Textiles: weaving – Fabrics – Special shape
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-14
2001-11-13
Calvert, John J. (Department: 3765)
Textiles: weaving
Fabrics
Special shape
C139S055100, C002S455000, C002S905000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06315009
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a full-fashioned weaving process for the production of a single-piece woven garment which can accommodate and include sleeves. The garment is made of only one single integrated fabric which has no discontinuities or seams. Additionally, the garment can include an integrated infrastructure for collecting, processing, transmitting and receiving information, giving it intelligence capability.
2. Background of the Art
In weaving, two sets of yams known as warp and filling yams, respectively, are interlaced at right angles to one another on a weaving machine or loom. Traditional weaving technologies typically produce a two-dimensional fabric. To fashion a three-dimensional garment from such a woven fabric traditionally requires cutting and sewing of the fabric.
Tubular weaving is a special variation of traditional weaving in which a fabric tube is produced on the loom. However, tubular weaving, until now, has not been available to produce a full-fashioned woven garment, such as a shirt, because it was unable to accommodate discontinuities in the garment, such as armholes or sleeves, without requiring cutting and sewing.
Co-pending application U.S. Ser. No. 09/157,607 filed Sep. 21, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,145,551 to Jayaraman, et al., discloses a full-fashioned weaving process for the production of a woven garment having armholes. The garment is a single integrated piece in which there are no discontinuities or seams, and the armholes result from the weaving process itself, not from cutting or sewing. The process of the Jayaraman patent, however, does not provide for the weaving of a full-fashioned garment having sleeves.
A need therefore exists for a process to produce a full-fashioned woven garment with sleeves which eliminates the need for cutting and sewing fabric parts to fashion the garment. It is such a process and product to which the present invention is primarily directed. When the full-fashioned weaving process of the present invention is employed, the additional step of sewing side scams and sleeves required for a two-dimensional fabric is avoided.
Alternatively, co-pending application U.S. Ser. No. 09/273,175, filed on Mar. 19, 1999 by Jayaraman et al., discloses a fabric or garment which includes an integrated infrastructure for collecting, processing, transmitting and receiving information. The garment functions as a “wearable motherboard,” which, by utilizing the interconnection of electrical conductive fibers, integrates many data-collecting sensors into the garment without the need for multiple stand-alone wires or cables. The information may be transmitted to several monitoring devices through a single electronic lead or transceiver.
Utilizing the weaving technique of the present invention and the interconnection of electrical conductive fibers or optical fibers or both of the co-pending Jayaraman applications, it is possible to produce a full-fashioned woven garment with sleeves which incorporates an integrated infrastructure for collecting, processing, transmitting and receiving information.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a weaving process to produce a full-fashioned woven garment with sleeves, which garment is comprised of only a single integrated piece and has no discontinuities or seams.
It is a further object of the invention to fashion a garment which can accommodate sleeves, for example, a shirt, without requiring cutting and sewing of the fabric, except for the rounding or finishing of the neck, if such is desired.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a full-fashioned garment with sleeves which garment can include intelligence capability, such as the ability to monitor one or more body physical signs and/or penetration of the garment, and a process for making such a garment.
In the full-fashioned woven garment of the present invention, three different weave structures are used: one is a tubular structure section; the second is a double layer structure section and the third is a self-stitched layer structure section. Unlike the structure of a regular shirt made of woven fabric where the front, back and sleeves need to be sewn together to make a “one-piece” garment, the fabric of the present invention emerges as an integrated “one-piece” garment with sleeves during the weaving process. In the tubular section of the woven fabric, only one thread or set of threads is interlaced helically and continuously on the front and back. This process is described in U.S. Ser. No. 09/157,607, which is incorporated by reference in its entirety as if fully set forth herein.
The warp threads are grouped into two sets, one for the body of the garment and the other for the two sleeves. In the drawing-in-draft for the tubular structure section of the body of the woven fabric of the present invention, two different sets of warp threads are used alternately—one is for the front and the other is for the back of the fabric. A lifting plan provides the sequence of harness movements. The harnesses of the loom are lifted by the lifting plan representing the front and back of the fabric alternately. Since this is a double cloth structure, both the front and back warp threads are placed in the same dent of the reed of the loom.
Although the filling for a tubular fabric needs only one set of continuous threads, the full-fashioned woven garment of the present invention, when accommodating sleeves, requires two sets of threads. This is because of the innovative nature of the double layer structure section of the garment. In the self-stitched structure section, the front and back sets of warp threads are woven together with the two sets of filling threads creating the closures for the sleeves.
One innovative facet of our full-fashioned woven garment lies in the creation of a sleeve by way of the self-stitched layer structure section in combination with the double layer structure section. Unlike the tubular structure section, in the double layer structure section of the garment, there are two sets of threads, and a double-layer structure is used separately for the front and back of the garment. Since two sets of threads are used from the tubular structure section, the fabric of the self-stitched layer section in combination with the double layer structure section can be woven continuously from the tubular structure section. Then a stand-alone double layer structure section can be woven from this combination self-stitched—double layer structure section. The stand-alone double layer structure section can then be followed continuously by another combination self-stitched—double layer structure section. Likewise, the tubular structure section can be woven continuously from this combination self-stitched—double layer structure section. In this manner, for example, a full-fashioned woven garment may be made by continuously weaving a first tubular structure section as described, followed by a combination self-stitched—double layer structure section, then a stand-alone double layer structure section followed by a combination self-stitched—double layer structure section and then a second tubular structure section from the combination self-stitched—double layer structure section. Other combinations of continuously woven tubular structure, self-stitched structure section and double layer structure sections may also be made. Further, the full-fashioned weaving process of the present invention is not limited to the manufacture of a garment having sleeves, but is generally applicable to the manufacture of any full-fashioned garment which may require similar appendages.
In one particular embodiment, to accomplish such a woven garment, for example, an8 harness loom, can be used. The loom's 8 harnesses are divided into two sets. Each set contains four harnesses. Among the four harnesses in each set, two harnesses are used for the front layer and the other two are used for the back layer of the garment. Since the lifting sequence f
Jayaraman Sundaresan
Park Sungmee
Calvert John J.
Deveau Todd
Georgia Tech Research Corp.
Muromoto Robert H.
Schneider Ryan A.
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