be built of some sixty feet or moro in height,
and of a width to receive one, two, or more pairs of chains.
In the upper part of this chamber I mount a set of some twenty rollers (more or
less) for supporting the fabrics on their chains in pendent folds, and for guiding
and driving the chains in their passage through the chamber.
Pendent from the upper part of the chamber are serpentine guides, over and
under which the chains travel.
These guides are intended to hold the chains apart, and thereby to securo a proper
lateral tension for the fabrics which they carry while under treatment in the stove.
For this purpose one of the guides is rigid and made fast to fixed points and the
other is constructed of bars jointed together so as to afford it flexibility in the
direction of the width of the fabric.
Sliding over the outer edges of these guides are lateral hooked extensions of the
chains and each section of the jointed guide is caused by a weight to keep the
chains as far apart as the width of the fabric that is applied thereto will allow.
Thus the chains will have a tendency to adapt themselves to any width of fabric,
the adjustablo guide yielding to suit variations in the width.
In Sheet I. of the accompanying Drawings, Fig. 1 shews in partial longitudinal
section a stove or drying chamber fitted with apparatus according to my Invention,
and Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the same, taken on the line 1, 2, of Fig. 1.
In Sheet II. I bave shewn in detail certain parts of the apparatus to illustrate
more clearly the construction of those parts.
A, A, Figures 1 and 2, is a closed chamber or stove built of brick or other suitable
materials, and having compartments B, B, at one end cut off from the heat for the
attendants engaged in attaching the fabrics to the travelling chains, and stripping
them therefrom when dried.
C, C, is a series of top rollers for receiving the the tenter chains, and C* are
lower rollers around which the chains also pass. The axles of these rollers are
mounted in bearings supported by longitudinal and transverse girders D, D*.
E, E, are the serpentine guides over and under which the tenter chains F, F',
travel such chains, receiving motion from the rollers C. The serpentine guides are
pendent from brackets E', carried by the longitudinal bars D.
The serpentine guide E is a rigid fixed guide, but the guide E* besides being

page_text: jointed as already explained, is capable of receiving a lateral movement bodily, such
movement being limited by the fabric which it holds in lateral tension.
The upper parts of the guides E, E*, which constitute a fold or lap, are connected
together by stays e. The uppermost of these stays form the points of support for
the pendent guides. Thus the uppermost stays of each lap or fold of the guide E
are made fast to the transverse rods E', and the uppermost stays of the guide E*
are each fitted with a guide roller c¹, which is free to run upon the bracket E' when
it is desired to contract or enlarge the width of the space between the chains.
The construction of the the tenter chains and the mode of fitting them to the
rollers C and to the pendent serpentine guides is best illustrated in the detached
views, Figures 3 and 4, which shew the parts on an enlarged scale.
The chain has fitted to it throughout its whole length at some four inches
apart short transverse bars f with hooked extensions. These bars are fitted with
tenter pins and serve as teeth for interlocking with grooves or recesses cut
longitudinally in the peripheries of the rollers C and their booked extensions
embrace the outer edges of the serpentine guides.
This description refers equally to the chains F and F*.
e are the hinges of the guide E* by which the bars composing the guide are
connected together. These hinges are coupled up in pairs by means of a hinge
pin common to both, e are links which serve to connect each hinge pin e³ with
the vertical arm of a bell crank lever e². These levers are pivotted to longitudinal
rods D¹ which are carried by transverse bars D² supported by the walls of the
chamber.
The horizontal arms of the crank levers are weighted and thus a tendency
is-given-to-the-serpentine_guide_E* to recede from the fixed guide E and
thereby maintain in lateral tension the fabric placed in the travelling chains.-
To permit of this the rollers C are divided-transversely-into-two parts, that part
which is nearest the fixed guide being keyed to its axle, while the end nearest the
flexible guide is free to slide on a feather on its axle.
To prevent an undue lateral movement of the chain F* when not held back
by the cloth stops should be provided to check the movement of the weighted
bell crank levers.
The endless chains F, F* are led out of the chamber and are conducted by
guide rollers and vertical guides through the compartments B for the purpose of
receiving the fabric to be dried which is placed on the chains at the upper part of
the building and of being stripped from the chains as it comes out from the stove
or chamber A.
G is a stripping roller to which the end of the fabric is attached, and rotary
motion being given to this roller by means of a slip belt the dried fabric is stripped
from the chains and coiled up upon the roller.
When a length of cloth has thus been taken up the roller is removed and replaced
by an empty roller.
H is the main driving shaft from which the roller G receives its motion. This
shaft is fitted with a band-pulley which transmits motion through a driving band
H to a larger pulley on the longitudinal shaft H. This shaft H is fitted
with a series of mitro wheels which gear into mitre wheels on the axles of the
rollers C and into a mitre wheel on the axle of the guide roller I which serves to
guide into the chamber A the chains as the fabric to be dried is attached to the
tenter pins.
To facilitate the attachment of the fabric to the chains the guides (one or both)
in the upper compartment B should be made adjustable so as to bring the chains
sufficiently near together to enable the attendants to place the unstretched fabric
readily on the tenter pins.
As the fabric enters the chamber A the laterally adjustable chain F* will
by the outward pressure of the serpentine guide E* be brought to lateral tension
the loose ends of the rollers C perimitting of their sliding with the lapped chain
'endwise on their axles,

page_text: By reference to Figures 3 and 4 it will be seen that the upper parts of the
serpentine guides are cut away so as to present the underlying rollers C to the
chains and the rollers thus serve to support the back of the fabric as well as to
drive the chains.
The fabric as it leaves the washing apparatus is brought in a folded or lapped
form to the upper compartment B, and as the chains are slowly travelling forward,
the attendants having adjusted the chains to the proper width for receiving
the fabric, seize the end thereof and lay it upon the travelling teuter pins,
guiding it as it moves forward so that the pins shall take a proper hold of the
selvages.
Should the next succeeding piece vary greatly in width from that last placed
upon the chains it will be desirable to stop the feeding on until a length of chains
equal to one loop of the serpentine guide has passed into the chamber A empty.
The feeding may then be recommenced and the variation in the width will then
be compensated for by the action of the weighted bell crank levers which will
either allow the moveable guide E to yield to the lateral drag of the fabric or
will move outwards that guide with its chain F* until the requisite lateral tension
ou the fabric is reached.
For the sake of simplifying the Drawing only one pair of chains and serpentine
guides are shewn, but it will be obvious that two or more sets of tentering
apparatus may be arranged side by side in the stove or drying chamber, the
same being driven independently and arranged to take the same or different widths
of cloth.
For the heating of the stove or chamber A, I may use any suitable steam or
hot air apparatus which will distribute dry heat equally throughout the stove or
chamber.
For ventilating the chamber suitable provision should be made in the roof as
indicated in the Drawing, the object being to discharge the vapour given off by
the fabric under treatment and to regulate the temperature of the chamber should
any excess of heat be indicated therein.
The fabrics for which the above described apparatus is specially adapted are silk
and cotton unions, cotton plushes, commonly known as plushes, velvets, velveteens,
cords, and cotton twills with raised or napped surface.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "Improved Apparatus
for Drying Cut Pile Fabrics," and explained the manner of carrying the same into
effect. I wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited Letters
Patent,
I claim,-
Dinat
The use of cementine cuides for cuiding the endless tenter chains in stovna
Patent,
I claim,-
Final The use of commenting guides for guiding the endless tenter chains in stovce
or drying chambers as above described with reference to the Drawings.
Secondly. Constructing the adjustable serpentine guides of jointed pieces as and
for the purpose above described.
Thirdly. In combination with serpentine guides the use of tenter chains
constructed with guiding hooks as described with reference to Figures 3 and 4 of
the Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Worrall, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Twenty fifth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty two.
JAMES WORKALL. (LS.)