Shoulder pad former

Apparatus for forming garment shoulder pads and the like comprising a continuous conveyor transport means, plurality of carriers equally spaced along said conveyor transport means, means for driving said conveyor transport means to move said carriers in sequence through an upper horizontal processing path and a lower return path whereby said carriers support and move stacked plies of garment shoulder pad material along the processing path, each of said carriers comprising a leading carrier segment and a following carrier segment spaced rearwardly from said leading carrier segment along the direction of movement of the carriers, cutting means positioned along the processing path comprising means for cutting the stacked plies of garment shoulder pad material into three stacks including a leading stack of shoulder pads, a following stack of shoulder pads and an intermediate stack of waste material positioned between said leading and following stacks of shoulder pads, means for moving said cutting means down into engagement with the stacks of shoulder pad material at a position between the leading and following carrier segments of each carrier to cut the stacks of shoulder pad material, a waste ejector for moving the stack of waste material out from between the leading stack and following stack of shoulder pad material, and means for sequentially picking the leading stack and following stack of shoulder pads from each carrier.

Apparatus for forming garment shoulder pads and the like comprising a continuous conveyor transport means, a plurality of carriers equally spaced along said conveyor transport means, drive means for driving said conveyor transport means to move each of said carrier means through a series of work stations along a processing path, each of said carriers comprising a leading segment and a following segment positioned behind the leading segment along the direction of movement of the carriers, cutting means positioned along the processing path, means for moving said cutting means into engagement with the stacks of shoulder pad material at a position between the leading and following carrier segments of each carrier when each carrier is adjacent said cutting means, said cutting means being structured to cut the stacks of shoulder pad material on each carrier into a leading stack of shoulder pads, a following stack of shoulder pads and an intermediate stack of waste material between the leading and following stacks of shoulder pads, waste material ejector means positioned adjacent said cutting means comprising means movable into engagement with the intermediate stack of waste material of each carrier for removing the intermediate stack of waste material out from between the leading stack and following stack of shoulder pads on each carrier, and pick means positioned adjacent said waste material ejector means for picking the leading stack and following stack of shoulder pads in sequence from said carriers.