Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
~0 91/09164 2 Q 6 9 ~ 9 7 PCI/AU90/00589
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IMPROVE~NTS IN AND RELA~ING TO WOOL CARD~NG
seld oî the Invention
5 This invention is concerned with the carding of wool and is concerned in one
aspect with modifications of a wool card to facilitate the operation of the card at
a speed substantially higher than conventional card speed.
Background Art
It has been proposed that worsted card productivity may be doubled or
even tripled without detriment to sliver quality . or card yield by simply
substantially increasing the card speed above the conventional level (Gravolin et
al, Proceedings of the Textile Institute Annual World Conference, Sydney, 1988,
15 "Doubling or Even Tripling Worsted Card Productivity"). E~erimental workwith
existing commercial cards has, however, shown a difficulty with vegetable matter (VM) removal efficiency, a role typically played by a pair of burr-beater morel
. units. Attempts to re-establish the VM removal efficiency by speçding up the. . burr beaters to.match.the increased speed of the morels are often not feasible
20'~.. because of ~ inherent resonance. related limitations .on..the.'.speed-of .the burr-
.beaters. .The natural conclusion from these experiments, taking into account the
r: ~ inherentlimitations just mentioned, is that.the morel .units simply cannot operate
as efficiently at the higher speeds.~. One might expect this from a consideration
e~ of the~manner 'of opération of the.morel.units: .the morel rollers have a very fine
-j 25 ~ _surface..mesh :of;. a-special configuration'which :accommodates~the fibres -.of a iveb
~' but~ot the vegetable matter. The vegetable~matterIisi~le*~exposed for.: : os~i ~r disl~pdgement by.the blades'of.hollowiburr.-.beater cylinders rotatin-g at high speed
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sln~ F.rench pateiit p'ublication.~2232626 disclosesS a~VM removal unittin which
s ani enlarg~,~morel .roller}accommodates.~a' pair.~of burr-beaterssseparated ~y a
.4~reversei~orker/stripper carding~unit~which-functio.nsi"to-inve'rt~the web on the
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morel mesh to bring the shives and burrs which lie on the inside of the web at the
first burr-beater to the outside of the web for dislodgement by the second bu~r-beater.
S ~i;
Disclos~ire_o~ ~ke Invention
.
It has been surprisingly found, in accordance with the invention, that
enhanced vegetable matter removal efficiency can be obtained by fitting one or
10 both morel units of a card with a pair of burr-beaters in which the web travels
directly from one burr-beater to the other without intervening treatment by a
worker/stripper carding unit. It has been further found that, contrary to the
expectation that vegetable matter removal efficiency must inevitably deterioratewith substantial increases in card speed, the provision of such an arrangement
15 results in the restoration of VM removal efficiency to a value close to the
efficiency of conventional cards working.at conventional card speeds.: .
The invention accordingly provides a wool card having at least one and
. : preferably tvo burr-beater morel units for the removal of vegetable matter,
characterised in that the morel roller of said at least one unit, or one or each of
.20i said units, is fitted with a pluralityof burr-beatersj preferably two, arranged about
.the morel r.oller so that the fibre web.is fed directly along the morel roller from
one burr-beater to the other substantiallywithout intervening inversion of the web
.n:f ~i or: displacement of vegetablè matter thereinsi . '~
- Preferably, the wool card-f~irther includes a swift and an associated double
dofferiarrangement^inciuding:a pair. of doffër,rollers by mèans of.whichithe fibre
,web..is doffed from;.the card.3~ s~t ,~.n~ ~if.~ n)Es n~J
?~ ' r~ d 1~ he invention ~lso provides.a~method`of wool carding comprising directing
a fibre web along a wool card which includes at least oné~bun -beater m`orel unit
nw for.the ~removal bf vegetable matter, ~aracterised-in that ~e'morel roller of said
f: 30 ~at leastione burr-bea~r morel-unit.is fitted with. a.plurality:of .burr-beaters and
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~lm in that said~fibre:web.is-fed direc~y along-the morel roller.from one burr-beater
to the other substantiallywithout intervening inversion of the web or displacement
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of vegetable matter therein.
The method preferablyfurther includes doffing the fibre web from the card
by double doffing the fibre web as two mats by means of a pair of doffer rollers5 associated with the swift of the card.
Best Mode(s) For Ca~yin~.Qu~he Inven~
,
The invention will now be further described, by way of example only, with
10 - reference to the accompanying drawing, which is a diagrammatic side elevation
of a worsted card in accordance with the invention.
The illustrated card 10 is of known general configuration and comprises
a series of main cylinders including, in sequence, a licker 14, a breast 18, a first
morel 16, a second morel 20 and a swift 22. The licker, breast and swift have the
15 ~ usual stripper/worker carding units 24 and doffing from the swift is achieved with
a double doffer arrangement 26. The fibre web is fed along the sequence of
cylinders, doffed as two mats by the successive doffer rollers 26a, 26b, and then
converged from the double doffer by a cone (not shown) to form. sliver. ..
The double dofferj which is in contrast to the single doffer conventionally
20 found on wool cards, is found to be necessary if adequate doffing efflciency is to
~ ,be achieved. at card speeds substantially.above- normal. speeds.~; lt has also been
. found.that double doffing helps overcome:.problems arising from increased layer
thickness.or fibre density at~higher card speeds, and:enhances~.card.production
r~at.e~o,,r~transf,er5eKlcien,cy~by lO,to 25.~o~reladve.to single.:doKmg.
25.~tf~y~.~U ~he morel rollers 16, 20.are respective components of a pair of.vegetable .
matter,remov~a uni~tsi-lSa, 15b.which;are depicted in a tandem configuration butmay,well be sepa~ated,by.one or~,morei.intérvening!rollersatEach morel r-oller is
of conventional construction .and has.a~cylindrical surface~ defined by a very fine
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~:: mesh designed to accommodate the fibres of the web but to leave shives, burrs
30 and other vegetable matt~r exposed. ~In convendonal morels, a singe burr^beater
30a, 30b is disposed adjacent the surface mesh at the top of the roller and
includes a longitudinally bladed hollow ~ylinder which rotates very rapidly and ~ .
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acts to sweep the expos`ed vegetable matter into an adjacent tray for recovery and
disposal. In accordance with the present invention, however, each unit 15a, 15b
is fitted with a second burr-beater 31a, 31b located between the take-up point on
5 the morel and the other burr-beater 30a, 30b.
Most conveniently, the two burr-beaters 31 a, 30a; 31b,30b of each pair are
of substantially conventional construction and are typically identical, including the
usual longitudinally bladed hollow cylinder and an adjacent longitudinally
extending tray. To physically accommodate the additional burr-beater, the morel
10 rollers 16, 20 are typicallymade larger than is usual in current or previous carding
practice, for example at least 450mm in diameter.
It will be noted that the fibre web is fed directly along each morel roller
16, 20 from the first burr-beater 31a, 31b to the second 30a, 30b. No intervening
provision is made to invert the web or otherwise displace the vegetable matter
15 among the fibres, as in French patent publication 2232626, or indeed to modify
the web in any way.
Experiments have been conducted to ascertain the effect of a second burr-
beater on the VM removal efficiency of a morel unit in a wool card operated at
~ .. a card speed substantially above normal card speed. More specifically, a t~vo swift
20 .Thibeau card was modified by substituting a 510 mm diameter morel roller for..: the roller of the second morel (normally 360 mm) and fftting two instead of one
burr-.beaters to this second-morel. For the purposes of the experiment, the
- modified second morel:was operated as a first morel by increasing the fibre
loading to..that o'a normal first mo'rel while disconnecting the first morel burr-
..25~t .beater. In a series of experiments, the morel roller was successfully operated at
a norm'al speed of .95 m/min and at a'substantially higher speed of :207 'm/min.Two~burr-beater~speeds, 1200 and~2200 rpm .were used.~Therresults are
n summarised separateily in ~able l for shive and burr. ~
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TABLE 1
Carding Conditions Double BB Morel
VM Morel BB
Type Speed Speed BBl BB2 Total
EFF W/L EFF W/L EFF W/L
(m/min) (rpm) (~) (%) (%) (%) (%) (~)
Shive 98 1200 67 1.5 12 0.1 71 1.6
207 1200 62 1.7 13 0.1 67 1.8
98 2200 72 1.8 13 0.1 76 1.9
207 2200 69 1.9 15 0.1 74 2.0
Burr - 98 1200 79 2.6 7 0.0 81 2.6
207 1200 72 2.0 8 0.1 77 2.1
98 2200 80 2.9 13 0.1 83 3.0
207 2200 78 2.3 11 0.0 80 2.3
:
BB - Burr-Beater
Eff ~Efflciency ~ ;r,~
W/L - Wool Loss
The results demonstrate that the tandem burr beater pair maintains VM
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removal fairly constant in spite of large increases in card speed. It is thought that
the second burr-beater of the pair is acting on surface vegetable matter missed by
C~ the ,first burrbeater? and ~?t,the expectation that failure to dislodge by one burr-
,30 ~ab~e~aite~;r;wiii ,not be;~ens?ted ,for,by~a second burr-beater, is not supported by the
results. , ,$;~ `s~
The table a1so shows that the wool loss for the tandem burr-beaters is low
: ~ ,J ~ ~" Iand comparable to; that of ~a morel ?fter the first sw.~,,t or~ lickjer. ~s suggests that
_~ ~coi~loss,,s~,houd not,b~,e"an im~ped. e,n~t,tlo,~,op~e~,ra,ting~tandem burr-beater pairs
35 commercially.
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