System for positioning spools at a coning unit of an automatic coning machine

摘要

A conveyor system for an automatic coning machine having coning units for unwinding thread from spools carried by disks, wherein the system has a conveyor for feeding the spool carrying disks to the machine. A plurality of paths are connected to the feeding conveyor, wherein a path traverses an adjacent coning unit and includes a standby position adjacent the feeding conveyor for receiving spool carrying disks and an unwinding station at the coning unit for receiving spool carrying disks from the standby position. A positioning device has a pair of members positioned along the length and on opposite sides of each of the paths, wherein one of the members has recesses which are spaced apart for receiving a portion of the spool carrying disks at the standby and unwinding positions, and wherein the other of the members has protrusions opposite the recesses for engaging opposing portions of the spool carrying disks and for releasably urging the engaged spool carrying disks into the recesses, to thereby position the spool carrying disks at the standby and unwinding positions. A moving device is connected to the system adjacent each path and operatively connected to each coning unit, and the moving device is adapted to overcome the releasable engagement of the spool carrying disks by the positioning device in response to the exhaustion of the spool carrying disks at the adjacent coning unit and to move the exhausted spool carrying disk from the unwinding position and the spool carrying disk from the standby position to the unwinding position.