Method and apparatus for making pleated draperies of arbitrary lengths

• US 4,599,958 A
• Filed: 03/15/1985
• Issued: 07/15/1986
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/1985
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Multiple-Housing Drapery Services Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Multiple-Housing Drapery Services Incorporated
• Inventors: Stiers, Joseph D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hunter, H. Hampton
• Application Number:
  US06/712,154
• Time in Patent Office: 487 Days
• Field of Search: 112/262.1, 112/262.3, 112/131, 112/130, 112/132, 112/134, 112/135, 223/28, 223/29, 223/30, 223/32, 223/31
• US Class Current: 112/475.08
• CPC Class Codes: D05B 35/08 for ruching, gathering, casing, or filling lace, ribbons, or bindings; Pleating devices; Cuttlers; Gathering feet; Crimpers; Curlers; Rufflers
• CPC Class Codes: D05D 2305/24 Marking
• CPC Class Codes: D06H 1/00 Marking textile materials; Marking in combination with metering or inspecting
• CPC Class Codes: D06H 1/006 Marking frames for large sized textiles, e.g. for drapery pleat or length marking
• CPC Class Codes: D06J 1/00 Pleating, kilting or goffering textile fabrics or wearing apparel
• CPC Class Codes: D10B 2503/02 Curtains

Abstract

French pleated draperies of any selected length are manufactured by serging panels of fabric together to provide a wide section of material. After hemming the bottom and serging a strip of buckram to the top of the section, the upper and lower edges of the section then are positioned on a pleat marking table. Ultraviolet markings then are made on the fabric to produce invisible marks at the locations of the centers of the pleats to be formed and also to indicate where fan folds should be formed at the bottom of the drapery. After a desired width of the section has been pleat marked, that width is cut from the section of material. After sewing the side hems, pleats are formed using a conventional pneumatic pleat forming machine by illuminating each ultraviolet sensitive pleat center mark with a center blade of the pleat forming machine and then forming that pleat. The pleat then is sewn by two pleat sewing machines. Rapid, precise fan folding of the pleated drapery is manually performed with a worker at each end forming fan folds in alignment with the pleats and the ultraviolet fan fold marks.

Claims

1. A method of making French pleated draperies, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) sewing edges of a plurality of rectangular panels of fabric together to form a relatively wide section of drapery material;

(b) sewing a bottom hem on the section of drapery material;

(c) attaching a strip of buckram material along a top edge of the section of drapery material;

(d) positioning the top edge and the bottom edge of the section of drapery material under first and second marking guide members, respectively, each of said first and second marking guide members having a plurality of parallel elongated guide slots with center to center spacing equal to distance between desired pleat center marks on the section of drapery material;

(e) guiding a tip of a marker through each of the guide slots in the first and second marking guide members against the section of drapery material and guiding the tip of the marker along the length of each guide slot to form pleat center marks and fold marks along the top and bottom edges, respectively, of the section of drapery material, the marker forming marks that are invisible in ordinary light but visible when illuminated by ultraviolet light;

(f) cutting a subsection of fabric of a desired width from the section of drapery material;

(g) sewing side hems on the subsection of fabric;

(h) forming each of a plurality of French pleats along the top edge of the subsection by illuminating the top edge of the subsection with ultraviolet light to make a pleat center mark visible and aligning that pleat center mark with a center blade of a pleat forming machine, operating the pleat forming machine to pre-form that pleat, removing the preformed pleat from the pleat forming machine, and operating an L-tacking machine to stitch that pleat; and

(i) by illuminating the bottom edge of the drapery formed from the subsection with ultraviolet light to make the fan folding marks visible, fan folding the bottom edge of that drapery at each of the illuminated fan fold marks, and essentially simultaneously fan folding the top edge of that drapery at each of the French pleats.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein step (e) further includes using the marker to make an invisible cut-off mark adjacent to the first marking guide member and another cut-off marker adjacent to the second marking guide member, and wherein step (f) includes illuminating the two cut-off marks with ultraviolet light to make them visible and aligning the illuminated cut-off marks with the path of a cut-off device.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein the two cut-off guide marks are made by aligning the marker adjacent to corresponding selected indicia adjacent to the edges of the first and second marking guide members, respectively.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein step (a) includes stacking a plurality of the relatively narrow panels on a movable first table surface of a first table, aligning a first edge of each of the panels with a movable fence, lowering a fabric clamp onto the stack of panels to prevent their movement relative to the first table surface, and moving the first table past the sewing head of a first sewing machine while feeding the first edge portions of adjacent pairs of the panels through the sewing head to serge them together, making repeated passes until each adjacent pair of panels has its first edges sewn together, and feeding consecutive pairs of inner second edges of the panels to form the relatively wide section of drapery material.

5. The method of claim 4 including moving the first table surface to the end of a second table surface, removing the fabric clamp, and pulling the bottom edge of the section of drapery material through the sewing head of a bottom hemming machine by means of a first fabric puller.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein the bottom hemming machine and first fabric puller are adjacent to a front edge of the second table surface, the method further including the steps of sewing a strip of buckram material along the top edge of the section of drapery material by pulling the buckram and the top edge of the drapery material through the sewing head of a sewing machine by means of a second fabric puller, and feeding the top edge of the section of drapery material through a steam pressing machine that activates stickum on the buckram strip to permanently attach it to the material along the top edge of the section of drapery material.

7. The method of claim 3 wherein the cut-off device includes a motorized fabric cutting device with a high speed, smooth edged rotary cutting blade and a metal groove into which the cutting blade extends, the cutting groove being disposed beneath an ultraviolet light, the illuminated cut-off marks being aligned with the cutting groove during the cutting operation.

8. The method of claim 6 including moving the first table surface along a pair of supporting rails back and forth past the sewing head of the first sewing machine, by pneumatically controlling the movement of the first table surface on the rails.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the length of each of the guide slots is approximately the same as the length of each French pleat to be formed.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein each of the guide slots is perpendicular to the top and bottom edges of the section of drapery fabric.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the first and second marking guide members are supported above a table surface, step (d) including sliding the section of drapery material so that the top edge slides under the first marking guide member and the bottom edge slide under the second marking guide member.

12. A method of making French pleated draperies, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) attaching a strip of buckram material along a top edge of a relatively wide piece of drapery material;

(b) positioning the top edge and the bottom edge of the section of drapery material under first and second marking guide members, respectively, each of said first and second marking guide members having a plurality of parallel elongated guide slots with center to center spacing equal to the distance between desired pleat center marks on the section of drapery material;

(c) guiding a tip of a marker through each of the guide slots in the first and second marking guide members against the section of drapery material and guiding the tip of the marker along the length of each guide slot to form pleat center marks and fold marks along the top and bottom edges, respectively, of the section of drapery material, the marker forming marks that are invisible in ordinary light but visible when illuminated by ultraviolet light;

(d) forming each of a plurality of French pleats along the top edge of the section of drapery material by illuminating the top edge of the section of drapery material with ultraviolet light to make a pleat center mark visible and aligning that pleat center mark with a center blade of a pleat forming machine, operating the pleat forming machine to pre-form that pleat, removing the preformed pleat from the pleat forming machine, and operating a machine to stitch that pleat; and

(e) illuminating the bottom edge of the drapery formed from the section of drapery material with ultraviolet light to make the fan folding marks visible and fan folding the bottom edge of that drapery at each of the illuminated fan fold marks.

13. A method of making pleated draperies, said method comprising the steps of:

(a) attaching a strip of buckram material along a top edge of a relatively wide piece of drapery material;

(b) laying the relatively wide piece of drapery material flat on a marking table and advancing it along the marking table so that the top edge of the relatively wide piece of drapery material is parallel to the bottom edge thereof;

(c) forming luminescent pleat center marks along the top edge of the relatively wide piece of drapery material and forming luminescent fan folding marks along the bottom edge of the relatively wide piece of drapery material, the pleat center marks and the fan folding marks being invisible in ordinary light but being visible when illuminated by light having a predetermined wavelength;

(d) forming each of a plurality of pleats along the top edge of the section of drapery material by illuminating the top edge of the section of drapery material with luminescent light of the predetermined wavelength to make a pleat center mark for that pleat visible and aligning that pleat center mark with a center blade of a pleat forming machine, operating the pleat forming machine to pre-form that pleat, removing the pre-formed pleat from the pleat forming machine, and operating a machine to stitch that pleat along its base; and

(e) illuminating the bottom edge of the drapery formed from the section of drapery material with luminescent light of the predetermined wavelength to make the fan folding marks visible and manually fan folding the bottom edge of the drapery at each of the illuminated fan fold marks and fan folding the top edge of the drapery at each of the pleats.

14. An apparatus for making French pleated draperies, said apparatus comprising the steps of:

(a) means for sewing edges of a plurality of rectangular panels of fabric together to form a relatively wide section of drapery material;

(b) means for sewing a bottom hem on the section of drapery material;

(c) means for attaching a strip of buckram material along a top edge of the section of drapery material;

(d) means for positioning the top edge and the bottom edge of the section of drapery material under first and second marking guide members, respectively, each of said first and second marking guide members having a plurality of parallel elongated guide slots with center to center spacing equal to distance between desired pleat center marks on the section of drapery material;

(e) means for guiding a tip of a marker through each of the guide slots in the first and second marking guide members against the section of drapery material and guiding the tip of the marker along the length of each guide slot to form pleat center marks, and fan folding marks along the top and bottom edges, respectively, of the section of drapery material, the marker forming marks that are invisible in ordinary light but visible when illuminated by ultraviolet light;

(f) means for cutting a subsection of fabric of a desired width from the section of drapery material;

(g) means for sewing side hems on the subsection of fabric;

(h) means for forming each of a plurality of French pleats along the top edge of the subsection by illuminating the top edge of the subsection with ultraviolet light to make a pleat center mark visible and aligning that pleat center mark with a center blade of a pleat forming machine;

(i) an L-tacking machine to stitch that pleat; and

(j) means for illuminating the bottom edge of the drapery formed from the subsection with ultraviolet light to make the fan folding marks visible to allow fan folding the bottom edge of that drapery at each of the illuminated fan folding marks.

15. An apparatus for making pleated draperies, said apparatus comprising:

(a) means for attaching a strip of buckram material along a top edge of a relatively wide piece of drapery material;

(b) a marking table and means for laying the relatively wide piece of drapery material flat on the marking table and advancing it along the marking table so that the top edge of the relatively wide piece of drapery material is parallel to the bottom edge thereof;

(c) means for forming luminescent pleat center marks along the top edge of the relatively wide piece of drapery material and forming luminescent fan folding marks along the bottom edge of the relatively wide piece of drapery material, the pleat center marks and the fan folding marks being invisible in ordinary light but being visible when illuminated by light having a predetermined wavelength;

(d) means for forming each of a plurality of pleats along the top edge of the section of drapery material by illuminating the top edge of the section of drapery material with luminescent light of the predetermined wavelength to make a pleat center mark for that pleat visible and aligning that pleat center mark with a center blade of a pleat forming machine;

(e) a machine for stitching that pleat along its base; and

(f) means for illuminating the bottom edge of the drapery formed from the section of drapery material with luminescent light of the predetermined wavelength to make the fan folding marks visible to allow manual fan folding the bottom edge of the drapery at each of the illuminated fan fold marks.