Sewing – Special machines – Pattern controlled or programmed
Patent
1993-12-15
1995-10-10
Nerbun, Peter
Sewing
Special machines
Pattern controlled or programmed
112311, 11247001, 11247036, D05B 1900
Patent
active
054561922
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention generally relates to the manufacture of underwear from blanks made of limp fabric. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for seaming and overlocking (hereinafter referred to as "sewing") the crotch portions of two blanks of limp fabric.
BACKGROUND
Heretofore, the above operation was performed manually by an operator who simultaneously picked up a blank from each of two stacks of blanks located on each side of I 0 the operator, overlapped the blanks ensuring that each side of the blank faces the right way (the fabric having an "outer" face and an "inner" face with respect to the garment to be produced), fed the overlapping blanks to the sewing machine which sews the crotch portion of the garment, and the finished garment is then collected and reassembled for a further operation on the garment.
There are a number of problems associated with the above manual process.
Each stack of blanks is obtained by cutting a strip of fabric which is in concertina formation such that, resultantly, the side facing the operator alternates. This means that every second blank on the stack on both sides of the operator has to be turned by the operator so that a correct match is obtained for the garment, it being understood that the fabric has an "outer" and "inner" surface with respect to the garment. The necessity to remember to turn each second blank manually after picking up said blank from the two stacks is quite onerous on the operator and too often results in mismatches rendering the garment useless.
There is a further problem with respect to the simultaneous picking up of a limp fabric blank from each of two stacks of such blanks. Invariably, more than one blank is picked up by the operator which results in a slowing down of the process.
Furthermore, the simultaneous picking up of a blank from two stacks one on each side of the operator is ergonomically onerous on the operator and often results in RSI problems.
There is a further problem with the sewn blanks after the sewing step, where a further necessary step must be involved, that being the collection and restacking in a consistent manner of the garments ready for the next operation.
Furthermore, due to the short cycle time for this operation, many pick-ups, turn-overs and stack-asides were necessary, this aggravating the possibility of RSI problems of the operator.
OBJECTIVES OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an objective of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for sewing the crotch portion of two blanks of limp fabric which method and apparatus eliminate or substantially reduce the problems mentioned hereinabove.
More particularly, it is an objective of the present invention to provide robotic means for picking up and supplying to an operator two complementary pieces of limp fabric blanks from stacks located on both sides of an operator which enables the operator to simply overlap the complementary blanks and feed them to a sewing machine.
It is a further more specific objective of the invention to provide pick up means to automatically collect and stack the sewn blanks ready for the next operation on these blanks.
It is a further objective of the invention to integrate the various steps by means of time sequenced electronically actuated means.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the invention provides a method of sewing the crotch portion of two complemental limp fabric blanks comprising gripping a limp fabric blank from a stack of blanks located on each side of an operator, transporting said blanks to a location adjacent each side of said operator and within easy reach thereof while turning alternate blanks through 180.degree. so that the operator always has two complementary blanks with the right orientation of the faces of the blank ready for manual alignment by the operator, clamping said aligned blanks to a movable support, feeding said aligned blanks to a sewing head, sewing said overlapping crotch portion while moving the blanks in a horizontal direction to a
REFERENCES:
patent: 4915040 (1990-04-01), Sakuma et al.
patent: 5003897 (1991-04-01), Yokoe et al.
patent: 5230764 (1993-07-01), Moll
Anderson Ronald
Blake Rob
Trigg Craig
Westermeir Heinz
Nerbun Peter
Pacific Dunlop Limited
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