National Textile University

Assignment 01

NAME SHAHAN AKHTAR

REG NO. 2020-NTU-MSTT-6077
Different Types of Feed Mechanism in Sewing
Machine

Feed Mechanism in Sewing Machine:

In order to get the good appearance and performance of the seam, produced by
sewing, need to produce correct and well balanced length of stitches. In addition to
this, need to ensure so that the fabric along the sewing line remains flat that means
no gathering is created. But sometimes gathering in fabrics along the sewing line is
formed intentionally, which is done as per the requirement or for the interest of the
designs. These required matters are maintained during the production of seam by
sewing with the feed mechanism of sewing machine. The feed mechanism
controls the feeding speed of the fabrics during sewing. Besides feed mechanism,
the speed of the fabric can also be controlled by adjusting some more mechanisms
or spare parts with the machine, which have been discussed later on. For the
purpose of controlling the feeding speed of fabrics in sewing machines, mainly six
types of feed mechanism in sewing machine are used which are

 Drop feed system

 Differential bottom feed:
 Adjustable top feed system
 Needle (Compound) feed system
 Unison feed
 Puller feed

1. Drop feed system:

It is the simplest and most used feed mechanism. The feed mechanism in sewing
machine is consist of three parts, they are: a) pressure foot, b) throat plat, and c)
feed dog. The throat plate is made of stainless steel and its surface is very smooth.
For the reason of smooth surface, fabrics can easily be feed on it. Sometimes throat
plate is also called the needle plate. In throat plate, there are one or more than one
slots in which feed dog can move forward or backward. There is also a hole
through which the needle can move upward or downward. The size of the needle
hole should not go beyond more than 30% of the needle size. If the size of the
needle hole is more than 30% of the size of the needle, then during penetrating of
the fabric by needle, some portion of fabric will also enter into the needle hole,
which is called the flagging. Problem can arise in the formation of correct stitch
due to the flagging. The drop feed mechanism has been shown in figure-1.
The main function of feed dog is to make the fabric pass the pre-settled distance
for the formation of each stitch. The speed of the feed dog or the stitch length is
controlled by stitch length regulator. The upper end of the feed dog is slotted or
toothed which goes through the slot of the throat plate and comes a little upper to
the plate and comes in touch of the fabric from the downside of the fabric and
takes the fabric a step forward into the machine. Then the feed dog comes down
from the surface of the throat plate, as a result, it is separated from the touch of the
fabric. Because, at this stage only the throat plate remains in touch of the fabric.
Again, the feed dog comes backward a step, comes through the slot of the throat
plate and finally come a little above the surface of the plate and from the down side
of the fabric, it comes in touch with the fabric. This way in cyclic order, for each of
the stitch, it helps in making to a pre-settled distance. The speed of the feed dog
and the needle is so adjusted that when the fabric gets speed, then the needle stays
above the fabric.

The number of feed dog, their placement and the shape of the slotted tooth and the
numbers may vary. In case of a single row feed dog, during the time of feeding the
fabric, the sewing line may bend left or right instead of going straight. Generally,
the sewing line becomes straight in two rows or three rows feed dog sewing
machines, because fabric cannot easily move to the left or to the right.

The number and shape of slotted tooth on the surface of the feed dog may be of
various types, but the direction of the tooth will be kept slanted to the direction at
which the fabric will be fed. For the light to medium weight fabric, the pitch of
tooth is used between 1.3 and 1.6 mm and the front part of the tooth is kept to
some extent rounded so that fabric is not damaged. For very light weight fabric,
feed dog of 1 to 1.25 mm pitch tooth is used. For some complicated fabrics, feed
dog with rubber covered tooth is used so that fabric is not damaged or marked by
the tooth of the feed dog. During the formation of the seam, if the pitch of the
stitch and the pitch of the tooth of the feed dog becomes equal, then fabric may be
damaged due to the reason of repeated striking of the tooth of the feed dog to the
same place of the fabric.

The pressure foot is used to create pressure on the fabric with the help of spring
pressure, so that during the up and down word movement of the needle, fabric also
may not move up and down. In drop feed process, the pressure foot remains static
and fabric is fed under the lower surface of it. The lower surface of the pressure
foot is generally kept very smooth so that the friction between the pressure foot
and the fabric becomes less. There are various types of pressure foot.

In drop feed process, when two ply fabric is sewn, the feed dog makes the lower
layer of fabric to move forward from the lower side of the fabric and the upper
layer fabric gets speed due to touch with the lower layer of fabric and the pressure.
The pressure foot always exerts pressure on the fabric with the help of pressure
spring and during the moving forward of the fabric by feed dog, the movement of
the upper layer of fabric in the same speed is obstructed due to the friction with the
pressure foot. As a result, it is seen that the lower layer of fabric becomes greater
feed than the upper layer, which is called the ply shifting or differential feed
pucker or feeding pucker. For the same reason, ropping is created during hemming.
In drop feed sewing machine, ply shifting and ropping are very common. This
problem can be avoided by very skilled operator, but the speed of the sewing
becomes much slower.

2. Differential bottom feed:

The feed dog used in this system is divided in two different parts, this means in one
part, the needle remains in the front and in the other part the needle remains in the
back. Like the mentioned feed dogs of the drop feed system, the feed dogs of this
system get speed. But the two parts can be operated in the same speed or in
different speeds. The differential bottom feed mechanism has been shown in
figure-2.
Operating the front feed dog in higher or lower speed than the back feed dog, the
lower layer of the fabric can be stretched or gathered. As a result, in this process,
the problem of differential puckering can easily be controlled. Differential bottom
feed system is available also in machines of making chain stitch, lockstitch and
ever edge stitch.

3. Adjustable top feed system:

In this system, when fabrics of a number of layers are sewn together, then speed is
given directly to the top layer of the fabric. As a result, the top layer can be fed in
the same speed or in higher or lower speed than the lower layers. The Adjustable
top feed mechanism has been shown in figure-3.
With differential bottom feed

With drop system

Figure-3: Adjustable top feed system

There are two sections of the pressure foot used in this process. When the needle
penetrate the fabric, then a section keeps holding of the fabric and the pressure foot
of the other section moving a step forward is placed and pressed on the fabric and
with the help of tooth speed of the lower end it gives speed to the top layer of the
fabric that means feed it. Sewing machine adjustable with top feed system and
ordinary drop feed system is available also the sewing machine adjustable with
differential bottom feed and adjustable top feed system is available. The gathering
of the top ply can be done on the lower ply and also the gathering of the lower ply
can be done on the lower side of the top ply by the machines available with
adjustable top feed and differential bottom feed. Over edge stitching machine in
combination with adjustable top feed and differential bottom feed is also available.

4. Needle (Compound) feed system:

In this system the needle itself goes forward and backward. After the penetration of
the needle into the fabric it gets speed resulting the possibility of tendency of being
the bigger hole in the fabric made by the needle. In order to avoid this problem, the
needle feed mechanism is adjustable with the drop feed mechanism which is called
the compound feed. After penetrating the fabric the needle enters into the hole of
the feed dog and for making the advancement of the fabric for a step of one stitch
length, both the feed dog and the needle pass the same distance at the same time.
Then the needle coming out of the fabric goes upward and coming forward a step,
gets speed for making of the next stitch. This system is very much suitable for
sewing thick or hollow fabric. For changing the stitch length, the strokes of both
needle and feed dog are required to change. The needle feed or compound feed
mechanism in sewing machine has been shown in figure-4.

Figure-4: Needle feed mechanism in sewing machine

5. Unison feed:

The unison feed has been made by adjusting the needle feed mechanism with
positive top and bottom feed. Here, the two pressure foot, one stays at the middle
of the other and they get speed in different times. Due to needle feeding, the
maximum activities of the top and bottom feed are kept stop. But for the fabric
whose sewing is very difficult like sewing of adhesive surfaced fabric, this type of
feed mechanism is very much suitable. There is no possibility of ply shifting
during the sewing of the fabric. This type of feeding system is not used very much
in normal situation except some special aspects. The unison feed mechanism has
been shown in figure-5.
Figure-5: Unison feed mechanism in sewing machine

6. Puller feed:

In this system, a pair of roller is used with ordinary drop feed mechanism that
means just behind the pressure foot which keeps the fabric layers pulling. Speed is
given to the upper roller directly from the machine and the lower roller gets speed
due to be in touch and pressure of the upper roller. The puller roller is operated at a
little higher speed than the speed of the drop feed and for this reason there is no
possibility of being ply shifting or roping. This mechanism is very much suitable
for sewing in multiple needled machine, specially for making of waist band. The
puller feed mechanism has been shown in figure-6.
Without this, there are various arrangements for ruffling of one fabric to another at
specific distances. For ruffling of fabrics, special type of blades and pressure foot
are used.