Abstract: A cut pile tufting machine having a knife holder assembly. The knife holder assembly includes a knife bar bracket carrying a vertically adjustable knife bar slotted along its side. A tongue of an upstanding knife holder bracket is clamped in the slot and a knife holder is carried by the upstanding bracket. Spaced parallel slots, angled from the plane of the knife holder and angled from the plane of the loopers, carry knives which cut the loops of the yarn on the loopers.

Abstract: A yarn feed mechanism in which a counterlever frame extends forwardly from the tufting machine has high speed and low speed drive shafts driven, in synchronization, with the needle bar. Transversely aligned pairs of yarn feed rolls are suspended from the frame below each shaft and are driven through chains and sprockets from their associated drive shafts when the individual clutches of the rolls are energized. The rolls of transversely aligned pairs of rolls are spaced from each other with no intervening shaft so that intermediate portions of yarns extending between a coil and the rollers can be installed partially around the selected rolls without breaking or removing the yarns from the needles.

Abstract: A group of knives for a cut pile tufting machine are preassembled in a knife holder carried by a bracket, as the bracket is held in a jig. the bracket is then removed from the jig and inserted into one of a plurality of transverse parallel angling slots in a carrier member of the machine, the knives and bracket being moved in a linear path until a stop on the bracket engages the carrier member to indicate that the knives are in proper position for cutting action with respect to this loopers.

Abstract: The head of a tufting machine frame journals a plurality of transversely spaced push rods, the lower end of which carries a needle bar and its needles. The upper end of each push rod has an individual drive assembly which includes a sidewise extending drive pin pivotally connected to a connecting rod reciprocated by an eccentrically mounted pivot pin protruding from the face of a crank member which is removeably mounted on a driven wheel carried by a stub shaft. A timing belt, connected over the driven sprocket, is itself driven by one of a plurality of drive wheels on a main drive shaft.

Abstract: A laterally shiftable needle bar of a tufting machine, carrying a plurality of laterally spaced needles, is reciprocated in a vertical path for simultaneously inserting loops of yarn, carried by the needles, through a base fabric, the fabric being fed in a linear longitudinal path beneath the needles. Each needle has an individual looper below the base fabric, in registery and cooperating with the needle for engaging and temporarily holding the loop of yarn, inserted by the needle through the base fabric, as the needle is retracted.During a first portion of a cycle of the needle bar, prior to the insertion of the needles through the base fabric, a needle bar shifting assembly shifts the needle bar laterally, in one direction or the other.

Abstract: A laterally shiftable needle bar of a tufting machine, carrying a plurality of laterally spaced needles, is reciprocated in a vertical path for simultaneously inserting loops of yarn, carried by the needles, through a base fabric, the fabric being fed in a linear longitudinal path beneath the needles. Each needle has an individual looper below the base fabric, in registery and cooperating with the needle for engaging and temporarily holding the loop of yarn, inserted by the needle through the base fabric, as the needle is retracted.During a first portion of a cycle of the needle bar, prior to the insertion of the needles through the base fabric, a needle bar shifting assembly shifts the needle bar laterally, in one direction or the other.

Abstract: A group of knives for a cut pile tufting machine are preassembled in a knife holder carried by a bracket, as the bracket is held in a jig. The bracket is then removed from the jig and inserted into one of a plurality of transverse parallel angling slots in a carrier member of the machine, the knives and bracket being moved in a linear path until a stop on the bracket engages the carrier member to indicate that the knives are in proper position for cutting action with respect to their loopers.

Abstract: A conventional tufting machine is provided with a looper control cam which enables the machine to avoid tagging and sew through. The cam reciprocates loopers which face in the direction of movement of the backing material. Each looper moves beyond the needle as the needle descends, so that the looper bill tip is held beyond the needle as it passes along one side of the loops, then the looper is reciprocated to catch the loop before the needle is retracted.

Abstract: The head of a tufting machine frame journals a plurality of transversely spaced push rods, the lower end of which carries a needle bar and its needles. The upper end of each push rod has an individual drive assembly which includes a sidewise extending drive pin pivotally connected to a connecting rod reciprocated by an eccentrically mounted pivot pin protruding from the face of a crank member which is removeably mounted on a driven wheel carried by a stub shaft. A timing belt, connected over the driven sprocket, is itself driven by one of a plurality of drive wheels on a main drive shaft.

Abstract: A conventional tufting machine is provided with a looper control cam which enables it to sew chain stitched tufts. The cam reciprocates loopers which face in a direction opposite to the direction of movement of the backing material, the looper being reciprocated once for each reciprocation of the needle. Each looper catches and holds the bight of the loop being sewn during the period of maximum penetration by the needle and then moves the bight of that loop beyond the needle so that the needle sews the next loop through the held loop, the looper releasing the held loop and catching the inserted loop, thereafter.

Abstract: A laterally shiftable needle bar of a tufting machine, carrying a plurality of laterally spaced needles, is reciprocated in a vertical path for simultaneously inserting loops of yarn, carried by the needles, through a base fabric, the fabric being fed in a linear longitudinal path beneath the needles. Each needle has an individual looper below the base fabric, in registery and cooperating with the needle for engaging and temporarily holding the loop of yarn, inserted by the needle through the base fabric, as the needle is retracted.During a first portion of a cycle of the needle bar, prior to the insertion of the needles through the base fabric, a needle bar shifting assembly shifts the needle bar laterally, in one direction or the other.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for forming a longitudinal row of stitching in a base fabric with a reciprocal needle and cooperating looper, in which the looper is driven through two or more strokes for each stroke of the needle in a stitch cycle. In the preferred form of the invention, the looper points in the opposite direction from the longitudinal direction of movement of the base fabric, for the formation of either loop pile or cut pile stitching. When loop pile is formed, the stitching results in a chain stitch.

Abstract: A tufting machine having a pair of transversely shiftable needle bars and pattern-controlled discrete actuator means for independently shifting each of said needle bars in accordance with predetermined patterns.

Abstract: A looper apparatus for a narrow gauge, multiple-needle tufting machine including transversely spaced loopers or hooks having spring clips or looper clips attached thereto and cooperating with knives to form cut pile and loop pile in the same row of stitching, in cooperation with a controlled yarn feed, in which the spring clips span or extend over the cutting zone of the hooks, so that each spring clip will not interfere with the adjacent knife of an adjacent hook.

Abstract: The method and apparatus for stitching yarn continuously through a base fabric to initially form loops therein, cutting each loop to form a leading strand and a trailing strand, and selectively back-drawing the trailing strand after it is cut, to form J-tuft pile.

Abstract: A multiple needle tufting machine in which the needles are arranged in at least two transverse rows and including first and second sets of cut pile hooks and knives cooperating to form cut pile. Both sets of cut pile hooks may be mounted in the same hook bar so that the throats of the hooks and the knives are substantially transversely aligned. The bills of the second set of hooks are longer than the bills of the first set of hooks, preferably in an amount equal to the longitudinal spacing between the transverse rows of needles, for cooperation with the needles in the respective transverse rows.

Abstract: A multiple needle skip-stitch tufting machine in which each needle bar is provided with a needle foot member supporting a pair of needles. Each foot member includes a pair of arms, each arm supporting a needle in such a manner that the arms of the foot member of one needle bar interdigitate with the arms of the foot member of an adjacent needle bar to provide a relatively narrow gauge machine in which the skip-stitching is formed in pairs of tufted rows, and a row in one pair may be stitched between an adjacent pair of rows.