Yarn color placement system
First Claim
1. A tufting machine for forming tufted articles having a pattern with a desired stitch rate and including tufts of different color yarns, comprising:
- at least one needle bar having a series of needles mounted therealong;
backing feed rolls for feeding a backing material through a tufting zone of the tufting machine;
a pattern yarn feed mechanism for feeding the yarns to said needles;
at least one needle bar shifter for shifting said at least one needle bar transversely across the tufting zone;
a series of gauge parts mounted below the tufting zone in a position to engage said needles of said at least one needle bar as said needles are reciprocated into the backing material to form loops of yarns in the backing material; and
a control system for controlling said yarn feed mechanism in cooperation with said at least one needle bar shifter to control feeding of the yarns to said needles as needed to retain loops of selected yarns to form tufts of yarns of a desired pile height and to pull non-selected yarns substantially out of the backing material, said control system further controlling the feeding of the backing material at a stitch rate that is greater than the desired stitch rate for the pattern of the tufted article being formed so as to form color fields of the tufts of the selected yarns in the backing material with a number of tufts per inch of the selected yarns retained in the backing material sufficient to substantially hide the non-selected yarns and avoid a gap from appearing within the color fields.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A yarn color placement system for a tufting machine including a series of different color yarns being fed to the needles of the tufting machine by yarn feed mechanisms. A backing material is fed through the tufting machine at an increased stitch rate as the needles are shifted according to the programmed pattern steps. A series of level cut loop loopers or hooks engage and pick loops of yarns from the needles, with the clips of the level cut loop loopers or hooks being selectively actuated to form cut pile tufts, while the remaining loops of yarns can be back-robbed so as to be hidden from view in the finished patterned tufted article.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. A tufting machine for forming tufted articles having a pattern with a desired stitch rate and including tufts of different color yarns, comprising:
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at least one needle bar having a series of needles mounted therealong; backing feed rolls for feeding a backing material through a tufting zone of the tufting machine; a pattern yarn feed mechanism for feeding the yarns to said needles; at least one needle bar shifter for shifting said at least one needle bar transversely across the tufting zone; a series of gauge parts mounted below the tufting zone in a position to engage said needles of said at least one needle bar as said needles are reciprocated into the backing material to form loops of yarns in the backing material; and a control system for controlling said yarn feed mechanism in cooperation with said at least one needle bar shifter to control feeding of the yarns to said needles as needed to retain loops of selected yarns to form tufts of yarns of a desired pile height and to pull non-selected yarns substantially out of the backing material, said control system further controlling the feeding of the backing material at a stitch rate that is greater than the desired stitch rate for the pattern of the tufted article being formed so as to form color fields of the tufts of the selected yarns in the backing material with a number of tufts per inch of the selected yarns retained in the backing material sufficient to substantially hide the non-selected yarns and avoid a gap from appearing within the color fields. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method of tufting an article including tufts of multiple different color yarns arranged in accordance with a desired tufted pattern having a desired stitch rate, comprising:
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feeding a backing material through a tufting machine; reciprocating a series of needles to deliver the yarns into the backing material to form loops of yarns therein; shifting at least some of the needles transversely according to a shift profile of pattern for the tufted article; controlling feeding of the yarns to the needles in accordance with the shift profile of the pattern for the tufted article as the needles are shifted and are reciprocated into and out of the backing material to form the loops of yarns at varying pile heights, including pulling back or removing loops of yarns delivered into the backing material, for forming pattern fields of tufts of selected color yarns; wherein the feeding of the backing material comprises feeding the backing material through the tufting machine at an increased stitch rate that is greater than the desired stitch rate, the increased stitch rate being at least twenty stitches per inch so as to form the pattern of the tufted article with a sufficient density of tufts per inch of yarns of one or more colors that are to be visible in a selected field of the pattern approximately equivalent to the desired stitch rate of the pattern to substantially hide yarns of colors not to be shown in the selected pattern field. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A method of operating a tufting machine to form a patterned tufted article having multiple colors and having a desired stitch rate, comprising:
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feeding a backing material through the tufting machine; feeding a plurality of yarns to a series of needles carried by a shiftable needle bar and reciprocating the needles into and out of the backing material; as the needles are reciprocated into the backing material, forming a series of loops of yarns in the backing material; shifting the needle bar transversely according to a programmed shift profile for the pattern of the tufted article; and controlling the feeding of the yarns to the needles in accordance with programmed pattern instructions to feed desired amounts of the yarns to the needles to form the loops of yarns at varying pile heights in the backing material, including pulling loops of non-selected color yarns low or out of the backing material, so as to define pattern fields of tufts of visible yarns of selected colors in the backing material; wherein the backing material is fed at an increased stitch rate that is greater than the desired stitch rate and the feeding of the yarns to form the tufts of yarns tracks the shifting of the needles to form the loops at the increased stitch rate and the increased stitch rate is at least two times the desired stitch rate so that the tufts of visible yarns in the pattern fields defined in the backing material are formed at a density sufficient to substantially hide loops of the non-selected color yarns not to be shown and avoid a missing color or gap in the pattern fields. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method of tufting a carpet pattern including tufts of a plurality of different color yarns formed approximately at a desired stitch rate for the pattern, comprising:
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feeding a backing material along a path of travel; reciprocating a series of needles into and out of the backing material; shifting the needles transversely across the backing material; as the needles are shifted and reciprocated, feeding the yarns to the needles so that for each stitch location of a plurality of stitch locations, a number of different color yarns are presented into the backing material sufficient to form tufts of different color yarns in the backing material at an increased stitch rate that is approximately equivalent to the desired stitch rate for the pattern multiplied by the number of different color yarns presented into the backing material at each said stitch location of the plurality of stitch locations; controlling the feeding of the yarns to the needles in accordance with the pattern being formed so that as the needles are shifted and reciprocated, yarns not to be shown or visually present in a color field of the pattern being sewn are substantially removed or back-robbed from the backing material; wherein the formation of the tufts of yarns at the increased stitch rate provides a sufficient density of tufts of remaining yarns to be shown in the color field to substantially avoid a missing color or gap appearing in the color field. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20, 21)
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22. A method of tufting a carpet pattern including tufts of different color yarns, with the tufts formed approximately at a desired stitch rate for the pattern, comprising:
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reciprocating a series of needles carrying the yarns into a backing material; for each step of the pattern, shifting at least some of the needles transversely across the backing material based upon a number of colors of the pattern; and controlling feeding of the yarns to the needles as the needles are reciprocated into and out of the backing material and as at least some of the needles are shifted transversely across the backing material in conjunction with controlling feeding of the backing material in a longitudinal direction so as to deliver a series of different color yarns into the backing material at an increased stitch rate that is greater than the desired stitch rate for the pattern by an amount sufficient to enable removal of at least some of the series of different color yarns from the backing material while retaining yarns of selected colors that are to be visible in the carpet pattern, with the retained yarns of the selected colors to be visible in the carpet pattern having a density of tufts per inch that is approximately equivalent to the desired stitch rate for the pattern. - View Dependent Claims (23)
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Specification