Apparatus for producing tufted goods using yarns of different color or

Abstract

Apparatus for producing tufted textile goods employs a plurality of hollow needles which serve as backing openers, the backing openers being carried on a widthwise extending member which is reciprocated in a vertical direction to cause the backing openers to penetrate a backing. Yarn is transported pneumatically through the backing openers and implanted into the backings as yarn tufts, the backing being shifted in the transverse direction by an amount corresponding to the spacing between adjacent backing openers in order to implant a transverse row of tufts. Each yarn is trained about a feed roller which is selectively moved into peripheral engagement with a drive roller when the yarn is to be fed to the needle. The yarn transverses a path from the feed roller to the needle which includes a yarn clamp and a yarn pullback mechanism. When yarn is being fed the clamp is released and the pullback mechanism provides a first path for the yarn to travel to the needle, but when that yarn is no longer to be fed to that needle, but when that yarn is no longer to be fed to that needle, the clamp is actuated to clamp the yarn and the pullback mechanism thereafter draws the yarn back from the needle into a second and longer path, and the feed roller is disengaged from the drive roller. A knife blade is associated with each backing opener and positioned on the opposite side of the backing so as to engage the flat angled surface of the backing opener which forms its pointed tip.