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US 4,365,395 AGranted
Apparatus for handling textile filamentary material
AssigneeHoechst Fibers Industries, Division of American Hoechst Corporation
InventorZachry G. Brantley
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AssigneeHoechst Fibers Industries, Division of American Hoechst Corporation
InventorZachry G. Brantley
Estimating the term…
Static tow inverting apparatus for inverting the overlap of overlapping layers of a continuous length filamentary tow band of textile material deposited onto the surface of a moving conveyor in relaxed condition for treatment, such as in the thermal heat setting treatment of a band of tow which has been subjected to a mechanical crimping operation. The tow inverter comprises a pair of stationary plates which are disposed above the surface of a moving conveyor to receive a continuous length of tow in a plurality of overlapping layers thereon. The opposed surfaces of the spaced plates define a downwardly curving passageway for gravitational conveyance of the overlapping layers of tow through a reversing direction of movement to deposit the same on the surface of the moving conveyor with preceding layers of tow overlying succeeding layers of tow in the direction of movement on the conveyor. The tow is thereafter longitudinally withdrawn from the conveyor surface with minimum disruption of the layers and individual filaments therein. The two plates are respectively manually horizontally and vertically positionable to accommodate tow bands of varying size, width and dimensional configuration, and one of the plates is supported for pivotal movement about a horizontal axis in response to a predetermined pressure exerted thereon to prevent possible blockage of the inverter by tow in the inverter passageway. Means are provided for adjusting the downward slope of a surface of one of the plates, if desired, to facilitate gravitational movement of the overlapping layers of tow through the tow inverter.
A stationary tow inverter for depositing a continuous length of tow onto the surface of a moving conveyor in a plurality of overlapping layers with preceding layers of the tow overlying next succeeding layers in the direction of movement of the conveyor, comprising:
Apparatus for treating a continuously moving filamentary band of tow including a generally horizontally moving conveyor for transporting the tow for treatment in relaxed condition and in a plurality of overlapping layers extending transversely across at least a portion of the conveyor width, tow feeding means positioned above the conveyor and movable in reversing directions generally transverse to the direction of movement of the conveyor for continuously gravitationally feeding a running length of tow downwardly toward the surface of the conveyor, and tow withdrawing means for continuously longitudinally withdrawing the layers of tow from the conveyor after treatment thereon, tow inverting means positioned below and in the path of movement of the tow from the tow feeding means and having first and second stationary tow guiding surfaces positioned above and extending in horizontally spaced relation from each other across at least a portion of the conveyor surface to define a downwardly curving passageway for initially receiving the length of tow from said tow feeding means in a plurality of overlapping layers with preceding layes underlying next succeeding layers, and for gravitationally conveying and guiding the layers of tow while substantially reversing the direction of movement of the overlapping layers to invert their overlap and deposit the same onto the surface of the moving conveyor with preceding layers of tow overlying next succeeding layers in the direction of movement of the conveyor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.