US3726112A

US3726112A - Method and apparatus for knitting a net fabric

Info

Publication number: US3726112A
Application number: US00128234A
Authority: US
Inventors: R Roque
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1971-03-26
Filing date: 1971-03-26
Publication date: 1973-04-10
Anticipated expiration: 1990-04-10

Abstract

A method and apparatus for knitting a circular weft knit fabric composed of helically knitted courses. The stitch wales of the fabric are interconnected only by sinker loops located at predetermined points along the wales so that the latter can separate from each other between the sinker loops to form the orifices of the net fabric. At predetermined courses during the knitting of the fabric sinker loops extend around pairs of consecutive needles while jacks coact therewith to retain sinker loops at locations determined by the pattern mechanism around the pairs of adjoining wales with at least some of the loops being knitted with subsequently knit stitches of the wales. The apparatus includes between each pair of consecutive needles a pair of jacks having upper operating tips and longitudinally movable with respect to the needles to bring about the proper passing of the sinker loops around the pair of consecutive needles and thus around a pair of wales respectively knit thereby, so that in this way during subsequent knitting of loops through the sinker loops the interknitting of the sinker loops and the wale stitches can be achieved.

Description

limited States Patent [191 Roque 1 Apr. 10, 1973 METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR KNITTING A NET'FABRIC Ramon Masriera'Roque, Calle San Esteban, 53 Malgrat, Barcelona, Spain [76] Inventor:

1968, abandoned.

[52] US. Cl ..66/95 [51] Int. Cl. 15/02 [58] Field of Search ..66/95, 198

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 846,353 3/1907 Scott ..66/198 846,429 3/ 1907 Scott 1 ..66/ 198 981,318 1/1911 Scott ..66/95 1,982,257 11/1934 Levin ..66/95 1,987,091 1/1935 Wildt et a1 ....66/95 X 2,014,132 9/1935 Holmes ....66/95 X 2,657,561 11/1953 Saunders ..66/95 X FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 850,251 0/ 1939 France ..66/95 850,252 2/ 1939 France ..66/95 0/1898 Great Britain ..66/95 2/ 1934 Great Britain ..66/95 Primary Examiner-Ronald Feldbaum Attomey-Steinberg & Blake ABSTRACT A method and apparatus for knitting a circular weft knit fabric composed of helically knitted courses. The stitch wales of the fabric are interconnected only by sinker loops located at predetermined points along the wales so that the latter can separate from each other between the sinker loops to form the orifices of the net fabric. At predetermined courses during the knitting of the fabric sinker loops extend around pairs of consecutive needles while jacks coact therewith to retain sinker loops at locations determined by the pattern mechanism around the pairs of adjoining wales with at least some of the loops being knitted with subsequently knit stitches of the wales. The apparatus includes between each pair of consecutive needles a pair of jacks having upper operating tips and longitudinally movable with respect to the needles to bring about the proper passing of the sinker loops around the pair of consecutive needles and thus around a pair of wales respectively knit thereby, so that in this way during subsequent knitting of loops through the sinker loops the interknitting of the sinker loops and the wale stitches can be achieved.

7 Claims, 20 Drawing Figures PAINTED APR 1 OEUYS sum 1 OF 6 IIII AIIIII INVENTOR. RAMON MASRIERA ROQUE ATTORNEYS PAIENI nm 1 0 1213 F/GZ FIG. 8

SHEET 2 UF 6 INVENTOR. RAMON MASRIERA ROQUE ATTORNEYS PA ENnn m 3.726.112

SHEU & UF 6 VENTOR. RAMON MA ERA ROQUE ATTORNEYS PATENTEDAPRIOISB 3,726,112

sum 5 OF 6 ENTOR. RAMON MAS RA ROQUE ATTORNEYfi PATENTED 3.726.112

SHEET 8 OF 6 INVENTOR. RAMON MASRIERA ROGUE ATTORNEYS METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR KNITTING A NET FABRIC CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application is a continuation-in-part of co-pending application Ser. No. 780,433, filed Dec. 2, 1968 now abandoned.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to net fabrics as well as to a method and apparatus for knitting such fabrics.

The presently known methods and apparatus for producing net fabrics by knitting are incapable or producing the appearance of an actual net structure. The primary cause of this letter disadvantage resides in the fact that the operation of taking up loops is performed by jacks located on a disc or plate and arranged angularly with respect to the needles. Because of the particular distribution and arrangement of the needles and jacks, the known methods and apparatus limit the pattern to those which can be achieved by groups of needles generally arranged in pairs. Thus, for example, a pair of adjacent needles can support a loop and produce effects with orifices while the needles adjacent to the latter pair of adjoining needles are incapable of carrying out loop-retaining actions, so that there necessarily remains adjoining linear sections without any possibility of having orifices formed therein. As a result the characteristic patterns which can be produced with the presently known methods and apparatus unavoidably provide a vertically extending pattern appearance having interruptions or discontinuities which become located in an undesireable manner between parallel zones where the orifices of the net-stimulating fabric are located.

Such net effects require, in order to have a desired attractive appearance, two or more consecutive sinker loops which must be tied in the usual course. The presently known methods and apparatus thus carry out these loop formations, once, twice, or three times, or they only turn the sinker loops on the pair of needles, in the course in which the latter knit, which normally occurs only once, in such a course, resulting in an appearance where a part of the loop floats.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is accordingly a primary object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for manufacturing a weft knit fabric while avoiding the above drawbacks.

In particular, it is an object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus for knitting a fabric which will have a net appearance more closely simulating a true net effect than has hitherto been possible.

Furthermore, it is an object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus for manufacturing a fabric having wales retained at predetermined locations by sinker loops distributed according to a predetermined pattern longitudinally along the wales with these loops being interknit with stitches of the wales so that the loops are tight and are not in the form of loose yarns.

In accordance with the present invention, pairs of jacks are located with respect to the needles of a needle cylinder in such a way that a pair of jacks are situated between each pair of consecutive needles so that each needle has assigned to it one jack on its right and one jack on its left, or in other words individual pairs of jacks respectively precede and follow each needle of the series with such a pair of jacks coacting only with a given needle. Therefore, two jacks are situated between each two consecutive needles, and as a result of this arrangement it becomes possible to turn the sinker loops between two consecutive needles not only in any desired manner but also simultaneously so as to permit knitting to be obtained on the very same needle in a manner which has not been possible with presently known methods and apparatus.

As a result of the latter method and apparatus, the achieved effect is fully analogous to that which would be achieved if each needle had operated on its. own individual yarn instead of feeding the same yarn to all of the needles.

With the method of the invention each sinker loop which retains a pair of adjoining wales turns or passes around a pair of consecutive needles, with the sinker loop being taken up a second time if the loop formation is to be repeated. There is thus eliminated any presence of floating yarns since all of the loops are tied in each formation by the knitting of the last course or loop.

There are at the present time certain known machines of relatively large diameter, as well as circular knitting machines for knitting socks and stockings, which knit a fabric which in some respects is similar to that achieved with the process of the present invention, but the effect obtained by disposing loops around two consecutive needles necessitatesthat these operations be carried out on different cylinders and needle beds, while according to the method of the invention and with the apparatus of the invention only a single needle cylinder is required, without requiring any disc for the disposition of corresponding jacks, so that stockings and socks can be obtained with the structure and method of the present invention having all of the properties or characteristics desired and known up to the present time as well as the additional advantage of a predetermined net effect according to the selected design.

As compared with net fabric stockings presently known, the present invention provides the advantage of being capable of producing the stockings with heels, toes, and welt edges and the like, while at the same time the net fabric has the desired appearance and effect.

The mechanism which forms part of the present invention and which is used for carrying out the method of the invention includes a needle cylinder supporting needles for longitudinal movement, these needles being uniformly spaced apart from each other. Between each pair of successive needles there are a pair of jacks, so that there are as many pairs of jacks as there are needles and the jacks of each pair are arranged in a symmetrically opposed manner in such a way that with this special arrangement of the invention it is possible to knit in a manner achieving a net fabric without having any discontinuous fabric portions or surfaces between corresponding orifices of the net fabric. Thus, the mechanism of the invention includes a special arrangement of jacks by means of which it becomes possible to achieve the outstanding results of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS The invention is illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings which form part of this application and in which:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary schematic representation of cam cylinder of the circular knitting machine for producing the knit articles, this part of the machine including the mechanism of the invention with FIG. 1 having identified therein those cams which achieve the vertical movement of the jacks of the invention;

FIG. 2 shows in side elevation a conventional needle;

FIG. 3 illustrates in opposed positions, respectively a pair of jacks of the invention shown in side view;

FIG. 4 shows the jacks of FIG. 3 as they are arranged with respect to each other in their operating positions;

FIG. 5 is a schematic representation of part of the needle bed illustrating how the pairs of jacks are arranged with respect to the needles;

FIG. 6 shows in a manner similar to FIG. 3, a pair of jacks which have a somewhat different construction from the jacks of FIG. 3;

FIG. 7 illustrates the operating positions of the jacks of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a side elevation of a conventional sinker used with the mechanism of the invention;

FIG. 9 is a representation of the fabric formed with the method and apparatus of the invention;

FIGS. 10-13 respectively illustrate in a schematic manner different phases of the sequence of operations which take place during knitting; and

FIGS. 14-20 illustrate in a step-by-step manner how the Wale-connecting loops are formed with the method and apparatus of the invention to achieve the fabric of FIG. 9.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Thus, referring to FIG. 1, cams 1, 2, 3, 4 are the con ventional cams used during plain knitting operations in a well known manner. Cams 5 and 6 act also in a well known manner, instead of cams 1 and 4, during the reverse strokes when alternative or reciprocating knitting operations are carried out in connection with knitting of heels. The path 7 indicates the conventional path taken by the needle butts.

Those cams which are incorporated in accordance with the invention are the cams 8-12. The path 13 represents the path taken by the butts of the special jacks of the invention when these jacks are normally held at a level where they are at rest. The cam 9 serves to raise the jacks from the inactive level 13 up to the active level 14 where they are situated to be raised by the cam 10 when the needles are lowered after loop formation (cam 4), this upward movement of the jacks being followed by a downward movement brought about by the cam 11 simultaneously with an upward movement imparted to the needles by the additional cam 12 which is required to bring about the movement of the needles and jacks relative to each other as described. The cam 8 serves to return all of the jacks to the normal level where their butts are situated along the path 13. Cams 8 and 9 can be switched on and off in precisely the same way as is already known for stitchforming cams.

As may be seen from FIG. 3, the

jacks

33 and 33a, illustrated therein are arranged in

pairs

33, 33a, with each jack having an upper operating tip 34 at its upper elongated operated region, this tip extending from an inclined ramp edge 35. A spring 36 is fixed to each of the

jacks

33 and 33a, and each of the jacks has a lower operating butt 37 with which the cams coact.

Thus, as may be seen from FIG. 4, where the jacks are shown in their operative positions in side by side relation, the upper operating end regions of the jacks are spaced from each other as a result of the inclined part of the jacks connecting their upper linearly extending regions and their elongated intermediate and lower linearly extending regions. The springs 36 terminate at their bottom regions in outwardly diverging portions forming with the inclined intermediate portions of the jack bodies the downwardly directed spaces which are substantially of the configuration of an inverted V. It is to be noted that the upper elongated portions of the springs 36 are of an elongated planar configuration and are fastened to similar outer side surfaces of the pair of coacting jacks 33 and 33a.

FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate jacks which are of a somewhat different construction from those shown in FIGS. 3 and 4. Thus, the

jacks

40 and 40a shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 also terminate at their top ends in operating tips 41 which extend from inclined ramp portions 42, respectively. In this case also, the upper portions are in the form of blades joined to the longer intermediate and lower portions of the jacks by inclined intermediate portions, such as the portion 45 indicated in FIG. 6, with the inclination of these portions 45being indicated in FIG. 7 where the jacks are shown in their operative side-by-side relation. Moreover, it will be noted that those surfaces of the blade portions 43 which are on the same side of the jacks as the butts 47 have not only the inclined ramp portions 42, respectively, but also the step configuration providing the notches 44. As is apparent from FIG. 7, with this embodiment the outer side surfaces of the upper blade portions 43, at the side thereof opposed to the inclined portions 45, are also stepped so that the blades provide outer surfaces inclined oppositely to the inclination of the intermediate portions 45 connecting the blades to the remainder of the jack bodies, in a manner similar to the downwardly and outwardly diverging ends of the springs 36 of FIGS. 3 and 4.

It is furthermore to be noted that in FIGS. 3 and 4 the upper blade portion has its elongated widest part connected to the relatively narrow shank of the jack not only by the inclined portion but also by the downwardly tapering portion shown in FIG. 3 just above the narrow intermediate straight body sections of the jacks, and in the same way in FIGS. 6 and 7, the

jacks

40 and 40a have the portions 46 which are wider than the remaining elongating portions of the

jack shanks

40 and 40a which extend below theportions 46. The butts 47 correspond to the butts 37 and are acted on in the same way by the cams.

It is to be noted that in order to achieve the operating position shown in FIG. 4' the pair of butts 37 of FIG. 3 are turned toward the viewer of FIG. 3 and then the elongated narrow shank portions of the jacks are placed in engagement with each other, and in the same way in the case of FIGS. 6 and 7 the butts 47 of FIG. 6

are both turned simultaneously toward the viewer of FIG. 6 and then the elongated narrow shank portions of the butts are placed in engagement with each other to achieve the structure illustrated in FIG. 7.

FIG. 2 illustrates a conventional knitting needle 38. These needles are distributed uniformly about the axis of the circular knitting machine in grooves of the needle cylinder which extend parallel to the axis thereof, and the jacks of the invention are similarly guided in grooves which are situated between those which receive the needles. The relationship between the jacks of FIGS. 3 and 4 and the needles 38 is shown in FIG. 5 from which it is clear that a pair of the coacting jacks, as illustrated in FIG. 4, is located between each pair of successive needles 38, so that each needle 38 will have on one side a jack 33 and on the opposite side a jack 33a with which needle coacts. It is to be understood that when the jacks of FIGS. 6 and 7 are used they will be arranged with respect to the needles 38 in the same way as the

jacks

33 and 33a shown in FIG. 5.

FIG. 8 shows a conventional sinker 39 and these sinkers are arranged in a conventional manner with respect to the needles so as to participate in the knitting operations therewith. 4 In the schematic illustrations of FIGS. 10-12 is structural supporting part 48 of the needle cylinder is shown, so that the manner in which the sinkers 39 and needles 38 are supported and guided is apparent from FIGS. 10-12. These features are in any event well known in the art.

FIG. 9 illustrates how the needles 38 coact with the knit fabric. This knit fabric includes the individual stitch wales 23 made up of the columns of stitches 21 each of which extends through the previously knit stitch in a well known manner, and these individual stitch wales are interconnected at selected locations therealong by the sinker loops 20, indicated in FIG. 9 also, the needle 38, the sinker 39, and the jacks of the invention all providing their influence on the knit structure such as the sinker loop and the stitches 21. FIG. 13 shows how a sinker loop 20 extends around a pair of successive needles during part of the knitting operations.

Thus, the knitting action is carried out by directing a sinker loop 20 around a pair of adjoining needles 38, as is apparent from FIG. 13, and as is indicated in FIG. 9. The sinker loop may be secured around the pair of adjoining needles, once, twice, or three consecutive times, the particular arrangement and number of sinker loops being selected with respect to the groups of needles in accordance with the formations of the desired design, and the latter desired design is set into the machine in the well known way through a suitable pattern chain structure or the like the buttons of which will actuate pattern jacks which in turn will coact with the operating jacks and-needles to cause preselected needles and jacks to participate in the knitting operations, as is well known.

A basic cycle or sequence of operations is commenced with a corresponding jack 33 in its lower inoperative position with relation to the part 48 of the cylinder, the needle 38 and sinker 39 at this time being in their initial positions. Then, the corresponding needle and sinker remain in these positions while the jack 33 is raised to bring about the uptake of the corresponding sinker loop 20 whereupon the coacting needle carries out the formation of a loop and the jacks are brought to an elevation at which their corresponding selector leaves them with the corresponding sinker loops remaining retained by each retaining jack. Finally, the needle 8 reaches the lower end of its path of travel, thus resulting in the formation of a new loop, while the corresponding jack starts to rise, in preparation for the next position of the needle, with the respective loop retained by the latter jack.

During the successive cycles when the above operations are repeated at each sinker loop formation, the apparatus and method of the invention bring about the turning of a sinker loop on the pair of adjoining needles, carrying out again the action of taking up this loop in those cases where loop formation is required to be repeated. It is in this way that the result is achieved of eliminating floating yarns, since the loop yarns are retained at each of the basic knitting operations with all of the previous passes being finally retained by the last loop. The sinker loops 20 are knit with the stitches 19 of the wales in a manner achieving sinker loops therebetween with the basic operations for each wale being carried out by a single needle. Thus, with the apparatus and method of the invention the result is the same as that which would have been achieved had each needle operated only with its own individual yarn, instead of the illustrated arrangement of the invention where all needles are fed with the same yarn.

In this way the columns of loops which form the stitch wales are interconnected at selected locations therealong by the sinker loops which are intimately knit into the article, so that the stitches of the wales situated between the sinker loops are separate from each other to form orifices of the weft knit fabric while at the same time there are no loose or floating yarn portions at the loops. The upper operating tips of the jacks are shaped so as to be capable of introducing themselves behind the loops retained by the needles, and the jacks displace the loops and arrange them around the pairs of adjoining needles with the jacks being longitudinally displaceable with respect to the needles so as to cause the retained sinker loops to pass over the heads of the needles. Then the needles knit the loops of the following course directly through the retained sinker loops. These loop-retaining jacks are thus in the form of elongated laminar elements which slide in grooves of the needle cylinder and they have their upper operating ends which terminate in the tips. As may be seen particularly from FIGS. 10-13, while the upper operating tips of the jacks are situated at the same side of the needle which is directed away from the hook thereof, the downwardly inclined ramp progressing downwardly from the upper tip of the jack extends to the other side of the needle where the head thereof is located with the front edge or rib of the upper blade actually situated beyond and on the same side of the needle as the hook thereof. The springs 36 of the

jacks

33 and 33a and the corresponding parts of the

jacks

40 and 40a normally bear against the needles while being capable of being cleared by them so as to displace the retained sinker loop to the opposite side of the needle. Thus, the springs 36 extend in a direction opposite from the direction of the tips 34 having their upper portions coplanar with the lateral outer side surfaces of the upper blade portions of the jacks with the concavity of the springs 36 directed toward the side where the fabric forms and with the lower ends of the springs 36 diverging from the inclined portions which interconnect the upper blades with the lower shank portions of the jacks which engage each other in the manner shown in FIG. 4. Thus, under these diverging end portions it is possible for the head of the needle to be introduced to pass into the arched portion during upward movement of the needle with respect to the jack.

FIGS. 14-20 illustrate in a step-by-step manner how the wale-connecting loops are formed with the method and and apparatus of the invention to achieve the fabric of FIG. 9. During the following description it will be found that the needles 15 of these sketches correspond to the needles 8 while the sinker 16 is a conventional sinker corresponding to the sinker 39 of FIG. 8. The special jacks 17 of the invention, which have been chosen for illustration in the sketches, correspond to the embodiments of the jacks illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7. It is apparent thatthe arrangement of the jacks 17 thereof is precisely identical with the arrangement shown in FIG. according to which each gap between each pair of successive needles-accommodates a pair of the special jacks of the invention, and of course there is one sinker between each two consecutive needles.

Thus each needle is situated between a pair of the special jacks of the invention.

, Referring now to FIGS. 14-20, during plain knitting operations the jacks 17 are held at the level where their butts will be situated at the path 13 of FIG. 1, and when held at this level the jacks are lower than the elevations thereof illustrated in FIGS. 18-20. When the sinker loop for interconnecting a pair of wales is to be formed with the method and apparatus of the invention, the jacks 17 are raised so that their butts will be situated along the path 14 of FIG. 1, as referred to above. When the jacks 17 are raised to this elevation, the parts will have with'respect to each other the position illustrated in FIG. 14. When the needles are raised they will assume the position shown in FIG. 14 where they take the new yarn 18 in order to form additional stitches in the wales. The position of the components with the jacks 17 raised to their operating levels and with the needles raised to the loop-taking position is illustrated in FIG. 14.

The cams will then act to lower the needles, with the butts thereof being engaged by the right edge of cam 4 in FIG. 1 at this time, so that at this time the needle butts move along the path portion 19 indicated in FIG. 1. Thus, the needles are lowered while simultaneously the jacks 17 are raised by the cam 10. In this way the needles form the new sinker loops 20 illustrated in FIG. 15, these loops extending through the previously formed stitches 21 of the wales, with the latter stitches 21 of course being held by the needles 15. However, it will be noted that the portion 22 of the sinker loop is caught by the tips 171 of the jacks of the invention so that these tips enter into the sinker loop to extend the yarn portion 22 which joins the pair of adjacent wales 23 illustrated in FIG. 15. At this time it will be noted that the portion 24 of the sinker loop which interconnects the wales is free and corresponds to the usual courses encountered in plain knitting.

When the needle butts have completed their movement along the path portion 19 of FIG. 1, the jacks 17 have been raised to their highest elevation by the cam 10, so that the parts will now have the position shown in FIG. 16. Thus, it will be seen that during the continued upward movement of the jacks 17 from the elevation of FIG. 14, through the elevation of FIG. 15, up to the elevation of FIG. 16, the diverging symmetrical wings 172 of the jacks spread the side portions 221 of the sinker loop apart from each other to a distance sufficient to enable the pair of illustrated needles 15 to move up into this spread loop. In FIG. 15, it will be noted, the side portions 221 of the sinker loop are not spread apart from each other by a distance great enough to enable the needles 15, when they subsequently move upwardly, to enter into the sinker loop. Thus, the wings 172, corresponding to the portions 6 of FIG. 4 and the steps of FIG. 7, enlarge the loop to a magnitude sufficient to receive simultaneously the pair of needles 15 between the pair of jacks 17 are located.

With the parts in this condition, when the needles 15 are subsequently raised, as illustrated in FIG. 17, by the first step of cam 12 of FIG. 1, the needles will enter into the sinker loop. During the second stage of needle raising by cam 12 of FIG. 1, the cam 11 operates to simultaneously lower the jacks 17, so that they reach the elevation indicated in FIG. 18, and thus it is'the needles 15 which now retain the sinker loop.

These operations may be repeated, in given cases according to the results which are desired and the yielding properties of the yarn. Thus, FIG. 19 shows the formation of a sinker loop which extends along the wales through three courses. A comparison of FIG. 9 with FIG. 18 will show how the above-described features achieve the fabric of FIG. 9 to the method of the invention.

FIG. 20 illustrates how the three-course sinker loop of FIG. 19 is cast off so that the normal knitting operations can then proceed until. the next sinker loop of the invention is formed.

Of course, the jacks and needles are actuated by known selection mechanisms which will achieve a desired pattern. Also it is to be noted that the patternselecting mechanism can be set to achieve with the method and apparatus of the invention not only the sinker loops of the invention at any desired location along a pair of adjoining wales, between the latter, but also it is possible to simultaneously achieve loops of the invention which are separated from each other in the direction of the courses only by one wale, so that with the method and apparatus of the invention it is possible to achieve a single wale situated between a pair of sinker loops of the invention.

It will be noted that with the method and apparatus of the invention, the resulting knitted fabric not only has the sinker loops situated at the places where the adjoining wales are interconnected with the sinker loops interknit with the stitches of the wales, but in addition there are groups of retained sinker loops accumulating at the end of each orifice defined between the adjoining wales to provide an exceedingly strong structure for the fabric.

What is claimed is:

1. In a knitting mechanism for knitting a circular weft knit fabric, a series of longitudinally displaceable cylinder needles to which yarn is fed, said needles knitting from the yarn wales in the form of columns of stitches arranged with the columns situated beside each other and with the stitches of each column respectively passing through previously knit stitches thereof, and a pair of jacks situated between each pair of successive cylinder needles so that each pair of jacks are respectively adjacent a pair of successive cylinder needles, said jacks respectively having tips capable of entering through sinker loops retained by said needles and said jacks respectively having at the regions of said tips means for elongating the sinker loops in the same general direction as said wales and for widening the elongated sinker loops only to an extend sufficient to displace them across the pair of needles from the sides thereof in between which the pair of jacks are located to the sides of the needles opposed to the sides thereof between which said pair of jacks are located, said jacks being longitudinally movable with respect to the needles to displace the sinker loops over heads of the needles while the latter knit stitches and loops of a subsequent course through the sinker loops.

2. The combination of claim 1 and wherein said jacks respectively consist of elongated laminar elements guided for longitudinal sliding movement in the grooves, of a needle cylinder and said jacks respectively having operating ends in the form of tips situated with respect to the needles at a location opposed to hooks of the needles, said tips extending from inclined rampforming edges of said jacks extending from said tips to the same side of the needles where the hooks thereof are located, said jacks respectively carrying at their side faces which are respectively directed toward the needles spring elements which normally press against said needles while being cleared by the needles to displace the sinker loops to an opposite side of the needle.

3. The combination of claim 1 and wherein the means for displacing the sinker loops around the pair of needles consists of an elongated elastic element fixed at one end to a side of each jack and extending from the latter in a direction opposite to the direction which said I tip of each jack extends, each elongated elastic element including a portion coplanar with a lateral surface of the jack to which it is connected and having a concave surface directed toward the location where the fabric forms, and each element having a free end portion diverging from the latter lateral surface and below which the head of a needle can be introduced to pass into a retained mesh during upward movement of the needle with respect to the jack.

4. The combination of claim 1 and wherein said jacks respectively have butts adapted to coact with cams which control the movement of the jacks.

S. The combination of claim 4 and wherein a plurality of cams respectively coact with the butts of said jacks for raising them to a sinker-loop forming location and for lowering them into non-operative positions, respectively.

6. The combination of claim 5 and wherein the pairs of jacks respectively situated between the successive needles are associated with a selector mechanism controlled by the pattern controls of the machine, so that the jacks can be selectively maintained'out of operation or raised to the elevation of a lifting cam according to the preselecteddesjgn.

7. The combination of claim 1 and wherein each ack has a flat elongated portion and an inclined portion extending therefrom, an upper operating end of each jack extending upwardly from inclined portion thereof and terminating in an operating tip with said operating end becoming gradually wider downwardly from said tip and arranged in a plane normal to that in which a head of a coacting needle is located, so that the tips of each pair of jacks between each pair of successive needles are spaced from each other thus forming a rib arranged in a half-space opposite to that corresponding to the inclined plane of the union between the operating end and the body of the jack, the connecting profile being inclined from the widening portion of the operating end with its corresponding tip, and said jacks respectively having actuating butts situated in the region of lower ends distant from said operating ends thereof.

Claims

2. The combination of claim 1 and wherein said jacks respectively consist of elongated laminar elements guided for longitudinal sliding movement in the grooves of a needle cylinder and said jacks respectively having operating ends in the form of tips situated with respect to the needles at a location opposed to hooks of the needles, said tips extending from inclined ramp-forming edges of said jacks extending from said tips to the same side of the needles where the hooks thereof are located, said jacks respectively carrying at their side faces which are respectively directed toward the needles spring elements which normally press against said needles while being cleared by the needles to displace the sinker loops to an opposite side of the needle.

3. The combination of claim 1 and wherein the means for displacing the sinker loops around the pair of needles consists of an elongated elastic element fixed at one end to a side of each jack and extending from the latter in a direction opposite to the direction which said tip of each jack extends, each elongated elastic element including a portion coplanar with a lateral surface of the jack to which it is connected and having a concave surface directed toward the location where the fabric forms, and each element having a free end portion diverging from the latter lateral surface and below which the head of a needle can be introduced to pass into a retained mesh during upward movement of the needle with respect to the jack.

5. The combination of claim 4 and wherein a plurality of cams respectively coact with the butts of said jacks for raising them to a sinker-loop forming location and for lowering them into non-operative positions, respectively.

6. The combination of claim 5 and wherein the pairs of jacks respectively situated between the successive needles are associated with a selector mechanism controlled by the pattern controls of the machine, so that the jacks can be selectively maintained out of operation or raised to the elevation of a lifting cam according to the preselected design.

7. The combination of claim 1 and wherein each jack has a flat elongated portion and an inclined portion extending therefrom, an upper operating end of each jack extending upwardly from inclined portion thereof and terminating in an operating tip with said operating end becoming gradually wider downwardly from said tip and arranged in a plane normal to that in which a head of a coacting needle is located, so that the tips of each pair of jacks between each pair of successive needles are spaced from each other thus forming a rib arranged in a half-space opposite to that corresponding to the inclined plane of the union between the operating end and the body of the jack, the connecting profile being inclined from the widening portion of the operating end with its corresponding tip, and said jacks respectively having actuating butts situated in the region of lower ends distant from said operating ends thereof.