Spencer Wright Industries, Inc.

The Singer Company

Tooling and Machine Development, Inc.

Jimmie D Scott

William F Weldon

Gary L Ingram

Randel P Smith

Richard J Prichard

A centering gauge tool for determining if an axial bore is disposed concentrically relative to a desired center. The tool preferably has four sensing fingers equally spaced about a conical core, the finger being resiliently biased away from the surface of the core and depressible against the resilient urging into engagement with an electrical contact member connected in a circuit with lights and a source of electrical energy. When the tool is inserted within the bore of a workpiece and the bore is concentric about the axis of the workpiece relative to axes the tool, all of the indicator fingers will be depressed substantially simultaneously to light all the indicators. If the bore is eccentric, when the tool is inserted within the bore less than all the fingers will engage the wall of the bore and effect a lighting of less than all the indicators. An operator may thereafter provide correction of either the workpiece or a machine tool in which the centering gauge tool may be mounted to correct for the eccentricity. Preferably the indicator lights are of different colors thereby to indicate which finger or fingers have been depressed by contact with the wall of a bore.

Centering gauge tool

Combined mixing and carrying board for plastic material

A tufting machine having belt and pulley drive system for driving the yarn feed rolls and backing fabric feed rollers from the main shaft has rotational speed sensors for determining the rotational speed of the main shaft, the yarn feed rolls, the input shaft to the fabric feed rollers, and the front and rear fabric feed rollers. Each sensor emits a pulse whenever a tooth of a gear on the shaft passes so that a pulse train is generated. The pulse trains are transmitted through selector switch to a speed ratio indicator and to a digital tachometer. The speed ratio indicator displays the ratio of the selected signals so that representations of pile height, density, stitches per inch of backing fabric can be monitored.

Tufting machine monitor

A cut-pile tufting machine is disclosed having a module rotatably supporting a plurality of circular knife blades driven by gears mounted on a common shaft with the blades. The module also carries idler gears in mesh with the drive gears for driving them from gearing on a drive shaft mounted in the tufting machine bed when the modules are installed.

Rotary knife module for tufting machines

A cut-pile tufting machine is disclosed having a module rotatably supporting a plurality of circular knife blades driven by fluid driven turbine wheels. The module includes a nozzle for each turbine wheel communicating with a manifold within the body of the module. The module also includes a fluid passageway communicating with the manifold and a source of fluid supplied under pressure to a plurality of modules. Each knife blade acts within a slot of a tufting machine hook to cut the loops of yarn as they move thereon.

A yarn feed roller assembly for a tufting machine pattern attachment for controlling the amount of yarn supplied to the needles of the machine in accordance with a pattern. The assembly includes a plurality of roller sets, each roller of the set having an inner race secured for rotation to a shaft driven at a different speed than the other rollers of the set. The roller also has an outer race journally supported on the inner race for rotation relative thereto. The outer race has a toothed ring at the inner circumference and the inner race carries a plurality of toothed segments adapted for coupling engagement with the ring to drive the outer race. The segments are comprised of magnetic material and an external magnetic field is selectively energized to attract the segments of one or the other rollers into engagement with its ring to feed yarn at the rate of the selected roller.

Yarn feed roller assembly

A tufting machine having a needle plate supported for lateral movement relative to the needles. The needle plate may be shifted laterally in accordance with a pattern. The support for the needle plate includes a pair of laterally extending rods movable in bearing members secured to the tufting machine. Picker rolls on the leading edge of the needle plate provide a positive gripping action between the backing fabric and the needle plate during the shifting movements.

Shiftable needle plate

A yarn feed roller assembly for tufting machine pattern attachments for controlling the amount of yarn supplied to the needles of the tufting machine in accordance with a pattern. The assembly includes a plurality of parallel modules each of which comprises a housing mounting a shaft on which a plurality of clutch members and respective drive members are mounted within the housing. A yarn feed roller is secured to one end of the shaft which extends outside the module housing. Means are provided to drive each drive member of the module at a different speed, corresponding drive members of all the modules being drivingly connected to one another. The clutches are selectively energized to transmit the speed of a selected drive member to the shaft and thereby to the roller. All the module housings are mounted in cantilevered fashion on a frame and each may be individually readily removed for maintenance.

Growing community of inventors

Harrison, TN, United States of America

Jimmie D Scott