US3832867A

US3832867A - Circular knitting machine and articles knitted thereby

Info

Publication number: US3832867A
Application number: US00252011A
Authority: US
Inventors: V Luchi
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1971-05-14
Filing date: 1972-05-10
Publication date: 1974-09-03
Anticipated expiration: 1991-09-03
Also published as: GB1393021A; FR2139513A5; DE2223552A1; CS178408B2

Abstract

A knit fabric has longitudinally extending warp yarns bound into the stitches of the knit fabric. A circular knitting machine includes a needle cylinder and a dial which carries an array of pairs of hooked members each of which pairs serves to bind in one longitudinal warp yarn.

Description

United States Patent [191 Luchi [451 Sept. 3, 1974 1 CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINE AND ARTICLES KNITTED THEREBY [211 Appl. No.: 252,011

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data May 14, 1971 Italy 9514/71 [52] US. Cl. 66/9 R, 66/190, 66/13, A 66/17 [51] Int. Cl D04b 9/12 [58] Field of Search 66/7, 8, 9, l0, 13, 11, 66/17, 19, 31,133,190

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 226,595 4/1880 Chase 66/192 1,742,255 l/1930 Jennings 66/135 X 1,874,198 8/1932 Larmour 66/7 Hill 11 38 Welch et al 66/8 2,018,165 10/1935 Wildt et al .1 66/135 2,186,506 1/1940 Towers 66/9 2,312,963 3/1943 Guyler et al. 66/8 2,637,988 5/1953 Striar 66/135 3,621,677 11/1971 Marks et al 66/9 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 327,987 4/1930 Great Britain 66/135 168,686 3/1906 Germany 66/190 477,703 7/1929 Germany 66/10 Primary ExaminerRonald Feldbaum Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Eric H. Waters 57 ABSTRACT A knit fabric has longitudinally extending warp yarns bound into the stitches of the knit fabric. A circular knitting machine includes a needle cylinder and a dial which carries an array of pairs of hooked members each of which pairs serves to bind in one longitudinal warp yarn.

8 Claims, 12 Drawing Figures PATENTEU 1974 I 3.832.867

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PATENTEUSEYPS m4 3.832.887 SHE Ufa Fig. 4

54 7V HI. 74 I CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINE AND ARTICLES KNITTED THEREBY BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a knitting process, a knitting machine and to knitted articles produced by the process and the machine.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention in one aspect there is provided a process of producing a knitted article comprising binding with a reciprocating motion a longitudinally-extending warp yarn into the loops of a longitudinal row of stitches of a knit fabric.

Further according to the present invention there is provided a knitted article comprising a longitudinallyextending warp yarn bound into the loops of a longitudinal row of stitches of the knit fabric.

Still further according to the present invention there is provided in a circular knitting machine, a needle cylinder, needles mounted in the cylinder, a dial having a plurality of grooves corresponding to a number of Iongitudinal warp yarns to be bound into a knit fabric, a pair of hooked members slidable in each said groove, each said pair together defining an eyelet for the passage of a corresponding needle of the cylinder, one of the members acting as a guide for a longitudinal warp yarn whilst the other of the members has a step therein serving to retain the longitudinal warp yarn and the hooked members being resiliently separable to enable the transverse withdrawal of the members from a me dle engaged in said eyelet, means, combined with the cylinder to supply the longitudinal warp yarn, and means to advance the two hooked members before the corresponding needle which is engaged in the eyelet is lifted and to cause the hooked members to retract before said needle has been lowered, said advancing means acting on the said two hooked members independently of adjacent hooked members.

The invention is particularly applicable to the production of double fabrics having a transverse weft but can also be applied to a plain fabric without a transverse weft.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.

FIG. I is a partial sectional view of a needle cylinder of a circular knitting machine in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a stitch knitting zone of the needle cylinder showing the vertical needles of the cylinder and radial needles of a dial operating with two yarns, the illustration omitting the formation of the longitudinal warp for the sake of clarity;

FIG. 3 is a section similar to that of FIG. 1 but the section is taken at a double warp hook for the vertical yarn;

FIG. 4 is a section similar to that of FIG. 3 but illustrates the double warp hook in another position;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a portion of the needle cylinder and of the dial and is intended to illustrate the manner of formation of a vertical warp;

FIG. 6 is an overall diametral section illustrating devices for setting up a vertical warp in accordance with the invention combined with the machine;

FIGS. 7, 8, 9 and 10 are respectively an enlarged front view, an enlarged section on the line VIIIVIII of FIG. 7, an enlarged front view opposite that of FIG. 7 and an enlarged section on the line XX of FIG. 9 to show the structue of a double-knitted fabric article having a horizontal and vertical weft and warp; and

FIGS. 11 and 12 are enlarged front view of a structure of a knitted fabric with vertical warp corresponding to all the vertical rows of stitches.

According to the drawings, the needle cylinder 1 has external longitudinal grooves to accommodate vertical sliding of latch needles 3 and the axis of the cylinder also extending vertically. An outer rim 5 of the cylinder is secured by clamping members 7 to the cylinder 1 at the upper portion thereof. Radial grooves in the cylinder and in the rim are provided for conventional sinkers 9 and these serve to engage the stitches and perform the knitting of the article in conjunction with the needles 3 and by further needles to be described hereinafter. The dial 12 is rotated synchronously with the cylinder 1, benath a fixed structure 14 including control cams of the machine. The dial 12 is driven by a hollow shaft 16 having a flange 16A which is of shallow frustoconical form and has a periphery matching the internal configuration of the dial 12. The shaft 16 is journalled by bearings 18 themselves mounted in a sleeve 20 supported by fixed structure 14 and also-by a further fixed structure 22. Rotation of the cylinder 1 and dial I2 is effected by a horizontal shaft 24, and a pinion 26 meshing with a ring gear 28 rigid with the shaft 16.

The needles 3 are lifted and lowered by outer cams. A lifting cam 30 is provided for the needles 3 and a lowering cam 32 is provided for subsequent lowering of the needles 3. A yam-guide 34 serves to feed a yarn M for conventional knitting by means of the verticallyreciprocable needles 3. The lifting cams 30 can be operated conventionally but alternatively only a proportion of the needles 3 need be actuated.

The dial 12 has radial grooves equal in number to the longitudinal grooves of the cylinder 1 for the needles 3, and each lies intermediate pairs of adjacent needles 3. The radial grooves accommodate radial, horizontal, latch needles 36. In FIG. 1 one needle 36 is shown projecting beyond the periphery of the dial as a result of actuation by a high butt 36A, itself actuated by a cam profile 38 rigid with the structure 14. A further cam is carried by the structure 14 and is intended to form a counter-cam control profile for the purposes hereinafter described. The

cam

38 and 40 control the operation of the radial feed in the centrifugal direction and of the radial re-entry of the needles 36 in the centripetal direction to effect engagement with the yarn and the clearing of a stitch. A yarn-guide 42 serves to feed a binding yarn L, which is intended to be fed to the horizontal needles 36.

As can be seen in FIG. 2, an arrow f indicates the sense of rotation of the needle cylinder, the control of the projection of the horizontal needles 36 and thus the return in the centripetal direction to engage the yarn L, is provided in advance with respect to the control of the projection of the vertical needles 3 and for their downward return motion for the engagement of the yarn M.

The arrangement is such that the yarn L is knitted by the needles 36, which are returning in the centripetal direction while the needles 3 are still raised. and the needles 36 knit the stitches with the yarn L engaging the loops of the yarn L against the raised needles 3. Only after the knitting and clearing of the stitches by the horizontal needles 36 as a result of their re-entry to the dial, are the needles 3 lowered which engage the yarn M and knit therewith the stitch, clearing the previous stitch.

A horizontal weft yarn T is fed rearwardly that is into the space enclosed by the array of needles 3 and beneath the array of needles 36. The yarn T0 is fed by a yarn-guide 44 arranged in advance with respect to the yarn-

guides

42 and 34. The horizontal weft yarn T0 is caught between stitches L1 and stitches Ml (FIG. and is thus prevented from sliding longitudinally after knitting the article. The yarn TO partially emerges and thus is visible predominantly on the surface shown in FIG. 9, when one uses a thin yarn L to knit the stitches Ll, whilst is predominantly in the surface of the yarn M forming the stitches Ml as shown in FIG. 7. The horizontal weft yarn TO imposes resistance to yeilding in the direction of said weft. The horizontal weft yarn TO when combined with a fabric wherein the yarn L forming the stitches L1 is thin, can be used to create a rear surface of different appearance from the front surface obtained with the stitches Ml of the yarn M. Moreover, horizontal patterns can be formed in the article by inserting subsequently horizontal wefts T0 or groups of horizontal wefts TO differentiated as to colour and/or nature of yarn.

The above illustrated fabric is an example of a knitted fabric with which the longitudinal warp according to the invention can be combined, but this weft can be alternatively used with a conventional knitted fabric.

A warp array of unknitted yarn may be engaged in the knitted fabric in a generally longitudinal sense, that is parallel to the needles of the cylinder. For this pur pose, instead of needles 36, pairs of members defining hooks for distributing a corresponding vertical warp yarn TV, are provided on the dial 12 in some of the radial grooves therein provided at appropriate angular spacings. These pairs of members include a first hook member 48 having an aperture 50 for the vertical warp yarn TV and deviating over a section 48A from the radial direction, the section 48A being spaced from the end 488 and the hole 50 being included between the end 488 and the section 48A. A second hook member 52, similar to member 48, forms each pair of hook members. and extends substantially rectilinearly with a radiussed end 52A to a section thereof extending beyond a step 52C. The arrangement of the pair of

members

48 and 52 is such that a needle 3 can pass into the eyelet formed by the end sections of the pair of

members

48 and 52 arranged in one of the radial grooves of the dial 112 which is adjacent to the needle under consideration. This eyelet corresponds to the needle which is being raised as both needles 36 and, in substitution thereof, the pairs of

hook members

48, 52 are advanced in the centrifugal direction in advance of the needles 3. In order to control the

members

48 and 52 forming the eyelets, the

hook members

48 and 52 have butts 48C (see F IG. 4) which are advantageously larger and also lower than butts 36A, so as to be operated independently therefrom, with a larger and shallower channel profile than that provided for the butts 36A. The eyelet hooks 48 and 52 are operated substantially in the same manner as the nedles 36 of the dial, these butts 48C effectively controlling the centrifugal radial feed or advance of the eyelet hooks 48 and 52 so that the latter project a shorter distance beyond the needles 36 (FIG. 3).

The vertical warp yarns TV are fed from bobbin holders which are constrained to follow the motion of the dial 12. For this purpose, an additional disc structure 54 is mounted above the structure 14 carrying the earns 38, 40 coaxial with the shaft 16. This disk 54 has a central aperture which is guided by sprocket wheels 56 which are carried by the fixed structure 14. The disk structure 54 is synchronously driven with the needle cylinder 1 and with the dial l2, from the shaft 24 or from the shaft 16. A stub shaft 58, parallel to the axis of the shaft 16 and carrying two gears or

sprockets

60, 62 one meshing with an internally toothed rim ll6B rigid with the frusto-conical flange 16A and the other meshing with an internally toothed rim 54A of the disc structure 54, is provided on the fixed structure 14. On the disc structure 54 several supports for bobbinholders 64, each of which can contain one or more than one of the vertical weft yarns TV to be fed to a similar number of eyelet hooks 48, 52.

Each vertical warp yarn TV, guided by yarn-guides 66, reaches the end section of the corresponding hook 48 and passes from the outside of the pair of

hooks

48, 52 through the aperture 50 which thus acts as a yarnguide. The yarn TV is also returned (FIG. 5) on the radiussed end 52C of the hook 52 when the pair of

members

48, 52 is advanced in the centrifugal direction to bring the eyelet formed thereby into alignment with the needle 3, which when lifted must pass through and move above the hook. The yarn TV, with the advance of the pair of

members

48, 52, is brought in front of the needle 3 that is externally of the circumferential row of needles 3. When the needle 3 under consideration has been lifted through and above the eyelet formed by the members 43, 52, the latter substantially coincidentially with the needles 36, are returned in the centripetal direction towards the dial 12, possibly whilst the needle 3 is being lowered. The vertical warp yarn TV therefore forms a loop TVl (see FIG. 4) in front of the needle 3 under consideration. As shown in FIGS. 7 to it), the yarn TV forms a binding TV2 on the side of the stitches Ml (FIG. 7) and instead forms corresponding elongate portions TV3 of the opposite side (see F IG. 9).

The verical warp yarns TV have the function of stiffening the knitted fabric in the longitudinal direction, the binding of said yarns not being true knitting, but a winding which tends to become elongated far less readily then looped knitting. An additional function of the vertical warp yarns is that of creating therewith a surface visible on one of the surfaces of the article more markedly than with the other surface, and in this way the possibility of forming longitudinal patterns in the article becomes apparent.

Although a longitudinal warp TV may be provided in any knit fabric, in practice and advantageously, it is convenient that the article involving vertical warp yarns, that is with a longitudinal yarn TV (forming bindings such as those denoted by TV2 and TV3) is an article involving a secondary knitted structure formed by the yarns L, setting up the stitches L1 as described, and also advantageously involving a horizontal weft TO, also as hereinbefore described.

When both vertical warps TV and horizontal weft T0 are provided, square patterns and/or Scotch patterns and/or Prince or Wales patterns can be produced with an appropriate distribution of the weft yarns TO and of the warp yarns TV along the sliding circumference of the heads of the needles. The patterns will obviously have a pitch, for repeating the horizontal i.e. transverse patterns, dependent upon the number of the simultaneous feeds.

The warp yarns TV and also the yarns TO may be of a nature such as to undergo a gauze operation, that is they may be relatively hairy and soft yarns, this enabling a gauze-like surface to be produced on one or on the other or on both surfaces of the fabric, and also to attain an appreciable fixing effect on the warp and weft yarns, in particular, on the yarns TO.

When the article has additionally to the vertical warp yarns TV corresponding to the spaced knitted rows, also knitting yarns L forming stitches L, the stitches Ll obviously cannot be formed in the positions wherein the needle 36 is missing, said needle being replaced by the pair of

members

48 and 52. Therefore, the yarn L corresponding to the vertical warp TV (TV2, TV3) is provided with lengths of joining yarn L2 between adjacent stitches Ll (FIGS. 7 to 10).

FIGS. 11 and 12 show a knitted fabric wherein vertical warp are provided corresponding to all the rows of stitches, that is correspong to all the needles of the cylinder.

In all the embodiments indicated the horizontal wefts TC can be provided or omitted as desired.

1 claim:

1. In a circular knitting machine,

a needle cylinder,

needles mounted in the cylinder,

a dial having a plurality of grooves corresponding to a number of longitudinal warp yarns to be bound into a knit fabric,

a pair of hooked members slidable in each said groove, each said pair together defining an eyelet for the passage of a corresponding needle of the cylinder, one of the members acting as a guide for a longitudinal warp yarn whilst the other of the members as a step therein serving to retain the longitudinal warp yarn and the hooked members being resiliently separable to enable the transverse withdrawal of the members from a needle engaged in said eyelet,

means, combined with the cylinder to supply the longitudinal warp yarn, and

means to advance the two hooked members before the corresponding needle which is engaged in the eyelet is lifted and to cause the hooked members to retract before said needle has been lowered, said advancing means acting on the said two hooked members independently of adjacent hooked members.

2. A machine according to claim 1, wherein said dial carries radially movable needles arrayed between the hooked members, said radially movable needles being arranged to knit a second yarn independent of the yarn supplied to the needles of the cylinder and being controlled by said advancing means.

3. A machine according to claim 1, wherein there is a pair of hooked members corresponding to each needle of the cylinder.

4. A machine according to claim 1, further comprismg means for feeding rearwardly of the cylinder needles a horizontal weft yarn, said means acting to feed the horizontal yarn before the needles of the cylinder are raised.

5. A machine according to claim 1, further comprisa fixed structure above the dial,

a disc member arranged above the fixed structure,

means for driving the needle cylinder, the dial and the disc member sychronously, and

a plurality of bobbin container mounted on the disc member.

6. A method of producing a knitted fabric, compris ing the steps of: knitting a yarn to form a main knit fabric with longitudinally extending rows of stitches, each being associated with a transversely extending course of stitches; feeding a longitudinally extending warp yarn along each vertically extending row of stitches, binding the base of each stitch in each row by wrapping said warp yarn about same during the formation of the main knit fabric; feeding a transversely extending weft yarn along horizontal course of stitches; and engaging the weft yarn between the stitches of the course and the corresponding lengths of the warp yarn.

7. A method as claimed in claim 6, comprising the step of: feeding a further binding yarn to form stitches of a second knit fabric, said last-mentioned stitches being interlaced with the stitches of said main knit fabric and being arranged on the side opposite the main fabric stitches in respect of said weft yarns.

8. A method of producing a knitted fabric, comprising the steps of: knitting a yarn to form a main knit fabric with longitudinally extending rows of stitches, each being associated with a transversely extending course of stitches; feeding a longitudinally extending warp yarn along each vertical row of stitches, and binding the base of the stitch in each row by wrapping said warp yarn about same during the formation of the main knit

Claims

1. In a circular knitting machine, a needle cylinder, needles mounted in the cylinder, a dial having a plurality of grooves corresponding to a number of longitudinal warp yarns to be bound into a knit fabric, a pair of hooked members slidable in each said groove, each said pair together defining an eyelet for the passage of a corresponding needle of the cylinder, one of the members acting as a guide for a longitudinal warp yarn whilst the other of the members as a step therein serving to retain the longitudinal warp yarn and the hooked members being resiliently separable to enable the transverse withdrawal of the members from a needle engaged in said eyelet, means, combined with the cylinder to supply the longitudinal warp yarn, and means to advance the two hooked members before the corresponding needle which is engaged in the eyelet is lifted and to cause the hooked members to retract before said needle has been lowered, said advancing means acting on the said two hooked members independently of adjacent hooked members.

4. A machine according to claim 1, further comprising means for feeding rearwardly of the cylinder needles a horizontal weft yarn, said means acting to feed the horizontal yarn before the needles of the cylinder are raised.

5. A machine according to claim 1, further comprising a fixed structure above the dial, a disc member arranged above the fixed structure, means for driving the needle cylinder, the dial and the disc member sychronously, and a plurality of bobbin container mounted on the disc member.

6. A method of producing a knitted fabric, comprising the steps of: knitting a yarn to form a main knit fabric with longitudinally extending rows of stitches, each being associated with a transversely extending course of stitches; feeding a longitudinally extending warp yarn along each vertically extending row of stitches, binding the base of each stitch in each row by wrapping said warp yarn about same during the formation of the main knit fabric; feeding a transversely extending weft yarn along horizontal course of stitches; and engaging the weft yarn between the stitches of the course and the corresponding lengths of the warp yarn.

8. A method of producing a knitted fabric, comprising the steps of: knitting a yarn to form a main knit fabric with longitudinally extending rows of stitches, each being associated with a transversely extending course of stitches; feeding a longitudinally extending warp yarn along each vertical row of stitches, and binding the base of the stitch in each row by wrapping said warp yarn about same during the formation of the main knit fabric.