EP0601343A2 - Embroidery machine with central drive - Google Patents

Abstract

The subject-matter of the invention is an embroidery machine having a multiplicity of embroidering points with the corresponding embroidery tools (13,19,20,21) which are attached on shafts (5,6,7) which extend along the embroidery machine, oscillate in the operating state and are set in motion by means of corresponding drives. In order to reduce the torsion of these shafts, some of which are quite long, and their torsional vibrations, which leads to distortion of the movement required at the embroidery tools and to a temporal phase shift between the front and rear part of the machine, according to the invention the drives of the needles (19) and other embroidery tools (13,20,21) are provided about halfway along the embroidery machine. <IMAGE>

Description

The subject of the present invention is an embroidery machine with a horizontal arrangement of a large number of individual embroidery points according to the preamble of claim 1.

So far, two basic arrangements are known for driving the embroidery tools in large embroidery machines.

According to one principle, a main motor with a main drive shaft is arranged laterally and across the embroidery machine. Cam disks for the various embroidery tool drives are attached to this main drive shaft. The movement is transmitted via roller levers and other transmission means to several oscillating shafts extending along the entire machine, which in turn drive the corresponding embroidery tools in their linear movement at the many embroidery points. A similar arrangement is shown and described schematically in DE 35 02 894 Figure 1.

According to another principle, the main drive shaft is arranged along the machine. The corresponding cams are attached to the front and rear of this rotating main drive shaft. From these, the movements are in turn transmitted to various oscillating shafts extending along the embroidery machine, which in turn drive the corresponding embroidery tools at the many embroidery sites. Such an arrangement is shown in EP 0 193 625 in FIG. 1.

Furthermore, a new solution is proposed in this patent, in which the cams by highly dynamic Electric motors are replaced so that the various oscillating shafts extending along the embroidery machine for driving the embroidery tools are driven by "electronic cam mechanisms".

All three solutions have one major disadvantage: with lengths of the large embroidery machines of 10 - 20 m, it becomes very difficult to dynamically master oscillating shafts of this length at higher speeds. The twisting of these long shafts and their torsional vibrations lead to a distortion of the movement required on the embroidery tools and to a temporal phase shift between the front and rear part of the machine. At speeds over 200 / min. this becomes one of the speed limiting factors for large embroidery machines.

The aim of the invention is now to push this technical speed limitation upwards and at the same time to strive for a more cost-effective solution.

According to the invention, this is achieved with an embroidery machine in that the drives of the needles and the other embroidery tools are provided approximately half the length of the embroidery machine.

By arranging the drives of the various oscillating shafts that drive the various embroidery tools in the middle of the machine, the oscillating length of these drive shafts is generally halved, so that the limit values of the tolerable dynamic deviations only occur at higher speeds. At the same time, the main drive shaft, which is arranged lengthways or transversely to the machine, is eliminated.

This concentrated center arrangement enables all of these drives to be combined in a compact drive group.

In order to divide the oscillating drive shafts for the various embroidery tools into even shorter sections, several such drive groups can be distributed along the machine. These are advantageously inserted into modular, preassembled assemblies whose rows in the final assembly result in embroidery machines of the appropriate length. These drive groups can be connected to one another by a common shaft and driven by a common motor. The modern drive technology also makes it possible to equip each drive module with its own drive motor and to synchronize these motors very precisely.

The requirements of embroidery technology on the one hand, the dynamic problems with such large machines and relatively high speeds on the other hand result in quite complex movement sequences for the different embroidery tools, which have to be precisely synchronized with each other. Cam gears with double cams have proven themselves for such drives. They can probably be easily adjusted in time to take special requirements of the embroidery process into account. However, their curve shape is constant and thus the movement of the corresponding embroidery tools. By using highly dynamic motors and modern control technology, it is possible to directly generate such complex motion sequences by controlling / regulating the motor. This technology also allows various preprogrammed motion sequences to be saved and called up in the machine program as required. But it turns out that with extreme accelerations / decelerations even the most modern motor and control technology reaches its limits. An optimal overall solution can be achieved in that, depending on the technical possibilities and requirements of the embroidery process, some embroidery tools are driven via cam mechanisms, but other embroidery tools are driven by highly dynamically controlled motors.

All embroidery tools must be precisely synchronized in their movement sequence. If the main drive assembly is arranged in the middle of the machine, there is the problem of connecting / synchronizing the embroidery tools on the front and the back of the fabric to be embroidered. In the conventional construction of the large embroidery machines with the central trench for the stenter, a mechanical connection is complex and difficult. One drive motor each on the drive group for the embroidery tools in front of the stenter and a second drive motor on the drive assembly behind the stenter are precisely synchronized electrically, with the possibility of precisely definable, small temporal shifts between the movements of the embroidery tools in front of and behind the stenter in the control becomes.

Another new construction makes it possible to omit the central trench for the stenter.

This construction enables a direct mechanical connection between the drive assemblies in front of and behind the embroidery frame. There are two different embodiments for this, namely a direct mechanical connection via corresponding drive shafts and the like, and as a further embodiment an electronic coupling can also be provided.

With this solution, a single main drive motor can be used in the middle of the machine and the exact time synchronization of the movement sequences is ensured without further effort.

The subject matter of the present invention results not only from the subject matter of the individual patent claims, but also from the combination of the individual patent claims with one another.

All documents, including the summary, disclosed information and features, in particular the spatial design shown in the drawings, are claimed as essential to the invention, insofar as they are new to the prior art, individually or in combination.

The invention is explained in more detail below with the aid of drawings which illustrate only one embodiment. Here, from the drawings and their description, further features and advantages of the invention that are essential to the invention emerge.

Figur 1:

perspektivisch ein mittleres Montagemodul einer Stickmaschine mit Mittelantrieb,

Figur 2:

Schnitt durch ein mittleres Montagemodul etwa in Höhe der Linie II in Figur 1,

Figur 3:

Schnitt durch einen separaten Stickwerkzeug-Antrieb mit Darstellung eines separaten Motors für den Bohrerantrieb,

Figur 4:

Stirnansicht mit teilweisem Schnitt durch einen Rahmen nach Figur 1 mit Darstellung einer zusätzlichen mechanischen Verbindung für die Antriebe auf der Vorder- und Rückseite des Rahmens.

Show it:

Figure 1:

perspective a middle assembly module of an embroidery machine with middle drive,

Figure 2:

Section through a middle assembly module at about the height of line II in Figure 1,

Figure 3:

Section through a separate embroidery tool drive showing a separate motor for the drill drive,

Figure 4:

Front view with a partial section through one Frame according to Figure 1 showing an additional mechanical connection for the drives on the front and back of the frame.

According to the invention, the frame of the embroidery machine is U-shaped and consists of lower, transverse supports 27, between which projecting side stands 26 are accommodated, which define a channel 28 that is open at the end.

This creates an approximately U-shaped frame which is reinforced by corresponding longitudinal cheeks 29.

Additional longitudinal beams 30 are arranged below the cheeks 29. The embroidery tools are arranged on the cheeks 29.

With the given structure, the advantage is achieved that further U-shaped frames can be connected at the end.

In the middle area, a main motor 1 is arranged on the front of the frame, which also drives a drive group 2 on the front.

A further drive group 4, which is driven by the main motor 3, is provided on the rear.

The two drive groups 2, 4 act on associated longitudinal shafts 5, 6, 7, the corresponding embroidery tools being driven via the connecting rods 10, 11, 12.

The connecting rod 10 drives the longitudinal shaft 5 for driving the embroidery needle, while the connecting rod 11 drives the longitudinal shaft 7 for driving the thread guide.

The drive group 4 at the rear drives the oscillating longitudinal rod 9 for the shuttle drive via the connecting rod 12.

It is clear from the illustration according to FIG. 1 that the drives 1, 4 arranged approximately in the middle are arranged in the middle of the frame and therefore the described driven elements are also driven in the center. The connecting rods 10, 11, 12 act on corresponding levers which are connected in a rotationally fixed manner to the longitudinal shafts described. This results in particular from FIG. 2.

In Figure 2 it is also shown that the connecting rod 11 acts on the lever 8, which is shown in two different positions. Accordingly, the thread guide 13 also occupies two different positions 13, 13 ', depending on the position of the lever 8.

The longitudinal shaft 6 is connected to the drill 20 via a further lever, while the longitudinal shaft 5 is coupled to the needles 19.

The two tools work in conjunction with an opposite shuttle 21. The shuttle is driven via the connecting rod 12, which acts on the oscillating longitudinal rod 9, which in turn assigns an oscillating vertical movement to the shuttle 21.

The oscillating movements of the various connecting rods 10, 11, 12 are generated by corresponding rotating eccentrics in the drive groups 2, 4.

Here, for example, the transmission output shaft 31 is rotatably connected to a cam plate 22 on which an associated roller lever is supported, a double roller lever 23 being provided for the thread guide drive.

The drive group 4 on the rear side has a similar transmission output shaft 32, which is non-rotatably coupled to an associated cam plate 24 for the shuttle drive. It is in turn a double roller lever 25 which is coupled to the connecting rod 12.

In the area of the channel 28, the material waves 39 are now arranged vertically one above the other, the material waves 39 moving both vertically and horizontally.

1 shows, moreover, that not only the drive for the embroidery tools has one or more central motors, but also that the drill is assigned its own drive via a motor 15, which is likewise arranged approximately in the central region of the frame. The same properties essential to the invention are thus achieved, namely a central drive of shafts which extend in the longitudinal direction over the frame and are no longer exposed to torsional vibrations that are so strong.

According to FIG. 3, the drive for the drill 20 is flanged onto the motor 15.

The elongated motor shaft 17 of the motor 15 is transmitted via a lever mechanism 18 which is coupled to a connecting rod 16 which engages a lever 33 which rotatably connects to the oscillating longitudinal shaft 6 connected is. Non-rotatably connected to the longitudinal shaft 6 are further levers which drive a longitudinal tube 34 oscillating around the axis of rotation of the longitudinal shaft 6; a pawl 35 engages in the longitudinal tube 34, and depending on the position of the pawl, the drill 20 is advanced in the direction of the embroidery base 40 and penetrates it or is withdrawn. The needles 19, to which a separate drive is assigned, are arranged above the drill 20, a pawl 37 likewise being connected to a similar longitudinal tube 38.

It is important in the embodiment according to FIGS. 1 and 2 that the main motor 1 on the front side and the main motor 3 on the rear side are electronically coupled to one another. This has the great advantage that the previously described cams can be electronically adjusted against one another without the need for mechanical adjustment means.

It is an electronic gear, i.e. the speed and the phase position of the two main motors 1, 3 are electronically controlled (with a feedback against each other and synchronized, can be changed as desired).

FIG. 4 shows an alternative to the previously described electronic coupling between motors 1 and 3, a mechanical coupling via a mechanical connecting shaft 41, only the main motor 1, for example, being present on the front side, which via a corresponding, not shown, drive shaft Drive group 2 drives on the front, and via an output shaft 42 and a spur gear, the mechanical connecting shaft 41 is driven, which in turn via a additional spur gear and an assigned output shaft drives the drive group 4 on the back.

In this embodiment in particular, individual and / or several embroidery tool drives combined into a group can be coupled to the electric motor drive by switchable couplings in such a way that the embroidery tool drives can optionally be switched on or off as desired.

To the structure of the frame is added that in the region of the longitudinal cheeks 29 vertical supports 43 are arranged, which are also referred to as gate towers, on which the stenter with the fabric shafts is arranged and guided in a longitudinally displaceable manner.

It is important that all shafts that have been described above can be extended on the end face, so that a further assembly module can be connected to the end face of the assembly module according to FIG. 1, which is driven by the drive unit 2, 4 of the assembly module shown in FIG. 1.

In comparison to an embroidery machine, in which the entire drive is only arranged on one end face, higher speeds and a significantly higher output can thus be achieved.

Another essential feature is that the drive motors mentioned are electronically controlled, which eliminates the need to arrange different mechanical adjustment elements because the regulation of these motors 1.3 is purely electronic. So the mechanical The task of the machine is significantly simplified and made more cost-effective.

Because of the direct power curve, the drive is also quieter and low-vibration.

Due to the compact design and due to the modular drive boxes, the drive unit can be designed to be easily exchangeable, and thus embroidery machines of different outputs can be easily assembled in a modular manner.

Drawing legend

1

Main engine front

2nd

Drive group front

3rd

Main engine rear

4th

Rear drive group

5

oscillating longitudinal shaft (drive embroidery needles)

6

oscillating longitudinal shaft (drive drill)

7

oscillating longitudinal shaft (drive thread guide)

8th

lever

9

oscillating longitudinal rod (shuttle drive)

10th

Connecting rod drive group - oscillating needle shaft

11

Connecting rod drive group - oscill. Thread guide shaft

12th

Connecting rod drive group - oscill. Shuttle drive

13

Thread guide 13 '

15

Motor as separate drive for certain embroidery tools (e.g. drill) 16 connecting rod motor to oscillate. Drilling shaft

17th

wave

18th

Lever mechanism

19th

needle

20th

drill

21

Boat

22

Cam for thread guide drive

23

Double roller lever f. Thread conductor drive

24th

Cam f. Shuttle drive

25th

Double roller lever f. Shuttle drive

26

Side stand

27

lower beam

28

channel

29

Cheeks

30th

Side member

31

Transmission output shaft

32

Transmission output shaft

33

lever

34

Longitudinal tube drill drive

35

Jack drill drive

37

Jack needle drive

38

Longitudinal tube needle drive

39

Fabric wave

40

Embroidery floor

41

mech. Connecting shaft

42

Output wave

43

vertical supports

Claims (8)

Embroidery machine with a horizontal arrangement of a large number of embroidery points at the same distance next to each other, each with a needle and the associated embroidery tools, such as drill, thread guide, fabric presser, boat, further stitch-forming needles, some of which are located on the front and the back of an embroidery base opposite one another or several rows are arranged one above the other, whereby the same tools are connected to each other via a shaft running along the embroidery machine and can be actuated together by means of a corresponding drive, characterized in that the drives for the needles (19) and the associated embroidery tools (13, 20 , 21) are provided about half the length of the embroidery machine. Embroidery machine according to claim 1, characterized in that at least two of the drives are combined to form a drive group (2, 4) and can be driven together by means of a separate electric motor (1). Embroidery machine according to claim 2, characterized in that at least two drive groups (2, 4) are arranged distributed over the length of the machine. Embroidery machine according to claim 1, characterized in that the drives for the various embroidery tools (13, 19, 20, 21) act as cam mechanisms (22-25) are trained. Embroidery machine according to claim 1, characterized in that the drives for the various embroidery tools (13, 19, 20, 21) are designed as highly dynamic motors. Embroidery machine according to claim 1, characterized in that the drives for some of the embroidery tools are designed as cam mechanisms and for the other part of the embroidery tools as highly dynamic motors. Embroidery machine according to claim 1, characterized in that a drive group (2) is provided on the front, and the drives of the embroidery tools (21) on the rear are mechanically connected to the drive group (2) in such a way that they are jointly operated by the same motor (1 ) can be driven. Embroidery machine according to claim 2, characterized in that the drives are connected to the common electric motor (1) by means of switchable couplings such that the embroidery tool drives can be switched on or off as desired.

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