Tufting machine yarn feed pattern control

Abstract

A tufting machine has a yarn feed pattern assembly including a housing having a mounting plate for mounting a multiplicity of yarn feed rollers from the exterior of said mounting plate and a multiplicity of servo motors connected to said mounting plate on the interior of said housing. Each servo motor is connected to a respective feed roller. A multiplicity of tubes extend within said housing, half the tubes directing yarn from a source to respective rollers and half of the tubes directing yarn from the rollers to respective needles. The guide tubes direct yarn from the interior of said housing through said mounting plate where the yarn is trained about a respective roller and directed back into the yarn guide leading toward the needles of said tufting machine.

Description

[0001]This invention relates to tufting machines and more particularly to a yarn feed pattern control for a tufting machine having a separate feed motor for each individual yarn end fed to the tufting machine for varying the pile height of each tuft selectively, thereby permitting a full repeat across the full width of the tufting machine.[0002]It is well known in the carpet tufting art to utilize a yarn feed roller attachment for producing variations in pile height of loop pile products, and for producing cut and loop products wherein any particular needle may produce either a loop pile tuft or a cut pile tuft. The yarn feed rollers act either to feed the full amount of yarn to adequately accommodate the yarn requirements of the particular needle or to feed less than that adequate amount of yarn so as to backdraw or backrob yarn from the previous stitch. The backrobbing features are adequately described in the prior art, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,862,465 in regard to loop pile a...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0004]Recently, with the improvements made in the art of servo motors wherein such motors have been made smaller and quick acting, it is now possible to drive a single yarn end by a respective servo motor to each individual needle. This provides the ability to feed each yam at a multitude of speeds to each needle so that a substantial number of pile heights may be produced by each individual needle. This gives the carpet designer a substantially greater arsenal of design capabilities than heretofore possible. For example, certain needles may be threaded with different color yarns and a particular color yam may be hidden it the carpet at a first location and yet show slightly at a different location in the direction the carpet is being fed, and show up even more at still other locations so that various shading effects may be created. Additionally, different effects may be created in cut and loop carpets of the type manufactured using the method disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,084,645 and in level cut and loop carpet such as the type produced using the method illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,185,569.

[0006]Consequently, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a yarn feed pattern assembly for a tufting machine that permits full control of the pattern repeat across the width of the tufting machine permitting each needle to receive a respective yarn fed at a multiplicity of speeds selectively.

[0009]Accordingly, the present invention provides a tufting machine having a yarn feed pattern assembly including a housing having a mounting plate for mounting a multiplicity of servo motors, each servo motor preferably corresponding to one needle in the tufting machine so that a full repeat pattern across the width of the tufting machine may be provided. Each servo motor carries a roller about which yarn is trained so as to be fed from a yarn source to the respective needle, the motor being mounted on one surface of the mounting plate and the roller being mounted on the other. Within the housing leading to and from each roller is a respective input and output tube, and the input tubes supplying yarn from the yarn source to the receptive roller and the output tubes feeding yarn from the rollers to the respective needles. By maintaining the yarn in the housing within the guide tubes, the yarn is precluded from being entangled with other yarns and provides the machine operator with the ability to thread each particular needle with the correct yarn. For example, any particular servo motor may carry a particular number and the tubes extending thereto and therefrom may also be numbered to correspond with a particular needle. In this manner, the needles may be threaded correctly to provide the desired pattern.

Problems solved by technology

If a particular yarn does not go to the proper needle, the pattern would be defective which may result in wasted fabric.

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