Spring devices – Vehicle – Parallel depression
Patent
1995-09-18
1997-12-23
Oberleitner, Robert J.
Spring devices
Vehicle
Parallel depression
56558, F16F 300
Patent
active
056999984
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to pocket spring assemblies for cushions or mattresses, and to apparatus and methods for that manufacture.
Pocket spring assemblies consist of two dimensional arrays of coil springs contained in individual fabric pockets. Such a construction, often known as the Marshall construction after its inventor, has for almost a century been regarded as providing a highly desirable level of cushioning performance, but usage of it has been limited because of its high cost of manufacture, involving as it does the formation of the fabric pockets, the insertion of the compressed springs and the assembly and securing of the properly oriented pocketed springs into a two dimensional array. Various efforts have therefore been made to facilitate the manufacture of such arrays, as will be found described for example in U.S. Pat. No. 4,234,983 (Stumpf) which itself represents what is believed to be the most commercially successful attempt to date to automate the construction of pocket spring assemblies. This patent discloses the production of endless strips of pocketed springs which can then be assembled into the desired arrays. Even so, such pocket spring assemblies remain costly compared to other assemblies, which whilst of lower cushioning performance, can be assembled in a more highly automated manner.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved technique for the production of pocket spring assemblies which can directly produce pocketed springs in a two dimensional array.
According to the invention in its broadest aspect, two layers of fabric are secured together along multiple parallel seam zones so as to form a quilt defining a plurality of parallel fabric tubes, the tubes so formed are supported on guides extending longitudinally through the tubes, portions of the quilt are repeatedly drawn from the guides at their one ends and folds formed in the fabric of each drawn off portion are secured transverse to the axes of the tubes to form pockets in the drawn off portion, and precompressed coil springs are passed through the guides and released into the pockets between each drawing of the quilt, with their axes perpendicular to both the axes of the tubes and the direction of advancement of the quilt, so that fastened folds of the fabric in front of and behind the released springs retain them in the pockets. In a preferred arrangement, the parallel seam zones contain double seams, and longitudinal slots are formed in the fabric between the double seams at a pitch equal to the length of fabric which forms a pocket.
The above method permits a pocket spring assembly to be produced directly in an automated manner from fabric and coil springs. The securing together of the layers of fabric and the closure of the tubes may be performed by stitching, or welding, or any combination of those techniques, although the use of two part fasteners is preferred. For forming the assembly, the quilt is transferred to and gathered upon the guides which are supported by a movable table of a spring inserting machine. The table is moved so that a spring dispensing unit, which receives springs from a coil forming machine, is aligned with the one end of each guide in turn and successively inserts compressed springs into the end of each guide. This results in a row of compressed springs already in the guide being advanced along the guide, causing a spring to be released at the other end of the guide into a portion of the associated tube which has been drawn from the guide and closed by the fastening of folds of the fabric to form a pocket, for example by the application of two-part fasteners. After a complete pass of the table past the spring dispensing unit, the tubes are drawn further off the guides so as to permit further closures of folds of the fabric to provide pockets to receive the next row of springs to pass through the guides. The zones in the seams between the tubes permit better formation of pockets around the sleeves and provide a convenient means of indexing the tubes as they are drawn off betw
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Lipka Pamela J.
Oberleitner Robert J.
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