US 4,015,550 AGranted

Apparatus and method for selective multi-color dyeing of individual yarns and producing therefrom a predetermined complex design in a tufted carpet

AssigneeWest Point Pepperell, Inc.

InventorsWilliam Chelsea Bartenfeld, Clifford Aldene Bryant, Wilbur Koontz Newman, Sr.

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Abstract

The apparatus and the method of the invention dyes the yarn ends of a sheet thereof individually at predetermined positions along their lengths and manufactures tufted carpets therefrom in a tufting machine to provide a predetermined multi-colored complex pattern in the carpet. The invention includes pretreatment of the yarn in a wetting and cleansing bath, removing excess bath liquid in preparation for dyeing, synchronizing the yarn feed at the start with the feed to the tufting machine, simultaneous dyeing of pairs of adjacent yarn ends and separating them for delivery to the tufting machine in an arrangement to produce identical patterns side-by-side in the carpet.

Claims34

Dependent claims

Apparatus for dyeing yarn ends individually at predetermined positions along their lengths and manufacturing tufted carpets therefrom to produce a predetermined multi-colored complex pattern therein, the dyeing apparatus comprising

a series of troughs containing different dye baths,
a draw roll around which a sheet of yarn ends from a supply is trained and fed to said dye baths,
a rotating pick-up roller supported above each trough and partially immersed in its dye bath,
a plurality of banks of movable yarn guides for individual yarn ends, said banks extending laterally in planes parallel to the axes of said pick-up rollers and supported above said pick-up rollers, there being at least one bank of yarn guides for each pick-up roller,
pattern control means to move each yarn guide individually to cause yarn carried by it to engage a pick-up roller while a predetermined length of yarn passes,
a drying chamber through which the sheet of yarns passes subsequent to the last dye bath,
a tufting machine having needles in which the individual yarn ends are threaded, and by which the yarn ends are needled through a backing sheet to reproduce the desired pattern,
said tufting machine having at least one pair of cooperating feed rolls,
and means to drive said tufting machine feed rolls and said draw roll in synchronism.

6 more elements

The method for dyeing, individually, yarn ends of a sheet of yarn ends at predetermined positions along their lengths and producing a tufted carpet with a multi-colored predetermined complex design incorporated therein comprising

feeding a sheet of yarns at a predetermined rate of linear speed to a series of dye baths,
guiding a plurality of adjacent yarn ends as individual units side by side to a plurality of dye pick-up rolls,
engaging predetermined lengths of selected units with different dye pick-up rolls having different dyes on their surfaces to apply different dyes to the yarn ends of individual units at different places along their lengths in different linear amounts,
drying said sheet of yarns,
and immediately and directly delivering one yarn end of each of successive adjacent units to successively numbered needles of a group of needles in a needle bank in a tufting machine, and likewise delivering the other yarn ends of each of said successive adjacent units to successively numbered needles of other groups of needles in said needle bank, with the dyed segments of the yarns in the same lateral relationship as when they left the last dye pick-up roll,
maintaining the same linear speed of the yarn sheet at the time of delivery to the tufting machine as at the feeding of the sheet to the dye baths,
and needling said yarns in said machine into a backing sheet to form an intermediate carpet product having the said predetermined design incorporated therein in adjacent repeats.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.