Kieronski, John P.; Williams, Francis N.; Smith, Leo J.;

Bobbin elevating conveyor and orientor

Bobbin handling apparatus including means for feeding bobbins from a supply station in random end orientation to a delivery station for use by a doffing machine. The bobbin handling apparatus is conveniently mounted on the doffing machine, and includes means for sorting bobbins of one end orientation from the other and means to reorient bobbins of the one orientation to the other for presentation to the doffing machine of bobbins of a single orientation. The handling apparatus includes a bobbin supply box adapted to be manually positioned on and removed from the apparatus immediately above floor level, thereby requiring minimum physical effort.

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What is claimed is:

1. A mechanism for sorting head and butt ends of a succession of bobbins, comprising means for conveying bobbins along a path in spaced parallel relation to one another and transversely aligned to the conveying direction, mechanical sensor means at one side of the bobbin path, said sensor means being arranged relative to the bobbin conveyor path to be displaced in the axial direction of the bobbins by the adjacent butt ends of the bobbins and arranged to avoid being displaced by the adjacent head ends of the bobbins, means responsive to displacement of said sensor means to reject bobbins of one head or butt orientation from the conveying means.

2. A mechanism as set forth in claim 1, wherein said ejecting means includes means to eject said bobbins of one orientation in a direction perpendicular to said conveying path.

3. A mechanism as set forth in claim 2, wherein said conveying means comprises a continuous belt supported to move in a zone adjacent said path, said ejector means being arranged to eject said bobbins of one orientation in a direction away from said belt.

4. Apparatus for reversing a succession of bobbins end for end, comprising means for directing bobbins into a path of translational movement in spaced parallel relation to one another and transversely aligned to the direction of said path, means in said path at one side thereof arranged to retard movement of one end of each bobbin relative to the movement of an opposite end of the bobbin to impart a rotational movement, means spaced from said end retarding means to arrest the rotational movement of said bobbins after they have reversed end for end, said arresting means including means to engage at least the surfaces of each end of each of said bobbins to arrest its rotational movment along said path, said path being substantially vertical, said bobbin directing means being arranged to permit said bobbins to fall vertically through said path under the influence of gravity, and restraining means along said path, said directing means being arranged to move said bobbins horizontally against said restraining means, said restraining means being arranged to guide said bobbins vertically through said path from said directing means to said rotation arresting means.

5. Apparatus for handling bobbins comprising a supply station for holding a multiplicity of empty bobbins of predetermined length stacked upon one another in parallel relation with their ends in registration and in random orientation, said supply station having a vertical side, means for feeding said bobbins in single file from said supply station in a path transverse to their axes, sorting means for rejecting all of the bobbins of one end orientation and accepting all of the bobbins of the other orientation, means for reversing the orientation of all of the rejected bobbins and means for returning all of the reeoriented, rejected bobbins directly to said supply station in their reoriented state, said bobbin returning means including a rejected bobbin return path between said sorting means and said supply station, said return path including restraining means along said return path, said feeding means being arranged to feed bobbins in a substantially vertical path from said vertical side of said supply station, said restraining means of said return path being generally parallel to the vertical feed path and including surfaces arranged along a substantially vertical free fall zone extending from said sorting means to said supply station and in which rejected bobbins are confined and thereby caused to return to said supply station subsequent to their rejection under the influence of gravity, said bobbin reversing means being disposed in said return path whereby movement of rejected bobbins during reversing movement and subsequent return to the supply station are substantially limited to a vertical plane.

6. Apparatus as set forth in claim 5, wherein said supply station comprises a removable rectangular box, opposite sides of said box being spaced a distance slightly greater than the length of said bobbins whereby said bobbins are maintained in end-to-end alignment by said spaced sides.

7. Apparatus as set forth in claim 6, wherein a vertical side of said supply box is notched to receive said feeding means.

8. Apparatus for reversing a succession of bobbins end for end, comprising means for directing bobbins into a substantially vertical path of translational movement in spaced parallel relation to one another and transversely aligned to the direction of said path by permitting said bobbins to fall vertically through said path under the influence of gravity, means in said path at one side thereof arranged to retard movement of one end of each bobbin relative to the movement of an opposite end of the bobbin to impart a rotational movement, and means spaced from said end retarding means to arrest the rotational movement of said bobbins after they have reversed end for end, said arresting means including means to engage at least the surfaces at each end of each of said bobbins to arrest its rotational movement along said path, restraining means along said path, said directing means being arranged to move said bobbins horizontally against said restraining means, said restraining means being arranged to guide said bobbins through said vertical path from said directing means to said rotation arresting means, said rotation arresting means including a surface extending transversely into said path and being inclined with respect to the horizontal to allow bobbins to be moved off said surface by the influence of gravity.