Patent ID: 8359989

Claim:
A tufting machine for forming patterned tufted articles including multiple different yarns, comprising: at least one needle bar having a series of needles mounted therealong; backing feed rolls for feeding a backing material through a tufting zone of the tufting machine; a yarn feed mechanism for feeding a series of yarns to said needles; a series of gauge parts mounted below the tufting zone in a position to engage said needles of said at least one needle bar as said needles are reciprocated into the backing material to form tufts of yarns in the backing material; and a stitch distribution control system controlling said yarn feed mechanism to control feeding of the yarns to said needles so as to selectively retain yarns presented at selected stitch locations along the backing material in accordance with a series of pattern steps, and controlling said backing feed rolls to control feeding of the backing material at an effective stitch rate that is greater than a desired stitch rate for the patterned tufted article to form the patterned tufted article.