JP-2022003188-A - TUFTING MACHINE SHIFT MECHANISM
Abstract
To provide a tufting machine shift mechanism.SOLUTION: A tufting machine shift mechanism controls a crossing lateral shift movement of a series of needles of a tufting machine across a backing material in order to form cut and/or loop pile tuft of a series of threads in the backing according to a pattern. The shit mechanism includes a motor-control type rack and pinion shift control assembly having one or more pinions that are driven by engaging with a rack coupled to at least one needle bar of the tufting machine and individually driven by a motor in order to control the crossing shift movement of the needles.SELECTED DRAWING: None
Inventors
- RICKY E MATHEWS
Assignees
- CARD MONROE CORP
Dates
- Publication Date
- 20220111
- Application Date
- 20211025
- Priority Date
- 20180312
Claims (1)
- The invention described herein.
Description
(Field of invention) The present disclosure generally relates to a tufting machine for forming a tufted article such as a carpet and its characteristics. In particular, the present disclosure relates to a tufting machine with a transition mechanism for migrating one or more needle bars of the tufting machine to form tufted articles such as carpets, rugs, and / or artificial tuft products. .. (Background of invention) Patterned tufted items such as carpets are becoming increasingly popular, especially in the commercial market sector, including carpet tiles and customer service carpets. Carpets with various patterned designs can generally be created by controlling the yarn feed, such as through a patterned yarn feed attachment, and by migrating the needles of the tufting machine. .. When forming a patterned tuft-like article using one or more transition needle bars, the tuft-like with the sharpness, clarity, and accuracy required for the formation of the tuft-like pattern. It is important that the needle bar is transferred or stepped as precisely as possible in order to tuft the thread or thread color at the tuft or stitch location required by a pattern. It is also important that, in general, the needles are transferred within the shortest possible time between the time the needles pass through the lining and before re-entering the lining during the downward strokes of their reciprocating cycle. be. The faster such a transitional movement can be achieved, the faster the needle can be reciprocated so as to provide an increased or enhanced production rate. Therefore, the speed at which the needle bar or multiple needle bars are transferred is generally as high as possible so that the needle properly presents the thread to be carried to their required stitch location according to a pattern that is tufted. Equilibrium must be maintained by precisely controlling such transitional movements. Previously, cam-operated shifters, hydraulic shifters, and servomotor-driven transition mechanisms have been used to transition the needle bar of tufting machines. For example, Christman, Jr. , Et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,979,349 of U.S. Pat. US Pat. No. 6,283,055 discloses a tufting machine shifter with a linear motor. However, what is required for needle bars, especially larger sized tufting machines, is typically heavy and must be overcome for both the start and stop of the needle bar transition movement. Generates substantial inertia. In particular, when multiple transition steps or jumps or transition movements of more than one gauge step are required in the pattern, overcoming such inertia and accurately and consistently controlling the movement of the needle bar is possible. , Can be difficult to accomplish in a very short period of time. Therefore, it may be understood that there is a need for transition mechanisms to control tufting and tufting needle migration to address the aforementioned and other related and non-related issues within the art. .. FIG. 1 is an end view of a tufting machine with a transition mechanism according to the principle of the present invention.FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the transition mechanism according to the principle of the present invention.FIG. 3A is a plan view of the rack and pinion transition control assembly of the transition mechanism.FIG. 3B is a perspective view of the rack and pinion transition control assembly of the transition mechanism.FIG. 4A is a perspective view of a transition mechanism with a single torque motor with the components detached.FIG. 4B is a plan view illustrating a transition mechanism with a pair of torque motors.FIG. 5 is a side elevation view of the transition mechanism of FIG. 4B with the components detached. Embodiments of the present invention and its various features are described in detail below with reference to non-limiting embodiments and examples illustrated and / or illustrated in accompanying drawings. The features illustrated in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to a constant scale, and features of one embodiment will be recognized by those of skill in the art, even if not explicitly described herein. Note that it can be adopted with other embodiments. Descriptions of certain components and processing techniques may be omitted so as not to unnecessarily obscure embodiments and / or features of the invention. The examples used herein are solely intended to facilitate an understanding of how the invention may be practiced and to allow one of ordinary skill in the art to practice embodiments of the invention. There is. Therefore, the examples and embodiments of the present specification should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention as defined solely by the appended claims and applicable law. (Detailed description of the invention) Here, with reference to the figure, where similar numbers indicate similar parts throughout some of the figures, FIG. 1 lining the needle 13 as the lining material is moved through the tu