Apparatus for compacting woven gauze bandages

Abstract

The disclosure is directed to the mechanical compacting of woven gauze bandages. An improved bandage gauze, having increased crimp and bulk, and a desirable degree of lengthwise stretch, is produced by passing the gauze through a two-roll compactor which, in its generalities, is of a known type, but which is specifically modified and improved to enable the gauze material to be processed effectively. The compactor comprises opposed feeding and retarding rolls, forming a nip. A compacting shoe is associated with the feed roll and the roller nip so as to drive the fabric to be fed toward the nip. At the nip, the gauze is decelerated by the retarding roll, and the material is continuously and progressively gathered and compacted in a short zone between the terminal edge or tip of the shoe and the roller nip. The ability to process gauze bandage material in a two-roll compactor is made possible by the use of an unusual combination of compactor rolls, including a retarding roll formed with a diamond knurled surface and a feeding roll formed with a straight knurled surface of somewhat finer pitch than the diamond knurl of the retarding roll. The feeding roll is provided with surface-forming means at each end thereof projecting radially beyond the working surface of the feeding roll to act as a limit stop for the compacting shoe. To advantage, the compacting shoe is positioned in a spaced relation to the working surface of the feeding roll by the limit stop. This particular and unique combination enables surprising and unexpectedly superior results to be achieved in the compacting of the gauze bandage material.