Mechanism generating helical/elliptical motion
AssigneeUnion Special Corporation
InventorsThomas Bock, Chandrakant Bhatia, George M. Toman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A Cardan gear assembly having an output centerpoint means which moves along an elliptical path. A force transfer means connects the output centerpoint to a means operative to carry a work performing means. The major axis swept out by the means operative being skewed with respect to the major axis of the ellipse which is swept out by the output centerpoint. As a result, the work performing means will be swept along a curve which is of a portion of a helix as well as part elliptical. This curve takes the form of a partial helix wherein the outgoing path is different from the return path.
Claims12
A sewing machine having a series of elements adapted to form a stitch, one of said elements comprising:
- work performing means;
- Cardan gear means having an output which has a centerpoint means arranged relative to the Cardan gear means such that it generally sweeps out an ellipse having a major axis;
- and
- lever means having said work performing means arranged for movement therewith, said lever means being operatively connected to said Cardan gear means output and mounted for reciprocal and oscillatable movement along and about its longitudinal axis, said longitudinal axis being skewed with respect to the major axis of said ellipse such that said work performing means is moved in an elliptical/helical like path.
An apparatus for converting rotary input motion into elliptical/helical like output motion comprising:
- Cardan gear means having an output centerpoint means which moves along an elliptical path;
- lever means restricted by a bearing means whereby only rotary and translational movement about and along a straight line path is possible, said straight line path being skewed with respect to the major axis of an ellipse defined by the elliptical path of said output centerpoint means;
- work performing means carried by said lever means;
- and
- connections between said output centerpoint means and said lever means for moving said work performing in an elliptical/helical path.
A sewing machine adapted to form a Class 500 stitch, said sewing machine having an upper looper and an apparatus for driving the upper looper along an elliptical/helical like path comprising:
- an output centerpoint means driven by a Cardan gear means such that it tranverses an elliptical path;
- a looper bar means journaling a bearing means whereby rotary and translational movement along a given straight line path is possible, said straight line path being skewed with respect to the major axis of an ellipse defined by the elliptical path of said output centerpoint means;
- a force transfer means connecting said looper bar means and said output centerpoint means whereby rotational and translational motion is transferred therebetween;
- and
- said upper looper means being connected to said looper bar means and driven simultaneously through a full elliptical like and through a partial helical like curve.
A sewing machine designed for the creation of a stitch which includes at least one means for driving a needle along a straight line path which cooperates with a looper means to form the desired stitch wherein the improvement comprises:
- a balanced Cardan gear means having an output pinion shaft means which carries an output lever means that includes an output centerpoint, said output centerpoint sweeping out an ellipse which has straight line major and minor axis;
- an elongated bar means for carrying said looper means and capable of motion along and around its major axis, the major axis of said elongated bar means being skewed with respect to the major axis of said ellipse;
- and
- a force transfer means connecting said output centerpoint and said elongated bar means whereby upon operation of said Cardan gear means said looper means is driven along a path which is part helical like and part elliptical like.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.