Cradle for a twisting machine

A cradle for a twisting machine for filamentary material comprising:

• a reel spindle for a reel of filamentary material and rotatably mounted upon a support and a tensioning device for the material as it is drawn from the reel, the tensioning device comprising:
• a brake drum rotatable with the spindle and having inner and outer cylindrical brake surfaces;
• first and second brake shoes disposed for braking engagement, the first shoe with the inner and the second shoe with the outer brake surface, the shoes mounted upon first and second brake arms respectively to move the shoes towards and away from their braking surfaces;
• a rotatable tensioning pulley;
• biassing means to urge the pulley and its axis in one direction of movement and to urge pivotal movement of the first and second brake arms to hold the shoes normally in brake engaged positions with the braking means, the pulley being movable in the opposite direction against the biassing means;
• and
• a brake release actuator operably disposed between the pulley and the arms and comprising a brake release link pivotally movable about either of two relatively offset axes and a brake operating link, the actuator operable when the pulley then moves in said opposite direction and with the links connected and relatively inclined to subject the release link to a component of load causing it to pivot primarily about a first of the axes to move the first brake arm and its brake shoe from its brake engaged position and then to pivot primarily about the second axis to move the second brake arm and its brake shoe from its brake engaged position.