DESC:FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an indexing apparatus for textile fibre processing machine wherein the device is used to adjust the piecing index of the combing machine. Particularly, the invention is related to align the synchronized phase relationship between nipper and detaching rollers for optimizing the piecing at the joining area of cotton fringes in a combing machine.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In general the textile combing machines features oscillating nippers, reversing detaching rollers pair, combing cylinder and cleaning brushes. The oscillating nippers rocks back and forth while nipping fiber sheet, so-called "lap", supplied thereto. The combing cylinder has a series of needles embedded on its peripheral surface. As the nipper apparatus along with nipped lap sheet moves backward, said needles comb the front end of the lap. This action is called "combing".
The combing action removes short fibers from the lap, producing a thin sheet-like fiber assembly, so-called "fleece". The separation of the combed fiber assembly is effected by a simultaneous back oscillation of the nippers, and a forward rotation of the pair of detaching rolls. Said detaching rolls then reverse, and in this way feed the combed fleece back again, in such a manner that the newly-combed fiber fleece can be laid on it. This process is known as "piecing".
Combing machine consists of various drives to achieve the effective combing operation. Among them, nipper is driven by a linkage mechanism (mostly slider crank) and detaching roller is driven by another linkage mechanism with differential gear. Both drives are linked to a common driving gear with an adjustable bolted joint inside the gear box. The motion between the nipper and detaching roller are to be synchronized with changeable specific settings for optimum piecing at the joining area of cotton fringes from the nipper and the detaching roller to get the better quality of sliver. Said setting parameters are decided based upon cotton variety and output quality requirements.
At present, the phase between the detaching roller’s linear displacement with respect to the nipper motion is adjusted by changing orientation of the driving link of the detaching roller linkage inside the gear box of the machine in head-stock. Normally the settings are carried out on a trial and error basis depending upon various conditions of the cotton and processing environment.
Here the detaching mechanism drive link and nipper mechanism drive link are directly fastened on the common drive element with a phase difference. In this kind of arrangement the phase adjustment can be done only by loosening the fastener after opening the head-stock.
It is not only tedious to open the head-stock for adjusting the above mentioned settings every time inside the hot oil sump but also opens the possibility for dust entering into the gear box which affects the performance of machine driving elements. And also there is a possibility of injury to the operator or service personal during the setting change due to the hot oil and machine elements inside the gear box.
In the known art according to US3479699, the phase difference is achieved by incorporating two differential gear mechanism and providing a handle to adjust the phase difference. Such additional differential mechanism increase the number of components as well as cost. Moreover the increased number of components consumes more power which will results in additional running cost of the plant which are highly disadvantageous.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
The main object of the present invention is to provide a simplified construction for piecing index apparatus that can be accessible and adjusted from outside the gear box.
Another object of the invention is to provide a cost economical indexing apparatus which also reduces the power consumption thereby.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The following disclosure presents a simplified summary of the invention in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an extensive overview of the present invention. It is not intended to identify the key/critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is to present some concept of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to a more detailed description of the invention presented later.
The piecing index apparatus of a combing machine according to the invention, is provided with a common driving element which is connected to the driving link of the detaching roller drive through a dedicated connecting element. The common drive element is connected between the drive link of nipper mechanism and drive link of detaching roller mechanism such that no direct fastening between them. Said common drive element transmits only the drive motion and torque to these mechanisms. The drive link of the detaching mechanisms is connected to the input drive shaft through a coupling so that the drive shaft with drive link can be independently rotated with respect to the drive link of nipper mechanism after loosening the coupling for phase adjustment setting. The connecting element is provided with adjustable arrangement which is accessible from outside the gear box located in the head-stock of the machine. Therefore the orientation and position of the driving link of the detaching roller mechanism can be changed without opening the gear box. By fine calibration of the said adjustable arrangement, the synchronized phase relationship between nipper and detaching rollers is adjusted and aligned to achieve the optimized piecing operation in the combing machine. The construction of the dedicated connecting element may consists of a gear and coupling arrangement. The coupling may be torque transmission through frictional joint.
Other salient features and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, which, taken in conjunction with the annexed drawings, discloses exemplary embodiments of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS
The above and other aspects, features, and advantages of certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be more apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure-1 illustrates the drive arrangement for the detaching roller and nipper according to the present invention.
Figure-2 represents dismantled and assembled view of the piecing index apparatus according to the invention.
Figure-3 shows the linkage representation of phase relationship adjustment between nipper and detaching rollers according to the invention.
Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and may have not been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figure may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. Throughout the drawings, it should be noted that like reference numbers are used to depict the same or similar elements, features, and structures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of exemplary embodiments of the invention. It includes various specific details to assist in that understanding but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary.

Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope of the invention. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions are omitted for clarity and conciseness.

The terms and words used in the following description are not limited to the bibliographical meanings, but, are merely used by the inventor to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the invention. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the following description of exemplary embodiments of the present invention are provided for illustration purpose only and not for the purpose of limiting the invention as defined by their equivalents.

It is to be understood that the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.

By the term “substantially” wherever used or will be used later it is meant that the recited characteristic, parameter, or value need not be achieved exactly, but that deviations or variations, including for example, tolerances, measurement error, measurement accuracy limitations and other factors known to those of skill in the art, may occur in amounts that do not preclude the effect the characteristic was intended to provide.

Features that are described and/or illustrated with respect to one embodiment may be used in the same way or in a similar way in one or more other embodiments and/or in combination with or instead of the features of the other embodiments.

It should be emphasized that the term “comprises/comprising” when used in this specification is taken to specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps or components but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, components or groups thereof.

According to the present invention, the drive arrangement of nipper and detaching rollers in a combing machine is shown in Figure-1 of the accompanying drawings. The drive arrangement comprises a main drive motor (1) for driving the common driving element (2) through which the drive is further transmitted to combing cylinder, nipper and detaching rollers. Nipper and comb (combing cylinder) receives the drive from the said common driving element (2) through suitable transmission means. Whereas detaching roller drive unit (11) receives the drive from the common driving element (2) through an input drive shaft (4). This input drive shaft (4) extends from inside the detaching roller drive unit (11) to outside of the gearbox (16). Said detaching roller drive unit (11) comprises a plurality of gear trains (8); at least a drive link (10); a differential drive unit (9) and a pair of detaching rollers (7). The detaching roller differential drive unit (9) receives the drive from said input drive shaft (4) through the said plurality of gear trains (8) and drive link (10).

Said input drive shaft (4) further comprises an intake drive element (3) mounted thereon between detaching roller drive unit (11) and gearbox (16). This detaching roller drive unit (11) may be a part of gear box (16). Through this intake drive element (3), said input drive shaft (4) receives the drive from common driving element (2). The input drive shaft (4) is mounted in such a way that one of its end is provided inside the detaching roller drive unit (11) and the other end is provided outside the gearbox (16) wherein the piecing index apparatus (6) is coupled with this outer end.

Said piecing index apparatus according to the present invention comprises a connecting element (5) with an index disc (14) as shown in Figure-2 where the dismantled and assembled view is represented. The connecting element (5) is provided with adjustable arrangement which is accessible from outside the gear box (16) located in the head-stock of the machine. The setting or adjustment of the clamping element (5a) over the connecting element (5) generates the clamping force to transmit the torque/motion from common driving element (2) to the drive link (10) of the detaching roller linkage. The index disc (14) is rigidly connected with the input drive shaft (4). A visible indication / mark (15) is provided on the disc (14) or drive shaft (4) or clamping element (5a) or any element with which the drive link (10) is connected. This helps to find the position of the drive link (10) of the detaching roller drive mechanism (11) for easier initial setting of the index disc (14) on the input drive shaft (4) with reference to said mark. The phase difference change between nipper and detaching rollers (7) is performed by loosening the screws / coupling (12); then rotating the input drive shaft (4) against the mark; and then tightening the said bolted joint screws (12). Thus the synchronized phase relationship between nipper and detaching rollers (7) is adjusted and aligned to achieve the better piecing operation which in turn optimize the mass distribution length in the overlapping area of cotton fringes between the nipper and the detaching rollers (7) to get the better quality of sliver.

Figure-3 shows the linkage representation of phase relationship adjustment between nipper and detaching rollers in reference with Figure-2. The links h,j,k represents nipper driving mechanism. The links a,b,c,e,f,i,g,h represent detaching roller mechanism. These are mere representation and the mechanism can be different from these representation. The orientation and position phase angle (?p) between the nipper drive link (j) and detaching drive link (a) is changed by rotating the input drive shaft (4) with reference to the graduations on the index disc (14) and this in turn changes the phase between the output motion generated by the nipper driven link (k) of the nipper linkage and the output motion generated by the detaching driven link (f) of the detaching roller linkage to achieve the required operating condition. Thus by using this indexing apparatus, the orientation of the detaching roller linkage with respect to the nipper position can be changed by using a single tool without opening the gear box (16). Therefore it requires a lesser time consumption to change the setting as well as lesser operator fatigue while handling. Moreover the possibilities for injury to the operator are minimized because of carryout the setting change outside the gearbox where hot oil and sharp machine elements are present.

In view of the present disclosure which describes the present invention, all changes, modifications and variations within the meaning and range of equivalency are considered within the scope and spirit of the invention.
,CLAIMS:1. A piecing index apparatus of a combing machine, the apparatus comprising:
a gearbox (16);
a nipper mechanism;
a detaching roller mechanism (11);
a common driving element (2), connected by means of a dedicated connecting element (5) between at least a drive link of the nipper mechanism and at least a drive link (10) of the detaching roller mechanism (11) such that there is no direct fastening between them;
wherein the drive link (10) of the detaching mechanism (11) is connected to an input drive shaft (4) through a coupling means (12) so that the drive shaft (4) with drive link (10) is independently rotatable with respect to the drive link of the nipper mechanism after loosening the coupling (12) for phase adjustment setting;
wherein the connecting element (5) is provided with adjustable arrangement accessible from outside the gearbox (16) such that the orientation and position of the drive link (10) of the detaching roller mechanism (11) is changeable without opening the gearbox (16); and
wherein the adjustable arrangement is adapted for fine calibration adjustment of the synchronized phase relationship between the nipper and detaching rollers (7) and aligning to achieve the optimized piecing operation in the combing machine.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the common driving element (2) is adapted to provide drive to detaching roller mechanism (11) through the input drive shaft (4) extending from inside the detaching roller mechanism (11) to outside of the gearbox (16).

3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the input drive shaft (4) further comprises an intake drive element (3) mounted thereon between detaching roller drive mechanism (11) and gearbox (16).

4. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the input drive shaft (4) is mounted in such a way that one of its end is provided inside the detaching roller drive mechanism (11) and the other end is provided outside the gearbox (16) wherein the piecing index apparatus (6) is coupled with this outer end.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the detaching roller mechanism (11) comprises a plurality of gear trains (8); at least a drive link (10); a differential drive unit (9) and a pair of detaching rollers (7).

6. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the detaching roller differential drive unit (9) is adapted to receive the drive from said input drive shaft (4) through the said plurality of gear trains (8) and drive link (10).

7. The apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising at least a clamping element (5a) adapted to generate the clamping force to transmit the torque/motion from the common driving element (2) to the drive link (10) of the detaching roller linkage.

8. The apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising at least one index disc (14) rigidly connected with the input drive shaft (4).

9. The apparatus according to claim 1 further comprising a visible indication / mark provided on the drive shaft (4) or any element with which the drive link (10) is connected so as to facilitate finding the position of the drive link (10) of the detaching roller drive mechanism (11) for easier initial setting of the index disc (14) on the input drive shaft (4) with reference to said mark.