Apparatus for transporting empty yarn winding tubes and fully wound textile yarn packages to and from a winding location

An apparatus for transporting empty yarn-winding tubes and fully wound textile yarn packages to and from a textile machine having a plurality of adjacently arranged yarn-winding work stations each with a winding head, said apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of transport units configured for selectively carrying one of an empty tube and a wound yarn package to and from the yarn-winding stations, each said transport unit having an upwardly facing transport receiver surface that is freely accessible from above,
• an endless guide track partially disposed along one side of the work stations laterally adjacent the winding head of each work station,
• means disposed on said transport units for guiding said transport units along said guide track,
• means for joining said transport units in a transport assembly along said guide track,
• means for driving said transport assembly along said guide track,
• means positionable above said transport units for lifting empty tubes off said transport receiver surfaces and transferring the empty tubes to the work stations, and
• means for laterally displacing wound textile yarn packages from the winding heads onto said transport receiver surfaces.