Abstract: A universal sewing foot, for a sewing machine having a skipping top transport and a skipping bottom transport, comprises an advancing foot and a holding foot which alternately engage the workpiece. A locking member selectively locks the holding foot so that it operates either in a non-skipping mode, in which the foot is urged downward against the workpiece by a spring, or a skipping mode, in which the foot is locked to the skipping upper transport with the spring under compression.

Abstract: A workpiece guide rail for a sewing machine, and more particularly a guide rail which includes a sewing material stretching device for spreading out the workpiece along the course of a seam prior to sewing. The guide rail includes a frame and a plurality of holding elements movably mounted on the frame, each holding element having a lower surface adapted for gripping the workpiece. The holding elements are interlinked to form a chain, one end of the chain being fixed to the frame, and an actuator is provided on the frame for pulling the other end of the chain for separating the holding elements in order to spread out the workpiece.

Abstract: A cutting device for cutting the thread chain, or the like, between successive sewn parts moving along a path through a sewing machine. The sewing machine includes a needle. A holder downstream of the needle includes a horizontal cutout. A hook for lifting the thread chain between adjacent sewn parts on the path is movable up through the cutout for raising the thread chain. A scissors moves across the sewn part path and cuts the upraised thread chain. The holder holds the upstream sewn part from shifting while permitting the downstream sewn part to shift slightly upstream as the hook rises and prior to the cutting, whereby a single cut cuts the thread chain adjacent both sewn parts. A sensor senses the trailing edge of a sewn part and activates a stitch counter to cause the needle to apply a predetermined number of stitches before halting sewing so that the cutting can thereafter take place.

Abstract: An apparatus for tensioning and controlled advancing of tube-like articles includes at least one stationary roller and a non-stationary roller which is movable by a slider in order to tension the waist of an article pulled over the rollers. Depending on the position of the slider when having tensioned the article, the speed of one of the rollers is controlled to allow the sewing of belt loops in controlled distances onto the article.

Abstract: A conveyer for hanging garments or the like in which the carriage for the articles to be suspended as rollers riding on an on-edge endless band formed along its upper edge with a continuous bead and suspended from a track in which an endless chain supporting the band is continuously driven. An abutment can be selectively introduced into the path of the carriage to temporarily immobilize it and allow loading of articles onto or unloading of articles from the carriage.

Abstract: A pocket opening sewing machine including a cutting device for producing two notching cuts at the ends of a pocket opening. The sewing machine has sewing needles and a belt driven clamping device for clamping to the sewn parts for advancing them in an advancing direction. The cutting device includes two knives spaced apart. The knife that is further from the sewing needles is movable toward the stationary knife that is closer to the needles. For adjusting the spacing between the knives, the movable knife is temporarily clamped to a moving belt which moves it toward the stationary knife. An adjustably positionable stop defines the furthest limit of spacing between the stationary and movable knives and a spring drives the movable knife against the stop. The clamping of the movable knife to the belt is initiated by a sensor which senses the passage of a sewn part and which operates a microcomputer with pocket length information stored in it to move the movable knife when required over the distance required.

Abstract: A fully digital control system for the speed of the arm shaft of a sewing machine provides separate counters for counting a counting frequency during the pulses and pulse intervals of a lower frequency increment generator measuring the actual value of the shaft speed. The inverse of the last complete count thus registered is compared with a set point value in a microcomputer preprogrammed with data blocks representing these set point values and provided with parameters for the respective keying ratios associated therewith. The control bus and data bus connecting the counters with the microcomputer also connect the latter to another unit including a bit-rate generator and a programmable retriggerable multivibrator from which the digital output signal is emitted to effect direct control over a DC motor or to drive a clutch connected to the shaft.

Abstract: A workpiece fed to a stitching point of a sewing machine, consisting of one or more layers of fabric, is transluminated by a source of visible or infrared radiation which is intercepted by two photoelectric sensors following each other in the direction of motion. The sensors work into respective radiation/frequency converters whose output voltages, after rectification, are compared in a window discriminator to provide an indication of the passage of a leading or trailing edge of a fabric layer manifesting itself in a jump in one of the voltages. The jump is intensified by a threshold circuit in each converter, comprising a Zener diode which for highly light-transmissive fabric layers can be short-circuited by an optocoupler.

Abstract: The disclosure concerns a drive device for a double thread chain-stitch buttonhole sewing machine. The machine has a first drive shaft for driving the sewing needle and for moving the cloth support plate for sewing. It has a separate worm shaft for moving the cloth support plate to the sewing position and also for operating a knife for cutting the buttonhole. A first respective electromagnetic clutch operates the sewing needle drive shaft, and a second respective electromagnetic clutch operates an intermediate shaft which then operates the worm shaft for operating the cloth support plate and knife operating shaft are provided. A drive shaft is connected with the armature part of the first electromagnetic clutch on the sewing needle driving shaft. That armature part is gear connected with an armature part of the second clutch on the intermediate shaft.

Abstract: A thread-holding device is used with a standard buttonhole machine having a support head, a stitching needle for a needle thread displaceably mounted on the support head, and a blade for cutting the needle thread after a stitching operation and forming thereon a free end extending laterally from the needle. The thread-holding device comprises a support plate pivoted on the head, and a thread clip having a pair of jaws displaceable between a closed position engaging each other for holding the thread and an open position for releasing it. An actuator on the support plate and carrying the thread clip can move same vertically between an upper position spaced laterally relatively far from the needle and a lower position laterally relatively close to the needle.

Abstract: A photoelectric device on the head of a sewing machine detects the trailing edge of a fabric workpiece and initiates a count of pulses representing increments of the steps of displacement of the workpiece in stitch formations. Each step is subdivided into a plurality of segments which are represented by respective multiplicities of increments so that from a count of increments after detection of the reference point to a particular angular orientation of the arm shaft, a stitch combination can be drawn from a memory which will include stitches of an original length and stitches of a length reduced from the original by a fixed amount so that in the number of stitches of the selected combination the row will be completed to a certain distance from the reference edge.

Abstract: An apparatus for holding tubular goods for stitching at the station of a sewing machine has a support adjacent the sewing station, a drive for rotating the support about a horizontal support axis, and at least three arcuate segment plates displaceable radially of the support axis on the support and together forming a segmented drum centered on the axis. The plates are displaceable between inner positions defining a circumference smaller than that of the smallest tubular goods to be sewn and outer positions defining a circumference larger than that of the largest tubular goods to be sewn. The plates can be radially spread on the support to change the diameter of the drum. Thus when a tubular workpiece is fitted over the drum it is tensioned thereover. The support can also be displaced vertically adjacent the station to align the uppermost segment plate generally with the stitch plate.

Abstract: A fabric feed for a sewing machine has a feed foot and a holddown foot that are vertically oppositely reciprocable between upper positions and lower fabric-engaging positions, and a continuously operating rotary drive with a rotating output whose rotary motion is transformed by an appropriate linkage into alternating reciprocation of the feed foot and the holddown foot. The feet are alternately engaged with and disengaged from fabric in the fabric-engaging position. On moving downwardly from their upper into their lower positions the feet are each first accelerated to a maximum speed reached when approximately midway between the upper and lower positions and thereafter are decelerated to an intermediate speed lying between zero and seven-tenths of the maximum speed reached when they attain the lower fabric-engaging position.

Abstract: A workpiece transporter for a sewing machine comprises an endless conveyor belt looped around a driving sheave and several deflecting rollers, the latter including a first and a second roller carried on the free ends of respective spring-loaded levers placing that belt only under a moderate tension. The first deflecting roller is closely juxtaposed with the upstream side of the driving sheave, its axis defining with that of the sheave and with the fulcrum of its lever an obtuse triangle whose vertex angle increases as that roller approaches the sheave when an obstacle retards the belt motion, such approach clamping the belt more tightly between the roller and the sheave for firmer entrainment.

Abstract: A buttonhole machine has a vertically reciprocal needle, a horizontally displaceable material support plate, a rotary stitch plate below the needle, mechanism for feeding a lower thread up through the stitch plate, clamps for holding material on the material plate at the stitch plate, and a drive for rotating the stitch plate in one rotational sense, simultaneously displacing the material plate, and reciprocating the needle to form a buttonhole in the fabric and for rotating it in an opposite return rotational sense after formation of the buttonhole. Such a machine also feeds an upper thread down through the needle to the stitching location and also normally lays a thick cording thread into the buttonhole to reinforce it. This machine is equipped with a feed arm carried by and jointly rotatable with the stitch plate, engaging the lower thread, and pivotal for freeing a length of the lower thread and feeding same to the stitch plate.

Abstract: A coupling device for so-called power and free handling conveyors wherein, for example, a carrier is displaceable along the track and can be coupled to or decoupled from a drive chain by the coupling device. According to the invention, the coupling device comprises a pair of jaws swingably mounted upon a common pivot extending parallel to the track of travel and provided with ramps or camming surfaces designed to spread these jaws to release a carrier or to enable the jaws to engage the carrier. The pivot is provided with an abutment limiting the swinging displacement of the jaws.

Abstract: A thread guide is used in combination with a standard sewing machine having a work table and a fabric feed for displacing a workpiece to be sewn on the table in a predetermined forward longitudinal direction through a sewing station on the table. The fabric guide comprises a transversely elastically deformable band extending generally in the workpiece-displacement direction and oriented on edge and holders engaging the band at a plurality of longitudinally offset locations for securing the band on the table with each of the locations in any of a multiplicity of transversely offset positions. Thus the band can be deformed into and held in a nonstraight shape. The guide further has a carriage displaceable on the table along the guide and provided with a clip fastenable on the workpiece, and a counterweight urging the carriage and clip longitudinally in a backward longitudinal direction opposite the forward longitudinal direction.

Abstract: A sewing machine with a presettable counter for sewing a predetermined number of stitches to the end of a stitch seam. According to the invention the counter is provided with a correction unit responsive to at least two sectors of a rotary machine member, each revolution of which corresponds to the sewing of a stitch of normal length. A sensor is responsive to the different sectors and, upon detection of one of these sectors, produces a signal which an evaluating unit can pass to a count resetting unit to set back the stitch counter by one stitch unit. As a consequence, the overrun or underrun of the stitch seam is at most one half of the normal length of a stitch.

Abstract: In a double-needle lock-stitch sewing machine, an assembly for arresting threads being drawn from the needles by an uptake stroke of a thread lever, thereby ensuring predetermined lengths of thread at the needles for an ensuing stitch, comprises a spring-loaded clamp disposed between the sewing lever and the needles. The clamp is periodically actuatable via a system of levers in the sewing-machine head by a cam mounted on the sewing-machine base and cooperating with a radial lug on a shaft driving a rotary thread gripper and bobbin holder. A spring-loaded plate engaging a pair of thread-tension control disks is pivotable by the lever system to release the disks upon actuation of the clamp. The clamp is particularly useful in controlling the length of a leading thread portion prior to beginning a sewing seam.

Abstract: A fabric workpiece fed along the worktable of a sewing machine by the intermittent movement of the fabric-advance dogs operating through openings in the worktable, is also engaged by an intermittently rotated feed wheel above the worktable. The stepwise rotary movement, whose stepping angle can be varied in a stepless manner, is imparted to the wheel by the output element of a planetary-gear transmission, one input of which is connected to a stepless transmission while the other input is connected to a crank drive with a steplessly variable output-oscillation angle establishing a dwell period.