System for transporting bobbins between spinning machines

A system for transporting bobbins between two yarn processing machines comprising:

• a unitary storage device for temporarily storing bobins which have been processed by one of the yarn processing machines and are awaiting processing by the other yarn processing machine, said unitary storage device including at least two storage rails, said at least two storage rails each being fixedly mounted to said unitary storage device, each storage rail for supporting a plurality of bobbins in a row and said storage rails being arranged relative to one another to support said rows of bobbins in generally superposed vertical relation with one another, said unitary storage device having wheels operable to support said unitary storage device on a floor for rolling movement therealong to allow selective movement of said unitary storage device between a transfer location for loading bobbins onto said storage rails and another location for unloading bobbins from said storage rails;
• a bobbin transporting rail extending from at least one of the yarn processing machines to said transfer location;
• and
• rail movable support means having wheel means for rolling travel along said storage rails and said bobbin transporting rail, said rail movable support means for supporting a plurality of bobbins arranged in a row for movement of said row of bobbins as an integral unit, said rail movable support means being compatibly configured with said storage rails and said bobbin transporting rail to effect relative movement of said row of bobbins along a selected one of said storage rails while supported by said rail movable support means, said selected storage rail being supported by said unitary storage device at said transfer location for rail-to-rail bridging movement of said rail movable support means between said selected storage rail and said bobbin transporting rail to effect groupwise transfer of said row of bobbins between said unitary storage device and said bobbin transporting rail.