The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 13, 1996
Filed:
Jul. 06, 1994
James T Frazer, Coral Springs, FL (US);
David B Scott, Coral Springs, FL (US);
James F Bondanza, Fremont, CA (US);
L&P Property Management Company, Chicago, IL (US);
Abstract
A quilting machine includes a multiple needle quilter with a panel cutter located in-line therewith and downstream thereof and having an accumulator therebetween. A programmable controller operates the quilter to stitch a programmed series of one or more patterns on a web. A feed roller angular encoder measures the quilted web length fed under tension to the accumulator. A detector signals when the accumulator is full, whereupon the controller causes web to be fed from the accumulator to the panel cutter, where it passes without tension thereon toward a photo sensor. The photo sensor signals the controller which activates the cutter to sever a predetermined panel length from the web. The controller then reads information from the encoder and the accumulator detector to determine the amount of stressed quilt required to replenish the cutoff panel length. The ratio of measurements is then processed to determine the elongation change or 'shrinkage', which information is used to control the relative feed at the quilter, cutter and fabric supply and to track the quilted patterns and splices in the fabric of the web through the machine.