Spencer Wright Industries, Inc.

Arthur F Bagnall

Harold B Bardsley

Edward C Lear

A yarn feed system (10) for a tufting machine comprises multiple pairs of feed rollers (11, 12) disposed one pair above the other. One of each pair of rollers (12) comprises multiple independent side-by-side axially aligned feed roller elements (13), each roller element (13) being mounted on a tufting machine in a releasable mounting (17, 18). In use the feed roller elements (13) can be released from the mounting (17, 18) if it is required to change the pattern to be produced in a tufted fabric or a thread breaks and the yarn feed system of the invention minimises the amount of rethreading necessary in these circumstances.

Yarn feed system for a tufting machine

A tufting machine including a reciprocating needle bar carrying needles has a yarn jerker including a stationary adjustable yarn guide and a combination yarn jerker and threader carried by the needle bar. The jerker-threader has a substantially U-shape configuration with little mass offset from the needle bar. At least one arm of the jerker-threader is substantially parallel to the axis of elongation of the needles. The stationary guide has a leg which is also substantially parallel to the axis of elongation of the needle. The stationary yarn guide, the jerker-threader and the needles each have eyelets parallel to one another. The jerker-threader and the yarn guide are spaced apart by a relatively small distance and are offset one from the other. The construction permits the apparatus to occupy only a small amount of space in the tufting machine and has very little mass offset from the needle bar in comparison to prior yarn jerker systems.

Yarn jerker and threader guide for tufting machines

A tufting machine having laterally shifting needles has a controlled amount of yarn fed to the needles, the amount of yarn being appropriate for the insertion of a diagonal back stitch such as arises during lateral shift of the needles relative to a backing material during the tufting operation. The yarn is wrapped about a plurality of rotating feed rollers each driven at a constant speed, the rollers having a smooth surface so that the yarn slips on the rollers until the needles induce sufficient tension on the yarn to cause it to grip and be driven by the rollers. The speed of the rollers is greater than the required to accommodate the yarn requirements of the needles if no slippage occurred between the yarn and the rollers. An additive tension may be applied between the feed rollers and the needles by a leaf spring and an anvil against which the leaf spring is biased, the yarn being fed between the anvil and the spring.

Yarn feed system for tufting machines

A tufting machine has an adjustable needle stroke mechanism including an adjustable variable eccentric drive. The output of the drive is applied to a transversely extending oscillatable mainshaft by means of a fixed length rocker arm adjustably clamped to the mainshaft. The mainshaft is adapted to carry rocker arms at each push rod for reciprocating the push rods and thus the needles. The variable eccentric drive includes a circular cam eccentrically disposed between a pair of drive plates mounted on and rotatably driven by a cam shaft. The cam drives a connecting rod for driving the fixed length rocker arm. The cam is connected by bolts to the drive plates extending through holes in the cam and elongated slots in the drive plates. The eccentricity of the cam may be adjusted by moving the cam relative to the cam shaft and securing the bolts at different locations within the drive plate slots. An indicator disk is mounted on the cam shaft and has a plurality of holes at varying distances from the axis of the cam shaft and receives two of the bolts in selected holes to indicate the stroke selected.

Tufting machine adjustable stroke mechanism

An indexing mechanism for a tufting machine for indexing a needle bar or a backing material feed roller has three oscillating input gear sectors, a drive transmission corresponding to each gear sector, an output member and a programmable selector mechanism for each drive transmission for periodically selectively coupling the corresponding drive transmission with the respective gear sector. The drive transmissions include a pair of epicyclic gear assemblies having planet gears mounted within a common planet cage. The sun gear of one of the assemblies is connected to a flywheel coupled to a transfer gear which may be selectively moved to receive motion from a first sector. The ring gear of one epicyclic gear assembly is coupled to a second transfer gear which may be selectively moved to receive motion from a second gear sector. The other epicyclic gear assembly has its ring gear coupled to a third transfer gear which may be selectively moved to receive motion from the third gear sector. The output member is connected to the sun gear of the section epicyclic gear assembly and is thus indexed in accordance with the cumulative inputs. The selector mechanism for each transmission includes a continuous chain having rollers disposed thereon in accordance with a pattern, the rollers acting to engage a lever attached to articulating linkage. The articulating linkage is biased to an overcenter position and is cyclically driven to move the respective transfer gear into mesh with the corresponding gear sector unless a roller engages the lever and collapses the linkage.

Tufting machine indexing drive apparatus

A tufting machine has a needle bar drive mechanism including a first shaft on which drive eccentrics are mounted for driving connecting rod means which reciprocate the needle bar push rods and thus the needle bar. A second shaft is mounted adjacent the first shaft and gears mounted on the respective shafts are in meshing engagement with each other so that upon rotation of one shaft the other shaft rotates in the opposite direction. Counterbalancing weights on the needle bar driving shaft are disposed 180.degree. out of phase with the reciprocation of the needle bar, and counterbalancing weights on the other shafts counterbalance the rotational forces of the needle bar driving shaft. The other shaft is drivingly rotated by the tufting machine motor and also carries the hook and knife drive eccentrics. The construction is such that the reciprocating and rotating forces are counterbalanced by the two shafts.

Drive for a tufting machine

A tufting machine has a needle bar shifter for moving the needle bar transversely of the direction of the movement of the backing fabric, a pattern cam determining the amount and frequency of the shifts. The cam is driven in timed relationship with the reciprocation of the needle bar at a cyclically variable speed. The drive for the cam includes an epicyclic gear arrangement having a constant speed input motion applied to the ring gear and an oscillatory motion applied to the planet gears. The output is taken at the sun gear and applied to the pattern cam. The same drive may also be used for driving the feed rollers to feed the base material at a cyclically variable speed when the needles are above the base material.

Tufting machine needle bar drive

A tufting machine has a transversely shiftable needle bar driven by a pattern cam, the needle bar is further acted upon by biasing mechanism arranged to urge it in a direction opposite to the direction it is being driven by the cam so as to take up the lost motion due to clearances in the cam drive system. The specific biasing mechanism disclosed is an air thruster acting on a pivotably mounted bracket having a roller acting on the needle bar in opposition to the load applied by the cam. The load is applied by a pivotably mounted arm connected to the cam drive. The arm is also connected by a rod to the bracket as an assurance.

Mechanism for improving tufting machine needle bar shifting

A yarn tension detector having a cage-like form pivotably moveable between predetermined limits about the pivot point and under the control of the tension of a moving yarn. The detector includes a pair of spaced abutment members in an electrical circuit with a lamp. The cage-like member makes a circuit whenever it engages one or the other of the abutments to thereby cause the bulb to light. The member also includes oppositely directed guide formations about which a yarn is trained and as the yarn is fed from a creel to, for example, a tufting machine the tension in the yarn as it moves through the guide formations pivots the member. One of the guide formations progressively opens when the yarn tension is in excess of a predetermined high tension to release the yarn from the detector after it has indicated the yarn tension fault. One detector for each yarn cone in a creel may be connected into a circuit having an indicator at the end of a creel alley to indicate when one of the detectors in the alley has a fault and all detectors may be connected to a display device to identify a specific detector.

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Whitefield, United Kingdom

Arthur F Bagnall