Tufting machine and method of tufting

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10995440-B2
Application number	US-201916295114-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 7, 2019
Priority date	Mar 17, 2016
Publication date	May 4, 2021
Grant date	May 4, 2021

Abstract

A tufting machine for selectively forming tufts of yarns, including different color or type yarns, for forming patterned tufted articles such as carpets. A series of needles are reciprocated into and out of a backing material being fed through the tufting machine and are engaged by a series of gauge parts so as to pick-up loops of yarns from the needles. The gauge parts will be selectively controlled by activators to extend or retract the gauge parts to positions or elevations sufficient to pick-up or not pick-up loops of yarns from the needles. The feeding of the yarns to the needles further will be controlled to back-rob yarns not picked-up by the gauge parts, while the backing feed will be controlled to enable formation of tufts at an increased rate over the pattern stitch rate for the pattern of the tufted article being formed.

First claim

What is claimed:

1. A tufting machine, comprising:
at least one needle bar having needles mounted therealong;
backing feed rolls feeding a backing material through a tufting zone of the tufting machine;
at least one yarn feed mechanism feeding yarns to said needles;
a series of gauge parts mounted below the backing material and movable in a reciprocating motion in a direction toward and away from engagement with said needles as said needles are reciprocated into the backing material to pick-up loops of yarns therefrom, said gauge parts further being extensible and retractable in an additional direction with respect to a stroke of said needles, and each including a body and an upper portion projecting at an angle from said body and having a throat along which the loops of yarns are picked-up from said needles;
a series of actuators coupled to said gauge parts for controlling extension and retraction of said gauge parts; and
a control system including programming for controlling said yarn feed mechanism to control feeding of the yarns to said needles in coordination with control of the actuation of one or more of said actuators to raise or lower selected ones of said gauge parts such that said throats of said gauge parts are located at one or more selected elevations with respect to the stroke of said needles into the backing material for forming tufts of yarns in the backing material at one or more selected pile heights according to a pattern being formed.

2. The tufting machine of claim 1 , further comprising a shift mechanism for shifting said at least one needle bar transversely across the backing material, and wherein said control system further comprises programming to coordinate shifting of said at least one needle bar by said shift mechanism, feeding of the backing material by said backing feed rolls, control of said actuators coupled to said gauge parts, and control of said yarn feed mechanism feeding the yarns to said needles as said needles are reciprocated into and out of the backing, so as to present a series of yarns to selected stitch locations along the backing material and withdraw non-selected yarns where loops of such non-selected yarns are not picked up by one of said gauge parts, and with the backing material moved through the tufting zone at an operative stitch rate that is greater than a pattern stitch rate for the pattern being formed to provide a number of retained tufts per inch of face yarns in the backing approximately equivalent to the pattern stitch rate.

3. The tufting machine of claim 1 , wherein said gauge parts are moveably mounted within a module, and comprise level cut loop loopers, loop pile loopers, or cut pile hooks.

4. The tufting machine of claim 1 , wherein said actuators comprise hydraulic or pneumatic cylinders.

5. The tufting machine of claim 1 , wherein said gauge parts are extensible and retractable in their additional direction along a path of travel oriented at an angle of approximately 1° to approximately 10° with respect to the stroke of said needles.

6. The tufting machine of claim 1 , wherein said yarn feed mechanism comprises at least one of a scroll, roll, single end, double end, or multiple end yarn feed pattern attachment.

7. The tufting machine of claim 1 , wherein said at least one needle bar comprises a pair of needle bars each having a series of needles mounted in spaced series therealong.

8. A method of tufting a patterned article having a desired fabric stitch rate using a tufting machine having at least one needle bar carrying a plurality of needles, the method comprising:
threading at least some of the needles with a series of different color or type yarns in a selected thread sequence for forming a pattern;
moving a backing along a path of travel through the tufting machine;
feeding the different color or type yarns to the needles as the needles are reciprocated into the backing, and shifting at least some of the needles transversely across the backing;
reciprocating a series of loopers or hooks toward the needles for picking loops of yarns from the needles, and selectively extending or retracting at least some of the loopers or hooks to position the loopers or hooks at desired elevations with respect to the needles;
at each stitch location where loops of the yarns presented are not to be picked-up from a selected needle by a corresponding looper or hook, moving the corresponding looper or hook to a lowered position sufficient to avoid pick-up of a loop of yarn from the selected needle, and controlling the feeding of such yarns so as to pull back such yarns with their selected needles; and
where loops of yarns are picked-up from the yarns presented by a looper or hook, controlling the feeding of the picked-up loops of yarns to be retained at each stitch location.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein selectively extending or retracting at least some of the loopers or hooks comprises controlling actuators coupled to selected ones of the loopers or hooks to raise or lower the selected loopers or hooks with respect to a stroke or penetration depth of the needles.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein selectively extending or retracting at least some of the loopers or hooks comprises moving selected ones of the loopers or hooks along a path of travel oriented at an angle ranging from approximately 1° to approximately 10° with respect to the needles.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein moving the backing along its path of travel comprises feeding the backing at an actual stitch rate determined by increasing the desired stitch rate approximately by a number of different color or type yarns in the selected thread sequence.

12. A method of forming tufted patterned articles, comprising:
feeding a backing material along a path of travel;
reciprocating a series of needles into and out of the backing material;
as the needles are reciprocated into and out of the backing material, controlling feeding a plurality of yarns to the needles and reciprocating a series of gauge parts arranged below the backing material in a direction of reciprocation toward and away from engagement with the needles for picking loops of yarns from the needles with at least some of the gauge parts;
moving selected ones of the gauge parts in an additional direction substantially normal to their direction of reciprocation and between a no-sew position wherein a loop of yarn is not picked up and a series of extended positions with respect to a stroke or penetration depth of the needles to locate throat portions of the gauge parts at desired elevations with respect to the needles; and
controlling the feeding of the yarns to selected needles sufficient to control a length of each of the loops of yarns picked from the selected needles by the gauge parts for forming tufts of yarns of desired pile heights in the backing material.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising shifting at least some of the needles transversely with respect to the path of travel of the backing material.

14. The method of claim 12 , further comprising threading at least some of the needles with a series of different color or type yarns in a selected thread-up sequence.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising shifting at least some of the needles transversely with respect to the path of travel of the backing material so as to present different color or type yarns to each of a plurality of stitch locations, and wherein feeding the backing material comprises moving the backing material at an actual stitch rate determined by increasing a desired stitch rate for the patterned article by a number of different colors or

Assignees

• Card Monroe Corp

Inventors

• Hall Wilton

Classifications

• D05C15/22 Primary

  Loop-catching arrangements, e.g. loopers; Driving mechanisms therefor · CPC title

• D05C15/08 Primary

  Tufting machines {(D05C15/06 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• D05C15/32

  by altering the loop length · CPC title

• D05C15/26

  with provision for producing patterns · CPC title

• D05C15/30 Primary

  by moving the tufting tools laterally · CPC title