GB2379906A

GB2379906A - Making applique items

Info

Publication number: GB2379906A
Application number: GB0215567A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Peter Ramsbottom
Original assignee: JACQUARD WEAVING Co Ltd
Current assignee: JACQUARD WEAVING Co Ltd
Priority date: 2001-07-07
Filing date: 2002-07-05
Publication date: 2003-03-26
Anticipated expiration: 2022-07-05
Also published as: GB0215567D0; GB2379906B; GB0116600D0

Abstract

Appliqu items comprising decorated cut out panels (11) of face material (12) laminated to backing material (13) are made from a width of face material (12) decorated in multiple panels (11) across its width prepared on a face material preparation machine (14). The prepared face material (12) is laminated to a backing material (13) continuously with production of the decorated face material (12). Panels (11) are subsequently cut out from the laminated material (12, 13). The laminating operation (22) is isolated from the face material preparation operation.

Description

A METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR MAKING APPLIQUE ITEMS This invention relates to a method of and apparatus for making appliqué items, for example, blazer and cap badges and garment labels.

Conventionally, such items are made on a jacquard weaving loom, in the case of woven items, which weaves multiple'decorated'panels-the badges or labelsacross the width of the machine and slits the fabric into narrow fabric strips each containing a single column of the panels, before taking up the fabric on rolls.

The rolls are then taken to another machine where they are laminated to a backing fabric. Finally, the individual panels are cut out from the backed rolls by a "pastry cutter"arrangement using dies appropriate to the desired shape of the finished

panel. The cut edges, particularly of badges, may then need to be overlocked.

It has been proposed to use a laser device for cutting out the panels, , avoiding the need for an inventory of dies and the need to'make new dies for new panel shapes. The laser can also effectively'seal'the cut edge (depending on the textile materials used) and avoid the need for overlocking.

However, the process is still dependent on multiple handling stages, at each of which time and skill are required with the incidence of alignment errors leading to faults and waste.

It was proposed in GB 2337724 to make appliqué items comprising decorated cut out panels of face material laminated to backing material by preparing a width of face material decorated in multiple panels across its width on a face material preparation machine, eg. a jacquard weaving loom, laminating the thus-prepared face

fabric to a backing fabric continuously with the production of the face fabric, and cutting out the panels from the laminated fabric, eg. by a laser cutting machine.

Certain problems were experienced with the method as described and illustrated in GB 2337724, however. In particular, if for some reason adhesion was lost between the face fabric and the backing fabric, for example, if the adhesive application failed over a stretch of backing fabric, the two fabrics could slide relatively, resulting in considerable machine downtime and the trouble of setting up the jacquard loom again.

Also, the productivity of the arrangement is such that one jacquard loom and laminating arrangement may be more than sufficient for a low to medium volume producer, and the machinery as described in GB 2337724 is essentially dedicated to the production of backed appliqué items, and not versatile sufficiently to allow its use on other products, thus representing wasted capital asset.

In accordance with a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of making appliqué items comprising decorated cut out panels of face material laminated to backing material, the method comprising preparing a width of face material decorated in multiple panels across its width on a face material preparation machine, laminating the thus-prepared face material to a backing material continuously with the production of the decorated face material, and cutting out the panels from the laminated material, and wherein the laminating operation is isolated from the face material production operation.

Preferably, the laminating operation is isolated from the face material production operation by positively feeding the face material from the face material production operation to the laminating operation.

The face material may be a jacquard woven fabric and the preparation machine a jacquard loom, such as dedicated jacquard label weaving loom.

The backing fabric may be a non-woven fabric such as a stitch bonded fabric.

The backing fabric with laminating adhesive and the face fabric may be brought together and heat and/or pressure laminated downstream of isolating face fabric feed means from the face fabric preparation machine. Said fabric feed means may comprise feed roller means.

The face fabric preparation operation may include a thermosetting operation, which may be carried out at a higher temperature than a subsequent laminating operation.

The panels may be cut out, as already proposed, by a laser. However, the laser can now operate on full width fabric, resulting in higher productivity. The laser can be guided according to a predetermined program to cut out the appropriate shapes and can utilise machine vision for example for precise location of the cutting path and even for selection of the appropriate cutting outline according to the shape of the panel. In some cases, the laser may be guided by machine vision to follow the edge of the woven panel without the necessity of specifying a cutting path in coordinates. Such systems are described for example in US Patent 5 095 835.

In accordance with a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided apparatus for making appliqué items comprising decorated cut out panels of face material laminated to a backing material, the apparatus comprising:

(a) a decorated face material production machine adapted to produce a width of face material decorated in multiple panels across the width; (b) a supply for backing material; (c) a laminating arrangement laminating backing material from the supply thereof to the face material across its width; (d) isolating means to isolate the face material production machine from the laminating arrangement; and (e) panel cut out means cutting out panels from the width of laminated material.

fa.-- ; ai The face material production machine may comprise a jacquard weaving Al,, me may comprise a jacqtl loom. The laminating arrangement may be situated downstream of the isolating means.

Preferably, the isolating means may comprise a positive feed mechanism, which typically, comprises a feed roller means.

The panel cut out means may-operate batchwise on laminated material produced by the machine, and indeed one panel cut out arrangement may cope with the production of several, maybe ten or so, jacquard looms, especially if the cut out means comprise a laser controlled by a control arrangement to cut out panels of desired predetermined outline as referred to above.

Examples of a method and apparatus for making appliqué items according to the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which :- Figure 1 is a diagrammatic side elevation of a jacquard label making machine and a laminating arrangement in accordance with the invention;

Figure 2 is a face-on view of a machine-wide fabric, backed, as produced by the label-machine of Figure 1; and Figure 3 is a diagrammatic illustration of a laser cut out arrangement for the fabric of Figure 2.

The drawings illustrate methods of and apparatus for making appliqué items 11 (Figures 2 and 3) such as blazer and cap badges and labels for garments which comprise cut out panels of face material 12 laminated to backing material 13.

The method comprises preparing a width of face material 12 decorated in multiple panels 11 across the width on a face material preparation machine 14 (Figure 1) which is in this case a jacquard label making loom.

Such a machine comprises a harness 18 to which warp yam 16 is supplied, the warp passing through heddles and reeds under the control of the harness 18 worked

by a jacquard mechanism which nowadays is usually electronic rather than as M Jacquard .. originally devised. Weft yarn, not shown, is inserted in one of the conventional fashions.

The woven fabric is usually slit into strips each containing a single column of the items 11, that is to say along broken lines 11 a in Figure 2, by slitters located in the region 21 (Figure 1) but not shown as they are discarded or deactivated for present purposes. The strips are then conventionally wound up on rolls perhaps sixteen or so rolls on a machine-wide cloth beam.

The machine, for present purposes, is modified by the addition of a laminating arrangement 22 which has a support 23 for a supply of backing fabric 13a non-woven fabric such as a stitch bonded fabric coated with a heat and/or pressure activated adhesive is very suitable. The backing fabric 13 is fed over a roller 26 to come together with the woven face material 12 freshly produced from the loom 14 at a

laminating station 27 comprising a backing roller 28 and a heater press 29 which can be retracted away from the roller 28 when the machine is stopped so that any fabric intermediate the roller 28 and heater press 29 is not overheated, and for threading-up purposes.

The laminating operation is isolated from the face fabric production operation by the face fabric 12 being positively fed from the jacquard loom 14 by cloth transporter rollers 31.

The face fabric 12 passes beneath a platform to the laminating arrangement 22.

In the arrangement of GB 2337724, the laminating operation was carried out as the face fabric 12 emerged from the jacquard machine. Problems were encountered when, for whatever reason, the application of adhesive to the laminating fabric failed. This led to the possibility of slip between the face fabric and the backing fabric, which interfered with the orderly transport of fabric away from the loom. IN the arrangement of Figure 1, however, should slip occur between backing fabric 24 and face fabric 12, the penalty is a few rows, at most, of badges or whatever on the face fabric.

There is no interference with the jacquard machine. If slip should occur, there is therefore no machinery downtime.

A thermosetting arrangement 32, available on some jacquard looms, but used in GB 2337724, for the laminating operation, may now be left in place and used for its intended purpose of heat setting the face fabric immediately following its production.

Whereas in GB 2337724, heat setting and laminating were perforce carried out at the same temperature, with the present arrangement, the temperature for each of

these steps can be selected independently of the other, and the heat setting may, for example, be carried out at a higher temperature than the laminating.

The jacquard loom therefore produces strips of individual columns of items on face fabric, heat set, the laminating arrangement then producing a machine width of ready-backed fabric with multiple columns of items, ready for cutting out into finished badges or other appliqué items.

Whilst the items on the fabric may be all identical, it is not necessarily so inasmuch as the jacquard may be readily adapted to produce different items in different rows and/or columns of the face fabric. Electronic jacquards are especially adapted to short runs and frequent design changes.

One effect of this is, of course, that items of different width can be accommodated without having to strip the machine down to change slitter spacing-since

the fabric is not cut into strips, it does not matter how wide the appliqué items are nor is \ it necessary that all the items on a sheet be of the same width, so that great flexibility of manufacturing results.

The laminated fabric is eventually taken on the roll to the laser cutter arrangement 41, Figure 3, which has a laser cutter head 42 on a gantry 43 so that it can be moved width wise of the fabric. For the cutting path following action, the laser beam may be steered by a galvanometer mirror arrangement, not shown, but conventional, and the fabric transported warp-or lengthwise beneath the gantry from its loom take-up roll to another take-up arrangement, the cut out appliqué items 11 being separated from the fabric and falling into a receptacle 44.

It will be appreciated that other forms of fabric preparation machines may be employed, for example printing or embroidery machines, and that cut out arrangements other than laser cutters may also be used.

The isolation of the laminating operation from the fabric preparation operation could, of course, be complete, in the sense that the fabric is rolled up after production on the jacquard loom, the roll being transferred to a laminating machine.

However, this would introduce a costly handling step and require a take-up for the jacquard machine and a roll stand for the laminating machine, this would increase both the capital cost and the operating cost of the machinery.

Claims

CLAIMS 1. A method of making appliqué items comprising decorated cut out panels of face material laminated to backing material, the method comprising preparing a width of face material decorated in multiple panels across its width on a face material preparation machine and laminating the thus-prepared face material to a backing material continuously with the production of the decorated face material, and cutting out the panels from the laminated material, characterised in that the laminating operation is isolated from the face material production operation.
2. A method according to claim 1, wherein the laminating operation is isolated from the face fabric production operation by positively feeding the face fabric from the face fabric production operation to the laminating operation.
3. A method according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the face material is a jacquard woven fabric.
4. A method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the preparation machine comprises a jacquard loom.
5. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the backing fabric is a non-woven fabric.
6. A method according to claim 5, wherein the non-woven fabric is a stitch bonded fabric.
7. A method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the face material is laminated to the backing material by an adhesive.

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8. A method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the laminating operation comprises applying heat and/or pressure.
9. A method according to any of the preceding claims, wherein preparation of the face fabric further comprises a thermosetting operation.
10. A method according to claim 9, wherein the laminating operation comprises applying heat and the thermosetting operation is performed at a higher temperature than the laminating operation.
11. Apparatus for making applique items comprising decorated cut out panels of face material laminated to a backing material, the apparatus comprising : (a) a decorated face material production machine adapted to produce a width of face material decorated in multiple panels across the width; (b) a supply for backing material; (c) a laminating arrangement laminating backing material from the supply

thereof to the face material across its width;' 5 (d) isolating means to isolate the face material production machine from the laminating arrangement ; and (e) panel cut out means cutting out panels from the width of laminated material
12. Apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the decorated face material production machine comprises a jacquard weaving loom.
13. Apparatus according to claim 11 or claim 12, wherein the laminating arrangement is located downstream of the decorated face material production machine.
14. Apparatus according to any of claims 11 to 13, wherein the isolating face fabric feed means comprises a positive feed mechanism.

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15. Apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the positive feed mechanism comprises a feed roller.