US 4,359,008 AGranted

Apparatus for providing a zipper closable garment pocket entry

OwnerSydney Newmaninventor

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Abstract

A sewing machine (10) for mass producing zipper closable garment pocket entries (65) includes a pair of pocket entry (65) in a plurality of garments (50,72,80). The apparatus 10 is a modification of a conventional type of double needle sewing machine and includes knife blades (18) spaced laterally apart from each other which cooperate with a pair of conventional double needles (12) to cut in advance of each stitch (58) and enable provision of a square miter at the ends of each finished pocket entry (65). The knife blades (18) are disposable between and behind the two needles (12) in the material feed direction. A feeder mechanism feeds continuous zipper tape (38) across the throat plate (16) beneath the needles (12) and knife blades (18) which may be selectively lowered and raised by the operator. The knife blades (18) operate in conjunction with the needle bar (14) movement only when engaged so as to cut in advance of each stitch while being unaffected by needle bar movement when disengaged. The zipper tape (38) is thus sewn onto the garment as it is advanced across the throat plate (16) while the engaged knife blades (18) simultaneously cut two parallel longitudinal slits (60) in the garment (50,72,80) at the pocket location between the outer extremeties of the sewn zipper tape (38). A conventional zipper slide (68) provided on the zipper chain (44,46) is used to lock the two sewn chains (44,46) together in place with a zipper fastener (70) being provided at the ends of each pocket entry (65) to provide the zipper closure. The pocket closure (65) is finished by transversely cutting (63) the slit garment material adjacent the ends of the slits to complete the square miter at these ends which are tucked in to finish the pocket entry (65).

In a sewing machine capable of forming a zipper closable pocket entry in a garment at a predetermined location therein from a zipper fastener tape fed to said sewing machine along with said garment, said sewing machine having a needle bar means, means for imparting reciprocating motion to said needle bar means, a pair of spaced apart sewing needles disposable in said needle bar means, a throat plate, and feed means for feeding said garment and zipper fastener tape to be sewn by said needles across said throat plate beneath said needles for enabling stitching thereby in accordance with said reciprocating motion of said needle bar means, said zipper fastener tape being disposable between said needles and said garment above said throat plate during said feeding;

the improvement comprising a pair of spaced apart knife blades disposed inside of said spaced apart needles, each of said knife blades having a cutting edge disposed behind the needles in the direction of feed of said garment and zipper fastener tape across said throat plate;
means for selectively engaging and disengaging said disposed knife blades with said needle bar motion imparting means for enabling reciprocating motion of said disposed knife blades in conjunction with said reciprocating motion of said needles as said garment and zipper fastener tape are fed across said throat plate when said knife blades are engaged with said needle bar motion imparting means, said selective engagement and disengagement means comprising means for enabling both sewing by said needles and cutting by said cutting edges of said garment and said zipper fastener tape being fed across said throat plate at such predetermined pocket location when said knife blades are engaged with said needle bar motion imparting means and for enabling solely sewing by said needles at said predetermined pocket location when said knife blades are disengaged from said needle bar motion imparting means, said knife blade cutting edges cutting said garment and zipper fastener tape being fed across said throat plate in advance of each stitch by said needles when said knife blades are engaged with said needle bar motion imparting means;
whereby the slitting and stitching of said zipper closable pocket entry at such predetermined location may be substantially simultaneously accomplished by said reciprocating motion of said needle bar means.

Abstract

Claims14