Abstract: A castor for items of furniture has two coaxial wheels and comprises a cowling having the shape of a tubular horizontal axis half cylinder subdivided by a diaphragm perpendicular to the cowling. Each wheel is provided with an axial tubular tail piece of snap-action engageable with and freely pivotable in a sort of annular resilient clamp formed frontally to the diaphragm.

Abstract: A retractable castor mechanism for attachment to an article of furniture or other heavy object including a castor shank that is rotatably received by a socket of a retaining member. A mainspring biases the retaining member and the castor downwardly, and a latch pin is engageable with the retaining member to latch the castor against the force of the spring in an inoperative retracted position. The latch is operated by a releasing lever having a foot portion that rests against the floor, so that a slight push of the article across the floor causes the latch pin to disengage the retaining member, allowing the castor to descend to an operative position.

Abstract: A circular comb arrangement in which a segment-shaped member has individual needle strips located parallel to each other and connected by pressure strips fastened to the segment-shaped member under pressure. The latter has a cutout holding all needle strips and pressure strips. The pressure strips are in the form of a flexible lamination having a free end fastened inside the cutout of the segment-shaped member. A pressure member is connected to the lamination, and one pressure surface of the pressure member is in contact with the subsequent needle strip as supporting surface. Behind the last needle strip, there is located a clamping strip which is detachably connected to the segment-shaped member. The clamping strip presses all needle strips and pressure members against one another and against a support surface ahead of the first needle strip.

Abstract: A pneumatic measuring means is placed over the main cylinder to measure pressure variations due to changes in fiber layer thickness. The measured pressures are transmitted to a measuring and control means which compares the measured pressures to a pre-set value and produces a difference signal which is then used to control the card. The difference signal can be imposed on the supply means for the card, the doffing means or the drafting means.

Abstract: In dry forming a layer of fibers, the fibers are conveyed by carrier air to a distributor housing having a perforated bottom wall through which the fibers pass downwards on to a foraminous forming surface connected on its underside to a suction box. The invention ensures that the fibers pass from the distributor to the forming surface under the influence of suction and gravity alone so as to provide a layer of more uniform depth than hitherto obtained by dry forming.

Abstract: A combination web cover and suction chamber define a crush roll plenum which communicates with and extends forwardly from the doffer plenum of a suction cleaning system for carding machines. It includes a suction opening closely spaced from the top crush roll and its scraper blade to continuously pick up accumulations of lint taken from the crush roll by the scraper blade. Intermittent blasts of compressed air are directed toward the scraper blade to purge it of accumulations of foreign matter which is blown into the continuous suction current.

Abstract: Apparatus for depositing a sliver of wool into a sliver can with a coiler plate rotated with high circumferential speed. The coiler plate has a pair of calender cylinders excentrically arranged in it and a nozzle for the central inlet of the slivers. One single wire race ball bearing carries the coiler plate and is surrounded by a tooth belt pulley fixed to the latter, thus enabling the tooth belt to run in the plane of rotation of the wire race of the ball bearing. A guiding device for the sliver is arranged at the top of the coiler plate between the nozzle and the nip of the calender cylinders and comprises a pipe socket affixed to the coiler plate and a sliding pipe telescopically slidable along the free end of the pipe socket and being beveled at its lower end.

Abstract: In a web layering device composed of a series of conveyors disposed in sequence for conveying a web of textile fibers from a card and depositing the web in layered form on a transporting unit, at least some of the conveyors being mounted on carriages to undergo back and forth movement, the attainable web conveying speed is increased by disposing an air guidance member in the form of a plate at at least one region of transfer between two conveyors to create an air stream which travels substantially tangentially to the web travel path.

Abstract: A card clothing clipped top comprised of a rigid base with a longitudinal groove extending lengthwise adjacent each side thereof and a pair of clips for attaching the top to a flat in a card clothing machine. Each clip has a curved upper portion which engages one of the grooves in the base of the top and a lower portion adapted to engage the bottom surface of the flat. An intermediate portion of the clip connects the upper and lower portions thereof and is provided with a plurality of inwardly extending tabs for engaging recesses in the bottom surface of the base.In manufacturing the clipped top, recesses are formed in the bottom surface of the base along the sides thereof. The curved upper portion of each clip is then engaged in one of the grooves and a plurality of tabs may be punched out of the intermediate portion and forced inwardly into engagement with the recesses to firmly secure the clips to the base.

Abstract: An apparatus for pressing textile fiber and tufts into lap through the use of converging belts around and between compression rollers thus improving the uniformity and surface texture of the lap is disclosed. The device comprises a series of driven rollers, belts and compression springs uniquely arranged to transform open fibers and tufts into a uniform, compressed and homogenous lap.

Abstract: A machine for spinning textile fibers comprises a carding drum with a toothed surface which generates a cylinder during rotation, a mechanism for feeding a roving or sliver of the textile fibers to the carding drum for disintegration thereon and a spinning station arranged to receive the disintegrated fibers from the carding drum and for spinning them. The feeding mechanism comprises a pair of nip rollers in surface contact, each nip roller having an elastic surface layer, a smooth-surfaced large diameter feed roller close to the nip rollers and spaced as closely as possible from the cylinder defined by the toothed surface of the carding drum, the smooth roller surface and the cylinder defining a triangular space therebetween, and a small diameter feed roller in the triangular space and in contact with the smooth surface, the smaller diameter roller having an elastic surface layer and preceding the larger diameter roller in the direction of rotation of the carding drum.

Abstract: The control system is constituted by a succession of elongate parallel control elements, made of elastomer, which extend in directions transverse to the direction of the path of the fibres to be controlled and which each have a work face and an opposite face provided with at least one longitudinal fixing rib engaged in a longitudinal slit of a tubular support part and terminated by a retention head in the said tubular support part, the drawing device including means for guiding, driving and orientating all the aforesaid tubular support parts, to ensure the displacement of the said control elements for the fibres while abutting against the other control system of the drawing device.

Abstract: An improvement in the production of chopped fibers is provided. Long fibers, commmonly in the form of roving, are fed through a chopper assembly comprising a cutter wheel having a plurality of outwardly-extending blades and a back-up roll having a soft cylindrical surface which the blade edges contact with the fibers therebetween. The chopped fibers then are directed downwardly through a discharge chute to a distribution chute below the chopper where they are directed by air to a point of application, e.g. being mixed with resin and applied to a surface of a mold or mandrel. The chopper fibers have had a tendency to agglomerate into hunks or balls below the chopper assembly and such tendency has heretofore been substantially reduced by the use of static bars located below the chopper assembly. An air system is now provided for directing air downwardly past the chopper assembly to convey the chopper fibers therefrom through the discharge duct and the distribution chute.

Abstract: Apparatus for and method of packaging a linear fibrous element in a rotated perforated cannister by withdrawing air from the cannister through its bottom wall to move air through the package during package formation to prevent freedom of movement to the element in the package and simultaneously withdrawing air uniformly from all sides of the cannister through its perforated sidewalls to reduce air turbulence in the cannister to promote ordered collection of the fibrous element.

Abstract: A profiled roller for pressing sheet material evenly against a roller that applies a film of liquid to the material, without collecting or forming a meniscus of the liquid in the absence of material to be moistened, comprises on a core a sleeve composed of many contiguous identical rings each provided with a peripheral series of protuberances that recur n times circumferentially thereof with each ring turned circumferentially relative to a contiguous ring at an angle thereto of less than 360.degree./n. The tops of the protuberances, each having a surface area of less than 0.5 mm.sup.2, define a cylindrical roller outline and are spaced apart by a distance of 1.5 to 4 mm, providing between them open spaces that will not retain the liquid by capillary action. The opposite sides of each ring are formed with complementary profiles disposed circumferentially apart at the said angle so that the rings may be readily assembled in the required angular disposition on the core.

Abstract: The production capacity of a carding machine is increased greatly above the normal range by feeding the fibrous material into the carding machine at a linear speed much greater than the conventional rate and at least about 10 feet per minute, and wherein the fibrous material is fed into the card in the form of a thin, lightweight, substantially non-compacted batt, significantly lighter than the conventional weight of feed into a carding machine. The lighter weight of the fibrous material being fed and the increased rate of speed thereof are such as to provide an overall increase in the amount of fibrous material being fed into the carding machine with a corresponding increase in the production rate. In accordance with the invention, a separate drive means independent of the drive means for the lickerin, main cylinder and doffer cylinder, is provided for driving the feed roll at said increased rate of speed.

Abstract: An installation for continuous two-sided enameling of pipes comprises a vertical receiving-and-discharging rotor a working rotor which moves pipes past working stations, and a mechanism for moving the pipes from one rotor to the other.

Abstract: In a staple fiber card unit composed of a main cylinder and at least one work roller and clearing roller, the output of the unit is maximized by driving the work and clearing rollers at a rate which causes the sum of their peripheral speeds to exceed 250 meters per minute.

Abstract: Procedures for continuously forming rosette shaped tampons from aggregate containing tubular sacks or overwraps having withdrawal strings at one end and assembling the tampons in inserters, rotary transfer mechanism being provided for engaging the withdrawal strings of the sacks and sequentially delivering them to a rotary assembly turret having a multiplicity of assembling stations mounted around its periphery. Each inserter comprises inner and outer parts, and feeding means are provided to individually feed and position an inner inserter and an outer inserter in holders at each assembly station. Each station has a reciprocating string engaging rod which acts to remove a sack by its string from the transfer mechanism and positions the sack to be drawn upwardly by vacuum into an overlying annular inversion chamber wherein the sack is inverted into rosette shape by the action of a pressure-vacuum reciprocating inversion rod.

Abstract: A composite caster comprised of an insert made from a thermo-plastic material, such as nylon, having certain characteristics and a tread portion made from a second type of plastic material, such as urethane, having different characteristics, with the tread portion molded directly onto the insert to provide an integrated whole, with the insert formed with rim elements having positive interlocking relationships with the molded on tread portion.