Tufting machine and method of tufting

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11708654-B2
Application number	US-202117242372-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 28, 2021
Priority date	Mar 17, 2016
Publication date	Jul 25, 2023
Grant date	Jul 25, 2023

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 a series of 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 the needles;
a shift mechanism configured for shifting the at least one needle bar transversely across the backing material, and
a gauge part assembly below the backing material and movable in a reciprocating motion in a direction toward and away from engagement with the needles as the needles are reciprocated into the backing material to pick-up loops of yarns therefrom, the gauge part assembly comprising:
a plurality of gauge parts slideably received within a module or holder, and each including a body with an upper portion projecting at an angle from the body and defining a throat along which the loops of yarns are picked-up from the needles;
wherein each of the gauge parts are extensible and retractable in a substantially vertical direction with respect to a stroke of the needles; and

a control system including programming for controlling the yarn feed mechanism to control feeding of the yarns to the needles in coordination with control of the extension and retraction of selected ones of the gauge parts such that each of the selected ones of the gauge parts are moved to a selected elevation 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 , wherein the control system further comprises programming to coordinate shifting of the at least one needle bar by the shift mechanism, feeding of the backing material by the backing feed rolls, control of the extension and retraction of the gauge parts, and control of the yarn feed mechanism feeding the yarns to the needles as the needles are reciprocated into and out of the backing material, 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 the 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 retained or face yarns in the backing material approximately equivalent to the pattern stitch rate.

3. The tufting machine of claim 1 , wherein the gauge parts comprise level cut loop loopers, loop pile loopers, or cut pile hooks.

4. The tufting machine of claim 1 , wherein the gauge part assembly further comprises a plurality of actuators, each actuator coupled to at least one of the gauge parts and configured to extend or retract the gauge parts in their substantially vertical direction.

5. The tufting machine of claim 4 , wherein the actuators comprise hydraulic or pneumatic cylinders.

6. The tufting machine of claim 1 , wherein the 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 the needles.

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

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

9. 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 to present the different color or type yarns to a series of stitch locations;
reciprocating a series of loopers or hooks in a first direction toward the needles for picking loops of yarns from the needles;
at each stitch location where one or more different color or type yarns presented are not selected to be picked-up from a corresponding needle by a corresponding looper or hook, moving the corresponding looper or hook in a second direction to a lowered position sufficient to avoid pick-up of a loop of yarn from the corresponding needle, and controlling the feeding of non-selected yarns so as to pull back the non-selected yarns with their corresponding needles; and
when loops of yarns are picked-up from the yarns presented and captured by a looper or hook, controlling the feeding of the picked-up loops of yarns to be retained at each stitch location to form tufts at one or more selected pile heights.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein controlling the feeding of the picked-up loops of yarns to be retained at each stitch location further comprise raising or lowering selected ones of the loopers or hooks with a loop of yarn picked up and captured therealong to adjust a length of the picked-up loops to form the tufts at the one or more selected pile heights.

11. The method of claim 9 , wherein controlling the feeding of the non-selected yarns so as to pull back the non-selected yarns with their corresponding needles comprises pulling the non-selected yarns out of the backing or sufficiently low to an extent to enable the non-selected yarns to be held or tacked in the backing while substantially avoiding creation of undesired or unnecessary gaps or spaces between the yarns to be retained or shown on a face of patterned article.

12. The method of claim 9 wherein moving the backing along its path of travel comprises feeding the backing at an actual stitch rate determined by increasing the desired fabric stitch rate approximately by a number of different color or type yarns in the selected thread sequence.

13. A method of forming a tufted patterned article, comprising:
feeding a backing material along a path of travel;
moving a series of needles in a reciprocating motion into and out of the backing material;
as the needles move into and out of the backing material, controlling feeding a plurality of yarns to at least a plurality of the needles;
reciprocating a plurality of gauge parts positioned below the backing material in a direction of reciprocation toward and away from engagement with the needles as the needles are within the backing material, and picking-up loops of yarns from the needles with at least some of the gauge parts;
controlling the feeding of the yarns to selected needles sufficient to control a length 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; and
moving selected ones of the gauge parts in an additional direction substantially normal to their direction of reciprocation and between a series of extended and retracted positions with respect to a stroke or penetration depth of the needles to locate the selected ones of the gauge parts at desired elevations with respect to the needles to pick-up the loops of yarns, not pick-up loops or yarns, to form a loop of yarn of a selected length, or combinations thereof.

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

Assignees

• Card Monroe Corp

Inventors

• Hall Wilton

Classifications

• D05C15/30 Primary

  by moving the tufting tools laterally · CPC title

• D05C11/00

  Devices for guiding, feeding, handling, or treating the threads in embroidering machines; Machine needles; Operating or control mechanisms therefor · CPC title

• D05C15/10

  operating with a plurality of needles, e.g. in one row · CPC title

• D05C15/20

  Arrangements or devices, e.g. needles, for inserting loops; Driving mechanisms therefor · CPC title

• D05C15/22 Primary

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