Water cooled tufting machine
First Claim
1. A tufting machine comprising a vertically reciprocating laterally extending needle drive bar, a laterally extending plurality of needles, means for connecting said needles to said bar for reciprocating said needles with said bar, said needles comprising a ferrous metal material and said bar comprising a metal having a weight lighter than ferrous metal and a thermal expansion rate greater than ferrous metal, laterally extending hollow tubing fastened to said bar, and means for circulating cooling water through said tubing.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
An individual controlled needle tufting machine has a reciprocating latch bar for latching and unlatching to selective needle carriers, each needle carrier being guided in a respective guide formed in a guide block and carrying a respective needle so that each needle selectively may be driven by the latch bar. The tufting machine has mechanism for laterally shifting the latch bar and needle carriers, whether latched or unlatched to the latch bar, together with guide blocks. The latch bar and the brackets to which the guide blocks are mounted are formed from aluminum alloy to which laterally extending tubes are fastened. Water, cooled by refrigeration, is circulated through the tubes so that the thermal expansion of the aluminum alloy elements are not substantially greater than the remainder of the tufting machine.
21 Citations
11 Claims
- 1. A tufting machine comprising a vertically reciprocating laterally extending needle drive bar, a laterally extending plurality of needles, means for connecting said needles to said bar for reciprocating said needles with said bar, said needles comprising a ferrous metal material and said bar comprising a metal having a weight lighter than ferrous metal and a thermal expansion rate greater than ferrous metal, laterally extending hollow tubing fastened to said bar, and means for circulating cooling water through said tubing.
Specification