Improvements relating to machines for the compressive-shrinking of textile fabrics

864,063. Compressive shrinking machines. BRADFORD DYERS ASSOCIATION Ltd. Aug. 15, 1957 [Aug. 16, 1956], No. 25117/56. Class 42 ( 1 ). A machine for the compressive shrinkage of fabrics has two rollers 3 and 4 around which passes a contractible belt 15 engaged by a positively-driven pressure - roller 5 adjustable horizontally by an hydraulic mechanism 11 and 12, the roller 4 being slidable in guides 23 and 24 and controlled by screws 25 so that when it is necessary to change the belt this roller may be moved so that the arms 29 and 31 of the two rollers 3 and 4 may be fastened together, thus providing a single unit which can be lifted bodily from the frame or swung bodily away from one side of the frame. An extension tube 34 (Fig. 8) is then fitted over the shaft of the roller 3 and supported at its free end so that the belt 15 may be removed from the rollers which are then supported from hooks 32 whilst a new belt is fitted on the extension tube before being transferred to the rollers. Instead of being completely removed from the frame the unit comprising the two rollers may be swung about a vertical axis in one side of the frame, the belt then being removed.