Fabric tube forming methods and apparatus
AssigneeMidwestco, Inc.
InventorsJames D. Moyer, Robert S. Hoffert
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A web of fabric material is fed flat along a substantially horizontal table. The web is continuous and is marked and then partly cut just short of its edges while in the feeding plane. The edges of the web are then gripped, moved together, and overlapped as the web is moving, and the edges are sewn. A moving gripper pulls the web through the apparatus to an off the arm sewing machine, and a puller roll downstream of the sewing machine assists pulling of the web and maintains the seam tensioned during sewing.
Claims13
Apparatus for forming a tubular fabric bag with ends square to the length of the bag comprising:
- means for feeding a flat sheet of fabric material along an extended path of travel,
- means for stopping the feeding of said sheet,
- means for cutting said sheet along a substantial portion of its width on a line that is spaced inwardly of each edge of the sheet,
- means for resuming feeding of the sheet along said path,
- means downstream of the cutting means for folding the edges of the sheet into a seam with the cut line precisely aligned on opposite sides of the seam so that the bag after its seam is sewn can be separated by snipping through the seam to provide a bag with precisely square ends, and
- means for sewing the seam.
Apparatus for automatically forming a filter bag tube comprising
- means for frictionally gripping each side edge of a flat sheet of fabric material,
- means for moving the gripping means toward each other to move the edges toward each other,
- means for engaging said edges in predetermined alignment with each other and
- means for sewing said edges together.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.