Flat Carding Engines.
Year: 1888

page_text: Flat Carding Engines.
WC, JOHN WANKLYN MCCONNEL, Cotton Spinner, and JOSEPH HIGGINSON Junior,
manager, both of Henry Street, Ancoats, Manchester in the County of Lancaster 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 :-
Our invention relates to Apparatus for grinding the flats of revolving flat Carding
engines while said flats are supported on their working surfaces upon a wedge sliding-
on a guide under the grinding roller in a similar manner as in the apparatus for
which Letters Patent were granted to Thomas Clegg & Thomas Lucas dated the 19th
of February 1874 and numbered 623.
Our improvement consists in means for compelling the flats to release the wedge as
soon as the wires have been ground and for facilitating this release and in so arranging
the slide that it does not become clogged with fluff and dirt which would impede its
free movement and impair the accuracy of the grinding.
On the sheet of drawings appended hereunto fig. I shows a side view partly in
section of our improved apparatus with the flats in the positions they occupy before and
after they are ground.
Fig. 2, a similar side view with one of the flats in the position it occupies while being.
ground.
-
Fig. 3, a cross section through the guide and slide.
Fig. 4, an enlarged side view of the wedge, only the parts relating to our invention
are shown on the drawings, the bends of the carding engine being omitted.
Our improved apparatus is attached to the bracket a upon which the bracket
supporting the grinding roller c is fixed. This bracket has bosses a' (fig. 3) cast upon
Pine 8.171
:

page_text: it to which the guido c is attached by bolts or screws c¹. One of our improvements
consists in making the guide e hollow or tubular with a narrow slit at the bottom,
through which the web d¹ connecting the wedge d with the slide passes. The wedge
is mado broad as shewn so as to have a good bearing upon the guide c. The slide
may be made round as shewn on the drawings, or square, or polygonal, the tubular
guide being made of corresponding shape, and the latter may be made in parts bolted
or screwed together instead of solid as shewn on the drawings. A spring e is inserted
into the tube which is closed by screw e¹ and presses the slide and wedge d to the
left against an adjustable stop e³, a piece of indiarubber or leather es being inserted to
mitigate the shock. Below the guide c we arrange a lever h or its equivalent, said
lever being fixed upon a short shaft foscillating in the bracket a and having fixed
upon its other end a leverf loaded at the end with a weight for its equivalent,
which holds the levers in the position shown on fig. 1 when there is no flat between
the lever h and the wedge d, an adjustable screw ƒ³ forming a stop against the grinding
bracket. Below the guide c the lever has a face h¹ of about the same width as a
card fillet centrally below the grinding roller and a short incline 72 in front of it. One
such apparatus as herein before described is arranged on each side of the carding
engine. g.g. are two flats connected as usual by links and travelling in the direction
of the arrow on the return bend (not shown) above the carding engine. As the flats
travel along the lug 9 of each flat coming successively against the incline his lifted
up and the flat pressed against the wedged by the lever. The corner 91 of the flats
seizes the projection d³ of the wedge and carries it along with it under the grinding roller,
as shown on fig. 2. The wedge and guide are arranged above those parts g g of the flats
with which they travel on the bend of the carding engine while working and as the
same wedge is interposed between the guide and these surfaces in all the flats,
all are ground at exactly the same inclination to their working surfaces, and
irregularity of wear on these surfaces will have no effect upon the correctness of the
inclination of the surface of the wires when in its working position on the Carding
cylinder. The surface of the wedge on which the flats bear is curved to the same
radius as the bend on which the flats travel when working, as shewn by fig. 4. When
the lug g' of the flat has passed the face h¹ it can droff off the lever Z, but its weight
being found insufficient to cause it to do so quickly, so that the spring can return the
wedged into the position shewn on fig. 1 ready for the next following flat, as the
pressure of the spring e holds the wedge against the flat, we facilitate the liberation of
the wedge by making the projection seized by the flat inclined to the guide instead
square, as shown at d' on fig. 4, and make the part of the flats seizing the projection
of corresponding shape, whereby the release of the wedge by the flats is greatly
facilitatod. However, one of these parts only may be made inclined and the other
square if preferred. In addition to this we apply means for forcing the flat away
from the wedge as soon as the lug on its back has reached the end of the lever h.
This may be done as shewn on the drawings by attaching to the inside of the guide c
a plate having an inclined projection k¹ against which the flat comes as soon as the
k
lug on its back has passed over the face and which forces it down and causes it
to release the wedge d. We do not confine ourselves to this device, but other means
for forcing the flat to release the wedge may be employed, for instance a spring
blade attached to the wedge and pressing upon the flat with a downward pressure
less than the upward pressure upon the flat of the lever / may be used and will produce
the same result.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is,
In Apparatus for grinding the flats of revolving flat carding engines while said flats
are supported on their working surfaces on sliding wedges,
Firstly, the arrangement of tubular guides for the wedge slide substantially as
herein before described and illnatrated her the dunwinne

page_text: Secondly, forming the projection on the wedge and the part of the flat coming against
said projection or either of them inclined at an obtuse angle to the sliding surface,
substantially as described and illustrated and for the purpose set forth.
Thirdly, forcing the flats away from the wedge after the wire has been ground,
substantially as herein before described and for the purpose set forth.
Fourthly, the plate k with incline k¹ for forcing the flat away from the wedge after
the wire has been ground.
EMMOTT & Co.,
Agents for the Applicants.