Small denier stuffer crimper and method

Claim 1

A stuffer crimper for use with filament bundles of 40 to 200 denier comprising a member forming a crimping and setting chamber, a pair of feed rolls having end surfaces and forming a bite disposed to feed a filament yarn into one end of said chamber to be folded over and crimped therein against a core of previously crimped yarn, said crimping chamber including a saddle spanning the bite of said feed rolls and having flanks extending over the end surfaces thereof with running clearance between the flanks and said end surfaces, and a traverse guide driven to traverse the yarn laterally across approximately the full bite of said rolls as it is fed thereto for crimping, said traverse guide having a throw less than the inside diameter of the saddle and related to the width of said feed rolls to provide a minimum clearance of 0.05 inch between the filaments at the ends of the throw and the corresponding ends of the feed rolls at the bite whereby the crimped yarn is less tightly packed against the chamber walls and thus advances along said chamber with less friction.

Claim 5

The method of producing crimped 40 to 200 denier continuous multi-filament nylon yarn having less than one turn of twist per inch and having bulk levels of from 18 percent to 35 percent measured by winding a predetermined length of crimped yarn on a skein reel, removing the wound skein from the reel, suspending the skein in a heated atmosphere under predetermined tension for a predetermined time, removing the yarn from the heated atmosphere and measuring the percentage shrink in length of the skein, such crimped yarn being produced in a stuffer crimper having feed rolls and a chamber whose length is at least twenty times its width which comprises; feeding said yarn into said chamber with a traversing throw across approximately tHe full bite of the feed rolls but less than the inside diameter of said chamber and related to the width of the feed rolls to provide a minimum clearance of .05 inch between the filaments at the ends of the throw and the corresponding ends of the feed rolls at their bite whereby the crimped yarn is less tightly packed against the chamber walls and thus advances along said chamber with less friction; and opposing the advance of the yarn by a backweight which contributes 45 percent to 60 percent to the total bulk level of the crimped yarn as measured with respect to the bulk level obtained without backweight applied to oppose advance of the yarn.

Claim 6

The method of producing crimped 40 to 200 denier continuous multi-filament nylon yarn having less than one turn of twist per inch and having bulk levels of from 18 percent to 35 percent measured by winding a predetermined length of crimped yarn on a skein reel, removing the wound skein from the reel, suspending the skein in a heated atmosphere under predetermined tension for a predetermined time, removing the yarn from the heated atmosphere and measuring the percentage shrink in length of the skein, such crimped yarn being produced in a stuffer crimper having feed rolls and a chamber whose length is at least twenty times its width which comprises; feeding said yarn into said chamber with a traversing throw across approximately tHe full bite of the feed rolls but less than the inside diameter of said chamber and related to the width of the feed rolls to provide a minimum clearance of .05 inch between the filaments at the ends of the throw and the corresponding ends of the feed rolls at their bite whereby the crimped yarn is less tightly packed against the chamber walls and thus advances along said chamber with less friction; and opposing the advance of the yarn by a backweight which contributes 45 percent to 60 percent to the total bulk level of the crimped yarn as measured with respect to the bulk level obtained without backweight applied to oppose advance of the yarn.

Claim 7

The method of producing crimped 40 to 200 denier continuous multi-filament polyester yarn having less than one turn of twist per inch and having bulk levels of from 10 percent to 28 percent measured by winding a predetermined length of crimped yarn on a skein reel, removing the wound skein from the reel, suspending the skein in a heated atmosphere under predetermined tension for a predetermined time, removing the yarn from the heated atmosphere and measuring the percentage shrink in length of the skein, such crimped yarn being produced in a stuffer crimper having feed rolls and a chamber whose length is at least twenty times its width which comprises; feeding said yarn into said chamber with a traversing throw across approximately the full bite of the feed rolls but less than the inside diameter of said chamber and related to the width of the feed rolls to provide a minimum clearance of .05 inch between the filaments at the ends of the throw and the corresponding ends of the feed rolls at their bite whereby the crimped yarn is less tightly packed against the chamber walls and thus advances along said chamber with less friction; and opposing the advance of the yarn by a backweight which contributes 30 percent to 50 percent to the total bulk level of the crimped yarn as measured with respect to the bulk level obtained without backweight applied to oppose advance of the yarn.

Claim 8

The method of producing crimped 40 to 200 denier continuous multi-filament polyester yarn having less than one turn of twist per inch and having bulk levels of from 10 percent to 28 percent measured by winding a predetermined length of crimped yarn on a skein reel, removing the wound skein from the reel, suspending the skein in a heated atmosphere under predetermined tension for a predetermined time, removing the yarn from the heated atmosphere and measuring the percentage shrink in length of the skein, such crimped yarn being produced in a stuffer crimper having feed rolls and a chamber whose length is at least twenty times its width which comprises; feeding said yarn into said chamber with a traversing throw across approximately the full bite of the feed rolls but less than the inside diameter of said chamber and related to the width of the feed rolls to provide a minimum clearance of .05 inch between the filaments at the ends of the throw and the corresponding ends of the feed rolls at their bite whereby the crimped yarn is less tightly packed against the chamber walls and thus advances along said chamber with less friction; and opposing the advance of the yarn by a backweight which contributes 30 percent to 50 percent to the total bulk level of the crimped yarn as measured with respect to the bulk level obtained without backweight applied to oppose advance of the yarn.