Carder

Abstract

A carder has a drum formed as a hollow cylinder having a drum wall, a longitudinal axis, a circumference, an outer surface, a length, and a clothing provided on the outer surface. Working elements are arranged relative to the outer surface of the drum. Stub axles or a continuous axle is formed along the longitudinal axis of the drum and connected to the drum wall by spokes or disks. One or more acceleration sensors that measures structure-borne sound are mounted on one or more of: a side of the drum wall facing the longitudinal axis, the stub axles, the continuous axle, the spoked, or the disks within the length of the drum.

Claims

1. A carder, comprising: a controller; a drum comprising a hollow cylinder having a drum wall, a longitudinal axis, a circumference, an outer surface, a length, and a clothing provided on the outer surface; working elements arranged relative to the outer surface of the drum; stub axles or a continuous axle formed along the longitudinal axis of the drum and connected to the drum wall by spokes or disks; one or more acceleration sensors that measures structure-borne sound mounted directly on and rotatable with one or more of: a side of the drum wall facing the longitudinal axis, the stub axles, the continuous axle, the spokes, or the disks within the length of the drum.

2. The carder according to claim 1, comprising from two to eight of the acceleration sensors arranged on the side of the drum wall facing the longitudinal axis and are arranged uniformly distributed over the circumference and the length of the drum.

3. The carder according to claim 1, comprising at least two of the acceleration sensors are arranged on the spokes or the disks.

4. The carder according to claim 1, comprising at least two of the acceleration sensors arranged spaced apart in a direction of the longitudinal axis by at least one third of the length and by at least 180 angular degrees in a circumferential direction of the drum.

5. The carder according to claim 1, wherein the one or more acceleration sensors have a measurement range from 10 KHz to 500 KHz.

6. The carder according to claim 1, further comprising an evaluation unit configured to, upon a certain sound level being exceeded, provide a display that visualizes the sound level and forward a signal to the controller.

7. The carder according to claim 6, wherein the evaluation unit is attached to one of: the drum wall, the spoke, or the disk.

8. The carder according to claim 6, wherein the evaluation unit is mounted to one of the stub axles or the continuous axle.

9. The carder according to claim 6, wherein the evaluation unit is arranged outside the drum in a stationary and rotationally fixed position.

10. The carder according to claim 6, wherein the evaluation unit wirelessly communicates with the controller and with the one or more acceleration sensors.

11. The carder according to claim 6, wherein energy is supplied to the evaluation unit and the one or more acceleration sensors by an electric motor.

12. The carder according to claim 6, wherein energy is supplied to the evaluation unit and the one or more acceleration sensors by a wireless inductive charging module.

13. The carder according to claim 1, further comprising an input device or a detection device to input or automatically recognize one or more of: a type of the clothing on the drum, a surface structure of the working elements, or production-dependent variables of the carder.

14. A method for operating the carder according to claim 1, comprising determining a contact of the clothing with needles of revolving flat bars from a measured sound level detected by the one or more acceleration sensors.

15. The method according to claim 14, comprising switching off the carder when an upper limit level is exceeded or a certain duration of the contact or a lower limit level of the contacts is exceeded.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) Further advantages of the invention are described in the following exemplary embodiments. In the drawings:

(2) FIG. 1 shows a schematic representation of a carder according to the prior art;

(3) FIG. 2 shows a schematic representation of a drum according to the invention in a first embodiment;

(4) FIG. 3 shows a schematic representation of a drum according to the invention in a second embodiment;

(5) FIG. 4 shows a schematic representation of a drum according to the invention in a third embodiment, and

(6) FIG. 5 shows a schematic representation of a configuration of the method according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(7) Reference will now be made to embodiments of the invention, one or more examples of which are shown in the drawings.

(8) FIG. 1 shows, in a schematic representation, a carder 1 according to the prior art. After it has passed through various blowroom process stages, fiber material 2 moves into a licker-in 3. The fiber material 2 is opened by the rollers and working elements 12 contained in the licker-in 3, and at the same time is freed of a portion of the impurities contained therein. The last roller of the licker-in 3 transfers the fiber material finally to the drum 4 of the carder 1, which completely separates the fiber material into individual fibers, cleans it, and parallelizes it. For this purpose, the drum 4 works together with revolving flats 5 and other various working elements 12. The drum 4 is moved in a direction of rotation 13 and guides the fibers from the licker-in 3 to the doffer 6. In so doing, the fibers are conveyed through a pre-carding zone 9, subsequently past the revolving flats 5, and then via a post-carding zone 10 to the doffer 6. Working elements 12 are used both in the pre-carding zone 9 and in the post-carding zone 10. Among other things, carding elements for parallelizing the fibers and separating elements for separating trash parts and short fibers are used as working elements 12 in the pre-carding zone 9 and the post-carding zone 10. Between the doffer 6 and the licker-in 3, the fiber material remaining on the drum passes through a sub-carding zone 11, as seen in the direction of rotation 13 of the drum 4. Currently, usually no separating elements are used in the sub-carding zone 11. After the fibers have carried out a plurality of revolutions on the drum 4, they are removed from the drum 4 by the doffer 6 in the form of fiber mat, and are reshaped with a sliver forming unit 7 to form a card sliver 8. The card sliver 8 is then placed into a can for further transport (not shown).

(9) FIG. 2 shows a schematic representation of a drum 4 according to the invention in a first embodiment. The drum 4 is designed as a hollow cylinder having a drum wall 19 and a longitudinal axis 14. To support the hollow cylinder, two disks 23 are inserted into the hollow cylinder, which connect the drum wall 19 to an internal continuous axle 21 extending over the entire longitudinal axis 14 of the drum 4. The axle 21 extends over a greater length than the length 15 of the drum 4, in such a manner that a bearing of the drum 4 can be provided at both axle ends. In these bearings (not shown), the drum 4 rotates in the direction of rotation 13. A clothing 18 is applied on an outer surface 17 of the drum. Such clothings 18 are usually designed as sawtooth clothings and are wound onto the drum 4 in wire form. Two acceleration sensors 24 are mounted on the axle 21 for measuring a structure-borne sound.

(10) FIG. 3 shows a schematic representation of a drum 4 according to the invention in a second embodiment. The drum 4 has the same design as the drum 4 in FIG. 2, which is why reference is made to the description of FIG. 2 for a description of the individual components of the drum 4. In contrast to FIG. 2, FIG. 3 shows eight acceleration sensors 24 mounted on the drum wall 19, namely on a side of the drum wall 19 facing the axle 21. The acceleration sensors are provided to the left and right of the disks 23, wherein the arrangement is to be regarded as an example, and wherein it should be noted that the acceleration sensors 24 are spaced as far apart as possible in the direction of the longitudinal axis 14 and are evenly distributed over the circumference of the hollow cylinder.

(11) FIG. 4 shows a schematic representation of a drum 4 according to the invention in a third embodiment. The drum 4 is also designed as a hollow cylinder having a length 15, a drum wall 19, and a longitudinal axis 14. To support the hollow cylinder, spokes 22 are inserted into the hollow cylinder at two points, connecting the drum wall 19 to internal stub axles 20 extending over a part of the longitudinal axis 14 of the drum 4. A half view shows a possible embodiment of the spokes 22 with their connection to the drum wall 19 and the stub axles 20. The stub axles 20 are arranged on both sides of the drum 4, so that a bearing of the drum 4 can be provided at both axle ends. In these bearings (not shown), the drum 4 rotates in the direction of rotation 13. A clothing 18 is applied on an outer surface 17 of the drum around the entire circumference 16 of the drum 4. An acceleration sensor 24 is mounted on each of the stub axles 20 for measuring a structure-borne sound.

(12) FIG. 5 shows a schematic representation of a configuration of the method according to the invention. The drum 4 is designed as a hollow cylinder having a drum wall 19 and a longitudinal axis 14. To support the hollow cylinder, two disks 23 are inserted into the hollow cylinder, which connect the drum wall 19 to an internal continuous axle 21 extending over the entire longitudinal axis 14 of the drum 4. The axle 21 extends over a greater length than the length 15 of the drum 4, in such a manner that a bearing of the drum 4 can be provided at both axle ends. In these bearings (not shown), the drum 4 rotates in the direction of rotation 13. A clothing 18 is applied on an outer surface 17 of the drum. Acceleration sensors 24 are mounted on each of the disks 23. The acceleration sensors 24 are connected to an evaluation unit 25, which is attached to the axle 21 by way of example. Thus, the entire measuring system moves together with the drum in the direction of rotation 13. The signals of the evaluation unit 25 are transmitted wirelessly, for example via WiFi, to a controller 27.

(13) The controller 27 is connected to a display 26 and to an input device 28. The display 26 is activated by the controller 27 as soon as an unexpected situation results from the evaluation of the acceleration sensor 24. For example, if a sound level is exceeded because there has been contact between the clothing 18 and a working element vis--vis the clothing 18. The input device 28 can be used to access the setpoint values or limit values of the structure-borne sound measurement stored in the controller 27. In order to achieve an improvement of the structure-borne sound measurement, the components used on the drum, such as the clothing type of the clothing 18 of the drum 4, the surface structure of the vis--vis situated working elements can be transmitted to the controller 27 via the input device 28. Furthermore, it is also possible to input production-dependent variables, in particular the production rate, the type and/or the moisture of the fibers. In the case of a more advanced automation of the carder, a detection device 29, which recognizes the employed components of the drum 4, is linked to the controller 27. For example, via barcode recognition, when working elements are exchanged, their properties or even the properties of the fibers to be processed can be read directly into the controller 27 without having to use the input device 28.

(14) The present invention is not limited to the shown and described embodiments. Modifications within the scope of the claims are possible, as well as a combination of the features, even if these are shown and described in different embodiments.

KEY

(15) 1 carder 2 fiber material 3 licker-in 4 drum 5 revolving flat 6 doffer 7 sliver-forming unit 8 fiber sliver 9 pre-carding zone 10 post-carding zone 11 sub-carding zone 12 working element 13 direction of rotation 14 drum longitudinal axis 15 drum length 16 drum circumference 17 drum surface 18 drum clothing 19 drum wall 20 stub axle 21 axle 22 spoke 23 disk 24 acceleration sensor 25 evaluation unit 26 display 27 controller 28 input device 29 recognition/detection device