Prototype. Chapter text drafted from the research notes and not yet checked at the archives. Images awaiting permission are marked.

Westpoint Pepperell, "Control apparatus for textile dyeing and tufting machinery" (US4106416A)

Patent · not yet checked at the source

Made by: Westpoint Pepperell, Inc.
Date: priority 2 Dec 1976; published 15 Aug 1978
Number: US4106416A
Themes: Machine tufting & Dalton, Tools & equipment

View at the source Cited in chapter 12, note 9

Cite this source

Westpoint Pepperell, “Control apparatus for textile dyeing and tufting machinery” (US4106416A), priority 2 Dec 1976; published 15 Aug 1978. patents.google.com/patent/US4106416A/en.

Research notes

An early case of digital pattern data driving tufting: each yarn is dyed at several colour stations by yarn-control assemblies that are 'individually controllable by digital color pattern data' held in registers, and the yarns are then fed to a tufting station to make a predetermined complex design. It builds on US4015550 ('Apparatus and Method for Selective Multi-Color Dyeing of Individual Yarns and producing therefrom a predetermined complex design in a tufted carpet'). The pattern is put into the yarn before tufting, not by moving needles, but it is an electronic, data-driven patterning system at a 1970s carpet mill. Verified Oct 2026: the title, assignee and dates come from Google Patents snippets, and claim 1 from an RPX Insight summary. Research note (Oct 2026): from search results; pages not opened.