Device and method for performing a cleaning operation of a tube on a sliding mandrel arranged on a movable support of a tube and tube conveying system

Abstract

According to the application, during the scraping operation, the speed of movement of the scraping jaws is detected and, if this is below a defined minimum speed, a fault elimination operation is carried out, in the case of which the scraping jaws are disengaged from the surface of the tube, subsequently adjusted into an intermediate position in the direction of the pressing element within the cleaning path and, thereafter, placed again on the surface of the tube in the intermediate position, after which the scraping operation is resumed until the end of the cleaning path is reached and, thereafter, the scraping operation is repeated in the area of the position of the scraping jaws at the start of the previous fault elimination operation as a supplementary scraping operation until the entire cleaning path is cleaned.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] This invention relates to a method for cleaning a yarn tube using a scraping clamp of a yarn scraping device. The yarn tube is mounted on a mandrel of a movable support in a yarn and tube delivery system. The scraping clamp is adjustable along the surface of the yarn tube in the longitudinal axis direction of the mandrel. The method includes the following steps:

[0002] -The yarn tube is locked onto the mandrel by means of a clamping device with clamping elements.

[0003] - Place the scraping pliers on the surface of the yarn tube.

[0004] - The scraping operation is initiated by moving the scraping pliers along the yarn surface in a defined cleaning path toward the upper end of the clamping element. Background Technology

[0005] Especially for automatic winding machines, it has long been known to transport bobbins used as unwinding coils and produced in ring spinning machines, as well as empty or partially wound bobbins, in a closed transport loop by means of movable supports.

[0006] The bobbin and tube conveying system required for this purpose typically has a conveyor belt that is guided along guide rails, and supports, together with their vertically arranged mandrels, circulate on the conveyor belt. The bobbins are attached to the mandrels of the supports and held on these supports during feeding and unwinding, and also held on these supports as empty tubes during return.

[0007] The bobbin and tube conveying system preferably has multiple conveying loops that either lead to individual winding stations or to specific processing devices, such as bobbin preparation equipment, tube cleaning equipment, or attachment equipment. For bobbins requiring manual intervention, there is an alternative section in which the bobbins are temporarily stored in an operator-accessible manner.

[0008] Depending on the winding state of the corresponding tube, the support for the carrying tube is conveyed to a predetermined processing station, such as a tube cleaning device or a tube preparation device. In the case of a fully unwound tube, the tube is empty. Tubes, commonly referred to as rest cops, have a low amount of remaining yarn, which is usually detected on the tube by a tube monitor in the winding station. In the case of rest cops, the amount of remaining yarn is lower than a predetermined amount, and therefore is not rewound. On the other hand, if the amount of remaining yarn in a partially unwound tube exceeds a predetermined amount, for example, due to a yarn breakage that prevents the yarn beginning from being grasped at the winding station, or because the yarn clearer detects multiple yarn defects exceeding a limit, the tube becomes a so-called alarm tube. Tubes are referred to as unpreparable tubes where the yarn ends cannot be properly prepared for the winding process so that the tube with the full original yarn quantity leaves the tube preparation device but is not conveyed to the winding station.

[0009] For bobbins with excess yarn, such as alarm bobbins or bobbins that are no longer ready, the yarn on the bobbins must be removed in order to rewind them. This is done, for example, in a bobbin cleaning device, by using scraper pliers to scrape the excess yarn off the bobbin. If the amount of excess yarn exceeds a predetermined value, the cleaning process within the bobbin cleaning device cannot be performed because, based on experience, such bobbins will clog the scraper pliers, leading to damage to the entire bobbin. Therefore, for example, if a bobbin with excessive yarn ends is detected by a bobbin monitor, operator intervention is required to clean these bobbins, as is done with alarm bobbins and bobbins that are no longer ready. Summary of the Invention

[0010] Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for cleaning yarn tubes that ensures reliable cleaning even when the amount of remaining yarn increases.

[0011] This invention achieves this objective through a method and apparatus having the characteristics of the basic embodiment of the invention. Advantageous developments of the method according to the invention are described in detail in the preferred embodiment of the invention.

[0012] The method according to the invention is characterized in that, during the scraping operation, the movement speed of the scraping pliers is detected, and if it is lower than a predetermined minimum speed, a fault-clearing operation is performed, in which:

[0013] -The scraping forceps disengage from the surface of the yarn tube;

[0014] - The scraping forceps are then adjusted to a central position within the cleaning path along the direction of the clamping element; and

[0015] -The scraping pliers are then placed again on the surface of the yarn tube in the intermediate position.

[0016] After that, the scraping operation is restarted until the end of the cleaning path is reached, and then the scraping operation is repeated as a supplementary scraping operation in the area where the scraping pliers started from the previous fault-clearing operation, until the entire cleaning path is cleaned.

[0017] According to the method of the invention, during the cleaning operation of the yarn tube, i.e., when the scraping pliers move along the surface of the yarn tube in the direction of the clamping element along the cleaning path, a suitable control unit monitors the movement speed of the scraping pliers and scrapes off existing yarn ends from the yarn tube during this process. If the speed is lower than a preset minimum speed, the control unit interrupts the scraping operation. During the cleaning process, the movement speed of the scraping pliers is lower than the minimum speed due to blockage caused by yarn ends. As a result, after the scraping operation is interrupted, the scraping pliers are lifted away from the yarn tube, then adjusted along the cleaning path in the direction of their end, and placed back on the yarn tube in an intermediate position, thereby restarting the scraping operation.

[0018] The method according to the invention is based on the understanding that, after moving to the intermediate position, a smaller amount of yarn must first be scraped off by the scraper pliers in the direction of the clamping device, and interacts with the scraper pliers with lower resistance, making it highly likely that the remaining, reduced cleaning path in the direction of the clamping device, starting from the intermediate position, will be cleaned without further interruption. After the scraping operation is completed without failure from the intermediate position, i.e., after traversing the remaining previously defined cleaning path, the scraper pliers return to the position they occupied at the start of the fault-clearing operation, i.e., back to the position where the scraper pliers were previously lifted from the yarn tube. After the scraper pliers are placed on the yarn tube in this position, the remaining uncleaned portion of the yarn tube is cleaned by a supplementary scraping operation in the area between the scraper pliers position at fault clearing and the intermediate position. In this case, reliable cleaning of the remaining cleaning path stems from the lower resistance, which arises from the previously performed cleaning of the yarn tube from the previously approached intermediate position to the end of the cleaning path.

[0019] According to the method of the present invention, not only can bobbins with increased residual yarn be cleaned, but also bobbins with high yarn counts on their surfaces that cannot be scraped off in one pass, such as alarm bobbins or bobbins that cannot be prepared. Importantly, the speed of the scraping pliers along the direction of the clamping element is monitored, and the cleaning operation is interrupted when the speed falls below a predetermined minimum. Subsequently, the scraping pliers move within the cleaning path to a midpoint on the bobbin facing the clamping element, from which the cleaning operation can restart or continue.

[0020] If the movement speed again drops below the defined minimum speed, a fault-clearing operation can be performed again in a separate step, in which the scraper clamps are again lifted and adjusted to another intermediate position, from which the cleaning operation restarts. After reaching the end of the cleaning path during the cleaning operation, a first supplementary scraping operation occurs, in which the scraper clamps are adjusted to the positions they were in at the start of the previous fault-clearing operation, allowing the cleaning operation to begin subsequently. Therefore, the number of supplementary scraping operations is directly derived from the number of fault-clearing operations performed during the cleaning process, wherein in each case, the scraper clamps gradually approach the positions they occupied at the start of the previous fault-clearing operation, and then the cleaning operation begins. If the movement speed again drops below the defined minimum speed during the supplementary scraping operation, a fault-clearing operation occurs again.

[0021] Therefore, the method according to the invention enables single-step or multi-step cleaning of the surface of the yarn tube until all yarn ends are removed from the yarn tube. Thus, the method according to the invention also allows for setting parameters at the tube monitor for the yarn to be supplied to the tube for cleaning, thereby also guiding unprepared and alarm-prone yarns to the tube for cleaning, thus completely eliminating the need for operator-performed cleaning or preparation.

[0022] The method according to the invention is based on the following: after the scraping operation is interrupted due to a speed below a previously defined minimum, a fault-clearing operation is performed. During this process, the cleaning operation is interrupted and restarted at a position higher than the working position within the cleaning path on the yarn tube, from which the amount of remaining yarn scraped off the yarn tube interacts with the scraping pliers with lower resistance. If a speed below the minimum occurs again starting from the intermediate position, fault clearing is performed again. During this process, the scraping pliers are again placed on the yarn tube at a higher position, from which the scraping operation restarts. In this case, to ensure complete cleaning of the yarn tube, after reaching the end of the cleaning path, the scraping pliers need to be returned to the position where they were lifted from the yarn tube at the start of the previous fault-clearing operation. In subsequent supplementary scraping operations, the scraping pliers can, in principle, be moved back to the end of the cleaning path. However, according to a particularly advantageous embodiment of the invention, the supplementary scraping operation is limited to the area between the position of the scraping pliers at the start of the previous fault-clearing operation and the associated intermediate position.

[0023] According to this embodiment of the invention, the supplementary scraping operation is performed only in the area between the scraping clamp position and the intermediate position. In the scraping clamp position, the scraping clamp is pre-lifted from the yarn tube, while in the intermediate position, the scraping clamp is placed back onto the yarn tube during the fault-clearing operation. This embodiment of the invention eliminates the need to perform supplementary scraping operations up to the end of the cleaning path. Therefore, especially in the case of multiple fault-clearing operations, the cycle time for cleaning such yarn tubes can be reduced.

[0024] The definition of the cleaning path can be carried out in any desired manner, which is typically determined by a tube monitor that detects the surface of the yarn tube to be cleaned and determines the corresponding cleaning path based on the yarn winding length on the yarn tube. In cases where alarm yarns or such unprepared yarns are advantageously specified, the cleaning path typically extends over the entire winding length of the yarn tube, where the latter can also be determined by the tube monitor. In this case, it is particularly advantageous to define the cleaning path by sensing, in particular optically, the yarn guide tube. Due to this embodiment of the invention, the cleaning path can be limited to the necessary area on the yarn tube, so that the cleaning time and therefore the cycle time of cleaning the yarn tube are thus reduced overall in a complementary manner.

[0025] In principle, the path along which the scraping clamp moves to the intermediate position after the fault clearing process begins can be freely chosen and, for example, set in the control unit. However, according to a particularly advantageous embodiment of the invention, the adjustment path of the scraping clamp between the initial position and the intermediate position of the fault clearing operation is set based on the position of the scraping clamp in the longitudinal axis direction of the yarn tube and / or the number of previous fault clearing operations.

[0026] According to this embodiment of the invention, the control unit can be adjusted such that, when the scraping speed of the scraping pliers is already below the minimum speed at the start of the scraping operation, the movement path of the scraping pliers between the initial position and the intermediate position of the fault-clearing operation is longer than that during the fault-clearing operation. If the scraping pliers are below the minimum speed at a position on the yarn tube higher than the usage position, then the fault-clearing operation is initiated. As a result, the number of fault-clearing operations and the resulting supplementary scraping operations can be reduced. In this case, assuming that the scraping speed of the scraping pliers decreases very early after the start of the cleaning operation, the scraping pliers must travel a longer path between the initial position and the intermediate position of the fault-clearing operation in order to perform the scraping operation until the end of the cleaning path during continuous cleaning operations.

[0027] Due to the number of previous fault clearing operations, the control unit can also increase the motion path, thereby reducing the overall number of fault clearing operations and the number of supplementary scraping operations.

[0028] The minimum speed of the scraping pliers, which is the reason for triggering the fault clearing operation, can in principle be freely selected and set in the control unit. However, according to a particularly advantageous embodiment of the invention, the fault clearing operation is performed only when the scraping pliers are stopped.

[0029] According to this embodiment of the invention, the movement speed of the scraping pliers is detected in accordance with the invention, and fault clearing is performed only when the scraping pliers are stopped. As a result, after ensuring that the maximum possible length of the cleaning path is cleaned by means of the yarn scraping device until the required fault clearing operation occurs, the number of fault clearing operations and the number of subsequent supplementary scraping operations can be particularly reduced.

[0030] The object of the present invention is also achieved by means of an apparatus for performing a method for cleaning a yarn tube according to the basic and preferred embodiments of the invention, the yarn tube being disposed on a mandrel of a movable support of a yarn and tube conveying system, the apparatus comprising:

[0031] - A yarn scraping device with scraping pliers, the scraping pliers being adjustable along the surface of the yarn tube in the longitudinal direction of the mandrel; and a clamping device with a clamping element for locking the yarn tube onto the mandrel; and

[0032] - A control unit that detects the movement speed of the scraping pliers and, if it is below a predetermined minimum speed, performs a fault clearing operation, in which:

[0033] -The scraping forceps disengage from the surface of the yarn tube;

[0034] - The scraping forceps are then adjusted to a central position within the cleaning path along the direction of the clamping element; and

[0035] -The scraping pliers are then placed again on the surface of the yarn tube in the intermediate position;

[0036] After that, the scraping operation is restarted until the end of the cleaning path is reached, and then the scraping operation is repeated as a supplementary scraping operation in the area where the scraping pliers started from the previous fault-clearing operation, until the entire cleaning path is cleaned.

[0037] The device according to the invention allows cleaning of yarn tubes in any winding state, including yarn tubes with substantially complete yarn windings that are alarm yarn tubes or yarn tubes that cannot be prepared. In this case, the control unit ensures that the yarn tube is cleaned along the entire defined cleaning path. Attached Figure Description

[0038] Two exemplary embodiments of the method according to the present invention are shown below in the accompanying drawings. In the drawings:

[0039] Figure 1 The procedure sequence for cleaning yarn tubes without stopping the scraping pliers is shown; and

[0040] Figure 2 The procedure sequence for cleaning the yarn tubes during a cleaning operation is shown, provided that the scraping pliers are stopped. Detailed Implementation

[0041] Figure 1 The method steps for cleaning yarn tubes without stopping the scraping pliers are shown, wherein stopping is defined as a minimum speed in the control unit, and a fault clearing operation is performed when the minimum speed is reached.

[0042] After the cleaning operation begins, the scraping clamp of the yarn scraping device is placed at the beginning of the cleaning path, in the area below the usage position of the yarn tube, wherein the cleaning path extends along the yarn winding length of the yarn tube to be cleaned. After the scraping clamp is placed on the surface of the yarn tube, it moves in the direction of the clamping device, which locks the yarn tube onto the mandrel of the movable support of the yarn and tube delivery system.

[0043] After the yarn tubes are locked and the cleaning path is defined, the scraping operation begins. This scraping is performed without stopping the scraping pliers, thus preventing troubleshooting. After the scraping operation is complete, i.e., after the scraping pliers reach the top of the cleaning path, the pliers are lifted from the yarn tubes and adjusted to their initial positions. The cleaned yarn tubes can then be further conveyed for use.

[0044] exist Figure 2 In the illustrated procedure, the stopping of the scraping pliers, detected by the control unit, occurs after the scraping operation has begun. The control unit then initiates a fault-clearing operation, resulting in the scraping pliers being first lifted off the yarn tube. Subsequently, the scraping pliers are moved to an intermediate position, positioned on the yarn tube above the operating position, where they are placed back onto the yarn tube. After the scraping pliers have been placed on the yarn tube, the cleaning operation restarts, and the scraping pliers reach the end of the cleaning path without further stopping, resulting in the end of the cleaning operation.

[0045] After the cleaning operation is completed, the scraping forceps are lifted off the yarn tube and moved back to the position where they were stopped at the start of the previous troubleshooting operation. In this position, the scraping forceps are placed back on the yarn tube and a supplementary scraping operation is performed. Within the scope of this supplementary scraping operation, the scraping forceps are moved again to the end of the cleaning path without further stopping.

Claims

1. A method for cleaning a yarn tube using a scraping clamp of a yarn scraping device, the yarn tube being mounted on a mandrel of a movable support of a yarn tube and tube conveying system, the scraping clamp being adjustable along the surface of the yarn tube in the longitudinal axis direction of the mandrel, the method comprising the following steps: -The yarn tube is locked onto the mandrel by means of a clamping device with a clamping element; - Place the scraping pliers on the surface of the yarn tube; - The scraping operation is initiated by moving the scraping pliers along the surface of the yarn tube in a defined cleaning path in the direction facing the upper end of the yarn tube towards the clamping element; Its features are, During the scraping operation, the movement speed of the scraping pliers is detected, and if it falls below a predetermined minimum speed, a fault clearing operation is performed, in which: -The scraping forceps disengage from the surface of the yarn tube; - The scraping forceps are then adjusted to a central position within the cleaning path along the direction of the clamping element; and -The scraping pliers are then placed again on the surface of the yarn tube in the intermediate position; After that, the scraping operation is restarted until the end of the cleaning path is reached, and then the scraping operation is repeated as a supplementary scraping operation in the area where the scraping pliers started from the previous fault-clearing operation, until the entire cleaning path is cleaned.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein, The supplementary scraping operation is restricted to the area between the scraping forceps' position at the start of the previous fault clearing operation and the associated intermediate position.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The cleaning path is defined by sensor checks on the yarn tube.

4. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The adjustment path of the scraping clamp between the starting position of the fault clearing operation and the intermediate position is set according to the position of the scraping clamp in the longitudinal axis direction of the yarn tube and / or the number of previous fault clearing operations.

5. The method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that, The fault clearing operation is performed when the scraping pliers are stopped.

6. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein, The cleaning path is defined by optical inspection of the yarn tube.

7. An apparatus for performing a method for cleaning a yarn tube according to any one of claims 1 to 6, the yarn tube being disposed on a mandrel of a movable support of a yarn and tube delivery system, the apparatus comprising: - A yarn scraping device with scraping pliers, the scraping pliers being adjustable along the surface of the yarn tube in the longitudinal direction of the mandrel, and a clamping device with a clamping element for locking the yarn tube onto the mandrel; as well as - A control unit that detects the movement speed of the scraping pliers and, if it falls below a predetermined minimum speed, performs a fault clearing operation, in which: -The scraping forceps disengage from the surface of the yarn tube; - The scraping pliers are then adjusted to the intermediate position within the cleaning path along the direction of the clamping element; and -The scraping pliers are then placed again on the surface of the yarn tube in the intermediate position; After that, the scraping operation is restarted until the end of the cleaning path is reached, and then the scraping operation is repeated as a supplementary scraping operation in the area where the scraping pliers started from the previous fault-clearing operation, until the entire cleaning path is cleaned.

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