Abstract:
A method of and an arrangement for designing tubular round knitted products on a flat knitting machine operates with the fine automation degree and a plurality of representing, designing and correcting possibilities.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    The present invention relates to a method of and an arrangement for designing of tubular round knitted articles produced on a flat knitting machine.  
           [0002]    Due to constantly increasing personal costs, a trend for producing knitted articles for which after the production of the knitting machine no additional fabrication works are needed has been observed. These knitted articles are usually tubular round final products which are produced with the use of the possibilities of modern electronically controlled, fully automatic flat knitting machines. The sleeve and body trunk parts of such a tubular round final article are first formed as separate tubular round knitted articles, before the sleeves must be connected to the body trunk part. Starting from this position, three individual tubular round knitted articles are knitted further as a single tubular round knitted article. Then shoulder shapes, neck portions and in some cases collars are knitted to them. The knitted article is therefore completely formed by the flat knitting machine. After this no seams must be closed any longer, and as a rule only the initial and the end thread portions are cleaned manually.  
           [0003]    In the tubular round final articles which are formed of several parts, in order to produce very complex knitted articles correspondingly large numbers of knitting data for controlling the flat knitting machine must be provided. This no longer can be done manually. The European patent document EP 0 763 615 B1 discloses a device and a method for designing a round knitted article for a flat knitting machine, in which first a pattern for the knitted article is placed. Subsequently, a contour of the knitted article is selected by selection of contour shapes stored on the device and dimensional data for the front and rear parts as well as the sleeves are provided. After this manually for each individual contour region a knitting process description is produced, which depends on the pattern structures available in the corresponding contour region. Then, based on the knitting process description, the device automatically generates the control data for the flat knitting machine.  
           [0004]    This known method makes possible a high automation degree during designing of tubular round final knitted articles. However, it has some disadvantages. The knitted articles can not have any arbitrary contours, but they can have only those contours which are contained in the selection stored in the device. Since the knitting process descriptions depend on the contour and the pattern in the corresponding contour region, it is necessary for each pattern structure occurring inside the contour to provide its own knitting process description, which is very expensive. Manual changes which are performed after the manufacture of the design are not transferred automatically to the original pattern representation, so that no visual control of the performed changes is possible. Furthermore, with the known method after the manufacture of the total design a close to reality representation of the knitting device can be visualized, but not the intermediate stages of designing, for example during the pattern association to a sleeve or the like.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0005]    Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide method of and device for designing tubular round knitted articles produced on a flat knitting machine, which avoid the disadvantages of the prior art.  
           [0006]    More particularly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of and device for designing a tubular round knitted articles, which are user-friendlier than the known solutions and allow a higher automation degree.  
           [0007]    In keeping with these objects and with others which will become apparent hereinafter, one feature of the present invention resides, briefly stated, in a method of designing of tubular round knitted articles on a flat knitting machine with at least one front part and at least one rear part, which comprises the following steps:  
           [0008]    preparation of a knitting pattern for each front part and each rear part as well as in some cases further knitted parts such as pockets, independently from the shape of the knitted piece by means of an inputting and indicating device and storing the pattern data,  
           [0009]    describing the contour of each front part and each rear part by means of the inputting and indicating device and storing the contour data,  
           [0010]    fixing the contour portion of the knitted parts on which a connection with another knitted part must be produced, and storing the data of this contour portion,  
           [0011]    assembling the contours of the knitted parts to a total knitted piece and determining a sequence of knitting rows, with which the total knitted piece is producible,  
           [0012]    for each knitted part indicating the knitting pattern and the contour on the indicating device, by means of the inputting device displacing the contour onto the knitting pattern until the knitting pattern fills the contour in a desired manner,  
           [0013]    indicating the total knitted piece with the selected and stored knitting pattern-and contour data for the individual knitted part,  
           [0014]    determining the knitting information for each knitting row for providing the total knitting piece in accordance with the pattern and contour data of the knitting parts.  
           [0015]    The knitting information for each knitting row can be converted into knitting data for a flat knitting machine and thereby one or several flat knitting machines can be controlled for producing the tubular round knitting article.  
           [0016]    With the inventive method only a few steps can be performed manually. They are limited to the perforation of a knitting pattern for each knitted part, the fixing of the contours of the knitted part as well as the connection portion of the individual knitted parts, and the introduction of the knitting pattern into the contour of the corresponding knitted part. When these data are provided, then automatically the required sequence of knitting rows is generated for production of the total knitting piece as well as the knitting information for each individual knitting row. Correction possibilities both of the pattern and the contour are possible in each designing stage. During a correction of the pattern or the contour of the total knitted piece, moreover the made changes can be provided automatically in the stored pattern and the contour data of the corresponding individual knitted part. Also, after a correction, the individual representations of the knitted parts and the representation of the total knitted piece coincide with one another.  
           [0017]    The knitted patterns can be designed preferably in the loop formation representation or in the thread running representation. From the data for one individual representation type the data for another representation type can be calculated, so that the knitted pattern in each design stage of the knitted article is indicatable in both representation types. Further advantages are provided when in the case of the loop formation representation a reality-close approximately three-dimensional representation of all elements of the knitted piece, such as loops, tucks and floating is provided.  
           [0018]    A tubular round knitted article is composed of at least three knitting plates, one for the front part and one for the rear part. With pocket-and/or special patterning, further knitting planes can be produced. In accordance with a preferable variant of the inventive method, the individual knitted parts are associated with one or several planes of the total knitted piece. It is advantageous when also each knitting element, such as loops, tucks, floatings of one knitted part are associated with one of the knitting planes. Thereby for the user it is clear, in which plane the corresponding knitting elements are formed.  
           [0019]    For facilitating the designing of the knitting pattern for the knitted parts, portions from a knitting pattern can be stored as individual modules, which at different locations of the pattern or during designing of the knitting patterns of another knitted parts can be again utilized. A significant facilitation of this modular technique is moreover also possible when the modules with the new use at other locations can be joined with a loop technique correctly in the surrounding knitting pattern, and if necessary, an adaptation of the knitting article plane association to the individual knitting elements of the module can be performed.  
           [0020]    The fixing of the contour portions of the knitted parts, on which a connection with another knitted part might be produced, can be performed so that the starting and end points of the portion and the type of the connection are determined for example with or without performing a longitudinal compensation between the knitted parts and can be stored.  
           [0021]    The invention also deals with an arrangement for designing tubular round knitted articles produced on a flat knitting machine with at least one front part and at least one rear part, that has at least one storage device for the designing data, at least one indicating device for representation of design formations of the knitted article and at least one inputting device for producing and changing the design former, wherein in accordance with the present invention it has at least one device for assembling the contours of the at least one front part and the at least one rear part in accordance with a manually inputtable connection steps and for calculating the knitted rows required for production of the contour of the total knitted piece, as well as for calculating the knitting information for each knitting row of the total knitted article in accordance with the pattern-and contour data of the individual knitted parts.  
           [0022]    The arrangement also has a device for converting the knitting information of each knitting row into a knitting data for a flat knitting machine. In accordance with a preferable embodiment, the indicating device can be formed so that simultaneously loop formation and thread running representations of the knitted article or the knitted article parts are reproducible.  
           [0023]    Further decisive advantages, in particular during correction of the knitted product production, are produced when the arrangement during change of one or the both representation types simultaneously changes the other representation.  
           [0024]    For facilitating the knitting pattern production, the arrangement can be provided with devices for combining several knitting elements of a thread running-or loop formation representation to modules and storing devices for storing the modules. Furthermore, the devices for loop-technically correct insertion of modules in an available knitting pattern, for reducing and increasing, for multiplying and for inverting of modules can be provided.  
           [0025]    The novel features which are considered as characteristic for the present invention are set forth in particular in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its construction and its method of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.  
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0026]    [0026]FIG. 1 is a principle view of an inventive designing arrangement together with a flat knitting machine and a tubular round final knitted article;  
         [0027]    [0027]FIGS. 2 a  and  2   b  are views showing a partial view of a front side of a tubular round knitted article in stitch formation representation and a thread running representation correspondingly;  
         [0028]    [0028]FIGS. 3 a - 3   c  are views showing two stitch formation representations and a thread running representation of a portion of a rear part of a tubular round knitted article;  
         [0029]    [0029]FIGS. 4 a  and  4   b  are views showing a joint representation of the front and the rear parts from FIGS. 2 and 3 in a loop formation representation and a thread running representation;  
         [0030]    [0030]FIGS. 5 a  and  5   b  are views showing representation of the front part of FIG. 2 in a loop formation representation and a thread running representation, which clearly show the knitting production;  
         [0031]    [0031]FIGS. 6 a  and  6   b  are views showing a thread running representation of a pattern and a knitting module inserted in the pattern;  
         [0032]    [0032]FIGS. 7 a - 7   c  are views showing a loop formation representation of a braid pattern of the front and rear part of a tubular round knitted article;  
         [0033]    [0033]FIG. 8 is a view showing a representation of contours of different knitted parts of a tubular round knitted article;  
         [0034]    [0034]FIG. 9 is a principle view of the definition of connecting points of two knitted parts;  
         [0035]    [0035]FIG. 10 is a view showing a representation of a knitting row sequence on an example of a sleeve and a body trunk part with a V-section on the front part;  
         [0036]    [0036]FIG. 11 is a principle view showing the introduction of a pattern of a knitting pattern in different knitted parts;  
         [0037]    [0037]FIGS. 12 a - 12   c  are views showing different representations of a total knitted article composed of individual knitted parts.  
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0038]    [0038]FIG. 1 shows a designing arrangement for producing a tubular round final knitted article  9  by means of a flat knitting machine  8 . The designing arrangement has a computing and storage device  1 , a keyboard  2  as a first inputting device, a graphic tablet  4  as a second inputting device, and an image screen  3  as an indicating device. A printer  5  and an external mass storage  6  are connected to the computing and storage device  1 .  
         [0039]    FIGS.  2 - 7  show various pattern representation-and design possibilities of an inventive method and an inventive arrangement.  
         [0040]    [0040]FIG. 2 a  shows a loop formation representation of a section of the outer view of a front side of a right smooth tubular round knitted article. The loops  10  of the front part are right loops, and in FIG. 2 a  are shown as in the final knitted article. FIG. 2 b  shows the thread running representation corresponding to FIG. 2 a  wherein the loops  10  here are formed on the front needle bed V.  
         [0041]    [0041]FIG. 3 a  shows the inner view of the rear part of a right smooth tubular round final knitted article. The loops  11  are left loops and formed, as in the thread running representation in FIG. 3 b , on the rear needle bed H. FIG. 3 shows the outer view of the rear part of the tubular round knitted article. Here the loops  11  are shown as right loops.  
         [0042]    [0042]FIG. 4 a  shows in the general view the front-end rear part from FIGS. 2 a  and  3   a  as a loop formation representation in a combined view. The right loops  10  of the front part belong to the first plane  100  of the total knitted product and the loops  11  to the second plane  200 . In this example a right smooth tubular round knitted article has only two knitting planes, the first knitting plane  100  for the front part and the second knitting plane  200  for the rear part. FIG. 2 b  shows the thread running representation corresponding to FIG. 4 a . The loops  10  are formed on the front needle V and the loops  11  of the rear part are formed on the rear needle bed H.  
         [0043]    [0043]FIG. 5 a  shows a further type of the representation of the front part of FIG. 2 a  in the loop formation representation, wherein the loops  10  are shown as they actually are suspended in the needles of the front needle bed. FIG. 5 b  illustrates that the loops  10  are knitted only with each second needle of the front needle bed V. It can be seen that the loops  10  in FIG. 5 a  are pulled further from one another than the loops  10  in the representation of FIG. 2 a , which is a reality-closed representation of the front part and does not consider the knitting-technical production of the knitted article.  
         [0044]    [0044]FIGS. 6 a  and  6   b  illustrate the binding of a knitting module  25  in a knitting pattern  26 . The knitting pattern  26  in the rows  101 - 104  contains knitting instructions for the first plane of the knitted product and in the rows  201 - 205  contains data for the second plane of the knitted article. The module  25  contains knitting informations  101 ′- 104 ′ for a single knitting plane. FIGS. 6 b  illustrates how with insertion of the module  25  into the knitting pattern  26  automatically an adaptation of the module  25  in the both different knitting planes  100  and  200  is performed. Since the module  25  contains only data for the first plane of the knitted article, the rows of the second plane  201 - 205  remain unchanged. For the rows  101 - 104 , the module  25  contains data that in each its row left loops must be formed.  
         [0045]    For enabling formation of mainly left loops in the row  101 , automatically the row  101 ′ generated, in which the fifth loop from left is transferred to the rear needle bed H. Also automatically a row  101 ″ is produced, in which the left loops are transferred back from the rear needle bed to the front needle bed. In an identical way, for the row  102  a row  102 ′ is generated. Also, the row  102 ″/ 102 ′ is automatically produced. Here the left loops are transferred back from the rear needle bed to the front needle bed, and the fourth loop is transferred from left to the rear needle bed, so that it can form a left loop in the rows  103  and  104 . In a similarly automatically produced row  104 ″ then the fourth loop is transferred back from left to the front needle bed V.  
         [0046]    [0046]FIG. 7 a  shows a 2×2 braid in the representation for a first knitting plane. The loop train  15 ,  16  which raises to the right upwardly forms the intersecting visual side, and the loop train  17  raising to the left upwardly is covered. The illustrated knitting plane can be for example the outer front plane. FIG. 7 b  shows the braid of FIG. 7 a  in a representation for the second knitting plane of a tubular round knitted product, as seen from the front side of the knitted product. The second plane can be for example the inner side of the rear part. The braid train  15 ′,  16 ′ is now covered and raises to the left, and the loop train  17 ′,  18 ′ raises to the right and is not visible. In FIG. 7 c  the knitted product is shown from the rear side. FIG. 7 c  shows also the braid which is seen from the outer side of the rear part. The loop trains  15 ″,  16 ″ and  17 ″,  18 ″ are mirror inverted with respect to the orientation in FIG. 7 a.    
         [0047]    [0047]FIG. 8 shows the contours of a front part  24 , a rear part  23 , as well as two sleeves  21 ,  22 . The parts  21 - 24  can be selected completely arbitrarily by a designer.  
         [0048]    [0048]FIG. 9 shows an example for fixing of contour portions on which a body trunk part  30  and a sleeve  31  must be connected with one another. This is performed by fixing the initial and end points  32 ,  33 ,  34  on the body trunk part  30  and corresponding initial and end points of the connecting portions  32 ′,  33 ′ and  34 ′ on the sleeve  31 . In the region between the points  32 / 32 ′ and  33 / 33 ′, the sleeve is suspended on the body trunk part and simultaneously production knitting rows for the sleeve are produced. Between the points  33 / 33 ′ and  34 / 34 ′ the sleeves are suspended only on the body trunk part and no loop rows for the sleeve  31  are produced any longer.  
         [0049]    [0049]FIG. 10 shows example as an on the front part  30  and the sleeve  31  of FIG. 9, the sequence of criteria, in accordance with which a knitting row sequence is provided.  40  identifies the starting knitting row both of the body trunk part  30  and the sleeve  31 . At the knitting row  41 , the separate production of the body trunk part  30  and the sleeve  31  starts, and simultaneously the binding of the sleeve  31  to the body trunk part  30  starts. Both parts as well as the other not shown sleeves are further knitted from this position as a single tubular round knitted product. At the position  42  an interruption of the tubular knitted product is performed at the front part for the production of a V portion. On the position  43  the sleeve  31  comes to end in correspondence with a contour description. The position  44  identifies the last production knitting row of the sleeve  31  in correspondence with the knitting process. The row  45  is the last body trunk row, in which the sleeve  31  is bound to the body trunk part  30 . In the knitting row  46  an interruption of the tubular knitted product on the rear side of the body trunk part  30  is performed for producing a neck back section. Reference numeral  47  identifies the last produced knitting row.  
         [0050]    In accordance with the sequence of knitting rows shown in FIG. 10, in the inventive method the introduction of the knitting pattern is performed, which were before generated for the knitting parts, in the contours of the sleeves  31 ,  32  as well as the body trunk part  30 . The contours  30 - 32  are displaced on the pattern field  50  so long until the individual pattern elements  51  and  52  are arranged on the right position in the corresponding knitting part  30 - 32  as shown in FIG. 11.  
         [0051]    Subsequently the total knitted piece can be indicated in different representation types as shown in FIG. 12. FIG. 12 a  shows the standard representation of a total knitted piece  60 , wherein the knitting rows for the sleeves  62  and  63  are identified starting from the sleeve connection with the body trunk part  31 ,  61 . When on a knitted part no loops are formed, while on the other knitted parts loops are formed, then in the corresponding knitted part a knitted row is identified with a definite color  65  which forms the background of the knitted article. In the shown example the non-formation of loops is identified with a white color. FIG. 12 b  shows a variant of the illustration of FIG. 12 a , wherein the knitting rows for the sleeves  62  and  63  are released from the body trunk and indicated in a vertical direction parallel to the body trunk part  61 . FIG. 12 c  corresponds to FIG. 12 b  wherein however with the sleeves  62  and  63  the illustration of individual knitting rows in which no loops are formed for the sleeves  62  and  63  is dispensed with. It is to be understood that from the total knitted piece also a reality-close loop formation representation can be indicated, to test the design results based on purely optical criteria.  
         [0052]    It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together, may also find a useful application in other types of methods and constructions differing from the types described above.  
         [0053]    While the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in method of and device for designing of tubular round knitted articles produced on a flat knitting machine, it is not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.  
         [0054]    Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of the present invention that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily adapt it for various applications without omitting features that, from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this invention.