Spencer Wright Industries, Inc.

William H Satterfield

A tufting machine includes a pattern attachment mounted between a yarn feeding device and the needles, the yarn feeding device feeding yarn to the needles at a constant rate in an amount sufficient to accommodate the yarn requirements of the needle and looper system. The pattern attachment includes a series of slats rotatable about an axis in timed relationship to the reciprocation of the needles. Each slat includes a yarn receiving groove corresponding to each needle, certain of the grooves being shallower than others. A first yarn guide directs yarn from the feeding device to the pattern attachment while a second yarn guide directs yarn from the pattern attachment toward the needles. The slats are mounted on chains fastened to sprockets mounted on a driven shaft. The yarn is tensioned so that the full amount of yarn fed by the feeding device may be received by the needles, and when yarn enters a shallow groove, the yarn is pulled back from the respective needle resulting in a loop that is shorter than when the full amount of yarn is received by the needle.

Tufting machine patterning apparatus

A hand-held mending gun for tufting stitches into a backing material has a hollow needle reciprocably driven axially and oscillated laterally so as to form stitches in a backing material laterally offset from other stitches. Zig-zag backstitches may thus be formed as may other laterally offset stitches. A crank drives a needle carrier in a reciprocating path extending longitudinally along the axis of the needle. The elongated path is defined by constraining the needle carrier to move within a slot in a pivotally mounted yoke member having a pair of spaced apart tines disposed about a cam so that rotation of the cam oscillates the yoke member about the pivot. The cam is driven by gears such that it may make one cycle For each two cycles of reciprocation of the needle to form alternate laterally offset stitches. Cams of various configurations may be utilized so that more than one stitch may be provided at each lateral side.

Shifting needle carpet mender

A tufting machine has a plurality of needles, each needle having a pair of eyes and cooperating with a pair of loop pile loopers seizing loops of yarn from a respective eye. The needle has an elongated yarn receiving groove extending along the surface of the needle facing the direction in which backing material is being fed. Each eye opens into the groove for receiving yarn guided along the groove. The point of the needle is offset relative to the longitudinal axis of the needle so that the needle does not enter loops previously shed by the loopers when relatively high pile height fabric is produced. The loopers of each pair of loopers have bills which point in the direction the backing material is being fed, the bills converging in the direction in which they point. The loopers of each looper pair are laterally spaced apart and each looper of the pair enters a clearance above a respective eye for seizing loops of yarn presented through the eye. The needle and the looper pair cooperate to form a series of loop pile loops in a row which form a non-aligned array resulting in a non-linear appearance of the loops.

Tufting apparatus and method for forming loop pile

A hand-held tufting mending gun has a housing to which a pneumatic cylinder is fixedly mounted, the piston rod of the cylinder being connected to a needle drive member. The needle drive member is a gear rack and has its teeth in mesh with a pinion gear, the pinion gear in turn meshes with another gear rack formining the drive member of a yarn manipulating plunger. A hollow needle is attached to the forward end of the needle drive member and a yarn manipulating member is attached to the front of the plunger drive member. The piston of the pneumatic cylinder is double acting and pushes the needle drive member to drive it forwardly and pulls it back to drive it rearwardly, the action being controlled by operator influenced valving. As the needle moves forwardly, the plunger moves rearwardly and vice versa. An operator influenced trigger may control valving such that each depression and release of the trigger cycles the piston once to form one stitch, or may control valving which results in a series of stitches slowly being formed while the trigger is depressed. The single stitch or the slowly formed stitches provide an operator with control so that stitches may be inserted at precise locations to correct faults in a carpet being produced.

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Dalton, GA, United States of America

William H Satterfield