Apparatus and method for automated shade manufacturing

Abstract

An apparatus for stitching a fabric and/or attaching guide rings to the fabric for possible use in a covering for an architectural opening includes a lift bar to which a top edge of the fabric is connected so the fabric can hang into an underlying housing where a plurality of individually operated clamps are positioned. The clamps can manipulate the fabric as the lift bar is raised or lowered while horizontal tucks are formed in the fabric with a reciprocating tucker blade. A pair of traversing sewing machines are used to stitch and/or attach guide rings to the tuck in an automated operation. After all operations are complete on a tuck, the fabric is raised a predetermined amount so that a repeated operation can be applied to the fabric at a predetermined distance below the first operation where by the fabric can be provided with rows of tucks forming tunnels to which guide rings are attached. Hobbles can also be formed in a front panel of the fabric by gathering segments of the front panel in a vacuum chamber as tucks are being formed in the fabric so that hobbles are formed in the front panel between tucks.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.