Abstract: A method for producing uniform nonwoven webs from a supply of unordered fibre material includes discharging a quantity of fibre material onto a needle-type transport system having needles which are movable along a transport path, taking-up the fibre material by way of the needles on the needle-type transport system, transporting the fibre material in the needle-type transport system to an end of the transport system, discharging the fibre material onto an opening roller, separating the discharged fibre material on the opening roller and transferring the fibre material which has been separated on the opening roller onto a cylinder. An apparatus for producing uniform nonwoven webs includes a needle-type transport system for transporting fibre material along a transport path, an opening roller positioned along the transport path adjacent one end of the transport system and a rotatable cylinder positioned adjacent the opening roller for receiving the fibre material from the opening roller.

Abstract: An automatic lap piecing method of piecing two lap sheets (2, 4) together, comprising the steps of holding the leading end (3) of the lap sheet (2) of a full lap (1) by a tubular member (6) by suction created in the suction opening (7) of the tubular member (6), shifting the tubular member (6) to a position where the leading end (3) of the lap sheet (2) can be superposed on the trailing end (5) of a preceding lap sheet (4), releasing the leading end (3) of the lap sheet (2) from the tubular member (6) to superpose the leading end (3) on the trailing end (5), and movign the tubular member (6) to smooth down the lap of the leading end (3) and the trailing end (5) to piece the two lap sheets (2, 4) together, and an automatic lap piecing apparatus capable of carrying out the automatic lap piecing method.

Abstract: The combing machine has at least one comber head which contains a continuously rotatable comb cylinder, a reciprocating nipper jaw unit and at least one detaching roller. The detaching roller is rotated during every revolution of the comb cylinder at first through a small angle in a backwards direction and then through a large angle in a forward direction. The rotations of the detaching rollers are produced by an electric motor which receives appropriate drive pulses fed from an electronic control unit.

Abstract: The combing machine is provided with a plurality of workstations each of which is provided with a table containing a funnel through which a combed web is formed into a sliver. Each table is pivotally mounted on a fixed shaft and a monitoring unit is provided to detect the rotation of the table about the shaft in response to a thick or thin place in the combed web passing through the funnel.