Abstract: A stretch frame for sheet material such as printing screen utilizes tensioning rollers to be secured to the sheet edges and then rotated to stress the sheet material. The rollers may be rotatably received within laterally opening channels in the frame and restrained against reverse rotation to release the sheet tension by a ratchet device extending along a substantial length of each roller. This construction insures that the printing screen or other web shaped material is rigidly held in place.

Abstract: An elongated support member has a curved and pointed pick adjacent one end thereof. The other end of the support member is formed into a pair of tweezers. Mounted on the free end of each tong of the tweezers is a flat thin needle threader. To greatly facilitate their use and operation, the needle threaders extend outwardly to the sides and lie in a plane which is at a 30.degree. to 45.degree. angle to the axis of the support member.

Abstract: Doffer wire for the card clothing of rotatable doffers used in carding heads for delivering fibers to the needles of a sliver high pile fabric knitting machine having improved fiber release characteristics. The doffer wires are constituted of a shank portion, which is embedded in cantilevered fashion in the card clothing, distal portions which are raked by the knitting machine needles to remove fibers therefrom, and bent or knee portions which connect the shank portions of the doffer wires to the distal portions thereof. The knee portions are formed with an angle greater than 130 degrees and less than 180 degrees, the preferred angle being on the order of 155 degrees.

Abstract: A fiber feeding system for feeding relatively short sliver fibers--less than one inch in length--to a sliver high pile fabric knitting machine. The system includes the usual basic elements of a carding head comprising the sliver feeding components, such as a pair of rotatable sliver feed rolls, a rotatable wire-covered doffer and a rotatable wire-covered main cylinder interposed between the sliver feeding components and the doffer. By utilizing a sliver feed plate as one of the sliver feeding components, together with one or more sliver feed rolls, the fiber pinch point may be advanced close to the periphery of the main cylinder. Where one or more pairs of sliver feed rolls are utilized without a sliver feed plate, each roll has a circumference not exceeding four times the minimum length of the sliver fibers.

Abstract: A cotton ginning system embodying a lint cleaner and a process of operating the same in which the batt of cotton delivered to the lint cleaner is maintained at an optimum thickness even though the rate of ginning varies. The batt thickness is maintained by correlating the same with the rate of feed of seed cotton to the system. Controls are provided to assure that the batt remains at optimum thickness, and such optimum thickness is assured by sensing the rate of input of seed cotton to the system.

Abstract: A stretch head for a stretching mechanism includes a plurality of needle rods which move along a generally planar working path and a return path. Linear motor means are operable to move the needle rods along the planar working path along material to be warped and along the return path, and screw means move the needle rods between the two paths.

Abstract: A device for cleaning the rolls of draft rolling mills of textile machines includes a support bar arranged parallel to the axis of the roll, and a cleaning fillet of resiliently deformable material carried by the support bar and having a longitudinal lip in pressure contact with the circumferential surface of the roll. The cleaning fillet has a longitudinal stiffening reinforcement in the zone adjacent the contact with the roll.

Abstract: A carding machine has a doffer, a web delivering assembly cooperating with the doffer, a calender unit arranged for receiving a fiber web discharged by the web delivering assembly. The calender unit includes a sliver trumpet and calender rolls. The calender unit is displaceable between an operative position in which the sliver trumpet is situated in the immediate vicinity of the web delivering assembly and an inoperative position in which the sliver trumpet is remote from the web delivering assembly. A start-up tray is movably supported underneath the doffer and the web delivering assembly. The start-up tray guides leading portions of the fiber web from the doffer to the web delivering assembly during start-up operation.

Abstract: In a pneumatic system for supplying air-borne fibers to the vertical feed chutes of carding machines and the like, the fibers which collect in the lower, formation section of each chute, are adapted to be compacted by a volumetric air pump that is mounted in each chute to direct pulses of compressed air into the upper end of its formation section. The density of the column of fibers in this section is monitored by apparatus which senses the air pressure differential between the upper and lower ends, respectively, of the formation section, and which generates an electrical signal proportionate to the pressure differential. This signal controls the operation of the variable speed electric motors which drive the air pump and a feed roll, which draws fibers from the upper, surge section of the chute and feeds them downwardly to the formation section.

Abstract: In a hand held tool for tying a knot connecting a fishing line to the eye of a fishhook, an elongated generally planar body, is provided with a fishhook supporting forwardly projecting tube and a pair of resilient fins diverging from its rearward end. A laterally projecting lug having a transverse slot holds an intermediate portion of the line. The line free end, after being threaded through the eye of the fishhook, is entrained transversely across the tips of the diverging fins and wrapped a plurality of times about the tube and extended through the opening formed by the fins and line and secured by a slot at the juncture of the fins. The knot and fishhook is then removed forwardly off the tube and the knot tightened against the eye of the fishhook.

Abstract: A vertical feed chute includes a feed roll for feeding fibers from a surge section in its upper end to a formation section in its lower end. A stationary, perforated condenser plate is secured to the lower, discharge end of the chute, and has thereon a concave surface which extends beneath the chute discharge opening, and beneath a metering roll that is mounted to rotate in the discharge opening in confronting relation to the condenser plate. A mat of fibers is drawn from the discharge opening into a nip between the condenser plate and metering roll where the mat is compressed and then fed to the input of a carding machine, or the like. The metering roll is mounted for limited reciprocable movement normal to its axis, and toward and away from the concave condenser surface. In one embodiment the roll is positively driven by pneumatic means toward or away from the concave surface depending upon the density of the mat entering the nip.

Abstract: Apparatus for automatically superimposing and folding collants or stockings and transferring the same to packaging. The apparatus comprises a moving chain carrying grippers having the collants leg tips hanging thereon. The chain travels through a narrow loop, at which moving parts are provided and press the two legs of each collant against each other, whereupon a moving member picks up the stockings midway the length thereof, transferring the same as folded up to a collection station.

Abstract: The dirt separator for carding machines is located upstream of the doffer cylinder and comprises a knife blade (16) as well as a foot portion or base plate that is provided with a toothed wire clothing (19), which is arranged with a clearance of about 0.25 mm from the main drum of the carding machine. The knife blade (16) is preceeded by a gap (27), which is in fluid flow communication with a suction duct (24).

Abstract: In an needle bar drawing device or gill box comprising needle bars carried by chains is arranged a bristle mat consisting of one or few layers of bristles extending along the whole needle field up to the proximity of a clamping gap formed between a pair of exit rollers. The bristle mat is penetrated by the needles of the needle field and creates a stripping effect at the disappearing position of the needles in the region of the nip, this stripping effect avoiding the conveying of fibers freely swimming in the sliver, and thus the danger and disadvantage of any lap forming.

Abstract: Method for depositing sliver formed of textile fibers in cycloidal loops in a rotating can, which includes feeding the sliver through a rotating funnel wheel having a guide canal formed therein with an opening extending toward the can, and rotating the funnel wheel with periodically changing angular velocity to reduce variation in silver deposit velocity and device for implementing the method.

Abstract: An electrically operated, hand-held tier for tying a length of fishline to a fishhook comprises a tying wheel mounted rotatably on a bearing boss for rotation in one direction. The tying wheel has an anchoring member secured thereto for holding releaseably one end portion of the fishline after the fishline has been passed through the bearing boss. One end of a fishhook opposite to its sharp point is adapted to be received in coaxial relation to the bearing boss and has a number of turns of the fishline formed thereon when the tying wheel is rotated several times thereabout. The rotation of the tying wheel is effective to form a knot on the fishline which is necessary to secure the fishhook to the fishline.

Abstract: An apparatus for training a gin saw assembly and a ginning rib assembly that have been removed from a cotton gin includes a telescoping stand on which the gin saw assembly, including its bearings is temporarily mounted. The apparatus includes an adjustable template with alignment marks with which the individual gin saw blades are manually aligned. The apparatus also includes mounting elements by means of which the ginning rib assembly can be mounted adjacent to the gin saw assembly after the gin saw blades have been trained. The telescoping stand is then extended so that the gin saw blades extend into narrow gaps between the individual ginning ribs in substantially the same relation thereto as when the gin saw assembly and ginning rib assembly are operating in the cotton gin. The individual ribs are then adjusted so that the gin saw blades are precisely centrally positioned in the gaps.

Abstract: Apparatus for making tubular articles formed of a length of material wound in helical form with contiguous edges of successive convolutions of the material joined with one another comprises a forming section made up of a plurality of guide rollers supported by a vertical arch-type frame so as to define a generally cylindrical configuration. Feed rollers propel a strip of material in a lengthwise direction through the arch of the frame and around the support provided by the guide rollers in a helical path with edges of successive convolutions of the helix abutting one another. As the material is thus in effect coiled into helical form, a sewing machine joins contiguous edges of successive convolutions to form a continuous tubular article.

Abstract: A machine for automatically tying knots in meat stuffed in a casing by means of a string, comprises an assembly for squeezing the casing over a given extent prior to tying, and a spool unit comprising a spool carrying a supply of string. The spool is rotatably enclosed in a housing which moves only parallel to the axis of feed of the casing. A mechanism having an opening for the passage therethrough of the casing and a hook-shaped member for the passage therethrough of the spool unit, carries elements for temporarily supporting the string over a polygonal path, as well as a relatively axially movable element for detaching the string from the support elements. The use of the mechanism having the hook-shaped component and rotatable to wind the string around the casing, in combination with the spool unit for linearly dispensing the string, permits tying in a spiral direction and also simplifies the design of the machine.

Abstract: A mechanical foreign object detector upstream from the feed roll of a carding machine faithfully detects minute hard objects in the lap which could damage the lickerin or other components of the card. Spring-loaded detector pins penetrate through the lap and contact foreign objects on an apertured plate beneath the lap. Such pins rise and contact a wire connected in a stop motion circuit which immediately stops the operation of the doffer and the feed roll before any damage can occur. A visual and/or audible indicator alerts the operator to the presence of a foreign object or objects which the operator removes by hand before restarting the card by operation of a key-operated reset switch in the circuit. The mechanical detector apparatus includes a power drive which is synchronized with the operation of the feed roll of the card.