WOVEN BAND WITH DIFFERENT STRETCH REGIONS

• US 20160255921A1
• Filed: 07/10/2015
• Published: 09/08/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 03/08/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Podhajny, Daniel A., Hamada, Yoji, Rohrbach, Matthew D., Su, Ying-Liang, Weber, Douglas J., Shaffer, Benjamin A., Hatanaka, Motohide
• Granted Patent: US 9,938,646 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A44C 5/0053 Flexible straps
• CPC Class Codes: A44C 5/0069 extensible
• CPC Class Codes: D03D 13/00 Woven fabrics characterised by the special disposition of the warp or weft threads, e.g. with curved weft threads, with discontinuous warp threads, with diagonal warp or weft
• CPC Class Codes: D03D 15/56 elastic
• CPC Class Codes: D03D 3/005 Tapes or ribbons not otherwise provided for D03D1/0005, D03D1/0011, D03D1/06, D03D1/08, D03D1/0094 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: D03D 47/347 Yarn brakes D03D47/364 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: D03D 49/04 Control of the tension in warp or cloth

Abstract

A wearable band includes a woven material having two or more stretch regions. The different stretch regions can be formed by varying the tension on subsets of the warp threads, the weft threads, or both the warp and weft threads. A system for producing the woven material can include two or more tension control devices operably connected to a processing device. Each tension control device is configured to adjust the amount of tension in a respective subset of threads (e.g., warp threads) in the woven material during a weaving operation. The processing device is configured to select thread tension patterns for the subsets of threads used during the weaving operation. Each thread tension pattern includes tension settings for the subsets of threads, where at least one tension setting in one thread tension pattern differs from the tension settings in the other tension patterns.

Claims

1. A wearable band comprising:

a woven material having two or more different stretch regions, wherein an amount of tension in the threads of the woven material varies in each stretch region to produce the two or more stretch regions.

2. The wearable band as in claim 1, wherein the woven material comprises elastic warp threads.

3. The wearable band as in claim 2, wherein the amount of tension in the elastic warp threads varies over a length of the woven material to produce the two or more stretch regions.

4. The wearable band as in claim 2, wherein all of the elastic warp threads have the same elasticity.

5. The wearable band as in claim 2, wherein a first portion of the elastic warp threads have a first elasticity and a second portion of the elastic warp threads have a second elasticity.

6. The wearable band as in claim 2, wherein the woven material further comprises one or more elastic weft threads.

7. The wearable band as in claim 6, wherein all of the elastic weft threads have the same elasticity.

8. The wearable band as in claim 6, wherein a first portion of the elastic weft threads have a first elasticity and a second portion of the elastic weft threads have a second elasticity.

9. The wearable band as in claim 1, wherein the band is affixed to a device that displays time.

10. The wearable band as in claim 1, wherein the band is removably affixed to a health monitoring device.

11. The wearable band as in claim 1, wherein the wearable band is configured to attach to the housing of an electronic device and to encircle a wrist of the user.

12. A method of producing a woven material for a wearable band that includes two or more different stretch regions over a length of the woven material, wherein the length of the woven material includes two or more segments and each stretch region is associated with a respective segment, the method comprising:

weaving a first segment of the woven material using one or more thread tension patterns; and

weaving a second segment of the woven material immediately adjacent to the first segment using one or more different thread tension patterns, wherein each thread tension pattern includes tension settings for subsets of warp threads in a respective segment of the woven material.

13. The method as in claim 12, further comprising:

determining if a third segment of the woven material is to be woven;

when the third segment is to be woven, selecting at least one different thread tension pattern; and

weaving the third segment immediately adjacent to the second segment using the at least one different thread tension pattern.

14. The method as in claim 12, further comprising:

prior to weaving the first segment of the woven material, determining one or more thread tension patterns for each segment in the woven material, wherein the one or more thread tension patterns is configured to produce a particular stretchiness for the segment.

15. The method as in claim 12, wherein all of the warp threads have the same elasticity.

16. The method as in claim 12, wherein a first portion of the elastic warp threads have a first elasticity and a second portion of the elastic warp threads have a second elasticity.

17. A system for producing a woven material having two or more stretch regions, the system comprising:

two or more tension control devices each comprising a tension regulator configured to adjust an amount of tension in a respective subset of warp threads in a segment of the woven material, wherein each stretch region is associated with a respective segment of the woven material; and

a processing device operably connected to the two or more tension control devices, the processing device configured to select a respective thread tension pattern from a plurality of thread tension patterns for the two or more tension control devices, wherein each thread tension pattern includes tension settings for the two or more subsets of warp threads in the segment of the woven material.

18. The system as in claim 17, further comprising a memory operably connected to the processing device, wherein the memory stores the plurality of thread tension patterns.

19. The system as in claim 17, further comprising:

a thread feeding device operably connected to the two or more tension control devices; and

a loom operably connected to the thread feeding device.

20. The system as in claim 17, wherein each tension control device further includes a tension sensor configured to determine the amount of tension in a respective subset of warp threads.