Why is Bobbin Different?

[Impressions Embroidered Apparel]

Hi,

After changing empty bobbin after bobbin, I wondered why can't the bobbin be a large 1000 m spool controlled by active feed and somehow designed to feed down as needed?

Steve

[Rod or Sharon]

Steve,
We talked about that very thing in tech training and the answer was ----if you can come up with the answer to that little puzzle, you are going to be a very wealthy man........a lot of time has been put into R&D of the bobbin issue but nothing has taken the place of the old tried and true system.........
Rod Springer

[gcannon]

For lock stitch embroidery to take place, the upper thread has to go completely around the bobbin thread, so that is totally impossible, however it might just be possible with Schiffli embroidery, although I've never seen it tried.

[FME540]

The lockstitch sewing method was first patented by Elias Howe in 1846. Nobody has improved on the bobbin replacement problem since. The design of the process prevents continuous bobbin feed.

Schiffli/shuttle machines have the same problem. The top thread must go completely around the shuttle, which contains the bobbin, to complete the stitch. It must take some serious time to replace the bobbins on the big machines when there are 2000+ needles.

[gcannon]

You are telling me, on a Saurer 1040 machine, there are 1616 needles and bobbins to worry about all the time. If you have help, you can do an "all-out" in about 30 minutes- but you are right. I'm glad to be doing multi-head embroidery now- getting too old for those big machines!

[FME540]

That, and the color changes, needle patterns, and offsets make digitizing a lot harder. I have digitized designs for shuttle, but it wasn't easy...