Thread storage and supply arrangement for textile machines

In a thread storage and supply arrangement for textile machines, in combination, a storage drum having a peripheral thread storage surface onto which is to be wound a succession of adjoining turns of thread, the thread storage surface comprising a thread infeed region at one axial end of the storage surface and a thread outfeed region at the other axial end;

• thread infeed means located at the thread infeed region for feeding onto the peripheral storage surface a succession of adjoining turns of thread;
• thread outfeed means located at the thread outfeed region for feeding off the storage surface thread which is to be pulled off the storage drum, the peripheral storage surface at the thread infeed region thereof curving radially inward in the direction from the infeed region to the outfeed region and at the outfeed region thereof curving radially outward in the direction from the infeed region to the outfeed region, the diameter of the peripheral storage surface being greater at the part of the thread outfeed region remote from the infeed region than at the thread infeed region;
• controllable drive means operative when activated for effecting rotation of the storage drum relative to the infeed and outfeed means;
• and electrooptical control means operative for activating and deactivating-the drive means in dependence upon the extent to which thread is wound about the peripheral storage surface of the storage drum.