Morrison Berkshire, Inc.

Peter P Stanislaw

Sadao Yagi

A tentering system having a pair of spaced tenter rails defining a first end, a second end and a tentering path, and moveable material securement members carried by the tenter rails is disclosed. The tentering system may include first material guides at the first end of the tenter rails and second material guides at the second end of the tenter rails, and at least one drive motor for alternately and selectively driving the securement members in the first and second directions. In addition or in the alternative, a pair of direct drive motors is provided at the first end of the tenter rails, each of the direct drive motors including a clutch moveable between a drive position and a neutral position, and clutch actuating means to selectively and positively move the clutch from the neutral position to the drive position. In addition or in the alternative, first and second pairs of direct drive motors are provided at the first and second ends of the tenter rails, respectively. Still further, first and second tension adjusting motors are provided at the first and second ends of the tentering rails for selectively and independently adjusting the tentering width at the first and second ends and for adjusting the tension on material at the first and second ends. A method of tentering material on a finishing machine by alternately moving material in two opposite directions is also disclosed.

Tentering apparatus and method

A method and system for manufacturing endless needled felts having at least one layer of longitudinally-extending spiral windings of a fiber web is disclosed. The system includes first and second machines, one being utilized for applying and tacking spiral windings of a fiber web to an endless web or fabric and the other being utilized for full needling of the applied and tacked fiber web to the endless web or fabric. The first machine has associated therewith a web feeding device for feeding a fiber web having a width substantially less than the working width of the first machine, and a needling device having an operative width corresponding to the width of the fiber web. As an endless base fabric is moved in a longitudinal direction by the first machine, the web feeding and needling devices are reciprocated in unison in a direction transverse to the longitudinal direction so as to feed longitudinally-extending spiral windings of the fiber web onto the endless fabric, and to then tack the fiber web to the endless fabric to thereby hold the fiber web in place on the base fabric. After the desired longitudinally-extending spiral windings of fiber web are applied and tacked to the endless fabric, the fabric is removed from the first machine and placed onto the second machine which may comprise a conventional needle loom. The second machine includes a full-width needling apparatus having a working width corresponding to the working width of a second machine, and is operative to fully needle the applied and tacked fibrous material to the endless fabric as it is moved past the full-width needling apparatus. By providing two separate machines, one for applying and tacking spiral windings of a fiber web to a base fabric and the other for fully needling the applied and tacked fiber web to the endless fabric, a more efficient utilization is made of the more expensive, slower operating full-width needling machine.

Method for manufacturing needled felts having machine direction oriented

A needle loom is disclosed. The loom comprises a frame; a needle beam; means, including a drive shaft and crank means carried by the drive shaft and coupled to the needle beam, for reciprocating the needle beam relative to the frame; and, means, including a guide means fixedly carried by the frame and a slide means pivotally carried by the needle beam and slidable relative to the guide means, for guiding the needle beam during its reciprocating movement relative to the frame.

Needle loom having improved needle beam guide system

An apparatus for forming a layered, cross-lapped web of predetermined width from a strip of batt material is disclosed. The apparatus comprises a pair of transversely spaced frame members, a delivery conveyor having a web support surface thereon positioned between the frame members and movable longitudinally relative thereto, a cross-lapping carriage transversely reciprocatively movable relative to the delivery conveyor and adapted to deliver the strip of batt material to the support surface to form the layered cross-lapped web on the delivery conveyor, and shielding aprons carried by the cross-lapping carriage and statically juxtaposed above the layered web for shielding portions of the web adjacent to the cross-lapping carriage from air eddies caused by the transverse reciprocative movement of the cross-lapping carriage. The shielding aprons have variable length portions thereof extending from each side of the cross-lapping carriage to corresponding ones of the frame members during the transversely reciprocative movements of the cross-lapping carriage and they have essentially zero transverse movement relative to the portions of the layered web positioned therebeneath.

Batt stabilization in cross-lapped web manufacturing apparatus

An apparatus for manufacturing endless, needled, longitudinally oriented, paper machine felts having a predetermined width formed from a plurality of overlapping loops of a narrower width strip is disclosed. The apparatus includes a first needling mechanism having a working width at least equal to the predetermined width, a feeder to feed a strip of batt from a web to the first needling mechanism, means to reciprocate the web throughout the working width of the first needling mechanism, a second needling mechanism having a working width at least equal to the working width of the first needling mechanism and including a plurality of driven, adjacent needling units each of which is actuable between a needling position and a non-needling position, and means associated with each of the needling units and correlated to the position of the batt strip relative to the working width for selectively actuating corresponding ones of the needling units to needle the strip being fed to the first needling mechanism while the strip is in longitudinal alignment with the corresponding ones of the units.

Growing community of inventors

Bennington, VT, United States of America

Peter P Stanislaw