US 12,304,228 B2 · Garment gripper

Abstract

A garment feeder for feeding a garment for printing, comprises a loading position for a pallet and robotic grippers movable across the loading position to grip a garment from a first side of the loading position and pull the garment in a garment pull direction to a second side of the loading position to load the garment onto the pallet in the loading position. The garment being loaded slips across the loading position on the first side of the pallet perpendicular to the garment pull direction, and one or more sensors detect widthwise edges of the garment, now being pulled onto the pallet by the grippers. The positions of the edges can be used to determine if the garment is being pulled symmetrically onto the pallet. If not then the garment is adjusted to achieve correct positioning for printing.

Claims21

Dependent claims

A garment feeder for feeding a garment for printing, comprising:

a loading position for a pallet;
a gripper unit configured to grip said garment and pull said garment onto said pallet;
at least one garment edge location sensor associated with said pallet to detect locations of widthwise edges of a garment being pulled onto said pallet by said gripper unit;
and
a bar extending perpendicularly to said loading direction on a garment loading side of said loading position, the bar being in a plane of a pallet being loaded in said loading position, the garment feeder being configured to use said detected locations, said detected locations being in relation to said bar, to determine, from said locations of widthwise edges over in relation to said bar, whether said garment is being pulled or is not being pulled symmetrically widthwise over said pallet and to provide an indication in accordance with said determination.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Garment gripper

Life of this patent

Garment gripper

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims21