Unifi, Inc.

Cook Medical Technologies LLC

North Carolina State University

Roger N Saunders

Gordon A Wise

Ronald W Mangrum

Raymond W Maynard

Matthew M Thomas

Timothy G Clapp

Jon P Rust

Dale Thomas Bowen

Carlos Farrington

Stephanie Rivera

Caroline Gayzik

Shaq Abdelhaq

Matthew Myers Thomas

A surface of an object comprises a material having a low surface energy. A first cover comprising a material having a higher surface energy than the surface of the object may cover and be affixed to the surface. A second cover may be adhered to and/or secured by the first cover so that the second cover is fixedly coupled to the surface of the object.

Surface energy enhancement of lubricious objects

An automated drafting system particularly suitable for drafting textile strands of sliver is provided. The automated drafting system includes a synchronous drive sliver drafting roller system utilizing toothed gears in the preferred embodiment operatively connecting a pair of drafting rollers with one of the rollers being directly driven by a motor to thereby cause identical rotation of both rollers. The automated drafting system also includes a system for securing and pressuring together upper and lower sliver drafting rollers wherein the lower roller of a pair of drafting rollers is preferably maintained in a fixed but rotational position while the upper roller of the pair is pressured towards the lower roller and controllably restricted as to both horizontal and vertical movement during the drafting process. A sliver autoleveling system using tongue and groove drafting rollers to sense sliver uniformity is also included in the automated drafting system utilizing linear variable differential transformers (LVDTs) to monitor vertical displacement of the upper roller of a roller pair relative to the lower roller. The automated drafting system further provides a feed-forward and feed-back autoleveling system for control of sliver drafting rollers utilizing an input sliver sensor and an output sliver sensor communicating with a computer to facilitate sliver uniformity. A draftless sliver coiler packaging system is still further provided by the automated drafting system and utilizes a sliver level sensor to controllably and automatically adjust the speed at which sliver is packaged subsequent to emergence from a variable speed sliver delivery system.

Securing and pressuring system for drafting rollers for automated

A dye tube spacer for package dyeing. The spacer prevents distortion of the ends of the yarn package when the package is compressed prior to dyeing. The spacer includes a continuous vertical inner wall having an upper edge and a lower edge, the inner diameter of the wall being substantially equal to the outer diameter of the tube. A vertical outer wall is spaced from the inner wall and has an upper edge and a lower edge. A top annular wall is inclined upwardly from the upper edge of the inner to the upper edge of the outer wall, the wall having a diameter substantially equal to the diameter of the end of the yarn winding. A bottom annular wall extends from the lower edge of the inner wall to the lower edge of the outer wall. A support shelf extends inwardly from the inner wall and is positioned to engage the end of the tube. The inclined top and bottom annular walls contact the ends of the yarn packages and prevent undesirable distortion of the yarn during compression prior to dyeing.

Dye tube spacer for package dyeing

Growing community of inventors

Yadkinville, NC, United States of America

Roger N Saunders