Page 82 - Industrial Cutting of Textile Materials

Automated spreading of textile materials 69

6.3.2.3 Free (freely moving) bar

The fabric roll is fixed on the freely moving bar. A motor-driven traction cylinder
(fixed on the front of the truck body of the spreader) pulls the fabric from the bar; the
fabric roll rolls freely and unwinds the material. Simple manual free bar feeding ma-
chines are used in manual spreading process (see Section 5.5.3).
1
Free bar fabric feeding system is used on ‘Apolo’ spreaders by Cosmotex ;
2
‘Saber Selecť spreaders by Eastman ; Compact E 100, 200, 300, and 400 by
6
Bullmer ; and others.
6.3.2.4 Motorized bar
The fabric roll is fixed on motorized bar that rolls and, with it, helps to unwind heavy
fabric rolls. The movement of the bar, with its fabric feeding speed, is synchronized
with the speed of a spreading machine to control fabric tension.
5
Motorized bar fabric feeding system is used on ‘A23’ spreaders by Kuris, ‘Compact
6
E 1700’ by Bullmer, and others.

6.3.3 The automatic cutting device
During the spreading process, the cutting device moves together with the spreader
truck (see Fig. 6.9). When the lay of fabric is fully spread, a round knife automatically
moves across the table and cuts it off. The cutting process may be done in one direc-
tion (after cutting, the knife then returns to its initial position) or in both directions.
The cutting device is sharpened automatically during the work process or stopping the
machine. It has an adjustable cutting speed and ‘deadhead’ speed or a double-speed
1
system and, in some models (e.g. Cosmotex spreaders), adjustable cutting length that
is used if the fabric is narrower than maximum cutting length of the machine. An
automatic height detection sensor ensures the minimum distance between the cutting
device and the table top. The end section of the fabric on the body of the truck and the
attached cutting device are lifted after each laid ply automatically. These are driven
by the sensor of a lifting device to avoid contact between preceding fabric plies and
newly laid ply. The spreading machine can be also equipped with a specialized tearing
device.

Fig. 6.9 Cutting device on a spreader by Cosmotex.