Method and means for blending fiber strand segments in a base strand
First Claim
1. A method of adding segments of at least one supplemental strand of fibers of at least one characteristic of color, texture and construction into at least one base strand of fibers of at least one other characteistic of color, texture and construction to produce a composite strand of blended fibers with an unpredictable random distribution of said supplemental strand segments therein, said method comprising separately and continuously advancing said at least one base strand and said at least one supplement strand indiscriminately pulling from said at least one supplemental strand segments of lengths greater than the length of individual fibers thereof and of unpredictably random size and occurrence, adding said pulled supplemental strand segments to said advancing at least one base strand for incorporation therein to form a composite strand, and in advancing said at least one base strand during adding of said pulled supplemental strand segments thereto said at least one base strand is attenuated by drafting.
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Abstract
An unpredictable random distribution of segments of supplemental strands of fiber are produced in a base strand by pulling segments from the supplemental strands and adding them to the base strand. The segments are pulled from free extents of the supplemental strands that have a free length longer than the length of the fibers of the supplemental strands, and the supplemental strands advance slower than the base strand, with the result that the size and occurrence of the pulled segments in the base strand are unpredictably random. Preferably, a draw frame is used, to which is added a feed unit having a pair of rotating feed rolls for feeding the supplemental strands to the next-to-last pair of drafting rolls that have a surface speed greater than the feed rolls and are spaced therefrom a distance greater than the length of fibers in the supplemental strands. Thus, the drafting rolls pull segments or tufts from the supplemental strands and add them to the base strand for blending therein during subsequent drawing and other processing of the composite strand.
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Citations
10 Claims
- 1. A method of adding segments of at least one supplemental strand of fibers of at least one characteristic of color, texture and construction into at least one base strand of fibers of at least one other characteistic of color, texture and construction to produce a composite strand of blended fibers with an unpredictable random distribution of said supplemental strand segments therein, said method comprising separately and continuously advancing said at least one base strand and said at least one supplement strand indiscriminately pulling from said at least one supplemental strand segments of lengths greater than the length of individual fibers thereof and of unpredictably random size and occurrence, adding said pulled supplemental strand segments to said advancing at least one base strand for incorporation therein to form a composite strand, and in advancing said at least one base strand during adding of said pulled supplemental strand segments thereto said at least one base strand is attenuated by drafting.
Specification