Spencer Wright Industries, Inc.

Edward C Lear

Harold B Bardsley

Arthur F Bagnall

J Robert Jones

Nigel Stanton Fitton

Faults can be detected in sheet material, particularly in tufted fabric during manufacture of same, by scanning a surface of the material with an electrical scanning device which produces an electrical output representative of characteristics of the scanned surface. The electrical output is monitored to detect deviations from a norm representative of a fault condition. The scanning may be effected with a scanning device, comprising for example a light receiver which picks up reflected or transmitted light from the material, which is moved across the sheet transversely to the direction of advancement of the sheet.

Detection of faults in sheet and like materials

A yarn tension detector having a cage-like form pivotably moveable between predetermined limits about the pivot point and under the control of the tension of a moving yarn. The detector includes a pair of spaced abutment members in an electrical circuit with a lamp. The cage-like member makes a circuit whenever it engages one or the other of the abutments to thereby cause the bulb to light. The member also includes oppositely directed guide formations about which a yarn is trained and as the yarn is fed from a creel to, for example, a tufting machine the tension in the yarn as it moves through the guide formations pivots the member. One of the guide formations progressively opens when the yarn tension is in excess of a predetermined high tension to release the yarn from the detector after it has indicated the yarn tension fault. One detector for each yarn cone in a creel may be connected into a circuit having an indicator at the end of a creel alley to indicate when one of the detectors in the alley has a fault and all detectors may be connected to a display device to identify a specific detector.

Yarn detectors

A tension detector which senses excessive tension deviation in the yarn fed to a tufting machine to operate a loaded plunger. There is a separate plunger for each yarn end with each plunger operating to complete an electric circuit when the plunger is acted upon by a high tension deviation yarn. The electrical circuit consists of a bank of identical resistors connected in series with a known voltage across them to create a linear voltage divider, a switch corresponding to each resistor, each switch being mounted after its resistor in parallel with the remaining resistors and closed by the actuation of a respective one of the plungers. The voltage indicator can be calibrated to display the particular yarn or needle number directly thereon so that the operator may identify the particular troublesome yarn.

Growing community of inventors

Turton, near Bolton, United Kingdom

Edward C Lear