US2643683A - Repair head for heddles - Google Patents

Description

June 30, 1953 w. H. THORPE 2,643,683

REPAIR HEAD FOR HEDDLES Filed April 18, 1951 L12 .Eg'y. .9. ,ZZylfl. 12 .11. 15 .12.

INVENTOR;

Afforngg.

Patented June 30, 1953 REPAIR HEAD FOR HEDDLES -William H. Thorpe, Philadelphia, Pa.,v assignor to. Walker Manufacturing Company, Philadelphia, Pa.

Application April 18, 1951,, Serial No. 221,579 3 Claims. (01.. 13.9-96) plication being a continuation-in-part of'Serial No. 154,347, filed April 6, 1950.

Heddles, like many other forms of fast moving mechanism, particularly when characterized by reciprocatory motion, and even more so when that motion is substantially if not 'fully vertical, frequently wear through and break especially at some point of the end loop or eyes, and most frequently at the base of the upper eye, due to the force of gravity during each downward motion being added to the inherent inertia of the heddle,

as its movement is suddenly arrested preparatory to movement in the opposite direction.

Such wear is most pronounced where the sides of the upper eye in particular are in constant engagement with the heddle-supporting bars, and at least in some positions encounter any inserting the abbreviated end between bendable portions of the repair head, and then bending said last-mentioned portions across the said dovetail section, and flattening them tightly and b indingly against the depending base or body portion of said head, and thereby securing and positively locking in place the adjacent heddle end, slipping the loop or hooked end portion of said head over the heddle bar, and starting the loom.

A further object is to provide a modified form of repair head, that essentially comprises a barreceivingportion and a depending body portion having'a transversely extending and upwardly directed shoulder, and a freely extending narrow tongue that is adapted to be inserted through an aperture in a heddle, and'then bent upwardly in parallel and close relation with said body portion, and thence'over said shoulder and closely against the opposite side of said body portion, to prevent separation of such heddle from the repair head.

Still another object is to provide a repair head that comprises a bar-engageable portion and a hooks, studs and/or slide hooks that may be present for the purpose of operatively supporting the heddle bars with respect to the upper and lower frame rails, or with respect to an auxiliary bar that is frequently interposed between the heddle bar and the neighboring rail.

Heretofore, whena heddle bar has broken, it has been necessary to stop the loom, break the warp end, remove it from the central eye of the heddle and lay it on the beam, then separate the warp so that the unbroken end eye can be removed either by twisting or cutting, which act of itself can cause other broken ends and/or smudging or damaging of the warp, then slipping the repair heddle over the heddle bars, which of itself is difiicult to do in the middle of a set of threaded heddles, then reinsert the warp end through the central eye of the new replacement heddle and tie the ends together, and finally adjust the warp and start the loom, an operation for which even an expert usually requires about five minutes.

By contrast, an object of the invention is to provide what may be termed and is hereinafter referred to as a lock-on repair head, the 7 use of which in the replacement of a broken heddle involves merely stopping the loom, breaking or cutting ofi with pliers or cutters the broken end loop slightly either at or slightly above the bottom of .the loop or eye, so as to thereby leave a short dovetail terminal section,

depending body portion, from which latter depend a pairof spaced tongues, in combination with the upper abbreviated dovetail portion of a heddle, such as hereinbefore described, positioned between the upper supporting portions of said tongues, said tongues being bendable upwardly and preferably diagonally towards each other, and thence over and reversely around said shoulder and closely against the opposite surface of said body portion, so as to thereby secure said heddle to said head.

With the objects thus briefly set forth, the invention comprises further details of construction and operation, which are hereinafter fully brought out in the following description, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is an elevational View of a representative type of standard steel heddle having transversely widened eye or loop end portions; Fig. 2 is a fragmentary elevational view of the upper end portion of said heddle, showing the approximate point or level at which the opposite sides of the eye or loop end are preferably removed after some part of such eye has broken;.

Fig. 3 shows a blank from which one form of the improved repair head is bent and comprising an initially freely extending narrow tongue; Fig. 4

vis an elevational view of the same operatively attached to the abbreviated end of a broken heddle; Fig. 5 is a section on the line 5-5 of Fig. 4; Fig. 6 is an elevational view of a modified form of blank; Fig. '7 is a similar view including the abbreviated upper dovetail end of a broken heddle; Fig. 8 shows the unitary relation of said repair head and said heddle after a pair of angular portions of the former have been bent towards each other across the former; Fig. 9 is an elevational view of a further modified form of such repair head comprising a pair of initially depending tongues; Fig. 10 is a similar view showing also the abbreviated upper dovetail end of a broken heddle; Fig. 11 shows said head and said heddle after said tongues have been bent diagonally upwardly so as to secure said heddle to said repair head; and Fig. 12 is a section on the line l2-l2 of Fig. 11.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2, an ordinary well known type of heddle is shown as comprising the usual shank I, having a substantially centrally positioned warp-passing eye 2, while its opposite upper and lower ends are provided with vertically elongated eyes or loops 3 and 4 for the reception of the usual supporting bars (Fig. 5) Incidental to the act of punching out said end loops, those portions of the initial blank adjacent to and upon the opposite ends thereof are widened by swaging dies or tools, that result in and leave behind them thinned areas '6, that decrease in thickness towards each other, and which in surface area have a general shape that is substantially midway between a U and a V, or in other words the lateral edges of each such area converge somewhat as the sides of a V, while as they approach each other they merge into the curve of a U. The result resembles a parabolic curve, and as the formation of such swaged areas results in a displacement and flow or pushing of the metal laterally outwardly in opposite directions, the laterally opposite outside edges of the heddle adjacent thereto become divergently dovetailed or wedge-shaped as indicated at 1.

Having the course of ordinary use of the heddle in weaving, the sides of the upper loop in particular tend to wear narrow and in time break as hereinbeiore described, and such breakage has heretofore required the removal and replacement of the entire heddle, with the resultant losses in time and income also hereinbefore referred to. However. the present invention merely involves the cutting off of the narrow sides of the affected loop, as nearly as possible at or but slightly above the exact base of the loop, at the level indicated by the line 8' (Fig. 1) below which (considering the upper end of the heddle) a substantial portion of the divergent edges 1 are located. This divergence has been found adequate to support the major portion of the heddle by means of the repair head that comprises the present invention, said diverging edges in effect forming dovetail shoulders almost as positive in function as though they were in alignment and at right angles to the axis of the heddle.

Referring to Figs. 3, 4 and 5, one embodiment of the invention is shown as comprising an uninterrupted side 8, that terminates upwardly in a hooked portion 9 and a reversely directed free end portion l6. Downwardly the side 8 merges into a transversely broadened body portion ll, that provides an upwardly directed horizontal shoulder 12, while from the under edge of said body portion projects a tongue 13, that in length is substantially equal to twice the height of said body portion, and in width is such that it can be inserted through an aperture l4, punched through the abbreviated end portion of a broken heddle. In using this repair head, the broken end eye or loop of a heddle l is first removed as hereinbefore described, whether an ordinary hedi from said head.

4 dle or a straight-sided heddle of the "silk type is involved, and a hole punched (or drilled) through the same, whereupon the end of the tongue I 3' is inserted and then bent reversely upwardly, then over said shoulder and again reversely into parallelism and tightly binding relation with the 0pposite side of said body portion.

Referring to Figs. 6, 7 and 8, a repair head blank is here shown as closely resembling that illustrated in Figs. 3, 4 and 5, and comprising a side portion l5, that terminates upwardly in a hooked portion l6 and a reversely directed free end portion [1. Downwardly the side [5 merges into a transversely broadened body portion [8, that provides an upwardly directed horizontal shoulder l9. Said body portion may, but in the case-of very thin sheet metal need not, be scored along upwardly divergent lines 20, but whether said body portion is or is not thus scored, to attach and secure it to the abbreviated end of a heddle having a dovetail end 2|, as indicated in Figs. 2, 4 and '7, such heddle end is laid against said repair head body (Fig. '7) and the oppositely positioned corner portions 22 of the latter are folded inwardly towards each other and tightly, so as to engage the narrowest dimension of said dovetail end portion of the heddle, and thus prevent its separation longitudinally downwardly Such a construction may require a slightly heavier gauge of sheet metal for the repair head, in order to insure said corner portions 22 from accidentally opening and permitting the escape of the heddle end from between them, but it will be realized that with the united heddle and repair head assembly of increased thickness over that of the original heddle alone in a multi-heddle frame, the resultant compression also tends to prevent an unfolding of said corner portions.

Referring to Figs. 9, 10, 11 and 12, a repair head blank is here shown as comprising an uninterrupted side 23, that terminates upwardly in a hooked portion 24 and a reversely directed free end portion 25. Downwardly the side 23 merges into a transversely broadened body portion 26, that provides an upwardly directed shoulder, that is formed of a pair of angularly related portions 27 and 28 of unequal length, the shorter being adjacent to the side 23. Downwardly said body portion is provided with a pair of spaced tapering fingers or tongues 29 and 30, said body portion at the junction of said tongues being preferably scored at 3| along lines parallel with the respective shoulder edge portions 21 and 28. To unitarily join the dovetail abbreviated end portion 32 of a heddle to this form of repair head, the

.former is laid against the latter in the relative positions indicated in Figs. 10, whereupon the tongues 28 and 30 are bent diagonally upwardly towards each other, as defined by the score lines 3| if present, and then reversely bent over and divergently downwardly upon the opposite side of the body portion of said repair head, as indicated by Figs. 11 and 12. This in effect produces a union similar to that of the form shown in Figs. 6, 7 and 8, and is even more unyielding against accidental separation by reason of the reverse bending of the tongues to the rear of the body portion of said repair head, as described.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to protect by Letters Patent of the United States is:

l. The combination of a heddle shank provided with an aperture, with a repair head comprising a portion adapted to receive a heddle bar, a body 5 portion having an upwardly directed shoulder, and. an initially depending tongue extending through said aperture, said tongue being bent reversely into parallelism with said body portion and its free end being reversely bent over said shoulder.

2. A repair head for heddles, comprising an open end portion adapted to receive a heddle bar, a body portion having an upwardly directed shoulder, and an initially depending tongue adapted to extend through an aperture in a heddle, and thereafter being bent into parallelism with said body portion and reversely over said shoulder.

3. A repair head for heddles, comprising an end portion adapted to at least partially surround a heddle bar, a body portion having an upwardly directed shoulder, and an initially-depending tongue adapted to extend through an aperture in a heddle, and thereafter being bent into parallelism with said body portion.

WILLIAM H. THORPE.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

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