Feeding of fibrous materials to textile cards

Claim 1

A fiber feeding arrangement for a plurality of textile cards each operating at a predetermined production rate, comprising a hopper and an opening and cleaning line for supplying open fibrous material to said hopper, an exit end on said hopper through which a regulated supply of said open fibrous material is delivered under the control of a control means to a common conveying means for conveying the fibrous material to said plurality of cards, said control means comprising a pair of feed rollers arranged at said exit end of the hopper to deliver said regulated supply of material, a variable-speed electric motor and a motor control unit for controlling the speed of said motor, each of the cards being provided with a drive control arrangement whereby it can be switched by an operative between a slow-speed piecing-up condition and a high-speed normal operating condition, and wherein said motor control unit includes a control relay associated with each card and operative in response to the switching of the respective one of said drive control arrangements, and a power controller the output of which energizes said motor and is caused to vary in response to a change in the condition of each of the relays to change the rate of feed of the fibrous material from the hopper by an amount equal to or substantially equal to the change in the production rate of at least one of the cards.