IL33230A - Fabric dampener - Google Patents

Description

FABBIC ABSTRACT This invention is directed to a dampener for a tinuously advancing fabric and includes a pair of cally aligned rolls that carry an endless mesh belt that has one loop partly immersed in A pair of stripper rolls remove excess water from the pick up flight of the belt and the retained water is blown as a fine mist from the belt onto the fabric web by a multiplicity of air jets located above the stripper INVENTION This invention relates generally to new and useful improvements in liquid sprayers and particularly seeks to provide a novel device for uniformly spraying a continuously advancing woven textile web with Most woven particularly those made from natural will shrink when it has become common practice to test wash a fabric sample from a given run to determine the amount of shrinkage it undergoes and then subjecting the remainder of the run to a sequential moisture and longitudinal compressive shrinking to reduce the residual shrinkage substantially to zero prior to any ing This shrinking operation is generally and in its simplest form a continuously advancing fabric web is first directly sprayed with water from multiple then passed through a compressive shrinking machine after which it is dried and plaited as an incident to sequent processing or converting It has been found that the direct spraying of water onto the fabric often creates undesirable results such as the de osition of scattered lar e dro lets of water on the fabric separated cones of and a considerable difficulty in applying the exact amount of water required for the desired moisture pick a fabric dampener constructed in accordance with this invention overcomes the above cussed an object of this invention is to provide a dampener for a continuously advancing fabric web that is capable of applying a fine uniform mist of water thereto in a completely uniform and controllable Another object of this invention is to provide a fabric dampener of the character stated that includes a vertically oriented endless driven belt formed from a able mesh material and carried by a pair of vertically aligned support the lower roll of which is partly immersed in a water tank to enable the belt to continuously pick up water Another object of this invention is to provide a fabric dampener of the character stated in which the pick up flight of the endless belt is disposed adjacent to the fabric to be dampened and an air jet located within the belt is used to blow water particles from the belt onto the fabric as a fine mist having a uniform Another object of this invention is to provide a fabric dampener of the character stated that includes a pair of opposed stripper rolls located beneath the air jet unit and which engage opposite faces of the pick up flight of the belt to regulate the amount of water carried by the belt by stripping off any excess A further object of this invention is to provide a fabric of the character stated that includes a pair of opposed cleaning rolls engageable with the opposite faces A number of proposals have been made in this field most relevant of which are the British Patent of relates to an arrangement a horizontal screen passin above the area to be This arrangement permits the dropping of water in uncontrolled amounts in addition to the sprayed water and would deliver an unevenly there is no cleaning device for the belt as in our British Patent of incorporates a spray screen below the fabric which will result in lint dust and chemical residues becoming mixed in the solutio tank below the treatment These elements will clog the screen and there being no cleaning the screen will become clogged and the spray will become erratic resulting in an unevenly wet Additionally there are no squeeze rolls as in our German Patent relates to a device in which fabric is led through serpentine rollers in a cool chamber to permit the warm fabric to absorb the moisture introduced into the air by belts of relatively low absorbent material being through a trough and alternately between the serpentine path of the fabric to be This patent does not provide for air dispersal of moisture through a screen following squeeze rolls to permit a fixed amount of moisture in the nor is there any screen cleaning device to also insure removal foreign particles from the German Patent relates to a arrangement which does not have a screen cleaning device to insure a surface through which air can be The position of the trough will pe the entrance of lint and dust to become mixed in the solution as as chemical residue the fabric which is also above the The screen being drawn across the air source will also in clogging of the air ports and erratic air emission as a direct result thereof All this con tributes to an uneven and unsa moistening of the fabric there is no of mois ture by the advent of squeeze Pa tent No 88 3 relies on mois tening a web or filters and air transpor ting the moisture either by blower or suction from this wet medium either or th ough Here again there are no rollers to limit moisture or cleaning devices for the wa ter wet surfaces Germa Patent No says that this apparatus depends on wicking action of the fabric to be trea ted Its ability to absorb the proper amount of moisture is dependent upon a combina tion of belt sa turation ability of fabric to absorb evenly and time in contact with the satura ted A relatively slo speed would also be necessary to mois ten the fabric this would not be adaptable to s high speed machines Thus there is no use of a screen and air to insure transfer of even measured amounts of moisture to a fabric surface 2b DRAWING With these and other the nature of which will be the invention will be more fully understood by reference to the the accompanying detailed tion and the appended The sole figure in the drawing a schematic side elevation of a fabric constructed in accordance with this PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to the drawings in detail the as is embodied in a fabric dampener that includes an open top tank 5 in which a supply of water 6 is maintained at a constant predetermined Suitable side frames rotatably support a pair of lower and upper vertically aligned spaced rollers respectively designated 7 and The lower roller 7 is partly immersed in the water and the upper roller 8 is adapted to be driven by any suitable able speed An endless formed from wire or other suitable mesh generally indicated having a pick up flight 10 and a return flight is carried by the rollers 7 and The mesh size of the belt 9 will be determined by the ing conditions of each but typically could be on the order of an 80 x 80 The width of the belt 9 should be at least as wide as the of the fabric web to be A horizontal air manifold having a length at least coextensive with the width of the belt is secured between the flights of the belt slightly below the upper roller 8 and is provided with a multiplicity of relatively small diameter horizontall spaced orifices 13 that are directed toward the inner face of the pick up flight 10 of the A pair of horizontally opposed rotating stripper rolls are mounted for engagement with both faces of the belt pick up flight 10 serve to regulate the amount of water retained on the pick up flight by removing any excess A pair of horizontally opposed rotating cylindrical brushes 15 are mounted for engagement with both faces of the belt return flight 11 to constantly clean A fabric web A to be dampened passes over a lower guide roll thence vertically upwardly in parallel relation to the belt pick up flight 10 and over an upper guide roll 17 from which it then proceeds to another processing unit such as a compressive shrinking Either or both of the guide rolls 16 and 17 may be driven and either or both of them may be adjustable horizontally in order to vary the ing between the fabric web and the up flight 10 of the the rolls 16 may be in fixed positions and the dampening unit as a whole may be moved bodily toward or away from the I operation the belt 9 picks up water from the tank 5 as it passes around the lower roll 7 and the pick up flight 10 then passes between the stripper rolls 14 which remove any excess free The pick up fligh 10 then continues past the air streams from the air manifold orifices 13 which effectively blows the retained water from the belt as a fine mist that is uniformly deposited on the exposed face of the continuously advancing fabric web The return 11 of the belt is cleaned continuously As noted it is the upper roll 8 that is driven by a variable speed rather than the lower roll in order to keep the belt pick up flight 10 under tension and thus minimize any tendency for it to belly outwardly away from the manifold 12 as it is subjected to the force of the air streams from the orifices By the proper adjustment of the operating variables such as the water level in the tank the speed mesh size of the belt adjustment of the stripping rolls the air pressure and volume for the manifold the spacing and diameter of the orifices 13 and the speed of the web it is possible to uniformly and reproduceably a predetermined amount of for 5 to on the fabric at any given speed of fabric advance within a fairly wide range of say from less than 15 to more than 125 yards per Of once these variables are set for any given operating condition no further changes need be We insufficientOCRQuality

Claims (2)

1. WHAT IS CLAIMED IS t 1» In a machine for uniformly dampening a continuously advancing fabric web, a liquid supply tank, a lower belt supporting roll partly Immersed in the liquid carried by said tank, an upper belt supporting roll arranged in vertically spaced parallelism with respect to said lower belt supporting roll, an endless mesh belt carried by said lower and upper supporting rolls , means to drive at least one of said lower and upper supportin rolls whereby to oause one flight of said belt to pick up liquid from said tank, and means for blowing liquid from said belt as a fine mist onto the surface of an associated continuously advancing fabric \«eb, and means for mechanicall oleaning the said belt after the liquid has been blown therefrom.

2. The dampening maohine as claimed In Claim 1 , characterised thereby that the said cleaning means consist of a pair of horizontally opposed rotating cylindrical brushes mounted for engagement with both faces of the belt return flight * 3« The dampening machine of Claim 1 in which said liquid blowin means oomprises an ai manifold provided with a multiplicity of spaced orifices directed at the inner face of said belt * · k. The dampening machine of Claim 3 additionally includin means for removing excess liquid from said belt prior to the action of said blowing means . 5 » The dampening machine o Claim in which said excess liquid removing means comprises a pair of rotating rolls disposed on either side of the pick up flight of said belt and in opera tive contact therewith.