US 5,134,866 AGranted

Apparatus for the thermal treatment of textile fibers

AssigneePassap Knitting Machines Inc.

InventorRobert Enderlin

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Abstract

A heat treatment chamber for textile threads continuously treats the textile threads utilizing forced circulation units of a treatment fluid. The circulation units are these units being crossed consecutively by a conveyor belt that carries a lap of threads. Each circulation unit is provided with a blower and a closed circuit or an open circuit for the treatment fluid (air or steam). A heat exchanger is positioned near the conveyor belt, in such a way that the fluid crosses it and takes the desired temperature immediately before crossing the lap of threads. The heat exchanger can be formed of longitudinal tubes criss-crossed by heating or cooling fluid. Such a chamber is usable either to preheat the threads, to maintain them heated, or to cool them. The forced circulation units can ensure a gradual variation in the temperature of the threads in the same treatment chamber, or can enable a homogeneity to be obtained in a particular portion of the tunnel, by virtue of the communication between at least two forced circulation units that function in open circuit with the surrounding zone.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A yarn treatment chamber comprising:

a yarn conveyor belt;
a tubular enclosure having an inlet and an outlet for said yarn conveyor belt;
at least one forced circulation unit positioned inside the yarn treatment chamber, wherein the circulation unit is provided with a casing that is traversed in a direction of travel by said conveyor belt and wherein the casing defines a circuit for a yarn treatment fluid, wherein the yarn treatment fluid is at least one member selected from the group consisting of air and stream, and wherein the circuit has at least one blower to force the treatment fluid to pass substantially vertically through perforations in said conveyor belt as well as yarn being treated;
and
at least one heat exchange means associated only with a single forced circulation unit, wherein the heat exchange means comprise at least one heat exchanger in the form of tubes extending substantially parallel to the direction of displacement of said conveyor belt which is inside the casing of said at least one forced circulation unit, wherein with respect to the direction of yarn treatment fluid flow, the heat exchange means is positioned upstream of both the conveyor belt and the yarn being treated, so that the treatment fluid crosses the heat exchange means substantially immediately before passing through perforations in the conveyor belt.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.