Pacific Dunlop Limited

Ronald Anderson

Craig Trigg

Heinz Westermeir

Rob Blake

Apparatus is provided for sewing the crotch portion of a pair of aligned blanks of limp fabric and stacking the sewn blanks which comprises robots (10 and 20) located one on each side of an operator. Each of the robots (10 and 20) is capable of gripping and removing a limp fabric blank from an associated stack of blanks and transporting the blanks to an operator. The robots (10 and 20) have arms (26) capable of axial movement and movement in a vertical plane and additionally capable of rotating about their axes through an angle of 180.degree.. At least one of the robots (10,20) is capable of rotation about a vertical axis, effecting horizontal movement of the arm (26). The apparatus also comprises a sewing head (30) for sewing the crotch portion of the pair of aligned blanks, and a blank support/transfer carriage (41) adjacent the sewing head mounted for horizontal movement in a direction substantially parallel with the direction of sewing. A clamp unit (60) is associated with the blank support/transfer carriage (41). The apparatus also includes an integral gripping and stacking mechanism (52,57) which is capable of gripping and stacking the sewed blanks supported on the blank/transfer carriage (41) at the extremity of its movement away from the sewing head (30).

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Vermont, Australia

Ronald Anderson