Chesebrough-pond's Inc.

Other

Elbert Engle

A machine for automatically forming a placket on a garment, for example on a front of a child's shirt, makes use of a clamping and straightening apparatus which has a pair of clamp members which engage the garment piece along a segmented edge, straighten the edge and then transport the edge past a sewing machine which attaches a strip of lining material.

Placket lining machine

A machine for separating single plies of fabric from a stack of fabric plies uses a roller provided with a fabric ply engaging mechanism. The roller engages the top ply of fabric and removes it with a rolling action. The engaging mechanism comprises a pivotable rod mounted on the roller and provided with protruding pins which engage the top ply of fabric from the stack as the rod is pivoted. The machine can be arranged to sort alternate plies of fabric from one stack into separate stacks. The machine can be provided with an adjustable support for holding the stack and with a detector for detecting the presence of a single fabric ply on the roller. The engaging mechanism is provided with a pair of pin holders whose spacing can be varied, the roller is provided with a plurality of rows of air holes to provide air flow to aid in separating a single ply from the stack, a detection arrangement is included which can detect folds in the single ply during its transport on the roller, and the adjustable support uses an improved arrangement for maintaining an essentially constant upward pressure by the stack against the roller during pickup despite changes in the size of stack as it is depleted by removal of the plies.

Apparatus for separating stacks of cloth

A microprocessor-controlled machine and method for automatically removing adjacent pieces from a stack of fabric plies, properly orienting these pieces adjacent one another, and joining these pieces by sewing at least one stitch or seam, to form a partially sewn garment such as a T-shirt sewn at the shoulder seams. The machine includes fabric positioning and engaging mechanisms, and a transport means for engaging and conveying fabric pieces while maintaining engaged portions thereof in predetermined alignment. The over-all machine includes three portions: a positioning portion having a plurality of movable platforms and a traveling carriage equipped with a powered roller that carries a fabric engaging mechanism; a sewing portion having a sewing machine, a plurality of platforms and a fabric transport mechanism that includes a pin chain for automatically engaging and transporting fabric past the sewing machine while maintaining the engaged fabric in proper alignment; and an unload/stacker portion for disengaging the partially sewn garment from the pin chain and automatically stacking same.

Apparatus for sewing a curved seam

A dual-chain sewing machine for aligning the edges and the corresponding seam tracks of pieces of a garment that have different curvatures and for sewing the pieces together along the seam tracks includes two flexible, elongated carriers, which move at approximately the same linear speed and which are mounted and arranged for motion around continuous paths. Each carrier has pins extending from it in a direction transverse to the direction of movement, with the pins of one carrier extending toward the pins of the other carrier. A first fabric piece is applied to the pins of the first carrier when a pin bearing portion of the first carrier is in a path segment corresponding to the seam track on the first fabric piece; a second fabric piece is applied to the pins of the second carrier when a pin bearing portion of the second carrier is in a path segment corresponding to the seam track on the second fabric piece. The second carrier is guided toward the first carrier so that the pins of the first carrier engage the second fabric piece, and then the second carrier is guided away from the first carrier. Consequently, the second fabric piece is transferred from the second carrier to the first carrier and aligned with the first fabric piece already on the pins of the first carrier. The first carrier transports the fabric pieces to a sewing machine, which sews them together along the desired seam track.

Dual-chain sewing machine

A machine for separating single plies of fabric from a stack of fabric plies uses a roller provided with a fabric ply engaging mechanism. The roller engages the top ply of fabric and removes it with a rolling action. The engaging mechanism comprises a pivotable rod mounted on the roller and provided with protruding pins which engage the top ply of fabric from the stack as the rod is pivoted. The machine can be arranged to sort alternate plies of fabric from one stack into separate stacks. The machine can be provided with an adjustable support for holding the stack and with a detector for detecting the presence of a single fabric ply on the roller.

Growing community of inventors

Ashville, AL, United States of America

Elbert Engle