Spencer Wright Industries, Inc.

Ian Slattery

Gary L Ingram

Harold B Bardsley

Ian Beverly

Herbert B Price

Wheeler E Phillips

Aubrey H Biggs

Jack G Workman

A tufting machine has a yarn feed pattern assembly including a housing having a mounting plate for mounting a multiplicity of yarn feed rollers from the exterior of said mounting plate and a multiplicity of servo motors connected to said mounting plate on the interior of said housing. Each servo motor is connected to a respective feed roller. A multiplicity of tubes extend within said housing, half the tubes directing yarn from a source to respective rollers and half of the tubes directing yarn from the rollers to respective needles. The guide tubes direct yarn from the interior of said housing through said mounting plate where the yarn is trained about a respective roller and directed back into the yarn guide leading toward the needles of said tufting machine.

Tufting machine yarn feed pattern control

A tufting machine for forming loop pile and cut pile selectively in the same row of stitching has a controllably actuated latch carried by a reciprocating bar member for selectively coupling to and driving a needle carrier to a first position into cooperation with a loop seizing member beneath the backing material. The bar member and needle carrier have cooperating abutment members which engage when the latch is not actuated, and the abutment members act to drive the needle carrier not as far downwardly as when the latch is actuated, so that the needle is not driven downwardly as far as the first level and cooperates with the loop seizing member at the higher level. When the needle is driven to the lower level a loop of yarn from the needle is seized and retained by the loop seizing member and is subsequently cut, while at the higher level the loop is seized and then shed to form loop pile. The loop seizing edge of the bill of the loop seizing member is substantially at or slightly below the level of the loop retaining and cutting edge of the blade of the hook, and a downwardly extending nib between the blade and the bill precludes the shed loop from entering the blade of the hook.

Tufting machine and method for producing level cut and loop pile

An individually controlled needle tufting machine having loopers with beaks pointing in the same direction as the backing material being fed through the machine so as to form loop pile has means for laterally shifting the backing material continuously first in one direction and then in the other. The method is disclosed utilizing this apparatus for forming zig-zag backstitches with selective needles by stitching during each cycle of the machine, while in other selective needles linear backstitches are formed by driving those needles during alternate cycles. Fabrics are produced utilizing this method wherein the loop density produced can be selectively chosen for various portions of the fabric so as to provide patterning effects. By foregoing the shifting of the backing material similar, but less pronounced patterning effects may be attained.

Method of forming tufted pile fabric

Knife holder for tufting machines

A needle plate for a controlled needle tufting machine utilized for overtufting secondary yarn into a backing material having a primary pile previously formed therein. The needle plate has needle plate fingers disposed with the upper support surfaces above the needle plate support surface by an amount substantially equal to the pile height of the primary yarn tufts. As the backing material with the primary tufts is fed over the needle plate it is raised relative to the needle plate as it rides over the finger support surfaces. The hooks of the tufting machine may therefore be raised so that the pile height of the loops of secondary yarn being overtufted may be reduced by an amount substantially equal to that of the pile height of the primary tufts. This results in reducing the required amount of tip shearing of the secondary pile to bring it level with that of the primary pile. Preferably the fingers have a height substantially equal to the pile height of the primary tufts to provide sufficient support for the fabric and prevent interference of the hooks with the primary pile.

Tufting machine for overtufting

A tufting machine has apparatus for feeding the backing material at a first speed for forming tufts having a backstitch of a first length and periodically selectively increasing the feeding rate to a second speed to form tufts having a backstitch of an increased length. The longer backstitch may be a plurality of stitches slightly longer than the first length or a single elongated backstitch. The fabric produced may have a series of tufts projecting from the surface of the backing material in areas having one or more yarn densities and separated by gaps where no tufts project above the surface, the gaps resulting from the elongated backstitches on the reverse side of the material. The apparatus for providing backstitches including the gaps has an intermittent drive which provides an output only during a small portion of the input. A drive shaft is drivingly connected to the feed rollers of the tufting machine and is connected to the input of the intermittent drive through a first one-way clutch and through a second one-way clutch to a driveable member on a control shaft driven by the output of the intermittent clutch. A pattern controlled air operated tooth clutch selectively couples the driveable member to the control shaft. Another pattern controlled air clutch may be utilized to drive the control shaft for providing backstitches slightly longer than the first length.

Method and apparatus for tufting patterned fabric

A mounting comb for a tufting machine for mounting the needle plate fingers so that the fingers may be readily replaced without requiring substantial cutting of base material. The combs have a base member including a plurality of slots for receiving respective elongated fingers, and at least one securing member releasably assembled to the base member for positively locking the fingers in the comb. In two embodiments the base member has a shallow elongated channel and one securing member is positionable within the channel to clamp the fingers into the slots. In one of these embodiments the securing member is a thin elongated bar, while in the other the securing member is a portion of a base plate upon which the comb is mounted. In another embodiment the base portion and the securing portion each have spaced lands including finger receiving slots through each of the lands. The members are securable together with the lands of one of the members disposed between the lands of the other members, and a pair of cooperating wall portions of the respective members clamp the fingers therebetween. In the preferred embodiment the base member has a channel in which a plurality of securing members in the form of threaded fasteners are received, each fastener engaging a pair of fingers.

Needle plate finger comb for tufting machines

A knife mounting block for a tufting machine is formed with a pair of reference surfaces one of which forms the angle of inclination and the other forms the angle of canter that the knives make with the tufting machine hooks, the reference surfaces cooperating with corresponding surfaces of the tufting machine knife bar. One of the reference surfaces includes a slot which receives a pin extending from the knife bar so as to determine the gauge between respective knife blocks. Positioning of the knife blocks on the bar will engage the pin within the slots and accurately gauge the blocks and thus the knives at the proper gauge. The knife bar may include a slidable member from which the gauging pins extend so that the pins can be adjusted to match the gauge of the hooks and compensate for accumulative gauging tolerances of the needle bar of the tufting machine. The knife blocks can thus be removed from the tufting machine and returned to the exact position when required.

Knife blocks

A combination cut/loop hook and clip for tufting machines in which the mounting portion of the hook remote from the beak includes a longitudinal groove for receiving the tail portion of the clip. The groove includes a pair of female formations in the form of holes for receiving corresponding male formations on the clip tail portion in a detachable press-fit relationship. The spacing between the formations are such that the crease of the enlarged portion of the clip properly resiliently engages the beak. A worn clip may be readily removed from the hook and replaced by another clip without discarding a useable hook.

Cut/loop hook for tufting machines

Tufting apparatus and method for producing a high density tufted fabric in a wide range of gauges and patterns. In one embodiment the needles and backing material support fingers are laterally shifted together by a common drive controlled by a cam having pattern information thereon. The needles and fingers are shifted in a first direction while the needles are outside the backing material and are thereafter shifted back toward the original position after the needles have penetrated and are within the backing material. In another embodiment the needles are shifted in accordance with a first cam operated pattern control, and the support fingers are shifted by means of a second cam actuated pattern control. Provision may be made in the common drive for adjusting the amount of lateral shift provided by a single cam and/or utilization of the same cam with machines having different gauge part spacings. An additional feature is the provision of shifting the needles in a first direction and jogging the backing material in an opposite direction to provide a high density fabric having various patterns.

Tufting machines

A fine gauge cut pile tufting machine has a needle mounting apparatus for supporting the needles in two staggered rows with the needles in one row being adjustable in the direction of the row to vary the stagger and compensate for the differential deflection of the hooks cooperating with each row. The needle mounting apparatus includes a needle bar housing carrying needle holding blocks corresponding to each row of needles. The needle mounting blocks are secured to the needle block housing by a bolt passing through an enlarged aperture in the adjustable needle block and secured to the fixed needle block, and adjustable locking members at each end of the needle bar housing for adjustably fixing the longitudinal position of the adjustable needle block.

Staggered needle bar for tufting machines

A cut pile tufting machine having needle plate backing support fingers oscillated in timed relationship with the hooks and the needles to support the backing material during needle penetration and to withdraw from the needle path as the hooks move across the needle path to seize loops has the bill of the hooks reduced in thickness on a portion thereof. The bill has a lower or cutting edge and an upper edge, and the portion of reduced thickness is provided by narrowing the upper edge relative to the lower edge along that portion of the bill on which a loop seized by the hook is drawn against and cut.

Tufting machine hook for forming low pile fabric

A staggered needle cut pile tufting machine having needle plate backing support fingers oscillated in timed relationship with the hooks and the needles of the machine to support the backing material during needle penetration and to withdraw from the needle path as the hooks move across the needle path to seize respective loops. The support fingers are substantially straight parallel members with alternate fingers being elongated relatively to the remaining fingers so that the fingers provide support of the backing material adjacent the penetration points of the respective staggered needles in the front and rear rows. The straight parallel fingers provide clearance for the needle plate to be withdrawn from the needle array so that a path is provided for the hooks to be closely adjacent the backing material for forming very low fine gauge cut pile fabrics. The fingers are mounted in a modular block member within which they are cast, the modules being mounted on a rocker arm carried by a common rock shaft with the rocker arm on which the hooks are mounted so that the fingers oscillate in opposition to the oscillation of the hooks.

Tufting machine

A cut pile tufting machine having cut pile hooks and cooperating knives pointing in the direction oppositely to the direction in which base material is being fed includes loop pile loopers in a selective array in the same mounting member as the cut pile hooks and pointing in the direction oppositely to that in which the fabric is being fed. A wiper cooperates with each loop pile looper to push loops of yarn seized by the looper off the beak of the looper to form loop pile. The wipers are mounted in knife blocks with the knives and rock into loop pushing relationship with the loop pile loopers as the knives rock into cutting engagement with the loops on the cut pile hooks. The loopers have an elongated inclined blade terminating at the beak which is spaced below the cutting edge of the hook relatively to the base material. Yarn feed rolls feed less yarn to the needles that cooperate with the loopers than required so that as each loop is formed the preceeding loop is backrobbed to the same level as the cut pile.

Growing community of inventors

Hixson, TN, United States of America

Ian Slattery