IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESSES FOR BUNDLING YARNS
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Steven, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESSES
FOR BUNDLING YARNS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Steven at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 27th August 1878.
ALEXANDER STEVEN, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESSES FOR BUNDLING YARNS."
This Invention has for its object to simplify and reduce the cost of presses for
bundling yarns, and to render their use less laborious than is the case with such
presses as hitherto made.
The improved press is made with the usual side plates, having spaces or slote
between them for passing the strings with which the yarns when compressed into
a bundle are to be tied, but instead of there being a separate cover to each pair of
side plates, a single cover is applied to the entire series; this cover being formed
with grooves across its under side for the strings. The cover is made with lips to
catch the tops of the side plates, and it is held by rods at the ends, the lower ends
of the rods being fitted on eccentrics or cranks which, when turned up, lift the
cover clear of the side plates, and allow of its being turned over to one side when
introducing the yarns or removing the bundles. The rising follower or pressing
plate may be moved by means of gearing and a crank or eccentric as heretofore,
but it is by preference arranged as in a hydrostatic press, so as to be moved by
water pressure acting in a cylinder placed in the lower part of the machine.
To expedite the descent of the pressing plate after each pressing operation, the
bydraulic cylinder is by preference arranged so that the water pressure can be
Inade to act downwards as well as upwards.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Alexander Steven in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 25th
February 1879.
ALEXANDER STEVEN, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESSES FOR BUNDLING YARNS."
My said Invention has for its object to simplify and reduce the cost of presses for
for bundling yarns, and to render their use less laborious than is the case with such
presses as hitherto made.
My improved press is made with the usual side pale, having spaces or slots
between them for passing the strings with which the yarns when compressed into
a bundle are to be tied, but instead of there being a separate cover to each pair of
side plates, a single cover is applied to the entire series. The cover is held by
parts, by means of which it can be raised clear of the top edges of the side plates,
and be moved to one side to give access for introducing the yarns or removing the
bundles. The rising follower or pressing plate may be moved by menus of gearing
and a crank or eccentric as heretofore, but it is by preference arranged as in a
hydrostatic press, so as to be moved by water pressure acting in a cylinder placed
in the lower part of the machine.
And in order that my said Invention, and the manner of perforining the same
may be properly understood, I hereunto append a Sheet of explanatory Drawings
to be herein-after referred to, and representing a yarn bundling press as made with
my improvements. In these Drawings, the same reference numerals are used to
mark the same or like parts wherever they are repeated.
Figure 1 on the accompanying Sheet of Drawings is a plan; Figure 2 is a sido
elevation; Figure 3 is a longitudinal vertical section; and Figure 4 is an end
elevation.
The framing of the machine comprises two vertical frame plates 5, 6, connected
by stays 7, and having bolted to and between them a vertical hydraulic cylinder 8.
The rain or rod 9 of this cylinder works through a stuffing box at the top, and
carries a rising follower 10 which has upon its upper side a groove board 11, which
is the table on which the yarns to be bundled are laid.
A series of vertical side plates 12 are bolted to the upper parts of the frame
plates 5, 6, in a manner to leave narrow interstices or slots between them coinci-
dently with the grooves in the board 11. These side plates 12 are formed with
grooves across their lower parts to fit on ribs formed on the insides of the frame
plates 5, 6, an arrangement which secures the correct placing of the side plates 12,
and admits of each being fixed by a single bolt.
The cover 13 which I prefer to make of brass, is a single casting which may bo
described as consisting of a series of cover plates corresponding to the several pairs
of side plates 12, such plates being united at their middles, but so as to leave
grooves across, underneath, in continuation of the interstices or spaces between
them at each side for the strings with which the yarns are tied up on being com-
pressed into bundles.
The cover plates are each formed with strengthening ribs 14 along their middles,
and a central longitudinal rib 15 uniting with the others combines the whole into
a strong frame. The plates forming the cover 13 are formed with turned-down lips
at the sides, so as to catch upon the outsides of the top edges of the side plates 12,
aud prevent the latter from yielding outwards to internal pressure. Instead of the
cover 13 being a single casting as described, the plates corresponding to the several
pairs of side plates 12 may be made in separate pieces, and be fixed to a central
bar 15.
The cover 13 is fixed to two bars 16, which are at their bottom ends centered on
cranks 17 on a shaft 18 carried in bearings fixed to the under side of a plate 19,
cast in the same piece with the hydraulic cylinder 8. On one of the cranks 17 a

page_text: hand lever 20 is fixed, being provided with a trigger catch 21, which can engago
with notches in a segmental bar 22.
When the hand lever 20 is moved from the position in which it is shown in full
lines in Figuro 4, it first turns the shaft 18 so as to lift the bars 16 and cover 13
sufficiently for the cover to just clear the side plates 12. The continuation of the
movement of the hand lever 20 then turns the cover 13 over into the position
indicated by dotted lines in Figure 4, a projection 23 on the inner side of the hand
lever encountering one of the bars 16.
Guide bars 24 fixed across the ends of the machine, and formed with stops at
their outer ends, guide and limit the movements of the cover bars 16, and blado
springs 25 fixed to the frame plate 6 are applied to assist the movement of the
cover 13 when it is being brought over the press.
The hydraulic cylinder 8 is made double-acting, the rod 9 having a piston 26 of
larger diameter than itself, and packed with a pair of reversed cup leathers, so that
water under pressure may be admitted to the upper side in order to expedite the
return downwards of the rod 9 after each compressing operation. A four-way cock
with a hand lever 27 is provided for controlling the action of the water in the
cylinder; but any other suitable valve arrangement may be adopted if preferred.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner of per-
forming the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to the precise details
herein described or delineated, but that what I believe to be novel and original, and
claim as the Invention secured to me by and in terms of the horein-beforo in part
recited Letters Patent is,-
1. The constructing of a yarn bundling press with a single cover, substantially as
herein-before described.
2. The constructing of a yarn bundling press with a single cover fitted with
mechanism for moving and holding, substantially such as is herein-before described.
3. The combination of the double-acting hydraulic press, with the single cover,
substantially in the manner and for the purposes herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Steven, havo hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-second day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
ALEX". STEVEN. (L.S.)