Granted Patent B2

US 8,875,642 · App. 14/178,613 · Granted Nov 4, 2014

Abstract

Claims (20)

1. A sewing machine comprising:

a needle rod on which a needle is mountable and configured to be reciprocated vertically;

a pair of tension discs configured to sandwich an upper thread therebetween;

a feed mechanism configured to transport a sewing object in a vertical direction;

a reciprocating mechanism configured to reciprocate the needle rod laterally with respect to the vertical direction;

an upper thread tension adjusting mechanism configured to adjust the tension discs by switching between an open state in which the tension of the upper thread is released, and a restored state in which the tension is restored;

a feed amount adjusting mechanism configured to adjust a feed amount of the feed mechanism;

a stitch width adjusting mechanism configured to adjust a stitch width of the reciprocating mechanism; and

a control apparatus configured to control the upper thread tension adjusting mechanism, the feed amount adjusting mechanism, and/or the stitch width adjusting mechanism, wherein

a common adjusting mechanism, which is one of the feed amount adjusting mechanism and the stitch width adjusting mechanism, includes:

a motor;

an adjusting mechanism body which is a tooth-missing gear whose teeth are partially missing and/or a cam and configured to be driven by the motor; and

a variation amount adjusting unit configured to change the variation amount, which is the feed amount of the feed mechanism or the stitch width of the reciprocating mechanism within a first range which is part of a movable range of the adjusting mechanism body by either one of a driven gear that engages the teeth of the tooth-missing gear or a driven member pushed by a cam surface of the cam;

the upper thread tension adjusting mechanism includes:

a thread loosening portion engaging the tooth-missing gear or pressed by the cam surface within a second range deviated from the first range in the adjusting mechanism body; and

an upper thread tension adjusting unit configured to switch the tension discs from the restored state to the open state in conjunction with the thread loosening portion, and

the control apparatus performs an opening action that switches the tension discs to the open state by changing the adjusting mechanism body in the second range when the common adjusting mechanism does not have to perform an adjustment of the variation amount, and when the tension discs need to be opened.

2. The sewing machine according to claim 1 , comprising a feed mechanism switching apparatus configured to switch the feed mechanism between a state of feeding the sewing object and a state of not feeding the sewing object and configured to be controlled by the control apparatus, wherein the control apparatus switches the feed mechanism to the state not feeding the sewing object by the feed mechanism switching apparatus at the time of free-motion sewing, which is one of modes of doing embroidery on the sewing object to perform the opening action.

3. The sewing machine according to claim 1 , wherein the tooth-missing gear includes a tooth-missing gear lever interlocked therewith, and the driven gear engaging the tooth-missing gear includes a driven gear lever with which teeth of the tooth-missing gear comes into contact immediately before engagement of the teeth of the tooth-missing gear with the teeth of its own and to which power is transmitted from the tooth-missing gear.

4. The sewing machine according to claim 1 , wherein the adjusting mechanism body is an apparatus configured to unify the tooth-missing gear and the cam coaxially and rotate the same.

Assignments (9)