US3779049A

US3779049A - Apparatus for the wet treatment of a textile web

Info

Publication number: US3779049A
Application number: US00229393A
Authority: US
Inventors: A Becker
Original assignee: Brueckner Apparatebau GmbH
Current assignee: Brueckner Apparatebau GmbH
Priority date: 1971-02-25
Filing date: 1972-02-25
Publication date: 1973-12-18
Anticipated expiration: 1990-12-18
Also published as: DE2109009C3; DE2109009A1; DE2109009B2

Abstract

This invention relates to apparatus for the wet treatment of a textile web in a vat of liquid, the apparatus including an intermittently rotated compartmented drum disposed in the vat, conveyor means disposed in front of and behind the vat for the textile web, and sensor means engageable by the web for controlling the rate of movement of the web through the vat.

Description

United States Patent [1 1 Becker 1 1 APPARATUS FOR THE WET TREATMENT OF A TEXTILE WEB [75] inventor: Arno Becker, Stuttgart-Vaihingen,

Germany- [73] Assignee: Bruckner Apparatebau GmbH,

Erbach/Odenwald, Germany [22] Filed: Fcb.25, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 229,393

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Feb. 25, 1971 Germany P 21 09 009.5

[52] US. Cl 168/158, 68/177 [51] Int. Cl. B05c 3/134 [58] Field of Search 68/158, 177, 178, 68/179 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1246,993 11/1917 Puyet 68/177 X Dec. 18, 1973 3,700,404 10/1972 Junisch et al. 68/177 X 3,686,902 8/1972 Flcissncr ct 111W 2,239,607 4/1941 Himsworth 68/158 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 933,922 10/1955 Germany 68/158 Primary Examiner-Harvey O. Hlornsby Asrsiivtan! Examiner-Philip R. Coe Attorney-John F. Learman et a1.

[ 5 7 1 ABSTRACT This invention relates to apparatus for the wet treatment of a'textile web in a vat of liquid, the apparatus including an intermittently rotated compartmented drum disposed in the vat, conveyor means disposed in front of and behind the vat for the textile web, and sensor means engageable by the web for controlling the rate of movement of the web through the vat.

14 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures PATENTED DEC] 8 I973 SHEET 2 0F 3 Fig. 3

PATENIEDHEE I 8 m3 SHEET 3 0F 3 l STEPPED 3 b Is DRIVE 3 so CONTROL I, I4

GATE v I DETEcToR OF TIME '2 I INTERvAL f BETWEEN STEPPED I DRIVE SIGNALS OF DRUM 0 AND b I 6o SWITCH I3 STEPPED b DRIVE 7 L c NTRoL I2 I 6 DETECTOR STEPPED C OF E DRIvE I TIMER 1 OCCURRENCE OF DRUM UNIT OF SIGNAL 0 VIS-o-VIS SIGNALS c AND D SwITcI-I a;

1 APPARATUS FOR THE WET TREATMENT OF A TEXTILE WEB V Devicestare known for the wet treatment (in particular for washing, dyeing, rinsing) of a textile web, wherein the web is conveyed through a vat of liquid by means ofta compartmented drum. During these wet treatments the textile web generally shrinks. To allow for the shrinkage effect, the conveyor means disposed behind thevat are driven at a somewhat lower speed than the means in front of the vat.

If however thetextile web shrinks more strongly than assumed, the compartments in the drum are prematurely emptied on the outlet side, sothat the web is subjected to increased tension (either from the compartment partitions orthrough the liquid). If on the contrary :the textile web shrinks less than expected, the compartments in the drum do not empty at the correct time, and this-also affects the functioning of the plant.

Since pivoting-or compensating rollers give an extended length of fabric, and hence with elastic fabrica tensile stress which is not unduly increased, one'might merely conceive manual control of the'conveyor means in dependence on thesgreater-or lesser shrinkageaApart from the associated labour requirements, there is however .a decisive difficulty in this, since the operative cannot readily detect fromthe outsidehow many compartments in the drum already contain a reduced amountof fabric orarequite empty. This isparticularly the case when the amountof'fabric in "the individual 'compartmen'ts'is not large. With a heavy shrinkageof the fabric itcan then readily happen that all the compartments areemptied (without the operative immediately recognizing the fact), so that the textile web is pulled externally on the drum, overthe compartment partitions through the whole bath of liquid, and in the area of the compartment partitions is thereforeeasily damaged or even torn, and at least is stretched.

The object of the invention is therefore to avoid. these defects of known constructions in providing a device of the type described which will permit reliable and automatically operating monitoring and controLallowing forthe shrinkage which has taken place or for other differences in the filling of the drum compartments.

According to the invention,this object is achieved in thatin the area of emergence of the textile web from the uppermost drum compartment tobe emptied there is provided a sensor which assumes a first position when'the textile web is present in the uppermost drum compartment, and assumes a second position when the textile web is absent from said compartment, wherein said sensor acts on control meanswhich when necesundesirably sary act on the conveyor means to produce increased *or decreased'fillingof the compartmented drum.

' Two embodiments of the invention are shown schematically by way'of example in the drawingspln these: FIG. 1 is a section through a tirst'embodiment of a webtreatment device in accordancewith the invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of apparatus associated with the embodiment of FIG. 3 forcontrolling the speed of movement of the web through the vat.

The device shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 for the wet treatmentof a textile web 1 includes a vat 2for liquid, wherein is disposed a compartmented drum 3 which contains six (or eight) compartments separated from each other by partitions 3a. The partitioned drum 3 is rotated by a conventional stepped drive (not shown) at specified selective time intervals, and each time by one compartment, in the direction of arrow 4.

.The textile web 1 is transported by conveyor means 5, 6 disposed in front of and behind the liquid vat 2. The speed of conveyance can be varied by conventional control means described hereinafter.

In the area of supplyof the textile web to the var 2 of liquidtan unwinding device 7 is disposed in such manner that in each pivotal position of this device 7 the web is laid on itself (see the-end positions of the unwinding device 7 indicated in dotted lines).

In the area where the textile web 1 emerges from the drum compartment which is tobeemptied and has just become open, there is disposed a pivoted sensor 8 whichcooperates with a control switch device 9 which maybe connected in the circuit of the drum drive, the conveyor means drive, orboth. The textile web iscarried over a deflector roller 10 in this zone.

The vat 2 is filled with liquid up to approximately the level of the axis 11 of the compartmented drum 3. Consequently' the layers of textile web 1 which have @just been folded (see the uppermost compartment on the left in the drum 3) are not yet in thevat of liquid, so

thatneat laying of the web into the compartmentsis enstepped drive unit 12 the operation of which is controlled by a stepped drivecontrol device 13 via an electrical gate 14. In this manner the textile web foldedinto the compartments is fed through the vat of fluid within a specific period; Since the web shrinks during thefluid treatment, with its length reducing somewhat, the conveyor means (eg 5) disposed in front of the vat are driven at slightly higher speed than the means (eg 6) disposed behind the vat.

The textile web is withdrawn over'the rollerl0 from thecompartment in the drum which has just reached the top (seeFIG. 1). 'In the normal case the dr'um is given an order by'the stepped drive controls to advance by one compartment just at the moment the uppermost compartment has completely emptied, so that the following conveyor means themselves begin to withdraw the web from the next compartment. In this case the sensor 8 is moved by the web 1 from the first position, on the left (FIG. 1) into the second position, on the right (FIG. 2), so that the switch9 is released.

It can however happen that the drum compartments empty too fast or too slowly, and the switch 9released too early or too late, as compared with the timing sequence of the stepped switching controls.

If, by reason of unexpectedly heavy shrinkage of the textile web or of too slow a speed of conveyor means 5, the uppermost compartment in the drum contains too little fabric, it becomes empty before the stepped switching controls issue an order for onward movement. In this case therefore the sensor 8 moves from the first position at the left into the second position at the right before the order for advance has been emitted by the stepped controls. In such an instance the conveyor drive means are acted on by the control means, referred to above, to produce a heavier filling of the compartmented drum; for instance the conveyor means are driven faster, in dependence on the difference in time between the change-over of the sensor and the advance order from the stepped switching controls. Alternatively, the following conveyor means 6 can also be altered to a reduced speed.

If, on the contrary, the uppermost compartment is not yet fully emptied (and consequently the sensor 8 has not yet moved from the position in FIG. 1 into that of FIG. 2) when the stepped controls issue the order to advance, the rotary drive of drum 3 is braked until the sensor 8 has made its change. Depending on this time difference the following conveyor means 6 is preferably also driven at increased speed.

To avoid excessive differences in the filling of the compartments, the speed of the conveyor means can preferably only be altered by stages, and that only during rotation of the drum.

The apparatus for controlling the speed of movement of the web through the vat in the embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2 is illustrated schematically in FIG. 4 as comprising a known step-by-step rotary drive 12 for the drum 3 and which is operated intermittently by a stepped drive control 13 that is connected to the drive 12 through an electrical gate 14. The drive control 13 not only is connected with the gate, but also is connected to a differential time detector 15 of known construction. The switch 9 has a connection with the gate 14 and also is connected to the detector 15. The detector is connected to the respective drive means 5a and 6a for the

conveyors

5 and 6.

The operation of the speed control means is as follows: each time the switch 9 is operated by movement of the sensor 8, a signal a is transmitted to the gate 14 and the detector 15. The signal a is operable to open the gate 14 and effect indexing of the drum 3. Each time=the stepped drive control 13 operates, a signal 11 is transmitted to the gate 14 and to the detector 15. The signal I) is operable to open the gate and effect indexing of the drum 3. If the signalsa and b occur at the same time, then the speeds of the

conveyors

5 and 6 are proper for the speed of the web through the vat. However, if signal a occurs before signal b, then either the speed of the conveyor 5 is too slow or the speed of the conveyor 6 is too fast. Alternatively, if signal b occurs before signal a, then either the speed of the conveyor 5 is too fast or the speed of the conveyor 6 is too slow. In either case the detector acts on the drive means for the respective conveyors to vary the relative speeds as required. That is, if signal 0 occurs before signal 12, the drive for the conveyor 5 is accelerated or the drive for the conveyor 6 is decelerated. On the other hand, if signal b occurs before signal a, the drive for the conveyor 5 is decelerated or the drive for the conveyor 6 is accelerated.

The second embodiment of the invention, shown in FIG. 3, consists in general of the same parts as the arrangement in FIG. 1, so that the same reference numerals are provided, and only the somewhat different mode of operation is described below.

With this embodiment the compartmented drum 3 is again advanced by intervals of one compartment. In normal operation the textile web is extracted from the compartment which has just come to the top after the advance of the compartmented drum. For this the sensor 8 assumes the left-hand first position shown in full lines in which the switch 9 is engaged. After a certain time the uppermost drum compartment is emptied, so that the textile web is then withdrawn from the succeeding compartment. The sensor 8 now swings into the right-hand second positionshown in broken lines and releases the switch 9. Provided this change-over of sensor 8 from the first to the second position has taken place within a predetermined time monitored by a time unit, nothing is changed in the conveyor means disposed in front and behind.

If the case now arises where the sensor 8 has not yet changed over from the first to the second position within a predetermined time after the advance of the drum (in this case there is thus too much textile web in the top drum compartment), the conveyor drive means are altered to provide reduced filling of the compartmented drum for instance the front conveyor means 5 can be allowed to run slower or the rear conveyor means 6 to run faster; the two steps may naturally also be combined.

If the reverse case occurs, with the sensor 8 remaining in the second (right-hand) position, shown in broken lines, assumed at the time the drum advances, this means that the drum compartment turned up to the top contained no fabric at all before it reached that position. In this case the conveyor means are immediately altered to provide extra filling of the drum compartments; for instance, the drive means 5 in front are driven faster and/or the drive means 6 behind are driven more slowly.

The apparatus for controlling the speed of movement of the web through the vat in the'embodiment of FIG. 3 is illustrated schematically in FIG. 5 as including the step-by-step rotary drive 12, the stepped drive control 13, the switch 9, and the time detector 15. In this embodiment, the gate 14 is omitted and a timer unit 16 is connected to the drive control 13 and to the detector 15.

Each time the switch 9 is operated by the sensor 8, a signala is transmitted to the detector 15. Each time the stepped drive control 13 is actuated, the drive 12 is indexed, the timer 16 is actuated, and a signal b is transmitted to the detector 15. After the lapse of a predetermined time, the timer 16 transmits a signal 0 to the detector 15.

If signal a is transmitted to the detector 15 between the transmission of signals b and c to the detector, the speed of movement of the web through the vat is within proper limits and no change in the speeds of the

conveyors

5 and 6 is made. However, if signal a is transmitted to the detector prior to the transmission of signal b, the drive means 5a for the conveyor 5 is accelerated or the drive means 6a for the conveyor 6 is decelerated. On the other hand, if signal a is transmitted to the detector after the transmission of signal 0 to the detector, then the drive means 511 for the conveyor 5 is decelerated or the drive means 6a for the conveyor 6 is accelerated.

What is claimed is: y

1. Apparatus for the wet treatment of a textile web comprising a vat adapted to contain liquid; a compartmented drum mounted in said vat; timed means for indexing said drum step-by-step; first conveyor means for delivering a textile web to said drum; variable speed means for driving said first conveyor means; second conveyor means for withdrawing said web from said drum; variable speed means for driving said second conveyor means; sensor means; means mounting said sensor means between said vat and said second conveyor means for engagement by said web and for movement from a first position to a second position, and return, in timed relation to the indexing of said drum; and control means for at least one of said driving means acted on by said sensor means and operable to vary the speed of said one of said driving means in response to failure of said sensor means to move from one of said positions to the other within a predetermined time interval.

2. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said drum has six compartments.

3. Apparatus as set forth in claim 2 wherein said compartments are spaced uniformly about the periphery of said drum.

4. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said 6 drum has an inner radius and an outer radius, said outer radius being at least 1.5 times said inner radius.

5. Apparatus as set forth in claim 4 wherein said outer radius is less than 3 times said inner radius.

6. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 including liquid in said vat, the level of said liquid corresponding substantially to the level of said drums axis of rotation.

7. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said drum has a plurality of partitions forming the compart ments of said drum, said partitions being perforated.

8. Apparatus as set forth in claim 7 wherein the radially outer edges of said partitions are broadened.

9. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 including a pivotal folding device between said first conveyor and said vat operable to fold said web upon itself as it is delivered into said vat.

10. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said control means reduces the speed of said first conveyor means.

11. Apparatus as set forth in claim} wherein said control nieans reduces the speed of said second conveyor means.

12. Apparatus as set forth in cofitr'ofiiaah's' increases the speed means.

13. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said control means increases the speed of said second conveyor means. l

l 1 wherein said id first conveyor

Claims

2. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said drum has six compartments.

4. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said drum has an inner radius and an outer radius, said outer radius being at least 1.5 times said inner radius.

6. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 including liquid in said vat, the level of said liquid corresponding substantially to the level of said drum''s axis of rotation.

7. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said drum has a plurality of partitions forming the compartments of said drum, said partitions being perforated.

11. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said control means reduces the speed of said second conveyor means.

12. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said control means increases the speed of said first conveyor means.

13. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said control means increases the speed of said second conveyor means.