Flyer doffer for automatically replacing full roving bobbins with empty roving bobbins

A flyer doffer for automatic exchange of at least one full bobbin with at least one empty one of said bobbins in a flyer in which said bobbins in the vicinity of a plurality of work stations are movable into an inclined delivery position from a vertical working position in said flyer, said flyer doffer comprising:

• a transport device extending to along said flyer to transport said full bobbins and said empty bobbins;
• a combined doffing and mounting region which extends over a plurality of spindles of said flyer for groupwise exchange of said full bobbins with said empty bobbins on said spindles;
• a lifting region spatially separate from said doffing and mounting region;
• an exchanging region extending to said doffing and mounting region and said lifting regions;
• a bobbin carrier for transporting bobbins;
• a gripper and lifter operating in said doffing and mounting region for removing said full bobbins from said spindles, for depositing said full bobbins on said bobbin carrier, for removing said empty bobbins from said bobbin carrier and for mounting said empty bobbins on said spindles, said gripper and lifter comprising:
• a gripper pivotally mounted on a horizontal axis,
• a group of raisable and lowerable gripping elements corresponding to said full bobbins to be removed for transfer of said bobbins from a mounted position into an exchange position and/or from said exchange position into a doffed position;
• twin pivots;
• a pair of crank members;
• a pair of coupling members;
• at least one double articulation comprising said twin pivots and crank members, said gripping elements being connected by said double articulation,
• a housing;
• two rails opposite each other which are mounted on said plurality of crank members and connected by said plurality of coupling members with said housing which is not pivotable, said gripping elements being guided slidably on said rails and having a changeable spacing with respect to each other;
• a lifting device operating in said lifting region for moving said full bobbins to said transport device, said gripper and lifter and said lifting device being operable independently of each other and simultaneously;
• a hanger track;
• a transport disk;
• a plurality of receiving prongs to receive said bobbins;
• at least one plate provided with said plurality of receiving prongs;
• and
• an exchange device operating in said exchanging region which shifts said bobbins between said regions provided with said transport disk having at least two positions spaced from each other, and upon said transport disk is positioned said at least one plate provided with said plurality of receiving prongs for said bobbin, said plate being movable into said lifting region from said mounting and/or doffing region by said transport disk and in reverse, said plate provided with said receiving prongs being movable by said lifting device from said exchanging region to said hanger track.