Patent Description:
Garment printers, especially for adult-sized garments, are large devices and an operator is required to place a garment on the platen and smooth the garment over the platen prior to printer. The operator may be required to carry out the same action hundreds of times a day and the stretching and bending and applying of pressure required can have health consequences for the operator, in particular leading to back pain in the long term.

One solution is to have two-operators, one on each side of the platen, however most garment printers have only limited resources and would not wish to purchase a printer that required them to have a second operator.

<CIT> teaches a screen printer with an automatic loader.

<CIT> teaches a method and apparatus for unloading an article from a printing machine.

<CIT>, teaches a garment printer with a wrinkle detector, and
<CIT> teaches another garment printer with a wrinkle detector.

The present inventors have recognized that the issue is not the placing of the garment on the platen but rather the stretching that is required to insert the opposite side of the garment on the opposite side of the platen. No matter what side the operator may stand on, the platen takes up a large area and there is always an opposite side that the operator has to bend towards and then exert some downward pressure, leading to back pain in the long term, due to continuous exertion of pressure from a bent position.

The present embodiments thus may provide for the garment to be placed by the operator on one side of the platen, at which point the loose end of the garment is gripped and pulled over to the opposite side of the platen, and attached to the far side of the platen, leaving the operator merely with the operation of smoothing, which does not involve exerting pressure from a bent position. In some embodiments the smoothing procedure is attended to as well.

According to the present invention there is provided a device for positioning a garment on a printing platen for printing, the device comprising:.

The device may comprise a second gripper at a preset distance from the first gripper to controllably grip a second location on the first edge.

The device may comprise an arm holding the first and second grippers at the preset distance.

In an embodiment, at least one of the first gripper and the second gripper is slidable along the arm to adjust the preset distance.

In an embodiment, the arm is attached to the sliding mechanism.

In an embodiment, the arm has a longitudinal axis and the sliding mechanism is configured to slide the arm in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis.

In an embodiment, the sliding mechanism comprises a rail extending along a length of the platen from the first side to the second side, a trolley movable along the rail, and a motor to move the trolley, the gripper being mobile with the trolley.

In an embodiment, the gripper comprises upper and lower components of a vice being closable over the garment edge to hold the garment.

According to the invention, it is provided a housing which holds the sliding mechanism over the platen, the gripper being suspended from the rail.

According to the invetion, it is provided a housing in which a hood extends over the platen from above.

An embodiment may comprise a camera, an image processor and an indicator, the camera positioned to image the garment on the platen, the image processor connected to the camera and configured to identify wrinkles on the garment, and the indicator being connected to the image processor to provide a warning to the operator concerning the wrinkles.

In an embodiment, at least one member of the group consisting of the sliding and the gripping is pneumatically powered.

The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to a gripper mechanism for a garment printer and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to a gripper for gripping a garment to place on a platen for printing.

Referring now to the drawings, <FIG> illustrates a first embodiment of the present invention in which a device for positioning a garment on a printing platen for printing is shown. The figures show the device <NUM> which is positioned over platen <NUM>. The platen <NUM> forms the feeder for printer <NUM> which is partially shown, and in general a garment <NUM> is placed smoothly on the platen which then slides into the printer so that the garment is printed. In the prior art without the device <NUM>, the operator would stand at one side of the platen, anchor one edge of the garment in the platen, then take the second edge of the garment in hand, lean over the platen and anchor the second edge on the other side of the platen. The activity is apparently harmless but is linked to back problems when repeated hundreds of times a day over the course of the use of the machine.

The device comprises a first gripper <NUM>, which can be used to controllably grip onto a first edge of the garment at a first side of the platen. The gripper <NUM> may have a gripping head <NUM> - shown more clearly in <FIG>, and the gripping head may consist of a claw, a clip, a vice - as shown in <FIG> - or any other suitable mechanism for taking hold of a garment edge. As shown there is a second gripper <NUM> spaced from the first gripper <NUM> along an arm <NUM>. One or both of the grippers may be slidable to adjust for different sizes of garments but in general the points gripped are intended to be towards the outer corners of the garment so that the garment can be kept taut.

The grippers may be attached to the garment manually by the operator. In another embodiment, the gripper may be actuated and combined with visual and/or tactile sensors to grip the edge of the garment automatically.

Arm <NUM> is suspended from support arms <NUM> and <NUM>.

Reference is now made to <FIG>, which is a simplified diagram showing the device <NUM> from the side. Arm <NUM> is below and parallel to upper bar <NUM> from which it is suspended by the support arms <NUM> and <NUM>. The upper bar is connected via a sliding connection <NUM> to rail <NUM>. Thus the sliding connection and the upper bar form a slidable trolley and the grippers are mobile with the trolley. The grippers go back and forth along the platen as the trolley goes back and forth along rail <NUM>. Rail <NUM> may extend along a length of the platen from one side to the other. The trolley slides along the rail <NUM>, and a motor may be provided to move the trolley. The grippers move with the trolley. The motor may be pneumatic.

The trolley together with the rail and the motor may form a sliding mechanism.

During the motion the grippers <NUM> and <NUM> hold an edge of the garment at two locations, preferably as far apart from each other as possible, and pull that edge across the platen so as to set the garment on the platen. As shown, the grippers <NUM> and <NUM> have a gripper head <NUM> which comprises upper and lower jaws of a vice with a space in between into which the edge of the garment is inserted.

The trolley and rail thus provide a sliding mechanism connected to the gripper which slides the gripper across the platen to pull the garment edge to the far side of the platen, so as to position the garment across the platen for printing.

Arm <NUM>, and for that matter upper bar <NUM>, have a longitudinal axis. The direction in which the grippers slide back and forth across the platen is perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of arm <NUM>. On the other hand, the direction in which the grippers may slide in order to adjust the between-gripper distance is along the longitudinal axis of arm <NUM>.

The device <NUM> includes a housing. The housing positions the rail and the grippers in relation to the platen. Hood <NUM> may be positioned to extend over the platen from above, to provide an upper part of the housing. Rail <NUM> may be fixed into the hood at front wall <NUM>, at back wall <NUM>, and at intermediate support brackets <NUM> and <NUM>. The intermediate support brackets may also hold an enclosure <NUM> for a motor and control elements. The sliding mechanism and the grippers may be suspended from the rail.

Reference is now made to <FIG> which shows device <NUM> with a shirt but without the platen. Housing <NUM> forms an L-shape and provides the device with a support column <NUM> and hood <NUM> that extends over the platen. It is noted that the hood actually serves to make it difficult for the operator to manually place the shirt over the platen so that the operator finds it difficult to override the safety feature which is provided for their protection. Adjustable feet <NUM> allow the device to be levelled on the factory floor.

The device may include a wrinkle detector to ensure that the garment is placed flat on the platen. In one embodiment the wrinkle detector may be an imaging device that carries out image processing to determine whether the device is flat. An alternative is to use a comb structure made of light wires that are physically displaced by a wrinkle. A third possibility is to use a laser source, a photodetector and an indicator. The photodetector looks along the surface of the garment to be printed to detect occlusions caused by wrinkles or folds of the garment on the platen. The indicator is connected to the photodetector to provide a warning to the operator concerning any wrinkles.

The device carries out both sliding and gripping operations, and one or both of the sliding and gripping operations may be pneumatically powered.

Reference is now made to <FIG> which illustrate successive stages in the use of the gripper of the present embodiments. As shown in <FIG>, a garment <NUM> is anchored at one end of a platen - not shown under the garment.

The opposite end <NUM> of the garment is then inserted into a gripper device <NUM> extending downwardly from hood <NUM>. Typically the gripper includes two gripping claws <NUM> and <NUM> and these may grip the garment manually or automatically. <FIG> shows the garment after anchoring at the first end and before gripping at the second end.

In <FIG>, the gripped second end of the garment <NUM> slides across to the other side of the platen as the gripper pulls from the first side of the platen to the second side of the platen. Motion of the gripper is in the direction of arrow <NUM>.

<FIG> illustrates the final position of the shirt <NUM> across the platen and ready to enter the printer. The far end <NUM> of the shirt is anchored at the far end of the platen.

Inserting the second edge of the garment into the grippers may involve inserting two locations into two grippers and the two grippers may be at a predetermined distance apart, the distance being selected based on the size of the garment, and possibly being adjustable, for example to reduce the size for children's garments.

In this document, the terms "comprises", "comprising", "includes", "including", "having" and their conjugates mean "including but not limited to".

Claim 1:
A device for positioning a garment on a printing platen (<NUM>) for printing, the device comprising:
a first gripper (<NUM>) configured to controllably grip onto a first edge of the garment at a first side of the platen (<NUM>);
a sliding mechanism connected to said gripper and configured to slide said gripper from said first side of the platen (<NUM>) to a second side of said platen (<NUM>) opposite said first side, thereby to pull said edge to said second side and position said garment across said platen (<NUM>) for printing and characterized by a laser source, a photodetector and an indicator, the photodetector positioned to detect occlusions caused by wrinkles or folds of said garment on said platen (<NUM>), said indicator being connected to said photodetector to provide a warning to said operator concerning said wrinkles;
a housing, the housing holding said sliding mechanism over said platen (<NUM>) and said gripper being suspended from said rail, said housing comprising a hood extending over said platen (<NUM>) from above.