US 4,757,679 AGranted

Method and apparatus for automatically doffing cops and replacing them with empty tube in a roving frame

AssigneeFratelli Marzoli & C. S.p.A.

InventorPietro B. Marzoli

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Abstract

A doffing carriage is mobile at the level of the flyer support bed of a roving frame, and carries cop and empty tube gripping elements which are orientatable between a vertical position and an oblique position. A peg conveyor loaded with empty tubes in a reverse zig-zag arrangement to that of the cop rotators is disposed at the level of a footboard. The cops, lowered on to an orientatable cop carrier, are gripped by the gripping elements in an oblique position, raised, disposed vertically and deposited on to the free pegs of the conveyor, proceeding from one end of the roving frame to the other. After moving the conveyor through one step, the gripping elements deposit the empty tubes on to the cop rotators by proceeding in the reverse direction. The same carriage loads the empty tubes on to the conveyor and unloads the cops from it at one end of the roving frame, while this latter is in operation.

Claims25

Dependent claims

A method of automatically doffing cops and replacing them with empty tubes in a roving frame, of the type in which the cops are lowered into a position external to flyers and conveyed on to pegs of a conveyor in a zig-zag arrangement, the conveyor then being moved through a certain distance, and the empty tubes, which have been previously loaded on to the conveyor in positions intercalated with the cops, being withdrawn and conveyed on to a lowered cop carrier, the cop carrier then being raised into its working position characterised by the sequential steps of

(a) lowering cops with the axes thereof disposed in a generally vertical direction,
(b) orienting the lowered cops to position the axes thereof in an oblique direction defining an acute angle to the vertical.
(c) removing the lowered cops from the lowered cop carrier by movement of the cops with the axes thereof generally parallel to the oblique direction,
(d) reorienting the removed cops with their axes again disposed in a generally vertical direction,
(e) placing the reoriented cops upon the conveyor with the axes thereof disposed in a generally vertical direction,
(f) raising empty tubes from the conveyor with the axes thereof disposed in a generally vertical direction,
(g) orienting the raised empty tubes to position the axes thereof in an oblique direction defining an acute angle to the vertical,
(h) placing the obliquely oriented empty tubes upon the lowered cop carrier by movement of the empty tubes with the axes thereof generally parallel to the oblique direction, and
(i) re orienting empty tubes with their axes again disposed in a generally vertical direction.

6 more elements

An apparatus for automatically doffing cops and replacing them with empty tubes, comprising a device for gripping and conveying the cops and tubes relative to a roving frame, a conveyor for receiving the cops and the empty tubes in respective intercalated zig-zag arrangements, means for lowering a cop carrier to the outside of associated flyers of a flyer support bed into a position in which the cops are gripped, means for the programmed movement of the conveyor, a cop and tube gripping device including a doffing carriage mobile along the face of the roving frame substantially at the level of the flyer support bed, and a plurality of means for sequentially

(a) lowering cops with the axes thereof disposed in a generally vertical direction,
(b) orienting the lowered cops to position the axes thereof in an oblique direction defining an acute angle to the vertical,
(c) removing the lowered cops from the lowered cop carrier by movement of the cops with the axes thereof generally parallel to the oblique direction,
(d) reorienting the removed cops with their axes again disposed in a generally vertical direction,
(e) placing the reoriented cops upon the conveyor with the axes thereof disposed in a generally vertical direction,
(f) raising empty tubes from the conveyor with the axes thereof disposed in a generally vertical direction,
(g) orienting the raised empty tubes to position the axes thereof in an oblique direction defining an acute angle to the vertical,
(h) placing the obliquely oriented empty tubes upon the lowered cop carrier by movement of the empty tubes with the axes thereof generally parallel to the oblique direction, and
(i) reorienting the empty tubes with their axes again disposed in a generally vertical direction.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.