US2755757A - Needle carriers - Google Patents

Description

United States atent NEEDLE CARRIERS Bernard N. Pierce, West Hartford, Conn., assignor to The Merrow Machine Company, Hartford, onn., a corporation of Connecticut Application June 9, 1953, Serial No. 360,495

1 Claim. (Cl. 112-256) This invention relates to sewing machines, and more particularly to needle carriers for sewing machines.

In certain overseaming machines, a curved eye-pointed needle is oscillated to follow an arcuate path extending above and below a needle plate for cooperation with looper elements in the formation of overedge stitches. Sewing machines of this type are operated at high rates of speed and it is important that bearing surfaces of the needle carrier and of the pivotal support for the carrier be kept lubricated continuously with a film of oil therebetween. During operation of such a machine, vibration and centrifugal forces cause a slight flow of oil to be diverted from the bearing surfaces, this diverted oil tending to accumulate on the outer face and adjacent areas of the needle carrier in sutficient quantity to be thrown onto the work material a it is fed over the work support and the needle plate therebelow. A partial solution of this troublesome problem is disclosed in my Patent No. 2,549,232, issued April 17, 1951, and assigned to the same assignee as the present application.

It is an object of this invention to provide an arrangement which will more completely prevent discharge of oil from a needle carrier onto work material or over portions of the machine frame where presence of oil would be detrimental.

In the attainment of this objective, one feature of this invention resides in the arrangement of a fin extending from the peripheral surface of a pivotally supported hub of a needle carrier to collect and divert oil moving toward the exterior surface of the hub after seeping from sources to which it is supplied for desired lubrication. This fin extends from a peripheral portion of the needle carrier hub below the axis about which the needle carrier oscillates and diverges from the axis toward the machine frame. Thus gravity, when the carrier is at rest, and/or centrifugal force, when the carrier oscillates at high speed, cause the oil to flow and collect upon the fin. The outer or distal edge of the fin is inclined to the axis of movement of the needle carrier with the end of the fin most distant from the axis substantially contiguous to a stationary surface of the machine frame. From this end of the fin most remote from the carrier axis oil is discharged upon a portion of the machine frame where it is not detrimental.

The features of this invention which I believe to be novel are set forth with particularity in the appended claim. My invention itself, however, both as to its organization and use, together with further objects and advantages thereof, may best be understood by reference to the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which:

Fig. 1 is a front view, partly in section, of a needle carrier embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a view in section along line 22 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the needle carrier and of the parts by which it is actuated, as seen from the left in Fig. 1; and

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 3 but with the needle and carrier in a position at the opposite extreme of its range of movement to that shown in the view of Fig. 3.

Referring to the drawing, certain of the machine elements shown are characteristic of an overseaming machine of the well-known Merrow type such as illustrated in the above-identified United States patent. The curved eye-pointed needle 1 in this type of sewing machine is held for oscillatory movement in a carrier 4 having a hub 5 and a web portion 6 at the outer end of the hub, the latter being provided with a tapered bearing hole 7. Web 6 merges into an arm 8 from which, on the hub side of the web, a stud 9 extends, and at a free extremity of the Web a head 10 extends oppositely, somewhat beyond the plane of the outer web surface 11. Head 10 is provided with a stud 12 to receive thereon a washer 13, which is keyed to the head as at 14 to prevent relative turning movement. A nut 15 is threaded on stud 12 and serves to urge clamp or washer 13 toward head 10 to secure therebetween the needle shank 16 which passes through a hole in stud 12. Stud 9, on the short arm 8 of the needle carrier, receives a link connection 19 which is associated with carrier actuating mechanism hereinafter described.

Serving to pivotally support carrier 4, is a screw threaded stud 20 having a slotted head 21 which is longitudinally tapered to correspond to the taper of hole 7 in said carrier. With the wall of hole 7 engaged by stud 20, the latter may be screwed into machine frame 22 until the inner end surface of hub 5 is brought into engagement with frame surface 23 to thereby establish bearing fit between respective tapered surfaces of the stud and carrier. Proper adjustment of stud 20 may be secured in desired precise relation by set screw 24 (see Fig. 2). The bearing surface of head 21 of stud 20 is of a length that is shorter than hole 7 for the purpose of leaving within the outer end of hole 7, a space or recess 25. A channel or duct 17 is formed in the outer face of carrier 4 and intersects the wall of tapered hole 7 and the peripheral surface of web 6 in proximity to where the latter projects as a rib 18 only slightly beyond the similar surface of hub 5. Duct 17 forms an exit through which oil exuded from between the pivotal bearing surfaces may escape and be harmlessly disposed of as will presently appear.

Mechanism for actuating the needle carrier 4 includes a driven shaft 26 having a head 27 journaled in machine frame 22. A stud 28 eccentrically disposed on head 27 is coupled by link 19 with stud 9 on carrier 4. Thus, rotation of shaft 26 moves link 19 so that the needle carrier is oscillated about its pivotal axis to move the needle in the arcuate path which it travels in making successive penetrations of work as W supported on needle plate 29 and work support 30 (Fig. 1). Extreme positions of the needle carrier in its range of movement in this arcuate path are shown respectively in Figs. 3 and 4.

For lubricating the several bearing surfaces indicated in the above description, oil may be applied through hole 31 (Fig. 1). From this source oil traversing the bearing of shaft head 27 and passing through a channel 32 in face 23 of machine frame 22 is delivered to the bearing surface between carrier 4 and its supporting stud 20 whence it passes outwardly into the recess 25 formed by the wall of hole 7 at the end of the bearing surface of the stud 20. Oil in this recess under the effect of gravity tends to flow downwardly toward channel or duct 17. This oil is also acted upon by centrifugal force created by movement of carrier 4, and is therefore expelled through channel 17, or in other words, diverted from moving out onto the outer lateral face of said carrier where it is objectionable for the reason already stated.

To bring about desirable disposal of oil moving from channel 17, whether the oil is affected predominately by centrifugal force, as when the carrier oscillates at high speed, or by gravity, as when the carrier is at rest, fin 35, formed integrally with or suitably secured as by brazing 35 to the carrier hub 5, serves as an effective oil collector. This fin 35 preferably extends along hubS from adjacent the machine frame 22 to slightly beyond the outer face 11 of web 6. The distal edge 36 of fin 35 in its longitudinal extent is inclined with respect to the pivotal axis of carrier 4, with the direction of inclination toward the machine frame surface 23 divergent to said axis. Thus whether the carrier is in motion or at rest oil accumulated on fin 35 moves to the end of the fin that is most distant from the axis of motion of the carrier and from thence is transferred to a surface of the machine frame where it is not detrimental.

While most of the .oil passing through channel 17 is removed from the carrier by fin 35, a small amount goes onto that portion of the perimeter of web 6 that is between fin 3S and arm 8. This trace of oil under the influence of centrifugal force moves onto arm 8 where it is utilized to lubricate the pivotal connection between stud 9 and link 19 and better to effect this purpose the outer edge of arm 8 is beveled as at 37; that is, an inclined surface is formed at the base of stud 9 and extended toward the base of the arm into proximity with channel 17. Oil thus delivered to the periphery of arm 8 and subjected to centrifugal force when the carrier is oscillated, is prevented from moving beyond arm 8 toward needle carrying head 10 by virtue of the projection of arm 8 beyond the perimetric surface 38 which leads to head 10.

While the needle carrier herein shown and described is provided with a hollow hub and supported on a stationary stud, it is distinctly to be understood that the conception of applying an oil diverting fin to the peripheral surface of a needle carrier is susceptable of similarapplicationto a needle carrier which forms an outer terminal portion of a rock shaft suitable for support in a bearing or bearings of a machine frame. The present invention therefore is not limited to the exact details herein shown and described and the principles involved may be applied in other mechanisms without departure from the scope of the invention as defined by the appendedclairn.

Having thus described my invention, What I clairn is;

In a sewing machine, a support, a stud projecting horizontally outwardly from said support, a needle carrier member having a hub and a web portion extending from said hub, said hub being formed with a hole having a bearing fit on said stud to thereby pivotally mount said carrier on said support for movement about the horizontal axi of said stud, said hub extending outwardly from said support beyond the outer end of said stud to provide an oil collecting recess at the outer .end of said stud, said carrier being formed with a duct extending from said recess to the outer periphery of said carrier, and a fin at the outer periphery of said hub below said horizontal axis adjacent the outlet of said duct and extending longitudinally of said hub, the distal edge of said fin being inclined with respect to said axis so as to direct oil on the fin toward the surface of said support.

References Cited in the file of this patent I UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,27 8,973

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