Field Of Invention
The present invention relates to the field of textile industry and in particular to the manual processes of jacquard card punching involved in the textile industry.
Background of the Invention
Textile has been one of India's major sources of income since yore. The Textile Industry has been one of the oldest and most important sectors of the Indian Economy. The potential of Textile Industry is tremendous as India is the third largest producer of cotton in the world. India stands at the first place in terms of area under cultivation; as such India has the potential to become the largest producer of cotton. Our labor is easier and cheaper. Over and above there is a culture of textiles in India. India's inherited textile culture and craftsmanship are only the reasons for Indian textiles to survive the global competition but not the technology. If there is technological up gradation with adequate policy implementation, it can be said without hesitation that India can be on the top of the global list.
The dispensing equipments in use in the textile industry have inherent drawbacks of large size, heavy weight and immobility, thereby affecting the operation efficiency, as well as accuracy of measurements. This harnesses significant progress and exploitation of the Indian textile industry potential. In this world of rapid technological development, it is necessary for executives and operatives in the textile industry to be familiar with the modem methods and employ automated systems, which have now become indispensable to achieve significant progress. Due to increased demand and the need to cater the requirements of a much wider clientele drawn from all sections of society, textile products have been more diverse and the quality has declined as the product has increased.
The present day methodology for textile pattern designing development is completely manual. The textile industry presently uses Jacquard cards that are a type of perforated cards. The perforated cards were passed over needles pressed against the card. Whenever a hole came up the needle would go through the hole activating the threading mechanism.

The pattern of holes on the cards determined the pattern that would be produced on the resulting textile. The manual method demands high cost in terms of time and money.
US6105628 provides an electromagnetic device for automated jacquard machine needle actuation. The use of solenoids in the invention and the solenoids controlling the positions of selector members makes the invention complex.
US4745780 provides an electromagnetically operated jacquard arrangement. It uses permanent magnets whereas the instant invention uses electromagnets and springs. Accordingly the instant invention is easily controllable.
A system, therefore, is needed to make the textile processes of Jacquard card development simple, faster, better as well as to get rid of cumbersome old methods.
Objects and Summary of the Invention
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks and provide an automated system for jacquard card punching.
It is another object of the present invention to develop an automated system that works in unison with the existing handloom/ powerloom machines.
It is further an object of present invention to automatically punch wooden cards.
It is further an object of present invention to improve the speed of the weaving process.
To achieve the aforementioned objectives the invention provides a system that automates the manual textile process of Jacquard card development. According to the present invention, the textile pattern is first read by software and appropriate image processing is done. An electromechanical system that takes input from the computer and gives signals to attached stepper motors. The motors accordingly perform the punching on wooden jacquard cards.

The present invention relate to,
a system for automating jacquard card punching, comprising:
software means for creating a weave pattern,
computer means for generating a Jacquard file from said weave pattern,
an electromechanical system, in the said system, controlled by the said jacquard file
and,
means in said electromechanical system for automated punching of wooden jacquard
cards for making said weave pattern.
This invention further relates to a method for automating jacquard card punching comprising the following steps:
creating a weave pattern,
generating a jacquard file from said weave pattern,
said jacquard file controlling an electromechanical system and,
said electromechanical system performing an automated punching on wooden
jacquard cards to develop said weave pattern.
Brief Description of Accompanying Drawings
Figure 1 illustrates the flow diagram of the manual Jacquard card punching as in the prior art.
Figure 2 illustrates the flow diagram of the working of the instant invention. Figure 3 illustrates the stepper motor drive circuit. Detailed description of Drawings
Figure 1 shown illustrates how the present manual jacquard card punching works. As the figure suggests the textile pattern is first enlarged several times. This process is done manually and is very strenuous. Thereafter a graph sheet is placed on the enlarged pattern. The placing of the graph sheet helps in reading the image in detail. Reading the

patter through the cells of the graph paper helps in this respect. This cell-reading of the pattern helps in the punching of the jacquard card. The jacquard card is punched corresponding to the cell information. This whole process takes several weeks before the jacquard cards are finally developed.
Figure 2 illustrates how the punching of Jacquard cards can be automated through the present system. The system contains means to develop a weave pattern (10a), means to develop a jacquard file from said weave pattern (11), an electromechanical system (12), stepper motors (SM) in the electromechanical system to punch wooden jacquard cards and a horizontal platform (13) in the electromechanical system to place the wooden jacquard cards. To start with, a weave pattern (10) can be either a pattern developed with the aid of a package (10a) or can be obtained by scanning an image (10b). Scanning serves as the easiest way to bring a paper based design to computer that can be fed to the present invented package. The image is fed to a PC (11) whose output can be connected to an Electro-Mechanical system (12). The electromechanical system has an electronic circuit and a mechanical model. The mechanical model has three stepper motors (SM) and a X-Y platform. The electronic model has stepper motor driver circuits. There are four circuits for each stepper motor. The electronic circuit takes input from the computer and gives appropriate signals to the stepper motors (SM) that perform the punching on wooden jacquard cards. The jacquard cards are paced on a X-Y platform (13). The platform can move parallel to the ground and can be placed at desired location on horizontal plane. The movement of platform is achieved by two stepper motors. The third stepper motor performs the punching. The only manual process here is to place unpunched cards and remove the punched ones.
The mechanical part of the system contains an X-Y platform that preferably contains holders for jacquard cards, or for any other device that it can be used for. The electronic part contains the electronic circuit described above. The circuit controls the movement of the X-Y platform and the punching mechanism. One example of such circuit is described below. The circuit describes herein describes a simplistic manner of carrying out the invention. A person skilled in the art will appreciate that any similar circuit can be designed and used for the present invention.

Figure 3 illustrates a stepper motor driver circuit. These circuits are four in number for controlling each of the stepper motor. The present embodiment claims of three stepper motors. Accordingly the system contains twelve circuits together. The soft jacquard file is input to the drive circuit at the input means (20). An amplifier (21) operates according to the instructions in the soft jacquard file. The output of the current circuit goes through induction coil (22) and is connected to the stepper motor. Two of the three stepper motors control the movement X-Y platform and the third motor controls the punching on the jacquard kept on the X-Y platform. The table 1 illustrating the working of the amplifier (21) shows that for some values of the input, the output value increases else it decreases. Accordingly the output values controls the output of the induction coil (22). This in turn controls the forward backward movement of the X-Y platform. This can be understood as, for a particular input from the soft jacquard file, the X-Y platform, with the jacquard card kept over it, will move either to the left side or the right side. Similarly the drive circuit will control the movement of the punching. It will control whether the needle has to come down on the card or go up. While coming down, the needle will punch, or make a hole in the jacquard card. The resistor (21) controls the voltage of the circuit.
It will readily be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments shown herein. Thus variations may be made within the scope and spirit of the accompanying claims without sacrificing the principal advantages of the invention.