This application is a National Stage Application of PCT/IB2015/056903, filed 9 Sep. 2015, which claims benefit of Serial No. PO2014U000011, filed 9 Sep. 2014 in Italy and which applications are incorporated herein by reference. To the extent appropriate, a claim of priority is made to each of the above disclosed applications.
The present invention concerns a vibrating apparatus for treatment of fabrics, particularly for dimensional stabilization treatment of knitted fabrics during drying.
A novel type of industrial treatment for ensuring dimensional stability of knitted fabrics has been recently introduced in the textile industry.
This treatment method uses a vibrating platform in combination with a system for moving and progressively drying the fabric to obtain significant permanent dimensional shrinkage of the knitted fabric, such that the fabric becomes dimensionally stable even after repeated washing cycles in domestic washing machines.
Machines of this type are disclosed, for instance, in EP2373838, by the applicant hereof.
These machines basically have a structure comprising a tub containing the fabrics being treated, a mechanical vibration-generating mechanism and a tub-supporting system, which receives the vibrations from the generating mechanisms and transfers them to the tub and the fabric contained therein.
In these machines, the tub and the support system are made of steel and the remarkable stresses induced by inertial forces—caused by accelerations with intensities in multiples of gravity—make it very difficult to achieve a fair compromise between light-weight and strength requirements.
As the weight of the tub is increased, for example for strengthening and capacity-increasing purposes, all the control and support members of the apparatus must be accordingly increased in both mass and strength.
A vicious cycle is thus established, which actually leads to the impossibility both of further increasing the capacity of the vibrating tub, and of increasing the frequency and amplitude of oscillations.
This will make it very difficult to increase the throughput of the apparatus both in batch mode and, even more so, in continuous mode.
Beyond certain limits, the costs and dimensions are a major obstacle.
Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide a vibrating apparatus for treatment of fabrics, particularly knitted fabrics, that obviates the above mentioned drawbacks and has higher capacities and performances than the prior art.
This object is fulfilled by a vibrating apparatus as defined in the appended claims. The characteristics and advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood upon reading of the following description and the annexed drawings, which are given as a non limiting exemplary embodiment.
In the drawings:
In the accompanying drawings, numeral 1 generally designates a vibrating apparatus 1 for use in the dimensional stabilization treatment of fabrics, particularly knitted fabrics, during drying.
The apparatus 1 basically comprises [
According to the invention, the tub 2 is made of carbon fiber, such that it may have a very high strength, e.g. much higher than steel, with much lower specific mass as compared with the latter.
Furthermore, the support system 4 basically comprises [
Advantageously, the hinges (13,14, 15) for connection of the rocker arms 12 to the tub 2, the counterweight 6 and the structure 16 are viscoelastic hinges.
The slider-crank mechanism 2 acts upon the counterweight 6 to impart a substantially vertical oscillation thereto. Due to the particular configuration of the support system 4, such oscillation is transferred to the tub 2.
As a result of the above: if the mass of the counterweight 6 is appropriately selected to be as close as possible to the mass of the tub 2 and to the mass of the fabrics contained therein, the transfer mechanism 4 will be perfectly dynamically balanced. Furthermore, excepting any difference due to friction and/or elasticity of the hinges, the oscillations of the tub 2 and the counterweight 6 have substantially identical amplitudes.
This will be also obviously true in case of high accelerations, i.e. high inertial reactions possibly caused by fast reversing of the moving parts, as may be designed to occur in the apparatus 1 in its various operating states.
This will provide the advantage—in addition to the other advantages that will be mentioned below—that the slider-crank mechanism 3 is allowed to actuate the support system 4 with a lower effort even with high masses of fabric contained in the tub 2 and/or at high vibration frequencies, that may generally range from 5 to 15 Hz.
The slider-crank mechanism 3—as clearly shown in
The mechanism 3 also includes two substantially vertically-extending connecting rods 9, each having a head 10 for connection with the corresponding eccentric pin 8, and an articulated foot 11, which is associated in elastically compliant fashion to the counterweight 6—as clearly shown in
The shaft 7 is rotated by means of a transmission 18 comprising a motor 22, a pair of pulleys 20, 21 and a belt 19.
As a result, the mechanism 3 can impart oscillations with a prevailing vertical component to the counterweight 6.
The movements received by the counterweight 6 are then transferred, through the support system 4, to the tub 2 and finally from the latter to the fabric contained therein.
An apparatus according to the invention can fully achieve the purposes of treating large amounts of fabric, and imparting wider ranges of vibrational frequencies to fabrics. This will afford advantages over the prior art, consisting in significant throughput enhancement without the need of increasing the size of the structures of the physical apparatus and its actuation and control mechanisms; and in a wider choice of the most suitable frequencies for optimized treatment, and/or for the various types of fabrics to be treated from time to time.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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PO2014U0011 | Sep 2014 | IT | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/IB2015/056903 | 9/9/2015 | WO | 00 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2016/038551 | 3/17/2016 | WO | A |
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2277511 | Daneke | Mar 1942 | A |
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4219942 | Coliva | Sep 1980 | A |
4773133 | Voisin | Sep 1988 | A |
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20110083944 | Bonn | Apr 2011 | A1 |
20110232053 | Biancalani | Sep 2011 | A1 |
20130012849 | Seaton | Jan 2013 | A1 |
20150336745 | Groenewald | Nov 2015 | A1 |
20170022771 | Frazier | Jan 2017 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
912 447 | May 1954 | DE |
2 373 838 | Sep 2014 | EP |
1 024 514 | Apr 1953 | FR |
2010064130 | Jun 2010 | WO |
Entry |
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International Search Report and Written Opinion of the International Searching Authority for corresponding International Patent Application No. PCT/IB2015/056903 dated Dec. 23, 2015, 8 pgs. |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20170254008 A1 | Sep 2017 | US |