Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THE PRODUCTION OF FABRIC OR
LEATHER ARTICLES
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for the
production of fabric or leather articles, particularly articles to be padded,
for
example with goose down.
Automatic quilting methods are known in which a continuous padded
cloth is made to advance first at a sewing head and then at a cutting head,
using a perforated conveyor belt with which, by means of air suction, the
cloth is retained without any sliding. A method of this type is described in
Patent Application DE3801820A1.
A drawback of the methods in which the seams are closed lines
around which the cut must be then performed is the precision with which the
cutting line must be kept spaced from the sewing line provided previously.
Another drawback is that the semi-finished products obtained at the
end of the cutting may be indistinguishable to an operator and,
consequently, difficult to catalog without a general slowdown of the
production line.
The use of known sewing and cutting methods may also entail some
problems in a production line, particularly in lines in which continuous
manual intervention is necessary in order to perform certain steps.
The aim of the present invention is to provide a method for the
production of fabric or leather articles and a corresponding apparatus which
are capable of improving the background art in one or more of the aspects
mentioned above.
Within the scope of this aim, an object of the invention is to provide a
method for the production of fabric or leather articles and a corresponding
apparatus which allow to obtain semi-finished products which are sewn and
cut precisely along the seams.
Another object is to provide a method for the production of fabric or
leather articles and a corresponding apparatus which can be used with a
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plurality of mutually different templates.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method for the
production of fabric or leather articles and a corresponding apparatus for
obtaining semi-finished products that can be identified easily and quickly,
for a subsequent process such as padding and/or the tailoring of garments.
Another object is to provide an apparatus for the production of fabric
or leather articles which can be also used within a manufacturing line for
garments.
Moreover, an object of the present invention is to overcome the
drawbacks of the prior art in a manner that is alternative to any existing
solutions.
Not least object of the invention is to provide a method and an
apparatus which are highly reliable, relatively easy to provide and at
competitive costs.
This aim and these and other objects which will become better
apparent hereinafter are achieved by a method for the production of fabric
or leather articles, particularly articles to be padded, comprising the steps
of:
¨ feeding at least two mutually superimposed cloths to an embroidery
machine;
- stepwise advancing of said superimposed cloths along a
substantially rectilinear direction;
¨ at said embroidery machine, automatic sewing of said at least two
cloths along sewing lines according to a template that is stored and contains
a pattern of reference sewing lines;
characterized in that the method comprises the steps of:
¨ during said automatic sewing, applying a plurality of markings in
the form of respective additional seams, said markings being distributed
two-dimensionally on an exposed face of the superimposed cloths according
to a corresponding arrangement of reference markings provided in said
stored template;
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¨ after said automatic sewing, feeding to a station for the automatic
cutting of the sewn portion of said superimposed cloths;
¨ optically capturing said sewn portion and determining any
displacement of said markings applied to said superimposed cloths with
respect to the arrangement of the reference markings stored in said template;
¨ based on said displacement and on the mutual arrangement of the
reference markings and of the pattern of the sewing lines provided in said
stored template, determining by interpolation the actual pattern of the
sewing lines that is present on said sewn portion of the cloths;
¨ automatically cutting said sewn portion, said cutting being
performed substantially along said sewing lines on the basis of said actual
pattern obtained with said interpolation, so as to automatically adapt said
cutting to any relaxations and/or wrinkles of the cloths after said sewing
step.
Optionally, the above method may be provided with one or more of
the characteristics of the dependent claims.
The aim and the objects of the invention are also achieved by an
apparatus for the production of fabric or leather articles, particularly of
padded articles, adapted to perform the above method, said apparatus
comprising:
¨ a feeder of a plurality of cloths, said feeder being configured to
unwind said cloths from respective rolls in an advancement direction and to
mutually superimpose them;
¨ memory means comprising a stored template which contains a
pattern of reference sewing lines and a plurality of reference markings
arranged, with respect to said pattern, according to a reference arrangement;
¨ an embroidery machine, comprising at least one sewing head and at
least one frame adapted to tension and temporarily retain said superimposed
cloths during sewing, said embroidery machine being associated with
control means configured to perform, by means of relative movements
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between said at least one sewing head and said frame, an automatic sewing
of said superimposed cloths along sewing lines that correspond to said
pattern of the stored template;
¨ said embroidery machine being adapted to apply two-dimensionally,
on said superimposed cloths, a plurality of markings in the form of seams in
positions that correspond to said reference arrangement stored in said
template;
¨ downstream of said embroidery machine with respect to said
advancement direction, means for the optical capture of the cloths sewn by
said embroidery machine and a machine for the automatic cutting of said
sewn cloths;
¨ control means comprising stored instructions for:
¨ detecting, by means of said optical capture means, the position of
said markings applied on said sewn cloths;
- determining any displacement of said applied markings with respect
to the reference arrangement stored in said template;
¨ on the basis of said displacement and of the mutual arrangement of
the reference markings and of the pattern of the sewing lines provided in
said stored template, determining by interpolation the actual pattern of the
sewing lines that is present on said sewn cloths, so as to automatically adapt
said cutting to any relaxations and/or wrinkles of the sewn cloths after the
release of said sewn cloths by the frame of the embroidery machine;
¨ said automatic cutting machine being adapted to perform an
automatic cutting of said cloths substantially along said sewing lines on the
basis of said actual pattern obtained with said interpolation.
Optionally, such apparatus may be provided with the characteristics
of the dependent claims.
Further characteristics and advantages of the invention will become
better apparent from the description of a preferred but not exclusive
embodiment of the apparatus according to the invention, illustrated by way
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of non-limiting example in the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Figure 1 is a side view of an apparatus according to the invention;
Figure 2 is a top plan view of the apparatus of Figure 1;
Figure 3 is a partial detail view of the tensioning frame of the cloths
5 in the embroidery machine of the apparatus of Figures 1-2;
Figure 4 is a view of an embodiment of a stored template used in the
apparatus of the preceding figures.
With reference to the cited figures, an apparatus according to the
invention, generally designated by the reference numeral 1, comprises a
feeder 2 of a plurality of cloths in roll form. The feeder 2 is provided with
a
plurality of unwinding units 2a, 2b, 2c with horizontal unwinding axes,
which are arranged so that the cloths 20a, 20b, 20c can be unwound from
the respective rolls 21a, 21b, 21c and be fed, in a mutually superimposed
manner and along a substantially rectilinear advancement direction D, to the
downstream machines, in order to font' a multilayer sheet 20d with a
number of layers that corresponds to the number of cloths 20a, 20b, 20c in
input.
The cloths 20a, 20b, 20c can have, optionally but not necessarily,
substantially the same width, with respect to the direction perpendicular to
the advancement direction D, so that they can be superimposed substantially
in register at the outlet of the feeder 2.
In the illustrated embodiment, the superimposed cloths are three and
are formed by two cloths 20a-20b, adapted to form a sack for down in a
subsequent filling step, and by a third cloth 20c adapted to form an external
layer of a garment padded with down and tailored downstream of the
apparatus 1.
At the feeder 2 it is possible, as an alternative, to provide for the
interposition, between at least two cloths during the superimposing step, of
previously formed sacks for down, as described for example in Italian
Patent Application no. 102016000111981, incorporated herein by reference,
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and according to a predefined placement.
The materials used for the cloths of the invention are those normally
used in the textile and/or upholstery industry, in particular for the
production of padded articles such as for example garments padded with
goose down.
In particular, the cloths used can be made of fabric (this term being
intended to mean knitted fabric, meshes, non-woven fabric, wadding sheets
or polyester sheets for padding, synthetic sheets in general) and/or leather
(including imitation leather), but plastic films or sheets of other material,
always preferably unwound from a roll, can be added, to be associated with
the fabric and/or leather cloths.
Downstream of the feeder 2, the apparatus 1 comprises an embroidery
machine 3 which comprises at least one sewing head and, more preferably, a
plurality of sewing heads 31a...31f which are aligned along the advancement
direction D, for example six sewing heads (not all shown in the figure for
the sake of space). The sewing heads 31a-31f may be mounted on a common
longitudinal member 30 which is parallel to the advancement direction D.
Furthermore, the embroidery machine 3 comprises at least one
embroidery frame 32 adapted to tension and temporarily retain the
superimposed cloths 20d during sewing, in a per se known manner, and to
move according to stored embroidering program.
Embroidering machines with fixed sewing heads and a cloth
embroidery frame that moves according to an embroidering program are per
se known, for example, from Patent Application DE19722616.
In the illustrated embodiment, the embroidery frame 32 comprises
longitudinal and transverse jaws 33-34, which can be activated on command
during the step for sewing the superimposed cloths 20d fed in input to the
embroidery machine 3 in order to retain and tension, along two mutually
perpendicular directions, the superimposed cloths 20d.
The apparatus 1 comprises moreover memory means, for example in
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the embroidery machine 3 itself, which contain and store at least one
template which contains a drawing or pattern of reference sewing lines Si,
S2, S3, S4, S5 and a plurality of reference markings Ml, M2, M3, M4
distributed, with respect to said pattern, according to a reference
arrangement.
The stored template corresponds to a digital pattern, for example in
the form of a vector file, and comprises a plurality of substantially closed
reference lines Si, S2, S3, S4, S5 which correspond to actual sewing lines
of a specific layout inside a rectangular area A that must be provided by one
of the sewing heads 31a-31f. In the example shown, the layout is formed by
a plurality of semi-finished products (or items) Pl, P2, P3, P4, P5 to be
obtained by cutting and to be manufactured subsequently in order to form,
for example, a padded coat or jacket.
The embroidery machine 3 is associated with control means, for
example, a computerized numeric control (CNC) of the entire apparatus 1,
which are configured to actuate relative movements between the sewing
heads 31a-31f and the embroidery frame 32 based on said stored template,
in order to obtain an automatic sewing of the superimposed cloths 20d along
sewing lines that correspond to the pattern of the stored template and,
according to a particular aspect of the invention, additional seams according
to the reference arrangement of the markings, so that the markings M1-M4
of the stored pattern are replicated, advantageously in the form of
corresponding additional seams, on the superimposed cloths 20d.
One advantage of the invention is that the markings consist of
respective seams, for example in the form of circles, obtained with the same
sewing head 31a-31f that reproduces in the form of seams the pattern Sl-S5
stored in the template. Therefore, with the sewing step the markings are also
simultaneously applied, in the form of additional seams on the
superimposed cloths 20d, which markings are arranged, with respect to the
sewing lines applied to the cloths 20d, in the same manner as the stored
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template.
Since the sewing heads of known embroidery machines allow to
apply threads of different colors, it is possible to associate with the
markings a thread that is different from those used for the sewing lines S1 -
S5, for example with a high contrast with respect to the color of the exposed
face of the superimposed cloths 20d, in order to facilitate its automatic
recognition in the subsequent stations.
The embroidery machine 3 is adapted to move the frame 32 with
respect to the sewing heads 31a-31f and to actuate said sewing heads so as
to provide on the superimposed cloths 20d seams that correspond (with a
1:1 ratio or according to a known scale factor) to the reference lines Si-S5
and to the reference arrangement of the markings Ml-M4.
Since the superimposed cloths 20d are kept tensioned by the
embroidery frame 32, the work area of each sewing head 31a-31f is a planar
rectangular area which corresponds, with a 1:1 ratio or with a known scale
factor, to the rectangular area A of the stored template or digital pattern.
Thus, each actual sewing line provided by each sewing head 31a-31f
corresponds exactly (except for a known scale factor) to the respective
stored reference sewing line S1-S5.
The reference sewing lines S1 -S5 are optionally such that they have
interruptions along one or more portions 01, 02, 03, 04, 05, so that the
sewing head 31a-31f does not perform any sewing of the superimposed
cloths 20d at these portions 01-05. In this manner, at the end of the sewing
step, at these portions 01-05 corresponding inlets are obtained for access to
a respective inner pocket formed between the cloths 20-20b-20c and
delimited by seams, through which inlet a padding material (for example,
goose down) can be inserted in a filling station (not shown) located
downstream of the embroidery machine 3 with respect to the advancement
direction D. In the illustrated embodiment, the filling station is located
downstream of the entire apparatus 1 with respect to the direction D.
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In order to obtain multiple pockets within a given closed sewing line
Si -S5, the reference sewing lines S1-S5 may further comprise one or more
chords Ti, T2, T3, T4, T5 which join two respective points of a respective
closed line S1-S5. Sewing is performed along said chords T1-15 by the
same sewing head 31a-31f that performs the sewing that corresponds to the
lines Si-S5. Advantageously, the portions 01-05 without seams and
arranged side by side along the closed line are separated by one end of one
of said chords T1-T5, so that each one of the pockets to be subsequently
filled is delimited by at least one of said chords T1-T5.
The reference arrangement of the markings M1-M4 in the stored
template is two-dimensional (i.e., on the entire X-Y Cartesian plane and not
only along one axis) and is such that the reference markings M1 -M4 are
preferably arranged outside the closed lines S I-S5 of the pattern. In
particular, a plurality of peripheral reference markings Ml, M2 are arranged
along the peripheral region of the rectangular area A, for example proximate
to all the vertices of the rectangle A, while at least one other reference
marking M3-M4 is placed more inside said area A than the peripheral
markings M1-M2, more precisely alongside a respective curved portion
(such as Si and S2') of the sewing lines Sl-S5 of the pattern and preferably
in the direction of a radius of curvature of said curved portion.
Downstream of the embroidery machine 3, the apparatus 1 can
comprise a drawing station 4 for pulling the sewn cloths (which correspond
to the superimposed cloths 20d after they have undergone sewing), which
allows the unwinding of the individual cloths 20a-20c from the respective
upstream rolls 21a-21c, the stepwise advancement of the superimposed
cloths 20d along the advancement direction D, and the feeding of the sewn
portion of the cloths 20d toward the downstream stations, which are
described hereinafter.
The advancement step of the superimposed cloths 20d between the
feeder 2 and the drawing station 4 is substantially equal to the length of the
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embroidery frame 32 in the direction D, so as to feed to the embroidery
machine 3 a portion of superimposed cloths 20d of such a length that the
stored template can be replicated simultaneously on multiple adjacent
rectangular areas of the superimposed cloths 20d by actuating the sewing
5 heads 31a-31f in parallel. The length of the embroidery frame 32 in the
direction D is substantially a multiple of the length of the side of one of
said
rectangular areas in the advancement direction D.
Throughout the sewing step, the advancement of the superimposed
cloths upstream of the drawing station 4 is stopped.
10 Advantageously, the drawing station 4 includes a buffer unit for
temporarily accumulating the sewn portion of the superimposed sewn cloths
20d that exits from the embroidery machine 3.
The buffer unit includes sets of deflector rollers 42-43, which have a
horizontal axis and are movable toward/away from each other (for example,
in a direction substantially perpendicular to the advancement direction D)
and between which the sewn portion of the superimposed cloths 20d (which
is also referenced herein as "sewn cloths") is guided in a winding path. One
set of deflector rollers 42 may be arranged on a movable support 41 while
the other set of deflector rollers 43, for example offset with respect to the
deflector rollers 42, may be provided in a fixed position.
By means of the mutual spacing/approach of the roller sets 42-43, the
buffer unit of the drawing station 4 can respectively accumulate more/less
amount of sewn cloth produced upstream by the embroidery machine 3
without jamming the downstream processing stations.
Said downstream stations comprise a machine 53 for the automatic
cutting of the sewn cloths which is associated with means 5 for the optical
capture of the cloths 20d sewn by the embroidery machine according to the
stored template. The optical capture means 5 may comprise one or more
video cameras 52 arranged on a mounting frame 51 located above the
automatic cutting machine 53, towards which machine the video cameras
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are directed. In this manner it is possible to capture an entire rectangular
area (substantially corresponding to the area A of the stored template)
containing all the markings applied on that area by the embroidery machine
3, in particular by the sewing head 31a-31f which performed sewing on that
area.
According to an alternative embodiment, not shown, the optical
capture means may be positioned upstream of the cutting machine 53 and
downstream of the embroidery machine 3 and/or of the drawing station 4.
The automatic cutting machine 53 may be provided with a conveyor
belt 56 on which a segment of the sewn portion of the superimposed cloths
20d is laid and made to advance intermittently so that the belt 56 is stopped
only during the cutting step.
Above the belt there is a support, for example of the Cartesian type,
with a cutting head 54, mounted so that it can move along a beam 55 which
is, in turn, movable in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal
direction
of the beam 55. The cutting tool may be of any type, for example a laser or a
blade.
The means for controlling the apparatus 1 are programmed so as to
move the movable beam 55 of the cutting machine 53 to a position that does
not obstruct the step of optical capture by the video cameras 52.
In the illustrated embodiment, the cutting machine 53 is configured to
perform, within a predetermined time Ti, the cutting of one layout P1 -P5 at
a time, along the sewing lines of a portion of the sewn cloths that
corresponds to a single rectangular area A of the stored template.
The preset cutting time Ti is related to a preset embroidering time T2
used by the embroidery machine 3 to fully reproduce the stored template, in
parallel on multiple adjacent rectangular areas of the superimposed cloths
20d, by means of respective sewing heads 31a-31f. In this case, T2=n*T1,
where "n" is the number of sewing heads of the embroidery machine. The
buffer unit of the drawing station 4 is adapted to compensate for this speed
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difference between the embroidery machine 3 and the automatic cutting
machine 53.
With the disengagement of the embroidery frame 32 at the end of the
sewing step, the sewn portions of the superimposed cloths 20d that are fed
downstream are no longer tensioned in the two perpendicular directions and
they are accordingly subject to relaxations and wrinkles which may deform,
or reduce in size, the sewing lines and the arrangement of the sewn
markings with respect to the stored template.
The invention therefore provides that the means for controlling the
apparatus 1 comprise and store also instructions for:
¨ detecting, by means of the optical capture of the video cameras 52,
the position of the markings applied on the sewn portion of the
superimposed cloths 20d in output from the embroidery machine 3, i.e. on
the sewn cloths;
- determining any displacement, i.e., any different arrangement, of the
applied markings with respect to the reference arrangement Ml-M4 stored
in the template;
¨ on the basis of said displacement and of the mutual arrangement of
the reference markings Ml-M4 with respect to the pattern of the sewing
lines S1-S5 provided in the stored template, determining by interpolation
the actual pattern of the sewing lines that is present on the sewn portion of
the cloths 20d at the capture means 5, so as to actuate accordingly the
cutting machine 53. It is thus possible to adapt automatically the cutting to
any relaxations and/or wrinkles of the sewn portion of the cloths 20d as a
consequence of the release of said portion by the embroidery frame 32 of
the embroidery machine 3.
The automatic cutting machine 53 is thus suitable for performing an
automatic cutting of the sewn portion of the superimposed cloths 20d, in
particular around the sewing lines formed by the embroidery machine 3 and
at a substantially constant distance from said lines (for example, less than 1
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cm) according to the actual pattern obtained with said interpolation, so as to
obtain semi-finished products P1-P5 of the original layouts. These semi-
finished products, which as a consequence of the cutting are completely
separated from each other, can be subsequently padded with down and/or
joined subsequently to form a finished article, for example a garment.
Downstream of the cutting machine 53 it is possible to provide a
labeling station 6 which, with a Cartesian applicator 61, is suitable for
applying respective automatically readable labels (for example labels with
QR codes or bar codes) on the respective semi-finished products P1-P5
obtained in the automatic cutting step.
The labeling station 6 also is configured to complete its work within a
preset time which is preferably equal to the time Ti of the cutting station
53.
Downstream of the apparatus 1 it is possible to provide a further table
(not shown in the drawings) for receiving a batch of semi-finished products
Pi-P5, for the associated pick-up and feeding to subsequent processing
stations, such as for example stations for filling (with down) and/or stations
for manufacturing garments. In the case of manual pick-up of the semi-
finished products at said receiving table, it is possible to provide, at said
receiving table, a confirmation button connected to the means for
controlling the apparatus 1 and to be pressed manually each time an
operator has completed the pick-up of all the semi-finished products Pl-P5
from the receiving table. If the button is not pressed within a predetermined
time which corresponds to Ti (i.e., the working time of the cutting machine
53), the control means stop the apparatus 1.
The operation and correspondingly the method according to the
invention are evident from the structure of the apparatus described above.
In practice it has been found that the invention achieves the intended
aim and objects.
The invention thus conceived is susceptible of numerous
modifications and variations, all of which are within the scope of the
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inventive concept; all the details may furthermore be replaced with other
technically equivalent elements.
In practice, the materials used, as well as the contingent shapes and
dimensions, may be any according to the requirements and the state of the
art.
The disclosures in Italian Patent Application No. 102021000000398
from which this application claims priority are incorporated herein by
reference.
Where technical features mentioned in any claim are followed by
reference signs, those reference signs have been included for the sole
purpose of increasing the intelligibility of the claims and accordingly such
reference signs do not have any limiting effect on the interpretation of each
clement identified by way of example by such reference signs.
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