CA1036432A - Seaming machinery - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT

A clamping device for a hosiery toe closer has an intermittently-movable endless belt trained around pulleys which shape a portion of the belt to the shape of a desired toe seam; the belt and pulleys are movable bodily towards a worktable to allow an edge of the shaped portion of the belt to grip a hose toe end to the worktable. The clamping action avoids slippage between belt and toe end when the belt is set in motion to transport an article to a seamer, so that the toe end is effectively constrained to memorise the shape afforded to the shaped portion of the belt. The result is that despite the shaped portion unwinding from the shaping pulleys in transporting the toe end to the seamer, the desired seam shape is generated thereat.

Description

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The present invention is concerned with improvements relating to the seaming of articles of hosi.ery.
Commonly, the manufacture of articles of hosiery such as socks, stockings, tights or pantihose and boot liners require toe seams to be made on automatic machinery.
Hitherto, exemplary seam-making machines have employed clamp plates which are lowered towards worktables to hold the articles to be seamed, and which are thereafter driven along the tables through rather complex paths adjacent seaming devices per se to generate the required seams. Mounting of the clamp plates for movement in two planes is a complication which is minor compared to the means required to drive the clamp plates along the desired paths and thereafter to return the clamp plates to positions in readiness to receive further ~rticles for seaming. Numerous cams and guide elements have been employed in the past, the adjustment of which poses considerable diffi-culties.
The principal aim of this invention is to provide a simplified method and apparatus for a~ltomatically and reliably toe closing hosiery ar-ticles.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a method of automatically closing the toe ends of hosiery articles, by generating seams of a required outline across said toe ends, using a machine having a plurality of hose car-riers which are arranged for movement in succession around an endless path and are adapted to present hose toe ends in turn to movable clampling means to be gripped thereby and then be moved in unison therewith past a seaming station whereat, in response to the movement of the clamped toe ends, closing seams of the required outline are generated across said toe ends, each hose in the practice of the method being subjected to a cycle of toe closing oper-ations comprising the steps of loading said hose onto a carrier, clamping said hose and seaming its toe end closed, followed by discharge of the hose~

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from the machine, the aforesaid steps being accomplished in the course of travel of said carrier around the endless path, and the method further involv-ing the step of predetermining the required seam outline as soon as the toe end is gripped between a hose-receiving part of the clamping means and a co-acting support~ the clamping means including a flexible belt trained around belt shaping and guiding means whereby, in the hose-receiving part of the clamping means, the belt is shaped to the required outline in order to exert a clamping action ~n the toe end along a line conforming to and predetermining the required seam outline upon the toe end being gripped by the clamping means.
The invention also provides a hosiery toe closer comprising a seam-er, clamping means operable so to exert a hold on the toe end of a hosiery article, and so to move it past the seamer, as to generate a toe closing seam of a required outline, and a plurality of hose carriers mounted on an index-able turret for movement,around an endless path, between a plurality of work stations whereat each of said carriers is in turn:loaded with a hosiery ar-ticle to be toe closed; caused to present the to~ end of the article to an article-receiving portion of the clamping means~ and stripped of the hosiery article after toe closing; the clamping means comprising a support and a belt-carrying carriage co-operable upon actuation of the clamping means to clamp a toe end between said support and an edge of the belt, the belt being endless, intermittently movable and trained around pulley wheels mounted on said car-riage, a plurality of the pulley wheels constituting form wheels the relative positions of which cause a portion of the belt to adopt a configuration which is the same as that of the required seam outline, whereby upon locating a toe end between the said portion of the belt and the support, and upon actuating the clamping means to clamp said toe end, an edge of said portion of the belt exerts a hold on ~he toe end along a line conforming to and predetermining the seam outline required, which seam is then generated when the belt, ., , ~(~36~3Z
subsequently set in motion, moves the toe end past the seamer.
In use, the belt remains stationary until it is necessary to carry out the actual seaming.
The toe end to be seamed is held between the belt of the clamp and the associated support which can comprise a worktable of the machine. Alterna-tively, the toe end can be held in a nip between the belt and a subsidiary support belt. The latter belt can be trained around pulley wheels so as to conform to the configuration of the clamping belt.
The use of an endless, intermittently movable clamping belt enables considerable simplifications to be made to equipment required to actuate the clamp. Quite simple mechanisms suffice for example to move the carrier of the clamping means rèlative to the coacting support, thereby to actua~te the clamping means, and to drive the belt intermittently. The only resetting of the clamping means then needed before a fresh toe end can be seamed is to move the carriage away from the subsidiary support belt to accept the next toe end. Since the belt is endless, a new length of belt is automatically drawn to the form wheels whilst the belt is moving a toe end held thereby past the seamer. By the time a preceding toe end has been seamed, the clamp-ing belt is set ready for holding the succeeding toe end.
The pulley wheels include a drive wheel, and preferably a tension-ing idler wheel, in addition to the form wheels. Although a plain belt can be used, to ensure a positive driving of the belt it is preferred that the belt and at least the drive wheel are toothed.
Desirably the said edge of the belt, which engages the toe ends in use, is resilient. Resilience for example can be gained by providing the said edge with a continuous groove. The groove can be of any desired shape such as a V or U-shape. A preferred expedient is to feather-edge the said edge of the belt so as to obtain the desired resilience.
Advantageously, the positions of the form wheels on the carrier are . - -3-~36~3Z
adjustable, and desirably replaceable by wheels of different diameters to en-able the exact form of the seam to be set as required. Where three form wheels are employed, a generally U-shaped seam results. For seams of more complex outlines, further form wheels can be added.
In the toe closer forming a preferred embodiment, hose are disposed on support tubes provided with reciprocatingly-mounted fingers which serve as means to present the hose i~the clamping means. The fingers are operable upon actuation of the clamping means to retract leaving the hose toe ends held by the clamping means.
For seaming most articles of hosiery, the seamer is preferably a sewing machine. Depending inter alia on the materials to be seamed, however, the seamer could comprise a seam welder, a glue applicator or the like.
In appropriate cases, the seamer could comprise a pair of sewing machines which are arranged so as to seam simultaneously respective ones of two hosiery articles, e.g. the two toes of the two united legs oP a pair of tights.
The invention will now be described by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Figure 1 is a perspective view of a toe closing hosiery machine em-bodying the invention, Figure 2 is a plan view of a hose-holding or clamping device accord-ing to the invention, Figure 3 is a perspective view illustrating the relative positions of parts of the clamping device and of the machine, Figure 3A is a section, taken on line A-A of figure 3, of a clamping belt of the clamping device, Figure 4 is a schematic end illustration of the turret of the machine shown in figure 1, and Figure 5 is a side elevation, with parts shown exposed for clarity, ~Q36432 of a wind-on, wind-off mechanism seen for example in figure 4.
The machine illustrated in figure 1 is a semi-automatic toe closing machine for use in manufacturing articles of hosiery including full hose (stocking and tights), half hose (socks) and fabric liners for boots. Control of the machine is generally by mechanical operators such as cams, and switch-able electronic, electric or pneumatic operators.
The machine 10 has a seaming device shown here as a sewing machine 13. Alternatively, the device could comprise a heat seamer such as a hot knife or an adhesive applicator. In the present instance, the sewing machine 13 is fed with thread from a supply bobbin. A holding device 15, located adjacent the sewing machine 13, coacts with a worktable, not visible in the drawings to clamp and move the hose past machine 13, during seaming. The machine 10 has an indexable turret 17 carrying, in this instance, six hose carriers each in the form of a tube 18. It is arranged that suction can be applied to the tubes 18 during selected phases of the machine operation. Each tube has a pair of axially-movable wings or fingers 19 associated therewith for stretching tubular hose flat and for presenting the hose toe-end first to the worktable. ~ind-on drive means 20 is provided for winding hose onto the tubes 18.
The machine 10 is operable to seam both single and double hose blanks. In use to seam double hose blanks, that is two-legged tights blanks wherein the legs have already been joined, the blank is sucked toe ends first into two adjacent tubes 18 and the operator then turns the joined, welt end of the blank back over the outside of the tu~es and over the stretching fin-gers 19 towards the wind-on means 20. In doing, the operator strikes an actu-ating lever (not shown) to set the wind-on means in motion. The blank is fully wolmd onto the tube 18 until the toe ends to be seamed are adjacent the free ends of the tubes, whereupon the operator may align the toe ends with indicating marks on the tubes 18. Instead of an actuating lever to start the ~36~3Z
wind-on means 20, a photoelectric sensor could be provided.
The machine 10 is so set as to permit the above procedure to be carried out whilst the turret 17 is stationary. The operator then presses a foot pedal 12 or a hand button (not shown) so as to index the turret stepwise to bring the ends of the hose-carrying tubes in line with the worktable. The fingers 19 next advance so as to present the stretched flat toe ends of the ; blank between the device 15 and the worktable. Activation of device 15 to clamp the toe ends to the worktable is followed by withdrawal or retraction of the fingers 19. Then, the device shifts the toe-ends along the table towards and past the sewing machine 13 for seaming. The tubes 18 still carry the re-mainder of the double hose blank, and after seaming is completed and after the turret has indexed once more, a wind-on mechanism 22 draws the hose once again fully back over the tubes. The seamed toe ends can be brought firmly against the ends of the tubes 18 if it is desired to straighten the seams.
(Seam straightening or flattening is particularly desirable when making such articles as menls hose.) Thereafter, the seamed hose is pushed off the tube and suction is again app~ied to draw the hose up the inside of one of the tubes 18. This reverses the hose and continued suction can be employed to deliver the toe-seamed hose to a lay-out station or into a collecting bin.
All the operator has to do is to load hose blanks onto empty tubes 18 and to operate the floor pedal 12, the machine 10 thereafter functioning automatically.
Though operation of the machine 10 has been described in connection with the toe-seaming of tights (pantihose), it will be recognised that the machine can accomplish toe-seaming of single hose or half-hose.
The device 15 is shown in more detail in figures 2 and 3. It is designed to be lowered by a push-pull rod 16 towards the worktable to clamp the toe end of a hose between the worktable and one edge of an endless belt 23. In the illustrated machine, the said worktable is fixedly mounted in a ~.~3643Z
position between the top of a cabinet 38 and the device 15 for contact by the belt 23 of the device 15.
The clamping device comprises the belt 23, a carrier 24 and a series of pulley wheels 25 to 33 mounted on the carrier 24. The carrier 24 is a frame-like casting and is pivotally secured to the machine 10 for swing-ing movement about a pivot axis 34 up and down relative to the worktable. In this instance, the carrier has two bosses 35 which receive a pivot pin 36.
The pivot pin is mounted in any convenient way to the body of the machine 10, in this instance to pillars 37 upstanding from machine cabinet 38. Pivotal raising or lowering of the carrier 24 about the pivot pin could be effected pneumatically or electrically. It is preferred, however, that mechanical means be employed. The mechanical means can comprise cams, bell crank levers and the like, which are suitably coupled to an attachment point on the carrier 24 through the push/pull rod 16.
The pulley wheels around which the endless belt 23 is trained in-clude a drive wheel 25 that is coupled, normally, through a gear box 39, clutches and a belt 40 to an electric drive motor contained within the cabinet 38. A tensioning idler wheel 26 adjacent the drive wheel 25 has a mounting bolt which is received in a slot 41 in the carrier to allow the position of the tension wheel to be adjusted to tension the belt. A lever 42 is provided to assist in shifting the wheel 26 to apply tension, and a locking knob 43 is provided to secure the wheel in a set tensioning position. It will be recog-nised that the wheel 26 could be spring-pressed to tension the belt 23.
Five pulley wheels, 27 to 31 inclusive, constitute two sets of de-tachable form wheels which shape the belt 23 to the outlines of the required seams 45 for the hose toe ends 46. As shown, each seam 45 has two straight portions 45a, 45c interconnected by an arcuate portion 45b. The arcuate yor-tion 45b has a radius of curvature governed by the radius of the large form wheel 28 or 30. Since the endless belt 23 has a finite thickness, the radius ;-~`'~ -7-~q)3643Z
of portion 45b is somewhat greater than the radius of wheel 28 or 30 as will be ~mderstood from figure 3.
Each form wheel 28, 30 is adjustably mounted by a mounting bolt thereof being received in a slot 47a, 47b in the carrier 24. By moving form wheels 28 and 30 relative to form wheels 27, 29 and 29, 31, respectively, the depths of the toes, and the angles between their straight seam portions 45a, 45c can be varied as required. The positions of form wheels 28, 30 are lock-able after setting as required by clamp knobs 48a, 48b.
Pulley wheels 32 and 33 are merely idlers. The belt 23 here is of a toothed type, and at least the drive wheel 25 is likewise toothed to assure positive driving of the belt~ Each of the other pulley wheels 26 to 33 can also be toothed. The lower surface of the belt 23 projects beyond the ad-jacent, lower, surfaces of the pulley wheels 28 to 32 in order to be able to coact with the worktable to clamp hose properly. The said belt surface edge is feather-edged at 49 along the whole extent of the belt, so as to make the lower or clamping surface of the belt 23 resilient. Instead of being feather-edged, the lower belt surface could be grooved along its whole extent.
In operation, the belt 23 is only driven periodically. Initially, the hose holding device 15 is raised from the worktable by a clockwise swinging about pivot axis 34, as viewed in figure 1. The fingers 19 can then be advanced as seen in figure 3 to position toe ends 46 adjacent the work-table, namely between the belt 23 and the worktable. The device 15 is next lowered to the worktable, while the fingers 19 are still advanced, to clamp the toe ends steady. The resilient feather-~e49 ofthe belt 23 accommodates the thickness of the fingers 19 while still being able to press portions of the toe ends 46 firmly against the worktable. It will by seen that in this example the form wheels 27 to 29 and 29 to 31 are disposed symmetrically with respect to the tubes 18 and fingers 19 when the clamping device 15 is lowered, this is to enable a "fish-mouth" seam to be made. Once the holding device t~ -8-c...:~

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has been lowered, the fingers 19 can be retracted and the belt can then be set in motion. The belt 23 moves in the direction shown by the arrows in figure 3, and as it does so, it draws the hose toes along the worktable and in turn passes them under a presser foot 51 and needle of the sewing machine The profiles of the untimately-generated toe seams are defined at the instant the belt 23 exerts a clamping force on the toe ends 46 against the worktable. Consider for a moment a hose toe end on the left-hand tube 18. Despite the fact that the belt 23, when set in motion, is deflected around form wheel 31, it moves the toe end 46 past the needle in such a way that the curved seam 45 results. The shape of the seam 45 is set solely by the shape assumed by the length of belt between the form wheels 29 to 31, at the instant the holding device 15 adopts its hose-clamping position. This so-defined seam shape is retained during unwinding of the belt from the form wheels 29 to 31 and its movement towards and past the presser foot 51, and needle since the clamping action between the device 15 and the worktable pre-vents relative movement between the toe end 46 and the belt 23.
The length of belt 23 between form wheels 27 to 29 likewise defines and sets the seam shape to be produced on the toe end of the hose on right-hand tube 18. When set in motion, this length of belt 23 has to pass aroundwheels 30 and 31 before reaching the presser foot 51. Once again, the de-fined seam shape is retained during this movement since relative movement be-tween toe end and belt is absent or substantially absent.
It is not always essential for the presser foot 51 and the needle to be located downstream (as viewed in the direction of movement of the belt 23~ of form wheel 31. It may, in some instances, be preferred so to position the form wheel 31 as to allow location of the presser foot and needle between say wheel 31 and the large form wheel 30.
It will be appreciated that seams of more complex shape can be _9_ ~1~)3643Z
obtained if the device 15 is suitably adapted by the inclusion of additional form wheels of appropriate diameters. The carrier 24 can have extra aper-tures and/or slots to allow fixed and/or adjustable mounting of additional form wheels thereon.
The illustrated device 15 is meant for a toe closer wherein two ends are simultaneously presented to a clamping means and are then advanced thereby in quick succession past a seamer. It is therefore of particular value when toe closing the already-joined legs of pantihose. However, the invention is not limited to a machine closing the two toes of pantihose. The invention also embraces a toe closer in which one toe end only is presented at a time to the clamping means in which case the device 15 can be simplified.
Only one large form wheel, e.g. 30~ may then be needed: for the simple seam 45, the form wheels 29, 30 and 31 alone will suffice.
As the belt 23 draws a toe end towards the presser foot 51,~the toe end is caused to swing about. It is found desirable for the worktable to have a profiled edge corresponding approximately to the profile of the belt trained around the form wheels 27 to 31. With such a profile, a toe end can hang over the edge of the table without the said edge interfering with the moving toe end.
The present toe closing machine, illustrated in figures 1, 4 and 5, has an indexable turret containing a plurality of carrier legs, i.e. the tubes 18. The machine will now be described in more detail. It is believed that an adequate understanding of the machine will be gained from a description directed mainly to its function.
The turret 17 is indexable stepwise each time the foot pedal 12 is depressed, the turret 17 being driven by amainelectric motor housed within the left-hand cabinet upon which the turret is mounted. The drive trans-mission is such that the turret 17 rotates through 120 at a time. During indexing, the tubes 18 rotate pair~ise from Station to Station. The Stations ~., ~36~3Z
are denoted I, II and III and are illustrated in figure 4, to which reference is now directed.
While the turret is stationary, the operator offers the two toe ends of a pantihose blank to the two tubes 18 at Station I, during which time suc-tion is applied. The legs of the blank are drawn into the tubes 18. The operator then turns the body or welt end of the blanlc over the outside of the tubes 18 and draws the legs of the blanlc onto the tubes and their fingers or blades 19. During this operation, the operator touches the aforementioned lever to actuate the wind-on means 20.
The wind-on means 20 comprises two pairs of wheels 80, 81 mounted on an end of an arm 82 which is pivotally supported adjacent the left-hand cabinet. Upon actuation by the lever, the arm 82 of the wind-on means is pivoted to an operative position wherein the wheels 80, 81 press the legs of the blank to the blades 19 of the tubes 18 still at Station I. A wind-on electric motor (not shown) is also actuated to rotate the wheels 80, 81 so as to draw the hose fully onto the tubes 18. Thereafter the wind-on means is pivoted from its operative position to a standby position. Means for pivoting the wind-on means between the operative and standby positions can comprise a pneumatic or hydraulic ram, though mechanical operators such as camming means is preferred. The mechanical operators can be powered by the main drive motor which drives the turret 17.
Once the hose legs are drawn onto the tubes 18 and are aligned appropriately, the operator depresses the foot pedal 12. The main drive motor then rotates the turret 17 and, through an appropriate linkage drives the push-pull rod 16 upwards to raise the device 15 away from the worktable. As the loaded tubes 18 arrive from Station I and Station II, (in the course of rotation of the turret which is counterclockwise as viewed in figure 4) the blades 19 are driven forward momentarily relative to their associated tubes 18 and the rod 16 is pulled downwards to lower the device 1~ towards the l~ ' -11-6~3Z
tabletop. In moving forward, the blades 19 carry the blank toe ends 46 be-; tween the belt 23 and the worktable. Upon lowering the device 15, the toe ends are gripped or clamped between the belt 23 and the worktable. The blades 19 retract to their original positions once the toe ends have been clamped.
After retraction of the blades 19, the belt drive motor becomes operative, and the belt 23 is set in motion to transport the toe ends 46 in quick succession past the presser foot 51 and needle of the sewing machine ; 13. The toe ends are thereby seamed to the seam profile 45 and excess mater-~ ial is trimmed off.

When the seaming step is completed, the turret is enabled to be ind0xed once again. The device 15 is raised, releasing the seamed toe ends and the tubes at Station II are indexed, again counterclockwise as viewed in figure 4 to Station III for turning or everting and discharge of the panti-hose from the machine 10. Upon arrival at Station III, the main part of the pantihose is still on the tubes 18, but the now-seamed toe ends are hanging from the ends of the tubes. It is necessary first to draw the pantihose legs fully onto the tubes, then to push the legs forward and simultaneously to apply suction to the tubes.
A wind-on, wind-off means 22 operates on the toe-seamed hose at Station III. Means 22 comprises a rigid arm 90 mounted on the left-hand cabi-net, ~he arm having a free end pivotally supporting a carriage 91 at 92. On the carriage are wind-on and wind-off wheels 937 94 respectively. The wheels 93, 94 are continuously rotated, in opposite senses, by means of a drive motor therefor (not shown) contained inside the left-hand cabinet. Drive transmis-ion is taken via belts 95, 96 enclosed in the arm 90 to a gear-box 97 on the carriage 91. The gear-box gears are in continual driving engagement with the wheels 93, 94. In order to effect wind-on, wheels 93 are rotated clockwise as viewed in figure 5 and wheels 94 are rotated anticlockwise for wind-off.

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Wind-on or wind-off is accomplished by rocking the carriage 91 about the pivot at 92 so as to bring the appropriate wheels 93 or 94 into en-gagement with the hose carried by the two tubes 18 at Station III. A push rod 99 is provided to rock the carriage 91, the push rod 99 extending along the arm 90 to a rod-actuating mechanism inside the left-hand carriage; The said mechanism can include camming means driven in timed sequence with the turret rotations.
In operation, when the tubes 18 arrive at Station III, the carriage 91 is pivoted so as to bring the two pairs of wheels 93 against the blades 19.
The wheels 93, which are clockwise-rotating as seen in figure 5, draw the pantihose legs fully onto the tubes 18 until the seamed toe ends are disposed across the ends of the tubes. If desired, the drive transmission to the wheels 93 can include presettable slipping clutches designed to enable the rotating wheels 93 to exert a predetermined maximum tension on the seamed toe ends while the latter engage the tube ends. After the wheels 93 have been in operative engagement with the blades 19 long enough to assure the pantihose legs being drawn fully onto the tubes 18, the push rod 99 is shifted. This rocks the carriage 91 to bring the two wind-off wheels 94 against the two tubes 18 and to remove the wind-on wheels 93 therefrom. The anti-clockwise-rotating wheels 94 then urge the hose legs off the tubes 18.
While the wheels 94 are pushing the pantihose legs from the tubes 18,suction is applied thereto. The hose legs are drawn seamed toes first into the tubes 18, the hose legs being turned or everted in the process. The everted pantihose can then be discharged from the machine.
To discharge the everted pantihose, suction can be removed from one tube 18 whilst the application of suction to the other tube 18 is continued.
This continued suction causes the hose leg already in the said other tube to travel down the inside of the tube towards a discharge point, and to pull the other leg from its tube 18 and into the said other tube 18. The toe seamed 1~3~432 pantihose thus travels down the said other tube for discharge at the discharge point. The discharge point can be associated with a laying out station or a collection bin as is known.
Control of the suction applied to the tubes 18 during a cycle of operations as just described can be effected by gate valves which are opened and closed in timed relationship to the turret movements. Camming means operated by the turret drive motor can accomplish timed opening and closing of the gate valves.
The machine functions are under the control of mechanical operators such as cams, and switchable electronic, electric or pneumatic operators.
Details of such operators have been omitted, since it is thought the above description of the functions of the machine will give adequate guidance to the designer as to what must be accomplished by the operators. It is pre-ferred to rely as far as possible on mechanical operators, since setting up and machine maintenance can be simplified thereby, especially in the field.
~oreover, it is thought that greater reliability can be achieved by such operators, which are very positive in action.
Since the individual functions of the machine are dependent on tur-ret indexing, it is desirable that the machine timing system be effected by cams mounted on a cam-shaft driven by the main, turret drive motor.
The machine just described is particularly simple to use. All the ; user has to do is to load pantihose onto empty tubes 18, at Station I, and when ready to actuate the foot pedal causing the turret to index one step.
This indexing brings a fresh pair of empty tubes to Station I for loading.
All the remaining functions of the machine are carried out automatically in-; cluding discharging the seamed pantihose.
~ hilst the illustrated machine is intended for use in the manufacture of pantihose, it can be modified, if desired, for making full or half hose.
Eor such purposes, a modified indexable turret machine can be arranged to 103~43Z
present one carrier tube at a time to loading Station I. Such a machine can be so designed that the full or half hose are likewise presented one at a time to the clamping and seaming stations, and then one at a time to the wind-on/wind-off and everting station. In such a simplified machine, it is poss-ible to use a simplified version of the device 15 having form wheels 29, 30 and 31 alone.

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Claims (24)

THE EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION IN WHICH AN EXCLUSIVE
PROPERTY OR PRIVILEGE IS CLAIMED ARE DEFINED AS FOLLOWS:

1. A method of automatically closing the toe ends of hosiery articles, by generating seams of a required outline across said toe ends, using a machine having a plurality of hose carriers which are arranged for movement in suc-cession around an endless path and are adapted to present hose toe ends in turn to movable clamping means to be gripped thereby and then be moved in unison therewith past a seaming station whereat, in response to the movement of the clamped toe ends, closing seams of the required outline are generated across said toe ends, each hose in the practice of the method being subjected to a cycle of toe closing operations comprising the steps of: loading said hose onto a carrier, clamping said hose and seaming its toe end closed, foll-owed by discharge of the hose from the machine, the aforesaid steps being accomplished in the course of travel of said carrier around the endless path, and the method further involving the step of predetermining the required seam outline as soon as the toe end is gripped between a hose-receiving part of the clamping means and a coacting support, the clamping means including a flexible belt trained around belt shaping and guiding means whereby, in the hose-receiving part of the clamping means, the belt is shaped to the required outline in order to exert a clamping action on the toe end along a line con-forming to and predetermining the required seam outline upon the toe end being gripped by the clamping means.

2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the hosiery articles com-prise pantihose having two, already joined legs needing toe closing, and wherein the toe ends of the two legs of each pantihose are presented simul-taneously into two indentically-shaped hose-receiving parts of said clamping means which thereafter move the two toe ends past a seaming station.

3. A method according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the or each toe end is gripped between said belt and a stationary worktable forming the said coacting support.

4. A method according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the or each toe end is gripped in a nip between said belt and a subsidiary belt forming the coacting support, the subsidiary belt being trained around shaping means therefor whereby the support belt conforms to the configuration of the belt of the clamping means.

5. A hosiery toe closer comprising a seamer, clamping means operable so to exert a hold on the toe end of a hosiery article, and so to move it past the seamer, as to generate a toe closing seam of a required outline, and a plurality of hose carriers mounted on an indexable turret for move-ments around an endless path, between a plurality of work stations whereat each of said carriers is in turn: (i) loaded with a hosiery article to be toe closed, (ii) caused to present the toe end of the article to an article-receiving portion of the clamping means and (iii) stripped of the hosiery article after toe closing; the clamping means comprising a support and a belt-carrying carriage co-operable upon actuation of the clamping means to clamp a toe end between said support and an edge of the belt, the belt being endless, intermittently movable and trained around pulley wheels mounted on said carriage, a plurality of the pulley wheels con-stituting form wheels the relative positions of which cause a portion of the belt to adopt a configuration which is the same as that of the required seam outline, whereby upon locating a toe end between said portion of the belt and the support, and upon actuating the clamping means to clamp said toe end, an edge of said portion of the belt exerts a hold on the toe end along a line conforming to and predetermining the seam outline required, which seam is then generated when the belt, sub-sequently set in motion, moves the toe end past the seamer.

6. A toe closer according to claim 5, having at least three form wheels and the position of at least one is adjustable relative to the others to enable variations of the said configuration to be made, the arrangement allowing one hosiery article at a time to be received by the clamping means and moved to the seamer.

7. A toe closer according to claim 6, having further form wheels ad-jacent the said three form wheels to allow two or more hosiery articles to be clamped at one and the same time.

8. A toe closer according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the said carriage is apertured and/or slotted to receive a multiplicity of detachable form wheels whose mutual positions on the carrier are fixed and/or adjustable.

9. A toe closer according to any one of the preceding claims 5,6 or 7, wherein the carriage provides an adjustable mounting for an idler wheel around which the belt is trained, to permit the belt tension to be present.

10. A toe closer according to any one of the preceding claims 5,6 or 7, wherein the belt is toothed and at least one of the pulley wheels, which con-stitutes a drive wheel, is likewise toothed to allow positive driving of the belt.

11. A toe closer according to claim 5, wherein the said edge of the belt is resilient.

12. A toe closer according to claim 11, wherein the resilient edge of the belt has a feather-edge configuration.

13. A toe closer according to claim 5, wherein the clamping means sup-port against which an article for seaming is clamped by the belt comprises a worktable.

14. A toe closer according to claim 13, wherein the worktable has an edge having a profile conforming approximately to the belt configuration established by the form wheels.

15. A toe closer-according to any of claims 5, 6 or 7, wherein the clamp-ing means support, against which an article for seaming is clamped by the belt, is a subsidiary belt a portion of which has the same configuration as the article-receiving portion of the first-mentioned belt.

16. A toe closer according to any of claims 5, 6 or 7, wherein the hose carriers each comprise a tube and hose-advancing means for presenting a hose toe end into said clamping means, the hose-advancing means being movable rela-tive to its associated tube in timed relationship with indexing of the turret and actuation of the clamping means (i) to advance the toe ends between the clamping belt and the coacting support, and (ii) to retract leaving said toe end held by the clamping means, ready to be transported thereby past the seamer, following movement of said carriage to the clamping position of the clamping means.

17. A toe closer according to claim 5, wherein the hose carriers are tubes mounted in adjacent pairs on the turret which is indexable during a machine cycle to move each pair of tubes stepwise from a hose-loading station first to a clamping and seaming station, then to an everting and discharge station and finally back to the loading station, the form wheels of the clamp-ing means being so arranged as to receive two hose toe ends at a time and exert a clamping action on each of the toe ends along a line conforming to and predetermining the required seam outlines.

18. A toe closer according to claim 17, including wind-on means operable at the loading station for drawing two hose legs onto the two adjacent tubes simultaneously.

19. A toe closer according to claim 17, including wind-on/wind-off means operable when the turret moves each pair of adjacent tubes to the everting and discharge station.

20. A toe closer according to claim 18, wherein the wind-on/wind-off means comprises two continuously-driven sets of wheels rotating in opposite senses which are mounted on a rockable carriage, the carriage being rockable between a wind-on position wherein a first set of wheels is in contact with hose legs on the tubes to draw the legs fully onto the tubes, and a wind-off position wherein the second set of wheels is in contact with the hose legs to push them from the tubes.

21. A toe closer according to any of claims 17, 18 or 19, including means for applying suction to the tubes when at an everting station to draw the hose toe first into the tubes.

22. A toe closer according to claim 20, including means for applying suction to the two tubes when at the everting station to draw the two hose legs toe first into the tubes at the same time as wind-off occurs, to evert both hose legs.

23. A toe closer according to claim 22, wherein the means for applying suction is operable to discontinue suction in one tube and to maintain suc-tion in the other tube at the everting station, whereby the suction in the said other tube is effective to draw the hose completely into and through the said other tube for discharge from the machine.

24. A toe closer according to any of claims 5, 6 or 7, including a cam shaft driven by a main, turret-drive motor and cams thereon to control the operating functions of the machine in timed relation to turret indexing.