IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR DRYING FABRICS AT TENSION
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by. Robert Frederick Carey, William
Henry Carey, and William Partington at the Office of the Commissioners
of Patents on the 23rd July 1881.
ROBERT FREDERICK CAREY, WILLIAM HENRY CAREY, and WILLIAM PARTINGTON,
all of Bulwell, in the County of Nottingham, Bleachers and Finishers.
'IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR DRYING FABRICS AT TENSION."
"1
The object of this Invention is to simplify and expedite the operation of drying
fabrics which have undergone a wet process such as that of bleaching or starching,
or it may be dyeing.
Hitherto in the bleaching and finishing of lace fabrics it has been usual to take
the fabric as it leaves the starching trough, and guide it under and over heating or
calendering rollers, known in the trade as "steam drying cans," then to lead the
fabric to an endless chain tentering machine contained in a heated chamber. The
length of this machine measures from 30 yards and upwards, and it is not only
costly of construction but requires a large chamber for its reception, the heating of
which chamber is very costly. The fabric while at tension on this machine travels
slowly forward, the rate of its progress being determined by the rate at which the
fabric becomes dryed. If, therefore, this drying operation could be expedited, a
machine much shorter in length would suffice to expose it to the heat. even though
the rate of travel of the fabric were not increased. To provide for the more
expeditious drying of lace fabrics we enclose the upper portion of the endless chains
which carry the fabric within an expanding horizontal flat tube which is intended
to receive currents of hot air, and is capable of expanding and contracting laterally
as the chains are adjusted to hold the fabric stretched from selvage to selvage.
The chains, whether fitted with tenter pins or clamps, are actuated in the ordinary or
any approved manner, and they are caused to travel along adjustable horizontal
guides supported at intervals by standards. These guides serve also to support
the heating tube, which is composed of lengths of sheet metal secured at one edge
to their respective guide bars. The tube will consist of four lengths of sheet
metal, two lengths forming the upper side of the tube and two the underside,
which are carried by their respective guide bars, the inner edges of the sheet metal
overlapping the one the other, so as to allow for contraction and expansion of the
Din 971

page_text: tube in the direction of its width. To support these lengths of sheet metal
transversely they are provided with eyes for the reception of transverse guide rods.
They are also further supported by bracket bars which are bolted to the guide
bars. It will now be understood that as the guide bars are shifted laterally the
heating tube will be at the same time contracted or expanded to suite the varying
widths of fabric under treatment. The forward end of the tube is furnished
with a curtain above the fabric to prevent the escape of heated air in that direction,
and the front end of the tube below the fabric is filled by the mouth of the pipe
which conveys the hot blast to the machine. The rear end of the tube is open, or
it may be connected with a flue for conducting off the heated air after it has acted
upon the fabric and with it the moisture which it has driven off. By admitting
the hot air blast at the forward end of the tube it will meet the slowly advancing
fabric, and will thus, in a most efficient manner, effect the evaporation of the
moisture contained in the fabric carrying it rearwards, and thereby utilizing the
heat contained in the vapour to dry the advancing portions of the fabric. By the
use of this arrangement of apparatus not only may the length of the tentering
machine be greatly reduced, but the use of "steam drying cans will be rendered
unnecessary as the fabric may be led directly from the starching trough to the
tentering machine. It should be remarked that the means above described for
bringing the air into contact with the fabric on the tentering machine may with
advantage be applied when other fabrics than lace are required to be dried at
tension.
"