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United States Patent (19) 11 Patent Number: 5,007,253 Rahner 45) Date of Patent: Apr

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United States Patent (19) 11 Patent Number: 5,007,253 Rahner 45) Date of Patent: Apr United States Patent (19) 11 Patent Number: 5,007,253 Rahner 45) Date of Patent: Apr. 16, 1991 54) PORTABLE LACE CLIPPING AND SHEARING APPARATUS FOR FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS SYNCHRONOUS OPERATION WITH A 226351 3/1963 Austria .............................. 66/149 R LACE-KNITTING MACHINE 63121 1/1941 Norway ............................ 66/49 R 2019162 10/1979 United Kingdom ............. 66/149 R 76) Inventor: Thomas Rahner, 1126 17th Ave., Primary Examiner-Wm. Carter Reynolds West Belmar, N.J. 07719 Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Ostrolenk, Faber, Gerb & Soffen Appl. No.: 306,947 21 57 ABSTRACT 22 Filed: Feb. 6, 1989 A portable clipping and shearing apparatus for clipping and shearing float from lace sheet. The apparatus is mechanically coupled to the lace-knitting machine and Related U.S. Application Data is adapted to take up the sheet directly as it emerges 63 Continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 173,079, Mar. 25, from the lace-knitting machine to clip and shear the 1988, abandoned. float forthwith. Consequently, trimmed lace sheet flows out of the portable device of the present invention, 51 int.C.'........................................ ...... D04B 35/00 avoiding costly multiple handling of the lace sheet. The (52) U.S. C. ..................................... 66/149 R; 66/147 portable clipping and shearing apparatus is provided 58) Field of Search ............................... 66/147; 26/15 with a synchronization mechanism that synchronizes its processing speed to that of the lace-knitting machine. (56) References Cite As the portable shearing and clipping apparatus is U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS adapted for the relatively slow lace making machine, the device of the presentivnention is small enough to be l,532,989 4/1925 Gordier ................................... 26/12 3,105,284 10/1963 Krug ................................... 26/12 X easily transported to the location of a warp knitting 3,327,366 6/1967 Holm ...... ... 26/15 R machine, simple in construction, and more commonly 3,390,603 7/1968 Graichen.... ... 139/29 X affordable. 3,727,433 4/1973 Hamano ................................ 66/147 4,551,995 ll/1985 Louison ................................ 66/147 10 Claims, 3 Drawing Sheets U.S. Patent Apr. 16, 1991 Sheet 1 of 3 5,007,253 U.S. Patent Apr. 16, 1991 Sheet 2 of 3 5,007,253 -’9|9 U.S. Patent Apr. 16, 1991 Sheet 3 of 3 5,007,253 s 5,007,253 1. 2 tion of such machinery. Because of their complex de PORTABLE LACE CLIPPING AND SHEARNG sign these apparatus must be assembled and perma APPARATUS FOR SYNCHRONOUS OPERATION nently or semipermanently mounted to a lace machine WTH A LACE-KNITTING MACHINE to create an operable relationship between themselves, the lace sheet and the lace machine. These fixed ma BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION chines are also cumbersome and make repairs of dam The present invention is a continuation-in-part of ages on the lace sheet awkward, as well as repairs to application Ser. No. 07/173,079, filed March 25, 1988, lace machines. Furthermore, the previous art, because now abandoned. of its fixed attached nature, does not allow for flexibility The present invention is related to a clipping and 10 in moving of a clipping and shearing apparatus from one shearing machine for removing from bobbinet and simi lace machine to another. The importance of this flexibil lar fabric such as lace, the loose threads, called "clips' ity is paramount to the novelty of this invention. or "floats', which bridge the lace's motives (designs) to Because frequent pattern changes are made on lace one another. machines according to market demand, a mill operator In the lace making art, warp knitting machines are 15 cannot always pick which machine a clip lace pattern employed to form repeating patterns of lace designs in a will go on. Under the present scope of the prior art this web-like fabric which is knitted simultaneously as motif. leaves the mill operator with two poor choices. Firstly, The knitted fabric which features the lace thereon he can disassemble and reassemble an apparatus on a emerges from the machine in certain standard widths lace machine each time a new clip pattern needs it. This and is rolled up on a roll. The final lace pattern consists 20 would result in 24 to 72 hours downtime and extensive of discreet, unconnected motives (flowers or other labor costs. Secondly, he can outfit his entire mill of adornments). However, because it is most practical to lace machines with the fixed apparatus resulting in ex use continuous thread in the lace knitting process, the cessively impractical outlay of capital. lace emerges with the discreet motives connected by loose bobbin threads which connect the motives to one 25 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION another and which must be removed from the fabric. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention Conventional wisdom in the art of lace making has to provide a simpler clipping and shearing machine been to process the clip lace, after it emerges from the having the attribute of being more commonly afford lace making machine, in special, very high speed and able. expensive clipping and shearing machines which first 30 cut each connecting thread into two strands which are It is another object of the present invention to pro thereafter sheared from the material close to the mo vide a portable, self contained clipping and shearing tives. apparatus allowing flexibility of movement from one The lace making process is relatively slow and the machine to another. myriad of possible patterns and applications has 35 It is a third object of the present invention to provide spawned numerous specialty lace making shops. An a clipping and shearing apparatus which can be quickly average lace mill may have 20 to 30 lace making ma and easily attached and synchronized with a lace ma chines and typically may run one third to one half of the chine. machines on clip lace patterns, depending on market It is a further object of the present invention to pro demand, as well as the type of machines in the shop. vide a self contained clipping and shearing apparatus Accordingly, it has been customary for small lace mak which will provide easier access when repairing dam ing shop owners to subcontract the clipping and shear ages on the lace cloth while it is still on the lace ma ing aspect of their work to specialty houses which can chine. justify the large investment in the high-speed shearing It is another object of the clipping and shearing ma and clipping machines. 45 chine to be powered by the lace machine through two The present industry practice has resulted in a bottle chains connecting the take up mechanism and the clip neck wherein the small operators must postpone final ping and shearing mechanisms to the take up roller and delivery of their product pending the routing of their the main shaft of the lace machine. work product through the clipping and shearing pro In realization of the foregoing and other objects, the cessors. These small specialty shops cannot justify the 50 present invention provides a portable clipping and large investment in the high-speed shearing and clip shearing machine for finishing lace sheets produced by ping machines. w a lace machine. A take up roller, in the portable ma Clipping and shearing machines for handling lace are chine, receives the lace sheet as it emerges from the lace old. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 361,563 dating back to machine and directs it to a clipping mechanism at which - 1887 discloses a machine for clipping lace, i.e. cutting 55 time each float on the lace sheet is cut into two dangling each float into two strands. Machines for shearing the strands. loose threads or strands created by the clipping opera The lace sheet then travels to a shearing mechanism tion are described for example in U.S. Pat. No. which shears the strands off the lace sheet, close to the 2,747,534 to Piper et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 3,327,366 to surface of the motives from which the strands dangle. Holm. To enable the portable clipping and shearing machine to operate in tandem with the lace knitting machine, the PREVIOUS ART lace sheet processing speed of the clipping and shearing Other machines have attempted to deal with clipping machine is synchronized to the speed at which the lace lace patterns by attaching clipping and shearing appara sheet emerges from the lace machine. tus to lace machines but all the prior art dealing with 65 Other features and advantages of the present inven apparatus attached to the lace machine share one major tion will become apparent from the following descrip fault, namely, complexity of design, installation and tion of preferred embodiments thereof which are pres operation which severely limits the practical applica ented below in relation to the appended drawings. 5,007,253 3 4. at a speed that will result in the taking up of lace sheet BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 10 at the speed at which it is supplied from knitting FIG. 1 depicts a section of lace having a plurality of machine 20. motives interconnected by floats. Next, lace sheet 10 passes through an arrangement of FIG. 2 illustrates, perspectively, a preferred embodi direction and tension rollers 30, which readjust the ment of a portable and synchronized shearing and clip tension on lace sheet 10 and orient floats 16 as shown. ping apparatus in accordance with the present inven A first redirection roller 32 changes the orientation of tO. lace sheet 10 such that floats 16 face up and toward FIG. 3 shows the cutting blades of the clipping sec clipping apparatus 34.
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