FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to textile machines in general. Particularly, this invention relates to a method of creating flat surface in textile machines without autodoffer arrangement. More particularly, this invention relates to a method of creating a flat surface in order to mount the autodoffer retrofit arrangement over the existing ring spinning machines running in mills without autodoffer arrangement.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In a ring spinning frame, roving bobbins are mounted on the creel arrangement on top of the machine frame on both left and right rows of the machine in a longitudinal manner. The roving is a thin form of sliver, which is then guided into the drafting arrangement where it is being drafted and then it is twisted into yarn form. The yarn is a further thin form of roving. The yarn is then wound on the empty conical tube which is mounted on the spindle. The spindles are mounted on spindle rail at the bottom in a longitudinal manner on both the rows of the machine frame. It is necessary to provide an arrangement to exchange the fully wound yarn cops with empty tubes after the cop building process gets completed. In old ring spinning machines, the cop exchanging operation is being done manually which is more time consuming. Removing the full cops and replacing with empty tubes manually, for example 1200 cops, is tedious and time consuming.

In modern day ring spinning machines, the provision for cop exchange is built in the machine frame itself which is called as 'autodoffer'. The autodoffer performs the cop exchanging operation without manual assistance which saves man power and reduces time. For the old ring spinning machines which are running in textile mills without autodoffer arrangement, it is necessary to provide autodoffer arrangement in order to address cost saving in operations. It is perhaps need of the hour to provide autodoffer arrangement as a retrofit for the existing ring spinning machines which does not possess such arrangement. The present invention deals with a technique of creating a flat surface over the intermediate frame of existing ring spinning machines without autodoffer arrangement in order to provide autodoffer retrofit arrangement.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved autodoffer retrofit arrangement for the existing non-autodoffer textile ring spinning machines.

It is another object of the invention to create a flat machined surface at the textile ring spinning machine frame for seating the autodoffer retrofit arrangement.

It is yet another object of the invention to provide an improved technique of mounting the autodoffer retrofit arrangement on the textile, ring spinning machine with enhanced accuracy.

It is another object of the invention to provide an improved fixture plate for mounting the autodoffer retrofit arrangement on the textile ring spinning machines.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to one aspect of this invention, a method of creating flat surface in textile machines is disclosed which comprises the steps of cleaning the surface of machine frame; applying the metallic paste over said cleaned surface; mounting and clamping the fixture plate assembly over said surface; cleaning the excess metallic paste which is squeezed out of said fixture plate; and removing said fixture plate assembly from the machine frame. The said flat surface is created over the bottom surface of intermediate machine frame of textile ring spinning machine.

According to another aspect of this invention, a method of creating flat surface in textile machines wherein fixture plate assembly is provided with means for securing it over the intermediate frame and another means in order to fixedly position it over the intermediate frame. The said fixture plate assembly has a matching profile in order to secure it firmly over the intermediate frame with reference to spindle beam of textile ring spinning machine. Also the fixture plate assembly has guiding holes in order to fixedly position it over the intermediate frame.

According to one more aspect of this invention, the ring spinning machine without autodoffer is provided with an autodoffer retrofit arrangement. The autodoffer retrofit arrangement is mounted on the flat seating surface which is created over the surface of intermediate machine frame. The said autodoffer retrofit arrangement is fitted with the machine frame using fixing means such as dowels, pins, screws, etc.

According to another aspect of this invention, an improved method of mounting the autodoffer retrofit arrangement over the ring spinning machine frame is disclosed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 illustrates one of the legs of intermediate frame of a textile ring spinning machine without autodoffer arrangement.

Figure 2 illustrates the fixture plate assembly used for applying the metallic compound in paste form over the surface of machine frame according to an aspect of the present invention.

Figure 3 illustrates the autodoffer retrofit arrangement mounted on one of the legs of intermediate frame of a textile ring spinning machine according to an aspect of the present invention.

Figure 4 illustrates the autodoffer retrofit arrangement of the present invention in an exploded state.

Figure 5 illustrates the flat seating surface created on the machine frame using the method disclosed in the present invention.

Figure 6a and 6b illustrates the two types of autodoffer retrofit arrangements according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention may be better understood and the further advantages and uses thereof more readily apparent, when considered in view of the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments, taken with the accompanying drawings. These embodiments describe only a few of the various ways in which the principles of various other embodiments may be realized and the described embodiments are intended to include all such embodiments and their equivalents and the reference numerals used in the accompanying drawings correspond to the like elements throughout the description.

In existing textile ring spinning machines without autodoffer arrangement, the legs of intermediate machine frame (1) has a top surface (2) which forms the spinning box surface reference as shown in figure 1. The said top surface (2) is already machined to perfection such that it forms an exact vertical flat plane with respect to the ground as illustrated in figure 1. The bottom surface (3) of the intermediate machine frame (2) is in either machined form or unmachined form. The vertical plane of said bottom surface (3) lies behind the vertical plane of said top surface (2). If the bottom surface (3) is in flat machined form, the autodoffer retrofit arrangement can be mounted directly over the machine frame. But if the bottom surface (3) is in unmachined form, the autodoffer retrofit arrangement cannot be mounted directly since the said bottom surface (3) is irregular. In order to provide an autodoffer retrofit arrangement, the bottom surface (3) has to be machined. For machining, the intermediate machine frame (1) has to be dismantled which is very difficult and time consuming. After machining the said bottom surface (3), it should possess an exact flat vertical surface with respect to the top surface (2) and also to the ground. According to this invention, metallic compound in paste form is used to fill the unmachined bottom surface (3).

Referring to figure 2, the fixture plate assembly (4) according to this invention is manufactured to a matching profile such that it fits the profile of machined surface as shown in figure 5. The fixture plate (4) is used to obtain the seating surface in flat form over the bottom surface (3) of the intermediate frame (1). The said fixture plate (4) is provided with means for securing it over the intermediate frame (1) and another means in order to fixedly position it over the intermediate frame (1). The said fixture plate assembly (4) has a matching profile in order to secure it firmly over the intermediate frame (1) with reference to spindle beam using locating means such as pins (16). Also the fixture plate assembly (4) has guiding holes (5) in order to fixedly position it over the intermediate frame (1). Before fixing to the machine frame, the fixture plate assembly (4) is cleaned and applied with release agent. Then the fixture plate (4) is air dried for few minutes. The above process imparts non-adhesive properties to the fixture plate assembly.

The bottom surface (3) of the intermediate frame (1) is thoroughly cleaned from rust and dust using any known cleaning techniques. The metallic compound which is available in paste form is applied over the bottom surface (3) of the intermediate machine frame (1) for the required thickness. Then the fixture plate assembly (4) is fixed to the surface of the intermediate frame (1) such that it exactly fits the top surface (2) of the spinning box plane and the bottom surface (3) which has metal paste over the entire thickness. Then the fixture plate (4) is tightened in the guiding holes (5) using known clamping means like pins, screws, etc. While tightening, the excess metal paste squeezes out from the bottom surface (3) of the intermediate frame (1).

The squeezed out metal paste is cleaned. The fixture plate (4) is removed from the machine frame after providing few hours of curing time. The bottom surface (3) of the intermediate frame (1) now becomes a flat seating surface with exact vertical plane with respect to the top surface (2) of the spinning box plane. It also possesses the same characteristics of a metal.

Figure 5 shows the flat surface created using the above process. A solid flat metallic surface (6) is created in the bottom plane which is in exact flat alignment with respect to the top surface (2) of spinning box plane. Then holes are drilled on the metallic surfaces (2 and 6) for mounting the autodoffer retrofit arrangement as shown in figures 6a and 6b. Figures 6a & 6b depicts the autodoffer retrofit arrangement of left hand type (7) and right hand type (8) respectively for left and right rows of the machine frame.

Figure 3 shows the autodoffer retrofit arrangement mounted on the machine frame, whereas Figure 4 shows the autodoffer retrofit arrangement in exploded condition. The autodoffer retrofit arrangement is a single piece which is already cast and manufactured to precision. The autodoffer retrofit arrangement has a back arm (9) which is slidably connected to the intermediate frame (1). The seating surface of autodoffer retrofit arrangement is fitted with the newly created seating surface (6) and spinning box plane (2) of the intermediate frame (1). The autodoffer retrofit arrangement is permanently fitted using known fixing means (10, 11 & 12) such as screws, pins, dowels, etc. The front arm (13) of the autodoffer retrofit arrangement has a connecting part (14) with axial round sleeve (15) for mounting the lift axis/screw rod shaft, which is not shown in the figure. The lift axis/screw rod movement enables the functioning of the autodoffer which is not illustrated here. The above said autodoffer retrofit arrangement can be fitted to each and every leg on both left and right hand sides of the machine frame using the fixture plate assembly (4) disclosed. The formation of metallic surface using the method disclosed in this description ensures accurate mounting of autodoffer retrofit arrangement to the entire length of the ring spinning machine frame.

In view of the present disclosure which describes preferred and best modes of autodoffer retrofit arrangements, many modifications and variations would present themselves to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of this invention. All types of designs with similar arrangement performing the described function are still comprised within the true spirit of the invention. All changes, modifications and variations coming within the meaning and range of equivalency are considered within the scope.

We claim:

1. A method of creating flat surface in textile machines comprising the step of applying metallic paste over the machine frame.

2. A method of creating flat surface in textile machines as claimed in claim 1 comprising the steps of:

cleaning the surface of machine frame;
applying the metallic paste over said cleaned surface;
mounting and clamping the fixture plate assembly over said surface;
cleaning the excess metallic paste which is squeezed out of said fixture plate;
and removing said fixture plate assembly from the machine frame.

3. A method of creating flat surface in textile machines as claimed in claim 2, wherein said flat surface is created over the bottom surface of intermediate machine frame of a textile ring spinning machine.

4. A method of creating flat surface in textile machines as claimed in claim 2, wherein said fixture plate assembly is provided with means for securing it over the intermediate frame and another means in order to fixedly position it over the intermediate frame.

5. A method of creating flat surface in textile machines as claimed in claim 4, wherein said fixture plate assembly has a matching profile in order to secure it firmly over the intermediate frame with reference to spindle beam.

6. A method of creating flat surface in textile machines as claimed in claim 4, wherein said fixture plate assembly has guiding holes in order to fixedly position it over the intermediate frame.

7. A method of creating flat surface in textile machines as claimed in any of the preceding claims, wherein autodoffer retrofit arrangement Is mounted over the surface of intermediate machine frame.

8. A method of creating flat surface in textile machines as claimed in claim 7, wherein said autodoffer retrofit arrangement is fitted with the machine frame using fixing means such as dowels, pins, screws, etc.

9. A textile ring spinning machine without autodoffer arrangement is provided with an autodoffer retrofit arrangement as claimed in the preceding claims.