Apparatus for doffing bobbin tubes from support members

An apparatus for doffing textile bobbin tubes from tube support members having posts projecting therefrom for supporting tubes thereon as the tube support members are conveyed along a transport path by a transport device with the tube support members being slidably supported on the transport device to allow stoppage of a tube support member as a tube is doffed without deactivating the transport device is disclosed. The tube doffing apparatus comprises a pair of opposed tube engaging and doffing devices having tube engaging surfaces which may be conveyor belts with guide and support rollers straddling the path of posts of support members traveling along the transport path and extending away from the transport path in the general direction of projection of the support member posts. These devices are disposed for engaging a tube on a post of a support member supported on the transport path and thereby stopping the support member while removing the tube from the post. The surfaces converge transversely in the downstream direction of the transport path from an upstream spacing therebetween greater than the transverse extent of the tube on a support member to a downstream spacing less than the transverse extent of a tube and greater than the transverse extent of the post of the tube support member to allow a support member from which a tube has been removed to resume travel along the transport path past the doffing apparatus.