Patent ID: 7080601

Claim:
A yarn feeder for a tufting machine having needles aligned in a width direction of a fabric to be formed into a tufted product in the tufting machine, said yarn feeder comprising: a plurality of yarn feed rolls operable to feed a plurality of rows of pile yarns to respective ones of said needles at a predetermined feed speed; and a brake device operable to individually and selectively apply braking force to the respective pile yarns while the yarns are being fed from said feed rolls to said needles, wherein said brake device comprises a grooved member formed with a plurality of grooves each for receiving one of the pile yarns, and a plurality of presser members which are individually movable toward said respective grooves until pressed against bottoms of said grooves with the pile yarns sandwiched between said presser members and said bottoms of said grooves, and movable away from said bottoms, wherein said grooved member is a grooved roll which can be rotated at a variable speed, wherein said plurality of grooves are annular grooves formed in an outer peripheral surface of said grooved roll, and wherein said plurality of presser members are rotatably supported disks each having its outer edge received in one of said annular grooves so as to be individually pressed against said bottoms of said annular grooves with the pile yarns sandwiched therebetween.