Importance

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Abstract

An opener device for winding one or more strands of yarn, optionally used with a yarn heat setting apparatus. Strands which have been heat set and then cooled are wound onto a spool by one of a plurality of winding units in the opener device. The opener has a central drive means which moves a plurality of conveyor belts through the opener. These belts induce the rotation of a plurality of cam rollers and each of the cam rollers powers a pair of winding units. The winding units, each of which includes a grooved cam roller for feeding yarn onto a spool, are coupled to the cam roller by an eddy current coupling unit. The eddy current coupling unit imparts the rotation of the cam roller to the grooved cam roller by magnetism. The rotation of the grooved cam roller causes the spool to rotate and wind yarn due to friction. The eddy current coupling unit has two gap/separated drive plates, one with a magnetic layer and the other with a current carrying layer. By adjusting the size of this gap, thetorque imparted to the grooved cam roller by the cam roller can be varied and since the grooved cam roller has a fixed diameter, adjustment of the gap likewise varies the yarn tension. The tension/torque control mechanism permits yarn to be wound onto spools at a uniform tension which can be changed to wind different yarn types onto different size spools.

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First Claim