Claims:WE CLAIM
1. An automatic wire heald cleaning machine, said machine comprising:
a platform, said platform having a chamber, the chamber being open at a top portion thereof;
a pair of brush rollers rotatably mounted in the chamber, a gap defined between said brush rollers;
a motor coupled to each brush roller for facilitating rotation thereof;
a frame configured to support a plurality of wire healds thereon, said frame configured to pass through said gap between said brush rollers;
at least one pneumatic cylinder configured to displace said frame to facilitate passing of said frame through said gap;
a spraying device configured to spray fluid on said wire healds, said spraying device being in fluid communication with a fluid tank through a fluid pump; and
a control unit configured to control actuation of said motors, said pneumatic cylinder, and said fluid pump.
2. The machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said machine comprises a pair of pneumatic cylinders arranged in a spaced apart configuration.
3. The machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein each pneumatic cylinder has an output shaft connected to a top portion of said frame.
4. The machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said control unit includes:
a variable frequency drive (VFD) in communication with said motors;
a pneumatic solenoid valve in communication with said pneumatic cylinder and a compressor, said pneumatic solenoid valve configured to control flow of compressed air from said compressor to said pneumatic cylinder;
a programmable logic controller (PLC) configured to control actuation of said variable frequency drive, said pneumatic solenoid valve, and said fluid pump; and
a human machine interface (HMI) in communication with said programmable logic controller (PLC), said human machine interface (HMI) configured to receive inputs from a user.
5. The machine as claimed in claim 4, wherein said programmable logic controller (PLC) is configured to control actuation of said pneumatic solenoid valve to displace said frame in a downward direction.
6. The machine as claimed in claim 4, wherein said programmable logic controller (PLC) is configured to control actuation of said pneumatic solenoid valve to hold said frame at a bottommost position.
7. The machine as claimed in claim 4, wherein said programmable logic controller (PLC) is configured to control actuation of said pneumatic solenoid valve to displace said frame in an upward direction.
8. The machine as claimed in claim 4, wherein said pneumatic solenoid valve is a 5-way pneumatic solenoid valve.
9. The machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said pneumatic cylinder is a double acting cylinder.
10. The machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said frame is configured to be displaced in a vertical direction.
11. The machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said chamber receives fluid sprayed by said spraying device, and said chamber is in fluid communication with said fluid tank via a filter to receive fluid accumulated in said chamber.
12. The machine as claimed in claim 11, wherein said spraying device is mounted on a top edge of said chamber parallel to said brush rollers.
13. The machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said spraying device includes a pipe having a plurality of nozzles configured along the length of said pipe.
Dated this 06th day of June, 2020

For SIDDHI VINAYAK KNOTS AND PRINTS PVT. LTD.
By their Agent

(ANSHUL SUNILKUMAR SAURASTRI) (IN/PA 3086)
KRISHNA & SAURASTRI ASSOCIATES LLP
, Description:FORM 2
THE PATENTS ACT, 1970
(39 of 1970)
&
THE PATENTS RULES, 2003

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
[See Section 10, Rule 13]

AN AUTOMATIC WIRE HEALD CLEANING MACHINE;

SIDDHI VINAYAK KNOTS AND PRINTS PVT. LTD., A COMPANY REGISTERED UNDER THE INDIAN COMPANIES ACT, 1913, HAVING ADDRESS AT A26 CENTRAL PARK, GIDC PANDESARA, SURAT, GUJARAT -394221

THE FOLLOWING SPECIFICATION PARTICULARLY DESCRIBES THE INVENTION AND THE MANNER IN WHICH IT IS TO BE PERFORMED
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the field of cleaning machines.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Wire healds are integral part of a water jet weaving machine. The wire healds are typically used to guide warp yarns to form a weaving shed for weft yarns. Each wire heald has a passage, for example an opening, to guide the warp yarns. During weaving operation, the wire healds come in constant contact with water and yarns. The yarns have powder glued to them which may contaminate wire healds while the yarn is passing through the wire heald. Further, impurities in water also cause contamination of the wire healds. The contaminated wire healds are needed to be cleaned frequently. Conventionally, for cleaning contaminated wire healds, the wire healds are detached from the weaving machine. Further, the wire healds are immersed in a water tank, typically for 60 minutes. Afterwards, the wire healds are rubbed vigorously using cleaning brushes. However, the aforementioned washing method requires plenty amount of water. It takes about 30 litres of water to wash a set of wire healds having around 1000 to 1500 wire healds. Thus, in a day, 3000 litres of water is consumed for washing 100 sets of the wire healds. Further, as the wire healds are rubbed manually using cleaning brushes, the wire healds can get severely damaged in the cleaning process. Additionally, the aforementioned cleaning process is a time consuming process. It takes about 15 minutes to clean one set of wire healds.
Therefore, there is felt a need of a cleaning machine that alleviates the aforementioned drawbacks of conventional wire heald cleaning processes.
SUMMARY
The present invention envisages an automatic wire heald cleaning machine. The machine comprises a platform, a pair of brush rollers, and a motor coupled to each brush roller. The platform has a chamber. The chamber is open at a top portion thereof. The brush rollers are rotatably mounted in the chamber. A gap is defined between the brush rollers. The motor is configured to rotate the brush rollers. The machine comprises a frame configured to support a plurality of wire healds thereon. The frame passes through the gap between two brush rollers. The machine comprises at least one pneumatic cylinder configured to displace the frame to facilitate passing of the frame through the gap. The machine comprises a spraying device configured to spray fluid on the wire healds mounted on the frame. The spraying device is in fluid communication with a fluid tank through a fluid pump. The machine comprises a control unit configured to control the operation of the motors, the pneumatic cylinder, and the water pump.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
An automatic wire heald cleaning machine, of the present invention, will now be described with reference to accompanying figures, in which:
Figure 1 illustrates an isometric view of an automatic wire heald cleaning machine, in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;
Figure 2 illustrates a front view of the automatic wire heald cleaning machine of Figure 1; and
Figure 3 illustrates a block diagram of a control unit of the machine of Figure 1.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Although specific terms are used in the following description for sake of clarity, these terms are intended to refer only to particular structure of the invention selected for illustration in the drawings, and are not intended to define or limit the scope of the invention.
References in the specification to “an embodiment” mean that a particular feature, structure, characteristic, or function described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the invention. The appearances of the phrase “in an embodiment” in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.
The present invention provides an automatic wire heald cleaning machine. The machine is now described with reference to Figure 1, Figure 2, and Figure 3.
Referring to accompanying figures 1 to 3, an automatic wire heald cleaning machine 100 is shown. The machine 100 comprises a platform 105. The platform 105 is made of metal or alloy material, preferably stainless steel. The platform 105 has a chamber 110. The chamber 110 has a rectangular shape in this embodiment. However, the shape of the chamber 110 may vary in other alternative embodiments of the present invention. The chamber 110 is open at the top thereof.
The machine 100 comprises a pair of brush rollers 115 rotatably mounted in the chamber 110. More specifically, the brush rollers 115 are arranged in the chamber 110 parallel to longer sides of the chamber 110, and supported on opposite shorter walls of the chamber 110 using bearings 117. A gap 125 is defined between the brush rollers 115. Each brush roller 115 is coupled to a motor 120 for rotating the brush rollers 115. In this embodiment, the motors 120 are flange mounted motors. However, other types of motors may be utilized in other alternative embodiments of the machine 100. Each motor 120 has an output shaft that is coupled to respective brush roller 115 via a coupling member. The coupling member in this embodiment is a star coupling, however, other types of couplings may be utilized in other alternative embodiments of the machine 100.
The machine 100 comprises a frame 130 configured to support a plurality of wire healds 135 thereon. The frame 130, along with the wire healds 135 mounted thereon, is configured to pass through the gap 125 between the brush rollers 115. The brush rollers 115 physically contact with the wire healds 135 during travel of the frame 130 through the gap 125. The frame 130 is made of rustproof material, preferably stainless steel. In an embodiment, the frame 130 is configured to be displaced in an operative vertical direction.
The machine 100 comprises at least one pneumatic cylinder configured to displace the frame 130 to facilitate vertical displacement of the frame 130 and passing of the frame 130 through the gap 125. In an embodiment, the machine comprises a pair of pneumatic cylinders 140. The cylinders 140 are arranged in a spaced apart configuration. The pneumatic cylinders 140 have output shafts that are connected to the operative top portion of the frame 130. In another embodiment, the pneumatic cylinders 140 are double acting cylinders. The pneumatic cylinders 140 are in fluid communication with a compressor 141 via a Filter Regulator Lubricator (FRL) unit 142 and a plurality of air pipes 143 to receive compressed air. The air pressure requirement depends upon the desired oscillating speed of pneumatic cylinder shafts. The compressor 141 supplies air (preferably at 1 kg/cm2 pressure) to the pneumatic cylinders 140 through the FRL unit 142. The FRL unit 142 filters, regulates and lubricates the incoming air from the compressor 141 and supplies the same to the pneumatic cylinders 140.
The machine 100 comprises a spraying device 145 configured to spray fluid on the wire healds 135. In an embodiment, the spraying device 145 is mounted on a top edge of the chamber 110 in parallel position to the brush rollers 115. The spraying device 145 is in fluid communication with a fluid tank 150 via a fluid pump 155. The fluid pump 155 supplies pressurized fluid to the spraying device 145. The chamber 110 collects fluid sprayed by the spraying device 145. The fluid tank 150 is in fluid communication with the chamber 110 via a filter to receive fluid accumulated in the chamber 110. The filter receives fluid from the chamber 110, filters it, and provides filtered fluid to the fluid tank 150 which is re-circulated again using the fluid pump 155 for spraying.
In an embodiment, the fluid is water. Hereinafter, for sake of clarity of the description, the invention is described by considering fluid as water. However, it should be noted that other fluids may be utilized in other alternative embodiments of the machine 100.
In an embodiment, the spraying device 145 includes a pipe 145 having a plurality of nozzles configured along the length of the pipe 145.
The machine 100 comprises a control unit 160 configured to control operation of the motors 120, the pneumatic cylinder 140, and the water pump 155. The control unit 160 comprises a variable frequency drive (VFD) 165, a pneumatic solenoid valve 170, a programmable logic controller (PLC) 175, and a human machine interface (HMI) 180. The VFD 165 is in communication with the motors 120 for controlling the operation thereof. The VFD 165 operates the motors 120 at equal speed and in opposite directions, thereby rotating the brush rollers 115 at equal rotating speeds but in opposite directions to each other. The pneumatic solenoid valve 170 is in fluid communication with the pneumatic cylinders 140 and the compressor 141, and is configured to control flow of compressed air from the compressor 141 to the pneumatic cylinder 140. In an embodiment, the pneumatic solenoid valve 170 is a 5-way pneumatic solenoid valve.
The PLC 175 is configured to control the operation of the VFD 165, the pneumatic solenoid valve 170, and the water pump 155. The PLC 175 is pre-programmed to transmit ON-OFF signals to synchronously operate the VFD 165, the pneumatic solenoid valve 170, and the water pump 155. The HMI 180 is in communication with the PLC 175. The HMI 180 is configured to receive inputs from a user. The user inputs typically involve time periods for operation of the machine 100 and/or required number of cleaning cycles required to be undertaken by the wire healds 135. The PLC 175 operates the VFD 165, the pneumatic solenoid valve 170, and the water pump 155 based on the user inputs and program/algorithm fed in the PLC 175.
The PLC 175 is configured to control operation of the pneumatic solenoid valve 170 to sequentially displace the frame 130 in an operative downward direction, hold the frame 130 at a bottommost position, and displace the frame 130 in an upward direction. The HMI 180 provides duration for the aforementioned movements to PLC 175. For example, the PLC 175 can be configured to displace the frame 130 in the operative downward direction in 5 seconds, hold the frame 130 at bottommost position for 5 seconds, and displace the frame 130 in the operative upward direction in 5 seconds by controlling the operation of the pneumatic solenoid valve 170. Therefore, it takes 15 seconds to complete one cleaning cycle. The aforementioned cycle timings can be changed as per user’s demand. Based on the contamination of the wire healds 135, the user can set different timings for running the machine 100. For example, if a user sets the machine 100 to operate for 150 seconds and one cleaning cycle takes 15 seconds to complete, the machine 100 will perform 10 cleaning cycles.
The operation of the machine 100 is described hereinafter. Initially, a user hangs the wire healds 135 on the frame 130. The wire healds are received from a water jet loom machine. After hanging, the user separates the wire healds 135 from each other so that fibers of the brush rollers 115 can enter between the wire healds 135 for properly washing them. Power is supplied to the machine 100. The PLC 175 sequentially operates the VFD 165 to operate the motors 120, the water pump 155 to spray water on the wire healds 135, and the pneumatic solenoid valve 170 to displace the frame 130. When the wire healds 135 come in contact with the brush and water coming out of the spraying device 145, the brush removes the impurities from the wire healds 135. The brush cleans the wire healds 135 during downward and upward movement of the frame 130. When the frame 130 comes to its initial position, one cleaning cycle is completed. The machine 100 is operated till all the cleaning cycles determined by the user are completed.
The machine 100 consumes less amount of water as compared to conventional cleaning processes. Further, water sprayed by the spraying device 145 is recycled by filtering it and feeding it back to the water tank 150. It takes about 300 litres of water per day to clean 100 sets of the wire healds, whereas in conventional processes, about 3000 litres of water is required to clean 100 sets of the wire healds. Further, the machine 100 requires less time to clean the wire healds. For example, the machine 100 can clean one set of wire healds in less than 3 minutes, whereas in conventional processes, 15 minutes are required to clean one set of wire healds. The brush of the machine 100 applies even pressure on the wire healds, thereby preventing damage of the wire healds. The machine 100 is a user friendly machine. An unskilled user can operate the machine 100 easily.
The use of pneumatic cylinders is beneficial over other driving means. Few benefits of using pneumatic cylinders over other driving means are listed below.
• Pneumatic cylinders generate minimum or almost zero vibration during operation, thereby reducing the damage to wire healds caused due to vibration of the frame coupled to the pneumatic cylinder.
• The operation of the pneumatic cylinders is noise free as compared to other driving means as air pressure requirement is low, typically 1 kg/cm2.
• Maintenance requirement and cost is minimal for the pneumatic cylinders.
• Controlling and synchronizing of the pneumatic cylinders is easy.
• Pneumatic cylinders are cost effective as compared to other driving means.
The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the present invention and its practical application, to thereby enable others, skilled in the art to best utilize the present invention and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is understood that various omission and substitutions of equivalents are contemplated as circumstance may suggest or render expedient, but such are intended to cover the application or implementation without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMERALS
100 – Machine
105 – Platform
110 – Chamber
115 – Brush rollers
117 – Bearings
120 – Motor
125 – Gap
130 – Frame
135 – Wire healds
140 – Pneumatic cylinders 141 – Compressor
142 – FRL unit
143 – Air pipes
145 – Spraying device
150 – Fluid tank
155 – Fluid pump
160 – Control unit
165 – VFD
170 – Pneumatic solenoid valve
175 – PLC
180 – HMI