Method of and apparatus for handling web-like material

Abstract

A method and apparatus for laboratory or sample processing of web-like materials comprising separate draw nip/brush wheel assembly and a pin frame which can be temporarily juxta-positioned to permit overfeeding of the material onto the pin frame by the assembly.

Description

This invention relates to a method of and apparatus for handling web-like materials on a laboratory or sample scale.

By "web-like material," there is included all textile materials whether knitted, woven or non-woven and film type materials such as paper, plastics, organic or non-organic film or sheet, or combinations of any of these.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for use in a laboratory or for sample testing industrially which simulates substantially exactly industrial dimensional control machines but with reference to batch processing rather than continuous processing.

According to an aspect of the present invention there is provided apparatus for use in applying a piece of web-like material to a separate pin frame, the apparatus comprising a pair of draw rollers defining a draw nip, a pair of laterally adjustable brush wheel/pressing shoe assemblies, and means for rotating the draw rollers and brush wheels.

In using the apparatus to overfeed the material on to a pin frame there is employed the well-known principle of differential rate of feed of material (linear speed input) in respect of material take up on the pin frame (linear speed output) in which the draw nip takes the fabric, preferably over its full width, but possibly only at its selvedges, from a supply package or bobbin and delivers it between the brush wheels and pressing shoes assemblies closely positioned to the delivery side of the draw nip. While the face width dimension of the draw nip limits the maximum width of material which can be fed through the nip, the pair of brush wheels and related pressing shoes are, as aforesaid, spatially adjustable relative to each other while being a part of the draw nip construction so that prior to feeding a given piece of material through the draw nip the pair of brush/shoe assemblies are adjusted with respect to each other so that the edges of the material passing through the draw nip align themselves with the outer edges of the brush wheels.

It is a characteristic of this invention and contrary to industrial practice that the material is transferred to a pin frame which is completely separate from the draw/nip wheel assembly.

The pin frame may be a flat rectangular frame with pins provided along two opposed sides, which are spatially adjustable to vary the distance therebetween by any convenient means.

However, according to another aspect of the present invention, the pin frame comprises a shaft which may be hollow, mounting a pair of supports relatively adjustable along the shaft to vary the spacing therebetween and provided around their peripheries with pins, whereby the web-like material when pinned on the frame takes the form of a tube.

A further aspect of the present invention is a method of overfeeding a piece of web-like material onto either the flat pin frame or reel pin frame using the material-applying apparatus according to the present invention comprising the step of effecting relative movement therebetween with speed differential.

If the width of material requires to be adjusted then this is done after removing the pin frame from the draw nip assembly by moving, for example by screwing, the two sides or supports of the pin frame towards or away from each other.

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a reel pin frame and the apparatus for applying a piece of web-like material thereto: and,

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary sectional view of the reel pin frame.

The apparatus for applying a piece of web-like material onto a pin frame to be described later is essentially an overfeed apparatus comprising a pair of lightly-loaded draw rollers 10 and 11 defining a draw nip which serves to feed the material to a pair of brush wheels 13 and associated pressing shoes 14. Each brush wheel 13 and associated pressing shoe 14 is mounted on a convenient bracket (not shown) such that the shoe 14 can by any known adjustment means be vertically adjusted relative to its brush wheel 13.

The brackets supporting the brush wheel/pressing shoe pairs 13, 14 are carried on a shaft 15 such that the pairs can be moved towards or away from each other so that the spacing therebetween can be adjusted to suit the width of the material web. Both pairs or only one pair may be movable. The spatial adjustment may be effected in any known convenient way, e.g. simple sliding along the shaft and securement by locking nuts or pins, but the spatial adjustment is preferably effected in the manner of the pin frame (pin reel) as will be described hereinafter.

The draw rollers 10, 11 and brush wheel/pressing shoe pairs 13, 14 are conveniently mounted on a base (not shown) and the drive thereto may be an electric motor mounted on the base or it may be taken from a combined/calendering apparatus (not shown) which incorporates a roller driven by an electric motor and from which a belt drive 18 is taken to a tapered pulley 19 on the input shaft 20 of a variable speed gear box 21. The latter is a conventional cone gear comprising two oppositely-disposed cone pulleys 22 interconnected by an endless belt 23 which can be traversed along the cone pulleys 22 under the action of a traverse nut 24, spindle 25 and handwheel 26.

The pin frame will now be described. In this instance it is in the form of a reel comprising a shaft 27 mounting two discs 28, one of which is movable along the shaft 27 for width adjustment as described later. Alternatively, both discs 28 are movable along the shaft 27. The shaft 27 is hollow and is apertured as indicated at 29 as can be seen in FIG. 2. Each disc 28 has welded thereto at four equiangularly spaced locations a boss 30 each provided on its outer face with two recesses. The axially outer recesses of the bosses 30 of each disc 28 serve to mount a ring 31 held on the bosses 30 by screws or other convenient means, the ring mounting a series of pins 31A. The purpose of the axially inner recesses will be described later.

One of the discs 28 (see FIG. 2) is secured to a traverse collar 32 within the shaft 27 and disposed between two thrust collars 33 between which rotatably extends a screw 34 passing through the traverse collar 32 in screw-engaging relationship. The screw 35 has a head 36 adjacent the open end of the shaft 37. Rotation of the screw 34 will move the traverse collar 32 and its disc 28 along the shaft 27 either towards or away from the other disc depending on the direction of rotation.

Thus, the pin frame is in effect a width-adjustable reel mounting on each of its discs 28 a pin ring 31.

The non-adjustable disc 28 had adjacent thereto a gearwheel 37 fast with the shaft 27.

To mount a piece of web-like material on the pin reel, the latter is detachably mounted in slots in pivotal arms 38 on the aforesaid base. The slots are releasably closed by any convenient means, such as removable caps, to avoid inadvertent egress of the pin reel.

To effect transfer of material onto pin reel the brush wheels 13 touch the base of the pin rings 31 but adjustment can be effected for thicker fabrics.

The gearwheel 37 sits on and meshes with a gearwheel 39 rotatably carried by the adjacent arm 38 which is driven by a timing belt 40 from one of the cone pulleys 22. The other cone pulley drives the nip roller 11 via gearwheels 41 and 42, and a gearwheel 43 on the other end of the nip roller 11 meshes with a gearwheel 44 fast with the shaft 15 mounting the brush wheels 13.

The handwheel 26 is calibrated in terms of the differential speeds obtainable from the cone gear to give +10%-40% overfeed, i.e. the pin reel can be driven faster or slower than the speed at which the material is delivered from the draw nip 10, 11.

The ratio of gearwheels 43, 44 is selected to give the brush wheels 13 a 30-50% lead over the nip roller 11.

Before feeding web-like material onto the pin reel the variable speed cone gear is pre-set by handwheel to give the requisite amount of overfeed or otherwise and then the web material is fed through the draw nip 10, 11 pressing shoes and brushes 13, 14 to emerge at the point where the pins of each disc 28 press into the brushes 13.

Rotary motion is imparted, as aforesaid, to the pin reel and the material is thus transferred from the draw nip/brush wheel assembly on to the pin reel to form a hollow cylinder of material upon the pin reel.

The variable speed drive between the draw nip and the pin reel provides the differential speed which places an excess of material between the pins when so required.

Apart from a variety of uses to which such a circular former or pin reel may be put, a variable length of material may be used with a reel of fixed disc diameter.

Ordinarily, it may be most convenient to process such a sample of web material whose length is about equal to the circumferential length of a disc 28. In some cases the length may be less than the disc circumference.

With the pin reel however, it is possible to continue rotation of the reel after one complete revolution and to continue winding on further material in superimposed layers, according to the thickness of material being used and the length of pins in use.

The transfer reel may be used to support material without overfeeding of the material as will be manifest.

In a modification, the pin frame is a rectangular flat pin frame in which two opposed parallel metal strips which each carry a row of pins are adjustable in width with respect of each other by any suitable means such as slots and locating screws or screw-thread adjustment.

The frame is positioned adjacent to the brush wheels and the relative motion may be obtained either by causing the frame to move away from fixed position brush wheels, but in a direction parallel to the lines through the brushes, or alternatively the pin frame is fixed to the base of the draw nip/brush wheel assembly and the later assembly is caused to travel the length of the fixed pin frame.

In either case, a variable speed adjustment between the linear speed of material passing through the draw nip and the relative speed of draw nip/pin frame movement provides the differential speed ratio which overfeeds material on to the pins if required.

The two sides of the rectangular frame which are parallel to the draw nip axis need not be pinned, the attached material being suitably fastened thereto if desired.

The web-like material may be fed to the draw nip by any convenient means but it is preferably delivered to the draw nip 10, 11 by a combined padding/calendering apparatus.

The pin reel with its attached sample of material can be inserted into a treatment chamber for liquid and gaseous treatments at atmospheric or greater pressures or at vacuum.

A mesh tube 45 may bridge the discs 28 when treating materials such as synthetic fibre knits to avoid lengthwise shrinking in the otherwise unsupported middle of the material tube. The mesh tube 45 is carried on the inner axial recesses of the bosses 30 and preferably has means for securing the loose material ends across its length.

A detachable nozzle 46 having directional baffles 47 and a stabilising pendulum weight 48 can be mounted on the perforated hollow shaft 27 to direct treating fluid out of the latter onto the material.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A frame for supporting a piece of web-like material to be subjected to sample testing, the frame comprising:

a. a shaft,

b. a pair of circular discs mounted on the shaft in longitudinally-spaced relationship,

c. a plurality of material-engaging pins on the circumference of each circular disc, and

d. means between at least one of the circular discs and the shaft and actuable to effect longitudinal displacement of the circular disc along the shaft.

2. A frame according to claim 1, in which the shaft is hollow and radially perforated to permit fluid passage therethrough.

3. A frame according to claim 2, in which the means to effect longitudinal displacement of the circular disc along the shaft comprises: a traverse collar disposed within the hollow shaft, said at least one of the circular discs being secured to the traverse collar; a pair of stationary thrust collars also disposed within the hollow shaft with the traverse collar therebetween, and a screw rotatably extending between the thrust collars and passing through the traverse collar in screwengaging relationship therewith.

4. A frame according to claim 1, further comprising angularly-spaced bosses mounted on the circumference of each circular disc, each boss having two side-by-side axially-spaced recesses; and a ring having a plurality of pins on its circumference being seated in the axially outer recesses of the bosses.

5. A frame according to claim 4, further comprising a perforated tube extending between the two circular discs and seating in the axially inner recesses of the bosses.

6. A frame according to claim 2, further comprising a detachable nozzle with directional baffles mounted on the hollow perforated shaft, said nozzle communicating with the interior of the hollow shaft via the radial perforations therethrough.

7. A frame according to claim 6, further comprising rotatably mounting said nozzle on said shaft and a stabilizing pendulum weight mounted on the nozzle, so as to maintain said nozzle in a predetermined position as said shaft rotates.

8. A frame according to claim 1, further comprising a gearwheel rigidly attached to the shaft for connection with a drive.

9. A sample testing apparatus for applying a piece of web-like material onto a separate support frame having two parallel rows of material-holding pins, the apparatus comprising:

a. a pair of rotatable rollers defining a draw nip,

b. a pair of parallel rotatable brush wheels,

c. a non-rotatable pressing shoe disposed below but in contiguous relationship with each brush wheel,

d. a removable support frame in contiguous relationship with the rotatable brush wheels, said frame having two parallel rows of material-holding pins, the pin rows being positionable in alignment with the brush wheel/pressing shoe assemblies, said

e. variable speed drive means for effecting relative movement between the draw nip rollers, and removable support frame.

10. Apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising a plurality of pivotal arms for removably holding the support frame in contiguous relationship to the brush wheels.

11. Apparatus according to claim 10, in which the separate support frame comprises a shaft; two parallel circular discs mounted on said shaft, at least one of said discs being displaceable longitudinally on said shaft; and pins on the periphery of said circular discs for receiving and holding the web-like material.

12. Apparatus according to claim 11, in which the brush wheel/pressing shoe assemblies are also adjustable in a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis of said shaft.

13. Apparatus according to claim 10, in which the draw nip and brush wheel/pressing shoe assemblies and the pivotal arms for removably holding the support frame are mounted on a common base.

14. Apparatus according to claim 11, in which the support frame shaft is hollow, radially perforated and a detachable nozzle is rotatably mounted thereon so as to communicate with the radial perforations.

15. Apparatus according to claim 11, in which a perforated tube is removably attached to and extends between the circular discs.