BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIGS. 1A and 1B are an elevation view to illustrate a bearded needle in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention and a side view thereof, respectively, and FIG. 1C is an enlarged cross-sectional taken on a plane of lines Z-Z of FIGS. 1A and 1B;
FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate a state when the bearded needle of this embodiment has drawn out a thread and a state when the bearded needle of this embodiment is slightly lowered, respectively;
FIGS. 3A and 3B are a side view of a conventional bearded needle and a front view thereof, respectively;
FIGS. 4A and 4B are an elevation view of a conventional bearded needle and a side view thereof, respectively, and FIG. 4C is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken on a plane of lines X-X of FIGS. 4A and 4B;
FIG. 5A is a perspective view illustrating a state when a conventional bearded needle has drawn out a thread, and FIG. 5B is a perspective view illustrating a trapping of a thread when the bearded needle is slightly lowered;
FIG. 6 illustrates a step sequence of chain stitch; and
FIG. 7 illustrates a step sequence of loop stitch.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
An embodiment of a bearded needle according to the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIGS. 1A to 1C depict an embodiment of the bearded needle according to the present invention. FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate a state when the bearded needle has drawn out a thread and a state when the bearded needle is slightly lowered, respectively. While a conventional bearded needle has thread guiding grooves at a thread holding portion, the bearded needle in this embodiment is provided with sloping surfaces, instead of forming the thread guiding grooves, in the position corresponding to the thread holding portion to facilitate the movement of a thread, which embodiment is explained in detail below.
As illustrated in FIGS. 1A to 1C, the bearded needle of this embodiment has the following configuration. A bearded needle 10 of the illustrated embodiment includes a needle shank 10a and a hooking portion 13 disposed at a tip portion of the needle shank 10a. The tip of the needle shank 10a is formed into a thin shank portion 10b by tapering down the thickness of the needle shank 10a. The thin shank portion 10b is provided at an extremity thereof with a conical projection portion 12. The conical projection portion 12 is provided at a proximal side thereof with a beard or hooking tip portion 14 pointing back in a direction toward the thin shank portion 10b to form a needle eye 15, and thereby the hooking portion 13 is formed at the tip of the needle shank 10a so as to hook a thread S at the needle eye 15 thereof. A bottom portion 11 of the hooking portion 13 to hold the thread S is formed into a substantial U-shape. At the thread holding portion of the hooking portion 13, instead of thread guiding grooves formed in a conventional bearded needle, as illustrated in FIG. 1C, a pair of sloping surfaces 16 inclining toward an outer edge 14a of the hooking tip portion 14 are each formed in an area extending from the bottom portion 11 over both the conical projection portion 12 and the hooking tip portion 14.
Each of the sloping surfaces 16 is a surface that inclines toward the outer edge 14a of the hooking tip portion 14 in an area extending from the vicinity of the bottom portion 11 to both the lateral surface 12a of the conical projection portion 12 and the lateral surface 14b of the hooking tip portion 14. The sloping surfaces 16 are formed on both sides of the conical projection portion 12 and the hooking tip portion 14. By forming the sloping surfaces 16 on both sides of the hooking portion 13, a thread hooked at the hooking portion 13 can be offset from a central axis La of the needle by its movement, as shown by arrows in FIG. 1C, toward the outer edge 14a of the hooking tip portion 14. The sloping surfaces 16 are formed to be symmetrical with respect to a plane including thereon the central axis La of the needle as shown in FIG. 1A. Each of the sloping surfaces 16 also inclines, as shown by auxiliary lines Lb in FIG. 1A, with respect to the plane of symmetry passing the central axis La of the needle toward the upper end of the needle shank 10a. Hence each of the sloping surfaces 16 is given an incline toward the distal end of the hooking tip portion 14, and thereby the thread S hooked at the hooking portion 13 can be offset further in the direction toward the outer edge 14a of the hooking tip portion 14. In other words, a thread is pulled out by the bearded needle 10 at a position apart from the central axis La of the needle.
In this embodiment, the off-hooking of a thread S hooked at the hooking portion 13 of the bearded needle 10 is executed in such a manner as illustrated in FIGS. 2A and 2B. More specifically, the thread S hooked at the hooking portion 13 of the bearded needle 10 is drawn out from a thread draw hole Tb in a looper T and the bearded needle 10 is elevated to the top dead center (FIG. 2A). Since thread guiding grooves are not formed at the hooking portion 13 of the bearded needle 10, when the bearded needle 10 is then lowered, the thread S is bent, as illustrated in FIG. 2B, to be offset to the side of the outer edge 14a of the hooking tip portion 14 by being slid along the sloping surfaces 16 of the hooking portion 13, and the thread S is positioned to be offset from the central axis La of the needle, whereby the tip of the conical projection portion 12 can be inserted into a needle insertion hole Ta of the looper T without piercing by the bearded needle 10 through the twists of the thread S when the bearded needle 10 is lowered. As the thread draw hole Tb is located eccentric to the center of the looper T, and hence the thread S is drawn by the hooking portion 13 out from the thread draw hole Tb at an angle so as to avoid the central axis La of the needle, the thread is not trapped when the bearded needle 10 is lowered, with the result that embroideries with good finishing can be attained.
In this embodiment, the sloping surfaces 16 are each formed to incline toward the outer edge 14a of the hooking tip portion 14, so that the position of a thread S can be offset toward the outer edge 14a of the hooking tip portion 14. Further, the sloping surfaces 16 are each formed to incline toward the most distal end of the hooking tip portion 14, so that the thread S can slide more smoothly in the direction of the outer edge 14a of the hooking tip portion 14 to be offset from the central axis La of the needle. The sloping surfaces may each be a plane or curved surface. Even in the case that each of the sloping surfaces 16 is a curved surface, a thread hooked at the hooking portion 13 can slide on the curved surface away from the central axis La of the needle, and since the thread is drawn out at a position offset from the central axis La of the bearded needle 10 when the bearded needle 10 is lowered, embroideries with good finishing without piercing by the bearded needle 10 through the twists of the thread S can be attained.
In addition, in this embodiment, the bearded needle 10 is designed to reduce the trapping of a base cloth by the tip of the hooking tip portion 14 when the bearded needle 10 is drawn out from the base cloth by making the lateral width of the tip of the hooking tip portion 14 of the bearded needle viewed from the front side thereof wider than that in the conventional bearded needle illustrated in FIGS. 4A to 4C. In other words, while in the conventional bearded needle, off-hooking of a thread is made difficult if the lateral width of the outer edge of a hooking tip portion is widened when a stitching interval is narrow; in this embodiment, thread guiding grooves are not formed unlike in the conventional bearded needle, and the hooking portion is formed in such a manner that the lateral width of the hooking tip portion is narrower at the outer edge thereof than on the side of the central axis of the needle and the hooking portion has the sloping surfaces that have a relatively large inclination angle, and thereby a thread hooked at the thread holding portion can smoothly move slide on the sloping surfaces toward the outer edge of the hooking tip portion and since a standing thread loop is off-hooked from the hooking tip portion when the bearded needle is lowered, the width of the tip portion of the hooking tip portion on the side of the central axis of the needle can be made wider than that in the conventional needle, so that there is an advantage that off-hooking of the thread becomes stable, thus attaining embroideries with good finishing without trapping of the bearded needle by the base cloth.
In this embodiment, since thread guiding grooves are not formed at the thread holding portion of the bearded needle, flexibility in movement of a thread is high, and the bearded needle is designed so that a thread slides smoothly according to the incline angle of the sloping surfaces and stably stays in place. In addition, the incline angle of the sloping surfaces can be adjusted depending upon the pitch of embroidery stitch (seam), and it is also possible to attain stable off-hooking of a thread from the bearded needle by providing the sloping surfaces with an appropriate curvature. The incline angle of the sloping surface means an angle with respect to the central axis of the needle at which angle the sloping surface inclines toward the central axis of the needle and/or an angle with respect to a line that is orthogonal to the central axis of the needle and that extends in the direction of the outer edge of the hooking tip portion at which angle the sloping surface inclines toward the orthogonal line.
The present invention is applicable to a bearded needle suitable for Sagara embroidery.
Patent Application
20080035039
