US3613610A

US3613610A - Methods of automatically controlling manufacturing operations such as sewing operations and the like

Info

Publication number: US3613610A
Application number: US827369A
Authority: US
Inventors: Norman M Hinerfeld; David S Noble; William H Bartley
Original assignee: KAYSER ROTH Corp
Current assignee: Kayser-Roth Corp; KAYSER ROTH Corp
Priority date: 1969-05-23
Filing date: 1969-05-23
Publication date: 1971-10-19
Anticipated expiration: 1988-10-19

Abstract

The manufacturing operations involve equipment preferably in the form of sewing equipment comprised of a usual sewing head with a reciprocal up and down moving needle electrically driven for sewing a plurality of stitches in an article to be sewn. A presser foot retains the article in place during sewing and downwardly against usual feed dogs which move the article forwardly and rearwardly appropriate for the various stitching operations. A needle positioner is operable with the sewing head for positioning the needle in a selected up or down position relative to the article at the termination of any sewing operational step, the needle preferably being positioned down extending through the article between at least certain successive sewing steps so that the article may be manually repositioned by an operator between said steps. A thread cutoff component is operably arranged with the sewing head for cutting off thread used by the needle in stitching at the termination of selected sewing steps, the thread cutoff being operable when the needle is up above the article as positioned by the needle positioner. Required for certain of the methods of the invention, the needle positioner also includes a counter device automatically counting reciprocations of the needle and capable of transmitting an electrical signal equivalent to such movement count. The sewing equipment may be controlled by the usual manually operable switches such as knee control and foot control switches. The equipment likewise may include usual components such as an automatic pickup for supplying articles to the operator and an automatic stacker for removing sewn articles from the operator, and the sewing head may make use of usual attachments such as pleater and buttonhole attachments. Further, required for certain of the methods of the invention, an automatic controller, a power interface and preferably an automatic recorder are electrically connected with the sewing equipment, and a permanent record command switch is preferably arranged with the foot control switch. The power interface serves to electrically integrate the manually operable switches and the automatic controller with the sewing equipment, said power interface being selectively switchable between a manual mode and an automatic mode. In manual mode, the power interface connects the manually operable switches for usual control of the sewing equipment to perform a plurality of operational steps in an overall sewing operation as the article to be sewn, while at the same time, the power interface translates each of the component operational steps into composite instruction signals for transmission to and temporary recording at the automatic controller, any selected of said composite instruction signals being permanently recorded by the automatic controller in sequence by actuation of the permanent record command switch. Each instruction signal includes both function, the component being operated, and duration, either pure time in time elements or needle reciprocations froM the needle positioner and counter. The automatic recorder is connected to the automatic controller and is selectively actionable for inserting in proper sequence into temporary and permanent recording of the automatic controller composite instruction signals equivalent to certain of the composite instruction signals resulting from actual operation of the sewing equipment so that selected of the sewing equipment operations either need nor be replaced by the automatic recorder. Also, the automatic controller is arranged for inserting instruction signals for determined time delays between selected component operations, either by permanently recording actual delays between component operations or by inserting numbers of time elements with the automatic recorder. Instructions for indeterminate time delays between component operations and training time delays intermediate selected component operations may likewise be appropriately inserted into the automatic controller. After completion of the permanent recording, when the power interface is in the automatic mode, the automatic controller may be operated to transmit back to the power interface the permanently recorded instruction signals in sequence which are translated by the power interface into commands for operating the various components to repeat the component operational steps to carry out the overall sewing operation method including the now inserted determined delays, indeterminate delays and training delays. During the determined delays, a preceding operating component is stopped, the determined delay carried out in time, and a latter component started automatically. During the indeterminate delays, the preceding component operation is stopped, but the latter component operation is not started until manually actuated by a manual control. The training delays are indeterminate and may be intermediate a selected component operation interrupting such operation until manual control actuation or between component operations as an ordinary indeterminate delay, in either case, there being means on the automatic controller for selected elimination of the training delays with the effect of removal from the automatic controller permanent recording.

Description

' head for cutting off thread may be controlled by the usual manually operable sw United States Patent Norman M. I-Iinerfeld Marmaroneck, N.Y.;

David S. Noble, Carpinteria, Calif.; William H. Bartley, Orange, Calif.

[72] Inventors MANUFACTURING OPERATIONS SUCH AS SEWING OPERATIONS AND THE LIKE 41 Claims, 27 Drawing Figs. [52] US. Cl. 112/262, 318/20.102, 346/33 MC [51] Int. Cl D05b 1/00 [50] Field of Search 112/2, 121.11, 121.15,102, 262, 219 A, 252; 235/l51.l1; 346/33 MC; 318/162, 20.102; 340/1725 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,537,770 l/l95l Livingston et a1. 346/33 MC 2,882,847 4/1959 Winz 112/219 A 2,996,348 8/ 1961 Rosenberg. 346/33 MC 3,178,716 4/1965 Slatin 346/33 MC 3,186,366 6/1965 Hass et a1... 112/219A 3,324,281 6/1967 Morse 318/18 X 3,386,402 6/1968 Ross 112/252 3,445,639 5/1969 Martens 318/162 X 3,449,540 6/1969 Yanko et al. 318/162 X 3,459,144 8/1969 Ramsey et al 112/102 X Primary Examiner-James R. Boler Attorney-Mahoney, Hombaker & Schick ABSTRACT: The manufacturing operations involve equipment preferably in the form of sewing equipment comprised of a usual sewing head with a reciprocal up and down moving needle electrically driven for sewing a plurality of stitches in an article to be sewn. A presser foot retains the article in place during sewing and downwardly against usual feed dogs which move the article forwardly and rearwardly appropriate for the various stitching operations. A needle positioner is operable with the sewing head for positioning the needle in a selected up or down position relative to the article at the termination of any sewing operational step, the needle preferably being positioned down extending through the article between at least certain successive sewing steps so that the article may be manually repositioned by an operator between said steps. A thread cutoff component is operably arranged with the sewing used by the needle in stitching at the termination of selected sewing steps, the thread cutofi' being operable when the needle is up above the article as positioned by the needle positioner. Required for certain of the methods-of the invention, the needle positioner also includes a counter device automatically counting reciprocations of the needle and capable of transmitting an electrical signal equivalent to such movement count. The sewing equipment itches such as knee control and foot control switches. The equipment likewise may include usual components such as an automatic pickup for supplying articles to the operator and an automatic stacker for removing sewn articles from the operator, and the sewing head may make use of usual attachments such as pleater and buttonhole attachments. Further, required for certain of the methods of the invention, an automatic controller, a power interface and preferably an automatic recorder are electrically connected with the sewing equipment, and a permanent record command switch is preferably arranged with the foot control switch. The power interface serves to electrically integrate the manually operable switches and the automatic controller with the sewing equipment, said power interface being selectively switchable between a manual mode and an automatic mode. In manual mode, the power interface connects the manually operable switches for usual control of the sewing equipment to perform a plurality of operational steps in an overall sewing operation as the article to be sewn, while at the same time, the power interface translates each of the component operational steps into composite instruction signals for transmission to and temporary recording at the automatic controller, any selected of said composite instruction signals being permanently recorded by the automatic controller in sequence by actuation of the permanent record command switch. Each instruction signal ineludes both function, the component being operated, and duration, either pure time in time elements or needle reciprocations from the needle positioner and counter. The automatic recorder is connected to the automatic controller and is selectively actionable for inserting in proper sequence into temporary and permanent recording of the automatic controller composite instruction signals equivalent to certain of the composite instruction signals resulting from actual operation of the sewing equipment so that selected of the sewing equip ment operations either need nor be replaced by the automatic recorder. Also, the automatic controller is arranged for inserting instruction signals for determined time delays between selected component operations, either by permanently recording actual delays between component operations or by inserting numbers of time elements with the automatic recorder. Instructions for indeterminate time delays between component operations and training time delays intennediate selected component operations may likewise be appropriately inserted into the automatic controller. After completion of the permanent recording, when the power interface is in the automatic mode, the automatic controller may be operated to transmit back to the power interface the permanently recorded instruction signals in sequence which are translated by the power interface into commands for operating the various components to repeat the component operational steps to carry out the overall sewing operation method including the now inserted determined delays, indetenninate delays and training delays. During the determined delays, a preceding operating component is stopped, the determined delay carried out in time, and a latter component started automatically. During the indeterminate delays, the preceding component operation is stopped, but the latter component operation is not started until manually actuated by a manualcontrol. The training delays are indeterminate and may be intermediate a selected component operation interrupting such operation until manual control actuation or between component operations as an ordinary indeterminate delay, in either case, there being means on the automatic controller for selected elimination of the training delays with the effect of removal from the automatic controller permanent recording.

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DA W0 3 WILL/AM H. BARTLEY BY fl kwausy, HoeuaAkse & Saw/CK METHODS OF AUTOMATICALLY CONTROLLING MANUFACTURING OPERATIONS SUCH AS SEWING OPERATIONS AND THE LIKE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention related to methods for automatically controlling manufacturing operations such as sewing operations and the like which has the effect of automatically controlling at least the major portion of a series of sequential manufacturng component operational steps having mixed therein certain manufacturing operations may be recorded in an automatic controller permitting the automatic controllerto subsequently automatically control and manufacturing components for carrying out the overall manufacturing operation merely by first carrying out the overall manufacturing operation under the manual control of an operator, various means being provided for inserting the instruction signals in the automatic controller creating time delays in the overall manufacturing operation for themanual step performances by the operator. As a result, the minimum of time is required for the programming of the automatic controller in order to permit the same to automatically control an entire overall manufacturing operation, giving maximum versatility and convenience in use so as to be adaptable to a wide variety of mass production manufacturing operations.

There'are many manufacturing operations making use of various forms of automatic production machinery wherein a human operator is required to'manually control automatic machinery in performing certain steps of the overall manufacturing operation, while at the same time between certain of the individual automatic machinery steps such operator is required to 'manually perform certain' manual functions or steps with or on the article being manufactured, such as realigning or repositioning the article being manufactured relative to the automatic machinery in order to carry out a subsequent automatic machinery operational step. Still further, in many such cases it is necessary to position the automatic machinery relative to the article being manufactured in one determined position at tennination of an automatic machinery operational step in order that the required manual operation may be properly carried out by the operator, while in other instances the manufacturing operational step must be terminated with the manufacturing machinery in another position preparatory to the subsequent manual operation. To even further complicate the situation, one manufacturing equipment operational step might require a given number of machinery movements, the next manufacturing machinery operational step a different number of movements, and still the next manufacturing equipment operational step still a different number of equipment movements, in each manufacturing machinery operational step the equipment being required to be manually controlled by the operator.

Even further, the times required for the manual operation by the human operator between the manufacturing equipment operational steps may be of varying length, one manual step requiring a different length of time from a preceding or a subsequent manual step as determined by the manufacturing equipment operational step preceding such operator manual step and the manufacturing equipment operational step succeeding such operator manual step. There are also many instances in the use of automatic production equipment or machinery comprised of a series of components wherein one automatic machinery operational step may require the use of one component and is immediately followed by the use of another component, the first component being required to terminate its particular operational step in a determined position in order that the latter component can properly operate and without damaging the first component. Thus, it may be seen that the types of overall manufacturing operations discussed are not readily adaptable to overall automatic control,but rather would appear to require a great amount of individual human operator control which could only be accomplished by a skilled operator after a long period of intensive training.

One industry in which the overall manufacturing operations include all of the difficulties hereinbefore discussed from the standpoint of attempting to make overall manufacturing operations capable of automatic control is the garment industry wherein the articles to be manufactured are garments basically requiring a series of sewing'or stitching operations,-as well as various other operations. For instance, in considering the wide variety of sewing operations required in the assembling and manufacture of even very simple forms of garments, it is seen that a wide variety and number of sewing steps can be involved, many requiring forward and reverse sewing and many requiring delays therebetween for manual operator repositioning of the garment for the next sewing step to be carried out. Furthermore, during manual operator repositioning of the garment between sewing steps, it is most convenient for the needle of the sewing head to be positioned projecting downwardly through the garment so that proper alignment is maintained relative to the sewing head needle between the sewing steps.

Also, where the garment being manufactured is of a stable material, that is, a material which is not readily stretchable or deformable, each of the sewing steps will more preferably consist of a determined number of needle reciprocal movements or stitches, absolutely requiring the complete attention of the human operator for proper accomplishment. At the same time, at the termination of particular sewing steps, not only is it necessary for the sewing head needle to be positioned down projecting downwardly through the material for a subsequent manual operator repositioning step, it is also absolutely necessary for the presser foot of the sewing head working in conjunction with the needle during stitching to retain the garment material downwardly against feed dogs progressively moving the material during stitching to be raised in order that the garment material will be free for such manual operator repositioning. When the sewing steps have been completed, that is, at the termination of the last sewing step, it is necessary that the sewing head needle will be positioned up in order that the thread cutoff device of the equipment will be able to operate in cutting off the thread being used in the sewing steps without striking the sewing head needle during such thread cutofi'.

Certain prior constructions of sewing equipment have included various controls incorporated therein, all requiring manual operation by a human operator, for accomplishing the proper positioning of the sewing head needle in selected up and down positions by means of anautomatic needle-positioning device. in use thereof, the human operator is required to terminate a particular sewing step and then selectively actuate the needle-positioning device to position the needle in the desired up or down position before the subsequent manual repositioning or thread cutoff step can be carried out. Also, as an adjunct to sewing equipment, various supplementary devices have been provided such as pickup devices for supplying garment parts to the operators sewing station and stacker devices on which a garment may be positioned by the operator after completion of the sewing operations for automatic stacking by the stacker devices.

Although these sewing equipment improvements have added somewhat to the convenience of the human operators, each still requires individual control by that operator at an appropriate time. The operators, therefore, must make a wide variety of mental decisions during an overall garment-sewing operation, said decisions being immediately followed by manual actions at proper moments in order to carry out a coordinated overall sewing operation. Thus, it can be seen that a relatively high degree of operator skill has been required, obtained only through long periods of training and even then such operations are relatively tedious and tiring even to such skilled operators.

To even more clearly illustrate the complications involved with attempts to fully, or even partially, automate sewing operations in the garment industry, consider the example of the great number of individual automatic and manual operations required for sewing a pocket patch or a shirt front. The finished pocket formed by the pocket patch in the example has an open top and the pocket patch will, therefore, require short lengths of multiple stitching at the top comers thereof for reinforcing in addition to the continuous line of stitching completely around the pocket patch periphery with the exception of the top edge thereof. Furthermore, the pocket patch will have straight sides, angled lower corners and a straight bottom. Finally, assume that a stack of shirt fronts is positioned at the left of the operator and a stack of pocket patches is positioned to the right of the operator, an automatic stacker being positioned directly rearwardly of the sewing machine table for final stacking of the completed pocket assembled shirt fronts;

' The requirements of the machine operator would be to first pickup a shirt front from the lefi side and a pocket patch from the right side, placing the pocket patch at proper location on the shirt front and positioning the temporarily assembled garment at proper location beneath the sewing head needle on the'sewing machine table, the needle being at the upper righthand corner of the pocket patch ready for commencing the sewing or stitching operations. Atthis time, and in order to accomplish this positioning of the temporarily assembled pocket patch and shirt from beneath the sewing head needle, the needle would have to be in the up position and the presser foot likewise up. The operator is now ready to commence sewing and .keep in mind that all component operations must be manually actuated by the operator. 33 ln sequence, the presser foot is lowered, the sewing head actuated to sew four stitches forward and stop, the sewing head is actuated to sew four stitches rearwardly and stop. The sewing head is actuated to sew 36 stitches forwardly to the first comer of the lower right-angle pocket corner and stop, such stop preferably requiring the needle to be positioned down extending downwardly through both the pocket patch and shirt front. The presser foot is raised and the assembled pocket patch and shirt front repositioned to align for sewing along the right-angle pocket comer.

The presser foot is lowered and the sewing head is actuated to sew seven stitches along the angled pocket corner and stop with the needle positioned down. The presser foot is raised and the assembled pocket patch and shirt front manually repositioned aligned for sewing along the straight pocket bottom. The presser foot is lowered and the sewing head is actuated to sew 27 stitches along the pocket straight bottom to the first corner of the left angle pocket comer and stop, with the needle positioned down.

The presser foot is raised and the assembled pocket patch and shirt front manually repositioned properly aligned for sewing along the left angled pocket corner. The presser foot is lowered and the sewing head is actuated to sew seven stitches along the left angled pocket corner and stop with the needle positioned down. The presser foot is raised and the assembled pocket patch and shirt front is manually repositioned to align for sewing along the pocket left-hand straight side.

The presser foot is lowered and the sewing head is actuated to sew 36 stitches along the left-hand pocket straight side to the pocket upper left comer and stop. The sewing head is actuated in reverse to sew four stitches rearwardly and stop, then four stitches again forwardly and stop with the needle up followed by actuation of the thread cutoff and presser foot positioned up completing the sewing or operations or steps.

Finally, the completely sewn pocket patch and shirt front are removed from the sewing head and positioned over the stacker with the stacker being actuated to properly stack the same rearwardly of the sewing machine table and permitting the operator to repeat the sequential steps for preparing for and sewing a next pocket patch and shirt front.

Thus, although the sewing of a pocket patch on a shirt from might appear at first consideration as a relatively simple sewing operation, it can readily be appreciated that such a sewing operation requires a great number of closely controlledsewing operations, interspersed with 'both component positioning operations and operations required to be manually performed by the operator. Furthermore, the operator is required to actuate in various manners the various automatic components, in each case, requiring a mental decision and than a manual movement of properselected form. Furthermore, the training time for necessary skills in order to accomplish the sewing operations or steps in the proper sequence, as well as the other interspersed steps required, is obviouslyquite extensive, and even when properly trained, such work is quite tedious and tiring for an operator.

Thus, although small parts of overall sewing operations in the garment industry have been at least partially automatically controlled, no one prior to our present invention has been successful in providing automatic control of virtually an entire overall sewing operation or the methods for carrying out such control. Obviously the wide variety and numbers of problems to be overcome if overall automatic control is to be provided are extremely complex and this particularly true when it is considered that it is clearly impossible to eliminate the human operator from the overall sewing operations. In addition, no one prior to our present invention has been able to reduce training time and to reduce required skills of the ever-present human operator from the sewing operations, all necessary if optimum improvements are to be provided in the gannent industry.

OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is, therefore, an object of our invention to provide methods of automatically controlling manufacturing operations such as sewing operations and the like, such methods involving equipment of the type normally requiring manual actuation of various components by a human operator in a deter mined sequence and interspersed with required purely manual operations or steps by said operator in order to carry out an overall manufacturing operation, wherein substantially the entire overall manufacturing operations are automatically controlled including determined time delays between certain manufacturing component operational steps during which the operator must perform manual steps in order to properly complete the overall manufacturing operation. As a result, the requirement for the human operator to manually actuate the automatic manufacturing equipment and the sundry decisions by the operator normally involved therewith are completely eliminated, the main steps remaining for the operator once the overall manufacturing operation has been commenced being to manually perform certain more minor operations required between various of the automatic component operations. In this manner, the prior tediousness and skill required for such overall manufacturing operations is greatly reduced, thereby likewise reducing operator-training time necessary for training an operator to be able to carry out the overall manufacturing operations.

As an example, in the garment industry and the various overall sewing operations thereof, each of the individual sewing steps, including positioning and repeated repositioning of various components, is completely automatically controlled. Where manual repositioning of articles to be sewn is required between any of the sewing steps, a time delay period is supplied during which the operator may accomplish such repositioning and after which, the automatic components immediately resume automatic operation under the automatic control.

It is a further object of our invention to provide methods of automatically controlling manufacturing operations such as sewing operationsv and the like of the foregoing general character wherein the manufacturing equipment involved including control devices therefor may be set up or programmed for carrying out the determined overall manufacturing operations merely by an operator manually actuating the manufacturing equipment in theusual manner, the various individual of the manufacturing steps being recorded in the automatic controller, after which, the automatic controller is capable of automatically controlling the various components to repeat the overall manufacturing operation, even as to controlling the time on time delays between component automatic operations to provide the operator with sufiicient time for manually performing necessary manual operations or steps. In addition, the methods involve the control devices arranged with the manufacturing equipment with certain of the same being capable of actuation for directly inserting into the automatic controller program various predetermined instructions of exact form as would be received from the actual operations of the components during a particular manufacturing step. The various components may, therefore, be manually actuated to carry out certain manufacturing operational steps in one manner, yet the automatic controller may be programmed to repeat such component operational steps in a difi'erent manner, all as determined by the particular operator controlling the devices and equipment.

Again as applied to sewing equipment for carrying out an overall sewing operation, the overall sewing operation is carried out by the operator manually actuating the various componentsin proper sequence, for instance, sequential sewing operations or steps. If, directly after the performance of a particular component operational step, say, of actually sewing 75 stitches in an article to be sewn, it is determined that that particular sewing operation should actually include only 55 stitches, instructions for the automatic controller to carry out the stitching step of only 55 stitches may be inserted into the automatic controller program while the instructions for the 75 stitches is not recorded so that upon repeating the overall sewing operation, the automatic controller will carry out that particular sewing step of only the 55 stitches. Also, the time delays between component operations for operator manually repositioning of the article being sewn can be inserted as instructions into the automatic controller merely by permitting that length of time delay between component manual actuations, or, in the alternative, the actual time delay between component operations taken by the operator may be eliminated from the automatic controller recording and a predetermined time delay inserted into the automatic controller recording or program as a substitute for the actual delay time taken by the operator. Obviously, therefore, although the basic concept of the methods involving such control devices is that of being able therewith to completely program the control devices for automatically carrying out an overall sewing operation merely by once performing the same under component manual actuation, even increased wide versatility of the control devices permits during such programming, the alteration of various steps to give the exact final programming desired.

It is still a further object of our invention to provide methods of automatically controlling manufacturing operations such as sewing operations and the like as hereinbefore discussed wherein indeterminate time delays may be inserted as instructions into the automatic controller programming either between manufacturing equipment component operational steps or intermediate such component operational steps depending on the desired purpose. For instance, if a manual operation between two component operational steps will vary in time length from one repeated overall manufacturing operation to the next, an indeterminate time delay instruction may be inserted into the automatic controller program having the effect of stopping a preceding component operation at the end of its operational step, but requiring some manual actuation by the operator before the subsequent programmed operational step will commence so as to leave the length of the same, and all of the 6 time delay completely controlled by the operator so thatthe same can be varied in total length as it is necessary. At'thc same time, the control devices involved are arranged so that these indeterminate time delays, functional in the same manner, may be inserted at any point in the automatic controller program, even intermediate a particular manufacturing equipment step, the indeterminate time delays in this case being capable of'elimination from the automatic controller program without otherwise altering such program at any time during subsequent automatic control of the manufacturing equipment, thereby constituting training time delays which are permitted to remain in the program during the operator training and can be removed from such program after the operator has become sutficiently trained.

It is an additional object of our invention to provide methods of automatically controlling manufacturing operations such as sewing operations and the like of the foregoing general character wherein each of the manufacturing equipment component operational steps is translated by the control devices into a composite instruction for recording in the automatic controller to program the same, such composite instructions thereafter being sequentially translated back into component operations to carry out the various component operational steps during automatic actuation of the manufacturing equipment by the automatic controller. Each composite instruction as received and recorded by the automatic controller is formed from the combination of function and duration, the function being the particular manufacturing equipment component to be automatically actuated and the duration being either a pure time duration measured in particular time units or a given number of component movements as sensed and counted by the automatic controller with the aid of other parts of the control devices. The determined time delays are mea sured by the automatic controller merely in time units, since no function is involved.

As applied to sewing equipment for perfonning a particular overall sewing operation on an article to be sewn, examples of the composite instructions of the different duration types might be a series of sequential sewing operations to carry out a series of sequential sewing steps and a final thread cutoff operation. For the sewing steps, such steps are measured in the number of reciprocal movements of the needle performing the sewing steps, such reciprocal movements being sensed and translated to the automatic controller such that an exact count of needle reciprocations is determined and carried out. The thread cutoff operation is programmed for duration merely in time units, there being a sufficient number of time units to make up an overall total time within which the thread cutoff device can effectively perform the thread cutoff operation.

It is also an object of our invention to provide methods of automatically controlling manufacturing operations such as sewing operations and the like involving the above-discussed programmed automatic controller and the composite instructions therefor in order to automatically control the sequential manufacturing operations wherein all of the programmed instructions having the duration thereof measured in manufacturing equipment component movements may be simultaneously altered to alter the time involved in carrying out the programmed instructions having the duration thereof measure in time units may be simultaneously varied in order to vary the total time permitted for a manufacturing equipment component operation or the total length of a determined time delay. As applied to sewing equipment, a variable-speed control is provided for the drive motor driving the reciprocal needle in the sequential sewing operations so that by varying the speed of the drive motor, the total time for accomplishing a given number of needle reciprocations is varied, the program in the automatic controller being that solely of needle reciprocation count so as to be unaffected other than the overall duration of a particular sewing step due to the faster or slower needle reciprocations as counted by the automatic controller. At the same time, the automatic controller is provided with a selected adjustment for the time ele-

Claims

1. In a method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment normally manually controlled by an operator for carrying out a series of manufacturing operations on an article to be manufactured, the steps of: manually actuating certain manufacturing components of said manufacturing equipment to carry out a series of preplanned manufacturing operations in a preplanned order on an article to be manufactured; during said manufacturing component manual actuation, actuating at least one of said manufacturing components through a plurality of manufacturing operations each comprised of a number of consecutively repeated substantially identical movements during each actuation of said one manufacturing component with the number of said one manufacturing component movements in any given operation of said one manufacturing component being free of required relationship to any other operation of said one manufacturing component; during said manufacturing component manual actuation, recording in an automatic controller at least certain of said manufacturing component actuations in said preplanned order including exactly counting and exactly recording said exact count of the number of said one manufacturing component consecutively repeated substantially identical movements during each of said one manufacturing component manufacturing operations to create at least part of a record of said preplanned manufacturing operations in said preplanned order; and directly using said record created by said manufacturing component manual actuations in said automatic controller, automatically actuating said manufacturing components by said automatic controller to repeat said carrying out of said series of preplanned manufacturing operations in said preplanned order on an article to be manufactured including the repeating of said one manufacturing component exactly counted and consecutively repeated substantially identical movementS for each of said one manufacturing component manufacturing operations exactly as recorded by said automatic controller.

2. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 1 in which each of said manufacturing operations carried out by said step of manually actuating said manufacturing components consists of both function and duration, said function being measured by the particular of said manufacturing components being manually actuated, said duration being measured by the exact number of said consecutively repeated substantially identical movements for each manufacturing operation of at least said one manufacturing component during said manual actuation and an elapsed time measured in a given number of preset time elements sufficient for operation of others of said manufacturing components during said manual actuation; in which said step of recording said manufacturing component actuations includes the recording of both said function and the exact count of said repeated movements and said time elements for said duration; and in which said step of automatically actuating said manufacturing components by said automatic controller includes said actuating according to said function and said repeated movement and said time element exact counts for said duration.

3. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 1 in which said method includes the step of during said manufacturing component manual actuation, recording in said automatic controller preplanned instruction commands independently artificially generated free of said manual actuation of said manufacturing components intermediate said recording of said certain manufacturing component actuation but in exact finally intended sequence relative thereto, said preplanned instruction commands when used by said automatic controller causing automatic actuation of particular of said manufacturing components to exactly carry out in proper intended sequence particular of said series of preplanned manufacturing operations; and in which said step of directly using said automatic controller record includes the directly using of said record created by both said manufacturing component manual actuations and said artificially generated preplanned instruction commands.

4. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 1 in which said method includes the step of during said manufacturing component manual actuation, recording in said automatic controller in exact finally intended sequence determined time delays between said recording of preplanned of said component actuations with said determined time delays being measured in a given exact number of preset time elements and each determined time delay being free of required relationship to any other to form a part of said automatic controller record, and causing said determined time delays in sequence between said preplanned component actuations upon said direct use of said automatic controller record during which determined time delays none of said manufacturing components are actuated.

5. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 1 in which said method includes the step of during said manufacturing component manual actuation, recording in said automatic controller in exact finally intended sequence determined time delays between said recording of preplanned of said component actuations with said determined time delays being measured in a given exact number of preset time elements and each determined time delay being free of required relationship to any other to form a part of said automatic controller record, and causing said determined time delays in sequence between said determined manufacturing components upon said direct use of said automatic controller record during which determined time delays none of said manufacturing components are actuated; and in which said step of recording said determined time delays in said automatic cOntroller includes the step of during said manufacturing component manual actuation, recording said determined time delays in said automatic controller in said exact finally sequence by one of delaying for a predetermined time between said manufacturing component manual actuations while continuing said recording creating a time delay equivalent to a particular intended of said determined time delays for recording in said automatic controller record and inserting an artificially generated preplanned instruction command calling for a predetermined exact number of said preset time elements into said automatic controller record equivalent to a particular of said determined time delays at appropriate sequential location in said automatic controller record to cause said particular intended determined time delay.

6. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 1 in which said method includes the step of during said manufacturing component manual actuation, recording in said automatic controller record by artificial generation and independent insertion therein at preplanned locations in proper sequence indeterminate time delays intermediate certain of said one manufacturing component manufacturing operations causing said automatic controller to delay for an indeterminate period of time upon sequentially reaching one of said indeterminate time delays intermediate one of said one manufacturing component manufacturing operations in said automatic controller record during said direct use of automatic controller record and requiring a manual actuation of said automatic controller to commence resumption of said sequential direct use of said automatic controller record in continuing particular of said one manufacturing component manufacturing operation.

7. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 1 in which said method includes the step of during said manufacturing component manual actuation, recording in said automatic controller in exact finally intended sequence determined time delays between said recording of preplanned of said component actuations with said determined time delays being measured in a given exact number of preset time elements and each determined time delay being free of required relationship to any other to form a part of said automatic controller record, and causing said determined time delays in sequence between said preplanned component actuations upon said direct use of said automatic controller record during which determined time delays none of said manufacturing components are actuated; and in which same method includes the step of during said manufacturing component manual actuation, recording in said automatic controller record by artificial generation and independent insertion therein at preplanned locations in proper sequence indeterminate time delays intermediate certain of said one manufacturing components manufacturing operations causing said automatic controller to delay for an indeterminate period of time upon sequentially reaching one of said indeterminate time delays intermediate one of said one manufacturing component manufacturing operations in said automatic controller record during said direct use of said automatic controller record and requiring a manual actuation of said automatic controller to commence resumption of said sequential direct use of said automatic controller record in continuing the particular of said one manufacturing component manufacturing operation.

8. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 1 in which said method includes the step of during said manufacturing component manual actuation, recording in said automatic controller record by artificial generation and independent insertion therein at preplanned locations in proper sequence indeterminate time delays intermediate certain of said one manufacturing component manufacturing operations causing said automatic controller to delay for an indeterminAte period of time upon sequentially reaching one of said indeterminate time delays intermediate one of said one manufacturing component manufacturing operations in said automatic controller record during said direct use of said automatic controller record and requiring a manual actuation of said automatic controller to commence resumption of said sequential direct use of said automatic controller record in continuing the particular of said one manufacturing component manufacturing operation; and in which said method includes the step of later permanently eliminating for any desired period of time during later repeated uses of said automatic controller record at least certain of said indeterminate time delays from said automatic controller record without otherwise affecting said automatic controller record and the direct use of said record, said automatic controller record after said certain indeterminate time delay elimination being directly usable to automatically actuate said manufacturing components by said automatic controller in the same preplanned sequence as if said certain determinate time delays had not been inserted in said automatic controller record.

9. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 1 in which said method includes the step of during said manufacturing component manual actuation, recording in said automatic controller in exact finally intended sequence determined time delays between said recording of preplanned of said component actuations with said determined time delays being measured in a given exact number of preset time elements and each determined time delay being free of required relationship to any other to form a part of said automatic controller record, and causing said determined time delays in sequence between said preplanned component actuations upon said direct use of said automatic controller record during which determined time delays none of said manufacturing components are actuated; and in which said method includes the step of later selectively varying the determined length of said determined time delays in said automatic controller record by varying the length of each of said preset time elements making up each of said determined time delays without otherwise appreciably affecting said automatic controller record and the direct use thereof in automatically actuating said manufacturing components, said selective varying of said determined time delays causing said determined time delays in said automatic controller record to permanently have the delaying effect according to said selective variation thereof in the same preplanned sequence during later repeated uses of said automatic controller record until further selectively varied.

10. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 1 in which said step of manually actuating said certain manufacturing components includes the actuation of said one manufacturing component to carry out its said plurality of manufacturing operations and the placing of said one manufacturing component in a first position at the end of some of said one manufacturing component manufacturing operations and in a second position at the end of at least one of said one manufacturing component manufacturing operations; in which said step of recording in said automatic controller said manufacturing component actuations includes the recording of the appropriate of said first and second positions for the stopping of each of said one manufacturing component manufacturing operations; and in which said step of directly using said automatic controller record includes the automatically actuating said one manufacturing component for said plurality of manufacturing operations and the stopping of said one manufacturing component in said appropriate of said first and second positions according to said automatic controller record.

11. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 1 in which said manufacTuring equipment is sewing equipment and said at least one of said manufacturing components is a sewing head with a reciprocal needle actuatable through said plurality of manufacturing operations each comprised of a number of consecutively repeated needle reciprocations for carrying out sewing operations and the others of said manufacturing components are other sewing equipment components actuatable for carrying out operations related to said sewing operations; and in which said steps of manually actuating, recording said manual actuations and directly using said record created include the use of needle reciprocation exact count for determining and controlling each of said reciprocal needle sewing operations, and make use of time periods sufficient for operation of said other sewing equipment components for determining and controlling at least certain of said operations related to said sewing operations.

12. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 1 in which said manufacturing equipment is sewing equipment and said at least one of said manufacturing components is a sewing head with a reciprocal needle actuated through said plurality of manufacturing operations each comprised of a number of consecutively repeated needle reciprocations for carrying out sewing operations and the others of said manufacturing components are other sewing equipment components actuated for carrying out operations related to said sewing operations; in which said series of preplanned manufacturing operations include a plurality of consecutive sequential sewing operations; and in which said method includes the step of during said manufacturing component manual actuation, recording in said automatic controller in exact finally intended sequence determined time delays between said sequential sewing operations with said determined time delays being measured in a given exact number of preset time elements and each determined time delay being free of required relationship to any other causing said determined time delays in sequence between said sequential sewing operations during use of said automatic controller record for permitting said operator to reposition said article between said sequential sewing operations.

13. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 1 in which said manufacturing equipment is sewing equipment and said at least one of said manufacturing components is a sewing head with a reciprocal needle actuated through said plurality of manufacturing operations each comprised of a number of consecutively repeated needle reciprocations for carrying out sewing operations and the others of said manufacturing components are other sewing equipment components actuated for carrying out operations related to said sewing operations; in which said series of preplanned manufacturing operations include a plurality of consecutive sequential sewing operations; in which said method includes the step of during said manufacturing component manual actuation, recording in said automatic controller in exact finally intended sequence determined time delays between said sequential sewing operations with said determined time delays being measured in a given exact number of preset time elements and each determined time delay being free of required relationship to any other causing said determined time delays in sequence between said sequential sewing operations during use of said automatic controller record for permitting said operator to reposition said article between said sequential sewing operations; and in which said method includes the step of during said manufacturing component manual actuation, recording in said automatic controller indeterminate time delays at selected locations in proper sequence in said automatic controller record intermediate certain of said sewing operations causing indeterminate time delays during use of said automatic controller record when said record locations intermediate said certain sewing Operations are reached upon said direct use of said record during which none of said sewing equipment components are actuated including said reciprocal needle and requiring a manual actuation by said operator to resume said use of said automatic controller record and actuation of said reciprocal needle.

14. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 1 in which said manufacturing equipment is sewing equipment and said at least one of said manufacturing components is a sewing head with a reciprocal needle actuated through said plurality of manufacturing operations each comprised of a number of consecutively repeated needle reciprocations for carrying out sewing operations and the others of said manufacturing components are other sewing equipment components actuated for carrying out operations related to said sewing operations; in which said series of preplanned manufacturing operations include a plurality of sequential sewing operations; and in which said method includes the steps of during said manufacturing components manual actuation, recording in said automatic controller record by artificial generation and independent insertion therein at preplanned locations indeterminate time delays causing said automatic controller to delay for an indeterminate period of time upon reaching one of said indeterminate time delays in said automatic controller record during said direct use of said automatic controller record and requiring manual actuation of said automatic controller to commence resumption of said direct use of said automatic controller record, at least certain of said indeterminate time delays being located in said automatic controller record intermediate certain of said sewing operations, and later permanently eliminating for any desired period of time during later repeated uses of said automatic controller record at least certain of said indeterminate time delays from said automatic controller record without otherwise affecting said automatic controller record and the direct use thereof, said automatic controller record after said certain indeterminate time delay elimination being directly usable to automatically actuate said manufacturing components including said sewing head reciprocal needle by said automatic controller in the same preplanned sequence as if said certain indeterminate time delays had not been inserted in said automatic controller record.

15. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 1 in which said manufacturing equipment is sewing equipment and said at least one of said manufacturing components is a sewing head with a reciprocal needle actuated through said plurality of manufacturing operations each comprised of a number of consecutively repeated needle reciprocations for carrying out sewing operations and the others of said manufacturing components are other sewing equipment components actuated for carrying out operations related to said sewing operations, said reciprocal needle upon stopping thereof being capable of being positioned in either of a needle down position extending downwardly through an article to be sewn and a needle up position spaced above said article to be sewn; in which said series of preplanned manufacturing operations include a plurality of sequential sewing operations; in which said step of manually actuating said certain manufacturing components includes the actuation of said sewing head reciprocal needle to carry out said sequential repeated reciprocation sewing operations and the positioning of said reciprocal needle upon stopping thereof in said needle down position at the end of some of said sequential sewing operations during which said article to be sewn may be repositioned and in said needle up position at the end of at least one of said sequential sewing operations during which a certain one of said other sewing equipment components requiring such needle positioning for proper actuation thereof may be actuated; in which said step oF recording in said automatic controller said manufacturing component actuations includes the recording of the appropriate of said positioning of said sewing head reciprocal needle in its needle down and needle up positions upon the stopping of said sewing operations, the recording of article-repositioning time delays at the ends of said some sequential sewing operations and the recording of actuation of said certain other sewing equipment component at the end of said one sequential sewing operation; and in which said step of directly using said automatic controller record includes the automatically actuating said sewing head reciprocal needle for said sequential sewing operations and the positioning upon stopping of said reciprocal needle in said appropriate of said needle down and needle up positions according to said automatic controller record, the repositioning of said article at the ends of said some sequential sewing operations and the actuation of said certain other sewing equipment component at the end of said one sequential sewing operation.

16. In a method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment normally manually controlled by an operator for carrying out a series of manufacturing operations on an article to be manufactured, the steps of: manually actuating certain manufacturing components of said manufacturing equipment to carry out a series of preplanned manufacturing operations in a preplanned order on an article to be manufactured; during said manufacturing component manual actuation, temporarily recording in an automatic controller said manufacturing component actuations in said preplanned order; permanently exactly recording at least certain of said temporary recordings in said automatic controller in said preplanned order to create at least part of an exact record of said preplanned manufacturing operations in said preplanned order; and directly using said record at least partially created by said manufacturing component manual actuations permanently recorded in said automatic controller, automatically reactuating said certain manufacturing components by said automatic controller to repeat said carrying out of said series of preplanned manufacturing operations in said preplanned order on an article to be manufactured.

17. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 16 in which said step of permanently exactly recording at least certain of said temporary recordings includes the elimination of certain of said temporary recordings automatically directly during selected permanent recording of others of said temporary recordings.

18. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 16 in which said step of permanently exactly recording at least certain of said temporary recordings includes selective elimination of certain of said temporary recordings and selective permanent recording of others of said temporary recordings, replacing selected of said eliminated temporary recordings by permanently recorded commands artificially generated and exactly equivalent to selected manual actuations of said manufacturing components,

19. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 16 in which said method includes the step of permanently recording in said automatic controller record at interspersed selected locations independently artificially generated commands causing actuation of said manufacturing components exactly according to said independently generated commands upon reaching said record locations during said direct use of said automatic controller record.

20. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 16 in which said steps of temporarily recording and permanently recording include the recording of said manufacturing component manual actuations in the form of composite instructions consisting of both function and duration, said function of each of said composite instructions being the particUlar of said manufacturing components actuated, said duration of each of said composite instructions consisting of one of an exact plural number of consecutively repeated substantially identical movements required for a particular at least one of said manufacturing components to carry out particular of said preplanned manufacturing operations and a sufficient length of time for permitting movement of a particular of at least certain others of said manufacturing components for carrying out particular of said preplanned manufacturing operations.

21. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 16 in which said method includes the step of permanently recording in said automatic controller record determined time delays each of selected time duration between certain of said permanent recordings of said manufacturing components actuations causing exactly equivalent determined time delays between said manufacturing component actuations during said direct use of said automatic controller record and with each determined time delay duration being free of necessary relationship to any other determined time delay duration.

22. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 16 in which said steps of temporarily recording and permanently recording include the recording of said manufacturing component manual actuations in the form of composite instructions consisting of both function and duration, said function of each of said composite instructions being the particular of said manufacturing components actuated, said duration of each of said composite instructions consisting of one of an exact plural number of consecutively repeated substantially identical movements required for a particular at least one of said manufacturing components to carry out particular of said preplanned manufacturing operations and a sufficient length of time for permitting movement of a particular at least certain others of said manufacturing components for carrying out particular of said preplanned manufacturing operations; in which said method includes the step of permanently recording in said automatic controller record determined time delays each of selected time durations between certain of said permanent recordings of said manufacturing component actuations causing exactly equivalent determined time delays between said manufacturing component actuations during said direct use of said automatic controller record and with each determined time delay duration being free of necessary relationship to any other determined time delay duration.

23. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 16 in which said manufacturing equipment is sewing equipment and said manufacturing components include a sewing head with a reciprocal needle actuatable through a plurality of manufacturing operations each comprised of a number of consecutively repeated needle reciprocations for carrying out an equivalent plurality of sewing operations, and other sewing equipment components actuatable for carrying out operations related to said sewing operations; and in which said steps of temporarily recording, permanently recording and directly using said record include the recording for said record of said manufacturing component actuations a record reflecting both function and duration, said function relating to the particular of said sewing head reciprocal needle and said other sewing equipment components being actuated, said duration relating to an exact count of plural numbers of movements of said sewing head reciprocal needle for each of said plurality of said sewing operations and a time period sufficient for movement upon actuation of at least certain others of said other sewing equipment components with said exact count of said reciprocal needle movements in each sewing operation being free of any necessary relationship to said exact count in any other sewing operation.

24. A method of automatically controlling Manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 16 in which said manufacturing equipment is sewing equipment and said manufacturing components include a sewing head with a reciprocal needle actuatable through a plurality of manufacturing operations each comprised of a number of consecutively repeated needle reciprocations for carrying out an equivalent plurality of sewing operations, certain of said series of preplanned manufacturing operations including a plurality of sequential sewing operations; in which said steps of temporarily recording, permanently recording and directly using said record include the recording for said record an exact count of plural numbers of reciprocal movements of said sewing head reciprocal needle for each of said plurality of said sewing operations with said exact count of said reciprocal needle movements in each sewing operation being free of any necessary relationship to said exact count in any other sewing operation; in which said method includes the step of permanently recording in said automatic controller to form a part of said automatic controller record determined time delays each of selected time durations between said sewing operations resulting in time delays exactly equivalent to said determined time delays between said sequential sewing operations during which said sewing head reciprocal needle is not actuated during said direct use of said automatic controller record and with each determined time delay duration being free of necessary relationship to any other determined time delay duration; and in which said method includes the step of manually repositioning said article to be manufactured during said determined time delays.

25. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 16 in which said manufacturing equipment is sewing equipment and said manufacturing components include a sewing head with a reciprocal needle actuatable through a plurality of manufacturing operations each comprised of a number of consecutively repeated needle reciprocations for carrying out an equivalent plurality of sewing operations, and other sewing equipment components actuatable for carrying out operations related to said sewing operations; in which said steps of temporarily recording, permanently recording and directly using said record include the recording for said record of said manufacturing component actuations a record reflecting both function and duration, said function relating to the particular of said sewing head reciprocal needle and said other sewing equipment components being actuated, said duration relating to an exact count of plural numbers of movements of said sewing head reciprocal needle for each of said plurality of said sewing operations and a time period sufficient for movement upon actuation of at least certain others of said other sewing equipment components with said exact count of said reciprocal needle movements in each sewing operation being free of any necessary relationship to said exact count in any other sewing operation; in which said step of manually actuating said certain manufacturing components includes the manually actuating of said sewing head reciprocal needle to carry out a plurality of sequential sewing operations; in which said steps of permanently recording and directly using said automatic controller record includes the steps of permanently recording in said automatic controller record determined time delays each of selected time durations between said sequential sewing operations by said sewing head reciprocal needle resulting in time delays exactly equivalent to said determined time delays upon said direct use of said automatic controller record during which said sewing head reciprocal needle is not actuated and with each determinated time delay duration being free of necessary relationship to any other determined time delay duration; and in which said method includes the step of manually repositioning said article during said determined delays between said sequential seWing operations.

26. In a method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment normally manually controlled by an operator for carrying out a series of manufacturing operations on an article to be manufactured, the steps of: manually actuating certain manufacturing components of said manufacturing equipment to carry out a series of preplanned manufacturing operations in a preplanned order on an article to be manufactured; during said manufacturing component manual actuations; translating at least certain said manual actuations in said preplanned order into instruction signals corresponding to said manufacturing component manual actuations; permanently recording in an automatic controller at least certain of said instruction signals in said preplanned order to create at least part of a permanent record of said instruction signals corresponding to said preplanned manufacturing operations in said preplanned order; and directly using said permanent instruction signal record created in said automatic controller, retranslating instruction signals permanently recorded in said automatic controller into commands automatically actuating said manufacturing components to repeat said carrying out of said series of preplanned manufacturing operations in said preplanned order on an article to be manufactured.

27. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 26 in which said method includes the step of recording in said automatic controller preplanned independently artificially generated instruction signals at determined locations in said instruction signal record, said independently generated instruction signals being exactly equivalent to instruction signals causing preplanned particular actuation of particular manufacturing components during said direct use of said instruction signal record.

28. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 26 in which said method includes the step of recording in said automatic controller record preplanned determined time delay instruction signals at determined locations between said instruction signals for said manufacturing component actuations resulting in preplanned determined time delays each of selected time duration between said determined manufacturing component actuations upon said direct use of said instruction signal record of said automatic controller and with each determined time delay duration being free of necessary relationship to any other determined time delay duration. 29. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 26 in which at least one of said certain manufacturing components upon said manual actuation thereof is movable through a plurality of consecutively repeated substantially identical movements to carry out each of certain of said series of preplanned manufacturing operations; in which said step of permanently recording in said automatic controller includes the recording in said automatic controller of instruction signals from one of instruction signals translated directly from manual actuation of said repeated movement manufacturing component and instruction signals independently artificially generated but equivalent to those which would be translated from said manual actuation of said repeated movement manufacturing component; and in which said steps of permanently recording said instruction signals and said direct use of said instruction signal record for said actuation of said repeated movement manufacturing component includes the use of instruction signals consisting of both function and duration, said function corresponding to actuation of said repeated movement manufacturing component, said duration being measured in an exact count of the number of repeated movements of said repeated movement manufacturing component during each said actuation with said exact count for any one of said actuations being free of required relationship to said exact count for any other of said actuations.

30. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 26 in which said certain manufacturing components include a component during each actuation thereof carrying out a plurality of consecutively repeated substantially identical movement and being positionable in either of first and second positions after each actuation thereof, said series of preplanned manufacturing operations including a plurality of manufacturing operations carried out by said positionable manufacturing component; and in which said method includes the step of permanently recording in said automatic controller to create a part of said automatic controller permanent record, instruction signals which when translated cause positioning of said positionable manufacturing component in said first position at the end of certain of said positionable manufacturing component repeated movement actuations and the positioning of said positionable manufacturing component in said second position at the end of at least one of said positionable manufacturing component repeated movement actuations.

31. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 26 in which said manufacturing equipment is sewing equipment and said manufacturing components include a sewing head with a reciprocal needle actuated through a plurality of manufacturing operations each comprised of a number of consecutively repeated needle reciprocations for carrying out an equivalent plurality of sewing operations; in which said series of preplanned manufacturing operations include a plurality of sequential sewing operations; and in which said method includes the steps of recording in said automatic controller permanent record preplanned determined time delay instruction signals between instruction signals for said sewing head reciprocal needle actuations in carrying out said sewing operations resulting in determined time delays each of selected time duration between said sewing operations upon said direct use of said permanent instruction signal record of said automatic controller and with each determined time delay duration being free of necessary relationship to any other determined time delay duration, and manually repositioning said article during said determined time delays between said sewing operations. 32. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 26 in which said manufacturing equipment is sewing equipment and said manufacturing components include a sewing head with a reciprocal needle actuated for carrying out sewing operations; in which said series of preplanned manufacturing operations include a plurality of sequential sewing operations; in which said sewing head reciprocal needle upon said manual actuation thereof is movable through a plurality of needle reciprocations to carry out each of said sewing operations; in which said step of permanently recording in said automatic controller includes the recording in said automatic controller of instruction signals from one of instruction signals translated directly from manual actuation of said sewing head reciprocal needle and instruction signals independently artificially generated but equivalent to those which would be translated from said manual actuation of said reciprocal needle; and in which said steps of permanently recording said instruction signals and said direct use of said instruction signal record for said actuation of said sewing head reciprocal needle includes the use of instruction signals consisting of both function and duration, said function corresponding to actuation of said sewing head reciprocal needle, said duration being measured in an exact count of the number of reciprocal movements of said reciprocal needle during each said actuation with said exact count for any one of said actuations being free of required relationship to said exact count for any other of said actuations.

33. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in clAim 26 in which said manufacturing equipment is sewing equipment and said manufacturing components include a sewing head with a reciprocal needle actuated through a plurality of repeated needle reciprocations for each actuation thereof for carrying out sewing operations and being positionable in either of a needle down position extending downwardly through an article to be sewn and a needle up position spaced above an article to be sewn after each actuation thereof; in which said series of preplanned manufacturing operations include a plurality of sequential sewing operations carried out by said sewing head reciprocal needle; and in which said method includes the step of permanently recording in said automatic controller to create a part of said permanent automatic controller record, instruction signals which when translated cause positioning of said sewing head reciprocal needle in said needle down position at the end of certain of said reciprocal needle sewing operations and the positioning of said reciprocal needle is said needle up position at the end of at least one of said reciprocal needle sewing operations.

34. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 26 in which said manufacturing equipment is sewing equipment and said manufacturing components include a sewing head with a reciprocal needle actuated through a plurality of repeated needle reciprocations for each actuation thereof for carrying out sewing operations and being capable of positioning at the end of said sewing operation in either of a needle down position extending downwardly through an article to be sewn and a needle up position spaced above said article to be sewn at the end of said sewing operations, a thread cutoff; in which said series of preplanned manufacturing operations include a plurality of sequential sewing operations; in which said method includes the steps of permanently recording in said automatic controller permanent record preplanned determined time delay instruction signals between instruction signals for said sewing head reciprocal needle actuation in carrying out said sequential sewing operations resulting in determined time delays each of selected time duration between said sequential sewing operations upon said direct use of said permanent instruction signal record of said automatic controller and with each determined time delay duration being free of necessary relationship to any other determined time delay duration, and manually repositioning said article to be sewn during said determined time delays between said sequential sewing operations; and in which said method includes the step of permanently recording in said automatic controller to create a part of said permanent automatic controller record, instruction signals which when translated cause positioning of said sewing head reciprocal needle in said needle down position at the end of all of said sequential sewing operations except the last of said sequential sewing operations and the positioning of said reciprocal needle in said needle up position at the end of said last of said sequential sewing operations, and permanently recording in said automatic controller to created a part of said permanent automatic controller record, an instruction signal which when translated causes actuation of said thread cutoff following said last of said sequential sewing operations.

35. In a method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment for carrying out a series of manufacturing operations on an article to be manufactured, said series of manufacturing operations requiring according to an overall manufacturing plan interspersed manual operations on said article by an operator, the step of: automatically starting, running and stopping in exact sequence certain manufacturing components of said manufacturing equipment to carry out a series of exactly preplanned sequential manufacturing operations on said article to be manufactured according to said overall manufacturing plan; automatically stoppIng said manufacturing components between certain of said manufacturing equipment manufacturing operations for selected determined time delays each of selected time durations during which operations are required to be performed manually by an operator on said article according to said overall manufacturing plan and with each determined time delay duration being free of necessary relationship to any other determined time delay duration; maintaining all manufacturing components of said manufacturing equipment free of running throughout said determined time delays; manually performing said operator manual operations on said article during said determined time delays according to said overall manufacturing plan; and automatically starting the appropriate of said manufacturing components at expiration of said determined time delays to continue said series of preplanned sequential manufacturing operations on said article to be manufactured according to said overall manufacturing plan.

36. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 35 in which said method includes the step of interspersing preplanned indeterminate time delays each of indeterminate time duration intermediate selected of said automatic running of said manufacturing components, said indeterminate time delays causing said manufacturing components to stop and remain stopped until manually actuated to resume said automatic running and complete that particular of said automatic running operation and stop; in which said method includes the steps of terminating each of said indeterminate time delays by said manual actuation; and in which said method includes the step of later eliminating and removing the effect of at least certain of said indeterminate time delays with said elimination of said indeterminate time delays being free of otherwise effecting said automatic carrying out of said manufacturing operations and said determined time delays and with said elimination being permanent for future automatic carrying out of said manufacturing operations.

37. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 35 in which said method includes the step of selectively proportionally changing permanently until rechanged the duration lengths of a certain plurality of said determined time delays according to the same proportional change despite the freedom of the necessary relationship between said durations and without otherwise effecting said automatic carrying out of said manufacturing operations.

38. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 35 in which at least one of said certain manufacturing components is a manufacturing component which when started runs through a plurality of consecutively repeated substantially identical component movements to carry out particular of said manufacturing operations; in which said overall manufacturing plan requires a plurality of said particular manufacturing operations involving said one manufacturing component; and in which said step of automatically starting, running and stopping said one manufacturing component includes the controlling of the duration of running of said one manufacturing component in carrying out each of said plural repeated movement one component manufacturing operations by automatically exactly counting said one component repeated movements and determining the duration length of each of said one manufacturing component manufacturing operations based on exact predetermined numbers of said one manufacturing component repeated movements.

39. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 35 in which said manufacturing equipment is sewing equipment and said manufacturing components include a sewing head with a reciprocal needle capable of being run through a plurality of needle reciprocations for carrying out each of a plurality of sewing operations; in which said step of automatically starting, running and sTopping said certain manufacturing components includes the automatic starting, running and stopping of said sewing head reciprocal needle through a plurality of preplanned sequential sewing operations on an article to be sewn; in which said step of automatically stopping said manufacturing components includes the automatic stopping of said sewing head reciprocal needle between each of said plurality of preplanned sequential sewing operations for said predetermined time delays each of said selected time durations; and in which said step of manually performing said operator manual operations includes the manual repositioning of said article to be sewn during said determined time delays.

40. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 35 in which said manufacturing equipment is sewing equipment and said manufacturing components include a sewing head with a reciprocal needle capable of being run through a plurality of needle reciprocations for carrying out each of a plurality of sewing operations, said sewing head reciprocal needle being capable of being positioned down upon stopping thereof extending downwardly through an article being sewn; in which said article to be manufactured is an article to be sewn; in which said steps of automatically starting, running and stopping said certain manufacturing components, and automatically stopping said manufacturing components include the automatic starting, running and stopping said sewing head reciprocal needle through a plurality of consecutive sewing operations with said determined time delays between said consecutive sewing operations, automatically positioning said reciprocal needle down extending downwardly through an article to be sewn upon said stopping of said reciprocal needle between said consecutive sewing operations and during said determined time delays therebetween; and in which said step of manually performing said operator manual operations includes the manual repositioning of said article to be sewn with said reciprocal needle extending downwardly therethrough during said determined time delays between said consecutive sewing operations.

41. A method of automatically controlling manufacturing equipment as defined in claim 35 in which said manufacturing equipment is sewing equipment and said manufacturing components include a sewing head with a reciprocal needle capable of being run through a plurality of needle reciprocations for carrying out each of a plurality of sewing operations, said sewing head reciprocal needle being capable of being positioned in either of a needle down position extending downwardly through an article to be sewn and a needle up position spaced above an article to be sewn upon stopping of said reciprocal needle, a thread cutoff capable of being run with said reciprocal needle in said needle up position for cutting off thread used by said reciprocal needle in carrying out said sewing operations; in which said article to be manufactured is an article to be sewn; in which said step of automatically starting, running and stopping said certain manufacturing components includes the automatic starting, running and stopping said sewing head reciprocal needle through a plurality of reciprocations to carry out each of a plurality of preplanned sequential sewing operations, automatically sensing each of said needle reciprocations during each of said plurality of preplanned sequential sewing operations and automatically determining the length of each of said plurality of preplanned sequential sewing operations by automatically exactly counting said needle reciprocations during each of said plurality of preplanned sequential sewing operations; in which said step of automatically stopping said manufacturing components between certain of said manufacturing equipment manufacturing operations for predetermined time delays includes the automatic stopping of said sewing head reciprocal needle and positioning said reciprocal needle in its needle down position extendinG downwardly through said article to be sewn at the end of each of said plurality of preplanned sequential sewing operations each followed by said determined time delays except the last of said operations; in which said step of manually performing said operator manual operations includes the manual repositioning of said article to be sewn during said determined time delays; and in which said method includes the steps of automatically positioning said sewing head reciprocal needle in its needle up position at the end of said last of said plurality of preplanned sequential sewing operations, and automatically running said thread cutoff after said last sewing operation.