Manufacturing container or tube from paper; or other manufacturi – Bending – Folding
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-15
2001-05-15
Vo, Peter (Department: 3721)
Manufacturing container or tube from paper; or other manufacturi
Bending
Folding
C493S178000, C493S351000, C493S384000, C493S475000, C493S937000, C493S966000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06231493
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for making a pleat in a sheet-like material.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in order to make pleats in a fabric for a curtain, for example, and fix them by a sewing machine, there have been employed such methods as the fabric is manually supplied to a winding tool for two turns, three turns or four turns, or the fabric is sewn while it is folded manually taking measurements of the pleats according to a scale, or in case where narrow pleats are intended, the fabric is supplied manually to a sewing device through various types of guide members arranged in a row, while the fabric is gradually rounded to be folded from the fabric edge which will constitute a pleated part, or in case where the fabric is short, the total length is mechanically folded at a time and then manually supplied to the sewing device.
However, as the fabric is supplied by hand in such conventional methods, the feed to the winding tool will result in lack of symmetry due to uneveness and unsymmetry which occur in holding force for the fabric and also due to differences in coefficient of friction, thickness and flexibility of the fabric. This will cause undesirable changes in width of the finished pleat, drops of seams, lateral deflection of the pleat. Accordingly, such conventional methods may be applied only to the pleat having a fixed narrower width, but not applicable to the pleat having a larger width, or long-sized fabric. Thus, they have required complicated manual adjusting works that a skilled operator must monitor and re-adjust the feeding conditions.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the above described problems of the conventional methods concerning folding and supplying the fabric to the sewing device, and to provide an automatic mechanical apparatus by means of which the fabric can be supplied symmetrically to make a pleat of a desired width, without problems of drops of seams and lateral deflection of the pleat regardless of various conditions of the fabric and size of the intended pleat, keeping a constant tightness of stitches of the seams, thus being applicable to making a wide or narrow pleat in a long or short fabric, whereby complicated manual works for adjusting the feeding conditions can be avoided.
According to the present invention, there are provided:
a method for making a pleat in a sheet-like material comprising the steps of:
feeding a flexible and thin sheet-like material having a flat surface in a direction of an extended line of an imaginary straight line which is perpendicular to its one end and along the surface, left and right parts of the sheet-like which is perpendicular to its one end and along the surface, left and right parts of the sheet-like material being conveyed at a substantially same speed at both sides of the straight line,
the one end of the sheet-like material being in a flat form at a start of the feeding,
the left and right parts of the sheet-like material being gradually reduced in distance therebetween and drawn near toward the straight line at the middle portion of the extended line so as to face with each other and diagonally cross the surface, and coming in contact with each other perpendicularly to the surface at the forward portion of the extended line, thereby to form the pleat,
conveying the sheet-like material through the middle portion to the forward portion with the left and right parts gradually twisted in a direction of the straight line,
fixing both sides of a base portion of the pleat with each other,
both left and right surfaces of the sheet-like material from the start of the feeding until completion of the pleat being guided along and in parallel to the twist in contact with each other,
both the left and right surfaces of the sheet-like material at the start of the feeding being resilinetly pressed toward back faces thereof and conveyed independently of the feeding of the sheet-like material but at the same speed,
both the left and right back faces of the sheet-like material from the start of the feeding until the completion of the pleat being resilinetly pressed toward both the surfaces and guided along and in parallel to the twist, and
making an angle formed by both the left and right parts of the sheet-like material at the start of the feeding with respect to the forward portion of the extended line increase or decrease toward the left and right of the straight line symmetrically or unsymmetrically, and
an apparatus for carrying out the method.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3918573 (1975-11-01), Farney
patent: 4022457 (1977-05-01), Martin et al.
patent: 5372570 (1994-12-01), Schmidtke et al.
patent: 5997459 (1999-12-01), Kruger et al.
patent: 464242 (1968-10-01), None
Desai Hemant M
Morgan & Finnegan , LLP
Nakanihon-Juki Co., Ltd.
Vo Peter
LandOfFree
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