System for opening fabrics in rope-form

A system for opening fabrics in rope-form, comprising in combination:

• (a) a spreader device (10) comprising a structure (20) supporting at opposite ends thereof at least two double spirally scored spreader rolls (18, 22) rotatably driven in the opposite direction to the fabric (14) feed direction and with their axes parallel, and means (26, 34, 36) for angularly displacing said structure (20) in such a manner as to vary the angle of inclination of the plane containing the axes of the spreader rolls (18, 22);
• (b) a centering device (12) disposed at a predetermined distance downstream of the spreader device (10) and comprising:
• a structure (44) supporting at least two centering rolls (46) disposed with their axes parallel and lying in a plane substantially parallel to the fabric (14) feed axis (x--x);
• said structure (44) being hinged at the ends about axes perpendicular to the plane containing the axes of the centering rolls (46), to two slides (40, 42) displaceable along two axes (y--y, z--z) contained in a plane parallel to the aforesaid plane and converging towards the fabric (14) feed axis (x--x) downstream of the centering rolls (46);
• sensor means (52) sensitive to changes in the direction of the fabric (14) downstream of said rolls, and
• actuator means (50) controlled by said sensor means (52) and arranged to displace one of the slides (40) in such a manner as to vary the inclination of the axes of the centering rolls (46) between a central position in which said axes are perpendicular to the fabric (14) feed axis (x--x), and two end positions in which said axes are equally inclined to said axis (x--x) but in opposite directions, the means for rotatably driving the spreader rolls (18, 22) comprising an electric motor (24) and a drive supported by one of the two support structures (20), the spreader device and the centering device being 250 mm to 750 mm apart.