Process of and Apparatus for Cleaning or Preparing Tow and other Flax Fibres.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 12th Feb., 1898-Accepted, 19th Mar., 1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Process of and Apparatus for Cleaning or Preparing Tow and
other Flax Fibres.
I, OLIVER IMRAY, of Birkbeck Bank Chambers, Southampton Buildings, in the County
of London, Chartered Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
(which has been communicated to me from abroad by United States Flax Fibre
Company, of 203, Broadway, New York, United States of America), 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 the cleaning of flax fibre; the process and apparatus:
being especially applicable for cleaning the short fibred waste tow, as well as the short
fibre of flax plants grown for the purpose of producing seed only, which is practically a
waste product before the carding and spinning of such fibres, the tangled mass of
which is filled with shive or portions of the woody bark of the plant to which the
tow fibre tightly clings, so that it cannot be shaken out. It is to be understood that
the cleaning process is preliminary to, and quite independent of, and different from,.
the process of carding. It merely serves to prepare the fibre for carding, which
operation can then be carried out in the same manner as with clean fibre which has
not been subjected to this cleaning treatment. The material to be treated has always
heretofore been a waste product, disposed of by burning, or to a limited extent
utilised as a cheap packing material, or in the manufacture of paper. The fibre is
too short to be capable of being practically treated by machinery or methods
heretofore known. It is in fact the refuse material combed out of the long fibre
stock, and it carries with it the shive worked out from the stock.
The quantities of this waste product, annually produced, are enormous, and all
efforts to save and utilise it have heretofore entirely failed, although the fibre itself
when cleaned is for many purposes equal, or even superior, to the long fibre. As the
material is itself the waste combed out of the long fibre it cannot be cleaned by like
machinery or processes, but other means must be employed to separate the shive
from the fibre. By means of the present invention, this is accomplished, so that
when the process is completed the material can be delivered directly to the carding
inachine, wholly free from foreign matter, while the fibres may be in as confused and
tangled a mass as before treatment, to be straightened and laid by the card in condi-
tion for spinning. Any long fibres in the mass are also broken in the cleaning
operation so that all the fibres are sufficiently uniform in length to be successfully
worked.
The gist of the invention consists in so subjecting the confused and uncombed
mass to the influence of centrifugal force as to throw out of it the shive, which is
thereby entirely separated, or is detached and thrown out by other means.
In order
to subject all portions of the mass to the efficient influence of centrifugal action, it
is necessary to bring them all to the exterior of the mass where no fibre can confine
and restrain the shive. It is also important to thoroughly stir and disintegrate the
mass, to assist in detaching the fibre from the shive and permit it to be thrown out.
The amount of applied centrifugal force should also be gradually increased as the

page_text: cleaning proceeds, the heavier or larger particles being first thrown off, and the
speed finally attained being sufficient to remove even the lightest and smallest
particles.
.
For carrying out the process, a set of toothed cylinders is preferably employed,
rotated oppositely adjacent to each other and at progressively increasing peripheral
speeds. The material is thus carried alternately over and under the cylinders
according to direction of their rotation. Each cylinder as it rotates at higher speed
than its predecessor seizes and draws off the material, separating and subdividing it,
and reversing its surface exposure. Preferably above each alternate cylinder over
which the material is carried, is arrranged a toothed roll which penetrates the mass
and picks and loosens it as it passes. Also under the cylinders under which the
material is carried are arranged abutments or stops, preferably with crimped or
serrated edges, which are close to but without penetrating the material upon the
cylinders, and against which are whipped off the particles of shive which are projected
beyond the cylinder, but are held from dislodgement by the clinging fibre. The
construction, arrangement and operation of the machine will be described with
reference to the accompanying drawings.
Figure 1 shews a side elevation, parts of the frame being broken away to shew the
internal parts.
Figure 2 is a plan.
Figure 3 shews the manner of connecting the stops to the frame under the
cylinder.
Figures 4 and 5 shew parts of a serrated stop.
Figures 6 and 7 shew parts of a crimped stop; and
Figures 8 and 9 shew parts of a straight edged stop.
A is the frame supporting in suitable bearings the axes of cylinders 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
and 7 having diameters increasing from the receiving or feeding end to the delivery
end, so that when they are driven at equal angular velocity their peripheries have
progressively increasing velocities. The cylinders are clothed with suitable wire
teeth, either straight or inclined in the direction of rotation, and they are rotated
The main driving
oppositely, as indicated by the arrows in the following manner.
shaft, 9, driven by any suitable motor carries a pulley, 11, from which belt, 12,
conveys motion to the shaft of the cylinder, 5, 6 and 7. On the other end of the
shaft, 9, is a pulley, 19, driving by a crossed belt, 20, a similar pulley, 21, on the
shaft, 22. On the shaft, 22, is a pulley 23, by the belt 24, drives the shafts of
the cylinders 2, 3 and 4 at the same angular velocity as those of the cylinders 5,6
and 7.
Adjacent to the cylinder 2, are rolls 31 and 32, and above 32, a clearing-roll 33, all
clothed with suitable teeth. The roll 31, is driven from a pulley on the shaft 22, by
the crossed belt 34. The rolls 32 and 33 are driven from the roll 31, by the belt, 37.
The endless feed belt, 38, is driven from the roll 39, which is driven by the straight
belt 41, running over equal pulleys on the shaft 22, and on the shaft of the roll 39.
Above each of the cylinders 3, 5 and 7, is mounted a toothed roll 44, driven by a
crossed belt from a pulley upon the shaft of the cylinder. At the delivery end of the
machine is arranged the clearing comb or brush 47, carried by arms 48, 49 and 50,
of a rock-shaft 51, which is rocked by a pitman 52, from a crank 53, actuated by a
link connection 54, from the pulley 55, which is driven from the shaft of the
cylinder, 7, by the belt 56. On an inclined table 58 the material cleared from the
-cylinder 7, drops and is carried from the machine. Under each of the cylinders 2, 4, 6
is a cross-bar 59, upon each side of which is fixed a stop 60, and under the
cylinders 3, 5, 7 are cross-bars 61, each carrying a single stop 62. These stops are
set so close to the teeth of the cylinders as to be struck by the shive which is
projected from the mass of tow by centrifugal force, but clings to the fibres, until
torn off by the stops. In some cases it is preferable to use stops as shewn in
Figures 4 and 5, having a bevelled serrated edge, in other cases the stops as shewn in
Figures 6 and 7, and in other cases straight edged stops as in Figures 7 and 8. For
+

page_text: ordinary purposes the most useful forms are those with serrated and crimped
edges.
The tow is delivered in a thin layer over the feed-belt 28, between the feed-
rolls, 31 and 32, on the downwardly rotating cylinder 2, thence it passes half way
around the cylinder until cleared from it by the oppositely rotating cylinder, 3,
which picks it off and carries it upward and underneath the toothed roll 44, which
loosens and stirs it still more. From this cylinder, it is taken by the cylinder 4, and
so on through the series. Each cylinder has a greater peripheral speed than the
preceding, and the teeth of the former consequently strike into the mass of tow on
the other and pull it off therefrom. In so doing the tow is separated and disintegrated
and is reversed in position upon the receiving cylinder whereby the under-surface of
the layer on one cylinder becomes the outer surface of the next, and in the progress
of the mass through the machine, all portions at some time are brought to the
surface, so that the centrifugal action upon the shive is unrestrained by any super-
imposed fibre: Every particle of foreign matter is thus thrown out of and separated
from the tow by centrifugal force, or, if adhering to the fibres, is whipped off by the
stops against which it strikes as carried around by the ballooning fibre of the mass.
The pulling off of the tow by one cylinder from the other, also serves to break up
any long fibres, and reduce all to substantially uniform length. The function of the
stirring rolls, is to assist by their loosening of the mass, the detaching and freeing of
foreign matter, which does not so tenaciously adhere to the fibre as to require to be
whipped off by the stops, but will be thrown out by centrifugal force alone. The
number of cylinders and their degree of speed are such as to thoroughly clean the
fibre, which is finally cleared off from the last cylinder by the comb or brush, 47, and
delivered in a confused and tangled mass, to be afterwards carded.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. A process for cleaning flax fibres from shive and other impurities by subjecting
them to centrifugal action increasing step by step while picking and loosening them,
substantially as described.
2. For cleaning flax fibres as above set forth, apparatus comprising a series of
toothed cylinders of successively increasing diameter in combination with loosening
rollers and stops, substantially as described with reference to the drawings.
Dated this 12th day o February 1X9X
Dated this 12th day of February 1898
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.