Apparatus for producing flaked yarns

A device for forming a flaked yarn, comprising:

• a drawing device for a sliver, said drawing device comprising a pair of rotatable holding rollers including a first and a second roller in mutually cooperative pressure contact, and a pair of delivery drafting rollers including a third and a fourth roller in mutually cooperative pressure contact, said pair of drafting rollers being spaced from said pair of holding rollers so as to form a drafting zone therebetween, said third roller having a fluted peripheral steel surface and said fourth roller having a peripheral rubber surface, a plurality of spaced and mutually staggered grooves being formed in and extending around the annular cylindrical surface of said rubber surface, the width of each groove being smaller than the thickness of the sliver compressed between said rollers, said spaced grooves extending for only a portion of the circumference of said roller, and further laterally offset spaced grooves extending along successive portions of said roller circumference so as to form a pattern of discontinuous groups of grooves extending around the cylindrical annular surface of said rubber-surface roller;
• and twising means located downstream of the said drawing rollers receiving the drafted sliver therefrom whereby, after the drawing operation and responsive to the passage of the sliver between said drafting rollers and to the differential drawing effect caused by the said grooves, said twisting means form said drafted sliver into a flaked yarn.