Title of Invention

COMBING MACHINE

Abstract

The present invention relates to a comber with a circular comb rotating on a first axis which has an extended circular cylinder covering comb segment running coaxially with the first axis in the direction of rotation of a rotatable cleaning device running along a prescribed path for the removal of fibre impurities from the comb segment, characterized in that the smallest distance between the envelope of the volume segment that is passed through by the cleaning device and the first axis is greater than the maximum radius (R) of the circular comb . PRICE: THIRTY RUPEES

Full Text

Dtiject No; 2528 The invention relates to a comber with a rotatable circular comb on a first axis, which has a circular cylinder sheath coaxial with the first axis with a comb segment extending in the direction of rotation on the periphery in the direction of rotation and a powered cleaning device running on a predetermined track for the removal of fibre impurities from the comb segment. Combers of this description are used in the processing of textile fibres for the elimination of fibre impurities in the form of short fibres (comber waste) and noils out of raw fibre material which has already been carded. Through the processing with the comber, the staple of the raw fibre material, is unified. For this purpose, the comber is generally arranged between the carding machines and the drafting frames. In the comber, tufts from fibres which have already been carded are held by the nipper of a reciprocating nipper aggregate and, from the movement of the round comb arranged underneath, pass through in order to be incorporated in an existing fibre sliver which is already combed. Alternatively, combers are also used, with which the fibre tuft is first combed after the joining. The comber waste and the noils combed out are carried predominantly by the comb segment. In order to avoid blocking the comb segment, these fibre impurities combed out must be removed. For this purpose, a cleaning device with a number of cleaning brushes is normally used, which is fixed to a rotating carrier on a second axis running parallel to the first axis. In order to carry out the cleaning of the comb segments, the cleaning brushes brush the comb segment, in order to remove the accompanying comber waste and noils. Through this, the comb segments which anyway undergo a high degree of wear during the processing of the fibres, should not incur further wear during the cleaning which would lead to a reduction of the service life of the comb segment. For this reason, it is necessary that the comb segments should be exchanged frequently, that is to say, every two to four years. Further, the bristles of the cleaning brushes, produced froai plastic generally undergo a high degree of wear during the cleaning of the comb segment. This brings with it the necessity for the adjustment of the axis of rotation of the cleaning brush in the direction of the circular comb to compensate for the wear of the brush. In addition, the wear of the bristles with a constant speed of rotation, leads to a reduction in their circumferential speed. In order to ensure a constant cleaning performance, the cleaning brush must consequently be driven with its own motor, which is controllable in such a way that the wear of the cleaning brush bristles is automatically compensated, by an increase in the rotational speed of the cleaning brushes. This involves an expensive mechanical and electronic construction of the conventional cleaning equipment. Finally, with the use of combing conventional machines, it has been shown that a large part of the noils removed out of the comb segment by the cleaning, collect themselves, mainly as fibre dust, in the area in which the fibre tufts are to be processed. This leads to a deterioration in the combing performance, as the noils lying as fibre dust also settle on the fibre tufts from the circular comb, through which the staple of the raw fibres, already improved by the circular comb by means of the combing operation, is again deteriorated. In view of the problem described, the task of this invention is the provision of a high running performance with a good combing performance at the same time, which makes possible a simple mechanical and electronic construction. This problem has been solved through a comber of the type described at the outset, with which the smallest clearance between the contour of the running segment of the cleaning device and the first axis is greater than the maximum radius of the circular comb. Through this arrangement of the circular comb and the cleaning device, it is accomplished that, with the operation of the comber, no direct contact takes place between the two construction elements. Through the direct contact of the circular comb and the cleaning device with the operation of conventional combers, additional wear of the comber segment and the cleaning device takes place, which is avoided with the machine according to the invention. Through this, the stopped time of the comb segment is increased which leads to an increase in the effective machine running time. In addition, simpler mechanical construction can be achieved with the comber according to the invention, because the necessity of an adjustment to the position and peripheral speed of the cleaning of the comb segment during the combing operation is superfluous. In spite of this contact free operation of the cleaning device achieved, an adequate removal of noils from the comb segment can be achieved because the greater part of the noils carried along by the comb segment partly protrude from the opposite side of the comb segment, so that these noils can also be removed by the cleaning device running with a clearance from the peripherally running circular comb. In addition, with the operation of the comber according to the invention compared with the operation of conventional combers, spring back resilience of the bristles of the cleaning brushes after leaving the comber segments is avoided. This spring back resilience of the cleaning brush bristles leads in the operation of conventional comber to the sliding of the noils removed from the cleaning brushes directly after leaving the comb segment. This is the reason for the high short fibre dust concentration in the actual combing area of these machines. With the operation of the comber according to the invention, the short fibres, on the other hand, are carried along the prescribed path of the cleaning device, which leads to a reduction of the short fibre concentration in the combing area and consequently to an improvement of the combing performance. If, at the same time, there is still a satisfactory cleaning performance there is sufficient clearance between the circular comb and the cleaning device depending on the type of material being processed, then the best cleaning effect is reached, when the smallest clearance between the contour of the volume segment running through and the first axis so that the maximum radius of the circular comb is not greater than 0.5 mm and preferably amounts to 1 mm or less. From the constructional point of view, the comber according to the invention is particularly simple to realize when the prescribed second axis is a circular path. With this, the short fibre concentration can be lessened in its own comber area when the circular comb and the cleaning device can turn in opposite directions, with which the peripheral speed of the cleaning device is larger than that of the circular comb. Through this, with the simultaneous retention of a higher cleaning effect, a lessening of the uncontrollable, turbulent air currents is achieved in the cleaning area, because with an arrangement of this kind, the relative speed of the cleaning device with regard to that of the comb segment in the cleaning area can be maintained at a particularly low value. A precise, exact maintenance of the prescribed path and consequently the increased minimizing of the clearance between the contour of the cleaning device of the volume segment running through and the circular comb are achieved at a value of 0.5 mm or less, if the cleaning device is provided with a saw tooth wire is provided instead of the conventional cleaning brushes used at the present day. In addition to an increase in the cleaning effect, the provision of saw toothed wire can achieve a regular structure and provides a reduction of the turbulent air current in the cleaning area. This has the result of further lessening of the short fibre concentration in the comber area. For running on a circular path, it is an advantage when the saw tooth wire is fixed on a circular cylindrical carrier running coaxially to a second axis and the rotatable carrier is fastened to rotate round this axis. With this, the carrier can have a diameter of 140 mm or less. A surface cleaning of the comber segment can be achieved very simply when the saw tooth wire is wound in a spiral on the carrier. In operation, the comber according to the invention has shown that particularly satisfactory carrying of the wire with a low relative speed of the cleaning device in relation to the comb segment is achieved when the saw teeth of the saw tooth wire of the wire enclose a top angle of about 105° between the frontal surface and the base. With an increase of this relative speed, it can be advantageous when the top angle is less than 90°, so that the teeth are tilted in the circular direction of the cleaning device. In order to increase operating reliability of the comber according to the invention for removing the noils from the comber, it is an advantage when the cleaning device can be provided with a device for sucking out the noils from the comb segment. A particularly effective suction can be obtained with the use of a cleaning device travelling on a circular path when the suction device has a suction slot in the form of cut out in a running circular cylinder covering surface coaxial to the second axis with a radius which exceeds the radius of the covering of a cleaning device of this type. For a further increase of the suction effect. It is an advantage when the guiding of the air stream can have a cover which has a throughgoing slot or holes. Accordingly the present invention provides a comber with a circular comb rotating on a first axis which has an extended circular cylinder covering comb segment running coaxially with the first axis in the direction of rotation of a rotatable cleaning device running along a prescribed path for the removal of fibre impurities from the comb segment, characterized in that the smallest distance between the envelope of the volume segment that is passed through by the cleaning device and the first axis is greater than the maximum radius ( R) of the circular comb . The invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which; Fig. 1 A partial section of a comber according to the invention with a first embodiment of the invention, and Fig. 2 a sectional view of a second embodiment of the comber according to the invention. In fig. 1, only the important items necessary for understanding the invention are detailed, namely a circular comb 30 and a cleaning device 30. The embodiment of the invention shown in Fig. 1 shows the circular comb 10, consisting in the main of an axis 14 of a rotating carrier 12 which rotates in the direction shown by the arrow 15 and a fixed comb segment is held by means of screws 16. The comb segment 18 consists, for its part, of a main body 20 which on the side turned away from the carrier 1, has several rows of saw tooth strips 22 which run parallel to each other in the direction of the circular cylinder, of which one, which can be seen in the drawing, is fixed. As can also be seen from the drawing, the saw tooth strips 22 consist of several wire segments with different tooth forms. An improvement of the comb performance is obtained from this. The cleaning device 30 consists of an axis 38, on which, in the direction shown by the arrow 34, there is a hollow cylinder carrier 36 and a spirally drawn all-steel garniture of saw tooth wires 38. The circular comb 10 and the cleaning device 30 are so arranged that the smallest clearance d between the tips of the teeth of the saw tooth wire all-steel clothing 38 in contact with the covering E, running from the cleaning device running from the volume segment and the first axis 14 is greater than the maximum radius R of the circular comb, that is to say, greater than the clearance between the first axis 14 and the tips of the teeth of the saw toothed wire strip 22. Through this, a contact-free cleaning of the comb segment 18 is ensured by means of the cleaning device 30. For removing .the noils from the comb segment 18 and taking them away from the saw tooth all-steel garniture 38, the cleaning device 30 is provided with a suction device 50. In order to optimize the suction, the suction device 50 has a suction opening 52 in the form of a covering surface of clothing coaxial to the running covering surface of a hollow cylinder with a radius in excess of the radius of the contour E. For a further increase of the suction effect, the air stream arriving in the suction opening 50 is guided by means of a covering of the suction opening by slots 54 in the direction shown by the arrow 56 in the manner shown. In Fig.2, there is, in addition to the elements of a comber already shown in Fig.l, a nipper device Z for laying the fibre tufts to be cleaned is also represented. This has a lower gripper 101 as well as an upper nipper 107 swivelled on the pivot 108 on the lower gripper with a gripping knife 106 In the lower gripper 101, there is a rotating feeding cylinder S, with which the wadding W fed to the gripping device Z is transported to a pair of tearing cylinders 110, 111. The lower gripper 101 is supported to pivot by means of arms 102 and 103. There is a circular comb R underneath the gripping device Z which is pivoted to turn with a comb segment 109. With this embodiment the comb grippers are formed like needles, the points of which move along a circular path 105 when the comb segment 109 moves. For cleaning the comb segment 104, there is also a rotatable carrier 136 as well as an extended all-steel garniture 124 of a cleaning device 123. However, the teeth of the all-steel garniture 124 have a pointed top rake, so that they are directed into the direction of rotation of the cleaning device. The contour 127 of the teeth 125 have a clearance x from the path of the points of the needles 104 of the comb segment 109. Further, a setting device 118 is allocated to the cleaning device 123 which is arranged to pivot over an arm 116 and makes an exact setting of the clearance x possible. However, another type of setting device can be considered. The rotational speed of the cleaning device 123 is about 8% to 10% higher than the rotational speed of the circular comb R in the region of the points of the needles 104. in the cleaning area A, the material transported (short fibres, noils etc) is taken over by the cleaning device. With this, the setting of the correct clearance X (nominal value x) as well as the appropriate air guiding play an important part in order to obtain the desired acceptance effect. The cleaning device 123 is located in a removal chute 120, which is operated with a vacuum to remove the short fibres and noils from the needles 104 in a channel 121. The invention is not limited to the previously explained embodiment. For example, a comber according to the invention can also be equipped to operate in the opposite direction of rotation leading to the cleaning device, if the speed of the rotation of the comb segment is higher than that of the cleaning device. Further, it is possible that the suction opening 5 2 of the suction device 50 can be extended over a larger or smaller circular slot of the contour E. WE CLAIM: 1. A comber with a circular comb (10; 100) rotating on a first axis (14) which has an extended circular cylinder covering comb segment (18, 20, 22; 109) running coaxially with the first axis (14) in the direction of rotation of a rotatable cleaning device (30; 123) running along a prescribed path for the removal of fibre impurities from the comb segment, characterized in that the smallest distance between the envelope (E; 127) of the volume segment that is passed through by the cleaning device (30; 123) and the first axis (14) is greater than the maximum radius (R) of the circular comb (10; 100). 2. The comber according to claim 1, wherein the smallest clearance is greater by about 0.05 to 0.5mm, preferably 0.1 mm, than the maximum radius (R) of the circular comb (10). 3. The comber according to claims 1 or 2, wherein the path given is a circular path of the second axis (32). 4. The comber according to claim 3, wherein the circular comb (10; 100) and the cleaning device (30; 123) are rotatable in the opposite direction (15, 34). 5. The comber according to claim 4, wherein the speed of rotation of the cleaning device (30) is greater than that of the circular comb (10, 100). 6. The comber according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the cleaning device (30; 123) has a saw tooth wire. 7. The comber according to claim 6, wherein the saw tooth wire (38; 124) runs round a circular cylinder path coaxial to the second axis (32) and the carrier (36) is fastened to the second axis (32). 8. The comber according to claim 7, wherein the saw tooth wire (38; 124) is drawn spirally round the carrier (36). 9. The comber according to any one of the claims 6 to 8, wherein the saw teeth of the saw tooth wire (38) have a top rake of about 105°. 10. The comber according to any one of the claims 6 to 8 wherein the saw teeth of the saw tooth wire have a top rake of less than 90°. 11. The comber according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the cleaning device (30) is provided with a suction device (50) for sucking out the short fibres which have been removed from the comb segment (18, 20, 22). 12. The comber according to claim 11, wherein the suction device (50) has a suction opening (52) in the form of the slot of a covering of a circular cylinder running coaxially with the second axis which exceeds the radius of the contour of the cleaning device (30). 13. The comber according to claim 11, wherein the suction opening (52) is covered by a grating (54) with through going slots or holes. 14. The comber according to any one of the preceding claims wherein a reciprocating nipper device for supplying a fibre tuft to be combed out is provided above the circular comb (10,100). 15. A comber with a circular comb substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Documents:

1656-mas-1995 abstract.jpg

1656-mas-1995 abstract.pdf

1656-mas-1995 assignment.pdf

1656-mas-1995 claims.pdf

1656-mas-1995 correspondence-others.pdf

1656-mas-1995 correspondence-po.pdf

1656-mas-1995 description (complete).pdf

1656-mas-1995 drawings.pdf

1656-mas-1995 form-1.pdf

1656-mas-1995 form-10.pdf

1656-mas-1995 form-26.pdf

1656-mas-1995 form-4.pdf

1656-mas-1995 petition.pdf