Abstract: An information processing device includes: a first detection unit that detects contact of fingertips on the basis of an output waveform of an acceleration sensor; a second detection unit that detects the contact of the fingertips on the basis of a change in electrostatic capacitance; and an operation control unit that causes the first detection unit to operate in a case of detecting timing at which the fingertips come into contact with each other, and causes the second detection unit to operate in a case of detecting timing at which the fingertips are separated from each other.

Abstract: An inner rotary hook has a needle drop hole, and side wall portions formed over the drop hole and defining a space for passage therethrough of a sewing needle. The side wall portions are located adjacent to opposite sides of the needle passing through the space and extend from a region in front of the needle to a region behind the needle. The side wall portions can abut against an upper thread, passed through a hole of the needle, near a bottom dead point of the needle. If any of two portions of the thread located forward and rearward of the needle has strayed laterally, it can abut against one of the wall portions. Consequently, it is possible to prevent the front-side upper thread portion from circling around behind the needle, but also prevent the rear-side upper thread portion from straying laterally to form a laterally-protruding loop.

Abstract: Rotary hook drive device for a sewing machine includes: a rotary hook rotatably provided on a rotary hook support; a cylindrical grooved cam provided on a drive shaft drivable to rotate in one direction; a cam follower engaged in a cam groove of the cylindrical grooved cam and capable of making reciprocative movement about a support shaft in response to rotation of the cylindrical grooved cam; and a transmission mechanism that transmits the reciprocative movement of the cam follower to the rotary hook to cause the rotary hook to make reciprocative pivoting movement. Such arrangements can prevent deviation in driving timing of the rotary hook and simplify the construction of the rotary hook drive device.

Abstract: An inner rotary hook has a needle drop hole, and side wall portions formed over the drop hole and defining a space for passage therethrough of a sewing needle. The side wall portions are located adjacent to opposite sides of the needle passing through the space and extend from a region in front of the needle to a region behind the needle. The side wall portions can abut against an upper thread, passed through a hole of the needle, near a bottom dead point of the needle. If any of two portions of the thread located forward and rearward of the needle has strayed laterally, it can abut against one of the wall portions. Consequently, it is possible to prevent the front-side upper thread portion from circling around behind the needle, but also prevent the rear-side upper thread portion from straying laterally to form a laterally-protruding loop.

Abstract: Rotary hook drive device for a sewing machine includes: a rotary hook rotatably provided on a rotary hook support; a cylindrical grooved cam provided on a drive shaft drivable to rotate in one direction; a cam follower engaged in a cam groove of the cylindrical grooved cam and capable of making reciprocative movement about a support shaft in response to rotation of the cylindrical grooved cam; and a transmission mechanism that transmits the reciprocative movement of the cam follower to the rotary hook to cause the rotary hook to make reciprocative pivoting movement. Such arrangements can prevent deviation in driving timing of the rotary hook and simplify the construction of the rotary hook drive device.

Abstract: In a head group comprising two or more machine heads (3, 4) provided in proximity to each other so that each of the machine heads can perform embroidery sewing on an embroidering area of an embroidery frame on which a cylindrically-shaped embroidering workpiece is set, at least one of the machine heads is a multi-needle machine head (3). There are also provided a color change mechanism (20) for selectively positioning a desired needle at a predetermined operating position in the multi-needle machine head, a rotary hook bed (5) provided for each of the head group for shared use between the machine heads. There is provided a horizontal movement mechanism (30) for disposing the individual machine heads and the color change mechanism for horizontal movement relative to the rotary hook beds and horizontally moving the individual machine heads and the color change mechanism together to place any one of the machine heads in each of the head groups in positional correspondence to the rotary hook bed.

Abstract: In an embroidery sewing machine, an embroidery frame support device for supporting a front end portion of an embroidery frame installed in a cantilevered manner includes: a base member that is a base for attaching the embroidery frame support device to the embroidery sewing machine, and a Y slide rail (support member) having a movable end that can move relatively with the base member. The embroidery frame support device supports a front end portion of the embroidery frame from a lower surface thereof through an X slide rail attached to a tip portion of the Y slide rail. The embroidery frame support device can be attached to the embroidery sewing machine by screwing a base member to a cylinder bed. The screwing of the base member to the cylinder bed can be carried out from the upper side of a sewing machine table.

Abstract: Looper section provided under a needle plate includes: a plurality of loopers arranged in an array along a curved movement path; and a movement mechanism for moving the plurality of loopers along the curved movement path to selectively position one of the plurality of loopers in a predetermined needle drop position. Chain-stitch sewing is performed by cooperation between the one looper selectively positioned in the needle drop position and a hooked needle. The looper section projects at its one end portion including the predetermined needle drop position, and a cylindrical sewing workpiece can be taken to and from the needle drop position via the one projecting end portion. The curved movement path is, for example, a U-shaped path.

Abstract: Chain-stitch sewing machine includes: a looper provided under a needle plate and having a thread lead-in port and thread lead-out port, the looper being rotationally driven in synchronism with a sewing operation; a plurality of thread feed ports connecting to different thread supply sources; and a connecting member having a thread passage, the connecting member selectively connecting any one of the plurality of thread feed ports to the thread insertion port of the looper via the thread passage. Threading mechanism passes the sewing thread, fed via the thread feed port connected by the connecting member to the thread insertion port of the looper, into the thread insertion port and causes the sewing thread to be taken out via the inserted thread lead-out port of the looper.

Abstract: Sequin strip (60), let out from a reel and then placed on the upper surface of a supporting plate (8), is fed at a predetermined pitch corresponding to a size of a sequin (S?) of the strip. After a sewing needle (31) fits into a hole (61) of a leading sequin (S?) as a needle bar (31) descends in accordance with sewing operation, a movable cutter blade cuts off the leading sequin (S?) by being driven downward by abutment against the needle bar (31) or a member (32) movable with the needle bar (31). Sequin-cutting portion (27a) of the movable cutter blade (27) has a thickness smaller than a thickness of an abutting portion (27b) that abuts against the needle bar (31) or the member (32) movable with the needle bar (31), to secure an appropriate strength.

Abstract: Sewing machine includes a tension detection section (26) for detecting tension acting on a sewn material (A) paid out from a rotary holder member, and a drive section for driving the rotary holder member, and the driving operation of the drive section (14) is controlled on the basis of the detection by the tension detection section. Once the tension acting on the sewn material has increased, the rotary holder member is driven to rotate by the drive section, so that the sewn material can be paid out smoothly from the rotary holder member. The sewing machine is particularly useful in a case where the rotary holder member is constructed into an increased size so that an increased amount of the sewn material can be wound thereon.

Abstract: Continuous sequin strip having a multiplicity of continuously-connected sequins is let out from a reel and then placed on the upper surface of a supporting plate. Sequin feeder apparatus feeds the sequin strip at a predetermined pitch corresponding to a size of a sequin of the continuous sequin strip through advancing and retracting movement of a feed lever interlocked to sewing operation of a needle bar of a sewing machine. The feed lever includes two engaging portions for engaging a predetermined sequin of the strip to feed the strip. With the two engaging portions engaging at least two points of the sequin, the sequin can be fed out reliably irrespective of the position of the sewing hole formed in the sequin. Thus, even sequins, each having the sewing hole eccentrically offset in a direction perpendicular to a sequin-strip feeding direction, can be fed out at the predetermined pitch with an increased reliability.

Abstract: A sewing machine main frame includes an upper support member, and a lower support member positioned in substantially parallel relation to the upper support member with a predetermined interval therebetween and integrally joined with each other via a joint member. A supporting leg section is attached to a predetermined position of the main frame to support the main frame in a substantially horizontal orientation at a predetermined height. The main frame and supporting leg section are provided as separate component parts. Because the main frame is constructed of the upper and lower support members integrally joined via the joint member, the main frame and the supporting leg section can be transported to a predetermined assembling place before the supporting leg section is attached to the main frame.

Abstract: Sequin feeder device includes an adjustment member mounted on a feed lever, and the adjustment member controls pivot timing of a lock lever by its adjustment piece abutting against a lock lever. The pivot timing of the lock lever is adjustable as desired, in accordance with a relative position of the adjustment piece, and thus, timing at which an engaging claw of the lock lever engages a sequin is adjustable as desired. Further, on a support plate, there is mounted a sequin feed guide member for guiding a continuous sequin strip to allow the sequin strip to be fed straight in the predetermined feeding direction. The sequin feed guide member can be appropriately positioned by merely being fixed to the support plate with its side edge abutted against a side wall of the support plate, without a need for particular positional adjustment of the guide member.

Abstract: Looper section provided under a needle plate includes: a plurality of loopers arranged in an array along a curved movement path; and a movement mechanism for moving the plurality of loopers along the curved movement path to selectively position one of the plurality of loopers in a predetermined needle drop position. Chain-stitch sewing is performed by cooperation between the one looper selectively positioned in the needle drop position and a hooked needle. The looper section projects at its one end portion including the predetermined needle drop position, and a cylindrical sewing workpiece can be taken to and from the needle drop position via the one projecting end portion. The curved movement path is, for example, a U-shaped path.

Abstract: A needle bar drive apparatus for a sewing machine includes a dedicated drive source (16) for driving a needle bar (3) of the sewing machine to move up and down. When a sewing operation is to be performed, a control section (160) controls the drive source to cause the needle bar to move up and down within a predetermined stroke range, but, when no sewing operation is to be performed, the control section controls the drive source to cause the needle bar to retreat to a predetermined evacuation position set above a top dead center in the predetermined stroke range. The control section is also capable of varying a timewise pattern of the upward and downward movement of the needle bar within the predetermined stroke range. Thus, it is possible to secure an increased space between the lower end of the needle bar and the upper surface of a sewing machine table (6) during a non-sewing period while limiting the stroke of the needle bar to a necessary minimum during a sewing period.

Abstract: Illuminating device includes a plurality of LEDs positioned at intervals so as to form a linear LED array generally corresponding to an array line along which needle bars are provided, and a lens for gathering emitted light from the LEDs to thereby generate a linear light beam corresponding to the array line. The illuminating device provided in each machine head is controlled, independently of the illuminating devices of the other machine heads, in response to an operating state of the machine head. Thus, it is possible to not only generate, at low cost, a linear light beam suited to illumination of areas around the points of a plurality of needles arranged in a linear array, but also appropriately control the needle point illumination for the plurality of machine heads.

Abstract: A feeding mechanism (6) feeds a plurality of continuous sequin strips (3, 60), which are supplied in an overlapped state, a predetermined pitch at a time to a sewing mechanism (2, 31, 32, 41, 50, 51) while keeping the continuous sequin strips in the overlapped state. The sewing mechanism sews leading sequins (S, S2) of the respective continuous sequin strips together in the overlapped state onto a sewn-to member. A cutting mechanism (27, 30) cuts the sequins sewn at the same time in the overlapped state. For example, a plurality of continuous sequin strips let out from a plurality of reels (5, 61) housing the respective continuous sequin strips are overlapped via a lead-in section (63), so that the plurality of continuous sequin strips (3, 60) are supplied in the overlapped state. As a result, a highly decorative sequin sewn member in which a plurality of sequins are overlapped can be produced with ease.

Abstract: Continuous sequin strip having a multiplicity of continuously-connected sequins is let out from a reel and then placed on the upper surface of a supporting plate. Sequin feeder apparatus feeds the sequin strip at a predetermined pitch corresponding to a size of a sequin of the continuous sequin strip through advancing and retracting movement of a feed lever interlocked to sewing operation of a needle bar of a sewing machine. The feed lever includes two engaging portions for engaging a predetermined sequin of the strip to feed the strip. With the two engaging portions engaging at least two points of the sequin, the sequin can be fed out reliably irrespective of the position of the sewing hole formed in the sequin. Thus, even sequins, each having the sewing hole eccentrically offset in a direction perpendicular to a sequin-strip feeding direction, can be fed out at the predetermined pitch with an increased reliability.

Abstract: Sewing machine includes a tension detection section (26) for detecting tension acting on a sewn material (A) paid out from a rotary holder member, and a drive section for driving the rotary holder member, and the driving operation of the drive section (14) is controlled on the basis of the detection by the tension detection section. Once the tension acting on the sewn material has increased, the rotary holder member is driven to rotate by the drive section, so that the sewn material can be paid out smoothly from the rotary holder member. The sewing machine is particularly useful in a case where the rotary holder member is constructed into an increased size so that an increased amount of the sewn material can be wound thereon.