Gerber Garment Technology, Inc.

Harold L Osthus

Robert M Vaida

Lawrence S Wolfson

Roald P Nymark

John F De Raismes

David R Pearl

Richard Kuchta

David Vickers

Richard P Ray

Vernon Beausoleil

Richard Howitt

A production system for garments or other products includes a plurality of work stations for performing a series of work operations in which parts of a garment or other product are progressively manufactured. A conveyorized transport system extends between the various work stations and the flow of work between the various stations is regulated by assigning class codes to each operation required for a garment and each operation available at the various work stations. The class codes for a given garment order are read sequentially from a data memory and as a requirement for each code or work operation arises in the course of producing the garment, the scheduler searches a second data memory to locate the work stations which offer the work operations corresponding to the class code sought. The scheduler then determines from among the available work stations the specific work station to which the garment pieces are sent for performing the required work operation.

Production system for garments or other products

A hanger for use in a conveyorized system for transporting limp sheet material has a gripper assembly for quick loading and unloading of a unit of work material onto or off of the hanger and includes a longitudinally slidable gripping element cooperating with a fixed gripping surface urged toward the fixed surface by biasing device and is selectively actuated by fingertip pressure exerted on two laterally outwardly extending flanges respectively extending from a body portion supporting the gripping element and a top portion of the gripping element. The hanger may employ a carrier supporting a plurality of gripper assemblies oriented in a spaced relationship with one another and having means by which the orientation of each of the gripper assemblies may be changed.

Variable position carrier body

A conveyorized transport apparatus has an overhead rail system for transporting articles on a suspended trolley from one location to another. A moveable rail section in the system has a pivotal connection with an adjacent rail section to pivot the moveable section from a conveying position and a diverted position in which articles are delivered closer to a work station disposed laterally of the rail system.

Control scheme for apparatus with moveable rail section

A transfer slide is used in a conveyor system to advance a trolley from one position to another position and includes a body fixed to a free end of a rail and has a cavity formed substantially throughout its length. The body has longitudinally extending surfaces spaced apart from one another by an opening communicating with the cavity which surfaces provide a rolling surface upon which a trolley travels. A slide is received within the cavity of the body and reciprocates within the body in response to the reciprocating movements of an actuator means connected with the slide. The slide has a pusher device extending upwardly from the body and above the rail and which pusher device is engageable with the trolley to push it from the initial position to a final position.

Transfer slide assembly and system

Carrier and variable position carrier body

Conveyorized apparatus with moveable rail section

A hanger for use with a conveyor in a garment making plant or the like for holding limp sheet material includes a hanger rod for attachment to a conveyor trolley and a hanger body carrying, and forming in part, a plurality of grippers, each capable of holding a workpiece unit to the body. Each gripper is made up of a stationary gripping face on part of the hanger body and a grip elememnt supported for movement along a path giving it a wedging action on a work unit inserted in the gripper when the grip element is urged downwardly by the weight of the work unit and its engagement therewith.

Conveyor hanger with a plurality of movable grip elements

An escapement mechanism for advancing a leading one of a row of gravity biased objects supported on a guide comprises a leading stop bracket and a trailing stop bracket pivotally mounted in fixed relation to one another and a piston and cylinder assembly, which pivots the two brackets. The brackets are angularly displaced relative to one another such that at one time, one stop bracket is in the path of the objects to back them up and the other stop is out of the path of said objects. The objects back up against the leading stop bracket and then the piston and cylinder assembly simultaneously pivots the trailing stop bracket into the path of the object immediately behind the leading object and pivots the leading stop bracket out of the path of the leading object to allow the leading object to advance by gravity beyond the escapement mechanism. At a later time, the piston and cylinder assembly simultaneously pivots the leading stop bracket back into the path of the remaining objects and swings the trailing stop bracket out of the path of the remaining objects so that the remaining objects back up against the leading stop bracket.

Escapement mechanism

A conveyorized transport system which can be used to transport workpieces to a series of subsidiary loops, comprises a main rail, workpiece carrying trolleys movable on the main rail, a subsidiary loop adjacent to the main rail which leads to a work station, a special switch to transfer a trolley between the main rail and the subsidiary loop, and a computer to track and control the movement of the workpieces. The main rail and the subsidiary loop each have a gap laterally spaced from one another, and each switch includes a transfer rail section which can be moved laterally between the gap in the main rail and the gap in the subsidiary loop to transfer a trolley between the main rail and the subsidiary loop. One specific embodiment of the transport system also includes a chain-driven pusher extending downward from an overhead track which drives said trolley while it is being transferred between the main rail and the subsidiary loop.

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West Willington, CT, United States of America

Harold L Osthus