A History of Tufted Rugs

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

Tuftco Corp. (Morgante, Stanfield, Bishop), "Independent servo motor controlled scroll-type pattern attachment for tufting machine and computerized design system" (US6244203B1)

Patent · not yet checked at the source

Made by
Michael R. Morgante; Randall E. Stanfield; Mike Bishop; Tuftco Corporation
Date
provisional 27 Nov 1996; filed 26 Nov 1997 (appl. 08/980,045); grant date not seen
Number
US6244203B1
Themes
Machine tufting & Dalton, Tools & equipment

Cite this source

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. patents.google.com/patent/US6244203B1/en.

Research notes

The servo scroll: each set of yarn-feed rolls on a scroll attachment gets its own independently controlled servo motor, plus a computerised design system to handle 'the large numbers of individually controllable design parameters'. This removed the old chain-drive limit of two or three stitch heights per pattern. Family members: US6283053 ('independent single end servo motor driven scroll-type pattern attachment', filed 20 Dec 1999); US6439141 ('Independent single end servo scroll pattern attachment… and computerized design system', a divisional); US6516734; US6877449 and US7089874 (servo-motor-driven scroll attachments). The EP counterpart is EP1132514, which names Tuftco Corporation, Chattanooga, as proprietor. Later patents call these 'the single end servo scroll of Morgante' and set them beside Frost's double-end servo scroll (US6550407, filed Aug 2002). One continuation's text misprints the number as 6,224,203. Verified Oct 2026 by web search only. Research note (Oct 2026): from search results; pages not opened.