Yarn feed system for a tufting machine
First Claim
1. A yarn feed system for a tufting machine, said system being operable to supply yarns to respective needles of a tufting machine in a predetermined sequence thereby to produce a tufted fabric in a desired pattern, said yarn feed system comprising multiple pairs of feed rollers around which selected yanis are fed from one or more yarn supplies to needles of a tufting machine, wherein at least one roller of each said pair of feed rollers is formed from multiple side-by-side substantially axially aligned feed roller elements, each feed roller element being mounted relative to said tufting machine in a releasable mounting pennitting the roller element to be selectively removable relative to the tufting machine, said mounting comprising two mounting parts positioned so as to receive respective opposite ends of a roller element, a first of said mounting parts and one end of said roller element having cooperating members which locate said one end, and the other of said mounting parts and a second end of said roller elements having cooperating members which penmit said second end to be secured in and resiliently urged axially away from said other of said mounting parts so that the second end may be moved relative to the other mounting to permit said one end to be freed from said first of said mounting parts.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A yarn feed system (10) for a tufting machine comprises multiple pairs of feed rollers (11, 12) disposed one pair above the other. One of each pair of rollers (12) comprises multiple independent side-by-side axially aligned feed roller elements (13), each roller element (13) being mounted on a tufting machine in a releasable mounting (17, 18). In use the feed roller elements (13) can be released from the mounting (17, 18) if it is required to change the pattern to be produced in a tufted fabric or a thread breaks and the yarn feed system of the invention minimises the amount of rethreading necessary in these circumstances.
56 Citations
15 Claims
- 1. A yarn feed system for a tufting machine, said system being operable to supply yarns to respective needles of a tufting machine in a predetermined sequence thereby to produce a tufted fabric in a desired pattern, said yarn feed system comprising multiple pairs of feed rollers around which selected yanis are fed from one or more yarn supplies to needles of a tufting machine, wherein at least one roller of each said pair of feed rollers is formed from multiple side-by-side substantially axially aligned feed roller elements, each feed roller element being mounted relative to said tufting machine in a releasable mounting pennitting the roller element to be selectively removable relative to the tufting machine, said mounting comprising two mounting parts positioned so as to receive respective opposite ends of a roller element, a first of said mounting parts and one end of said roller element having cooperating members which locate said one end, and the other of said mounting parts and a second end of said roller elements having cooperating members which penmit said second end to be secured in and resiliently urged axially away from said other of said mounting parts so that the second end may be moved relative to the other mounting to permit said one end to be freed from said first of said mounting parts.
Specification