Granted Patent B2

US 8,100,071 · App. 11/878,251 · Granted Jan 24, 2012

Abstract

Claims (62)

1. A sewing machine, comprising:

a needle provided with an upper thread;

a gripper housing a horizontally fitted lower bobbin for a lower thread;

a feeder for feeding a sewing material being sewn between the upper thread and the lower thread;

a drive configured to cause the needle to perform an oscillating movement up and down in order to carry the upper thread through the material so that the upper thread forms a loop under the sewing material;

a gripper tip on the gripper hooking the loop of the upper thread and carrying the upper thread round the lower bobbin;

a take-up lever tightening inside the material a knot of the upper thread and the lower thread in cooperation so that a stitch is accomplished and forms a seam;

means causing, when the needle in a stitch performs a sideways shift relative to a longitudinal direction of the seam, the needle to run along a conical surface which in the plane of the sewing material has the form of an arcuate curve corresponding to an arcuate curve of the periphery of the gripper;

a feed motor causing the feeder to advance the sewing material by means of the feeder a length y in the longitudinal direction of the seam, on the basis of a seam setting; and

a control comprising an algorithm by which the feed motor is controlled to act upon the feeder in each stitch including a sideways shift of the needle to advance the sewing material a correction length e n in the longitudinal direction of the seam, thereby compensating a corresponding deficiency in the longitudinal shift of the needle relative to the material during the stitch caused by the arcuate sideways movement of the needle.

2. The sewing machine according to claim 1 , wherein said control comprises a processor programmed with said algorithm.

3. The sewing machine according to claim 1 , wherein said feed motor comprises a stepping motor.

4. A method applicable to a sewing machine having a needle and a gripper with a horizontally positioned lower bobbin for executing a seam by stitches in a sewing material, for compensating a deficiency in a longitudinal shift of the needle during a stitch caused by an arcuate movement of the needle when it shifts sideways in the stitch, the method comprising:

advancing the sewing material a length y n in the longitudinal direction of the seam on the basis of a seam setting utilizing a feeder;

utilizing an algorithm provided in a control for controlling a feeder motor advancing said feeder; and

setting said feeder using said controlling for stitches entailing sideways shifting of the needle, to feed the sewing material a correction length e n in the longitudinal direction of the seam, thereby compensating a corresponding deficiency, in the longitudinal shift of the needle in relation to the sewing material during the stitch, caused by the arcuate sideways movement of the needle.

5. The method according to claim 4 , further comprising:

setting mechanical elements utilizing said control to effect said correction length e n .

6. The method according to claim 4 , wherein

y n represents a desired shift in a y direction for stitch n in relation to the sewing material,

f n represents a total shift in the y direction of the sewing material for stitch n to achieve a full error compensation,

e A represents a residual error due to a quantisation, in a number of stepping motor steps,

e n , e n-1 represent an error in a y position in relation to the sewing material for stitch n and stitch n−1 respectively, and

N represents a number of stitches in a seam sequence for a pattern report,

the method further comprising:

calculating in the algorithm a total need for shifting f n of the material by the feeder in the longitudinal direction according to:

n= 1:

f 1 =y 1 −e 1 +e 0

Φ 1 =Z ( f 1 /Δ F )

2 ≦n≦N:

e Δ =f n-1 −Φ n-1 *Δ F

f n =y n −e Δ −e n +e n-1

Φ n =Z ( f n /Δ F ).  [1]

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein:

Φ n represents a position of a feed motor for an arbitrary stitch in a stitch sequence,

Δ F represents a resolution of the feed motor in mm/step, and

Z(x) represents a function for rounding to nearest whole number

the method further comprising:

calculating in the algorithm the position Φ n for the feed motor according to:

n= 1:

Φ 1 =Z ( f 1 /Δ F )

2 ≦n≦N:

Φ n =Z ( f n /Δ F ).  [1]

8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein

f n-1 represents a total shift of the sewing material effected by the feeder in the y direction for a stitch n−1 preceding a current stitch n, and

Φ n-1 represents a position of the feed motor for a preceding stitch in a stitch sequence

the method further comprising:

calculating, utilizing the algorithm, a residual error e Δ in the y position in relation to the sewing material for stitch n, caused by the position of the feed motor being quantified according to:

e Δ =f n-1 −Φ n-1 *Δ F .

9. The method according to claim 6 , further comprising:

a) commencing a pattern report;

b) calculating a feed length f n for a new stitch including said correction length e n ;

c) utilizing the feed motor to control the longitudinal feed unit for feeding the sewing material forward a feed length f n according to said calculation; and

d) commencing a new stitch according to step b) until the pattern report is complete, whereupon step a) is repeated unless the sewing is ended.

10. The method according to claim 9 , further comprising:

compensating the calculation of the feed length f n according to step b) by said residual error e Δ on the basis of quantisation, in number of stepping motor steps.

11. A computer program product programmed to perform calculations for compensating a deficiency in a longitudinal shift of a needle during a stitch caused by an arcuate movement of the needle when the needle shifts sideways in the stitch in order to arrive at a correction length e n , the computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory computer readable medium; and

computer program instructions recorded on the computer readable medium and executable by a processor for carrying out a method comprising

advancing a sewing material a length in a longitudinal direction of a seam based on a seam setting utilizing a feeder,

utilizing an algorithm provided in a control for controlling a feeder motor advancing said feeder, and

setting said feeder using said control for stitches including sideways shifting of the needle, to feed the sewing material a correction length in the longitudinal direction of the seam, thereby compensating a corresponding deficiency, in longitudinal shift of the needle in relation to the sewing material during the stitch, caused by the arcuate sideways movement of the needle.

Assignments (12)