Sewing apparatus
AssigneeToyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc.
InventorsPaul L. Freer, Thomas Martz
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A sewing apparatus includes a housing, an arm shaft that extends through the housing in a longitudinal direction, a cam member coupled to the arm shaft, the cam member including a front face and a rear face positioned opposite the front face, where the cam member includes a lobe positioned on one of the front face and the rear face, a needle assembly coupled to the housing, the needle assembly including a needle shaft and a needle coupled to the needle shaft, and an arm pivotally coupled to the housing and engaged with the cam member, where the needle assembly is slidably engaged with the arm in a vertical direction and the needle assembly is constrained with respect to the arm in the longitudinal direction and a lateral direction that is transverse to the longitudinal direction.
Claims12
A sewing apparatus comprising:
- a housing;
- an arm shaft that extends through the housing in a longitudinal direction;
- a cam member coupled to the arm shaft, the cam member comprising a front face and a rear face positioned opposite the front face, wherein the cam member comprises a lobe positioned on one of the front face and the rear face;
- a needle assembly coupled to the housing, the needle assembly comprising a needle shaft and a needle coupled to the needle shaft;
- and
- an arm pivotally coupled to the housing at an arm pivot axis that extends in the longitudinal direction and engaged with the cam member, wherein:
- the needle assembly is slidably engaged with the arm in a vertical direction and the needle assembly is constrained with respect to the arm in the longitudinal direction and a lateral direction that is transverse to the longitudinal direction;
- the arm and the needle assembly pivot about the arm pivot axis;
- and
- the arm is repositionable between a first position, in which the arm and the needle assembly are oriented such that the needle assembly extends in a direction that is transverse to a stitch direction, and a second position, in which the needle assembly extends at least partially in the stitch direction.
A robot sewing apparatus comprising:
- a base;
- a robot arm coupled to the base;
- a sewing apparatus coupled to the robot arm, the sewing apparatus comprising:
- a housing;
- an arm shaft that extends through the housing in a longitudinal direction;
- a cam member coupled to the arm shaft, the cam member comprising a front face and a rear face positioned opposite the front face, wherein the cam member comprises a lobe positioned on one of the front face and the rear face;
- a needle assembly coupled to the housing, the needle assembly comprising a needle shaft and a needle coupled to the needle shaft;
- and
- an arm pivotally coupled to the housing at an arm pivot axis that extends in the longitudinal direction and engaged with the cam member, wherein:
- the needle assembly is constrained with respect to the arm in a stitch direction and the needle assembly is slidably engaged with the arm in a vertical direction;
- the arm and the needle assembly pivot about the arm pivot axis;
- and
- the arm is repositionable between a first position, in which the arm and the needle assembly are oriented such that the needle assembly extends in a direction that is transverse to the stitch direction, and a second position, in which the needle assembly extends at least partially in the stitch direction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.