EP0963320B1 - Storing pieces cut out from a cloth spread - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to the storage of cut pieces in a mattress formed of superimposed folds of flexible sheet material, in particular of tissue.

A preferred field of application of the invention is that of industry of clothing. In this industry, production revolves in particular around a cutting workshop, with at least one automatic cutting machine, and a garment workshop where assembly, stitching and product finishing.

Usually, on leaving the cutting machine, separation operations of cut pieces and waste (skeleton of mattress), sorting and, possibly, marking of the cut parts, and packaging of parts cut into coherent packages for the workshop confection.

This results in a double manipulation of the parts packages: in the workshop cutting for packaging and reception at the garment workshop for remove the packaging. In addition, the cost of packaging is important due to the large number of parts in a mattress.

Other problems may be encountered, such as the loss of packets of parts, especially for small parts, and the accidental decohesion of packages that can cause the loss or damage of parts. These problems become even more worrying when, as we increasingly observe, cutting and tailoring operations are carried out at sites geographically distant from each other. This is the case in the case of companies carrying out the cut to order for different customers not necessarily installed nearby. This is also the case when, for reasons of labor costs, the confection is outsourced and the cut pieces must be sent in distant countries.

The invention aims to solve these problems and proposes for this purpose a method of storing pieces cut from a mattress, according to which, after cutting of the parts, the mattress is completely wrapped, without separating the parts cut from the generated scraps.

Thus, and contrary to what is usually practiced, the cut pieces are not separated from the rest, or skeleton, of the output mattress cutting machine. The packaged mattress can be transferred to a workshop production, so that the destructuring of the mattress is carried out upon receipt of the garment workshop. There is no double manipulation of stacks of cut parts, or logs, and the risk of losing or damaging the logs during their transport are eliminated.

Advantageously, the cut mattress is packed in a compressed state, at inside a waterproof envelope, in order to reduce as much as possible its size.

Advantageously, the cut mattress is packed inside of a flexible envelope which is rolled up on itself and held in this shape so that the wrapped mattress can be stored and transported inside of a parallelepiped container.

According to a particular feature of the process, a support is associated with the mattress information including at least some information from information mattress identification, placement information or each placement of the cut pieces in the mattress and information relating to the mounting of parts. Information relating to the placement of parts in the mattresses include information about the locations of the rooms and parts identification information.

This information may appear, at least in part, on a label stuck on the mattress or the envelope in which it is wrapped, and / or on a digital information medium such as a floppy disk which is packed with the mattress or shipped separately to the garment workshop. It is also possible to transfer digital information about a mattress shipped over a network telecommunications.

• la figure 1 est un diagramme montrant des étapes d'un procédé selon l'invention ;
• La figure 2 (2A et 2B) montre schématiquement en perspective une machine de coupe et une installation d'emballage permettant la mise en oeuvre du procédé ; et
• la figure 3 est une vue schématique d'un matelas coupé emballé en sortie de l'installation de la figure 2.

A particular embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of non-limiting indication, with reference to the appended drawings in which:

• Figure 1 is a diagram showing steps of a method according to the invention;
• FIG. 2 (2A and 2B) shows schematically in perspective a cutting machine and a packaging installation allowing the implementation of the process; and
• FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a cut mattress packed at the outlet of the installation of FIG. 2.

The references A and B in FIG. 1 designate, respectively, a automatic cutting and packaging workshop, and a garment workshop. These workshops can be located in geographically distant sites one of the other.

Upstream of an automatic cutting station, an operation of quilting 1 is carried out consisting of superimposing layers or plies of material flexible sheet, for example folds of fabric intended to be cut simultaneously.

The mattress thus obtained undergoes an automatic cut 2 by means of a tool moved along trajectories corresponding to the contours of parts to be cut, the pieces being cut entirely.

The cut mattress is completely wrapped, without separating the parts cut from the generated falls, i.e. from the skeleton. Packing 3 is done by inserting the mattress in a flexible envelope. Preferably, the envelope is waterproof and the mattress is compressed to reduce clutter.

The packaging 4 of the packaged mattress is for example carried out in winding the mattress on itself and keeping it in this shape for the be housed in a rectangular container. Mattress conditioning allows its storage and transport 5 to the clothing workshop B ..

The quilting, automatic cutting and packaging operations are performed under the control of a control unit 100. The displacement of the tool is controlled according to information recorded in the unit command defining the or each placement of the parts to be cut in the mattress. As is well known, the placement is carried out so as to minimize falling material.

Different information is associated with the mattress, such as identification information of the mattress and its destination, information of identification of the placement and information relating to the subsequent mounting of the pieces cut in the mattress.

Information identifying the mattress and its destination can be printed by means of the control unit 100 on one or more labels 101 stuck on the wrapped mattress and / or on its packaging.

Information identifying the or each placement, such as identification information of the cut pieces and information relating to the locations of the pieces, which are stored in the memory of the control unit 100, is recorded in digital form on a storage medium. information 102, for example a diskette, by means of the control unit 100. Information relating to the mounting of the parts, for example identifying the parts to be assembled together and their relative positions can also be recorded on the diskette 102. The diskette 102 is packaged with the mattress or is sent to clothing workshop B by any other shipping method 5 a . As a variant, the digital information relating to the placement and assembly of the pieces can be sent to the clothing workshop B by transmission 5 b over a telecommunications network.

The mattress received at the garment workshop undergoes an operation of unpacking 6, then destructuring 7. This last operation consists in separating packages of cut pieces, or logs, of the rest of the mattress, or skeleton.

The information read from the diskette 102 or received after transmission over the network 5b is processed by a central unit 110 in order, if necessary, to assist the operators during the destructuring 7 of the mattress and the fitting 8 of the parts. Thus, the location of each package of parts to be removed can be facilitated by projecting onto the mattress, at the location of this package, luminous information identifying the package and / or its location, using information relating to placement.

Another tracking process, allowing the identification of parts before or after cutting them is described in document FR-A-2 710 432.

The assembly of the parts belonging to the identified parts packages is made with the help of the assembly instructions given in the information received.

As a variant, the identification information of the parts, and optionally mounting these, can be worn on labels affixed to, or in the location of, coin packages, after, during or before automatic cutting. Labeling processes associated with machines automatic cutting or quilting devices are known, in particular documents US-A-4 514 246, US-A-5 092 829 and US-A-5 230 765.

After assembly, the parts undergo the operations of stitching and finish.

A more detailed description of a cutting machine and a installation of cut mattress packaging will now be given with reference to the figure 2.

The cutting machine comprises a cutting table 10 constituted by the horizontal upper strand of an endless conveyor 12. This is housed at the exception of its upper surface delimiting the table 10, inside a box 14. Suction means are arranged inside the box in order to establish there depression.

The conveyor 12 consists of support blocks 12 a having or providing passages making the interior of the box communicate with the surface of the table 10. The blocks, for example made of plastic, have a base from which protrude a plurality of filiform elements. In this way, a blade can penetrate the surface of the table 10 and move horizontally in all directions without being damaged and without damaging the support blocks 12 a .

A flexible sheet material to be cut is brought to the table 10 in superimposed folds forming a mattress 20. This consists of a table quilting 22, upstream of the cutting table, and is advanced on the cutting table in direction X by control of the drive motor (not shown) of the conveyor 12.

A film 30 of airtight plastic, for example a film of polyethylene taken from a roll 32, is deposited on the mattress 20 in order to cover it completely.

Cutting the mattress 20 carried by the table 10 and covered by the film 30 is produced by means of a cutting head 40. The cutting head can be brought in any position above table 10 by controlling its movement horizontal parallel to the longitudinal direction X of the conveyor 12 and to the transverse direction Y perpendicular to X.

The cutting head 40 is mounted on a block 42 which is movable in direction Y along a transverse beam 44, under the control of a motor 46. The beam 44 is guided at its ends along the longitudinal edges of the conveyor 12 and is driven in direction X under the control of a motor 48. The drive of the block 42 can be carried out in a conventional manner via cables or, as illustrated, worms 47. The beam drive 44 can also be achieved using cables or worms or, as illustrated, by toothed wheels and racks 49, these being mounted on the upper longitudinal edges of the box 14.

The cutting head 40 carries a suspended cutting blade 50 vertically under a rotary plate 52. On the upper side, the plate 52 is fixed to the end of a connecting rod of a connecting rod-crank system coupled to a motor 54 allowing to print on the plate 52 and the blade 50 a vertical movement alternative. The orientation of the cutting blade 50 is controlled by a motor 58 located under tray 52.

The displacements and the actuation of the cutting head 40 are controlled by means of a computer 100. This also controls the advance of the conveyor 12 and the depression of the box 14 thanks to which the mattress 20 covered with waterproof film 30 is firmly held on table 10.

An installation as described above is well known to man art. We cannot for example refer to document US-A-3 848 490. The displacements of the cutting head in X, Y are controlled so as to cut the parts 21 (some contours of which are shown in FIG. 1) in the mattress 20 according to a predetermined placement or possibly several investments. The pieces 21 are for example constituent elements of clothing and their placement is notably determined to minimize material losses. During cutting, the orientation of the cutting blade is controlled so that remain tangent or substantially tangent to the contour of the cut piece. When a section of the mattress 20 present on the table 10 has been cut, with the film 30, an advance of the conveyor 12 is controlled to bring a new section mattress, or a new mattress. It is also possible to make the advance of the mattress without cutting interruption, successive lengths of mattress being brought to the cutting table as the the cutting operation. A method of advancing the mattress by masked time during cutting is described in document EP-A-0 708 700.

In accordance with the invention, means are arranged downstream of the cutting table 10 for packaging the cut mattress 20, in its entirety, without separate the pieces 21.

• entourer le matelas par une bande d'un film de matière plastique qui couvre chaque face du matelas et une extrémité longitudinale,
• comprimer le matelas muni de la bande de film plastique,
• souder la bande de film plastique le long de ses bords longitudinaux,
• éventuellement, après une compression supplémentaire du matelas et/ou avec mise sous vide, fermer la bande de film plastique à ses extrémités, à l'autre extrémité longitudinale de matelas, de sorte que celui-ci est emballé à l'état comprimé de façon étanche, et
• enrouler le matelas emballé sur lui-même pour pouvoir le loger à l'intérieur d'un conteneur parallélépipédique.

The packaging of the mattress includes for example the operations which consist of:

• surround the mattress with a strip of plastic film which covers each side of the mattress and one longitudinal end,
• compress the mattress with the plastic film strip,
• weld the strip of plastic film along its longitudinal edges,
• optionally, after additional compression of the mattress and / or with vacuum, close the strip of plastic film at its ends, at the other longitudinal end of the mattress, so that it is packed in the compressed state so waterproof, and
• roll up the wrapped mattress on itself to be able to accommodate it inside a rectangular container.

At the outlet of the cutting table 10 and in alignment with it, the mattress 20 is received on a table 60 formed by the horizontal upper part of an endless belt of a conveyor 62. As long as the mattress 20 is not extracted completely from the cutting table 10, the conveyor 62 can be disengaged so that the mattress 20 is not subjected to stresses as it advances on the conveyor.

A flexible plastic film 70 drawn from a storage roller 72 surrounds the conveyor 62 by passing over a first deflection roller 74 at the upstream end of the table 60, above the latter, on two rollers of reference 76 a , 76 b at the downstream end of the conveyor 62 and is hooked at its end on a bar 68 located at the upstream end of the conveyor 62, below the latter.

When the mattress 20 has come out of the cutting table 10, the film 70 is sectioned transversely on its path between the storage roller 72 and the deflection roller 74. This cutting of the film can be carried out manually or, automatically by means of a blade 64 mounted on a block secured to a cable 66 which extends transversely with respect to the path of the film 70. The cable 66 forms an endless loop passing over a drive wheel 66 a , at one end and on a return wheel (not shown) at the other end. The wheel 66 a is driven by a reversible motor 68 so as to make the blade 64 describe a trajectory extending over the entire width of the film 70 from a rest position located laterally relative to the film.

After cutting the film 70, the conveyor 62 is driven to bring the mattress on a transfer table 80 whose surface is formed for example of idle rollers. In this position, the mattress 20 is surrounded by a strip of plastic film which covers the upper and lower faces of the mattress as well as its downstream end edge 20 c . Along its longitudinal edges 70 a, 70 b, the plastic film web which is wider than the mattress exceeds thereof on each side. At its ends 70 d , the strip of plastic film protrudes from the mattress, beyond the upstream end edge 20 d of the mattress.

The mattress thus surrounded by the strip of plastic film is brought between the two plates of a press 82, respectively a fixed lower plate 82 a , and a movable upper plate 82 b . A first compression of the mattress is carried out by means of the press and the longitudinal edges of the plastic film strip are welded. Welding is carried out on each side of the mattress by means of a heating tool 84, in which the two parts facing a longitudinal edge of the film 70 are clamped so as to be linked to each other.

Additional compression of the mattress can then be carried out before the plastic film strip at its ends 70 d is completely closed. This additional compression can be accompanied by at least partial evacuation. The closure of the plastic film strip is carried out by welding by means of a heating tool 86 in which the ends 70 d are clamped so as to be linked to each other. This gives a compressed mattress tightly packed in an envelope 90 formed by a flexible plastic film.

The compression of the mattress 20 aims to reduce its bulk but must remain limited so as not to damage the parts 21.

The plastic film is for example made of polyethylene. Note that the compression of the mattress can alternatively be carried out at least partly in using heat shrinkable plastic film.

The packed compressed mattress is discharged onto a transfer table 88 from where it can be taken up in order to be wound around itself around a rotary mandrel 92. The mattress is rolled up with a retaining film 94 drawn from a roll of storage 96 and the end of which is initially fixed on the mandrel 92. The film 94 is for example made of polyethylene.

At the end of the winding, the film 94 is cut and the mattress is maintained in this state for example by means of adhesive tape 98 which maintains the cut end 94 a of the film 94 (FIG. 3). In this state, the mattress can be packaged inside a rectangular container, for example made of cardboard. A label can be affixed to the rolled-up mattress and the container, while a floppy disk can be packaged with the mattress in the container. The label (s) are produced by a printer 103 connected to the control unit 100 while the floppy disk 102 is supplied by a read / write device 104 also connected to the control unit 100.

It will be noted that the packaging installation described above is of a type known per se for packaging bedding mattresses. We can refer in particular in document US-A-4711067. Other packaging techniques may be used to pack the cut mattress in a compressed state or not. For example, the mattress from the cutting table can be inserted inside a sheath of flexible plastic material which is sufficient to seal later, at its extremities, after possible compression of the mattress or during this compression performed by mechanical means and / or using a sheath heat shrink.

Claims (11)

1. A method of storing pieces (21) cut out from a lay-up (20) formed of superposed plies of flexible sheet material, the method being characterized in that after the pieces have been cut out, the entire lay-up is packaged, without separating the cutout pieces from the surrounding scrap.
2. A method according to claim 1, characterized in that the lay-up is packaged in the compressed state inside an air-tight covering.
3. A method according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the lay-up is packaged inside a flexible covering which is rolled up and held in the rolled-up shape.
4. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the lay-up is associated with a data medium including at least some of the following information: information identifying the lay-up, information relating to the layout or layouts of the pieces cut out form the lay-up, and information relating to how the pieces are to be assembled.
5. A method according to claim 4, characterized in that the information relating to the layout of pieces in the lay-up comprises information relating to the locations of the pieces and information identifying the pieces.
6. A method according to claim 4 or 5, characterized in that the data medium comprises a digital data medium.
7. A method of transferring pieces cut out from a lay-up made of superposed plies of flexible sheet material, from a cutting installation to a workshop for assembling the pieces, the method being characterized in that it comprises storing the cutout lay-up in accordance with any one claims 1 to 6, shipping the stored lay-up, and transmitting the information relating to the layout or layouts of the pieces cut out in the lay-up.
8. A method according to claim 7, characterized in that the information relating to the layout or layouts of the pieces cut out in the lay-up is transmitted in digital form independently of the lay-up.
9. A lay-up (20) made up of plies of superposed flexible sheet material and containing pieces (21) that have been cut out in one or more layouts, the lay-up being characterized in that it is packaged as a whole inside a covering (70) without separating the cutout pieces from the remainder of the lay-up.
10. A packaged lay-up according to claim 9, characterized in that it is stored in the compressed state inside an air-tight covering.
11. A packaged lay-up according to claim 10, characterized in that it is rolled up.

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