Patent GB-905147-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to machines for making tufted fabrics
IPC: D05C15/00
Filed: 1960-06-28
Abstract: 905,147. Tufting-machines. FELTON, W., and CRABTREE & SON Ltd., DAVID. May 31, 1961 [June 28, 1960], No. 22560/60. Class 112. [Also in Group IX] In a tufting-machine wherein a bank of needles or inserters serves to feed filaments of tufting material to a backing fabric to which short lengths of the tufting material are anchored, either by being passed through the backing or by an anchoring thread, means for selectively displacing the needle or inserter bank to various positions in turn comprise a body, a carriage slidable on the body and connected to the needle or inserter bank, a pair of detector elements reciprocable away from and towards one another and engageable, upon movement towards one another, with one of a plurality of staggered stops which are displaceable into the paths of the detector elements so as to bring the carriage to a selected position on the body as determined by a respective stop, and means for selectively displacing the stops into the paths of the detector elements. The arrangement may be used to produce stripes, which, if narrow, may be made sinuous. If wide stripes are produced, by displacing the needles or inserters by a distance equal to the widths of the stripes, at appropriate intervals, a chequered pattern can be produced. As shown, the invention is applied to the arrangement described in Specification 856,695, in which a bar 11 carries a bank of inserters 27 which co-operate with a bank of needles 63 to apply a row of tufts to a backing fabric. Bar 11 is selectively displaced laterally to one of a number of positions separated from each other by distances equal to whole number multiples of the spacing between the inserters. Bar 11 is connected by rods 20, 21 to a carriage 12 reciprocable in a direction 15 on the upper surface of a frame or body 10. Also reciprocable in the carriage, in the direction 15, are detector plates 23, 24. A shaft 38, journalled in the carriages between the plates 23, 24, carries a pinion 39 which meshes with racks 40 on plates 23, 24. A pinion 37 on shaft 38 meshes with a toothed sector 36 on one arm of a lever pivoted on carriage 12, the other arm being connected by a rod 35 to one end of an arm 32 pivoted on body 10. A roller 33 on arm 32 is engaged in a cam groove 34 formed in a cam-wheel 31 fast on a shaft 30 journalled in body 10 and driven by gearing 51, 53, 54, 55, 56, 58. A block 25 in the upper part of body 10 carries five plungers 26 spaced across the line 15 of carriage movement, and also having spacings along line 15 equal to the spacings of the inserters 27. The lower end of each plunger rests on a respective arm 41 journalled on a fixed shaft 42. A wheel 43, journalled on shaft 30, carries an endless chain 44 consisting of connected links 45 each of which carries a headed stud 46. Wheel 43 is driven stepwise from shaft 30 via Geneva mechanism 47, 50 to bring the successive links 45 under arms 41, so that the latter and the associated plungers 26 are raised in succession by the heads of studs 46 in an order determined by the positions of the studs on the links 45. When a plunger 26 is raised, pinion 39 is rotated in a direction to move the plates 23, 24 towards one another, whereby either the end 29 of plate 24 or a tongue 28 on plate 23 engages the raised plunger. One of the plates is thereby arrested and the other continues to move. This movement is translated into a corresponding movement of the carriage 12 to a position determined by the position of raised plunger along line 15. Carriage 12 is held in the selected position by locking means which comprise a wheel 61 having ribs 62 which extend around part of its periphery and which engage, when the carriage is in the selected position, with corresponding grooves formed in the carriage. The spacing of the ribs is the same as the spacing of the inserters 27. Wheel 61 is driven by gearing 55, 59. Specification 813,439 also is referred to.