Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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This invention relates to a cloth spreading machine, and more
particularly to a contoured tuck blade for a cloth spreading machine.
Conventional cloth spreading machines include tuck blades or
fold blades having free edges which are straight for engaging the cloth
moving past the free edge and to spread it evenly and flat over a surface,
such as cloth cutting table, as the spreading machine moves longitudinally
reciprocably relative to the surface. The cloth is stacked in layers as
the reciprocal spreading continues.
However, it has been found that conventional cloth spreading
machines with straight-edged tuck blades have difficulty in spreading
relatively stretchy material, such as "Qiana *" and `'Ultressa *", which
are extremely stretchy synthetic fabrics. Such synthetic materials tend
; to be stretched longitudinally in the mill. When the longitudinally
stretched materials relax in a conventional cloth spreading machine,
longitudinal or vertical wrinkles appear in the cloth, and the wrinkles
are retained and even increased after they are spread in layers upon the
cutting table. Not only the wrinkles, but also the irregularity of the
wrinkles, produce irregular and non-uniform patterns when cut from the
layers of spread material.
- 20 It is therefore an object of this invention to overcome the
above enumerated disadvantages by providing a spreader unit in a cloth
; spreading machine having an improved contoured tuck blade for removing
the wrinkles from the stretchy material before it is spread.
The invention provides a cloth spreading machine having a frame
relatively movable in a longitudinal direction with respect to a spreading
surface and having a cloth supply, spreader means for spreading cloth from
said supply upon said surface comprising: (a) a tuck blade having a con-
toured free edge extending transversely of said longitudinal direction
for engaging cloth widthwise moving from said cloth supply and for spreading
said cloth upon said surface, (b) said contoured free edge having a middle
~ * Denotes Trade Mark
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1047751
portion and opposite end portions, said middle portion pro-
jecting from an imaginary transverse straight line in said
tuck blade a greater distance than said end portions to stretch
widthwise cloth engaged by and moving across said free edge.
In the drawings which illustrate embodiments of
the invention,
; Figure 1 is a side elevation of a cloth spreading
machine and a catcher mechanism mounted upon a cloth spread-
ing table, and incorporating the improved tuck blades of this
invention;
Figure 2 is a front view of the spreading machine
upon the cloth spreading table, shown in section;
Figure 3 is an enlarged fragmentary section taken
along the line 3-3 of Figure 2, disclosing one of the two
tuck blades engaging a web of stretchy fabric;
Figure 4 is an enlarged plan view of the contoured
tuck blades with the spreading machine disclosed in phantom;
and
: Figure 5 is a greatly enlarged fragmentary plan
view of a portion of one of the tuck blades.
Referring now to the drawings in more detail,
Figure 1 discloses a typical cloth spreading machine 10,
including a frame 11 mounted on wheels 12 for longitudinal
movement over a spreading or cutting table 13. Mounted upon
the frame 11 is a cloth roll support in the form of a turn-
table 15 supporting a cloth supply roll 16. A web 17 of
cloth is fed from the roll 16 beneath the dancer bar 18,
guide roll 19, and over a driven cloth feed roll 20 to a
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cloth spreader unit 21, where the cloth web 17 is spread
upon the table 13 in layers 23.
In the particular machine 10, the spreader unit 21
is adapted to cooperate with a catcher mechanism 25 having
a catcher bar 26, in order to form folds in the ends of the
layers 23 as the machine 10 reciprocably m~ves longitudinally
over the table 13.
The cloth spreading machine 10 is particularly
adapted for spreading very stretchy material, such as
"~ iana" or "Ultressa", which are extremely stretchy man-
made materials or synthetic fabrics. Thus, in the drawings, ~ -
the cloth supply roll 16 and web 17 are in the form of such
stretchy material.
The improvement comprises contoured tuck blades 28 ~-
in the spreader unit 21. The construction of each tuck
blade 28 is identical, except that the blades oppose each
other in the same manner as conventional tuck blades.
Each tuck blade 28 is substantially L-shaped in
cross section, having an upright support flange 29 and a
horizontal blade portion 30. The free edge 32 of the blade
portion 30 is contoured so that its middle portion 33 projects
a distance beyond the opposite end portions 34 away from ~-
the tuck blade 28.
The free edge 32 is preferably convex arcuate and also
preferably symmetrical about its center line or mid-line 35.
Furthermore, preferably, the center point 37 of the free
edge 32 on the center line 35 is equidistant between the --
opposite ends of the horizontal blade portion 30 and pro-
jects a distance D (~igure 5) beyond an imaginary transverse
straight line 36 connecting the opposite ends of the free
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edge 32.
Preferably, the convex free edge 32 is entirely,
but gradually, curved. The convex arcuate contour of the
free edge 32 is preferable in order to provide a smoother
stretching action widthwise of the stretchy web material
17.
As disclosed in Figure 2, the stretchy web
material 17 includes vertically or longitudinally disposed
wrinkles 40 which are removed as the web material 17 travels
over and engages the contoured free edge 32 of the trailing
tuck blade 28. Thus, as the transversely stretched or
spread material 17 leaves the contoured free edge 32 it is
spread wrinkle-free and at a substantially uniform width
to provide uniform stacked layers 23 of cloth. The catcher
bar 26 engages the top surface of the horizontal blade
portion 30 in the same manner as it does with conventional
cloth spreader tuck blades. ---
In a typical tuck blade used with the machine 10,
the length or transverse span of each tuck blade 28 is
approximately 60 inches and the distance or dimension D
(Figure 5), which measures the projecting middle portion
33, is between 1/4th to 1 inch, and preferably about 1/2
inch. Thus, the ratio of the projecting dimension D to
the span of the tuck blade 28 does not have to be very
great in order to provide the necessary widthwise or trans-
verse stretch in the wrinkled, flimsy or stretchy material
17. It has also been found that the optimum dimension D
for a tuck blade having a length of 48 inches, 54 inches,
66 inches or 72 inches, is approximately 1/2 inch.
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