Reciprocating cutting apparatus with theta dither
AssigneeGerber Garment Technology, Inc.
InventorHeinz J. Gerber
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus for cutting sheet material spread in one or more layers over a supporting surface uses a reciprocating cutting blade cutter movable in two coordinate directions in the plane of the supporting surface to enable the cutting blade to follow a desired line of cut relative to the sheet material. The cutting blade has a leading cutting edge that performs the actual cutting operation with a slicing action. During the cutting operation, mechanical means within the apparatus produces blade dither about the axis of reciprocation in synchronism with the reciprocation strokes of the blade.
Claims11
An apparatus for cutting sheet material comprising:
- a cutting tool in the form of an elongated cutting blade which reciprocates generally along an axis of reciprocation when performing a cutting operation, the cutting blade having a leading cutting edge and a trailing edge, the cutting edge and trailing edge being generally parallel to the axis of reciprocation;
- means defining a support surface for supporting sheet material to be cut by the cutting blade;
- means supporting the cutting blade with the axis of reciprocation of the blade generally perpendicular to the support surface;
- motive means for translating the cutting blade generally progressively along a desired lie of cut relative to the sheet material on the support surface;
- means for reciprocating the cutting blade along the axis of reciprocation in alternate upward and downward strokes between upper and lower limits of travel;
- and
- mechanical means interposed between the cutting blade and the blade supporting means for producing from the reciprocation strokes of the blade limited oscillatory rotations of the cutting blade about the axis of reciprocation toward one side of the line of cut and then the other.
In a machine for cutting a multi-ply layup of sheet material including a cutting head with a cutting blade, means for reciprocating the blade up and down along an axis generally perpendicular to the sheet material and relative to a blade support in the cutting head when performing a cutting operation, and means for translating the cutting blade along a predetermined cutting path relative to the sheet material, the improvement comprising mechanical means for deriving from the up and down reciprocating motions of the blade limited rotational motions of the blade back and forth about the perpendicular axis from one side of the cutting path to the other, the mechanical means being connected between the blade and the blade support.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.