Levi Strauss & Co.

Other

Ivanhoe Research Corporation

Hubert Blessing

Ted M Ray

Richard L Harrington

Lawrence Wafford

Gene F Croyle

E Lennart Lindstedt

Kenneth A Benjamin

James E Hiegel

William R Rathkamp

Gaylord D Allison

Robert D Eckerson

Alfred E Mally

A method and apparatus for disclosed for shingling stacks composed of flexible planar objects, such as fabric workpieces. The stack is placed over an axis connecting two hinged support surfaces which are rotated relative to one another to bend the workpieces and form a shingle. For subsequent shingling, the rough shingled stack is driven on a conveyor under a series of spreading rollers having positive pressure to drive the rollers onto the stack.

Fabric stack shingler

An apparatus is disclosed for selectively inverting flexible and limp planar workpieces such as fabric. The apparatus includes a primary workpiece propeller having a cylindrical means for contacting the workpiece about a central rotating axis. A slot of sufficient size to receive the workpiece is positioned in a substantially vertical orientation beneath the primary propeller. The slot preferably has a flared upper end positioned directly beneath and in contact or near contact with the propeller. The fabric is drawn into the slot by the rotation of the propeller and follows the contour of the flared open end of the slot. The fabric enters into the slot until the trailing edge of the fabric is in contact with the primary propeller. The trailing edge of the fabric is drawn by the propeller to the opposite side of the flared opening of the slot and is subsequently pulled out of the slot. Collisions are prevented between workpieces by a control circuit that instructs the workpieces when to leave the apparatus.

Fabric turner

An apparatus is disclosed for flipping over flexible and limp planar workpieces such as fabric. The apparatus includes a primary workpiece propeller having a cylindrical means for contacting the workpiece about a central rotating axis. A slot of sufficient size to receive the workpiece is positioned in a vertical orientation beneath the primary propeller. The slot preferably has a flared upper end positioned directly beneath and in contact or near contact with the propeller. The fabric is drawn into the slot by the rotation of the propeller and follows the contour of the flared open end of the slot. The fabric enters into the slot until the trailing edge of the fabric is in contact with the primary propeller. The trailing edge of the fabric is gripped by the propeller and thereby drawn to the opposite side of the flared opening of the slot and is subsequently pulled out of the slot. The fabric has thereby been inverted so that the top of the fabric is now on the bottom.

A water tight, single, horizontally rotatable drum washing machine is provided. The frustum interior shape of the drum combined with the centrifugal force generated by rotating the drum moves liquids in the drum to the base of the frustum where the liquids can be removed. The washing machine may be adapted for use as a garment dryer by providing a source of forced air, or for a variety of other garment processing steps, such as dyeing, thus enabling the complete finishing of garments in one operation.

Centrifugally draining single drum washing machine

Apparatus for the seriatim separation and feeding of garment parts from a shingled stack of the parts to a predetermined destination. Comprising the apparatus is a picker head containing a depending array of needles adapted to positively engage the leading edge of the uppermost part on the stack. The picker head is supported for arcuate motion in the course of effecting separation of the engaged first part, and is arcuately displaced at a high rate of acceleration to aid in overcoming the resistance to separation between the first and second parts in the stack. Following separation, the separated part is transferred to a second location at which the head is withdrawn from the transferred part. Operable concomitantly with part separation by the picker head is a hold down clamp for applying a predetermined downward force on the remaining stacked parts while a vacuum force is being applied from underneath for retarding this displacement in the course of the engaged part being separated.

Separating and feeding garment parts

A vision apparatus for indicating the locations of edges of work pieces in an illuminated work area including several arrays where each array includes several light conducting fibers. One end of the array is positioned in the work area to be illuminated by light except when blocked by the object. The other end of the optical fibers are positioned in a matrix plate contained within a camera enclosure. The camera enclosure further includes a lens to optically couple light from the matrix plate optical fiber ends to a light sensing device that produces electrical signals indicating the presence or absence of light at each of the fiber ends.

High resolution optical fiber array and article position determining

Stacked fabric parts are separated and fed seriatim by apparatus having an endless conveyor which feeds the stack into position for separating the uppermost part from the stack. A mechanism having a knife edge bar or opposed fabric engaging needles is lowered and engages the part for dragging the part to be separated off of the stack. The second part on the stack is held with the stack by a pressure force by a series of vacuum providing orifices or recesses in a horizontally disposed support surface and/or by retractable fabric piercing needles. The part separating and translating bar is connected to a support plate which may be vibrated in a generally horizontal plane to assist in breaking the frictional connection between the part to be separated and the remaining parts in the stack as they are separated from each other. The separated parts are presented seriatim to a guide surface which guides the part under the conveyance of an air jet stream along a feed path to another work station.

Separating and feeding fabric parts

A workpiece is centered on a transparent work surface by optically transposing one edge of the workpiece to a point beneath the work surface and adjacent the opposite edge of the workpiece and then sliding the workpiece sideways until the transposed edge image is aligned with the actual second edge of the workpiece.

Workpiece centering apparatus and method

Straps or belt loop strips are formed with the apparatus and method of the present invention by folding a strip of fabric about a strip of fusible material, threading the folded, combined strip back and forth between two side-by-side, counter-rotating cylinders so that, in the preferred embodiment, the strip forms a plurality of figure eight patterns over and between the two cylinders, and heating the cylinders to a temperature which is above the melting point of the fusible strip but below the scorching point of the material. The speed at which the cylinders are counter-rotated with respect to each other is chosen, in conjunction with the number of loops of the combined strip over the cylinders, to place the combined strip in contact with the heated surface for a length of time sufficient to accomplish complete fusing.

Apparatus for fusing strips

In order to allow a sewing machine to continuously sew workpieces fed to it by a conveyor during periods when the conveyor is stopped for workpiece loading, drive means are provided for cyclically moving the sewing machine back and forth alongside the conveyor parallel to the direction of conveyor travel, while simultaneously driving the conveyor at twice the sewing machine's rate of travel when it moves in the direction of workpiece feed and for stopping the conveyor when the sewing machine is traveling in the opposite direction.

Continuous sewer

Apparatus for independently guiding two overlaid fabric workpieces as they are simultaneously fed through a sewing work station and are seamed together, wherein the guide apparatus comprises a pair of opposed guide wheels located upstream from the work station with respect to the direction of workpiece feed through the work station; separate servo motors for rotating guide wheels in planes perpendicular to the direction of workpiece feed; a separating bar for spacing apart the two workpieces and for individually pressing them against a different one of the guide wheels; and separate sensors for monitoring the edges of each workpiece and for controlling the servo motors separately to rotate their guide wheels so as to center each workpiece edge opposite its corresponding sensor.

Hemmer-seamer

A belt loop is made by folding the longitudinal edges of an elongated fabric strip over a strip of fusible material and then heating the folded strip until the fusible material diffuses into the fabric and not only bonds the folded edges to the strip but also fuses together the fabric fibers to prevent fraying.

Fused belt loop strips

Alternate facing plies in a single stack are separated by this apparatus into two separate piles. The apparatus of the invention includes a head for differentiating each top layer from the feed stack and a transporter for transporting the differentiated top layers alternately to a first location and to a second location. The differentiating head includes a movable, rotating element for curling back one or more of the edges of the top layer from the edges of the next underlying layer in the stack and thereafter lifting the layer with the curled edges away from the stack.

Facing ply separator

Method and apparatus for fusing strips

Apparatus is disclosed for hemming successive pieces of fabric as they are moved past a sewing machine by a transport then clipping the stitching chain between pieces and removing each hemmed fabric piece from the stitching path and transporting it to a receiving position.

Growing community of inventors

Dallas, TX, United States of America

Hubert Blessing