Patent GB-674851-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to straight bar knitting machines and methods of operating the same
IPC: D04B11/32
Filed: 1948-10-05
Abstract: 674,851. Knitting. BATA, NARODNI PODNIK. Oct. 5, 1948 [Dec. 12, 1947], No. 25981/48. Class 74 (ii). A method of transferring welt rods contained in magazines to fabric take-up or draw-off mechanism for the tubular or double welts of stockings, during the knitting thereof on a straight - bar knitting - machine, is characterized in that the transfer is effected by lowering the magazines from a raised inoperative position by means operated under the control of a cam member, which is driven by the main cam-shaft of the machine, into an operative position in which the lowermost welt rod is located in the path of the take-up hooks of the draw-off mechanism, so that the welt rods are withdrawn directly from the magazines in succession by the take-up hooks and the transfer of the welt rods to the draw-off mechanism is effected in a fully automatic manner. Welt rods 15 are fed one by one, as required, under control of a cam drum 68, from magazines 12, in grooves 13 in which the rods are held by their ends. When a welt is begun, the fabric is drawn off by hooks 4 of a comb 5 and a follower 71 rests on a low projection 69 on the drum, the magazine of rods 15 being in an upper position A. When a welt rod is to be inserted (when the picot edge has been completed) the follower rides off the projection 69 on to the surface of the drum. This rocks a shaft 59, and thus a lever 58, so that a link 56 on the lever bears on the tail of a pawl 50 to disengage the pawl from a notch 48 in a lever 42 connected by a steel strip 46 to a lever 38 on a shaft 35. A spring 39, pulling on the lever 38, can now rock the shaft 35 and the lever 42 until the pawl 50 engages with a second notch 49, which is radially further from the axis of rotation of the lever 42 than is the notch 48. The partial rotation of the shaft 35 acts, through linkwork 33, 32, 25, to lower the magazines 12 to position B. At the same time, a pin 21 on a lever 20, pivoted on each magazine, rides down a cam slot in the casing 11 containing the magazine and causes the nose 23 of the lever 20 to be projected below the end of the lowest welt rod but one. The comb 5 stops and the main draw-off roller 79 rotates, hooks 74 seizing the lowest rod 15 and pulling it away from the needles; this lowest rod thereafter draws off the fabric until completion of the stocking. The comb 5 has now to advance to transfer the first course of loops from its hooks 4 to the needles 1 and the rods 15 must therefore be moved again to position A. For this purpose, the follower 71 rides on to a high projection 70 to rock the shaft 59 and lever 58 in the reverse direction. A member 60 on the lever 58 is thereby raised, carrying with it a rod 62 which slides in a slot 61 in the member 60 as a slide 67 reciprocates with the draw mechanism. As the rod 62 rises, it rocks a member 66, through a lever 63 and stub shaft 64, so that, on the next reciprocation of the slide 67, the nose of the member 66 encounters the end 43 of the lever 42, which is thereby reset with the pawl 50 in the notch 48. Simultaneously, the lever 38 (and thus the shaft 35) is rocked, through the strip 46 and, through the linkages 33, 32, 25 each magazine 12 is raised and the nose 23 of each lever 20 is withdrawn to allow what is now the lowest welt rod to drop to the bottom of the magazines. Specifications 598,647 and 598,704 are referred to.