US2972671A - Cloth marker - Google Patents

Description

W. R. TRUITT Feb. 21, 1961 CLOTH MARKER 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed March 24, 1958 INVENTOR/I W.R. TRUITT Feb. 21, 1961 Filed March 24, 1958 W. R. TRUITT CLOTH MARKER 2 Sheets-Sheqt 2 United States PatentO CLOTH MARKER William R. Truitt, P.0. Box 366, Bremen, Ga. Filed Mar. 24, 1953, Ser. No. 723,270

Claims. 01. 219-29 This invention relates to marking devices and more particularly to a cloth marker to be used by garment manufacturers.

In the clothing industry, except for the final assembly of the individual segments of a garment, each production machine usually operates on a pile or stack of material consisting of superimposed plies of fabric. Often it is necessary to mark the pile before it can be sent to the next machine. 'When the cutter, for example, receives a pile, there must be some type of marking thereon which will indicate where he must make the necessary cuts. Many other operators along the production line look for particular marks on each pile which indicate where button-holes, seams or hems are to be made.

Several types of cloth markers have been developed for use by the garment manufacturers. One such device consists of a hollow needle which is plunged into the pile, and upon withdrawal deposits a vivid dye on each layer of fabric. Such a machine is expensive, must be supplied with expendable dye, and requires considerable maintenance to keep the needle and the dye hose lines clear.

Another method consists of cutting small slits or notches in the edge of the pile with a cutting assembly. This machine must necessarily be heavy and usually is fixed rigidly to a permanent base.

Even the method of marking with a pencil is still used to some extent, with the resultant markings being inaccurate, difiicult to locate and often obliterated prior to serving their purpose.

The present invention overcomes the objections and disadvantages incident to prior cloth markers by providing a cloth marker that is compact, lightweight, relatively inexpensive and utilizes a heat marking element designed to produce clean, easily visible marks.

Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a cloth'marking device of the electrically heated element type which contains few moving parts and is relatively inexpensive to manufacture. One of the distinctive features of the invention is that the marking elements are fully exposed to be accessible to the full depth of material to be brought in contact therewith.

Another object is to provide means for adjustably positioning the heat marking elements of a fabric marking device to provide scorched gauge marks or guide lines of varyingdimensions.

A further object of this invention is to provide a new and improved fabric marking device which lends itself readily to production in either a stationary or a lightweight portable model.

The above objects and advantages of this invention will appear more fully from the following description considered together with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view showing a stationary model of the invention.

'Figure 2 is a perspective view similar to Figure 1 with Patented Feb. 21, 1961 the outer cabinet removed to show the various internal components of the apparatus.

Figure 3 is a perspective view of a portable model of the invention showing the wire circuits therein.

Figure 4 is an exploded perspective view showing in detail the heat marking element illustrated in Figure 3.

Similar reference characters designate corresponding parts throughout the several figures of the drawings.

According to Figure 1, the cabinet or housing consists of side panels 1, top 2, sloping front 3, lower front 4, and a work top 5. The cabinet is made of any suitable material, such as galvanized sheet metal, except for the work top 5, which is preferably of stainless steel. A proctor 6 of stainless steel is mounted above the heat marking elements, which will be later described, and is provided with a plurality of heat dissipating ports 6a. Attached to the side panels 1 are flange members 7 which serve as suitable handles for transporting the device.

The two heat marking elements 8, as shown in Figures 1 and 2, are made of a suitable relatively stiff, electrically conductive wire which will obtain and withstand a high enough temperature to scorch cloth when a low voltage current is passed through them. The upper extremities of the elements 8 are attached to conductive terminal posts 9 by means of lock nuts 10. The terminal posts 9 pass through and are mounted to terminal blocks 11 and 11a, which are of a suitable insulating and heatresisting material such as slate. The lower segments of the two marking elements 8 pass through holes in the terminal blocks 11 and 11a and are connected in series to an electrical heating unit 12.

A heat-resisting wire 13 is connected to the lower extremity of each terminal post 9 and is secured thereto by means of a pair of lock nuts 10a. Each of these Wires leads to a secondary terminal 14 of a transformer 15. The type of transformer used receives l20-volt current at primary connections 16 and provides a low voltage usable (approximately 7 volts) at its secondary connections 14. A pair of input wires 17 carry the volt current to the primary connections 16. Connected in series along one of the input wires 17 is, first, a singlepole switch 18, and then a pilot light 19. A fuse 20 is similarly connected to either one of the input Wires.

Thus it will be apparent that when switch 18 is closed, pilot light 19 will glow and the transformer 15 will be energized. A low voltage current will be emanated from the secondary connections 14 and pass through wires 13, terminals 9, heat marking elements 8 and heating unit 12. The heating unit generates heat, which causes elements 8 to reach a temperature sufiicient to scorch any fabric that should momentarily come in contact with said elements.

As will be seen in Figure 2, terminal blocks 11 and 11a are attached to a framework consisting of bars 23 and 24, respectively. Bar 23 is fastened in turn to both rails 21 and 22 by any suitable means, such as bolts, rivets or by welding, thereby maintaining terminal block 11 and its respective heating element in fixed position. Bar 24 is pivotally connected only to rail 22, therefore allowing lateral movement of terminal block 11a with respect to terminal block 11 to increase or decrease the distance between the two heat marking elements 8. Ra l 21 is provided with stop members 25 for limiting the movement of bar 24.

An adjustment support bar 26 which is attached to the cabinet supports an adjustment lever 27 which is pivotally connected to said support bar 26 by suitable fastening means 28. The lower extremity of the adjustment lever 27 is fork-shaped so as to slidably engage a vertical pin 29 attached to the bar 24.

Attached to the upper end of the adjustment lever 27 are two shafts which project through two arcuate slots in the sloping front 3 of the cabinet. Fastened to the uppermost shaft is a knob 30 for convenient manipulation of the adjustment lever 27. The lower shaft is threaded to receive a locking device such as a wing nut 31.

It will thus be seen that when wing nut 31 is loosened, knob 30 may be moved, which will transmit movement by adjustment lever 27 to the pivotable bar 24, by which action the distance between the two heat marking elements 8 will be varied.

The terminal blocks 11 and 11a are equipped with stop guides 32, which limit or gauge the depth that the heat marking elements can penetrate into the cloth being marked. These stop guides may be adjustably mounted relative to the wires 8 upon the terminal blocks in any convenient manner to permit various depths of markings.

The work top 5, which is of a different material than the remainder of the cabinet, as previously described, is attached to the cabinet by screws 33 and is provided with openings 34 and 35 adjacent its rear edge. Opening 34 is large enough so that during removal for servicing, the work top will easily clear the heat marking element and terminal post, while opening 35 is somewhat larger than opening 34 to allow clearance for the adjustable terminal block 11a and its heat marking element and terminal post.

In operating the heat marker the edge of a pile of fabric to be marked is placed upon the Work top and guided into the heat marking elements. Only a very slight amount of pressure is required to cause the fabric to abut the stop guides 32 as the thin, hot elements 8 quickly and easily cut through the fabric, leaving clean, easily visible scorch marks along the edge of each piece of cloth in the pile.

Figures 3 and 4 illustrate a portable version of the invention employing the same principle of a heated marking'element being used to scorch a single piece of cloth or a pile of cloth.

In this embodiment a transformer a is enclosed within a casing 38 which is mounted upon a base plate 36 having bevelled edges 37. A connection box 39 attached above the casing 38 receives the input wires 17a and houses a single-pole switch 18a which is connected to one of said input wires. Holes 39a are provided in the connection box to allow air to enter and cool the transformer and wires. Input wires 17a carrying l-volt current lead to a pair of primary connections 16a on the transformer. Heat resistant wires 13a are attached to the secondary connections 14a.

The single heat marking element 8a, which is most clearly shown in Figure 4, lies flat upon the front surface of a heat resisting insulator block 40 and passes through holes 40a at the top and bottom of said insulator. Besides insulating the heat marking element from the remainder of the machine, the insulator block 40 imparts longitudinal rigidity to said marking element. The two ends of the heat marking element 8a emerging from the rear of the insulator block 40 are each attached to the ends of a terminal post 9a which is embedded in the insulator block. A separate electrical heating unit 12a is connected between each terminal post 9a and another threaded terminal post 9b which is also embeddedin the insulator block 40. The heads of the terminal posts are all countersunk in the insulator block 40 to prevent their contacting the heat marking element 8a. The previously mentioned wires 13a leading from the secondary side of the transformer are connected to the terminal posts 9b.

, Thus it will be seen that the low secondary voltage furnished by wires 13a will activate the electrical heating units 12a which will generate the heat necessary to cause the heat marking element 8a to reach a temperature sufficient to mark the cloth.

The insulator block and its heat marking element are supported between two insulator shields 41 which fasten to the casing 38 and base plate 36. Fastening means 42 which pass through holes 43 in the insulator block securely lock the heat marking assembly and insulator shields together.

A handle 44 is attached to the base plate 36 by brackets 45 and 46. Positioned above the insulator block and centered over the heat marking element 8a is a work guide 47 which indicates to the operator exactly where he should place the machine in order to mark a pile of cloth at a specific point.

The bevelled edges 37 of the base plate allow the operator of the portable machine to readily slide the front of the base plate under a pile of fabric until the heat marking element touches the pile.

It is an important advantage of the portable machine that it will operate upon a much thicker pile of fabric than the stationary model, due to the fact that the heat marking element 8a is 'much larger than element 8, since it is rigidly supported by the insulator block 40.

I claim:

1. A device for marking scorched guide lines on superimposed plies of fabric or the like, including, a housing having a work top provided with openings adjacent the rear edge thereof, vertically arranged electrically heated marking elements disposed in said openings, means on the housing for supporting one of said elements in a sta tionary position, means for pivotally supporting the other of said elements on the housing for limited movement toward and from the other heated element, and handle means exterior of the housing connected with said means pivotally supporting one of said marking elements to adjust the same relative to the other, and means for locking said handle in a set position.

2. A device for marking scorched guide lines on superimposed plies of fabric or the like, including, a housing having a work top provided with openings adjacent the rear edge thereof, vertically arranged electrically heated marking elements disposed in said openings, a framework within the housing for adjustably supporting said elements and comprising, a pair of spaced parallel rails disposed in fixed relationship to said housing and an adjustment support bar carrying one of said marking elements pivotally connected at its rearmost end to one of said rails, stop abutments on the other of said rails disposed on either side of said adjustment support bar for limiting the movement of said support bar and its cooperating marking element.

3. A device for marking scorched guide lines on fabric or the like, including, a housing provided with an opening, a heat marking element comprising a length of vertically exposed wire, an insulator block exposed within said opening of the housing, said marking element mounted upon said insulator block so that at least one of the ends thereof passes through to the back of said block, an electrical resistance heating unit mounted upon the back of said insulator block and connected with said marking element, means for converting a high voltagelow resistance current supply into a low voltage-high resistance current supply, and means for connecting said electrical heating unit in series with said heat marking unit and said low voltage-high resistance current supply.

4. A portable device adapted to be manually manipulated over a supporting surface to place scorched marking lines on superimposed plies of fabric or the like, including, a housing, a base plate upon which said housing is mounted and adapted to be moved to the edge of the material to be marked, a vertically arranged heat marking element, electrical resistance heating units connected with said marking element, said element comprising a wire of such diameter as to be inherently flexible and lacking longitudinal rigidity, an insulator block on which said marking element is mounted So that its entire vertical marking length throughout is maintained in direct contact with said insulator block, a supply of low voltage electrical energy, and means connecting said electrical heating units in series with said electrical energy and said heat marking element.

5. A portable electrical marking device according to claim 3, wherein, the upper and lower ends of said vertical heat marking element project rearwardly through 5 said insulator block.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 6 Walter Jan. 9, 1934 Maxfield Mar. 24, 1936 Leibowitz Feb. 11, 1941 Elstad Nov. 2, 1948 Martin Jan. 17, 1950 Elstad Oct. 2, 1951 Jaye Oct. 19, 1954 Elstad July 12, 1955 FOREIGN PATENTS Australia Sept. 30, 1942

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