US3263297A - Method and apparatus for winding yarns on a beam - Google Patents

Description

1966 G. MANNING 3,263,297

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR WINDING YARNS ON A BEAM Filed March 51, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet l TIC-3'11- I N VENTOR.

A fro/M15 K5.

G. MANNING METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR WINDING YARNS ON A BEAM Filed March 51, 1964 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

United States Patent 3,263,257 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR WINDING YARNS ON A BEAM George Manning, Gastonia, N.C., assignor to Cooker Machine 3; Foundry Company, Gastonia, N.C., a corporation of North Car-china Filed Mar. 31, 1964, Ser. No. 356,293 6 Claims. (Cl. 2835) This invention relates to an improvement in machines ordinarily known as beamers or warpers, employed in the textile industry to wind warped yarns onto beams which are afterwards mounted on looms for weaving of the yarns into cloth of various kinds.

This invention constitutes an improvement over the apparatus disclosed in US. Patent 2,680,896, granted to Cocker Machine & Foundry Co. of Gastonia, North Carolina, assignee of H. W. Groce et al., on June 15, 1954.

In greater detail, this invention relates to apparatus for maintaining substantially constant, the force required to rotate the beam when drawing a plurality of warped yarns from a series of spools and winding the yarns on the beam as the spools progressively empty. This invention teaches a tensioning apparatus which progressively varies the amount of tension applied to a multiplicity of warped yarns as the yarn spools or packages become depleted.

When a beam is being filled with yarns from certain types of creels, such as a revolving spool creel wherein the yarn is pulled from the package by revolving package itself, more tension will ordinarily be required to pull the yarn from the empty package than will be required to pull it from the full package. This, of course, is due to the variation in the torque arm resulting from the decrease in diameter of the yarn on the spool. For ex ample, if several hundred, six-inch diameter spools supplying yarn to the beamer are arranged in a creel, the yarn is pulled from each spool by the beam at the same time. If each spool has a six-inch outside diameter when full and a two-inch barrel diameter, the radius or torque arm when the yarn is first taken will be three inches, whereas at the end, it will be one inch. Although the bearing friction will vary somewhat due to the difference in load between the full and empty package, it has been experienced that almost invariably the force required to withdraw yarn from the spool increases as the spool progressively empties.

Therefore, it is the primary object of this invention to provide apparatus which applies varying amounts of tension to a multiplicity of warped yarns being wound on a beam from spools so that the force required to pull the yarns from the spools remains substantially constant while the spools become progressively depleted.

This object and other attendant advantages of this invention will become more apparent from the description set forth hereinbelow and from reference to the attached drawings, wherein;

FIGURE 1 is a diagrammatic, fragmentary side view partly broken away and in section of one form of the tensioning apparatus of this invention;

FIGURE 2 is a sectional view taken along the lines and arrows IIII of FIGURE 1; and

FIGURE 3 is a schematic drawing illustrating the relative positions of components of the tensioning device as yarns are built up on the beam.

3,263,297 Patented August 2, 1966 A preferred embodiment of the tensioning apparatus of this invention is shown in FIGURE 1 along with components of a standard beam warper well known in the textile industry. A standard beam 10, rotatably mounted on structure not shown, is partially shown in the empty condition with only a few windings of a multiplicity of individual yarns Y thereupon. Yarns Y comprise a sheet of separate yarns extending from a source such as a series of revolving spools mounted in a creel (not shown but positioned to the right of FIGURE 1), through the tensioning apparatus of this invention, generally designated by the numeral 4, around bar 6 to beam 10. The yarns Y are wound adjacent each other on beam 10 by rotation of the beam in the direction of the arrow by drive means not shown.

A standard presser roll 12 mounted on shaft 13 is shown positioned contiguous beam 10 and against the surface of the warped yarns wound thereon. Shaft 13 is journaled at both ends in a pair of slides 20 which are mounted for free horizontal movement on a pair of fixed- 1y mounted parallel supporting shafts 14. Shafts 14 are supported at one end by a pair of mountings 16 fixedly attached to base members 18. Shafts 14 are supported at the other ends by another pair of mountings not shown. Presser roll 12 is mounted to rotate in the direction of the arrow while pressed against the yarns being wound on beam 10 and to move laterally on shafts 14 as the diameter of the wound yarns increases, the presser roll moving from the position indicated in FIGURE. 1 to a position proximate mountings 16 when the beam is full.

A pair of racks 22 having evenly spaced teeth 23 are mounted on both sides of the presser roll 12, each rack connected at one end to a slide 20 by a union 24 and supported at the other end, for free lateral movement in bracket 28 which is fixedly attached to a mounting 26 on shaft 14.

Referring now to FIGURE 2 in addition to FIGURE 1, a pair of pinions 30 are fixedly mounted on opposing ends of a shaft 32 extending across the width of the warper, shaft 32 being rotatably mounted in bearings 33, 33a. and 35, 35a fixed to the brackets 28. Pinions 30 engage teeth 23 on both racks 22 thereby oscillating or rotating shaft 32 when racks 22 move laterally in either direction. A sprocket 34, fixedly mounted on rotatable shaft 32, is connected by a chain 36 to a sprocket 38 fixedly mounted on rotatable shaft 40, which is supported adjacent both ends by a pair of bearings 42 mounted in flange supports 43. Supports 43 are secured by bolts 44 to frame members 46. Frame members 46 are part of the basic warper machine and, in this instance, sup port at the distal end, bar 6 around which the yarns 7' pass to the beam 10.

A pair of substantially vertical supports 50 mounted on support members 46 fixedly hold a first tension bar 54 by the elongated, small diameter end portions 52. A second tension bar 56, having elongated end portions 58, is supported by a pair of movable arm supports 60. Each arm support is provided with a collar 62 which is rotatably mounted on portion 52 at each end of tension bar 54. A pair of positioning sprockets 64 are fixedly mounted on the collars 62 and a pair of driving chains 66 entrain around sprockets 64 and sprockets 68 which are fixedly mounted adjacent the ends of shaft 40. By rotating sprockets 64, movement is transferred through collar 62 to movable supports 60 which causes tension bar 56 to transcribe a limited are around the axis of bar 54 as indicated by the arrow and broken lines on FIGURE 1. The yarns Y pass between the tension bars 54 and 56 and are in contact with a portion of the surface of each bar. The amount of contact and, hence, the friction developed depends upon the relative position of the bars and the angle at which the yarns are diverted from substantially a straight line course from the unwinding spools (not shown) to the bar 6.

The schematic sketch of FIGURE 3 illustrates the relative positions of the movable tension bar 56 in relation to the stationary tension bar 54 as yarns Y are built up on beam 10. In greater detail, when yarns Y are initially wound on beam 10, being pulled thereby from individual spools in the creel, beam is empty as illustrated by circle A and movable tension bar 56 is positioned in location E shown in full lines. Yarns Y are in contact with both bars 54, 56 for a portion of their circumstance and pass between the bars as shown in full lines. The yarns, thereby, are diverted from substantially a single, straight plane of movement through an angle which decreases when bar 56 moves through its are away from a position shown in full lines to, substantially, that within the plane of roll 54 and yarns Y, i.e., position H. In location E, bar 56 diverts the sheet of yarns Y at the greatest angle, causes the yarns to be in contact with a greater portion of the circumferential surface of bars 54, 56 and thereby creates greater friction and tension on the moving yarns. As the yarns progressively build up on beam 10 to the point indicated by the circle B, tension bar 56 is moved by the mechanism described above to position F whereby the yarns Y are diverted at a smaller angle from the straight path.

Subsequently, as the yarns build up on beam 10 to that represented by circles C and D, tension bar 56 moves through positions F, G and to position H. At this position of bar 56, the yarns Y are diverted the least amount and, as the amount of surface of bars 54, 56 in contact with the yarns Y is smallest, the tension or drag placed on the yarns is the least amount. As the spools supplying the yarn progressively empty and the moment arm decreases, the tension apparatus of this invention progressively applies less tension to the moving yarns so that the force required to pull the yarns from the spool remains substantially constant.

The operation of the preferred form of beamer yarn tensioning apparatus of this invention is substantially as follows.

After an empty beam 10 is inserted in the warping machine and a multiplicity of individual yarns are fed from a series of revolving full spools in a creel around movable tension bar 56 and above tension bar 54, around bar 6 to the beam 10, the winding begins. At this time, presser roll 12 is in the forward position as shown in FIGURE 1 to continually exert pressure against the yarns Y and cause them to build up on the beam in their proper respective positions without overlapping. When presser roll 12 and racks 22 are in a forward position, pinions 30 have been rotated clockwise causing drive chains 36 and 66 together with their supporting shafts and sprockets to move clockwise. This movement causes the pair of supports 60 to locate bar 56 in the position shown in FIGURE 1 so as to tension the yarns to the greatest amount. For the reasons indicated above, as the spools are full, less force is required to withdraw yarn by revolving the spool so the tension apparatus is arranged to exert greatest tension at the beginning of the beam winding and progressively less as the amount of yarn wound on each spool diminishes.

As the yarns continue to accumulate on beam 10, the presser roll rotates and moves progressively in a lateral direction, causing racks 22 to move laterally and to rotate pinions 30 counter-clockwise. Rotating pinions 30 causes shaft 32, sprocket 34 and chain 36 to rotate in the same direction. Shaft 40, sprockets 68 and chains 66 also rotate in a counter-clockwise direction, thereby rotating collars 62 and support arms 60 mounted on stationary bar 54. By movement transferred through the above drive means, tension bar 56 is progressively moved from the position indicated in solid lines in FIGURE 1 toward those positions indicated in broken lines.

As the yarns Y continue to build upon the beam as indicated in FIGURE 3, presser roll 12 moves further from the axis of the beam, and the drive means described above causes tension bar 56 to move into substantially the horizontal position with bar 54, thereby reducing the tension placed on the yarns Y passing between the tension bars 54, 56.

By changing the relative size of sprockets 34, 3b, 64 and 68, the positions of movable bar 56 and its rate of movement may be accurately controlled and, thereby, the amount of drag placed on the yarns varied as the spools unwind. Thus, more or less tension can be exerted according to the size of the spools and the drive means of the beam.

Although the preferred form of the drive means for the tension bars is illustrated and described herein as comprising a pair of racks and pinions together with connected sprockets and shafts, it will be understood that various combinations of gears and driving chains can readily be employed to accomplish the desired result. Similarly, it will be understood that the relative positions of the two tension bars can be varied, for example, tension bar 56 may be positioned to the left of tension bar 54 as said bars are shown in FIGURE 3, and that bar 56 would thereby transcribe an arc in that quadrant while still achieving the advantages of this invention.

Also, the tension apparatus of this invention can effectively be employed to tension yarns other than as part of the standard operation of a beam warping machine as said tension apparatus will find use in any apparatus wherein yarns are pulled from revolving spools and wound on a shaft for further use.

Although this invention has been disclosed with reference to specific forms and embodiments thereof, it will be appreciated that a great number of variations may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of this invention. For example, parts may be reversed, equivalent elements may be substituted for those specifically disclosed, and certain features of the invention may be used independently of other features, all without departting from the spirit and scope of this invention as defined in the appended claims.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. In an apparatus for winding yarns upon a beam, the combination which comprises means for rotating the beam,

sensing means adjacent said beam and arranged to sense the amount of yarn wound up on the beam, and to react thereto,

variable tension means arranged in the course of travel of the yarn to the beam and operative to exert controllable amounts of added drag to control the tension of said yarn, and

control means operative in response to said react-ion of said sensing means for gradually decreasing the drag added to said yarn as the amount of yarn accumulated on said beam increases.

2. The apparatus defined in .claim 1, wherein said sensing means includes a presser roll positioned against the yarns building up on the beam.

3. The apparatus defined in claim 1, wherein the variable tension means comprises a pair of tension drag bars arranged substantially transverse to the yarns and positioned in spaced relation to each other.

4. The apparatus defined in claim 3, wherein means are provided for supporting one of said bars substantially stationary and moving means are provided for moving the other of said bars to various positions diverting the yarns away from a straight path.

5. The apparatus defined in claim 4, wherein said moving means -is constructed and arranged to move said other drag bar arcuately around the substantially stationary bar.

6. In a method of Winding a plurality of yarns Warp- Wise upon a beam, the steps which comprise controllably applying a common tension to all of said yarns as the winding operation is begun, sensing the amount of yarn accumulating on the beam, and gradually reducing the amount of applied tension as the amount of yarn accumulated on the beam increases.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 0 DONALD W. PARKER, Primary Examiner.

ROBERT R. MACKEY, Examiner.

L. K. RIMRODT, Assistant Examiner.

Claims (1)

1. IN AN APPARATUS FOR WINDING YARNS UPON A BEAM, THE COMBINATION WHICH COMPRISES MEANS FOR ROTATING THE BEAM, SENSING MEANS ADJACENT SAID BEAM AND ARRANGED TO SENSE THE AMOUNT THE YARN WOUND UP ON THE BEAM, AND TO REACT THERETO, VARIABLE TENSION MEANS ARRANGED IN THE COURSE OF TRAVEL OF THE YARN TO THE BEAM AND OPERATIVE TO EXERT CONTROLLABLE AMOUNTS OF ADDED DRAG TO CONTROL THE TENSION OF SAID YARN, AND CONTROL MEANS OPERATIVE IN RESPONSE TO SAID REACTION OF SAID SENSING MEANS FOR GRADUALLY DECREASING THE DRAG ADDED TO SAID YARN AS THE AMOUNT OF YARN ACCUMULATED ON SAID BEAM INCREASES.

Images