Abstract:
A method and device applicable to a sewing machine which has a needle and a gripper with a horizontally positioned lower bobbin for executing a seam with stitches in a sewing material being sewn, for compensating a deficiency in a longitudinal shift of the needle during a stitch being caused by an arcuate movement of the needle when it shifts sideways in a stitch, wherein the method includes the material being advanced by a feeder a length y n  in the longitudinal direction of the seam on the basis of the seam setting, and wherein the sewing machine has a control including an algorithm causing the feed motor to set the feeder, so that at each stitch which includes sideways shifts of the needle it advances the sewing material a correction length e n  in the longitudinal direction of the seam, thereby compensating a corresponding deficiency in the needle&#39;s longitudinal shift relative to the material during the stitch being caused by the needle&#39;s arcuate sideways movement.

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0001]    The present invention relates to a sewing machine which has a horizontally disposed lower bobbin with a device and a method for control of the machine so that an increase in the stitch width can be achieved as compared with conventional sewing machines of a corresponding type. 
       STATE OF THE ART 
       [0002]    There are currently on the market a number of appliances with different configurations for forming lock stitches in order to produce a seam in a piece of material being sewn, said piece of material hereinafter referred to for the sake of simplicity as fabric. Ordinary domestic sewing machines conventionally involve the use of an upper thread and a lower thread on a bobbin which in cooperation with a needle causes the upper thread to execute a lock stitch in the fabric being sewn in the sewing machine. 
         [0003]    Sewing machines of the lock stitch type have since a long time been part of the state of the art and their mode of operation is well-known. Taking, for the sake of simplicity, a sewing machine with a single needle as an example, such a machine forms stitches by the upper thread and the lower thread being linked together by the needle moving to and fro through a fabric which is moved forward across a sewing table, which is usually in a plane substantially perpendicular to the length of the needle. Most conventional sewing machines of this kind have a take-up lever which pulls the upper thread from an upper thread storage bobbin. The take-up lever provides the needle with the upper thread by an oscillating movement towards and away from the fabric. The expression “upper” hereinafter means the side of the fabric where the needle is housed. “lower” means the side of the fabric where the making of a knot is effected. Also, the expression “thread” hereinafter always means “upper thread” unless otherwise indicated. 
         [0004]    When the take-up lever is in its highest position, a maximum amount of thread has been drawn out for the next stitch, after which the movement of the take-up lever reverses back downwards. After the take-up lever&#39;s reversal, the thread will form a loop under the fabric, since the effect of friction in the fabric will result in not all of the thread drawn out being immediately drawn back by the take-up lever. 
         [0005]    The lower thread is unwound from a lower bobbin accommodated in a gripper under the fabric. The gripper may be of a rotating type and equipped with a gripper tip (sometimes called gripper arm) which in the course of the gripper&#39;s rotary movement hooks into the loop formed by the upper thread and in its continuing movement leads the upper thread round the lower bobbin. 
         [0006]    When the oscillating movement of the take-up lever takes it upwards away from the fabric, the take-up lever draws surplus upper thread back, i.e. the amount of thread not consumed in the respective stitch. The thread drawn forward constituting said loop will thus be pulled tight so that a lock stitch is formed by the upper thread and the lower thread in cooperation, since the gripper has led the upper thread round the lower thread. A feeder on the sewing machine will then move the fabric forward for a subsequent stitch. 
         [0007]    Said oscillating movements executed by the needle, the take-up lever and the gripper are mutually synchronised and are repeated cyclically for each stitch executed with the sewing machine. 
         [0008]    Generally, a gripper system is nowadays so configured that the gripper rotates about a lower thread bobbin. A distinction may be made among gripper systems of two types, one of them with the gripper rotating in the horizontal plane, the other with the gripper rotating in the vertical plane, parallel with the needle. To achieve advantages with horizontal grippers, they have to be situated ahead of the needle, which makes it easier to reach a lower thread bobbin case in order to change the bobbin or the thread on it without having to remove the fabric from the sewing table. The gripper system used in the sewing machines referred to in this application has a horizontally disposed gripper. The gripper is provided with a bobbin basket, in which the lower thread bobbin is placed. During sewing, the bobbin remains stationary while the gripper rotates about it. 
         [0009]    The needle directing the upper thread is fitted to the bottom of a needle rod which, synchronously with the other parts of the sewing machine involved in forming a stitch, moves the needle up and down in an oscillating movement. The needle is also allowed to move sideways synchronously with the formation of stitches. Sideways movement of the needle is necessary in the case of stitches required to have a width, i.e. to have the thread move a distance sideways across the fabric during sewing. This involves a difficulty in the case of a horizontally fitted lower bobbin, since the needle has to be adjacent to the gripper when said loop is formed if a safe capture of the loop should be rendered possible for the gripper. Accordingly, the sideways movement of the needle in the horizontal plane has to follow a slightly curved path adapted to the radius of the gripper in its rotary movement. This is readily observable on a domestic sewing machine, where a stitch plate serving as support for the fabric and at the same time covering the lower bobbin space is provided with and discloses a needle hole with a curved path, whereas the corresponding path on a sewing machine with a vertical lower bobbin is straight. 
         [0010]    The mechanical components of the sewing machine with a horizontal lower bobbin are so arranged that the needle rod describes a movement along a conical surface, which movement is synchronised with that of the gripper. The technology for the movement of the needle in this context is known and is not further discussed here. 
         [0011]    An example of prior art technology for a sewing machine of the type discussed herein is, as an example, described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,432,293, the content of which is hereby in its entirety incorporated in the present description. 
         [0012]    As a consequence of the aforesaid curved path which the needle follows in the horizontal plane, it is clearly observable, on a finished stitch which has a width, that the thread follows a curved path if the sideways deviation is sufficient. 
         [0013]    An operator intending to execute correctly positioned stitches of greater width, using a sewing machine of the kind described, therefore cannot generally achieve this on such a machine of conventional kind. Particularly, in decorative sewing or the sewing of alphabetic characters, greater stitch width would afford more potential for variation. 
         [0014]    An object of the present invention is to propose a solution to the difficulties described above. 
       DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0015]    An aspect of the invention refers to a solution which allows an increase in stitch width on sewing machines with a horizontally disposed lower bobbin. When the thread moves sideways, as mentioned above, and follows the aforesaid arcuate path on an execution of a stitch, this entails a sideways shift of the needle in the conventional type of sewing machines and causes an unaesthetic result if completed stitches are of great width and especially where a plurality of wide stitches form a pattern. During the sideways shift of the needle in the arcuate path, the fabric is fed forward mechanically in the sewing (longitudinal) direction according to the stitch length setting, so that subsequent stitches applied to the fabric will be initiated and accomplished, with respect to fabric feeding, by the mechanical feeding of the machine according to stitch lengths which are valid for the stitches in their longitudinal direction. Instead, since the needle follows a curved path, an actual stitch length will be shorter because an actual stitch path projected in the longitudinal direction comprises a distance which is somewhat too short in the longitudinal direction. A discrepancy, an error, occurs between the actual longitudinal advance effected for the stitch and the vertical length of the stitch, i.e. its projection in the longitudinal direction. This is illustrated in  FIG. 4  and described in more detail below. A solution to this problem, according to the invention, is to correct the error by causing the feeder to compensate the longitudinal advance of the fabric in proportion to the error. The error is based on the fact that the feeder on conventional machines cyclically feeds the length set by the machine without regard to the actual length of the stitch, which may vary, as indicated above, because of the curved path the needle follows across the fabric during performance of the stitch. 
         [0016]    There are means for compensating the appearance of a seam for a certain width and a certain lateral position of the needle, but a remaining problem is that a pattern/seam which is compensated will still be distorted where the width/lateral position deviates from the compensation applied. No such problem arises if the device and the method according to the present invention are applied. 
         [0017]    On a sewing machine which has a horizontally disposed lower bobbin and is also provided with a stepping motor which causes the feeder to advance the fabric according to the stitch length, the solution according to the invention comprises the stepping motor for the longitudinal feed being caused to advance the fabric at each step according to an algorithm which compensates for the abovementioned error which occurs on performing very wide stitches. The compensation here described might presumably also be achieved by a mechanical device in a sewing machine which does not have the feed powered by a stepping motor as here described. Such mechanically effected compensation is likely to be very complicated and therefore expensive, so the measure described according to the invention has great advantages. The feed error compensation described makes it possible for the total stitch width to be increased to at least 9 mm on a conventional home sewing machine without a re-structure of the complete machine. 
         [0018]    An advantage of the device according to the invention is of course that the availability of increased stitch width on the sewing machine opens up a more wide field of application in that wider stitches can be used in decorative sewing and the sewing of alphabetic characters. Moreover, the measures according to the invention are not particularly expensive, since all that is required is that the control program for the stepping motor for the longitudinal feeder is programmed into the control program of the sewing machine and that the mechanical components affected by the possible wider stitches are adjusted to the increased stitch width, as described below. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         [0019]      FIG. 1  depicts a schematic template drawing of a front view of a sewing machine with a horizontally positioned lower bobbin and a longitudinal feed unit indicated in the lower arm of the machine. 
           [0020]      FIG. 2  depicts a schematic template sketch from the side of the sewing machine according to  FIG. 1 , showing the take-up lever&#39;s highest and lowest positions, illustrating the travel distance and also showing a gripper with gripper tip and thread loop within the sewing table. 
           [0021]      FIG. 3  depicts in perspective a unit for longitudinal feed of fabric in the sewing machine. 
           [0022]      FIG. 4  depicts a sketch of the movement of the needle in a system of coordinates during the execution of a stitch. 
       
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS 
       [0023]    A number of embodiments of the invention are described below with reference to the attached drawings. 
         [0024]    By way of example of the functioning of a lock stitch sewing machine,  FIG. 1  depicts symbolically a sewing machine  1  where in a conventional manner a fabric  2  is fed forward between a lower thread  3  and the upper thread  4  in order to execute a seam comprising desired stitches effected by means of a needle  5 , which moves periodically through the fabric  2 . In this example, the fabric  2  is moved across a sewing table  6 , which also accommodates a horizontally disposed lower bobbin  7  intended for the lower thread  3  and encased in a gripper  8  in a lower arm  1   a  of the sewing machine. The sewing table  6 , further, has a stitchplate  6   a  over which the actual seam is executed. The upper thread  4  is led via a take-up lever  9 , which by a cyclic up and down movement creates a loop  10  (symbolically indicated in  FIG. 2 ) of the upper thread  4  when the needle  5 , through the eye of which the upper thread runs, has carried the upper thread through the fabric  2  and the take-up lever  9  reverses back upwards from its lowest position. A gripper tip  11  hooks into the loop  10  when the gripper  8  rotates. To execute a stitch, in this case a lock stitch, the needle  5  performs a fore and aft movement so that it leads the upper thread  4  down through the fabric  2 , after which the gripper  8  leads the upper thread  4  round the bobbin  7 , which carries the lower thread  3 , resulting in a knot in the fabric  2  when the needle  5  moves up through the fabric and the take-up lever  9  tightens the knot inside the fabric. The diagram also shows a thread magazine  15  for the upper thread. A thread tension sensor spring  14  is also indicated. 
         [0025]    The machine is provided with a control program which is, for example, stored in a processor C. The control program conducts at least the control of a stepping motor which regulates the advance of the fabric in a longitudinal feed unit  20 . 
         [0026]    The feed is the system which causes linear movement of the fabric between stitches in a seam. It comprises a feeder  21 , which usually has a number of parallel rods with sawlike teeth at the top and is provided with elongate apertures in the stitch plate disposed in parallel on each side of the position where the needle  5  penetrates the stitch plate, where further an arcuate hole is formed in the stitchplate  6   a  for the needle  5 . The feeder  21  can be lowered so that its teeth do not appear above the stitchplate  6   a . The feeder usually performs a rotary movement whereby it moves up through the stitchplate, grips the fabric with the feeder teeth and moves forward in the longitudinal direction of the seam and thereafter down into the stitchplate and back to the initial position, after which the movement is repeated. The result is that the fabric  2  moves forward in the longitudinal direction of the seam. 
         [0027]    A feed unit  20  of the type used in the present invention is depicted in  FIG. 3 . It should be noted here that the feed mechanism depicted according to the feed unit  20  is an example to indicate one possibility for implementing the invention. Other variants of feed mechanisms might equally well be used, provided that they can be adapted to control the advance according to the aspects of the present invention. The sewing table comprises a so-called table shaft  22  which is driven by the sewing machine motor synchronously with, for example, a needle and a take-up lever. The feed unit  20  is fitted about this table shaft  22 . The movements of the feeder are effected by two excenters on the table shaft  22 . A first excenter, the height excenter  23 , adjacent to a gearwheel  24 , which drives the gripper  8 , effects the movement of the feeder  21  in the height direction. A second excenter, the longitudinal excenter  25 , arranged further inwards on the table shaft  22 , effects the movement of the feeder  21  in the longitudinal direction. 
         [0028]    A race round the whole periphery of the height excenter  23  abuts a link  26  for height feed, which link performs an oscillating movement in the height direction when the table shaft  22  rotates. The height feed link  26  is supported on a rotation shaft  32  for a longitudinal feed arm  28 . A feeder yoke  27  to which the feeder is fastened is directly connected to the height feed link  26  by a slide screw and therefore follows the movement of the height feed link  26  in the height direction. 
         [0029]    Similarly, there is round the whole periphery of the longitudinal excenter  25  a race, which a link  30  for longitudinal feed is adapted to abut. The longitudinal feed link  30  has its opposite end fastened to and supported by a longitudinal feed arm  28 . The longitudinal feed link  30  also has at the end where it abuts the longitudinal excenter  25  a pin supporting a block  35 , which slides in a guide  34  when the longitudinal excenter  25  moves the longitudinal feed link  30  in the height direction. The movement of the longitudinal feed link  30  is transferred to the longitudinal feed arm  28  as a feeder  21  movement a length in the longitudinal direction of the feeder  21 , wherein said length depends on the angle of the guide at the time. The result is the desired longitudinal advance of the feeder  21 , while at the same time this advance movement is synchronised with the previously described movement of the feeder  21  in the height direction. 
         [0030]    The longitudinal feed is a parameter being possible for the user or the sewing machine&#39;s control program to determine. To this end, a stepping motor for the feed, a feed motor  33 , is adapted to and fitted in the sewing machine arm, i.e. the lower arm  1   a , and is connected to the feed device via the aforesaid block  35 . Said block  35  is connected to the previously mentioned pin and the guide  34 . Stitch length resetting is effected via the feed motor  33 . In the present example, the geometry of the feed motor  33  is so adapted that each step effected by the motor entails rotation of the motor a predetermined angle of rotation, wherein a change of said angle corresponds to a change of a corresponding predetermined feed length, by which the feeder  21  moves the fabric forward. 
         [0031]    According to the state of the art, the stitch length is set by means of the guide  34 , which is disposed adjacent to the longitudinal feed link  30  and is also suspended about an axis of rotation so that the guide  34  can be inclined in relation to the longitudinal feed link  30 . In this example, the guide is provided with a groove, in which the block  35  can run. The block  35 , in turn, is itself connected via said pin to the longitudinal feed link  30 , whereby the block  35  is journalled on said pin. The radius of the guide  34  at the groove for the block  35  corresponds to the distance between the journal centre of the block  35  at the pin and the journal centre of the longitudinal feed link  30  at the longitudinal feed arm  28 . 
         [0032]    When the radius of the guide coincides with the distance from the journal centre of the block  35  to the journal centre of the longitudinal feed link  30  at to the longitudinal feed arm  28 , the feed movement will be zero. Turning, i.e. rotating, the guide  34  from this position, will increase the feed. Turning of the guide  34  is accomplished by the feed motor  33  turning a gear segment  36  which is firmly connected to the guide. 
         [0033]    Each time the sewing machine is started, the feed motor is calibrated and thereafter steps to a selected stitch length by the aforesaid angling of the guide  34 . Compensation of the stitch length error on the fabric relative to the set stitch length occurring during the previously described sideways shift of the needle  5  when the latter executes a very wide stitch can be achieved according to an aspect of the invention by increasing the working range of the mechanical feed components in the same way as described above. 
         [0034]    An algorithm described below loaded into a control program for the feed motor  33  controls said feed motor  33  to effect longitudinal feed compensation when a longitudinal feed error is present in stitches for which the needle executes large sideways shifts. 
         [0035]    The proposed algorithm may be used for all sewing machines which have a horizontally positioned lower bobbin and a needle movement adapted thereto. 
         [0036]    In a mechanical platform for sewing machines having a horizontally positioned lower bobbin the needle moves in the plane of the fabric  2  sideways along an arc  40  constituting the periphery of a circle which encircles the rotation radius of the gripper tip. This is illustrated in  FIG. 4 , in which the movement of the fabric caused by the longitudinal feed is indicated in a system of coordinates along a y coordinate. The needle&#39;s sideways movement is represented by the x coordinate. When the needle shifts sideways from the neutral position along the y axis to a new position in the x direction, the result is an undesired shift in the y direction relative to the fabric  2 , which undesired shift is particularly evident in the case of large shifts in the x direction. The path of the needle is represented in the diagram by a chain-dotted curve. The depiction according to the diagram also means that the desired position for the stitch entails a lateral shift along the x axis. 
         [0037]    The following notations are used below (see  FIG. 4 ):
       x n  Desired distance from the needle&#39;s central position in the x direction in a Cartesian system of coordinates for any desired stitch n in a stitch sequence.   y n  Desired distance in the y direction in a Cartesian system of coordinates for any desired stitch n from stitch n−1 preceding it in a stitch sequence.   r The radius in a system of polar coordinates with its origin of coordinates at the centre of the curve which the needle&#39;s movement describes relative to the surface of the stitchplate, i.e. in the same work the curve of the intersection between the conical surface which the needle&#39;s movement follows and the stitchplate.   φ n  Angle in a system of polar coordinates with its origin of coordinates at the centre of the curve which the needle&#39;s movement describes relative to the surface of the stitchplate for any desired stitch n, where φ n =0 when x n =0.   e n  The error, i.e. undesired shift in the y direction for any desired stitch n in a stitch sequence, caused by a circular needle movement along the curve described by the needle movement.       
 
         [0043]    Transformations between rectilinear Cartesian stitch data and polar coordinates also produce the relationships 
         [0000]    
       
         
           
             
               ϕ 
               n 
             
             = 
             
               arc 
                
               
                   
               
                
               
                 sin 
                  
                 
                   ( 
                   
                     
                       x 
                       n 
                     
                     r 
                   
                   ) 
                 
               
             
           
         
       
       
         
           
             
               e 
               n 
             
             = 
             
               r 
                
               
                 ( 
                 
                   
                     cos 
                      
                     
                       ( 
                       
                         ϕ 
                         n 
                       
                       ) 
                     
                   
                   - 
                   1 
                 
                 ) 
               
             
           
         
       
     
         [0044]    The following notations:
       φ n  Feed motor&#39;s position for any desired stitch in a stitch sequence   x 0  Initial needle position at start of pattern repeat   Δ F  Feed motor&#39;s resolution, in mm/step   e Δ  Residual error due to quantisation, in number of stepping motor steps.   f n  Total shift in y direction for any desired stitch n for effecting full error compensation   Z(x) Function for rounding to nearest whole number   N Total number of stitches in the stitch sequence for a pattern repeat can be used to write an algorithm as follows for control of the feeder  21 , wherein 1≦n≦N for a pattern repeat with the stitch coordinates {(x 1 , y 1 ), . . . , (x N , y N )}:       
 
         [0000]      n=1: 
         [0000]    
       
      
       f 
       1 
       =y 
       1 
       −e 
       1 
       +e 
       0  
      
     
         [0000]      Φ 1   =Z ( f   1 /Δ F ) 
         [0000]      2≦n≦N: 
         [0000]        e   Δ   =f   n-1 −Φ n-1 *Δ F   
         [0000]    
       
      
       f 
       n 
       =y 
       n 
       −e 
       Δ 
       −e 
       n 
       +e 
       n-1 
      
     
         [0000]      Φ n   =Z ( f   n /Δ F )  [1] 
         [0052]    The theoretical background for effecting compensation is set out above. The solution is effected in practice by the software in the sewing machine&#39;s processor being adapted to cause the feed error due to the sideways needle shift to be compensated by a control of the feed motor  33  according to the above outlined algorithm. Since the feed motor in the present example takes the form of a stepping motor which makes discrete steps, account is also taken, in order to achieve the best possible results, of the error which cannot be compensated because of this limited resolution of the stepping motor. An uncompensated residual error from a stitch is saved and added to the calculated total error compensation for the next stitch for as long as error compensation is called for in a sequence of stitches, i.e. until a pattern repeat is completed, whereupon any residual error is zeroed. 
         [0053]    As previously mentioned, the sewing machine&#39;s software is adapted to perform the calculations needed for said feed error compensation. To this end, the sewing machine is provided with a data program product programmed to do the calculations set out equation [1] above. 
         [0054]    For compensation of the fabric feed error to be possible, the fabric feed device needs to be able to effect feed movements which extend beyond the usual range of a sewing machine which lacks the compensation described. If for example the concept of the present invention is used for an ordinary sewing machine provided with the longitudinal feed range from −6.0 mm to +6.0 mm, the maximum stitch width of the machine using the concept of the present invention can be set to 9 mm and the needle tip moves along the aforesaid arcuate path at a radius of 18.45 mm, the longitudinal feed device has to cope with a somewhat larger range than in previously known machines, in this case a stitch length range of from −6.588 mm to +6.588 mm. Some examples of this appear in the table below. 
         [0000]    
       
         
               
               
               
             
               
               
               
             
           
               
                   
                   
               
               
                   
                 |X n | 
                 θ n   
               
               
                   
                   
               
             
             
               
                   
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 0.000 
                 0.000 
               
               
                   
                 1.000 
                 −0.029 
               
               
                   
                 2.000 
                 −0.115 
               
               
                   
                 3.000 
                 −0.259 
               
               
                   
                 4.000 
                 −0.463 
               
               
                   
                 4.500 
                 −0.588 
               
               
                   
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
         [0055]    If the stepping motor which constitutes the feed motor  33  is adapted to microcontrol, i.e. not making discrete feed steps, there will of course be no need to cater for residual error in a stitch.