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OwnerFranklin Sadler Love, III, Frank M. Pitman +1inventors
InventorsFranklin Sadler Love, III, Frank M. Pitman, Howard C. Willauer
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An apparatus and method for imparting a permanent, high resolution pattern to a heat-settable fabric, particularly one having a pile-like surface, using modulated streams of pressurized heated air that are individually controllable and electronically addressable, using a patterning technique capable of extremely fine gauge (i.e., high dots-per-inch or high pixel count) and extremely fine carve depth control (e.g., allowing for multiple finely spaced carve levels, as compared with techniques in the prior art), and which results in the formation of patterns of extraordinary resolution, definition and detail without the harsh hand associated with prior art techniques in which fibers and yarns are melted within patterned areas.
A system for using electrically encoded pattern data to pattern a heat-settable substrate having surface elements that form a pile-like surface, said system comprising at least one air stream that is directed onto the surface of said substrate during each of a succession of pattern data cycles, said air stream having a pressure that is sufficient to displace at least some of said surface elements, said pressure being varied in predetermined discrete increments in accordance with said pattern data but being uniform during any given pattern data cycle, said air stream further having a temperature that is sufficient to heat set said displaced surface elements but insufficient to melt said displaced surface elements.
An apparatus for patterning a heat-settable substrate having surface elements that form a pile-like surface, said apparatus comprising:
A heat-settable substrate having thermoplastic surface elements that form a pile-like surface, said substrate having areas in which said surface elements have been heated, then selectively displaced relative to surface elements in adjacent areas while in a heated state, said displaced elements being heated sufficiently during displacement to cause said displaced surface elements to become heat set while remaining unmelted, and forming a pattern having a gauge greater than 40.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.