Textile machine including air cleaning apparatus

Claim 1

A textile machine having a textile processing unit in combination with air transport and cleaning means for aspirating air from a source of air for use by said textile processing unit and for thereafter cleaning said air of textile and fiber remnants as well as of airborne dust particles, said air transport and cleaning means including: a housing, a fiber separator including a rotatable conveyor screw rotatably supported in said housing, a filter at least partially surrounding said conveyor screw in closely spaced relationship therewith, said fiber separator being provided with stationary means for preventing co-rotation of the filtered remnants in said fiber separator with said conveyor screw, said air transport means being arranged to supply said fiber separator with dirty air containing fibers and dust, said dirty air passing across said conveyor screw and through said filter so that trapped fiber remnants are conveyed axially by said conveyor screw toward one end thereof, said fiber separator further including a flexible trap at one end of said conveyor screw, said flexible trap having a central opening which may be enlarged by the pressure of accumulating fiber remnants being transported by said conveyor screw thereby permitting said remnants to be expelled therethrough; and a dust separator in said housing, means in said housing for directing air from said fiber separator into said dust separator after passage through said filter, said dust separator including at least one dust filter bag for removing dust from the air, said dust separator further including means for applying periodic bursts of compressed air to said at least one dust filter bag to dislodge accumulated dust therefrom.