Patents by Inventor Bernhard Mertel

Bernhard Mertel has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 5350127
    Abstract: A process and device for monitoring the bobbin thread on stitch-forming machines, on the bobbin of which a residual amount of thread is wound in a winding direction opposite the direction of winding of the principal amount of thread, is to ensure that a first control function will be generated at the beginning of consumption of the residual amount of thread, and a second control function is generated nearly without delay in the case of thread end or thread break. To achieve this, two signal patterns are received with a phase shift from a bobbin acting as a signal generator, and the first signal function is generated in the case of a deviation of the actual phase shift from the desired phase shift. If only one signal pattern is received, this first control function is also generated if its signal sequence deviates from a reference signal sequence. The second control function is generated if a stoppage of the bobbin lasts longer than a predeterminable number of stitches.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 1993
    Date of Patent: September 27, 1994
    Assignee: G.M. Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Kurt Arnold, Wolfgang Hauck, Reiner Klein, Bernhard Mertel, Karl-Heinz Walther, Horst Zinssmeister
  • Patent number: 5271345
    Abstract: To scan the material being sewn (30, 31) in a sewing machine in an annular area around the presser foot, an annular lens system (25) is provided, which images a circle (33) concentrically surrounding the presser foot in the plane (A) of the material being sewn onto the light inlet ends of a likewise annularly arranged plurality of optical fibers (26). The optical fibers (26) lead, in an individual assignment, to the individual light-receiving elements of a photoelectric sensor line of a line camera, which sensor line can be read cyclically.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 17, 1992
    Date of Patent: December 21, 1993
    Assignee: G.M. Pfaff Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Bernd Matschulat, Robert Massen, Bernhard Mertel
  • Patent number: 5267518
    Abstract: A process and device for monitoring the bobbin thread on stitch-forming machines, on the bobbin of which a residual amount of thread is wound in a winding direction opposite the direction of winding of the principal amount of thread, is to ensure that a first control function will be generated at the beginning of consumption of the residual amount of thread, and a second control function is generated nearly without delay in the case of thread end or thread break. To achieve this, two signal patterns are received with a phase shift from a bobbin acting as a signal generator, and the first signal function is generated in the case of a deviation of the actual phase shift from the desired phase shift. If only one signal pattern is received, this first control function is also generated if its signal sequence deviates from a reference signal sequence. The second control function is generated if a stoppage of the bobbin lasts longer than a predeterminable number of stitches.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 21, 1992
    Date of Patent: December 7, 1993
    Assignee: G. M. Pfaff Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Kurt Arnold, Wolfgang Hauck, Reiner Klein, Bernhard Mertel, Karl-Heinz Walther, Horst Zinssmeister
  • Patent number: 5237944
    Abstract: A stitch forming machine is provided including a transducer for determining the tension present in a thread, wherein the thread tension assumes a higher value during stitch formation and the transducer provides a signal representing the tension level. The control is provided for evaluating the signal corresponding to the tension level. The control includes a comparator device for comparing a peak of the signal representing the tension level, which peak can be used to detect a malfunction, with a limit signal, corresponding to a limit tension. The comparator sends a signal to a switching device when a signal peak drops below the limit signal. The switching device may be connected to a shut-off device of the drive motor of the machine as well as one or more display elements. In this way, the machine may be stopped and the display element associated with a limit tension, below which the tension dropped by a switching device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 1991
    Date of Patent: August 24, 1993
    Assignee: G. M. Pfaff Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Erich Willenbacher, Bernhard Mertel, Rainer Spickermann, Walter Sinn
  • Patent number: 5027730
    Abstract: Thread monitor for monitoring double lock stitch shuttles or hooks and chain stitch machine shuttles or loopers. During normal operation of the sewing machine, the shuttle thread is used as a reflection surface. The scattered light beams reflected by the thread enter photodetector 10 of the thread monitor 8. If the support surface 7, 28 is covered by thread, light beams will reach said photodetector 10, as a result of which a control circuit 12 connected to it issues a warning signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 1989
    Date of Patent: July 2, 1991
    Assignee: Pfaff Industriemaschinen GmbH
    Inventors: Reinhold Dobner, Bernhard Mertel, Erich Willenbacher
  • Patent number: 4968018
    Abstract: The invention relates to a device for separating, delivering, and depositing material blanks, for use in the textile industry or the like which improves heat transfer to the gripping surface in a device in which the heating device is arranged in such a way that it is protected from external forces. The device comprises a heatable gripping plate, which has a gripping surface and an expansion chamber adjacent thereto, in which a refrigerant is able to expand and thus cool the gripping plate to below the freezing point so that a material blank will freeze onto said gripping surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 18, 1989
    Date of Patent: November 6, 1990
    Assignee: Pfaff Industriemaschinen GmbH
    Inventors: Klaus Hoehne, Bernhard Mertel, Erich Willenbacher
  • Patent number: 4805544
    Abstract: A sewing machine having a thread monitor associated with a bobbin mounted for rotation. The bobbin includes first and second reflecting surfaces associated with an inner side of a second bobbin flange, and first and second light outlet openings associated with a second bobbin flange. A light source is provided for directing light toward the reflecting surfaces. A light receiver is positioned so as to receive light emerging from the first and second outlet opening. The light receiver produces signals representing the light intensity received by the light receiver. A Schmitt trigger provides a pulse to a microprocessor coinciding with a revolution of the bobbin. For each revolution of the bobbin, an A/D converter converts signals received from the light receiver into digital signals which are compared. The digital signal having the maximum value for the revolution is stored in a memory and then compared with a subsequent maximum value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 1988
    Date of Patent: February 21, 1989
    Assignee: Pfaff Industriemaschinen GmbH
    Inventors: Reinhold Dobner, Bernhard Mertel, Erich Willenbacher
  • Patent number: 4732098
    Abstract: A sewing machine with a lockstitch rotary hook containing a bobbin, has a thread monitor with which light signals of a radiation source are conducted to a light receiver via inlet and outlet openings in parts of the rotary hook and in at least one of the flanges of the bobbin. For determination of a predeterminable thread and length, the hub which connects the flanges of the bobbin comprises a truncated cone-shaped region, in the surface of which the outlet opening extending substantially parallel to the axis of the hub ends.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 1986
    Date of Patent: March 22, 1988
    Assignee: Pfaff Industriemaschinenen GmbH
    Inventors: Bernhard Mertel, Erich Willenbacher