Apparatus on a spinning preparation machine for monitoring and/or adjusting clearances at components

A spinning preparation machine comprising one or more clearances to be monitored, each clearance being defined between a clothed roller and a respective opposed machine component wherein, at the or each said clearance:

• said clothed roller and opposed machine component forming said clearance are electrically isolated with respect to one another during normal operation;
• said clothed roller and opposed machine component are connected as contact elements to an electrical circuit;
• and
• said electrical circuit includes a measuring device for quantitatively measuring the contacts.

A method of monitoring the clearance between a clothed roller of a textile machine and an opposed component, at least one of said clothed roller and said opposed component defining the clearance to be monitored being connected to an electrical power supply, comprising:

• operating the textile machine;
• maintaining said clothed roller and said opposed component in electrical isolation from one another;
• on the or each occasion upon which the clothing of the roller touches the opposed component, monitoring the electrical contact arising from the touching of the roller clothing and the opposed component;
• and quantitatively determining therefrom the extent to which the roller clothing and the opposed component touch each other.