FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to lubrication system for textile spinning and winding machines. More particularly this invention relates to lubricating system for lubricating the textile spinning and winding machines such as Blow room, card, draw frame, comber, lap former, flyers, ring frame, thread winding machines etc.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In textile spinning mills, the fibres are opened, cleaned, and then twisted together to form yarn. Initially the fibres are processed in the Blow room with series of machines and then the processed fibers are passed to the carding machine. The individualized fibers from the carding machine are transported to a draw frame in the form of sliver. In the draw frame, doubling and drafting of plurality of fed slivers are done. The drafted slivers are formed into a lap roll by means of a Lap forming machine. Then the lap sheet from the lap roll is further combed in the combing machine. The combed sliver is converted into roving in the speed frame / fly frame machine. The roving is further twisted into yarn in the ring spinning machine and wound onto the ring cop. Then the yarn is wound into cone or cheese in a yarn winding machine.

All the above said spinning machines are at continuous working state and plays a crucial role in determining the productivity of a spinning mill, the quality of its finished products, power consumption and working atmosphere. The maintenance of said spinning machines are very important for getting proper efficiency. All the above said machines require various maintenance activities during the regular operation, for which the maintenance persons are required to carry out the said maintenance activities.
There are plurality of elements presents in textile spinning machines such as opening and cleaning rollers of blow room machines, feed rollers, licker-in rollers, cylinder, flats belt, doffer, stripper rollers, lap rollers of carding machine, circular comb, drafting rollers, feed rollers, nipper of the combing machines, console rollers, creel rollers, drafting rollers, condensing rollers of the draw frame, creel rollers, drafting rollers, spindles, flyers of roving frame, drafting rollers, ring rail, spindles of ring frame, etc., These functioning elements are normally mounted on bearings, transmission shafts, gears, pulleys, sprockets, drive trains with lubricating points.

Lubricating points need to be supplied with lubricants at regular interval for smooth functioning of the mechanical elements of the textile spinning machine. This is done manually as per maintenance schedule. Since the textile spinning machines contain numerous lubricating points, it takes more time for applying the lubrication to the entire machine at one time. The spinning machines such as roving frame and ring frame are several meters long and the lubrication of the drive and machine parts takes longer time, resulting in stopping or interrupting the production of the said machines. Lubricating all the points/components is a cumbersome process and requires high level of attention when done manually. Improper lubrication of the textile spinning machines will result in frequent failures which affects the overall production efficiency due to increased machine down time for maintenance and repair. Also some of the major accidents are caused by the unexpected failure of machine parts due to non-lubrication and thereby results in increased maintenance cost to rectify the damages.

In known arrangement such as the automated centralized lubrication systems, lubrication system is provided with a pumping mechanism connected to a
large lubricant reservoir. The said lubrication system requires large number of metering devices connected to complicated control systems. The drawback associated with the above said lubricating is that, the said lubrication system is very expensive considering the textile spinning mill environment. Also lubricating lines along with the various pumping mechanisms and metering devices of lubrication system needs to be continuously monitored. Failure in any of the pumping mechanism or metering devices will affect all the lubrication points associated therewith, which results in total failure of the mechanical components of the textile machines.

The present invention is directed to overcome the limitations stated above associated with the lubrication of textile spinning machines.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

The main object of the present invention is to provide an effective lubrication system for the textile spinning machines.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and method for effective lubrication in the textile spinning machines.

It is yet another object of the invention to provide a lubrication system for the textile spinning machines which is economical.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the present invention, the textile spinning mill is provided with at least one or more textile spinning machines and at least one portable lubricating unit. The said textile spinning machine is at least one of but not limited to blow room machine, bale plucker, mixer, opener, cleaner; carding
machine, comber, draw frame, lap former, speed frame / roving frame, ring frame, air jet spinning machine, rotor spinning machine, yarn winder, etc., The said textile spinning machine is provided with at least one lubricant inlet point. The said inlet point is supplied with lubricants from the portable lubricating unit for feeding the lubricants to all lubricating points comprising of bearings, transmission shafts, gears, pulleys, sprockets, drive trains provided in the respective spinning machine.

According to the present invention, portable lubricating unit of the textile spinning mill is provided with lubricants such as grease and oils. The portable lubricating unit is provided with a trolley means for movements within the spinning mill. The said portable lubricating unit can be shifted inside entire spinning mill by maintenance persons and is used to supply the lubricants for all textile spinning machines. The said portable lubricating unit is provided with at least one lubricant feeding means such as hose. The said feeding hose is connected to lubricant inlet point of textile spinning machine for supplying lubricants during regular maintenance schedule. The portable lubricating unit is further provided with a separate waste lubricant removal hose for removing the old or existing lubricants inside the lubricating points of the textile spinning machine.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, all lubricating points of the textile spinning machine are connected with a common pipeline for supplying the lubricants to the said lubricating points. The said pipeline is provided with a double inlet point at one end of the said textile spinning machine, for feeding the lubricants. The said double inlet point is connected to the feeding hoses of the portable lubricating unit, during regular maintenance schedule.
The spinning mill with portable lubricating unit and spinning machines with common lubricant pipeline and single inlet point eliminates error of missing any lubrication point. The lubricating construction is also simplified and as a result, lubrication of whole spinning machine takes place in shorter time, resulting in lower maintenance intervals and resulting in higher production of the said textile spinning machines in the spinning mill.

The portable lubrication unit according to the present invention is easy to use by maintenance persons in the spinning mill while navigating in the spinning mill.

In an advantageous embodiment, use of the above lubricating unit significantly reduces the requirement of high cost automated lubricating systems in the spinning mill.

Other aspects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, illustrating by way of example the principles of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

Figure 1 illustrates the textile spinning machine such as mixing apparatus with lubricating point according to the present invention.

Figure 2 illustrates the textile spinning machine such as carding machine with lubricating point according to the present invention.
Figure 3 illustrates the textile spinning machine such as lap forming machine with lubricating point according to the present invention.

Figure 4 illustrates the portable lubricating unit according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Textile spinning mill is provided with at least one or more textile spinning machines as shown in Figures 1 to 3 and at least one portable lubricating unit as shown in Figure 4. The said textile spinning machine is at least one of but not limited to blow room machine, bale plucker, mixer, opener, cleaner; carding machine, comber, draw frame, lap former, speed frame / roving frame, ring frame, air jet spinning machine, rotor spinning machine, yarn winder, etc., The said textile spinning machine is provided with at least one lubricant inlet point. The said inlet point is supplied with lubricants from the portable lubricating unit for feeding the lubricants to all lubricating points comprising of bearings, transmission shafts, gears, pulleys, sprockets, drive trains provided in the respective spinning machine.

Portable lubricating unit (1a) of the textile spinning mill is provided with lubricants such as grease and oils. The portable lubricating unit (1a) is provided with a trolley means for movements within the spinning mill. The said portable lubricating unit (1a) can be shifted inside entire spinning mill by maintenance persons and is used to supply the lubricants for all textile spinning machines. The said portable lubricating unit is provided with at least one lubricant feeding means such as hose (1b). The said feeding hose (1b) is connected to lubricant inlet point of textile spinning machine for supplying lubricants during regular maintenance schedule. The portable lubricating unit
(la) is further provided with a separate waste lubricant removal hose (not shown) for removing the old or existing lubricants inside the lubricating points of the textile spinning machine.

The textile spinning mill is provided with at least one or more blow room machine such as mixing apparatus (1) as shown in figure 1. The said mixing apparatus (1) is provided with conveyor (11), inclined lattice (12), a stripper roller (13) and a take-off roller (14). The inclined lattice (12) is an endless transport belt provided with spike / tooth heads, which move in a substantially perpendicular direction upwards and takes out the fibres from the superposed fibre material. All lubricating points comprising of bearings, transmission shafts, gears, pulleys, sprockets, drive trains associated with the above said rollers of the mixing apparatus (1) are connected with a common pipeline (15) for supplying the lubricants. The said pipeline (15) is provided with a single inlet point (16) at one end of the said mixing apparatus (1), for feeding the lubricants. The said single inlet point (16) is connected with the feeding hose

(lb) of the portable lubricating unit (1a) for feeding the lubricant to the lubricating points of the mixing apparatus (1), during regular maintenance schedule. Advantageously, the inlet point (37) can also be provided at any area of the textile machine throughout the length.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the textile spinning mill is provided with at least one or more carding machine (2) with lubricating points. The said carding machine (2) is equipped with chute feeding arrangement (21) with opening rollers (22), feeding and licker-in roller arrangement (23), main cylinder (24), doffer roller (25), redirecting roller and pair of crush rollers. All lubricating points comprising of bearings, transmission shafts, gears, pulleys, sprockets, drive trains associated with the carding
machine are connected with a common pipeline (26) for supplying the lubricants to the said lubricating points. The said pipeline (26) is provided with a single inlet point (27) at one end of the said carding machine (2), The said single inlet point (27) is connected with the feeding hose (1b) of the portable lubricating unit (1a) for feeding the lubricant to the lubricating points of the carding machine (2), during regular maintenance schedule. Advantageously, the inlet point (37) can also be provided at any area of the textile machine throughout the length.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the textile spinning mill is provided with at least one or more lap forming machine (3) with lubricating points. The said lap forming machine (3) is provided with a lap winding mechanism (31) to form a fibre lap roll (32). The said lap forming machine (3) further comprises a first set of drafting rollers (33) and second set of drafting rollers (34) to draft the fibre sheet, calender rollers (35) for compact pressing the fibre lap sheet before wound as lap roll (32). All lubricating points comprising of bearings, transmission shafts, gears, pulleys, sprockets, drive trains associated with the lap forming machine (3) are connected with a common pipeline (36) for supplying the lubricants to the said lubricating points. The said pipeline (36) is provided with a single inlet point (37) at one end of the said lap forming machine (3). The said single inlet point (37) is connected with the feeding hose (1b) of the portable lubricating unit (1a) for feeding the lubricant to the lubricating points of the lap forming machine (3), during regular maintenance schedule. Advantageously, the inlet point (37) can also be provided at any area of the textile machine throughout the length.
The textile spinning machine such as blow room machine, bale plucker, mixer, opener, cleaner; carding machine, comber, draw frame, lap former, speed frame / roving frame, ring frame, air jet spinning machine, rotor spinning machine, yarn winder, is provided with at least one separate waste pipeline (not shown) for removing old or existing lubricant present inside the lubricating points. The said waste pipeline is provided with a single outlet point (not shown) at one end of the said textile spinning machine. The said outlet point can also be connected to the portable lubricating unit for removing the old lubricants inside the lubricating points of the textile spinning machine, during regular maintenance schedule.

As an alternate embodiment, all lubricating points of the textile spinning machine, are connected with a common pipeline for supplying the lubricants to the said lubricating points. The said pipeline is provided with a double inlet point (not shown) at one end of the said textile spinning machine, for feeding the lubricants. The said double inlet point is connected to the feeding hoses of the portable lubricating unit, during regular maintenance schedule.

The spinning mill with portable lubricating unit and spinning machines with common lubricant pipeline and single inlet point eliminates error of missing any lubrication point. The lubricating arrangement is also simplified and as a result, lubrication of the whole spinning machine takes place in shorter time, resulting in lower maintenance intervals and higher production of the said textile spinning machines in the spinning mill.

The portable lubrication unit according to the present invention is easy to use by maintenance persons in the spinning mill while navigating in the spinning mill.
In an advantageous embodiment, use of the above lubricating system significantly reduces the requirement of high cost automated lubricating systems in the spinning mill.

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.