Claims
- 1. A tufted fabric comprising a backing material, a plurality of longitudinal rows of tufts in said backing material, said rows having cut pile and loop pile in certain of said rows, certain of said rows being zig-zagged across other rows to provide cut pile in rows offset from other portions of said certain of said rows along said backing material and a plurality of loop tufts of different heights in said backing material, whereby the cut pile of said certain of said rows covers and hides the low loops and the high loops in certain rows being of approximately the same height as said cut pile.
- 2. The tufted fabric defined in claim 1 including said loops being formed in succession and along zig-zag patterns which are interspersed with the cut pile and loop pile tufts.
- 3. A tufted fabric comprising a backing material, a plurality of parallel, transversely spaced, first, longitudinal rows of first tufts formed respectively first yarns in said backing material, a plurality of parallel, transversely spaced, second, individual longitudinal rows of second tufts in said backing material, said second rows being disposed between adjacent first rows, said first tufts including having high tufts and low tufts, certain of said second tufts being laterally offset from their individual second rows, certain of said second tufts being cut pile tufts and said certain of said first tufts being loop pile tufts which are lower than other of said first tufts and in close proximity to said certain of said second tufts so that said certain of said second tufts hide said certain of said first tufts.
- 4. The tufted fabric defined in claim 3 wherein said first tufts from a group and said second tufts from a group which are of different diameter from the first tufts group so that one group is formed of thin yarns and the other group of fat yarns.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This is a divisional of co-pending application Ser. No. 07/142,926 filed on 01/12/88 now U.S. Pat. 4,836,118.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to tufting machines, a method of producing tufts in a base fabric and a tufted fabric and is more particularly concerned with a cut and loop overlay of a loop pile based fabric in a single pass of the base fabric and apparatus and a method of producing the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the past, tufting machines with laterally shiftable needles have been devised. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,026,830 issued Mar. 27, 1962 to Bryant et al; 3,396,687 issued Aug. 13, 1986 to Nowicke; 4,366,761 issued Jan. 4, 1983 to Card and our 4,440,102 issued Apr. 3, 1984 all disclose tufting machines with laterally shiftable needle bars so as to permit a needle to selectively operate with one or two or more adjacent loopers.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,919,953 issued Nov. 18, 1975 to Card et al discloses a tufting machine employing two rows of needles, the front cooperating with a loop pile loopers and the back row with the cut pile loopers.
In the past, if it were desired to obtain a cut and loop overlay of a loop pile based fabric, it would have been necessary to use two machines, the loop pile base fabric being produced on one machine and the cut pile overlay being produced using a second machine. Of course, with the machine of U.S. Pat. No. 3,919,953, the cut pile could be sewn adjacent to the loop pile and thereby form a cover for the loops of the fabric.
Briefly described, the present invention includes a conventional tufting machine provided with a reciprocating needle bar support which, in turn, carries a pair of front and back, laterally shiftable needle bars positioned on the common needle bar supports. The needles of the front needle bar cooperate with the loop pile loopers and the needles of the back needle bar cooperate with the cut-loop loopers. Yarn feed controls respectively feed yarn to the needles according to individual prescribed patterns. The needle bars are respectively shifted laterally in accordance with individually prescribed patterns.
The tufted fabric produced by the machine of the present invention has high or low loop tufts produced by a front row of needles and are relatively small in cross section while the selectively cut or loop tufts produced by the back needles are relatively large cross section. The large loop pile tufts are interspaced with the small loop pile tufts, due in part to the lateral shifting of the needles.
Accordingly, it is an object to the present invention to provide a machine capable of producing a cut and loop overlay of a loop pile base fabric in a single pass of the base fabric through the tufting machine.
Another object to the present invention is to provide a tufting machine capable of sewing a dense close gauge loop and cut fabric.
Another object to the present invention is to provide a machine capable of producing a cut pile overlay of a loop pile base fabric without using two machines.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a tufting machine capable of producing a tufted product having a loop pile base which can be of one color and a cut loop overlay which can be of a different color of textured yarn.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a tufting machine capable of producing a tufted fabric having cut pile and cut-loop pile of approximately the same pile height.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a tufting machine which can produce a patterned tufted product in which the cut pile are higher than the looped pile.
Other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawing wherein like characters of reference designate corresponding parts throughout the several used.
US Referenced Citations (7)
Divisions (1)
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142926 |
Jan 1988 |
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Patent Grant
4903625
