EP3613881B1

EP3613881B1 - Mechanism and method to reverse a tubular textile

Info

Publication number: EP3613881B1
Application number: EP19166483.8A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Mustafa Inli
Original assignee: Da Kong Enterprise Co Ltd
Current assignee: Da Kong Enterprise Co Ltd
Priority date: 2018-08-20
Filing date: 2019-04-01
Publication date: 2020-12-02
Anticipated expiration: 2039-04-01
Also published as: US20200056323A1; CN110846873B; CN110846873A; TWI748170B; EP3613881A1; TW202009338A

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention herein relates to a mechanism and its method for reversing a tubular textile, especially concerns to socks knitted by a knitting machine. Once the knitting process is completed the tubular textile is removed from the knitting needles and sewed off the open-end by the knitting machine. The disclosed mechanism and the method is applied to reverse the textile before and after sewing off the open-end.

2. Description of the Related Art

A tubular textile with open-ends on both sides, such as sock, is sewed off and then took off from the needles of the knitting machine to be transferred for open-end closure to the sewing station, as mentioned in Patent No. EP2377979 . Because the exposure of the suture part and the redundant thread affect socks selling and appear a voice of improvement. Therefore, the manufacture thinks of a mechanism and the method for reversing the tubular textile automatically which has the advantage of lower costs.
WO 2004/035894A1 discloses a method and apparatus for joining the edges of a tubular knitted article, such as a stocking, upon the completion of the latter on a circular machine, the apparatus comprises a movable carrier able to be associated with a knitting head of a circular machine, and the said carrier supports means for the removal of stitches of the last knitted rank in which the means operate the removal of one and the other semi-rank; the movable carrier being provided with driving means and transfer means able to move the stitches of one semi-rank onto the means which remove the other semi-rank. Nevertheless, the solutions for reversing textile has been revealed in the known Patent No. US5052196 , WO02070801 and WO 2004/035894A1 but are considered complex and expensive.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention aims to provide a mechanism and the method for efficiently reversing the knitted fabric, especially suitable for a tubular textile.
To realize it, the invention provides a mechanism for reversing the tubular textile comprising: a vertical extending air suction hose, the air sucking means connecting to the air suction hose for air sucking, said mechanism for reversing further comprising a driving source to move the air suction hose up and down, a guide means mounted inside of the air suction hose and protruding out of the lower end of said hose, and a vertical extending hold means for receiving the tubular textile.
A preferable embodiment is that the guide means includes at least two vertical extending rods symmetrically arranged inside of the air suction hose with respect to the axis of the air suction hose, and a collar located at the lower ends of the rods.
A preferable embodiment is that the hold means is an elongated rod with an axis projecting to the center of the collar.
This invention further reveals a knitting machine for producing a tubular textile including a bracket and aforementioned reversing mechanism.
This invention further reveals a method for reversing the tubular textile with the steps comprising: a) take the tubular textile off from the needles of the knitting machine; b) turn said textile outside in by the adoption of the reversing mechanism as mentioned above; c) sew off the open end of the textile; d) turn said textile inside out by the adoption of the reversing mechanism.
In short, the invention of this reversing mechanism is suitable for the reversing the tubular textile before or after the toe closure process automatically.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG 1 is a schematic view of the reversing mechanism;
FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the reversing mechanism showing the state before reversing the tubular textile;
FIG 3 is a schematic view of the reversing mechanism showing the air suction hose and the guide means passing through the sock;
FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the reversing mechanism showing that the air suction hose is breathing in the sock;
FIG. 5 is a schematic view of the reversing mechanism showing that the sock is sucked into the air suction hose;
FIG. 6 is a schematic view of the reversing mechanism showing that the hold means is leaving from the air suction hose;
FIG 7 is a schematic view of the reversing mechanism showing that the hold means lines up the air suction hose;
FIG. 8 is a schematic view of the reversing mechanism showing that air suction hose is downward moving and is lined up by the hold means;
FIG. 9 is a schematic view of the reversing mechanism showing that the hold means receives the sock after toe closure;
FIG. 10 is a schematic view of the reversing mechanism showing the hold means received the overturned sock after toe closure;
FIG. 11 is a perspective view of the FIG. 2;
FIG. 12 is a perspective view of the FIG. 3;
FIG. 13 is a perspective view of the FIG. 4;
FIG. 14 is a perspective view of the FIG. 5;
FIG. 15 is a perspective view of the reversing mechanism showing that the toe opening has been sewed off;
FIG. 16 is a perspective view of the reversing mechanism showing that the hold means lines up to the air suction hose;
FIG. 17 is a perspective view of the reversing mechanism showing that the hold means receives the sock after toe closure;
FIG. 18 is a perspective view of the reversing mechanism showing that the hold means has received the overturned sock after toe closure at the last phase.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, an example is elaborated for further understanding the mechanism of this invention and shall not be used to ground the performance thereof. This invention provides an embodiment of a reversing mechanism and its method which is capable of turning over the textile and hide the redundant thread inside after open-end closure stitched by the knitting machine.
As mentioned in Patent No. EP2377979 , when the knitting process is completed by the knitting machine, the stocking has an open-end with thread remaining on the knitting needles, and the knitting needles having a multiple pairing members composed of strip members and transfer members for sewing off the tiptoe and located in two opposite brackets facing each other deployed on the knitting machine.
As shown in FIG. 1, this invention reveals a reversing mechanism (60) including a vertical extending air suction hose (61), an air sucking means connecting to the air suction hose (61) for generating air suction, a guide means (62) mounted below the air suction hose (61), and a hold means (64) deployed under the guide means (62) which is adequate to be adopted to any steps after the knitting process as the sock is removed with an open-end status. To be more specifically, when the last-to-knit rank of the thread knots is disposed on the transfer elements or when the sock is still placed on the sewing station. In this embodiment, the sock with an open-end is turned over when still disposed on the transfer elements, and then turned over again after sewing off the open-end on the sewing station.
As shown in FIG. 2, the sock (70) with open-end is disposed on the bracket (20a) deployed with transfer elements as mention in EP2377979 . In fact, the strip elements, disposed on two different brackets, are aligned to each other as mentioned in EP2377979 .
To avoid confusion, there are still the other strip members disposed on the other brackets not shown in the drawing.
Firstly, the bracket (20a) moves the sock (70) down below the air suction hose (61) and the guide means (62), wherein the air suction hose (61) is expelled up and down by the drive source (611). To ensure the air suction hose (61) is linked to the body (67) as shown in FIG. 1, the body (67) is equipped with a first pulley (612) connected to the output shaft of the drive source (611), a secondary pulley (613) deployed on a position high above the body (67) and away from the drive source (611), and an array of rack on the timing belt (614) disposed on between the first pulley (612) and the second pulley (613) is engaged to the gear of air suction hose (61) for power transmission. Besides, for the air suction hose (61) making an up and down movement, the technique adopted in the embodiment is replaceable by the other known skills.
The guide means (62) deployed inside of the air suction hose (61) extends an appropriate length along the axis of the air suction hose (61). In this embodiment, the guide means (62) mounted inside the air suction hose (61) makes no relative movement along with the air suction hose (61).
In this embodiment, the guide means (62) comprises three rods symmetrically arranged inside of the air suction hose (61) with respect to the axis of the air suction hose, and the quantity of said rods may be at least 2 and probably be four or five...etc.
In this embodiment, the guide means (62) protruding out of the lower end of the air suction hose (61) may be deployed with a collar (63) on the lower end of aforementioned rods, where a gap lies between the collar (63) and the lower ends of the air suction hose (61) as shown in FIG. 3. When the air suction hose (61) moves down, its lower end may be lower than that of the sock. As the length of the sock is predetermined, the downward distance of the air suction hose (61) may be preset by a control unit.
When the lower end of the air suction hose (61) arrives at the open-end of the sock, the air suction starts air inhaling, said air suction means may be an independent vacuum pump or a valve equipped on a vacuum tube of the knitting machine. Meanwhile, as the air suction hose (61) starts moving upward and its lower end aligns with the open-end of the sock, the sock is breathed in as shown in FIG. 4. As long as the upward movement carries on, the rest portion of the sock is sucked in accordingly but for the open-end because it is engaged to the transfer means of the bracket (20a). Thus, the sock (70) is disposed between the air suction hose (61) and the guide means as shown in FIG. 13. In the next step, the sock (70) is transferred to the sewing station for stitching and the guide means (62) still remains inside of the sock with toe closed as shown in FIG. 15.
As shown in FIG. 8 to 15, the hold means (64) having a prolonging rod vertically elongates down beneath the sewing station, and rotationally approaches or distances from the sewing station. In the other embodiment, the hold means (64) comes near to or moves away from the sewing station following a vertical direction instead of a spiral route.
The lower end of the hold means (64) is connected to a vertical elongated holding support (641) hinged on a shaft (642), the shaft pivots to a lower support (644) equipped with a drive source (643) for rotating the shaft (642), and said drive source (643) may be, and shall not be limited, to a pneumatic cylinder.
Once the toe closure is completed, the hold means (64) is rotationally shifted to another position as shown in FIG. 7 or 8. In this situation, the longitudinal length of the hold means (64) directs to, or at least points to, the axis of the collar (63). Then, the air suction hose (61) is moving down as the air suction means shuts down, the sock (70) is released and then retained on the hold means (64) with inside out and leaves the thread inside.

Claims

A mechanism for reversing a tubular textile (60) with an open-end comprising: a vertically extending air suction hose (61), an air suction means connected to the air suction hose (61) for generating air suction and a drive source (611) for moving the air suction hose (61) up and down, characterized in that the mechanism comprises a guide means (62) mounted inside of the air suction hose (61) and protruding down beneath the lower end of the air suction hose (61) as a passage for guiding the reversed textile between the air suction hose (61) and the guide means (62), and a vertical extending hold means disposed below the air suction hose (61) for receiving the textile with a closed end from the guide means (62).
A reversing mechanism (60) as defined in claim 1, wherein the guide means (62) comprises at least two vertical extending rods symmetrically arranged inside of the air suction hose (61) with respect to the axis of the air suction hose (61).
A reversing mechanism (60) as defined in claim 2, wherein the guide means (62) further comprises a collar (63) deployed on a lower end of the rods.
A reversing mechanism (60) as defined in claim 3, wherein the hold means (64) is a prolonging rod projecting to the center of the collar (63).
A reversing mechanism (60) as defined in claim 3, wherein the hold means (64) is a longitudinal rod directing to the axis of the collar (63).
A reversing mechanism (60) as defined in claim 1, wherein the hold means (64) has a shaft (642) for pivoting movement.
A reversing mechanism (60) as defined in claim 1, wherein the hold mean can make a vertical movement.
A reversing mechanism (60) as defined in claim 1, wherein the air suction hose (61) is movably deployed on a body equipped with the drive source (611) in charge of moving the air suction hose (61).
A reversing mechanism (60) as defined in claim 8, wherein there are two pulleys (612, 613) disposed between the body and the drive source (611), and a timing belt connected to the pulleys (612, 613) for power transmission.
A knitting machine for producing a tubular textile including a bracket (20a), and a reversing mechanism as defined in claim 1.
A method for reversing a tubular textile including following steps:
a) take off the tubular textile from the needles of a knitting machine with its open-end disposed on a bracket (20a);

b) reverse the tubular textile by operation of a reversing mechanism as defined in claim 1;

c) sew off the open-end of the tubular textile on a sewing station; and

d) overturn the tubular textile by using the reversing mechanism.
A reversing method as defined in claim 11, wherein the step b) reversing process be carried on before transferring to the sewing station or operated on the sewing station.
A reversing method as defined in claim 11, wherein the step b) includes following steps:
b1) the air suction hose (61) of the reversing mechanism passes through a lower end of the textile and moves downward;

b2) the air suction hose (61) moves downward until reaching a position lower than the open-end of the textile;

b3) activate the air suction means of the reversing mechanism;

b4) the air suction hose (61) moves upward; and

b5) the textile is sucked into the air suction hose (61) for reversing process.
A reversing method as defined in claim 11, wherein the step d) includes the following steps:
d1) the hold means (64) is shifted beneath the textile with the open-end closed;

d2) the air suction hose (61) moves downward along the textile with the open-end closed; and

d3) the textile is released from the air suction hose (61) but retained by the hold means (64).
A reversing method as defined in claim 14, wherein the step d3) includes upward moving the hold means (64).