Apparatus for weaving spheriodially contoured fabric

Claim 1

A loom for weaving contoured cloth, comprising: shed forming means for receiving warp yarns from a warp yarn supply and forming a warp yarn shed; means for inserting successive lengths of weft yarn through successive sheds formed by said shed forming means; means for beating up the weft yarns into a woven fabric; a contoured rotatably driven mandrel positioned downstream, relative to the direction of the warp yarn movement, from said beating up means for receiving the woven fabric and drawing it from said beating up means, said mandrel having at least a part thereof with a spheroidal shape for giving a spheroidal shape to the fabric passed around the mandrel; a nip roller means engaged with the contoured surface of said mandrel for pressing the woven fabric against said mandrel for causing said mandrel to draw the woven fabric from said beating up means and shape the fabric according to the contour of said mandrel; a fabric guide means adjacent said mandrel at a position along the path of the fabric from said beating up means to the point on said mandrel where said nip roller means is positioned, said fabric guide means having a contour along said mandrel corresponding to the contour of said mandrel and guiding the fabric into engagement with said mandrel; and warp yarn path length extending means positioned along the path of the fabric from said beating up means to said fabric guide means and having a contour transversely of the path of the fabric for increasing the lengths of the paths of the warp yarns of the fabric which are directed onto the portions of the spheroidally contoured part of said mandrel which are larger than the smallest diameter portion of the spheroidally contoured part, the increase being sufficient for making the lengths of such paths sufficiently longer than the length of the path of the warp yarn which is directed onto said smallest diameter portion of the spheroidally contoured portion of said mandrel to cause substantially all the length of each of the respective weft yarns to reach said mandrel at the same time.