Textiles: weaving – Fabrics – Materials
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-15
2002-12-31
Falik, Andy (Department: 3741)
Textiles: weaving
Fabrics
Materials
C139S423000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06499513
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to sewn goods and to the method of making same. More particularly, the invention concerns a computer aided method that involves the use of fluorescent ink visible primarily under exciting radiation for communicating various instructions to computers and humans to aid in identifying cutting, transporting, assembling, ironing, packaging and shipping of various types of sewn articles.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
In the fabrication of sewn articles, such as clothing, footwear, and luggage various steps must be performed including the step of cutting the components that make up the sewn article to the correct size and shape and then sewing the components together to form the sewn article. These steps must be accomplished with great precision so that the various components that make up the garment are properly mated together to form the finished article.
Until relatively recently, the various steps involved in the fabrication of sewn goods, such as clothing, have been performed by hand. However, in the past several years a number of different types of machines, including high-speed sewing machines, have been developed to assist the worker in the fabrication of garments and to speed up the garment fabricating process. In addition to the development of high-speed sewing machines, high-speed fabric cutting devices and folders have also come into common use. However, even with the many advances that have been made, many of the steps in the garment fabrication operation are still being carried out by hand and the industry must still rely heavily upon the skill of the machine operator for identifying cutting, transporting, assembling, ironing, packaging and shipping of various types of sewn articles. The present state of the art is such that minor flaws are present on most finished sewn goods.
Since contemporary sewing machines can sew at speeds up to at least 9000 stitches per minute, proper hand orientation of components of the garment is very difficult and requires highly skilled operators. Because of the high-speed of modern sewing machines, even the most skilled operators have to stop frequently to check the accuracy of their work. Additionally, it is difficult for the operator to continuously feed the sheet materials to be joined through the machine while at the same time maintaining the correct alignment of the side edges thereof. This becomes even more difficult when the cloth components are made from a soft cloth material. In practice, therefore, the operator must, from time to time, stop the machine to manually adjust the alignment of the side edges of the sheet materials as they are fed toward the needle. This inevitably causes undesirable interruptions and delay in the sewing operation. Even though machines can operate at greater than 9000 stitches per minute, they are not able to utilize this great speed for any length of time due to such manual control of the machines. For foregoing reasons, even the use of the latest types of automatic sewing machines can be quite labor-intensive.
At the present time there is a great need in the garment fabricating industry to speed up production and to make smaller runs, while at the same time improving overall quality and repeatability. “Mass Customization”— the manufacture of a single, custom made garment for just one person, for instance, is the direction in which the industry is moving. Thus greater flexibility in manufacturing machinery, and integrated solutions for assembly and finishing of garments is highly desirable. Changing stitches, correcting the feed, sewing along a curved path, sewing within tolerance zones, the ability to apply statistical process control, piece matching, automation, as for example, robotic positioning, pattern matching and error sensing are all extremely desirable. These features are particularly important as the market moves toward smaller lot sizes, and individual garment customization.
In this regard, due to the small lot size of individual runs, operators typically learn how to manufacture a particular size and type of garment. The lengths, pattern matching, fold tolerances and the like for the particular garment are largely maintained through operator interfacing. This mode of operation continues to rely heavily on well-trained operators and expensive operator training, monitoring, and quality control. However, even with careful training substantial amounts of material and labor is wasted due to mistakes in the learning process. Also, throughout the industry, there continues to be undesirably wide variations in the consistency of the final products that are produced.
In accordance with conventional prior art garment fabrication procedures, the CAD/CAM software links the design activity to the cutting machines. Cutting machines are driven by CAD/CAM files. This link, however, is virtually nonexistent between the design activity and the sewing machines. Once material is cut, operators must load and sew the material manually. For instance, an operator must insert the cloth into a sewing machine, then manually lower the feet onto the cloth to hold it in place, then press on a foot pedal to commence sewing and to control sewing speed. Assembly tolerance bands, as for example that of a stitch path, are maintained by the operator's eye, hand, and foot coordination. Contemporary sewing speeds are such that small imperfections are hard to catch and it is easy to make a mistake. Accordingly, these processes place substantial demands on the operator requiring remarkable intensity and an alertness on the part of the operator if costly errors are to be avoided.
Because of the drawbacks of the prior art garment fabrication techniques as discussed in the preceding paragraphs, considerable effort has been directed toward creating a more automated manufacturing environment wherein operators do not have to be specially trained for each size, shape, and garment redesign. More specifically, an attempt has been made to develop a cloth marking technology that uses indicia that can be sensed by-machine control sensors. By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,701,165 issued to Huddleson discloses such a technology. However, the Huddleson approach requires that the thread or ink contain iron oxide that is visible to the naked eye. Therefore, as a practical matter, this technology is useful only for marking areas on the garment that would ultimately be cut away or hidden in seams. This ferromagnetic technology also has the disadvantage that the iron oxide particles must be magnetically charged in order to be sensed by the control sensors thus requiring that some type of charging equipment be located at or near the sewing machine.
In using the Huddleson technology, garment parts which carry a magnetized mark or magnetized stitching are moved through an automated garment manufacturing process with the mark or stitching being detected by appropriate sensors. The sensed marks are then used as a reference point on the garment part to actuate various garment making steps, such as cutting, folding, stitching, and component interconnection.
In addition to the several types of cloth marking techniques that have been suggested, there exists a wealth of customized sewing machines that have been designed to perform a specific function. For example, in the production of a typical dress shirt, twenty or more different specialized machines may be used. In like manner, a number of customized sewing machines have been designed to produce a particular contour through the use of specially designed templates and special fixturing. For example, in making different pocket shapes, industry currently uses a pocket-making machine with hard fixturing for each unique shape. By way of further example, in accordance with long standing prior art garment fabrication methods, the size and shape of various garment components as well as pocket location, button hole location and the like on various types of garments was established using thin tissue paper templates. Su
Bakaysza Andrew M.
Brunton, Esq. James E.
Falik Andy
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