DESC:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a textile carding machine. Particularly, the present invention relates to the cover plate assembly. More particularly this invention relates to a cover plate actuating means associated with the cover plate assembly in a textile carding machine.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In textile spinning preparatory machines, the textile fibres have to be opened and cleaned to remove impurities and to be parallelized to convert into sliver. Carding is the heart of textile yarn spinning both with respect to quality and productivity. In addition to the primary functions of removing the trash, neps and non-useful short fibres, the card converts the physical form of the textile material from that of a wide thick feed sheet web to that of a thin rope, called Sliver. The linear density of the feed sheet web is reduced from about 300-800 grams/meter to about 3-8 grams/meter of delivery sliver. The rollers of various diameters ranging from about 50 mm to 1250 mm and of different surface characteristics of plain to toothed wire covered, run at various speeds and in very close proximity with each other. In many places it is as close as a fraction of a millimeter. The rate of sliver delivery varies from about 40 to 500 meters per minute. The above details indicate how delicate it is to run the machine and handle a thin sheet of individualized fibers called a 'web'. The web is finally condensed into a sliver.

During the processing, the fibre feed sheet coming out from a chute assembly is supplied to the carding machine with the help of feed roller of a feed plate area and a licker-in area. In the licker-in area, the fiber feed web is opened and cleaned. The opened and cleaned fibres by licker-in gets transferred to the main cylinder. The cylinder strips the fibres from licker-in. Now these fibres begin to travel between cylinder and flats, this area is called carding zone. The fed material of main cylinder are further opened, individualized, parallelised and cleaned in the card between flats and main cylinder, which is provided with an all-steel clothing, and revolving flat flexible clothing.

The fibres come out of carding region in the form of a very thin web. Formed web is stripped from the main cylinder by another cylinder called a doffer. The doffer is arranged after the cylinder, which doffs out the opened fibres web from the main cylinder and passes the opened fibres web between the Redirecting roller and web guide plate. Further the fibre web passes through crush rollers and then web is finally condensed to a sliver form by passing through the condenser and calender rollers. Further the condensed slivers are stored in the sliver can by means of coiler arrangement. During the aforementioned process, there are some fibre waste accumulated in the redirecting rollers and crush rollers. Those loose end fibre waste stuck on the redirecting roller is stripped by means of a brush roller, the excess fibre stuck on the crush rollers are stripped out by means of stripper assembly which is always in contact with crush roller during operation. In the existing stripper assembly, the stripper blade is periodically lifted in upward direction by means of an actuator assembly, so that the stripped waste accumulated between stripper blade and the crush rollers are released and the waste is removed by a brush roller suction stream. In order to prevent the waste entering into the redirecting roller a cover plate is imparted, which prevents such re-entries of fibre fly. The edge of said cover plate is fixed with minimum gap of approximately 0.5 to 1mm with respect to brush roller. During machine operation, over a period of time there are some fluffs accumulated between the bottom edge of said cover plate and brush roller. To remove those accumulated waste at the bottom of the cover plate, it is tilted upward manually from its working position in a regular interval, and hence a manual attention is always required to lift and clean the said cover plate. While lifting the cover plate, the accumulated fiber are removed automatically by means of a negative pressure generated from the brush roller suction.

Therefore, there remain a need for a mechanism for waste removal to avoid manual intervention and to simplify the waste removal process in a carding machine.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
The main object of the invention is to provide an automatic actuating means for cover plate assembly in a textile machine.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a mechanism to avoid manual intervention and to simplify the waste removal process in a carding machine.

One more object of the present invention is to automatically remove the accumulated waste between the brush roller and cover plate, which increases the efficiency of the carding machine.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The following disclosure presents a simplified summary of the invention in order to provide a basic understanding of some features 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.

According to a first aspect, the present invention relates to a cover plate assembly for a textile carding machine to manage fibres stripped during carding operation, comprising
a cover plate positioned in between a stripper assembly and a brush roller, adapted to prevent the re-entries of fibre fly into a redirecting roller and to direct said stripped fibers from said stripper assembly to a suction duct; said stripper assembly consisting of at least a stripper blade and a stripper mounting plate;
an actuator assembly comprising at least a common actuator means coupled to a link arrangement which is further connected with said stripper assembly by means of a pivot; said stripper mounting plate of the stripper assembly being connected with a cover plate side sheet by means of a hook and pin arrangement;
wherein said actuator assembly is configured to tilt said cover plate by retracting said actuator means in such a way that the link connected with said actuator means rotates the stripper assembly thereby opening said stripper assembly resulting said cover plate to open in a swinging direction by means of said hook and pin arrangement and create a gap or opening between said brush roller and said cover plate through which the fibre accumulation at the bottom edge of cover plate is removed by the suction duct automatically.

According to a second aspect, the present invention relates to a cover plate assembly for a textile carding machine to manage fibres stripped during carding operation, comprising
a cover plate positioned in between a stripper assembly and a brush roller, adapted to prevent the re-entries of fibre fly into a redirecting roller (5) and to direct said stripped fibers from said stripper assembly to a suction duct; said stripper assembly consisting of at least a stripper blade and a stripper mounting plate;
an actuator assembly comprising at least a common actuator means coupled to a link arrangement which is further connected with said stripper assembly by means of a pivot; said stripper mounting plate of the stripper assembly being connected with a cover plate side sheet by means of a cam member;
wherein said actuator assembly is configured to tilt said cover plate by retracting said actuator means in such a way that the link connected with said actuator means rotates the stripper assembly thereby opening said stripper assembly resulting said cover plate to open in a swinging direction by means of said cam member and create a gap or opening between said brush roller and said cover plate through which the fibre accumulation at the bottom edge of cover plate is removed by the suction duct automatically.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, both the stripper assembly and the cover plate can be operated independently by means of a dedicated actuator assembly (not shown) i.e. the stripper assembly is being lifted from closed to opened state and vice versa by means of a link which is connected to first actuator. The cover plate is being lifted from closed to opened state and vice versa by means of a second actuator. Both the stripper assembly and the cover plate assembly can be operated independently by means of a dedicated actuator assembly.

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 a textile carding machine according to the present invention.
Figure - 2 & 2a illustrates an actuator assembly according to the present invention.
Figure - 3 & 3a illustrates an actuator assembly according to one of the embodiment of the present 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.

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 Figure-1 depicts a spinning preparatory machine in which the fibre web from the blow room is fed to a carding machine by means of a chute assembly (21). The carding machine loosens and disentangles said fibre webs in flock forms into individual fibres, first orienting the fibres in the longitudinal direction and laying them parallel, and as far as possible separating any so-called card strips present, such as fibre neps, fiber adhesions, foreign particles and short fibers. Initially the feed fibre web is passed through a feed plate / feed roller area (20) and followed by a licker-in area (19). Further the said fibre web passes between the main cylinder (17) and revolving flat assembly (18) where carding action takes place. A doffer roller (12) is arranged in downstream direction to the main cylinder (17), which receives the opened fibre web from the main cylinder (17) and passes the fibre web through redirecting roller (5) and web guide plate (13). The said fibre web is guided through pair of crush rollers (10), further the web is collected by calender rollers (15) and conveyor assembly (16) which is then condensed into a sliver form by passing it through the condenser (14). Further the condensed sliver is stored in the sliver can by means of a coiler arrangement. During this processes, residual fibres are stuck on the redirecting roller (5), which is then stripped away by means of brush roller (3). The said waste is directed towards the suction duct (11), and further removed by means of a negative pressure. The residue fibres on the crush roller (10) is stripped by means of stripper assembly (6), which consists of stripper with a flexible tip. So the stripper strips the waste from the crush roller (10) and said waste is removed by suction duct (11) by means of negative pressure. In order to prevent the waste entering into the redirecting roller (5) area, a cover plate (4) is provided, which prevents such entries. Upon machine operation, over a period of time, there are some fluffs or fibre dirt accumulated between the bottom edge of cover plate (4) and brush roller (3). In order to remove those accumulated waste at the bottom edge of cover plate (4), it is tilted automatically from the working position at a regular interval.

The Figure - 2 & 2a illustrates an actuator assembly according to the present invention comprising at least a common actuator (1) which is connected to a link assembly (2). The stripper assembly (6) is mounted in a swivel manner to the link (2) by means of a pivot. The said stripper assembly (6) further comprises at least a stripper and a stripper mounting plate. The said stripper mounting plate is further connected to the cover plate side sheet (7) by means of hook / pin assembly (8). During normal working condition the said actuator (1) is in extended position, so that the flexible part of the stripper blade is in contact with the crush roller (10) and the cover plate (4) is in closer position with the bristle members of brush roller (3).

Over a period of time, fibre residues sediments in the front bottom surface of the said cover plate (4). Hence after a predetermined time interval, the actuator (1) is activated. Thus the link assembly pivots with stripper assembly (6), the cover plate (4) tends to tilt in swinging direction “x” so that it creates an opening for the accumulated waste to escape. The said wastes are grasped by means of negative pressure created by the suction duct (11). The actuator (1) is activated periodically in a regular predetermined interval to avoid accumulation of waste.

The Figure - 3 & 3a illustrates an actuator assembly according to another embodiment of the present invention. The said actuator assembly comprises of an actuator (1) which is connected to the link assembly (2). The stripper assembly (6) is pivoted to the link (2) by means of a pivot. The said stripper assembly (6) further comprises of stripper blade and a stripper mounting plate. The said stripper mounting plate is connected to the cover plate side sheet (7) by means of a cam member (9). During normal working condition the said actuator (1) is in extended position, so that the flexible part of the stripper blade is in contact with the crush roller (10) and the cover plate (4) is in closer position with the bristle members of brush roller (3).

On accumulation of fibre residues, the actuator (1) is activated. Thus the link assembly (2) pivots the stripper assembly (6) and the cover plate (4), the cover plate (4) tends to tilt in a swinging direction ‘x’ which are interlinked by means of cam assembly (9). So that it creates an opening for the accumulated waste to escape, the said waste is grasped by means of negative pressure created by the suction duct (11). The actuator (1) is activated periodically in a regular predetermined interval to avoid accumulation of waste. Said actuator (1) is selected from plurality of kinds like pneumatic, hydraulic, electrical or prime movers according to the requirement.

According to an aspect of the present invention, said hook and pin assembly (8) / cam member (9) is provided anywhere in proximity to said cover plate (4) i.e. the hook and pin assembly (8) / cam member (9) may be provided at any possible locations near the said cover plate (4) to achieve better result in dirt removal. Such orientation will still be considered to be within the scope of the present invention.

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. It is to be understood that the aspects and embodiment of the disclosure described above may be used in any combination with each other. Several of the aspects and embodiment may be combined together to form a further embodiment of the disclosure.

Reference Numerals
1-Actuator, 2-Link, 3-Brush roller, 4-Cover plate, 5-Redirecting roller, 6-Stripper assembly, 7-Cover plate side sheet, 8.- Hook & Pin assembly, 9-Cam member, 10- Crush rollers, 11- Suction Duct, 12- Doffer roller, 13- Web guide, 14- Condenser, 15- Calender rollers, 16-Conveyor assembly, 17-Main Cylinder, 18-Revolving flat assembly, 19-Licker-in, 20-Feed roller, 21-Feed Chute.
,CLAIMS:1. A cover plate assembly for a textile carding machine to manage fibres stripped during carding operation, comprising
a cover plate (4) positioned in between a stripper assembly (6) and a brush roller (3), adapted to prevent the re-entries of fibre fly into a redirecting roller (5) and to direct said stripped fibers from said stripper assembly (6) to a suction duct (11); said stripper assembly (6) consisting of at least a stripper blade and a stripper mounting plate;
an actuator assembly comprising at least a common actuator means (1) coupled to a link arrangement (2) which is further connected with said stripper assembly (6) by means of a pivot; said stripper mounting plate of the stripper assembly (6) being connected with a cover plate side sheet (7) by means of a hook and pin arrangement (8);
wherein said actuator assembly is configured to tilt said cover plate (4) by retracting said actuator means (1) in such a way that the link (2) connected with said actuator means (1) rotates the stripper assembly (6) thereby opening said stripper assembly resulting said cover plate (4) to open in a swinging direction by means of said hook and pin arrangement (8) and create a gap or opening between said brush roller (3) and said cover plate (4) through which the fibre accumulation at the bottom edge of cover plate (4) will be removed by the suction duct (11) automatically.

2. A cover plate assembly for a textile carding machine to manage fibres stripped during carding operation, comprising
a cover plate (4) positioned in between a stripper assembly (6) and a brush roller (3), adapted to prevent the re-entries of fibre fly into a redirecting roller (5) and to direct said stripped fibers from said stripper assembly (6) to a suction duct (11); said stripper assembly (6) consisting of at least a stripper blade and a stripper mounting plate;
an actuator assembly comprising at least a common actuator means (1) coupled to a link arrangement (2) which is further connected with said stripper assembly (6) by means of a pivot; said stripper mounting plate of the stripper assembly being connected with a cover plate side sheet (7) by means of a cam member (9);
wherein said actuator assembly is configured to tilt said cover plate (4) by retracting said actuator means (1) in such a way that the link (2) connected with said actuator means (1) rotates the stripper assembly (6) thereby opening said stripper assembly (6) resulting said cover plate (4) to open in a swinging direction by means of said cam member (9) and create a gap or opening between said brush roller (3) and said cover plate (4) through which the fibre accumulation at the bottom edge of cover plate (4) will be removed by the suction duct (11) automatically.

3. The cover plate assembly as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein said hook and pin arrangement (8) / cam member (9) is provided in proximity to said cover plate (4).

4. The cover plate assembly as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein the actuator means (1) is operated periodically at a regular predetermined time interval.

5. The cover plate assembly as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein said actuator means (1) is selected from plurality of kinds like pneumatic, hydraulic, electrical or prime movers according to the requirement.