Patent ID: 7168456

Claim:
An apparatus for the removal of one or more CD oriented yarns from an edge of a woven industrial textile having first and second planar surfaces and comprised of a plurality of interwoven warp and weft yarns oriented transversely to one another in each of the machine direction (MD) and cross-machine direction (CD), the apparatus comprising: a frame that is at least equal in length to the width of the fabric from which the yarns are to be removed; a movable table including: a motorized mounting system attached to the frame, the mounting system capable of moving the table a desired distance along the frame in a direction generally parallel to the CD direction of the fabric; a clamping device adapted to securely hold that portion of the fabric from which yarns are to be removed; and a yarn removal device, consisting of a cutter and a combined hooked needle & thread catcher, wherein; the yarn removal device is movable in a vertical direction out of the fabric plane, and in a horizontal direction parallel to the MD direction; the distance between the cutter and combined hooked needle & thread catcher in the yarn removal device is adjustable; the yarn removal device is caused to reciprocate cyclically such that: in a first part of the cycle, the yarn removal device is raised and each of the cutter and combined hooked needle & thread catcher pierces a first planar surface of the fabric thereby passing between the component warp and weft yarns at two locations a pre-selected distance apart; the cutter cuts one or more weft yarns as it passes between the component warp and weft so as to provide cut weft thread sections; in a second part of the cycle, the hook of the combined hooked needle & thread catcher grasps the one or more pre cut weft yarn section(s) and pulls them down into the clamp of the thread catcher, thereby holding the hooked weft yarn section(s) firmly and pulling the section(s) completely out of the fabric as the cutter and combined hooked needle & thread catcher are retracted from the first planar surface; in a third part of the cycle, the thread catcher releases the pulled out cut weft yarn section, and the cutter and combined hooked needle & thread catcher are moved in a horizontal direction parallel to the MD to the next uncut weft yarn(s), and the cycles repeat until a desired width of longitudinal channel is obtained; the table is moved in a direction generally parallel to the CD of the fabric and the cycle is repeated until sufficient CD yarns are removed from a desired width and length of the fabric.