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

Wilcom Tufting Pty Ltd (Aubourg, Pongrass, Wilson), "Method and system of tufting" (US5503092A)

Patent · not yet checked at the source

Made by: Peter L. Aubourg; Robert G. Pongrass; William B. Wilson; Wilcom Tufting Pty Ltd
Date: filed 1994 (appl. 08/190,070); granted 2 Apr 1996
Number: US5503092A
Themes: Hand-tufting tools & the gun, Tools & equipment, Global diffusion of tufting

View at the source Cited in chapter 12, note 24

Cite this source

Wilcom Tufting Pty Ltd (Aubourg, Pongrass, Wilson), “Method and system of tufting” (US5503092A), filed 1994 (appl. 08/190,070); granted 2 Apr 1996. patents.google.com/patent/US5503092A/en.

Research notes

The earliest dated Wilcom tufting-machine patent found, ten years before the EP1674605 family already in the database. A tufting head is moved automatically over a backing stretched on a frame, and the needle position is corrected for traverse direction, yarn type and backing type. That correction is needed when a hand-gun-style head is driven by computer instead of guided by eye. Rights passed from Wilcom Tufting to Wilcom Pty Limited and then to Margit Pongrass Pty Ltd. A companion 'Mechanical tufting head' patent, US5829372, is listed as of 3 Nov 1998. Why it matters: it puts computer-driven single-head tufting by the Sydney embroidery-software firm in the mid-1990s. Verified Oct 2026 by web search only: the inventors, assignee and application come from Google Patents snippets, and the grant date from a Google sitemap listing. Research note (Oct 2026): from search results; pages not opened.