US3595033A

US3595033A - Retractable guard cam for pattern wheel knitting apparatus

Info

Publication number: US3595033A
Application number: US832564A
Authority: US
Inventors: Harry Agulnek
Original assignee: Singer Co
Current assignee: MONARCH MANUFACTURING CORP; Singer Co
Priority date: 1969-06-12
Filing date: 1969-06-12
Publication date: 1971-07-27
Anticipated expiration: 1988-07-27
Also published as: GB1253504A; DE2028418C3; FR2051138A5; DE2028418B2; DE7021662U; DE2028418A1; ES380439A1

Abstract

A retractable guard cam is provided at each of the pattern wheel feed stations of a circular knitting machine. Such retractable guard cam, which prevents the uncontrolled flight of needles from a raise cam, is located on the radially inward side of each cam section block including a pattern wheel, but can be retracted from the radially outward side of the block to a position permitting needles to be raised without interference from the cam.

Description

United States Patent [72] Inventor Harry Agulnek Brooklyn, .\.Y.

[21] Appl. No. 832,564

[22] Filed June 12,1969

[45] Patented July 27,1971

[73] Assignee The Singer Company New York. NX.

[54] RETRACTABLE GUARD CAM FOR PATTERN WHEEL KNITTING APPARATUS 5 Claims,6 Drawing Figs.

[52) US. Cl 66/50 A, 66/57 [51] Int. Cl D04b 15/76 [50] Field of Search 66/50, 50 A, 50 8,40, 36 B, 25, 57, 78. 38

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,513,666 5/1970 Mishcon 1,181,520 5/1916 Glenn 66/38 1.278634 9/1918 Glenn t t t. 66/38 2,068,179 l/l937 Hon-rocks; 66/50 3,457,736 7/1969 Mishcon 66/50 A FOREIGN PATENTS 17,350 1904 Great Britain 66/50 1,529 11/1889 Switzerland 66/78 Primary Examiner- Wm. Carter Reynolds Attorneys-Marshall J Breen, Chester A. Williams, Jr. and

William V. Ebs

ABSTRACT: A retractable guard cam is provided at each of the pattern wheel feed stations of a circular knitting machine. Such retractable guard cam, which prevents the uncontrolled flight of needles from a raise cam, is located on the radially inward side of each cam section block including a pattern wheel, but can be retracted from the radially outward side of the block to a position permitting needles to be raised without interference from the cam.

PATENTFUJZJLZYIQH 8,595,033

SHEET 1 OF 2 INVENTOR. g 3 8y H urry Agulnek WITNESS= ATTORNEY I RETRACTABLE GUARD CAM F ORPATTERN WHEEL KNITTING APPARATUS CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS The present application is directed to an invention which is an improvement upon the invention of copending application Ser. No. 670,097 filed Sept. 25, 1967 and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 3,513,666 on May 26,1970.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The invention relates to circular equipped with pattern wheels.

2. Description ofthe Prior Art In high speed circular knitting machine of the type shown for example in copending U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 670,097, wherein one of the butts of two-butt needles cooperates with raise, placer and stitch cams and the other butt cooperates with pattern wheels, a guard cam is provided at each of the cam sections. Such guard cam includes two portions one of which is above the raise cam and is subject IO en gagement by said one butt whereby the uncontrolled upward flight of needles from the raise cams may be prevented. The other portion of the guard cam is above the placer cam and is engageable with said one butt and is effective to prevent the needles from assuming positions in which they may miss the stitch cam or be damaged by engagement with the upper end of such cam. In the machine of said U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 670,097, the guard cams are fixedly secured to the section blocks, and because of their fixed positions it is difficult to time the pattern wheels when they are mounted on the machine. Also with the guard cams in fixed positions in such machine, damaged needles cannot be withdrawn from the cylinder of the machine at any of the cam sections unless the cam section is first removed.

knitting machines SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with this invention a retractable guard cam, located above a raise and placer cam, is provided for machines of the type disclosed in said U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 670,097, at each of the cam sections including a pattern wheel. The guard cam is rendered movable between a normal operative position in which the cam is engageable by one butt of multibutt needles and another position which is radially outward from the normal operative position and in which the needles may be raised without the said one needle butt engaging the cam. With the guard cam retractable as described herein, timing of the pattern wheels and the replacement of damaged needles is greatly facilitated.

It is an object of the invention to facilitate, in a circular knitting machine having raise and placer cams in association with guard cams and pattern wheels, and multibutt needles with one butt engageable with cams and another to cooperate with the wheels, the raising ofa substantial number of needles above limiting positions normally defined by the guard cams.

It is another object of the invention to facilitate the removal of needles from the cylinder at any cam section of a machine of the described type.

It is still another object of the invention to have the guard cams in a machine of the described type, retractable from a normal operative position in which they limit the upward movement of needles over the raise and placer cams to a retracted position wherein the needles may be pulled above such normally defined limiting positions.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the cam side ofa cam section block constructed according to the invention,

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary perspective view showing the cams of FIG. I and cooperating knitting needles,

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the other side of the section block of FIGS. I and 2,

FIG. 4 is a side view of the cam section block of FIG. 1 taken with the pattern wheel removed,

FIG. 5 is a face view taken on the cam side of two cam section blocks constructed in accordance with the invention and arranged as they appear when assembled in a machine,

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken on the plane of the line 6-6 of FIG. 5.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring to the drawings, reference character I0 designates a cam section block for a circular knitting machine such as described in copending U.S. Pat. application Ser. No. 670,097. As shown such cam section block includes a raise cam I2, placer cam 14 and stitch cam I6 which cooperate with the lower butts I8 of two butt needles 20, the needles being vertically slidable in a needle carrying cylinder 22. A guard cam 24 is provided over the raise and placer cams and a wing cam 25 is provided under the stitch cam 16 All of the cams are located on one side of the section block, as shown, such side being the radially inward side when the block is mounted on a machine, and means hereinafter described are provided on the radially outward side for moving the guard cam in a radially outward direction. A pattern wheel 26 mounted on a fork 28, which is secured to the block at 30 and 32, cooperates with the upper butt 34 of the two-butt needles. The pattern wheel 26 which is rotatable in a plane parallel to the plane of fork 28 includes slots 36 skewed with respect to the plane of pattern wheel rotation; and the skewing and rotating planes are so chosen that the slots may fully intermesh with the needles 20 when such slots are vertically disposed and ad jacent the needle carrying cylinder 22. Each pattern wheel slot may as is conventional be filled with a high jack 38, or with a low jack 40, or with no jack depending upon whether it is desired to raise a needle to knit, tuck or welt knitting height.

Needles 20 move relative to the cam section block in the direction indicated and are raised by cam I2 acting on the butts 18 of the needles. The pattern wheel slots successively mesh with the raised needles rolling into the upper butts 34, and jacks where provided engage the upper butts 34 to position the needles in a well known manner.

After pattern wheel selection of the respective needles, such needles travel laterally to engage and be lowered by stitch cam 16 or wing cam 25. Needles raised to knit or tuck positions by pattern wheel jacks engage and are lowered by stitch cam 16, and needles not raised by jacks engage wing cam 25 and are lowered to welt height. The wing cam 25 is compressible into the section block I0, in a well known manner, to prevent damage to the butts of any needles which may have been improperly raised as by the pattern wheel.

Placer cam 14 which is cradled in a U-shaped cutout 42 in cam section block I0 is manually positionable to wipe out all tuck and welt pattern wheel selections or to wipe out all welt pattern wheel selections. The positioning of cam I4, though not shown, may be by means ofa pinion and ratchet, as is conventional, the pinion being on axis 44 and the ratchet being on the cam I4.

The guard cam 24 includes a portion 46 which is over the raise cam l2 and which has a cam surface 48 for limiting the uncontrolled upward flight of a needle from the raise cam 12 by engagement with their lower butts I8. Another portion 50 of the guard cam 24 extends over the placer cam 14 and to the stitch cam 16. Such portion 50 of the guard cam includes cam surface 52 having a raise angle about equal to the raise angle of the raise cam 12, and cam surface 54 which is horizontal. The cam surfaces 52 and 54 are for limiting, by engagement with lower needled butts, the position to which an occasional needle may rise due for example to its upper butt riding out of a pattern wheel slot, and for guiding any needle attaining such limiting position into the stitch cam I6.

In accordance with the invention the whole guard cam 24 is rendered movable between a normal position in which the cam surfaces 48, 52 and 54 define limiting positions for the needles as indicated and a retracted position (shown in dotted lines in H6. 4) wherein the needles may be raised above such cam surface. As shown, the guard cam 24 is integral with a boss 56 which is formed on one end of a shaft 58 that is slidable within a cylindrical through opening in cam section block 10. The shaft 58 and cam 24 are biased by a spring 60 to the normal position of said cam, however, the shaft 58 and cam 24 may be moved to a retracted position by pulling on knob 62 which is slidably mounted on a portion of the shaft 58 extending beyond the outer face 61 of section block 10. A flange 65 on the cam 24 is slidable under fork 28 and prevents any angular movement of the cam. The knob 62 which normally bears against section block at 63 is prevented from sliding off the end of the shaft 58 by a spring washer 64 mounted in shaft groove 66, which spring washer 64 bears against washers 68 that in turn engage surface 70 on the knob 62.

With the guard cam 24 retractable it is possible to raise a substantial number of needles at the cam section block to positions in which their upper butts 34 are well above the pattern wheel and the wheel under such upper butts can be easily viewed enabling an operator to easily align the timing slot of the pattern wheel with the starting needle when a machine is being set up. Heretofore, with cam sections having fixed guard cams but otherwise constructed as described, and closely nested as in FIG. 5 (showing cam section A and B) to provide for a maximum number of cam sections about a machine, damaged needles could not be withdrawn from the needle carrying cylinder and replaced without one or more cam section blocks being first removed. However, with the guard cam retractable damaged needles can be completely withdrawn from the needle carrying cylinder throughout the circumferential distance spanned by the placer cam and new needles inserted.

While the invention has been described in its preferred form it is to be understood that the words used are words of descrip tion rather than of limitation, and that changes within the purview of the appended claims may be made without departing from the true scope and spirit of the invention.

Having thus set forth the nature of this invention what is claimed herein is:

lclaim:

1. in a pattern wheel feed station of a circular independent needle knitting machine including multibutt needles and having tandemly disposed in the direction of relative needle travel, a raise cam engageable with a first butt of the multibutt needles, a pattern wheel following the raise cam adapted to raise selected ones of the needles by a second butt to predetermined heights, and a stitch cam following the pattern wheel, the improvement comprising:

a. a movable guard cam having a normal operative position in which the first needle butts may engage one portion of the cam to prevent the uncontrolled flight of needles from the raise cam and in which the first needle butts may engage another portion of the cam limiting the vertical positions attainable by needles when located between the raise and stitch cams, and

b. means for moving the guard cam in a generally radial direction and away from the needles so that the guard cam may be positioned to permit the multibutt needles to be raised without the first butts engaging said guard cam.

2. The combination as defined in claim 1 including a placer cam located under said another portion of the guard cam.

3. The combination as defined in claim 1 wherein said guard cam is spring biased in a direction which is generally radially inward on the machine.

4. The combination of claim 1 including a cam section block having all of the cams located on the radially inward side, and means on the radially outward side for moving the guard cam in a radially outward direction.

5. The combination of claim 4 wherein the guard cam is mounted on a shaft which is radially slidable in said cam section block.

Claims

1. In a pattern wheel feed station of a circular independent needle knitting machine including multibutt needles and having tandemly disposed in the direction of relative needle travel, a raise cam engageable with a first butt of the multibutt needles, a pattern wheel following the raise cam adapted to raise selected ones of the needles by a second butt to predetermined heights, and a stitch cam following the pattern wheel, the improvement comprising: a. a movable guard cam having a normal operative position in which the first needle butts may engage one portion of the cam to prevent the uncontrolled flight of needles from the raise cam and in which the first needle butts may engage another portion of the cam limiting the veRtical positions attainable by needles when located between the raise and stitch cams, and b. means for moving the guard cam in a generally radial direction and away from the needles so that the guard cam may be positioned to permit the multibutt needles to be raised without the first butts engaging said guard cam.