Garment gripper

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12304228-B2
Application number	US-202117916808-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 5, 2021
Priority date	Apr 6, 2020
Publication date	May 20, 2025
Grant date	May 20, 2025

Abstract

A garment feeder for feeding a garment for printing, comprises a loading position for a pallet and robotic grippers movable across the loading position to grip a garment from a first side of the loading position and pull the garment in a garment pull direction to a second side of the loading position to load the garment onto the pallet in the loading position. The garment being loaded slips across the loading position on the first side of the pallet perpendicular to the garment pull direction, and one or more sensors detect widthwise edges of the garment, now being pulled onto the pallet by the grippers. The positions of the edges can be used to determine if the garment is being pulled symmetrically onto the pallet. If not then the garment is adjusted to achieve correct positioning for printing.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A garment feeder for feeding a garment for printing, comprising:
a loading position for a pallet;
a gripper unit configured to grip said garment and pull said garment onto said pallet;
at least one garment edge location sensor associated with said pallet to detect locations of widthwise edges of a garment being pulled onto said pallet by said gripper unit; and
a bar extending perpendicularly to said loading direction on a garment loading side of said loading position, the bar being in a plane of a pallet being loaded in said loading position, the garment feeder being configured to use said detected locations, said detected locations being in relation to said bar, to determine, from said locations of widthwise edges over in relation to said bar, whether said garment is being pulled or is not being pulled symmetrically widthwise over said pallet and to provide an indication in accordance with said determination.

2. The garment feeder of claim 1 , wherein said indication is provided by an alerting device, said alerting device being configured to issue an alert state when said garment feeder determines that said garment being pulled is not pulled symmetrically widthwise over said pallet.

3. The garment feeder of claim 1 , wherein said gripper unit comprises two arms and at least two gripper ends movable across said loading position to grip a garment from a first side of said loading position and pull the garment in said pull direction to a second side of said loading position to load the garment onto a pallet located in the loading position.

4. The garment feeder of claim 1 , further comprising a gripping adjuster configured to adjust the at least two grippers to move the garment to a symmetrical position, or to adjust a distance between said grippers to grip the garment over an adjusted width.

5. The garment feeder of claim 4 , wherein said gripping adjuster comprises a motion controller configured to operate an actuator to move at least one of said grippers.

6. The garment feeder of claim 1 , wherein said sensor comprises at least one touch sensor or proximity sensor along a length of said bar or said pallet to distinguish locations along said bar or said pallet touched by said garment from locations along said bar or said pallet not touched by said garment.

7. The garment feeder of claim 1 , wherein said sensor comprises at least one light sensor along a length of said bar to distinguish locations along said bar or said pallet shaded by said garment from locations along said bar or said pallet not shaded by said garment.

8. The garment feeder of claim 1 , wherein said sensor comprises at least one camera above said bar or said pallet to distinguish locations along said bar or said pallet touched by said garment from locations along said bar or said pallet not touched by said garment.

9. The garment feeder of claim 8 , wherein said bar comprises markings visible to said camera.

10. The garment feeder of claim 1 , further configured to determine a width of said garment from an output of said at least one sensor.

11. The garment feeder of claim 10 , further configured to output an alert if said determined width is different from an expected width.

12. A garment feeding method for feeding a garment for printing, comprising:
positioning a pallet at a loading position;
mechanically gripping a garment from a first side of said loading position and pulling the garment in a garment pull direction to a second side of said loading position to load the garment on the pallet;
sensing to determine outer locations of respective first and second widthwise edges of said garment being pulled over onto the pallet, said sensing using a horizontal bar located in front of said first side of said pallet and perpendicular to said garment pull direction, the bar having markers against which said widthwise edges are located;
comparing a respective one of said sensed outer locations of said widthwise edges with a respective other of said sensed locations of said widthwise edges to determine whether said garment is being pulled symmetrically onto said pallet; and
issuing an indication when it is determined that said garment is not being pulled symmetrically onto said pallet.

13. The garment feeding method of claim 12 , further comprising issuing an alert state when it is determined that said garment being pulled is not symmetrically located over at least one of said bar and said pallet.

14. The garment feeding method of claim 12 , comprising:
using at least two grippers extending across said loading position to grip a garment; and
adjusting the at least two grippers to move the garment to a symmetrical position.

15. The garment feeding method of claim 14 , comprising operating an actuator to move at least one of said grippers.

16. The garment feeding method of claim 12 , comprising sensing contact with said garment along a length of said bar to distinguish locations along said bar or said pallet touched by said garment from locations along said bar or said pallet not touched by said garment.

17. The garment feeding method of claim 12 , comprising sensing light along a length of said bar or said pallet to distinguish locations along said bar or said pallet shaded by said garment from locations along said bar or said pallet not shaded by said garment.

18. The garment feeding method of claim 12 , comprising taking an image from above said bar or said pallet to distinguish locations along said bar or said pallet touched by said garment from locations along said bar or said pallet not touched by said garment.

19. The garment feeding method of claim 12 , comprising determining a width of said garment from said sensing.

20. The garment feeding method of claim 19 , comprising issuing an alert if said determined width is different from an expected width.

21. The garment feeding method of claim 12 , comprising detecting a color of said garment and issuing an alert if said color is different from an expected color.

Assignees

• Kornit Digital Ltd

Inventors

• Mano Ilan Shmuel
• Polakevich Alon
• Aloni Yogev

Classifications

• B65H2553/42

  Cameras · CPC title

• B65H2511/52

  Defective operating conditions · CPC title

• B65H5/08

  by grippers, e.g. suction grippers · CPC title

• B41J11/06

  Flat page-size platens {or smaller flat platens having a greater size than line-size platens (B41J11/0085 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• B41J13/0018

  in the sheet input section of automatic paper handling systems · CPC title