Patterned tufted articles, and systems and methods for making same

A system for controlling the tufting of a patterned tufted article, the system comprising:

• a bed plate configured to support a backing material;
• a roll assembly configured to drive movement of the backing material;
• a hollow needle having an inlet and an outlet;
• a yarn feed assembly having an inlet and an outlet positioned in communication with the inlet of the hollow needle, wherein the yarn feed assembly is configured to direct yarn to the hollow needle during a yarn feed cycle;
• a needle actuation assembly configured to drive sequential strokes of reciprocal movement of the hollow needle relative to a tufting axis to penetrate the backing material and position sequential tufts of yarn through the backing material, wherein the needle actuation assembly comprises a main shaft coupled to the hollow needle such that rotational movement of the main shaft imparts corresponding reciprocal movement of the hollow needle;
• a cutting assembly configured to cut the sequential tuft of yarns to form first and second tuft portions of each tuft that project from a face surface of the backing material and are joined by a backstitch of the tuft, wherein the cutting assembly is configured to cut the sequential tufts of yarn at a fixed cutting location to produce a second tuft portion of a tuft and define a start of a first tuft portion of the next sequential tuft, and wherein the distance between the fixed cutting location and the bed plate relative to the tufting axis is fixed during tufting;
• and
• at least one processor communicatively coupled to the yarn feed assembly and the cutting assembly, wherein during at least one selected stroke of the needle actuation assembly the at least one processor is configured to:
• direct the cutting assembly to effect cutting of a tuft formed by the hollow needle at a selected cut time, wherein the selected cut time corresponds to a first selected rotational position of the main shaft;
• and
• activate the yarn feed assembly during a corresponding yarn feed cycle to deliver selected percentages of a yarn feed before and after the selected cut time to thereby produce a second tuft portion having a pile height that is different than a pile height of the first tuft portion of the tuft.