System to handle and store woven piece goods

Abstract

 ₅n7 System to handle and store woven piece goods, which are packaged and wound by looms (11) on supports (19), the system being suitable to run independently on pre-set and pre-determinable runways (12) in weaving sheds and being equipped to take automatically from the looms (11) the supports (19) full of wound cloth and to supply the same looms (11) in exchange with empty supports (26) and being also suitable to convey independently the full supports (19) from the weaving shed to a temporary storage zone (14) and to take the empty supports (26) from their temporary storage area (34) and to convey them (26) to the weaving shed, the system including a trolley (13) able to move along the axis of the full and empty cloth supports (19-26) and also including movable means (20) able to be traversed crosswise to the runway (12) of the trolley (13), the movable means (20) being equipped with a device (24) to engage and support the full supports (19), the trolley (13) also comprising engagement means (25) to support and deliver empty supports (26), the crosswise traversing of the movable means (20) affecting both the lengthwise sides of the trolley

Description

[0001] This invention concerns a system to handle and store woven piece goods. To be more exact, the invention concerns a system suitable to remove woven piece goods from their production looms, to convey them to appropriate storage zones and to store them thereafter in temporary stores.

[0002] The system of the invention can be applied to any weaving shed in which the woven piece goods are taken up on the traditional cloth supports on looms.

[0003] The system works advantageously, but not only, in cooperation with the cloth inspection department downstream of the weaving shed.

[0004] The state of the art covers the problems linked to the discharge and removal of woven piece goods from the looms. These goods are wound on the well known take-up supports, which are handled by the machine operators by hand.

[0005] In particular, when the length of the cloth to be discharged is not great, one or more machine operators usually unwind the cloth by hand from the relative take-up support and themselves take it to the cloth inspection zone, where the cloth is run over appropriate equipment, on which its quality is inspected, and is then wound up to form a finished product or a product prepared for further treatment. EP-A-0296113, the contents of which correspond to the contents of Industrie Textile No.1193 of November 1988, Paris, France, pages 1155-1157, discloses a wire-guided maintenance and conveyor truck which feeds the loom with an empty cloth support attached to the cloth being formed, having previously taken a full cloth support from the loom.

[0006] The present applicant has designed, tested and embodied a system to handle and store woven piece goods which is suitable to overcome all the problems of the state of the art.

[0007] The invention is set forth in the main claim, while the dependent claims describe various features of the invention.

[0008] The system according to the invention provides for the inclusion of movable means able to run independently through the weaving shed and being advantageously of a type guided by a magnetic wire.

[0009] These movable means are equipped to take supports full of wound cloth automatically from the looms and to feed empty supports to the looms.

[0010] The movable means are summoned advantageously by the looms requiring such tending and follow pre-set and pre-determinable runways between the looms and a zone to store full and empty cloth supports.

[0011] This storage zone provides temporary storage of full cloth supports before the latter are used in the equipment which inspects the packaged woven piece goods.

[0012] The period of time and the number of supports in such temporary storage will depend normally on the daily working time of the looms and of the cloth inspection equipment and will also allow for a possible buffer stock.

[0013] The storage zone comprises also means to handle and store empty cloth supports awaiting reuse.

[0014] The system of the invention achieves a plurality of advantages, especially as regards the labour force required, transport, the overall times of the working cycle, space required and savings in the relative costs.

[0015] The attached figures, which are given as a non- restrictive example, show the following:-

Fig.1 is an example of a lay-out of a weaving shed employing the system of the invention;

Fig.2 is a diagrammatic side view of a movable means according to the invention;

Fig.3 is a partial front view of the movable means of Fig. 2;

Fig.4 is an organizational working diagram of a zone to store cloth supports according to the invention.

[0016] Fig.1 is a diagram of a weaving shed 10 containing a plurality of looms 11, which in this example are arranged so that their sides discharging the woven packages are facing each other. In this way it is possible to tend both these facing sides by means of one single runway 12 between the looms 11.

[0017] One or more movable means, which are advantageously trolleys 13 of a type guided by a magnetic wire, are driven along the runways 12. Each trolley 13 is equipped with devices suitable to converse with each loom 11 and thus can be summoned and directed as required.

[0018] The trolley 13 can stay conveniently immediately upstream of a temporary storage zone 14 for woven goods taken from the looms 11, this temporary storage zone 14 in turn being located immediately upstream of an inspection zone 15 for inspection of the woven goods.

[0019] Figs.2 and 3 are diagrams of one form of embodiment of the trolley 13, which consists of a frame 16 able to move on wheels 17. This frame 16 contains headstocks 18-118 of drive and transmission means and also actuation means such as batteries and other devices.

[0020] The trolley 13 travels on the runways 12 in the direction of its lengthwise development, halts at the loom 11 which has summoned it, and removes automatically from the loom 11 the relative full cloth support 19.

[0021] Fig.3 shows as an example with lines of dashes the full cloth supports 9 of two facing looms 11; in Fig.3 the trolley 13 is shown in a front view, some details of its front portion, such as the headstock 18, having been omitted for the purpose of the illustration.

[0022] The trolley 13 is equipped with means 20 able to move crosswise to its direction of travel, these means 20 being able to position themselves and to remove a full cloth support 19 from the loom 11. In this example the movable means consist of a slider 20 able to be traversed in the directions shown with arrows 21 as required and able to run on guides 22 by means of rollers 23.

[0023] The slider 20 is equipped with means suitable to engage and clamp the full cloth support 19 and referenced with 24 in Fig.2.

[0024] The trolley 13 is also equipped with a pair of engagement arms 25, which are conformed to support an empty cloth support 26 and to position it in its working position on the loom 11 by means of a suitable angular displacement, which is shown with lines of dashes in Fig.3.

[0025] The trolley 13 can therefore carry out in momentary succession the removal of a full support 19 from the loom 11 and the loading of an empty support 26 on the loom 11 for a new weaving operation.

[0026] The empty support 26 is taken from a relative store, as will be describe later, and conveyed by the trolley 13 to its usage point.

[0027] Figs.2 and 3 show respectively a protection bar 27 and a luminous indicator 28 of the system at work.

[0028] Fig.4 shows diagrammatically a side view of a temporary storage zone 14 and a linked cloth inspection zone 15.

[0029] On its return from the runway 12 the trolley 13 discharges the full support 19 onto a buffer stock 29 able to accommodate a plurality of full cloth supports 19.

[0030] The buffer stock 29 may be held on a conveyor belt, roller conveyor or other means able to feed in succession a plurality of supports arranged alongside each other.

[0031] A further movable store 30, such as a chain or the like arranged advantageously in multiple rows, cooperates with the buffer stock 29 and receives full supports 19 therefrom 29, thus providing a further buffer zone for full supports 19.

[0032] Such a configuration makes it possible to deal automatically with different usage conditions as between the weaving shed 11 and the inspection zone 15.

[0033] For instance, the loom 11 may work a three- shift system, whereas the inspection department 15 may work only a one-shift system but will have available a storage zone 14 dimensioned to accommodate the output of at least two working shifts of the looms 11.

[0034] There are usually one or more machine operators 31 in the inspection zone 15, and they can take full cloth supports 19 from the movable store 30 to feed an inspection apparatus, which is normally a winding machine 32.

[0035] Removal of full cloth supports 19 from the movable store 30 by the machine operator 31 can take place at any position in that store 30, thus facilitating the working methods of the operator 31 without impairing the continuity of feed to the winding machine 32.

[0036] The winding machine 32 winds the inspected cloth onto the final packages 33, while the emptied support 26 can be returned to advantage to an endless circuit 34 suitable to convey the empty supports 26 to the position of halting of the trolley 13, so that one of the empty supports 26 can be engaged and loaded automatically onto the trolley 13.

[0037] We have described here a preferred embodiment of the invention, but obviously many variants are possible for a person skilled in this field without departing thereby from the scope of the invention as claimed.

Claims

1. System to handle and store woven piece goods, which are packaged and wound by looms (11) on supports (19), the system being suitable to run independently on pre-set and pre-determinable runways (12) in weaving sheds and being equipped to take automatically from the looms (11) the supports (19) full of wound cloth and to supply the same looms (11) in exchange with empty supports (26) and being also suitable to convey independently the full supports (19) from the weaving shed to a temporary storage zone (14) and to take the empty supports (26) from their temporary storage area (34) and to convey them (26) to the weaving shed, the system being characterized in that it includes a trolley (13) able to move along the axis of the full and empty cloth supports (19-26) and also includes movable means (20) able to be traversed crosswise to the runway (12) of the trolley (13), the movable means (20) being equipped with a device (24) to engage and support the full supports (19), the trolley (13) also comprising engagement means (25) to support and deliver empty supports (26), the crosswise traversing of the movable means (20) affecting both the lengthwise sides of the trolley (13).

2. System as claimed in Claim 1 , in which the movable means (20) are slider means able to move in a linear manner on guides (22).

3. System as claimed in Claim 1 or 2, in which the engagement means (25) are installed so as to be able to oscillate on the movable means (20) with their axis of oscillation parallel to the lengthwise axis of the trolley (13) and operate on both the lengthwise sides of the trolley (13).

4. System as claimed in any claim hereinbefore, in which the engagement means (25) can oscillate above the movable means (20).

5. System as claimed in any claim hereinbefore, which cooperates with a temporary storage zone (14) employed for the depositing and circulation of empty supports (26) so as to take the same (26).

6. System as claimed in any claim hereinbefore, which cooperates with buffer stock means (29) holding full cloth supports (19) immediately upstream of a cloth inspection equipment (32).

Drawing