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AssigneeW. Schlafhorst AG & Co.
InventorsHans Raasch, Heinz-Dieter Gobbels, Hans-Willi Esser
Estimating the term…
An open-end rotor spinning machine is equipped with a service structure for the automatic correction of yarn breaks occurring in the course of the bobbin winding and for the automatic exchange of empty tubes for finished packages, wherein empty tubes are delivered to and finished packages are removed from the work stations via an endless transport device. The service structure has a package ejector for ejecting finished packages from the work stations, a tube gripper for retrieving an empty tube from the transport device, and a tube positioning device connected with the package ejector of the service structure to position an empty tube held by the tube gripper precisely into desired disposition relative to a respective work station to be supplied with an empty tube.
In a yarn package-producing textile machine having multiple work stations each equipped with a bobbin tube support frame, an endless transport arrangement for delivering empty tubes to the work stations and for removing finished yarn packages from the work stations and a service structure movable between the work stations for performing replacement of finished packages with empty tubes, the service structure having a tube gripper and a tube positioning device the tube gripper transporting an empty tube from the endless transport arrangement to the tube positioning device and the tube positioning device having a pair of opposing pivotable positioning arms engageable with opposite ends of the empty tube for receiving the empty tube from the tube gripper and for orienting the empty tube into an exact position relative to the tube support frame of a respective work station to be supplied with the empty tube.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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Other common constructional features, details or accessories: service carriages travelling along the machines
Arrangements for removing completed take-up packages or for loading an empty core: for loading an empty core
Piecing arrangements; Control therefor: for rotor spinning
Handled filamentary material: textiles threads or artificial strands of filaments
Term ended 2 Oct 2015 (estimated)
USPTO file history isn’t available for this patent, so only indexed dates are shown.
The invention relates to a textile machine for producing yarn packages, especially cheese-type packages, and more particularly to a service arrangement for the automatic exchange of finished packages for empty tubes, wherein the provision and removal processes at the textile machine take place via an endless transport device.
Service arrangements for textile machines which can repair yarn breaks as well as perform yarn package changes are known, for example, from German Patent Publication DE 38 01 965 A1 or European Patent Publication EP 0 106 809 B. In addition to a pneumatically or mechanically operating auxiliary yarn transport device, these service arrangements have special yarn spinning units as well as a package changing device with means for passing the finished packages to a transport device, and a gripper device for inserting empty tubes into the bobbin frame of the respective work station.
It is furthermore known to employ an endless transport device for delivering empty bobbins and removal of wound packages at the work stations of yarn winding textile machines. Such an endless transport device is represented in German Patent Publication DE 40 01 253 A1, which has a conveyor extending along the longitudinal extent of the textile machine disposed between the work stations along opposite sides of the machine. The conveyor has gondola-like carrier elements for transferring the wound packages and separate holders for receiving empty tubes.
FIG. 1 is an end elevational view of a textile yarn package-producing machine equipped with a circulating endless transport device for delivery of empty winding tubes to and removal of wound packages from the work stations of the machine, and with an automatic service arrangement patrolling along the work station;
FIG. 2 is an end elevational view similar to FIG. 1 showing a traveling service arrangement with a tube positioning device in accordance with the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the embodiment of the tube positioning device of FIG. 2;
A textile machine for producing cheeses or another like form of wound yarn package is identified in its entirety by 1 in FIG. 1, and for sake of illustration and by way of example is shown as an open-end rotor spinning frame. Open-end spinning frames of this type essentially comprise a main machine frame 2 with multiple work stations 3 arranged in alignment with one another to extend in two rows along opposite longitudinal sides of the machine. Each of the work stations 3 has a respective spinning unit 4 and a winding device 5, which are basically known and therefore not shown in detail. At each spinning station, a sliver 7 disposed in a sliver can 6 is fed into the respective spinning unit 4 to be spun into yarn, from which the yarn is withdrawn and subsequently wound into a cheese-type package 9 in the winding device 5.
Usually the main machine frame has a plurality of vertical support stanchions 10, which are connected via transverse cross arms 11 and horizontal struts. Horizontal longitudinally extending guide rails 13 are disposed on the transverse cross arms 11 for traveling movement therealong of one or several automatic service structures 14.
A transport arrangement 17 extends along the length of the machine between the respective winding devices 5 of the two rows of work stations in the area beneath the transverse cross arms 11 and between the transverse cross arms 11 and the central machine frame. The transport arrangement 17 comprises a plurality of individual transport units 18 which circulate in aligned sequence with one another on a track 20, for example by means of wheeled running gear 19 on the interior underside of each unit. The transport units are either embodied as independent pushed elements or, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, combined into a circulating endless transport device by means of a connecting traction element 21 which is activated by a drive wheel (not shown). Each of the transport units 18 has a generally V-shaped upwardly facing transport receptacle 22 which can selectively receive either an empty tube 23 or a fully wound package 9.