GB2048965A - A yarn guide system for flat knitting machines - Google Patents

Abstract

The system of guiding the yarns to a flat knitting machine in this invention involves the presentation of the yarn through a guide member (19) which is open at the side to allow quick and secure insertion of the yarn, which has a clip component allowing it to be readily mounted and subsequently adjusted on a guide rail (14, 15), and has a crooked guide bill which is readily accessible from the front and below. This bill can be looped to form a hairpin-like yarn passage. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Yarn guide system for flat knitting machines This invention relates to a yarn guide system for flat knitting machines of the kind having bobbins arranged in a plurality of tiers or rows and having a plurality of yarn guide rails.

In such systems the yarns are usually conducted over yarn guide members which have, over their complete lengths, pot eyes of metal or non-friction ceramic material, through which the yarns have to be threaded. This applies both to yarn guide members which have merely the function of varying the direction of travel of the yarn, and to yarn guide members which have devices for monitoring the yarn. Yarn guide devices of this character certainly positively prevent any jumping out of the yarn, but the threading in to the yarn is difficult because the yarn guide members are not in an area in which they can be handled by an operative.

This situation is becoming increasingly familiar in modern textile machines, for example in modern flat knitting machines with wide and elevated bobbins boards and a plurality of yarn guide rails, where an operative has to use a creel or stick for threading in the yarn. This not only means increased equipment costs in the machine but also increased danger of accidents to the operatingpersonnel.

Yarn guide members are also known having a lateral opening through which the yarn can be threaded from the side, these lateral openings being more or less labyrinthic in nature to prevent the yarn jumping out of the guide member. The yarn guide members of known type with lateral yarn entrance openings are however not suited to every sphere of use and all site conditions.

Frequently the lateral yarn guide openings are so tightly convoluted that the indirect insertion of the yarn requires a rod or stick of great complexity.

Moreover the fastening arms for the yarn guide members frequently obstruct lateral laying-in of the yarn.

The object of the present invention has been to so devise a yarn guide system for flat knitting machines as to permit a ready and rapid laying-in of the yarns from ground level.

This object is met by the present invention in a yarn guide system of the type set forth above in such a way that the yarn is fed to the yarn processing zone of the machine through at least one yarn guide member arranged on a yarn guiderail and having at least one upper or lateral yarn feed opening, and through a yarn monitoring device having a yarn guide member open at the side only. The yarn guide member advantageously has a clip part witha resilient clamping jaw which engages around a yarn guide rail, and has an arm which is downwardly inclined from the clip part and has at least one open yarn guide part.

Conveniently the arm connected to the clip part constitutes the.first limb of a hairpin-shaped yarn guide element, the other and free limb of which has an angled-off end section extending from the hairpin plane, and that the two said limbs define the yard feed opening.

This provides a yarn guide member which has a lateral yarn inlet opening and can be conveniently and quickly clipped on a yarn guide rail which extends at an elevated position above a textile machine, meaning on the one hand a ready layingin of the yarn by means of a stick or creel and on the other hand that there is a guarantee against inadvertent jumping out of the yarn from the guide member. This arrangement also has the attribute that the yarn guiding zone is always located below the yarn guide rail, that is to say the carrier of the yarn guide member, and forwards, that is to say at the front side, of the machine, and thereby orientated towards the operator.Also the access opening for the yarn is moved from the carrier of the yarn guide member towards the operator, so that the laying in of the yarn from the front and from below is easier to perform with a stick without obstruction by the carrier of the yarn guide member.

The laying-in of the yarn is also helped by the angling-off of the free limb of the guide element from the plane of the hairpin. Advantageously moreover the free limb of the yarn guide element is angled-off the hiarpin zone in a plane parallel to and spaced from the yarn-rail-accommodating plane of the clip part, and the free end of this angled-off part is itself angled-off from the main length in such a way as to terminate above said first limb. In effect this prevents the yarn jumping out of its guidance zone, despite the fact that there can be a realtively wide access gap for the yarn both in relation to the clip part and the yarn guide rail and also in relation to the limb of the yarn guide member constituting the connection arm.

The yarn guide member can be made integrally from an adequately strong resilient plastics material, and the actual yarn contact and diverting part can be of non-wearing material, for example in the form of a metal wire loop, between the two limbs of the hairpin part of the guide member. The clip part can be formed to cater for simple clipping on to a yarn guide rail and to be held there by its inherent resilience, but with a grip which can be overcome without difficulty to enable the clip to be moved to any required position on the rail.

Using a yarn guide system according to the invention, yarn guide paths can be set up in conjunction with yarn monitoring devices, likewise open laterally only, in which it is possible to lay in yarn quickly over the whole path without any operative having to use a conductor because the yarn guide member is outside his reach.

An embodiment of a yarn guide system in accordance with the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a side view of a yarn guide system in accordance with the present invention for a flat knitting machine, including a special yarn guide member, Figure 2 is a side view of this yarn guide member, Figure 3 is a front view of the yarn guide member seen in the direction of arrow Ill of Figure 2, and Figure 4 is a front view of the yarn guide member taken in the direction of the arrow IV of Figure 2.

Figure 1 shows a part of the yarn guide system which is disposed above the so-called bobbin board (not shown) carrying the yarn bobbins of a flat knitting machine. The yarns from the bobbins on the board are first conducted upwards and then through a yarn monitoring device 10, which has a yarn brake combined therewith, forwards and then downwards into the knitting zone of the machine.

Fastened to a vertical support column 11 at this part of the machine are forwardly-directed arms 12 carrying at their ends an angle bar 35 having the yarn monitoring device 10 fastened thereto. In practice there could be a plurality of these devices on a bar such as 35. Spaced, parallel yarn guide rails, two of which are shown at 14, 1 5 in Figure 1, are also connected to the support column 11 through carrier arms 12 and spaced support rods 13, running at right-angles to the longitudinal direction of the flat knitting machine (not shown).

Seen from the operatives sides of the machine these yarn guide rails 14, 1 5 are thus arranged and spaced one behind the other. The whole yarn guide system illustrated is arranged at such a level above the machine that it cannot be reached by the hand of the operative.

Figure 1 shows three yarns 16, 17 and 18 which, as described above, are drawn from bobbins (not shown) in the direction of the arrows and are conducted downwards into the knitting zone of the knitting machine through the yarn monitoring device 10, the construction of which is not of concern here. The yarn 1 7 is conducted through a yarn guide member, designated generally by the reference numeral 19, arranged on the yarn guide rail 15, whilst the yarn 18 is conducted through a yarn guide member 1 9 arranged on the yarn guide rail 14. The yarn 1 6 is conducted through a yarn guide member which is arranged on a third yarn guide rail not shown in the drawing.

-The construction of the yarn guide member 19 is seen in Figures 2 to 4. It is made integrally from a sufficiently resilient plastics material and comprises a clip part 20 for fastening it to the related guide rail. Each clip part 20 is of C-section with a hoilow interior 21 suited to the cross section of the yarn guide rails 14, 15, and the open side is provided with chamfered edges 22.

The part 20 can be clipped to the yarn guide rail by opening up at its chamfered edges 22 and will be held on the rails by its integral resilience, without any additional fastening means being required.

Extending forwardly and downwardly in inclined fashion from the clip part 20 is a depending arm 23 of angled cross section. This arm 23 constitutes one limb of a hairpin-shaped piece 24 of the guide member 19. The other limb 25, which is flat, is cranked at the part 26 from the inclined plane of the hairpin piece 24 into a vertical plane parallel to the yarn guide bar 14, 15, as can be seen from Figure 2. In this vertical plane the limb 25 has a second angled part 27 which gives part of the second free limb 25 an inclined disposition over the hairpin gap 28 so that the free end 29 of the limb 25 is disposed above the other limb 23 of the piece 24, as can be seen from Figures 3 and 4.

The actual yarn guide contact in the member 1 9 is a steel wire loop 30 which is arranged in the hairpin gap 28 and the two ends of which are snapped into openings 32 and 33 respectively in the limb 23 and the free limb 25. The yarn is introduced to the yarn guide part constituted by the steel wire loop 30 via an access opening depicted at 34 in Figure 2. This opening 34 is disposed in front of the yarn guide rail 14, 1 5 and is relatively wide so as to facilitate the laying-in of the yarn by a stick. During the laying-in the yarn must be taken around the free end 29 of the free limb 25 so that it can drop into the gap between the cranked end section of the free limb 25 and the other limb 23, which gap is also of adequate width.

The drawing shows that the yarn guide member has no sharp edged corners in its yarn guide section, nor narrow gaps in which the yarn could be trapped. The two limbs 23 and 25 run- inwards towards the end of the hairpin part 24, so that a yarn running around the hairpin zone can siip off downwards. The free limb 25 is so angled that a yarn laid thereon must also slip off downwards. A yarn jumping up from the yarn guide part 30 will meet the inclined inner edge of the end part of the angled free limb 25 and is therefore positively conducted back into the hairpin gap 28. Any sliding upwards of the yarn to reach the free end 29 of the angled limb 25 is not to be feared because the yarn would first engage the other limb 23 and any further movement in the direction of the feed opening 23 would be prohibited.

Claims (9)

1. A yarn guide system for a flat knitting machine having bobbins arranged in a plurality of tiers or rows and having a plurality of yarn guide rails, characterised by the fact that the yarn is fed to the yarn processing zone of the machine through at least one yarn guide member (19) arranged on a yarn guide rail (14, 15) and having at least one upper or lateral yarn feed opening (34), and through a yarn monitoring device (10) having a yarn guide member open at the side only.

2. A yarn guide system according to Claim 1, characterised by the fact that the yarn guide member (19) has a clip part (20) with a resilient clamping jaw which engages around a yarn guide rail (14, 15), and has an arm (23) which is downwardly inlined from the clip part (20) and has at least one open yarn guide part (30).

3. A yard guide system according to Claim 2, characterised by the fact that the arm (23) connected to the clip part (20) constitutes the first limb of a hairpin-shaped yarn guide element (24), the other and free limb (25) of which has an angled-off end section extending from the hairpin plane, and that the two such limbs (23, 25) define the yarn feed opening (34).

4. A yarn guide system according to Claim 3, characterised by the fact that the free limb (25) of the yarn guide element (24) is angled off the hairpin zone in a plane parallel to and spaced from the yarn-rail-accommodating plane of the clip part (20), and the free end (29) of this angled-off part is itself angled-off from the main length (25) in such a way as to terminate above said first limb (23).

5. A yard guide system according to Claim 3 or 4, characterised by the fact that the yarn guide member is integrally made from a plastics material and incorporates a yarn contact element (30) oF non-friction material between the two limbs of the hairpin element (24).

6. A yarn guide system according to Claim 5, characterised by the fact that the yarn contact element is a meral wire loop (30) the ends (31) of which are snapped into openings (32, 33) in the limbs (23, 25) of the hairpin element (24).

7. A yarn guide system according to one of Claims 3 to 6, characterised by the fact that the outer edges of the limbs (23, 25) of the yarn guide element (24) taper inwards towards the bend of the hairpin.

8. A yarn guide system according to Claim 2, characterised by the fact that the yarn guide member (19) is made of a resilient plastics material and the clip part (20) of this member is of C-section and snugly engages around a yarn guide rail (14, 1 5), this part having a mouth with chamfered edges (22) which enable it to be clipped on the rail and held by the inherent resiliency of the plastics material.

9. A yarn guide system for flat knitting machines, substantially as herein described and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.