Sewing – Special machines – Article attaching
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-19
2002-05-14
Izaguirre, Ismael (Department: 3765)
Sewing
Special machines
Article attaching
C112S152000, C112S470330, C112S304000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06386129
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to a tag feeding system or tag feeder to be attached to or mounted on an edge stitching machine to feed fabric tags (for indicating fabric material, manufacturer, brand name, washing conditions, etc.) onto a side edge of a fabric product such as a towel or scarf to be sewn thereon.
BACKGROUND ART
A tiny fabric piece (2 cm×4 cm or so) of tag is generally fed and sewn on a side edge of a fabric product such as a towel or scarf concurrently with the hem stitching of the towel or scarf. Such a tag may provide information on the quality, manufacturer, washing conditions, etc. of the fabric product.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 63-125289 teaches a tag feeding system, where tags are provided separately in a pile and fed one by one on side edges of fabric products from the tag pile. Feeding tiny tags 2 cm×4 cm or so one by one accurately is no easy task. An improvement was proposed as shown in
FIG. 13
, where a long train of such tags are prepared to be cut and separated just before their individual attachment onto side edges of fabric products.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 1-121090 teaches a tag feeder for a sewing machine which utilizes such a train of tags. As
FIG. 15
shows, a train of tags
100
are fed into a tag receiver
20
provided over an edge stitching apparatus
10
of a sewing machine
1
. The train of tags
100
are then cut and individually held by a tag holder
30
provided between the tag receiver
20
and the edge stitching apparatus
10
which includes an actuator
31
having an actuator rod
31
a
where a tag clamp
32
is attached. The tag holder
30
is then turned vertically around a horizontally provided shaft
13
so that the actuator rod
31
a
faces the edge stitching apparatus
10
in order to provide a tag
100
at a time on a side edge of a fabric product.
The tag feeder of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 1-121090 was conceived with a view to obviating shortcomings of a conventional tag feeding system. Tags must be fed on side edges of fabric products at right moments as an edge stitching apparatus stitches the side edges of the fabric products, for which each tag must wait for its turn above the stitching apparatus in a position and orientation so as not to hinder the sight of or interfere with the stitching operation of the edge stitching apparatus. The actuator rod of an actuator must be held in a retracted position until the tag is required. A problem peculiar to a conventional tag feeding system is that it requires a “considerable” time for the actuator rod to be ready to feed the tag on a side edge of a fabric product at a precise timing and position and that the accurate adjustment of the tag feeding timing and positioning is very problematical and difficult, especially in a “fast” edge stitching operation.
An object of the tag feeder of the above publication 1-121090 is to obviate the problems associated with such a delay in tag feeding and accurate provision of tags. The tag feeder of the publication holds a tag with a tag holder including an actuator having an actuator rod with a tag clamp on the distal end thereof. The tag holder turns vertically and advances the actuator rod having a tag at the tag clamp toward a side edge of a fabric product where the tag is to be sewn. Advancement of the actuator rod is detected by a positioning sensor and controlled on the way.
The tag feeding system according to Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 1-121090 is still susceptible to delay in feeding tags as the distance between the stitching apparatus
10
and tag feeder
20
is considerable. And since the tag feeding system is very complicated in structure, the tag feeding system is that much more likely to malfunction, partly due to yarn ravelings or cotton waste produced during the edge stitching operation, especially in a fast-type edge stitching operation.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 7-124356 discloses a tag feeding assistant device to alleviate the foregoing problems. This device facilitates feeding of not only tags but also other product members such as tapes, rubber strings or strips or lace strings to a stitching apparatus of a sewing machine. An aim of this feeding assistant device is to stabilize the feeding amount under a fast stitching operation by preventing excessive feeding through introduction of a one-way clutch. As shown in
FIG. 16
, an intermediate shaft having two eccentric portions with their phase opposite to each other is provided between a main shaft and a feeder roll shaft. Each eccentric portion is provided with a swing arm. The intermediate shaft is controlled by reduction gears to turn at half the turning rate of the main shaft. This system is capable of adequately coping with a conventional fast stitching operation to a certain degree.
The feeding assistant device of Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 7-124356, however, will not be able to cope with a very fast hem stitching system. The applicant has previously proposed a towel hem stitching apparatus which is automatic and capable of coping with a very fast hem stitching. The feeding assistant device of the foregoing publication cannot be utilized in the applicant's very fast hem stitching apparatus.
The hem stitching apparatus proposed by the applicant is partially shown in
FIG. 14. A
towel material
211
is placed on a table
200
with a tag
220
fed precisely along an edge of the towel material
211
. The tag
220
and the towel material
211
are pressed against the work table
200
with a press disk
230
. The press disk
230
turns on the work table
200
so that, as the four side edges of the towel material
211
are stitched, the tag
220
is sewn concurrently.
FIG. 12
shows in more detail how tags are sewn on side edges of towel materials
210
with the hem stitching apparatus of the applicant, FIG.
12
(A) showing stitching of a dual type tag and FIG.
12
(B) showing stitching of a single type tag. Such tag sewing requires a precision tag feeding apparatus for quick but accurate positioning and orientation of tags
220
on the towel materials
210
as shown in FIG.
14
.
Conventional tag feeders such as shown in
FIGS. 15 and 16
require very troublesome and time-consuming adjustment for precise positioning and orientation of tags each time the shape and/or size of tags or fabric products are changed. In addition, such conventional tag feeders will likely interfere with operation of hem stitching apparatus such as introduced by the applicant, rendering utilization of such a conventional tag feeder on the applicant's very fast type hem stitching machine to be very difficult, if not impossible.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a tag feeder that can be utilized in a very fast and precise tag/edge stitching operation.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a simple and easy-to-adjust tag feeder as claimed in claim
1
, which is capable to smoothly feed tags at a high speed and to be easily adjusted according to the size and/or shape of the tag.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a tag feeder as claimed in claim
2
, which possesses an additional feature of very accurately feeding tags without interference with an edge stitching machine.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
A tag feeder of the present invention is described hereunder using the attached drawings for convenience of description and to assist understanding of the invention.
A tag feeder
100
(as claimed in claim
1
) cuts off each tag
220
from an elongated tag strip
220
a
, feeds the tag
220
on a work table
200
mounting a fabric material
211
, and makes the tag
220
ready to be sewn on a side edge of the fabric material
211
.
As best shown in
FIG. 5
, the tag feeder
100
comprises a pair of feed rolls
10
for initially drawing the tag strip
220
a
, a mark sensor
20
which reads sensor marks
221
provided at equal intervals on the tag strip
220
a
, a tag cutter
30
which cuts off and separ
Barudan Sewing Machine Co., Ltd.
Izaguirre Ismael
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