GB883432A - Improvements in or relating to knitting machines - Google Patents

Abstract

883,432. Knitting-machines. MACQUEEN CYBERNETICS Ltd., EVERSHED & VIGNOLES Ltd., and BROOKE, E. R. Feb. 27, 1959 [Dec. 16, 1957], No. 39105/57. Class 74 (2). As the cam box 1 traverses the needle bed in the direction of the arrow 2, each jack (or needle) butt 10, of a magnetic material, strikes in turn against the rounded edge 9 of the pole face 8 of an electromagnet moving with the cam box and energized from time to time by electric impulses, according to a predetermined programme, so that any butt which is in contact with the pole face when an impulse is received will be attracted to it, thereby to condition the jack or needle for operation by a cam or cams of the cam box. As the cam box moves along the bed, and because of the inclination of the pole face, any jack so selected will move in the direction of its length into a position 22, whereupon a second magnetic butt 16 on the jack is lifted away from the bed, by one of two permanent magnets 17, into the path of a cam 23 which advances the jack and, through a slider 14 attached to the needle, positions the butt 27 of the needle in the path of a cam 24. The jack is subsequently retracted by the action of a cam 25 on the butt 10, to bring butt 16 into the path of a cam face 26 along which it travels until pushed down into the track by a ramp 19. To assist the action of the magnets 17 in lifting the butts, inclined faces are provided on the abutting ends of jack and slider or needle. The butts 16 of jacks which have not been selected by the electromagnet 4 remain in the path of the downwardly sloping face 18 of a ramp, thereby to prevent the raising of the jack by the magnet 17. The two magnetic butts may be attached to a non-magnetic strip forming the jack body. The butt 27 of any needle associated with a selected jack is positively carried past the point 24a of cam 24, so that no collision between the butt and the point is possible. The impulses may be generated by a reader mechanism co-operating with a punched card or tape, or by a scanning head associated with a magnetic tape or record. The needles may be selected to knit or not, or to tuck or hold. The magnetic part of each butt 10 may be of diamond-shaped crosssection, with alternately sharp and radiused corners; or it may be in the form of a small roller. There may be provided, opposite the pole face 8, a second pole face which is magnetized when the face 8 is not magnetized, to ensure that passing butts shall be held in line with other unseleoted butts. Specification 835,270 is referred to.