Tubular Textile LLC

Earl S Allison

Robert Joseph Hughes

Barry Defoy Miller

Gavin B Rumble

A heating system for a mechanical compressive shrinkage apparatus in which a continuously flowing liquid heat exchange medium is caused to flow in series through each of the components required to be heated. Heat is input to the flowing medium in accordance with the temperature of one of the components to be heated, preferably the first in the series. Uniformity and constancy of both absolute and relative temperatures of the series-connected components is achieved. A mixture of water and propylene glycol alcohol is an advantageous heat exchange medium for the purpose, which allows operation at lower pressure without the maintenance problems of a system using, for example, oil as the exchange medium.

Heating system for compressive shrinkage machines

A spreader-propeller apparatus for processing of tubular knitted fabric. Each of two spaced-apart frame sections is formed of upper and lower sheet metal sections mounting a plurality of grooved guide rollers carrying fabric-engaging propeller belts. The frame structure supports entry-side and exit-side belts which, in the mid-regions of the frame structure, are trained about vertically extended substantially cylindrical driving rolls. Smooth surfaced, large diameter tubular structural elements are rigidly secured above and below the sheet metal frame sections and are transitionally contoured in bridging portions to extend at least slightly above and slightly below the vertically extending drive rollers. The geometry of the sheet metal frame sections and the smooth wall tubing secured thereto is such that tubular knitted fabric being processed on the spreader is at all times guided away from and held in spaced relation to fixed surfaces presenting an edge or corner. At the discharge end of the spreader, the fabric passes over tapered guide rollers, avoiding contact of the fabric with a stationary edge, as the fabric exits from the spreader.

Non-marking spreader for tubular knitted fabric

A mechanical compressive shrinkage machine, especially for tubular and open width knitted fabrics, and of the type comprising feeding and retarding rollers cooperating with entry side and exit blades forming a compressive shrinkage zone between the rollers, is provided with novel and improved adjusting mechanisms. For each of the blades, there is a separate adjusting mechanism, each comprising, at each side of the machine, an in-line fluid cylinder, a technician-accessible independent adjustment, and a rotatable eccentric. The rotatable eccentrics on each side are carried by a common shaft, which is accessible externally and provides an operator-controlled adjustment. After initial setup of the machine by a skilled technician, adjustment of the machine by the production operator is effected by rotation of a control shaft, effecting simultaneous movement of the control linkage at opposite sides of the machine. The limits of production operator control, even with full rotation of the control shaft, are such, by design of the eccentric portions of the shaft, as to be within a safe range, to avoid damage or destruction of delicate critical parts of the equipment through careless operator action. The in-line fluid actuators, incorporated into the adjustment linkage, enable rapid, gross movement of the elements for the purpose of reconfiguring the machine in a wide open condition for cleanout. Such reconfiguration is carried out by a predetermined sequence to avoid damage to the components.

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Kannapolis, NC, United States of America

Earl S Allison