Funnel arrangement at the outlet of a card machine

Abstract

A funnel arrangement adapted for use at the outlet of a card machine or drawing frame for the purpose of bringing together a sliver traveling along a feed path. The funnel arrangement includes a funnel and an air squeeze-out device following the funnel for squeezing air out of the sliver. The funnel arrangement is located upstream of a downstream funnel used for introducing the sliver into a calender roll pair. A housing surrounds the air squeeze-out device and forms an air discharge chamber which extends at least substantially from the upstream funnel to the downstream funnel. The air squeeze-out device includes openings which allow air to pass into the air discharge chamber, the openings being formed by gaps between convolutions of a frusto-conically shaped coil of wire or by gaps between a plurality of spaced-apart converging rods arranged in a frusto-conically shaped pattern. The funnel arrangement can be mounted so as to be movable away from a calender roll pair or the funnel arrangement can be arranged in two parts which are separable from each other in a direction along the length of the feed path for ease of threading the sliver through the funnel arrangement when the two parts are separated from each other. The two part arrangement could be such that only the upstream funnel and the air squeeze-out device form a unit which can be separated into two parts.