Sewing – Method of sewing – Material sensing
Reexamination Certificate
2002-03-12
2003-12-30
Nerbun, Peter (Department: 3765)
Sewing
Method of sewing
Material sensing
C112S027000, C700S141000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06668740
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for linking plain knitted fabrics, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for linking plain knitted fabrics, in which a darning stitch in a plain knitted fabric is automatically recognized and fabrics are accurately linked at the location of the darning stitch.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, linking of plain knitted fabrics is performed by the following procedure. First, an operator confirms the location of the darning stitch in a first plain knitted fabric by spreading the first plain knitted fabric by his/her hands and looking through the plain knitted fabric, and sets the first plain knitted fabric on a linking apparatus by positioning the darning stitches on pointing needles of the linking apparatus, stitch by stitch. After that, a second plain knitted fabric is set on the linking apparatus such that it overlaps the first plain knitted fabric, following a similar procedure. Then the linking is performed by sewing the stitches together with a sewing machine using the pointing needles. The “darning stitch” is defined by a stitch that is slightly larger than an ordinary stitch, and with which the plain knitted fabrics are linked. Although the darning stitch is slightly larger than an ordinary stitch, the above-mentioned operation must be performed by a skilled person. To solve such problems, a method is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 3-49477.
However, the efficiency of the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 3-49477 is greatly reduced, because the method includes many different process steps, including supplying two knitted fabrics to be sewn together to each of two hooking-up apparatuses which are opposed to each other on right and left sides, detecting the state in two dimensions of the array of stitches of the knitted fabric supplied to the hooking-up needle piercing apparatus, calculating location information of the stitches to be pierced, guiding with a fabric guiding device the stitches to be pierced to the piercing location, sequentially performing a piercing operation with a hooking-up needle, stitch by stitch, transferring the stitches pierced with the hooking-up needle of the hooking-up needle piercing apparatus on one side to the opposing hooking-up needle piercing apparatus, and linking together the opposing stitches of the two fabrics with a sewing apparatus. Efficiency further deteriorates when changing the type of fabric to be linked, because the rolling drum of the hooking-up needle piercing apparatus must be changed to one having a slit which conforms to the pitch of the fabric. Additionally, the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 3-49477 required a large space.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to overcome the above-described problems, preferred embodiments of the present invention provide a method,and an apparatus for linking plain knitted fabrics, which requires a greatly reduced amount of space, and which enables accurate and efficient linking of fabrics, regardless of the type of plain knitted fabric.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a method for linking plain knitted fabrics including the steps of fixing a first plain knitted fabric in a stretched state, obtaining an image including an image of a darning stitch of the first plain knitted fabric in the stretched state, calculating a location of the darning stitch of the first plain knitted fabric from the obtained image, holding a second plain knitted fabric in a stretched state, obtaining an image including an image of a darning stitch of the second plain knitted fabric in the stretched state, calculating a location of the darning stitch of the second plain knitted fabric to be correspondingly linked to the first plain knitted fabric from the obtained image, moving the first plain knitted fabric and the second plain knitted fabric relative to each other such that the location of the darning stitch of the second plain knitted fabric and the location of the darning stitch of the first plain knitted fabric are aligned with each other, moving a sewing,machine needle of a sewing machine mechanism to the location of the darning stitch of the first plain knitted fabric, and linking together the darning stitch of the first plain knitted fabric and the darning stitch of the second plain knitted fabric with the sewing machine needle. In this case, linking is performed accurately at the location of the darning stitches, after the darning stitches have been recognized accurately.
Preferably, in the step of obtaining the image including the image of the darning stitch of the first plain knitted fabric, an image including a plurality of darning stitches of the first plain knitted fabric is obtained, and in the step of calculating the location of the darning stitch of the first plain knitted fabric from the obtained image, locations of the plurality of darning stitches of the first plain knitted fabric that have been picked up are calculated. In this case, the locations of the darning stitches of the first plain knitted fabric can be calculated from a small number of image-pickups.
Preferably, in the step of obtaining the image including the image of the darning stitch of the first plain knitted fabric, the image including a plurality of darning stitches of the first plain knitted fabric is obtained while moving an image pick-up mechanism. In this case, the precision of the calculation of the locations of the darning stitches is greatly improved, and the image-obtaining time is reduced, by obtaining an enlarged image of the darning stitches of the first plain knitted fabric.
Preferably, the method includes the step of moving the sewing machine needle of the sewing machine mechanism by one stitch of the darning stitch in a direction in which the darning stitches are provided in a row, and the following steps are performed repeatedly: obtaining the image including the image of the darning stitch of the second plain knitted fabric, calculating the location of the darning stitch of the second plain knitted fabric from the obtained image, moving the second plain knitted fabric to bring the location of the darning stitch of the second plain knitted fabric and the location of the darning stitch of the first plain knitted fabric to be aligned with each other, moving a sewing machine needle of a sewing machine mechanism to the location of the darning stitch of the first plain knitted fabric, linking together the darning stitch of the first plain knitted fabric and the darning stitch of the second plain knitted fabric with the sewing machine needle, and moving the sewing machine needle of the sewing machine mechanism by one stitch of the darning stitch in the direction in which the darning stitches are provided in a row. In this case, linking is performed accurately at the locations of a plurality of darning stitches to be linked, after the darning stitches have been recognized accurately.
Preferably, in the step of moving the sewing machine needle of the sewing machine mechanism by one stitch of the darning stitch in the direction in which the darning stitches are provided in a row, the sewing machine needle is moved to a location where the darning stitch of the first plain knitted fabric is actually located, based on data calculated in the step of calculating the location of the darning stitch of the first plain knitted fabric. In this case, a linking operation is easily performed, by moving the darning stitch of the second plain knitted fabric and the location of the darning stitch of the first plain knitted fabric into alignment.
The step of calculating the location of the darning stitch of the first plain knitted fabric from the obtained image and the step of calculating the location of the darning stitch of the second plain knitted fabric from the obtained image preferably include the step of detecting a darning stitch to be linked first.
The step of detecting the darni
Isii Akira
Kawamura Sadao
Ochi Naomasa
Takeda Kimio
Wada Takahiro
Dan Co., Ltd.
Keating & Bennett LLP
Nerbun Peter
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