Warp knitting machine with fall plate bar

There is provided a warp knitting machine with a fall plate bar having a guide bar assembly carrying guide bars 2 and 3, a supplemental shaft 8 which rotates in dependence upon the main shaft 9 and carries steering device 11. These are part of a fall plate drive which moves the fall plate bar 25 to and fro via a lever arrangement 27. This construction has a comparatively low mass and permits higher drive speeds.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates to a warp knitting machine with a fall plate 
bar, which is attached to a guide bar assembly carrying a guide bar and 
having a fall plate drive, which is movable to and fro by cam plates 
rotating with the main shaft and a lever arrangement activated thereby. 
2. Description of Related Art 
In the known warp knitting machines of this type (DE 15 854 40), the fall 
plate bar is held by rods which are led into a guide means of a guide bar 
assembly carrying the guide bar and are moved to and fro by eccentric cams 
attached to the main shaft via a multi-membered lever arrangement. 
The lever arrangement is laid out so that the steering of the fall plate 
bar is maintained during the swing movement of the carrier. Such a sinker 
plate drive can only be utilized for machine speeds of up to approximately 
500 rpm of the main shaft. 
From U.S. Pat. No. 5,520,023, it is known to arrange tool bars which carry 
needles, sliders, or sinkers on a carrier arm which is part of a 
joint-quadrilateral and is displaceable back and forth by a shaft swinging 
to and fro. 
A fall plate control is also known (DE-SM 66 06 595) in which the fall 
plate movement varies and in particular can be shut off in dependence on 
the pattern. This is achieved thereby that the joint bushings of a push 
rod driven by the eccentric shaft of the machine grips onto a toggle 
lever, combined with the fall plate and furthermore the toggle lever is 
displaceable by a further push rod controlled by a pattern chain. 
The purpose of the present invention is to provide a warp knitting machine 
of the heretofore described art which can operate at higher speeds. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
In accordance with the illustrative embodiments demonstrating features and 
advantages of the present invention, there is provided a warp knitting 
machine having a main shaft and a guide bar assembly. The guide bar 
assembly has a guide bar supported thereon and is rotated in dependence 
upon the main shaft. The machine also has a supplemental shaft (a) mounted 
in the guide bar assembly, and (b) rotatably driven in dependence upon the 
main shaft. Also included is a steering means carried by the supplemental 
shaft and arranged to be driven in dependence upon the main shaft. The 
machine also has a fall plate bar attached to the guide bar assembly, and 
a fall plate drive coupled to the fall plate bar. The fall plate drive has 
a lever arrangement reciprocatably driven by the steering means. 
By employing apparatus of the foregoing type, advantages are achieved 
wherein a supplemental shaft is borne by the guide bar assembly, which 
rotates in dependence upon the main shaft and preferably carries cam 
plates for driving the fall plate bar. 
By means of the preferred construction, the mass of the rapidly 
reciprocating portions of the fall plate drive, which are substantially 
located in the lever arrangement between the supplemental shaft and the 
fall plate bar in the area of the guide bar assembly, is substantially 
reduced. The supplemental shaft plays only a subordinate role with respect 
to the mass damping, since it is continually, and apart from certain 
exceptions, rotated uniformly. Thus, the accelerative and decelerative 
forces which must be overcome in the operation, are substantially smaller 
than before, and therefore enable higher machine speeds, for example 600 
to 700 rpm. 
Preferably, the supplemental shaft is connected to the main shaft by a 
drive means. No additional drive unit is required and there is no 
synchronization load. 
In particular, the drive can be a chain or belt drive. This type of drive 
raises no problems with respect to the to and fro swinging of the assembly 
together with the supplemental shaft borne thereby, between an underlap 
and an overlap position. 
In a preferred embodiment, cam plates are formed by eccentrics attached to 
the supplemental shaft. These circular formed control cams which are 
coupled to the main shaft can also be utilized with the supplemental 
shaft. 
In particular, the eccentrics may be formed by circular disks which, for 
weight-saving, may have holes therein. 
In one preferred embodiment, it is provided that a fall plate shaft is 
borne in a guide bar assembly which is swung to and fro by the eccentric 
via a first half of a lever arrangement and thus moves the fall plate bar 
via a second part of the lever arrangement. Such a lever arrangement, 
divided in two by the fall plate shaft allows the achievement of 
space-savings with smaller mass. 
It is furthermore desirable that the fall plate bar is attached to a 
carrier arm which is connected via a jointed steering lever attached to 
the fall plate shaft, and via a jointed lever is attached to a bearing in 
the guide bar assembly. When the carrier arm, the steering lever, and the 
jointed lever form a parallelogram with the carriage, the fall plate bar 
performs a linear to and fro movement. Through deviations from the 
parallelogram form, a different movement path can be achieved.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
The guide bar assembly (1) carries guide bars (2) and (3) with the guides 
(4) and (5) appropriate thereto. Assembly (1) is swingable by means not 
shown, about a machine fixed axle (6) in the direction of arrow (7) in 
order to swing the guides from the underlap position to the overlap 
position and back again. 
On this guide bar assembly (1), there is carried a supplemental shaft (8) 
which can be caused to rotate by a drive means (10). Drive means 10 may be 
a belt drive or chain drive from main shaft (9) and thus runs with it 
continually and uniformly. It will be appreciated that drive means 10 is 
only a schematic representation and that more practical embodiments will 
employ a number of intervening mechanisms. Supplemental shaft (8) carries 
steering means, that is, cams (11) in the form of an eccentrics (12), 
which are formed as circular disks provided with holes (13) serving for 
weight reduction. 
On a fall plate shaft (14) similarly borne in guide bar assembly (1), an 
outrigger (15) is attached which is connected via joint (16) with the rod 
(4) of a connecting collar (18) encircling eccentric (12). This fall plate 
shaft (14) is moved to and fro in its bearing by means of the rotation of 
shaft (8). 
Furthermore, a steering, first lever (19) is attached to the fall plate 
shaft (14) and with carrier arm (21) by means of joint (20). This carrier 
arm is further connected via joint (22) with driven, second lever (23), 
which itself is connected to the guide bar assembly (1) via bearing (24). 
The carrier arm (21) carries a fall plate bar (25), whose lower end is 
provided with a fall plate (26). 
Since the steering lever (19), the carrier arm (21), the driven lever (23), 
and the guide bar assembly (1) form a quadrilateral that is a 
parallelogram, the fall plate (26) moves straight up and down during the 
rotation of the supplemental shaft (8). The lever arrangement (27), 
extending between the supplemental shaft (8) and the fall plate shaft 
(14), is divided into two parts (28) and (29) and acts as a fall plate 
drive. A first part (28) extends over the axle (6) attached to the 
housing. The second part (29) is next to this axle (6). A space saving 
lever arrangement thus arises with few and small parts which, because of 
their small mass, permit high operative speeds. 
In deviations from the presented embodiments are possible in several ways 
without departing from the basic concept of the invention. For example, 
the drive for the supplemental shaft (8) can occur through its own motor 
synchronized with the main shaft. Other drives (10) may also be utilized 
such as a cam mechanism in place of the chain or belt drive. 
Obviously, many modifications and variations of the present invention are 
possible in light of the above teachings. It is therefore to be understood 
that within the scope of the appended claims, the invention may be 
practiced otherwise than as specifically described.