IES63041B2 - Apparatus for use with a cloth brushing machine - Google Patents

Abstract

Apparatus (17) for use with a cloth brushing machine (10), the brush (11), of which can accommodate at least two widths of the cloth (16) to be brushed. The apparatus (17) comprises a series of guides (18,19,20) which are spatially arranged with respect to one another and to the brushing machine (10) so as to define a path through which the length of cloth (16) (which has already been brushed on one side thereof) is fed, such that the length of cloth (16), in following the path, is inverted and is laterally displaced by at least its own width such that the other side of the length of cloth (16) emerging from the apparatus (17) can be presented to the brush (11) for brushing, whereby each side of the cloth (16) can be brushed in one continuous operation.

Description

Apparatus for use with a cloth brushing machine This invention relates to the brushing of cloth, using brushing machines.

The processing of textile materials often involves steps which improve or alter the surface qualities (both tactile and visual) of the cloth. Brushing, a process which is applied to a wide variety of fabrics, is usually accomplished by bristle-covered rollers. The process is used to remove loose threads and short fibre ends from smoothsurfaced fabrics and is also used to raise a nap on knits and woven fabrics. Napping is a similar process which may be applied to woollens, cottons, spun silks and spun rayons, including both woven and knitted types, to raise a velvety, soft surface. The process involves passing the fabric over revolving cylinders covered with fine wires that lift the short, loose fibres, usually from the weft yams, to the surface, forming a nap. Shearing is used to cut the raised nap to a uniform height and is used for the same purpose on pile fabrics. Shearing machines operate much like rotary lawn-mowers, and may be additionally used to create stripes and other patterns by varying surface height. Brushing is frequently applied to fabrics after shearing, removing the cut fibres which have fallen into the nap.

The term brushing, as used herein, includes napping and shearing.

A conventional brushing machine comprises a plurality of pile card rollers (brush rollers) each of which resembles a cylindrical bar covered in bristles. These rollers are arranged around the surface of a large, rotatable cylinder, and each roller is individually rotatable with respect to the surface of the cylinder. Thus, in use, this cylinder-androller arrangement (the ’’brush) consists of a number of spinning rollers moving circularly around a cylindrical axis.

A system of pinch rollers and tension rollers is used to feed the cloth over the brush, whereby the pile card rollers remove loose fibres and raise the nap of the textile.

Although cloth is usually produced, on a commercial scale, in 5 long strips, the width of the strips may vary. The greatest efficiency is achieved when the cloth is almost as wide as the brush, since in this way the surface of the brush is used in the most efficient manner. A problem arises, however, with the use of certain types of cloth on standard machines. For example, the cloth produced by many modem knitting machines emerges as a cylindrical length of cloth which is slit along its length for use in the manufacture of garments. Before the cloth is used in the manufacture of garments, it undergoes all of the necessary preliminary processes such as dyeing and brushing.

It has been found that it is advantageous to carry out the brushing step before cutting the cloth along its length since the double thickness of cloth (when the roll is flattened) provides an extra degree of strength which is important for retaining the qualities of the cloth as it moves through the pinch and tension rollers. In effect this means that the roll of cloth must be brushed on both sides thereof if a consistent finish is desired when the cloth is cut along its length.

In many cases the uncut roll of cloth has a width which is just half that of a standard brush. It will be appreciated that it would be highly advantageous to provide, for a brushing machine which can accommodate two widths of a length of cloth along the length of the brush, an apparatus which allows the cloth to be brushed first on one side and then on the other side, with both brushing operations being carried out in parallel on the same brush and without necessitating the removal of the length of cloth from the machine, since this will double the efficiency of the machine when used with cloth of a suitable width.

According to the invention, there is provided an apparatus for use with a cloth brushing machine, the brush of which can accommodate at least two widths of a length of cloth to be brushed, said apparatus comprising a series of guides which are spatially arranged which respect to one another and to the brush so as to define a path through which the length of cloth, already brushed on one side, on being fed, is inverted and laterally displaced by at least its own width such that the other side of the emerging cloth can be presented to the brush for brushing, whereby each side of the cloth can be brushed in one continuous operation.

Thus, a single operator can operate the apparatus and the brushing machine, thereby doubling the efficiency of the brushing machine. This leads to substantial savings in relation to labour cos ts and production times.

Preferably, the guides are rollers around which the length of cloth passes during its travel through the apparatus.

Rollers are preferred for use as guides since they are inexpensive and simple to maintain, and they are very suitable for defining a path for a length of cloth which is kept taut since all that is required is a single roller at each change of direction of the path which is to be followed by the cloth.

In a preferred embodiment, the series of rollers comprises: (a) a first roller, at an angle of 45° to the initial direction of travel of the cloth, which redirects the cloth through an angle of 90°, and inverts the cloth; (b) a second roller, at an angle of 90° to the direction of travel of the redirected cloth, which reverses the direction of travel of the cloth and re-inverts the cloth; and (c) a third roller, at an angle of 45° to the direction of travel of the cloth emerging from the second roller, which turns the cloth through 90° and inverts the cloth again, such that the cloth emerges in a parallel direction to the initial direction of travel, inverted with respect to the cloth entering the apparatus and displaced laterally by at least the width of the cloth.

This arrangement allows the entire path to be defined by three rollers, such that it is a quick and uncomplicated task to thread the leading edge of the cloth through the apparatus. This only needs to be done occasionally, since the leading edge of a full roll of cloth can be sewn onto the trailing edge of an exhausted roll of cloth.

Alternatively, if the cloth must be brushed a number times in succession, the leading edge of a roll can be sewn onto its own trailing edge, thereby forming a continuous loop which is threaded past the brush, through the apparatus and past the brush again. Brushing can therefore proceed to whatever extent is necessary without having to manipulate the cloth at all.

The rollers may be spatially arranged with a variety of orientations and additional rollers may be used to manipulate the cloth between the first, second and third rollers, and to adapt the apparatus to the dimensions of the brushing machine with which it is to be used. Preferably, in any event, the spatial arrangement of the rollers is such that the rollers receive the cloth from the one end of the brush, and feed the cloth onto the other end of the brush without creasing or bunching the cloth.

The invention also provides a cloth brushing machine having apparatus according to the invention integral therewith.

It will be recognised that this invention will, for a moderate outlay, allow the efficiency of the conventional brushing process to be doubled, with corresponding savings in the expense of preparing the finished cloth.

The invention will be further illustrated by the following description of an embodiment thereof given by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which like elements are denoted by like reference numerals and in which: Fig. 1 is an illustration of an apparatus according to the invention for use with a brushing machine; Fig. 2 is a schematic plan view of the various rollers of the apparatus illustrated in Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 is a schematic illustration of the path of a length of cloth taken through the apparatus and brushing machine illustrated in Fig. 1.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2 there is indicated, generally at 10, a brushing machine having a large cylindrical brush 11 mounted on a frame 12 with guide rollers 13,14,15 for guiding cloth onto and around the brush 11.

The machine 10, to be used in brushing a length of cloth 16. also comprises apparatus according to the invention, indicated generally at 17, in the form of a series of rollers 18,19,20. The roller arrangement defining the apparatus 17 is also mounted on the frame 12 (mountings not shown) and comprises a first roller 18 at 45° to the initial direction of travel of the cloth 16 as it emerges from the brush 11 and associated roller 15. The cloth 16 is wrapped over and around the first roller 18 such that it is redirected by 90°. The redirected cloth 16 then travels to and is wrapped around a second roller 19 (shown in dotted outline in Fig. 1), such that the direction of travel of the cloth 16 is reversed from the direction imparted to it by the first roller 18. A third roller 20 (shown in dotted outline in Fig. 1), at 45° to the direction of travel of the cloth 16 emerging from the second roller 19, turns the cloth 16 through 90° and inverts the cloth 16 again, such that the cloth emerges in a substantially parallel direction to the initial direction of travel from roller 15 to first roller 18.

The emerging cloth 16 is inverted with respect to the cloth 16 entering the roller arrangement 17 and is displaced along the length of the brush 11 by just over the width of the cloth. Since the width of the brush 11 is more than twice the width of the cloth 16, the cloth 16 can be fed back onto the brush 11, where the unbrushed side will be brushed. After the second brushing, the cloth 16 emerges from brush 11 and associated roller 15 to be passed over a final roller 21 through a folding mechanism 22 which lays the material down in a neatly folded pile 23.

Prior to use, the leading edge of the length of cloth 16 is fed, in succession, over and under the rollers 13,14,15,18,19,20,21 and through the feeding mechanism 22 to provide the required path. In operation, the machine 10 causes the cloth 16 to move progressively therethrough at a uniform rate through the brushing process, ensuring that both sides are evenly brushed before the length of cloth 16 is folded. The length of cloth 16 is therefore brushed twice in a single pass through machine 10, thus effectively doubling the output of the machine.

In Fig. 3, there is shown a schematic representation of the length of cloth 16 as it passes through the brushing machine 10 and apparatus 17 illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2. Stripes 24 are used to identify a first side 25 of the length of cloth 16 as it moves through the machine 10. Thus, it can be seen that the first side 25 of the cloth 16 remains on the outside of loop 26 defining the passage of the cloth 16 over one end of the brush and on the inside of loop 27 defining the passage of the cloth 16 over the other end of the brush. Thus, in a single pass through the machine, the cloth 16 is brushed on both sides thereof.

Claims (5)

1. Apparatus for use with a cloth brushing machine, the brush of which can accommodate at least two widths of a length of cloth to be brushed, said apparatus comprising a series of guides which are spatially arranged which respect to one another and to the brush so as to define a path through which the length of cloth, already brushed on one side, on being fed, is inverted and laterally displaced by at least its own width such that the other side of the emerging cloth can be presented to the brush for brushing, whereby each side of the cloth can be brushed in one continuous operation.

2. Apparatus according to Claim 1, wherein the guides are rollers around which the length of cloth passes during its travel through the apparatus.

3. Apparatus according to Claim 2, wherein the series of rollers comprises: (a) a first roller, at an angle of 45° to the initial direction of travel of the cloth, which redirects the cloth through an angle of 90°, and inverts the cloth; (b) a second roller, at an angle of 90° to the direction of travel of the redirected cloth, which reverses the direction of travel of the cloth and re-inverts the cloth; and (c) a third roller, at an angle of 45° to the direction of travel of the cloth emerging from the second roller, which turns the cloth through 90° and inverts the cloth again, such that the cloth emerges in a parallel direction to the initial direction of travel, inverted with respect to the cloth entering the apparatus and displaced laterally by at least the width of the cloth.

4. A cloth brushing machine having apparatus according to any one of Claims 1 to 3 integral therewith.

5. Apparatus according to Claim 1, substantially as hereinbefore described with particular reference to and as illustrated in Figs. 1-3 of the accompanying Drawings.