US 5,246,040 A · Method and apparatus for weaving an indicia into a woven circular fabric

Abstract

A method and apparatus for weaving an indicia such as a trademark, symbol or design into a tubular fabric. About a selected warp yarn segment of the tubular fabric, for each warp yarn increment, two warp yarns are actually directed into the loom, one warp yarn being a base yarn while the other warp yarn is an indicia forming yarn. The loom is provided with a warp yarn selector that for each pair of base and indicia forming yarns, it selects one and only one of the pair to be interwoven with a weft yarn. The non-selected yarn is essentially positioned such that it is not woven with the weft yarn and runs in a floating or unwoven fashion along the inside wall of the tubular fabric being woven. To provide a selected indicia interwoven in the tubular fabric, the selector is controlled in such a fashion that it causes indicia forming yarns to be woven in areas calling for the indicia background and base warp yarns to be woven in areas that call for the base yarn as a background. As noted, in all cases the non-selected warp yarn of the pair will be floated to run along the inside wall of the tubular fabric.

Claims24

Dependent claims

In a circular weaving process for forming a tubular woven product, a method of circularly weaving an indicia into said tubular product comprising the steps of:

(a) for each warp yarn increment about a selected warp segment of the tubular product, directing a pair of warp yarns into a circular loom, one yarn being a base yarn and the other yarn being a different and contrasting indicia forming yarn;
(b) circularly weaving the base warp yarns with weft yarns to form a tubular product and floating the indicia forming yarns during this process by selectively removing the indicia forming yarns from the circular weaving process and running them in an unwoven fashion along the inside wall of the tubular product;
(c) forming an indicia in the wall of the tubular product by selectively floating certain base warp yarns and weaving certain indicia forming warp yarns with the weft yarns to form an indicia on the tubular woven product while the corresponding floating base warp yarns run in an unwoven fashion along the inside wall of the tubular product;
and
(d) selectively alternating the base and indicia forming warp yarns between weaving and floating modes to form the selected indicia on the tubular woven product.

2 more elements

A circular loom for weaving tubular fabrics having a predetermined woven design, comprising:

(a) a circular reed having a plurality of warp guide slots for guiding a plurality of radially extending warp yarns into the loom;
(b) shed-forming means for forming a shed in said warp yarns;
(c) filling means including a shuttle which travels in a circular path inside the reed for inserting a circumferentially extending weft yarn in the shed formed by the shed-forming means to form the tubular fabric;
(d) a warp yarn selector for receiving pairs of warp yarns including a base yarn and an indicia-forming yarn and directing each pair of warp yarns into the circular loom, the warp yarn selector including means for selecting one of the pair of yarns to interleave with the weft yarn on each pass of the shuttle while manipulating and moving the other warp yarn of the pair out of the path of the shuttle so as to prevent the non-selected warp yarn from being woven with the weft yarn such that the other warp yarn remains floating in an unwoven state within the tubular fabric;
and
(e) control means for actuating the warp yarn selector and controlling the selection of the base and indicia forming warp yarns so as to yield a selected indicia on the tubular fabric.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Method and apparatus for weaving an indicia into a woven circular fabric

Life of this patent

Method and apparatus for weaving an indicia into a woven circular fabric

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims24