Abstract: A looper apparatus for a multiple needle tufting machine including a looper support member having a transverse hook bar for supporting a plurality of looper hooks for a cooperation with the reciprocable needles in the tufting machine and an elongated guide member reciprocably supported in linear bearings to restrict the motion of the looper hooks in a straight linear direction substantially parallel to the feeding direction to the base fabric, and a drive mechanism pivotally connected to hook support member for reciprocably driving the support member in a linear path. A stub shaft with thrust bearing is mounted at one end of the tufting machine and connected by a curved rocker arm to an end of the hook bar to offset knife pressure placed against the hooks and communicated to the hook bar.

Abstract: A looper apparatus for a multiple tufting machine including a looper support member having a transverse hook bar for supporting a plurality of looper hooks for cooperation with the reciprocable needles in the tufting machine and an elongated guide member reciprocably supported in linear bearings to restrict the motion of the looper hooks to a straight linear direction substantially parallel to the feeding direction of the base fabric, and a drive mechanism pivotally connected to hook support member for reciprocably driving the support member in a linear path.

Abstract: A tufting machine has alternate needles extending different lengths from the needle bar to respectively cooperate with hooks set at two different levels in the bed of the machine. Knives act with each hook to cut at least selective loops. The knives are mounted in knife blocks in pairs with each pair cooperating with a pair of adjacent hooks. Each knife block has a pair of knife receiving channels on opposite sides of a central web connecting a pair of elongated flanges. The flanges on one side of the web are stepped relatively to that on the other side by an amount substantially equal to the difference in levels between adjacent hooks and the channels are spaced closer together than the corresponding hooks so that both knives extend the same distance from the respective channel to engage the respective hook at the same location with substantially equal pressure.

Abstract: A tufting machine bed having an oscillating looper assembly in which the oscillating mass is counter-balanced by mechanism including a weight which oscillates about a pivot point in the bed in a direction opposite to that of the looper assembly. The oscillatory motion of the counter-balancing assembly is derived from the same oscillating shaft that drives the looper assembly.

Abstract: A yarn feed roller assembly for tufting machine pattern attachments for controlling the amount of yarn supplied to the needles of the tufting machine in accordance with a pattern. The assembly includes a plurality of parallel modules each of which comprises a housing mounting a shaft on which a plurality of clutch members and respective drive members are mounted within the housing. A yarn feed roller is secured to one end of the shaft which extends outside the module housing. Means are provided to drive each drive member of the module at a different speed, corresponding drive members of all the modules being drivingly connected to one another. The clutches are selectively energized to transmit the speed of a selected drive member to the shaft and thereby to the roller. All the module housings are mounted in cantilevered fashion on a frame and each may be individually readily removed for maintenance.