JP2933977B2 - Multi-needle, multi-head embroidery sewing machine - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a multi-needle, multi-head embroidery sewing machine, and in particular, simultaneously applies various embroidery patterns having different colors to a plurality of heads.
The present invention relates to a multi-needle, multi-head embroidery sewing machine that is easily created.

[Prior Art] Conventional multi-needle, multi-head embroidery sewing machines have been developed for the purpose of mass-producing embroidery patterns of the same shape and the same color, and the shapes and patterns of embroidery patterns created by each head are known.・ It is based on the fact that colors and the like are completely the same.

In other words, each head of the multi-needle, multi-head embroidery sewing machine performs only the same embroidery operation.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] Real embroidery products are required to have versatility such as changing the color arrangement of embroidery patterns according to the color of the fabric. In such a case, the conventional multi-needle, multi-head embroidery sewing machine appropriately deals with each user by passing embroidery threads of different colors for each head through a plurality of sewing needles provided on the head.

However, when embroidery threads of different colors are passed through a plurality of sewing needles provided on each head, management becomes complicated and it is difficult to improve production efficiency. In addition, it is necessary to change the embroidery thread every time the color arrangement is changed, and the production efficiency may be reduced rather for high-mix low-volume production.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems,
It is an object of the present invention to provide an excellent multi-needle, multi-head embroidery sewing machine capable of simultaneously and easily creating various embroidery patterns having different color arrangements on a plurality of heads and efficiently producing various embroidery products. .

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the problems described above, the means configured by the multi-needle multi-head embroidery sewing machine according to the present invention corresponds to a plurality of shuttles Bn as shown in the basic configuration diagram of FIG. A plurality of heads Hn that are provided and cooperate with the corresponding shuttle Bn to perform an embroidery operation; and a plurality of sewing needles Nm provided for each of the plurality of heads Hn and selectively used in the embroidery operation. Sewing needle selecting means S for selecting one sewing needle N to be used for embroidery from the plurality of sewing needles Nm independently of the other heads H for each of the plurality of heads Hn and performing the embroidery operation; It is characterized by having.

[Operation] The multi-needle, multi-head embroidery sewing machine of the present invention includes a plurality of heads Hn and a plurality of sewing needles Nm provided for each of the plurality of heads Hn, and can simultaneously create n embroidery patterns of a maximum of m colors. .

In addition, there is a sewing needle selecting means S for selecting one sewing needle N to be used for embroidery from a plurality of sewing needles Nm for each of a plurality of heads Hn independently of the other heads H and performing the embroidery operation. For this reason, an embroidery pattern of the same shape is manufactured on a plurality of heads Hn, but the sewing needles N used at that time can be independently selected for each head H, and embroidery patterns having different color arrangements can be simultaneously created. Can be.

Hereinafter, in order to more specifically describe the multi-needle, multi-head embroidery sewing machine of the present invention, examples will be described in detail.

[Embodiment] FIGS. 2 and 3 are explanatory views of the configuration of a multi-needle, multi-head embroidery sewing machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2, the two-head type multi-needle multi-head embroidery machine 10 analyzes input embroidery data by a driver unit 30 to sew an embroidery pattern input from a controller 20, and obtains a known one-needle data. And create five sewing needles 40
Select a needle from a to 40e and move it up and down,
The movement of the embroidery frame 50 in the XY directions is controlled in synchronization with the vertical movement. The needle 40a of each head has a yellow upper thread, the needle 40b has a black upper thread, and the needle 40c has a red upper thread.
A blue upper thread is passed through the sewing needle 40d, and a white upper thread is passed through the sewing needle 40e, so that a multicolor embroidery pattern can be manufactured. In the following description, when it is necessary to distinguish two heads, they are referred to as a head and b head, respectively.

FIG. 3 is a detailed configuration block diagram of the driver unit 30. In the drawing, a needle changing motor 32a is a power source for selecting an arbitrary one of the five sewing needles 40a to 40e provided on the head a, and a needle changing motor 32b is a power source for selecting a sewing needle for the head b. It is. Further, each head is provided with a sewing needle sensor 33a, 33b, respectively, and detects the currently selected sewing needle.

The sewing motor 34 is used to move up and down the sewing needles 40 of the a-head and the b-head selected by the needle changing motors 32a and 32b, and rotates a main shaft connected to the selected sewing needle 40 via a crank mechanism. The sewing needle 40 is moved up and down at a predetermined speed.

The electromagnetic actuators 35a and 35b are built in each of the two heads, and when excited, the sewing motor
The mechanical connection between the main shaft rotated by 34 and the sewing needle 40 selected by the needle changing motors 32a and 32b is released, and the vertical movement of the sewing head 40 at the head a or b is stopped. As a result, the embroidery operation for only the head a or the head b can be executed.

The X-axis motor 36 and the Y-axis motor 38, which are stepping motors, are power sources for moving the embroidery frame 50 in the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction. As is well known, X-axis motor
36 moves the embroidery frame 50 by one unit distance in the X direction each time a step signal is input, and the Y-axis motor 38 moves the embroidery frame 50 by one unit distance in the Y direction each time a step signal is input. In such a manner, the belt for moving the embroidery frame 50 is rotationally driven via a pulley or the like.

As shown in FIG. 3, a driver unit 30 of the multi-needle multi-head embroidery machine 10 is connected to a controller 20 operated by a user, and operates normally while analyzing embroidery data input from the controller 20. It is configured as a digital logic circuit centered on a microcomputer.
Accordingly, the driver unit 30 basically includes a CPU 30A for executing arithmetic and logic operations, a ROM 30B for storing various programs, and a RAM 30C for temporarily storing information. The various motors described above, that is, the embroidery frame 30 is XY
The motor controllers 30D to 30Fb that output drive signals for the X-axis motor 36, the Y-axis motor 38, the needle changing motors 32a and 32b, and the sewing motor 34 that move in the direction, appropriately adjust the excitation phase of the motor according to a control signal from the CPU 30A. Then, the motor is rotated at a desired speed at a desired rotation angle. The excitation circuits 30Ga, 30Gb pass an excitation current to the respective electromagnetic actuators 30a, 30b in response to a control signal from the CPU 30A, and appropriately set the electromagnetic actuators 30a, 30b in an excited state. The input interface 30H is connected to the needle sensors 33a and 33a.
It receives the detection signal from 3b and outputs the detection signal to CPU 30A in synchronization with the input request from CPU 30A.

The driver unit 30 configured as described above stores the following programs in the ROM 30B in a nonvolatile manner. The embroidery work execution program analyzes the embroidery data input from the controller 20 and creates the control signals for the various motors and the control signals for the excitation circuits 30Ga and 30Gb as described above. Or to the excitation circuit. Further, a sewing needle selection table creation program is stored in order to specify an environment for executing the embroidery work execution program.

Hereinafter, the processing of each program will be described in detail with reference to flowcharts and explanatory diagrams.

FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of the sewing needle selection table creation program. This program is prepared as one of the program libraries. When the controller 20 instructs the execution of the program, the execution is started by the CPU 30A. As shown in the figure, when the processing of this program is started, first, the reading of the sewing needle selection table is executed (step 100), and the contents thereof are stored in the controller 20.
(Step 110).

Here, the sewing needle selection table is the sewing needle selection information “data” given from the embroidery data as shown in the explanatory diagram of FIG.
This is a table for instructing which one of the sewing needles 40a to 40e of each head is to be selected corresponding to "1" to "data5". This sewing needle selection table is stored in the storage area of the power supply backed up in the RAM 30C, and the value shown in the column of “selection sewing needle of head a” in FIG. , A “sewing needle 40a” is defined for “data2”, and so on.

After displaying the sewing needle selection table as described above on the display unit of the controller 20, the CPU 30A is in a state of waiting for input, and either a command to change the contents of the table (step 120) or a command to end the program (step 130). Key input is accepted.

When a command to change the table contents, for example, a character string "a" or "b" designating the head to be changed is input by a key operation, the process proceeds to step 140, and the processing for changing the table contents is executed. The table content change processing executed here uses a known screen editing method such as specifying data to be changed by moving the cursor and then key-inputting the changed data. The data shown in the column "Selected sewing needle of head b" in FIG. 5 is an example in which the default value is appropriately changed by the process of changing the table contents (step 140).

When a predetermined end command key is operated after the change of the table contents is completed, the update processing of the table contents (step 150) is executed according to the judgment of step 130, and the program ends. The process of changing the table contents is to rewrite the sewing needle selection table stored in the power-backed-up storage area of the RAM 30C based on the sewing needle selection table changed on the display screen of the controller 20, thereby allowing the user to freely change the table. A sewing needle selection table can be set.

The embroidery work execution program whose flowchart is shown in FIG. 6 is a sewing needle selection program created by using the sewing needle selection table creation program when embroidery data recorded on a paper tape or a magnetic tape is input from the controller 20. Analysis based on various operating environments such as tables, control signals for the various motors described above and the excitation circuit 30G
a, 30 Gb control signals are created.

When the program is started, the contents of the sewing needle selection table and the like are read from a predetermined storage area (step 200),
Check the currently set operating environment. Then, the embroidery data is read (step 210), and the embroidery data is analyzed based on the sewing needle selection table and the like read in step 200, and the X-axis motor 36, the Y-axis motor 38, the needle changing motor
Control data for the motor controllers 30D to 30Fb for outputting drive signals of the sewing motors 32a and 32b and the excitation circuits 30Ga and 30Gb is created. Hereinafter, an example of creating the control data will be described in detail.

FIG. 7 is a basic conceptual diagram of embroidery data conventionally used by being recorded on a magnetic tape or the like. As shown in the figure, the embroidery data includes sewing needle selection information for selecting sewing needles for determining the color arrangement of the embroidery pattern, hand movement information for determining the sequential movement amount of the embroidery frame 50 for determining the shape of the embroidery pattern,
In addition, it is configured by various information elements such as jump information for instructing driving of the electromagnetic actuators 35a and 35b to temporarily suspend the embroidery operation.

When such embroidery data is input from the controller 20 and the control data creation process (step 220) is started, the sewing needle selection information is first analyzed based on the sewing needle selection table.
For example, when "data1" is input as the sewing needle selection information, the data is analyzed based on the sewing needle selection table shown in FIG.
For "head", control data to the needle changing motor controllers 30Fa and 30Fb is created so as to select the sewing needle 40c.

Further, the hand movement information and the jump information of the embroidery data are analyzed in the same manner as in the related art. That is, control data to the XY motor controller 30D is output such that the excitation signal is output over the period indicated by the jump information so that the relative movement distance between the sewing needle 40 and the embroidery frame 50 indicated by the hand movement information is realized. Create control data for the excitation circuits 30Ga and 30Gb.

Subsequently, a process of sequentially outputting the control data created as described above (step 230) is executed, and is actually output to the name motor controllers 30D to 30Fb and the excitation circuits 30Ga and 30Gb.

If described in the above example, control data for selecting the sewing needle 40a is output to the needle changing motor controller 30Fa,
Whether or not the sewing needle 40a is actually selected is confirmed by a detection signal of the sewing needle sensor 33a. Further, control data for selecting the sewing needle 40c is output to the other needle changing motor controller 30Fb, and needle changing is performed while feeding back a detection signal from the sewing needle sensor 33b. Then, the XY movement of the embroidery frame 50 is controlled by the XY motor controller 30D, and the sewing motor controller 30E synchronized therewith is controlled.
The vertical movement of the sewing needle is executed by the control of.

Next, the control data is sequentially output (step 23).
In step 240, it is determined whether or not all the embroidery data input from the controller 20 has been analyzed and the intended embroidery operation has been completed (step 240). If the processing of all the embroidery data has not been completed, the step is repeated.
Returning to 210, the above processing is repeatedly executed, and when all the processing is completed, this program is ended.

The multi-needle, multi-head embroidery sewing machine of the embodiment configured as described above
According to 10, the following effects are apparent.

By simply changing the sewing needle selection table, embroidery patterns having different colors for each head can be simultaneously created. For example, as described in the above example, embroidery data "da
Even if the sewing needle selection information “ta1” is given, the driver unit 30 analyzes the information based on the sewing needle selection table and selects the a-head sewing needle 40a and the b-head sewing needle 40c. Accordingly, an embroidery pattern of the same shape of yellow (the upper thread color of the sewing needle 40a) at the head a and red (the upper thread color of the sewing needle 40c) at the head b can be simultaneously created.

In addition, although embroidery patterns having different color arrangements can be created at the same time, the sewing needles 40a to 40e
Since the upper thread of each color is passed in a similar arrangement, the management of the upper thread is extremely easy.

Further, the color arrangement can be changed by activating the sewing needle selection table creation program and changing the contents of the sewing needle selection table, so that various embroidery patterns can be easily created.

Further, the embroidery data stored on a conventionally used paper tape or magnetic tape can be used as it is. That is, embroidery data which is an asset accumulated in the past can be used.

Although the above embodiment has been described with reference to a two-head multi-needle multi-head embroidery sewing machine, the present invention can be easily applied to a multi-needle multi-head embroidery sewing machine having a larger number of heads.

In addition, although the change of the sewing needle selection table is executed using software, it may be achieved by using hardware using an environment setting switch or the like.

As described above, the multi-needle, multi-head embroidery sewing machine of the present invention is embodied in various modes without departing from the gist thereof.

[Effects of the Invention] A multi-needle, multi-head embroidery sewing machine according to the present invention includes a plurality of heads and a plurality of sewing needles provided on each of the plurality of heads. There is a needle selecting means for selecting one sewing needle independently of the other head and performing the embroidery operation.

For this reason, an embroidery pattern of the same shape is manufactured on a plurality of heads, but the sewing needle used at that time can be independently selected for each head, and embroidery patterns having different color arrangements can be simultaneously created.

Therefore, various embroidery patterns having different color arrangements can be simultaneously and simply created for a plurality of heads, and a variety of embroidery products can be efficiently produced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a basic configuration diagram showing a basic configuration of a multi-needle multi-head embroidery sewing machine according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a multi-needle multi-head embroidery sewing machine according to an embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram of its driver unit. 4 is a flowchart of a sewing needle selection table creation program executed in the multi-needle multi-head embroidery sewing machine, FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of the sewing needle selection table, FIG. 6 is a flowchart of an embroidery work execution program, and FIG. FIG. 20: Controller, 30: Driver unit 36: X-axis motor, 38: Y-axis motor 32a, 32b: Needle changing motor 40a to 40e: Needle, 50: Embroidery frame

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-60-88165 (JP, A) JP-A-1-214391 (JP, A) JP-A-57-77364 (JP, A) JP-A-63-1988 15988 (JP, A) JP-A-61-63763 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) D05C 11/00-11/16 D05C 5/02-5/06 D05B 19/12

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A plurality of heads provided corresponding to a plurality of hooks for performing an embroidery operation in cooperation with the corresponding hooks; and a plurality of heads provided on each of the plurality of heads to selectively perform the embroidery work. A plurality of sewing needles to be used; and a sewing needle selecting means for selecting one sewing needle to be used for embroidery from among the plurality of sewing needles for each of the plurality of heads independently of the other head and performing the embroidery operation. A multi-needle, multi-head embroidery sewing machine comprising: