GB971559A - Improvements relating to machines for making tufted fabrics - Google Patents

Abstract

971, 559. Tufting machines. RIBBLE CARPETS Ltd. Aug. 19,1963 [May 18, 1962], No. 19170/62. Heading D1G. The needle carrier of a tufting machine is moved endwise, for shifting the needles from one line of stitching to another, by screw-and-nut means operating between the carrier and a fixed part of the machine, and under the control of a pre-formed pattern-defining member. As shown, a needle bar 9 carrying needles 10 is reciprocated vertically by rods 7 fixed to brackets 20 formed with sleeves 21 slidably engaging a shaft 18 which is restrained from endwise movement. Brackets 22, fixed to the needle bar, carry nuts 23 engaged with screwthreaded portions 19 of shaft 18. The latter carries ratchet wheels 16, 17 the teeth of which are opposed to each other. Pivoted pawls 25, 26 are normally held in alignment with the respective wheels 16, 17 by linkages 32, 33, pivoted at 34, 35, against the bias of springs 29, 30. The linkages carry respective sensing members 36, 37 directed towards a pattern chain 39 which is carried by drum shafts 40, and the segments of which carry pins 38. A pin engaging a sensing member serves to shift the associated linkage out of engagement with the'associated pawl, the latter then moving out of alignment with the associated ratchet wheel. On the subsequent upward movement of the needle bar and shaft 18, the other pawl co-operates with its associated ratchet wheel to turn shaft 18 for moving the needle bar endwise in one direction or the other. It is stated that oscillation of shaft 18 may be effected alternatively by rack-and-pinion, cam or crank and connecting rod mechanism, and that the driving means for the operation of these parts may be a rotating cam or a series of electromagnets.