Title of Invention

BALE PLUCKING MACHINE

Abstract

ABSTRACT A bale plucking machine for plucking textile fibres from the bales arranged on both sides of the machine includes a trolley (1) with locking holes mounted on rails (2); a turntable (3) with an indexing hole rotatably mounted on the trolley (1); a tower (5) mounted on the turntable (3); a plucking head assembly (6) connected to the turntable (3), spring biased locking spindle housed inside the tower (5) for locking the turntable (3) and the trolley (1). The said plucking head assembly (6) includes at least one feed roller (8), at least one plucking roller (10) with at least one detachable strip of teeth attached to its outer periphery, a detachable suction hood (7) and an interchangeable grill assembly (9). A drive arrangement including a toothed pinion (20) and a toothed belt (21) is provided to rotate the turntable (3) in a semicircular path so as to turn the plucking head assembly (6) from one side of the machine to its opposite side. The plucking head assembly (6) is lifted and lowered by lifting and lowering means comprising a shaft (4), at least one pair of rollers mounted on the shaft (4), a driving means for driving the shaft (4), and at least one pair of slings (11) one end of which is fixed to the tower (5) and the other end is attached to the said rollers.

Full Text

The present invention relates to a bale plucking machine for plucking fibres from the bales arranged on both sides of the machine. In textile processing, a fibre plucking machine is used to pluck fibres from a stock of bales that are arranged on both sides of the machine. The conventional plucking machine comprises a trolley and a turntable mounted thereon. A plucking head assembly is attached to the turntable through a tower which is mounted on the turntable. The plucking head assembly consists of one or more plucking rollers, a suction arrangement and a grill arrangement. A locking spindle is housed inside the tower for locking the turn table and the trolley. The plucking rollers have a plurality of plucking teeth disposed on the outer surface thereof to pick up the fibres when the plucking head travels on and above the stock of the fibre bales. In the conventional plucking machines, the plucking teeth forms an integral part of the roller and are fixed permanently therein by welding or such other means. This arrangement is found disadvantageous as failure of a single tooth in the assembly necessitates replacement of the entire roller assembly. In order to avoid this disadvantage, rollers with multiple segments were constructed where each rollers is divided into different segments and each segment is provided with fixed teeth thereon. These segments constitute the entire roller assembly. This avoids replacement of the entire roller in case of damage or failure of a single tooth as replacement of the damaged segment alone is sufficient. Replacement of segments is also expensive and the down time of the machinery during such replacement is considerably high resulting in production loss. Disassembly of the damaged roller involves removal of contact rollers and grills which are heavy components leading to high labour. Conventional suction arrangement of the plucking head assembly consists of suction means, suction hood and collection system. Suction hood in the hitherto known suction arrangement H> permanently bonded to the plucking head. Such permanent bonding is found disadvantageous as it prevents easy access for cleaning and maintenance of the components housed with the head assembly. Contact rollers and the grill are to be dismantled to provide access for cleaning and maintenance of the conventional plucking machine. The grill is disposed beneath the said plucking rollers wherein the width of the grill spacing has direct impact on the inlet of fibre and tuft formation. Therefore, the higher inflow of fibre leads to high tuft formation and lower the inflow improves the fibre quality. Known methods are available for increasing the inflow of fibre material by either lowering or uplifting the plucking rollers or by swivelling the plucking rollers desirably. These methods involve complicated mechanisms and driving elements for enabling such movement or swivel of the said plucking rollers. The plucking head assembly is lifted and lowered by a drive system in which a drive medium such as a chain is connected to the head assembly. The other end of the chain is provided with counter weights for safety reasons. During operation, the drive rotates, thereby enabling the travel of the chain which in turn lifts and lowers the head assembly. The drive system of this known arrangement is housed in the tower of the plucking machine, and occupies considerable space therein. The existing system also requires expensive and complicated junction boxes for the control of the drive. Moreover, chain drives require frequent maintenance and cleaning and are prone to slip. Slippage of the chain results in lowering of the head when not required thereby causing damage to the machinery. The conventional drive system is also prone to unexpected failures. The known turn table arrangement which is widely used in plucking machines for turning the head assembly from one side of the machine to the opposite side includes complicated gear drive systems. These gears frequently get effected by fibre flies and fibre gets stuck to grease present in the gears. Further, the gears require high momentum and are not easily accessible. In addition the known gear drive system is expensive and requires frequent maintenance. The plucking head assembly is connected to the turn table through a spindle. A free end of the spindle passes through a/] indexing hole in the turn table. A locking hole is provided on each side of the trolley. The plucking head gets locked when the spindle is inserted into the locking hole in the trolley. Once the plucking head completes plucking of fibres from one side of the machine, the spindle is lifted from the locking hole and the turn table, which is now free to rotate, turns the spindle together with the head to the other side of the machine till the free end of the spindle is inserted into the locking hole on the opposite side of the trolley. The insertion and the removal of the spindle in the said locking holes are enabled by a separate spindle drive arrangement comprising of expensive and complicated driving means such as a motor which involves cost and frequent maintenance. The object of the present invention is to provide a bale plucking machine which overcomes the abovementioned draw¬backs . It is a further object of the present invention to provide a bale plucking machine comprising a plucking head assembly having plucking rollers provided with detachable strips of plurality of teeth on its periphery, detachable suction hood and detachable grill. Another object of the present invention is to provide a bale plucking machine with a device for lifting and lowering the head assembly. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a bale plucking machine with a drive arrangement for rotating the turn table so as to turn the plucking head assembly from one side of the machine to the opposite side with lesser amount of force. Accordingly, the present invention provides a bale plucking machine for plucking fibres from bales arranged on either side of the machine comprises a trolley mounted on rails; a turntable rotatably mounted on said trolley; a tower mounted on said turntable; a plucking head assembly connected to said turntable through said tower for plucking the fibres from the bales arranged on either side of the said machine, said plucking head assembly includes atleast one feed roller and atleast one plucking roller; a suction hood for sucking and transporting the fibres plucked from the bales; a grill assembly disposed beneath said plucking rollers to facilitate plucking of the fibres from the bales; a drive arrangement to rotate the said turntable in a semicircular path so as to turn the said plucking head assembly from one side of the machine to the other side opposed thereto; and means for lifting and lowering said plucking head assembly; characterized in that said trolley is provided with two locking holes disposed diagonally opposed to each other; said turntable is provided with a indexing hole; a spring biased locking spindle housed within said tower for locking the rotary motion of said plucking head assembly by engaging with said locking holes in said trolley and said indexing hole in said turntable; said plucking rollers is provided with detachable and replaceable strips having a row of teeth attached to its outer periphery; said drive arrangement includes a toothed pinion connected to a motor and a toothed belt driveably connected to said toothed pinion and attached to said turntable, atleast one guiding roller is provided for guiding said toothed belt so as to over lap atleast half of the circumference of the said turntable; said lifting and lowering means comprises a driveable shaft, plurality of rollers driveably connected to said shaft and atleast a pair of slings, one end of said slings being fixed to the tower and the other end of said slings being attached and wound on the said rollers. The application no. 196/MAS/99 describes and claims a detachable suction hood for a fibre processing machine. The application no. 197/MAS/99 describes and claims a drive system for rotating a turn table of a fibre plucking machine in a semicircular path on both clockwise and anti-clockwise directions. The application no. 198/MAS/99 describes and claims an interchangeable grill assembly for textile plucking machine. The application no. 199/MAS/99 describes and claims a device for locking a plucking head of a fibre plucking machine. The application no. 200/MAS/99 describes and claims a device for lifting and lowering the head assembly of a fibre plucking machine. The application no. 201/MAS/99 describes and claims a plucking head assembly of a fibre plucking machine. With reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 shows a bale plucking machine of the present invention. Fig. 2 shows a bale plucking machine of the present invention in a disassembled condition. Fig. 3 shows a drive arrangement for lifting and lowering a plucking head assembly of a bale plucking machine. Fig. 4 shows a plucking roller of a bale plucking machine. Fig. 5 shows a drive system for rotating a turn table of a bale plucking machine. Fig. 6 & 7 show locking arrangement for locking the plucking head assembly of a bale plucking machine. The bale plucking machine shown in figures 1 and 2 comprises a trolley (1) mounted on rails (2). A turn table (3) is rotatably mounted on the trolley. The turn table is attached to a plucking head assembly (6) through a locking spindle (4). The plucking head assembly includes a detachable suction hood (7), a plurality of feed rollers (8), a detachable grill (9) and a plurality of plucking rollers (10). The fibres plucked by the plucking head are fed to a suction duct (31) through a flexible (30). The suction duct is covered by a belt (32). Theplucking head assembly is lifted and lowered in vertical direction with the help of a pair of sling attached to a tower (5) at one end and to the head at the other snail. The (i control panel and an operator panel are indicated by reference numerals 33 and 34 respectively. In figure 3, reference numeral 5 indicates the tower of the fibre plucking machine, plurality of slings (11, 11') are are fixedly mounted on the tower with the help of fixing means (12). Fixing means may be clamps or rivets. Plurality of rollers 15 are mounted on the head assembly, the other end of each of the sling is rotatably wound on these rollers. The shaft is driven by driving means such as motor (13). When driven by the motor, the sling gets wound or unwound on the rollers thereby varying its length. This influences the vertical positioning of the head assembly. In figure 4, reference numeral 10 indicate the plucking roller. A plurality of plates (16) are fixed permanently on the peripheral surface of the plucking roller. A strip (17) having a set of tooth arrangement (18) is fixed on each of the plates with fastening means. The drive system for rotating the turn table (3) shown in figure 5 comprises a driving means such as electric motor (19). The motor drives a toothed pinion (20) which is connected to the turn table (3) through a driving medium such as toothed belt (21). The toothed belt is guided through a guiding roller (22) so as to overlap more than half the circumference of the turn table. This overlapping enables the turn table to rotate both in clockwise and anti-clockwise directions with a lesser amount of force. Preferably, 3/4th circumference of the turn table is overlapped by the toothed belt (21). The electric motor (19) and the toothed pinion (20) may be separated by a cover (23). As shown in figures 6 and 7, the turn table (3) is mounted on top of the trolley (1) and is capable of rotating on a semicircular path so as to move a plucking head (6) from one side of the machine to the other side. The plucking head (6) is attached to a spindle (4) with the use of a lifting guide (25) in such as way that the head travels vertically on a linear path. The spindle is provided with a spring bias (24) and a guiding rib (26) on its top end. The other end of the spindle passes through a positioning hole (29) in the tower, an indexing hole (28) in the turn table and a locking hole (27) in the trolley when the plucking head is locked for plucking fibres from the fibre bales arranged on one side of the machine. Initially, the plucking head (6) plucks fibres from the bales arranged on one side of the fibre plucking machine. The plucking head travels in forward and backwards direction along with the trolley (1). The free end of the spindle (4) is inserted into the locking hole (27) in the trolley, as shown in fig. 7, so that the plucking head is locked to one side of the machine and is not turned to the other side of the machine. Once the fibre bales arranged on one side of the machine are plucked completely, the plucking head (6) is lifted upwards and the lifting guide (25) lifts the spindle (4) so that the free end of the spindle is released from the locking hole (27) in the trolley (1) as shown in fig. 6. The plucking head (6) is now free to turn to the other side of the machine. The turn table (3) enables the plucking head (6) to travel in a semicircular path. The spindle (4) also travels along with the head (6) abutting the trolley (1) till the free end of the spindle gets inserted into the locking hole (27) on the opposite side of the trolley (1). The plucking head travels downwardly while the turn table (7) turns to the other side of the machine. Once, the free end of the spindle (4) is inserted into the locking hole (27) of the trolley (1) the plucking head travels horizontally in a linear path to pluck fibres from the bales that are arranged on the other side of the machine. This process continues so that the plucking head (6) of the fibre plucking machine can pluck fibres continuously from the fibre bales arranged on both sides of the machine. WE CLAIM : 1. A bale plucking machine for plucking fibers from bales arranged on either side of the machine comprises a trolley (1) mounted on rails (2); a turntable (3) rotatably mounted on said trolley (1); a tower (5) mounted on said turntable (3); a plucking head assembly (6) connected to said turntable (3) through said tower (5) for plucking the fibers from the bales arranged on either side of the said machine, said plucking head assembly (6) includes at least one feed roller (8) and at least one plucking roller (10); a suction hood (7) for sucking and transporting the fibers plucked from the bales; a grill assembly (9) disposed beneath said plucking rollers (10) to facilitate plucking of the fibers from the bales; a drive arrangement to rotate the said turntable (3) in a semicircular path so as to turn the said plucking head assembly (6) from one side of the machine to the other side opposed thereto; and means for lifting and lowering said plucking head assembly (6); characterized in that said trolley (1) is provided with two locking holes (27) disposed diagonally opposed to each other; said turntable (3) is provided with a indexing hole (28); a spring biased locking spindle (4) housed within said tower (5) for locking the rotary motion of said plucking head assembly (6) by engaging with said locking holes in said trolley (1) and said indexing hole in said turntable (3); said plucking rollers (10) is provided with detachable and replaceable strips (17) having a row of teeth (18) attached to its outer periphery; said drive arrangement includes a toothed pinion (20) connected to a motor (19) and a toothed bah (21) drive ably connected to said toothed pinion (20) and attached to said turntable (3), at least one guiding roller (22) is provided if)r guiding said toothed belt (21) so as to over lap at least half of the circumference of the said turntable (3); said lifting and lowering means comprises a drivable shaft (14), plurality of rollers (15, 15') drive ably connected to said shaft (14) and at least a pair of slings (11, 11'), one end of said slings being fixed to the tower (5) and the other end of said slings being attached and wound on the said rollers (15,15'). 2. The bale plucking machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein the suction hood (7) is detachable and comprises a curved outer member having at least two plate members (53) laterally disposed on either side thereof. 3. The bale plucking machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein the suction hood (7) is provided with holding means to detachably secure the same to the said plucking head assembly (6). 4. The bale plucking machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein the lifting guide (25) is attached to say plucking head assembly (6) to lift the spindle (4). 5. The bale plucking machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein the spindle (4) is provided with spring (24) at one end thereof. 6. The bale plucking machine as claimed in claim 5, wherein the spindle (4) is provided with a collar ( 26 ) at the spring loaded end to enable lifting of the spindle (4). 7, The bale plucking machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein said slings (11,11') are fixed to the tower (5) by means of clamps, rollers, rivets and the like fastening means and further provided with means to equalize the length of the plurality of slings (11,11') to maintain the hanging of the plucking head parallel to the top surface of the trolley (1). 8. The bale plucking machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein the plucking roller (10) is provided with at least one plate (16) circumferential thereto. 9. The bale plucking machine as claimed in claim 8, wherein the said plurality of plate (16) is permanently fixed to say plucking roller (10) and has provisions for holding the strips (17). 10. The bale plucking machine as claimed in claims 1 and 9, wherein plurality of strip (17) consists of one or more segments, each segment being provided with a row of teeth. 11. The bale plucking machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein the grill (9) is interchangeable and comprises plurality of longitudinally disposed frame members (41) which houses plurality of grill bars (42) with spacing 'd' in between , said frame members (41) have guiding means for guiding fibre inflow to the space 'd' arranged between said grill bars (42). 12, The bale plucking machine as claimed in claim 11, wherein the spacing 'd' provided between each of said grill bars (42) is ranging from 60mm to 120mm. 13. A bale plucking machine substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Documents:

0949-mas-1999 abstract.pdf

0949-mas-1999 claims-duplicate.pdf

0949-mas-1999 claims.pdf

0949-mas-1999 correspondence-others.pdf

0949-mas-1999 correspondence-po.pdf

0949-mas-1999 description (complete)-duplicate.pdf

0949-mas-1999 description (complete).pdf

0949-mas-1999 drawings-duplicate.pdf

0949-mas-1999 drawings.pdf

0949-mas-1999 form-1.pdf

0949-mas-1999 form-19.pdf

0949-mas-1999 form-26.pdf

0949-mas-1999 form-3.pdf

0949-mas-1999 petition.pdf