Mounting of Fiber Supply Channel Defining Means in Spinning Units of an Open End Spinning Machine

This invention relates to spinning units of an open end spinning machine, and more particularly to mounting of fiber supply channel defining means in such spinning units.

Each spinning unit of an open end spinning machine generally includes a spinning rotor mounted for rotation with an inner frustoconical surface defining a maximum inner diameter portion at which individual fibers are formed into a yarn, and stationary means having a body defining a housing within which a carding roller is mounted for rotation to open a sliver into the afore-mentioned individual fibers. The body of the stationary means includes a portion, which slightly enters the spinning rotor through the opened end thereof and defines a fiber supply channel or passage to allow the individual fibers to be supplied from the carding roller into the spinning rotor therethrough. Thus, the supply channel has opposite mouths respectively opening towards the carding roller and the spinning rotor. The mouth opening towards the carding roller is defined at least in part by an edge portion, of which the sharp edged part is generally referred to as a fiber separating edge.

In such spinning units, since the fibers which have been individually opened by the carding roller are separated from the carding roller by the fiber separating edge, i.e., the fibers pass across the fiber separating edge and through the supply channel, the fiber separating edge will always be subject to wear during operation of the spinning machine. Therefore, after a certain period of operation, the fiber separating edge will wear away, resulting in a poor fiber separating function.

Furthermore, the fiber supply channel generally converges towards the mouth of the spinning rotor side so as to limit radially outward movement of the individual fibers in the supply channel, thereby to allow the fibers to be supplied onto the inner frustoconical surface of the spinning rotor in a most favorable condition. However, such a configuration of the supply channel will cause undesirable matter, such as oil, lubricant and cotton wax, contained in the fibers to adhere to the supply channel surface due to an increasing contact of the fibers with the supply channel surface. After a certain period of spinning operation, the quantity of such matter will become considerable, which may interfere with the movement of the separate fibers through the fiber supply channel.

In order to avoid the above disadvantages, it is therefore necessary to renew the portion with the fiber separating edge and periodically to clean off the adhering matter.

It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide a spinning unit including a carding roller accommodated within a housing, of which a portion including at least a fiber separating edge is detachably arranged in the housing so as to not cause the above-mentioned disadvantages.

In general, an open end spinning machine incorporating the present invention includes a plurality of spinning units, in each of which a sliver is opened by a carding roller and transported, in the form of individually opened fibers, into a spinning rotor through a fiber supply channel provided in a housing for the carding roller and arranged between the carding roller and the spinning rotor. The supply channel has a mouth opening towards the carding roller with a fiber separating edge. According to this invention, a portion of the carding roller housing, which defines at least the fiber separating edge, is detachable from another portion of the housing and is urged in a predetermined direction by a biassing spring so that any undesirable clearance, which would be created between such portions of the housing by structurally separating them from each other, can be substantially removed.

This invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which similar or corresponding components are designated by the same reference numerals throughout the several figures and in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan view, in section, of a spinning unit constructed in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view, in section, of the spinning unit shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken on line III--III of FIG. 2, looking in the direction indicated by the arrows; and

FIG. 4 is a sectional view corresponding to FIG. 1, showing a different modification of the invention.

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, there is shown one spinning unit of an open end spinning machine incorporating this invention. Each spinning unit includes a spinning rotor 5 mounted for rotation on a rotary shaft S in a conventional manner, and a carding roller 3 mounted for rotation within a casing or housing 2 in a not shown conventional manner.

The spinning rotor 5 has an opened end or an opening 5a on the side remote from the shaft S, and a frustoconical inner surface 5b converging towards the opening 5a and forming a maximum inner diameter portion 5c in cooperation with the bottom of the spinning rotor 5. The housing 2 defines chambers 3a and 1a for receiving respectively the carding roller 3 and a sliver feed roller 1 and has a portion 10 slightly extending into the spinning rotor 5 to close the opening 5a thereof. Such portion 10 has a fiber supply channel 4 formed therein, which has mouths 4a and 4b opening respectively towards the inside of the spinning rotor 5 and the chamber 3a for receiving the carding roller 3. The portion 10 also has an opening formed therein, which opening receives a somewhat cylindrical member 7 provided with a yarn outlet channel 7a .

In operation of such a spinning unit, a sliver fed by the feed roller 1 onto the known sliver carding surface of the carding roller 3 is opened by the carding roller into individual fibers, which are separated from the carding roller 3 at a region of separating edge 9 of mouth 4b and then transported through the fiber supply channel 4 into the spinning rotor 5 by an incoming flow of air produced in a passage 2a due to rotation of the spinning rotor 5. The passage 2a is provided in the housing 2 so as to extend substantially tangential to the cylindrical surface of the carding roller 3 and in line with the fiber supply channel 4. Then, the individual fibers slide down (leftwardly as viewed in FIG. 1) along the inner frustoconical surface 5b and reach the maximum inner diameter portion 5c of the spinning rotor 5, at which the fibers are formed into a yarn in a known manner and then discharged through the yarn outlet channel 7a and hence a yarn withdrawal pipe 8 connected to the member 7 defining the yarn outlet channel 7a.

The spinning rotor 5 is surrounded by an air discharge housing 12 including an outlet port 12a, which may be connected to air suction means (not shown) so that air within the spinning rotor 5 can be discharged through the opening 5a and then the outlet port 12a, thereby developing the incoming flow of air in the passage 2a and the fiber supply channel 4.

It is therefore understood from the foregoing that the fibers just separated from the carding roller 3 always pass across the fiber separating edge 9 of the mouth 4b positioned on the downstream side with respect to the rotation of the carding roller 3, and that the fiber separating edge 9 is always subject to wear during the spinning operation. Thus, the fiber separating function of the edge 9 will be deteriorated after a certain period of operation to the extent that replacement of the portion 10 having the fiber separating edge 9 becomes necessary. In addition, since the fiber supply channel 4 is converged toward the mouth 4b thereof to suppress the radially outward movement of the individual fibers in the supply channel 4, undesirable matter, such as oil, lubricant and cottom wax, contained in the fibers will be apt to adhere to the walls of the supply channel 4 and the adhering matter will trap micro impurities contained in the fibers. In that case, the supply channel 4 may change in its cross sectional area to the extent that the fibers will meet with strong resistance as they are transported through the supply channel 4. Therefore, the adhering matter and the trapped micro impurities must be periodically removed.

According to one embodiment of this invention, the portion 10 including at least the fiber separating edge 9 is detachable from another portion of the carding roller housing 2. This portion 10 also includes, in addition to the fiber separating edge 9, the whole fiber supply channel 4, the part 10a extending into the spinning rotor 5, and the part 10b forming the upper left-hand part of the air passage 2a, as viewed in FIG. 1. The part 10a extending into the spinning rotor is of a substantially cylindrical shape, and the part 10b forming the part of the air passage 2a is of a substantially rectangular shape shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 and complementary to a depression 14 formed in another portion of the housing 2 so as to produce a snug fit in the depression 14. The member 7 defining the yarn outlet channel 7a centrally extends through the part 10a, and the mouth 4a of the supply channel 4 is arranged closely adjacent to a boundary surface e between the outer cylindrical surface of a larger diameter portion of the member 7 and a cylindrical surface of a recess formed in the part 10a to receive the larger diameter portion of the member 7. At a position closely adjacent to the supply channel 4, there is a boundary surface d between the part 10b of the portion 10 and another portion of the housing 2. To fix a position of the member 7, a screw threaded bar 15 is adjustably connected to the free end of the smaller diameter portion of the member 7.

However, if there is any clearance in the region of the boundary e, the fibers once discharged out of the supply channel 4 will encounter the possibility of being trapped in the clearance. The fibers discharged through the mouth 4a of the supply channel 4, along with the flow of air, instantaneously diverge in the spinning rotor 5. Especially where a separator 16 is disposed in front of the mouth 4a, since the fibers impinge on the surface of the separator 16, their divergence is greater facilitated. As a result, part of the diverged fibers is apt to be trapped in the clearance at the boundary e. Also, as best shown in FIG. 2, the boundary d between the somewhat rectangular part 10b of the portion 10 and the part of another portion of the housing 2 extending over the top of the carding roller 3 is positioned closely adjacent to the fiber supply channel 4. If there is any clearance in the region of this boundary d, the fibers just separated from the carding roller 3 will be trapped in the clearance at the boundary d.

It is therefore understood that occurrence of such clearances must be avoided. For this purpose, the portion 10 of the housing 2 is adapted to be urged by elastic means 11 in a predetermined direction, in which any possible clearances in the regions of the boundaries d and e become substantially null. The elastic means 11 also serves to maintain the portion 10 in a fixed position with respect to another portion notwithstanding vibration of the components during the spinning operation. In the specific embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the biassing means 11 is in the form of a leaf spring disposed, within the depression 14, at a position between the bottom of the part 10b of the housing portion 10 and the associated bottom of the depression 14, preferably at the right-hand corner as viewed in FIG. 3.

With such an arrangement as accords with this invention, there occur no clearances in the regions of the boundaries d and e respectively closely adjacent to the fiber supply channel 4 and the mouth 4b of the supply channel due to the presence of the biassing spring 11. It is therefore understood that, during the spinning operation, not only are the fibers being transported through the supply channel 4 not trapped at the boundary d, but also the fibers discharged out of the supply channel 4 are not caught at the boundary e. In addition, due to the elasticity of the biassing means 11, the housing portion 10 can be maintained in a fixed position notwithstanding vibration of the spinning unit components during the spinning operation.

When it is desired to clean off undersirable matter, such as oil, lubricant and cotton wax, contained in the fibers or to replace the portion 10 having a worn out fiber separating edge 9, with a new one, the unclean or worn out portion 10 can be easily disengaged from another portion of the housing merely by depressing that portion 10 against the eleasticity of the biassing spring 11. Thus, the cleaning and replacement of the housing portion 10 can be effected with ease.

Another embodiment of this invention is shown in FIG. 4, wherein the portion 10 detachable from the housing 2 comprises a part defining the half of the supply channel 4 on the upstream side with respect to the transportation of the fibers through the supply channel, in addition to a part forming the fiber separating edge 9. In this specific embodiment, the portion 10 is of a rather simple rectangular shape and is disposed in a mating depression 14 provided in another portion of the housing 2 while being urged by a biassing means in the form of a leaf spring 11 toward the part 2b of the other portion of the housing 2, which part 2b defines both the yarn outlet channel 7 and the downstream half of the supply channel 4 and slightly extends into the spinning rotor 5 to close the opening 5a thereof. Therefore, it is possible to substantially avoid occurrence of any clearance in the region of a boundary c between the adjacent end surfaces of the portion 10 and part 2b of the other housing portion.

Consequently, as in the first embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, during the spinning operation, not only can the portion 10 be maintained in a fixed position with respect to the part 2b notwithstanding vibration of the components, but also air, which will provide a fiber transporting flow of air in the fiber supply channel 4, is allowed to enter the fiber supply channel 4 only through the mouth 4b thereof. That is, no air is allowed to flow into the supply channel 4 through the boundary c. Thus, it can be appreciated that the portion 10 does not cause any deterioration of the fiber transporting ability and no phenomenon such as the trapping of fibers in the junction c is produced.

Furthermore, when it is desired to carry out cleaning or replacement of the unclean or worn out portion 10, this portion 10 can be easily removed in substantially the same manner as that explained with reference to the first embodiment. Also, after removal of the portion 10, the downstream half of the fiber supply channel 4 can be easily cleaned as it is diminished in length.

The portion 10 shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 may be advantageously made of a highly abrasion-resistant material, such as steel, plastic of the polyamide type, sintered alumina, sintered glass, ceramic or another suitable material.

The invention may provide for various detachable portions defining different fiber supply channels or channel parts, from which the one most adapted for specific spinning conditions can be selected at will.

While the invention has been illustrated and described with reference to preferred embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that various changes in the details of the constructions may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.