Programmable tufting: from the pattern attachment to the robot

A photograph catalogued by the Bandy Heritage Center in Dalton is described as showing a Cobble Brothers loop-pile tufting machine 216 inches wide, fitted with a scroll-type pattern attachment, with an 18-inch pattern repeat. It is undated.¹1“Before computers: chain-driven roll and scroll pattern attachments on broadloom tufting machines”, 1950s–1990s, Bandy Heritage Center (Dalton). Record On such a machine the pattern came from how much yarn each needle got, metered by sets of yarn-feed rolls.²2“Before computers: chain-driven roll and scroll pattern attachments on broadloom tufting machines”, 1950s–1990s, Bandy Heritage Center (Dalton). Record This chapter follows that control from chains to computers, and a second line in which the hand tufting gun was put on a computer-guided frame. The multi-needle machine itself is the subject of chapter 5.

Yarn fed by chains

Joseph L. Card filed for a “Thread Feed Mechanism and Pattern Control” on 16 May 1955,³3J. L. Card, “Thread Feed Mechanism and Pattern Control” (US2862465A), filed 16 May 1955, granted 2 Dec 1958. Record and on 24 December 1956 for an “Apparatus for Making Patterned Tufted Pile Fabric”, assigned to Cobble Brothers Machinery Co. of Chattanooga and granted in 1960.⁴4Joseph L. Card, “Apparatus for Making Patterned Tufted Pile Fabric” (US2935037A), filed 24 Dec 1956, granted 3 May 1960. Record

Tuftco’s patents of 1996–97, looking back, describe the limit of these devices. The yarn-feed rolls were driven by chains or other linkage from the main drive shaft, so only two or three stitch heights, in fixed ratios to the shaft, could be used in a whole pattern.⁵5“Before computers: chain-driven roll and scroll pattern attachments on broadloom tufting machines”, 1950s–1990s, Bandy Heritage Center (Dalton). Record Tuftco Corp. (Morgante, Stanfield, Bishop), “Independent servo motor controlled scroll-type pattern attachment for tufting machine and computerized design system” (US6244203B1), provisional 27 Nov 1996; filed 26 Nov 1997 (appl. 08/980,045); grant date not seen. Record No dated first scroll attachment has been found.⁶6“Before computers: chain-driven roll and scroll pattern attachments on broadloom tufting machines”, 1950s–1990s, Bandy Heritage Center (Dalton). Record

Singer Cobble’s earliest electrical pattern-control patent found so far is its “Photocell controlled pattern attachment for tufting machines”, filed on 29 May 1961, in which a photocell, not a cam or chain, controls the pattern attachment. Later patents cite it as prior art, among them a German “Elektrische Steuervorrichtung für eine Tuftingmaschine”. How the photocell read the pattern is still to be confirmed from the patent’s text.⁷7Singer Cobble Inc., “Photocell controlled pattern attachment for tufting machines” (US3103187A), filed 29 May 1961; published 10 Sep 1963. Record By the mid-1960s carpet mills were patenting yarn-feed pattern control as well: Callaway Mills filed a “Pattern attachment” on 18 April 1967.⁸8“Pattern attachment for tufting machines” (US3375797A), filed 15 Sep 1966 (appl. 579,643); GB counterpart GB1123540A published 14 Aug 1968. Record

The pattern as data

One early use of digital pattern data in tufting put it at the dye stations, not the needles. A Westpoint Pepperell patent, “Control apparatus for textile dyeing and tufting machinery”, with a priority date of 2 December 1976, dyes each yarn at several colour stations whose yarn-control assemblies are “individually controllable by digital color pattern data”. The yarns are then fed to a tufting station to make a predetermined complex design.⁹9Westpoint Pepperell, “Control apparatus for textile dyeing and tufting machinery” (US4106416A), priority 2 Dec 1976; published 15 Aug 1978. Record The pattern went into the yarn before tufting.

The computer on the machine

A computer took over the running of the machine in a patent by Brooks E. Taylor, Marshall A. Neely and Roy T. Card, “Computer controlled tufting machine and a process of controlling the parameters of operation of a tufting machine”, filed in December 1988 and granted on 19 September 1989. The computer controls motors on the backing feed and the yarn feed, so that stitch rate, pile height and face-yarn weight are changed from the computer instead of by changing sheaves on the gearbox. Later patents cite it as the start of computer control giving “greater precision and variety” in patterned tufting, though no source found calls it the first computer-controlled tufting machine.¹⁰10Brooks E. Taylor, Marshall A. Neely & Roy T. Card, “Computer controlled tufting machine and a process of controlling the parameters of operation of a tufting machine” (US4867080A), filed 15 Dec 1988 (Google record says 2 Dec 1988); granted 19 Sep 1989. Record Card-Monroe’s timeline lists Command Performance under 1989; a link with this patent has not been shown.¹¹11“Card-Monroe Corp. (CMC)”, founded 1981 (as Charles Monroe Company); Card-Monroe 1983, Card-Monroe Corp. (CMC). Record Brooks E. Taylor, Marshall A. Neely & Roy T. Card, “Computer controlled tufting machine and a process of controlling the parameters of operation of a tufting machine” (US4867080A), filed 15 Dec 1988 (Google record says 2 Dec 1988); granted 19 Sep 1989. Record

Card and Taylor followed with a Card-Monroe patent for “enhanced graphic appearances” in tufted carpet, filed in 1989, which a patent of 2003 credits with computerised design centres, where designers develop patterns on a computer.¹²12Roy T. Card & Brooks E. Taylor / Card-Monroe, “Method and apparatus for producing enhanced graphic appearances in a tufted product and a product produced therefrom” (US5058518A), filed 1989; published 22 Oct 1991. Record Tuftco’s patents of the late 1990s removed the chain. Its patent for an “Independent servo motor controlled scroll-type pattern attachment for tufting machine and computerized design system” (provisional application 27 November 1996) gives each set of yarn-feed rolls its own servo motor, with a computerised design system to handle “the large numbers of individually controllable design parameters”.¹³13Tuftco Corp. (Morgante, Stanfield, Bishop), “Independent servo motor controlled scroll-type pattern attachment for tufting machine and computerized design system” (US6244203B1), provisional 27 Nov 1996; filed 26 Nov 1997 (appl. 08/980,045); grant date not seen. Record

Choosing the yarn at the needle

Another answer was to choose the yarn at the needle. Kile’s US 4,549,496, issued on 29 October 1985, is described as a multi-head machine with pneumatically fed hollow needles placing yarns of different colours. Gary L. Ingram’s “Tufting apparatus”, dated 12 February 1991, is described as a modification of it that shifts the backing sideways instead of the needle heads, so that much less weight moves.¹⁴14Gary L. Ingram / Textile Corporation of America (later Tapistron), “Tufting apparatus” (US4991523A), application 07/366,545; patent dated 12 Feb 1991. Record His “Hollow needle tufting apparatus for producing patterned fabric”, filed on 27 December 1991 and assigned to Tapistron International, shifts the backing so that each colour lands where the pattern needs it.¹⁵15Gary L. Ingram / Tapistron International, “Hollow needle tufting apparatus for producing patterned fabric” (US5165352A), filed 27 Dec 1991; granted 24 Nov 1992. Record

Tapistron, of Ringgold, Georgia, was founded in 1986 according to Bloomberg, and made the machine as the CYP, for Computerized Yarn Placement. A FloorDaily article dates the CYP to 1992, later than Ingram’s first patents, and describes it as slow but able to tuft woven-looking patterns in six component colours. In July 2001 Chattanoogan.com reported that Tapistron had filed for bankruptcy in 1996, had sold equipment to Shaw Industries, and was being sold at auction.¹⁶16“Tapistron International: computerised yarn placement (CYP) tufting, Ringgold, Georgia”, founded 1986 (Bloomberg); CYP dated 1992 (one trade article); bankruptcy filed 1996; sold at auction 2001, Tapistron International, Inc.. Record

Colour placement on broadloom machines

Card-Monroe filed its “Yarn color placement system” on 15 February 2008: yarns of different colours are coordinated so that only the selected colour shows at each stitch.¹⁷17Card-Monroe Corp., “Yarn color placement system” (US8141505B2), filed 15 Feb 2008; granted 27 Mar 2012. Record A preview of the FloorTek Expo in Dalton in 2009 said Card-Monroe was introducing ColorPoint, which places “up to six colors or more anywhere in a carpet pattern with pinpoint accuracy”, and that Tuftco had introduced its own ColorTron earlier that year.¹⁸18“Card-Monroe ColorPoint and Tuftco ColorTron launched: yarn colour placement in broadloom tufting (2009)”, 2009, FloorDaily (FloorTek Expo 2009 preview). Record In 2014 Card-Monroe sued Tuftco over its ColorTuft and iTuft machines. The parties settled on 6 November 2017, and an agreed order held the patents valid and enforceable and enjoined Tuftco from selling single-needle-bar ColorTuft and iTuft c machines.¹⁹19“Card-Monroe v. Tuftco: the ColorPoint patent suit over computer colour-placement tufting (2014–2017)”, filed 2014; settled 6 Nov 2017; injunction 9 Nov 2017, U.S. District Court, E.D. Tenn.. Record

In Europe, Cobble, part of the Belgian Vandewiele group since 2013 according to Vandewiele’s timeline,²⁰20“Cobble (Cobble Brothers / Singer-Cobble / Vandewiele)”, 1930s (Cobble brothers); UK subsidiary 1955, Cobble (Cobble Brothers / Singer-Cobble / Vandewiele). Record built Colortec, a graphics machine whose needles “tuft only where pile is required”. It existed by 2018, and at ITMA 2019 Cobble launched the Colortec L+, with individually controlled needles.²¹21“Cobble (Vandewiele) Colortec: individually controlled needles and individual pile delivery (2018–2019)”, IPD shown 2018; Colortec L+ launched 20–26 Jun 2019, Cobble / Vandewiele. Record In August 2023 Card-Monroe took up the hollow needle, filing for a hollow-needle machine for patterns in several yarn colours. Its filings say that earlier hollow-needle machines, of the Kile, Davis and Tapistron line, were limited by needle spacing in how many colours each needle could take.²²22Card-Monroe Corp. (Mathews, Christman, Lovelady, Vetter), “Tufting machines and methods of tufting” (US12180632B2): the Hollow Needle machine, filed 21 Aug 2023 (appl. 18/235,917); published as US20240068144A1; grant date not seen. Record

The gun on a gantry

In the second line, the earliest patent found came from a maker of embroidery software. Wilcom, a Sydney maker of CAD/CAM software for embroidery, carpets and rugs,²³23“Wilcom AutoTuft (Sydney): robotic single-head tufting machines for custom rugs”, patents from 1994; AutoTuft trade reports 2012, Wilcom Pty Ltd. Record filed in 1994 for a “Method and system of tufting”, in which a tufting head is moved automatically over a backing stretched on a frame and the needle position is corrected for the direction of traverse, the yarn and the backing.²⁴24Wilcom Tufting Pty Ltd (Aubourg, Pongrass, Wilson), “Method and system of tufting” (US5503092A), filed 1994 (appl. 08/190,070); granted 2 Apr 1996. Record Its “Tufting machine”, with an Australian priority date of 23 December 2004, moves a single hollow-needle head from vector design files, with a cutter that switches between cut and loop pile. Its background notes that tufting guns “may be controlled and guided manually by a human operator” (chapter 9).²⁵25Wilcom Pty Ltd, “Tufting machine” (EP1674605A1), AU priority 23 Dec 2004; A1 published 28 Jun 2006; B1 granted 25 Jan 2012. Record A second patent, with priority of 4 January 2008, added varied pile height. Its background describes the hand guns:²⁶26Wilcom Pty Ltd, “An improved tufting machine” (EP2077348B1), AU priority 4 Jan 2008 (AU2008900045); B1 granted 31 Aug 2011. Record

a traditional hand tufting gun for instance, Hofmann™ or Hartleb™, each of which are limited to tufting along an outline at a constant pile height

Wilcom Pty Ltd, “An improved tufting machine”, priority 2008

Wilcom sold the machines as AutoTuft. In 2012 Textile World reported a pneumatic head with a rotating needle for full-speed cornering and cut/loop switching tuft by tuft, and new agents in India and China, for machines making custom rugs with a “hand-tufted” look for less than hand tufting.²⁷27“Wilcom AutoTuft (Sydney): robotic single-head tufting machines for custom rugs”, patents from 1994; AutoTuft trade reports 2012, Wilcom Pty Ltd. Record

In China, universities and research institutes took up CNC tufting, in at least one case with a carpet maker. A 2011 paper from Chongqing University, seen so far only as a catalogue entry, describes a “zero-programming” CNC system for tufting machines that turns designs drawn in AutoCAD into NC code; whether it drove a single head or a broadloom machine is not stated.²⁸28“Chongqing University: a 'zero-programming' PMAC CNC system for tufting machines (2011)”, 31 Aug 2011, Chongqing University. Record On 19 December 2014 the Shenyang Institute of Automation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a Yiwu carpet maker, the Yiwu New Rainbow Craft Carpet Co., with others, applied for a “Fully computerised servo 3D gun-tufted carpet machine”: a tufting head on a servo-driven X–Y mechanism, with a cutter so that cut and loop pile can be switched freely.²⁹29Shenyang Institute of Automation (CAS), Yiwu New Rainbow Craft Carpet Co. et al., “Fully computerised servo 3D gun-tufted carpet machine” (CN104562491A), filed 19 Dec 2014; granted as CN104562491B (now lapsed). Record

In May 2025 China Daily reported that Yangxin Ruixin Group and Donghua University had produced “China’s first fully digital intelligent robot for hand-tufted carpets”, which follows pre-programmed designs; the “first” is the newspaper’s claim, and the article gives no date.³⁰30“Yangxin Ruixin and Donghua University: 'China’s first fully digital intelligent robot for hand-tufted carpets'”, reported May 2025 (development date not given), China Daily. Record Yangxin Ruixin filed in 2020 for a pneumatic gun for an intelligent gun-tufted carpet robot,³¹31Yangxin Ruixin Group, “Pneumatic multifunctional carpet tufting gun for an intelligent gun-tufted carpet robot” (CN111705448A), filed 30 Jun 2020; published 25 Sep 2020. Record one of several Chinese filings on automated gun-tufting machines that search results date to 2019 and 2020.³²32“Stable yarn-feeding and tensioning equipment for a carpet gun-tufting machine” (CN111441143A), filed 17 Jan 2019 (per search summary). Record “Fully automatic carpet gun-tufting machine head and its working method” (CN111876919A), priority 11 Aug 2020; published 3 Nov 2020. Record

Robots in the workshop

By the 2010s tufting robots were working in custom rug making (chapter 11). In 2013 Delos, of Calhoun, Georgia, launched an aircraft-carpet division using a custom-made robotic tufting machine; reporting its 2016 lookbook, a trade paper said the robots sped up the work but about 85% of it was still done by craftsmen.³³33“Delos was robot-tufting custom rugs and aircraft carpet in Georgia by 2013”, 2013; 2016, AIN (Aviation International News). Record In 2017 Carpet Sign, of Asten in the Netherlands, acquired a 3-D tufting robot able to vary pile height without stopping, and had Karim Rashid design a collection for it, according to Interior Design.³⁴34“Carpet Sign (Asten, Netherlands): 3-D tufting robot rugs with Karim Rashid (2017) and Richard Hutten (2019)”, 2017; 2019, Carpet Sign. Record In Milan, cc-tapis says it uses “automated robotufting technology” for one-off pieces, while most of its collections are still made by hand in Nepal and India.³⁵35“European design-rug firms add 'robotufting' alongside handmade production: cc-tapis (Milan) and Van Besouw (Netherlands)”, 2022 onwards, cc-tapis. Record

Artists’ studios followed (chapter 13). In 2022 Owen Trueblood rewired a consumer tufting gun so that a robot could drive it, and mounted it on a robot arm.³⁶36“Owen Trueblood’s robot-arm tufting system: a hacked tufting gun on a UR5 (2022)”, Feb–Mar 2022; exhibited Apr 2023, Hackaday.io. Record Tuft the World, the Philadelphia firm co-founded by this book’s author,³⁷37“Tuft the World”, founded 2018, Tuft the World. Record showed rugs made on a large robotic tufting machine at Paradigm Gallery in 2023.³⁸38“TTW Editions at Paradigm Gallery: rugs made by a large robotic tufting machine (2023)”, 2023, Paradigm Gallery + Studio. Record Reporting on the firm’s CNC machine in 2024, Technical.ly noted that its users still adjust tuft density and row spacing by hand and change yarn colours and tuft heads, and makers disagree about what counts as handmade; the firm lists its pieces as “robo-tufted and hand-finished in Philadelphia”.³⁹39“Tuft the World’s CNC tufting robot: carpal tunnel, a $75,000 machine and the 'handmade' question (2023–2024)”, bought by 2023; reported 2023–2024, Tuft the World. Record

This chapter argues that programmable tufting grew along two separate lines: on the broadloom machine, pattern control passed from chain-driven yarn-feed rolls to computers, servo motors and colour placement at the needle, while the hand gun, from the 1990s, was carried over the backing by a computer-guided gantry.