US 7,789,028 B2 · Chain-stitch quilting with separate needle and looper drive

Abstract

A chain-stitch multi-needle quilting machine and method provide for driving needles and loopers independently or out of phase, particularly during the starting of stitching sequences. Separate drive motors drive needles separately from their loopers. Alternatively, a single motor drives needles and loopers linked through a differential drive or variably-controllable linkage. At the beginning of a stitch sequence, needles and loopers are separately driven in a split start manner by which stitches can be reliably formed by advancing the loopers ahead of the needles so the looper enters a needle thread loop before the needle enters a looper thread loop. Then the needle and looper can be brought into phase later in the first stitch cycle. The split drive can solve other stitch or thread control problems.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method of operating a chain-stitch quilting machine having one or more needles driven by a needle drive and one or more loopers driven by a looper drive, with the one or more needles and the one or more loopers arranged in one or more stitching element pairs of one needle and one looper operable to move in a series of cycles to sew, in a multi-layered material, a double-lock chain-stitch sequence with a needle thread from the needle and a looper thread from the looper, the method comprising:

operating the needle drive and the looper drive in phase through a plurality of cycles to sew a double-lock chain-stitch sequence in the multi-layered material with each of the one or more stitching element pairs;
and
controlling the needle drive and the looper drive differently to differently phase, through at least part of at least one cycle, the needle relative to the looper of each of the one or more stitching element pairs upon starting the sewing of the chain-stitch sequence to relatively control the needle and looper threads so that a loop in a needle thread is picked up by a looper before the needle enters a looper thread loop at the beginning of a chain-stitch sequence.

A method of operating a multi-needle, chain-stitch, quilting machine having a plurality of needles driven by a needle drive and a plurality of loopers driven by a looper drive, with the needles and loopers arranged in a plurality of stitching element pairs each comprising one of the needles and one of the loopers, and with each of the pairs being operable to move in a series of cycles to sew, in a multi-layered material, one of a plurality of double-lock chain-stitch sequences with a needle thread from the needle and a looper thread from the looper, the method comprising:

operating the needle drive and the looper drive in phase through a plurality of cycles to sew the plurality of double-lock chain-stitch sequences in the multi-layered material;
controlling the needle drive and the looper drive differently to differently phase the plurality of needles relative to the plurality of loopers through at least part of at least one cycle by:
driving the loopers with the looper drive ahead of the needles in a stitching cycle to retracted looper positions out of the paths of the needles;
then
driving the needles with the needle drive to needle positions through the multi-layered material without picking up loops in the looper threads;
then
driving the needles and loopers in phase, picking up needle thread loops with each of the loopers.

4 more elements

A multi-needle, chain-stitch, quilting apparatus comprising:

a needle drive and a looper drive;
a plurality of needles driven by the needle drive and a plurality of loopers driven by the looper drive, the needles and the loopers being arranged in a plurality of stitching element pairs;
means for operating the pairs to move simultaneously in a series of cycles to sew a plurality of double-lock chain-stitch sequences;
and
means for controlling the needle drive and the looper drive differently to differently phase the plurality of needles relative to the plurality of loopers through at least part of at least one cycle;
the means for controlling including means for differently phasing the plurality of needles relative to the plurality of loopers through at least part of a cycle upon starting the sewing of the chain-stitch sequence to relatively control needle threads and looper threads so that a loop in each needle thread is picked up by a looper before the needle enters a looper thread loop at the beginning of each of the chain-stitch sequences.

3 more elements

A multi-needle, chain-stitch, quilting apparatus comprising:

a plurality of needles and a plurality of loopers arranged in a plurality of stitching element pairs each comprising one of the needles and one of the loopers;
a needle drive coupled to each of the needles and operative to reciprocate the needles through a series of stitching cycles;
a looper drive coupled to each of the loopers and operative to oscillate the loopers through a series of stitching cycles;
a servo drive system linked to the needle drive and the looper drive and including at least one servo motor;
the servo drive system being configured to operatively couple the needle drive and looper drive to reciprocate the needles and oscillate the loopers of each of the stitching element pairs together through a plurality of cycles to sew a plurality of stitch sequences in a multi-layered fabric;
the servo drive system being operable to change the phase between the needle drive and the looper drive during at least part of at least one cycle;
the servo drive system including a needle drive servo motor linked to the needle drive and a looper drive servo motor linked to the looper drive;
and
a controller operative to control the needle drive servo motor and the looper drive servo motor to drive the needle drive and the looper drive together to sew the plurality of stitch sequences in the multi-layered fabric, and control the needle drive servo motor and the looper drive servo motor to drive the needle drive and looper drive separately to change the phase between the needle drive and the looper drive during at least part of at least one cycle;
the controller being programmed to control the needle drive servo motor and the looper drive servo motor to differently phase the needle drive relative to the looper drive through part of a cycle upon starting the sewing of stitch sequences to drive the loopers ahead of the needles in a cycle to retracted looper positions;
then to drive the needles to needle positions in phase with the loopers, then to drive the needles and loopers in phase through a plurality of stitching cycles to sew a plurality of stitch sequences.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Chain-stitch quilting with separate needle and looper drive

Life of this patent

Chain-stitch quilting with separate needle and looper drive

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20