Patent GB-189809448-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in Circular Knitting Machines.
Inventor: WATTS JOHN WILLIAM
Filed: 1898-04-25
Granted: 1899-04-25
Abstract: 9448. Watts, J. W. April 25. Circular knitting-machines.-Bevel-wheels 6, 9 on the machine shaft 5 gear with bevel-wheels on the sleeve 8 carrying the webber cams and on the cam cylinder 11. A clutch 14 feathered to the shaft 5 is moved by a lever 15 into gear with either of two loose pinions 12, 13. A wheel 25 on the driving-shaft 3 gears with the pinion 12. A clutch 27 feathered to the shaft 3 is moved by the lever 15 into gear with a loose pinion 26, which gears with a wheel 28 carried on a gudgeon 29. A connecting-rod 30 is connected to a crank-pin on the wheel 28 and to a sector 31 loose on the shaft 3 and gearing with the pinion 13. When the clutch 14 is in its left position the cam cylinders rotate, when in its central position they are at rest, and when in its right position they reciprocate. Springs 32, adjusted by screws, on the wheel 25 or clutch 27, give when excessive strain is put on the cam cylinders. Springs tend to cause the lever 15 to occupy its central position. The work passes round a roller on the sliding weight 33, Fig. 8, and is fixed to a buckle 36 ; a given descent of the weight then takes up double the amount of work. On starting a stocking the lever 15 is put into its left position and held by a catch 16 ; when a predetermined length has been knitted, the descending weight 33 pushes aside a rod 37 and rocks a shaft 42, to which is pivoted a lever 23; this brings a part 41 under a lug 43, Fig. 9, on the retaining-catch 16, and the middle part of the lever 23 over a cam nose 40 which raises the lever 23 and disengages the catch, allowing the spring to pull the lever 15 to its central position and stop the machine. A chain with lugs may take the place of the rods 37. The cylinder needles and jacks may be in one piece as in Fig. 16, or the needle may be soldered to the jack. The fashioning-needles have two butts 54, 55, Fig. 16. When rotating, the upper depressing-cam 73, which can be set in active and inactive position by hand, acts on the upper butts 54 of all needles and depresses them into range with the cam 77, Fig. 23. In fashioning, the lower depressing-cam 53 acts on the lower butts 55 and depresses the fashioning- needles till their upper butts come into range of the cams 77 or 78. To put the fashioning-needles out of or into action one by one, sliding or pivoted slotted bars 58 are used, the tails 56 of the needles fitting the slot 60. The cylinder needle grooves are made deeper at the bottom, and when a bar 58 slides upwards the needle and butt 55 are pushed back into the needle groove and miss the cam ; a reverse motion of the bar 58 brings the needle back into action ; a spring may be. arranged to return the fashioning-needles into action. The bars 58 slide in tricks in a bed, and the butts 59<a>, Fig. 20, are acted on by cam-grooves in cam sectors 63, 64, each of which has two sets of ratchet teeth 65, 66 cut on it. Two pairs of pushing and pulling pawls act on the ratchet teeth ; they are put out of and into action alternately when making heels and toes and are driven from a shaft 68 rocked by a lever operated by pins on the sector 31. A small pattern chain, driven by a ratchet and pawl arrangement from the same lever that rocks the shaft 68, has two lugs which act on two catches, one of, which controls the spring-actuated rod that puts the pawls into and out of gear, and the other acts on the lever 15 and stops the machine after fashioning. The needles are formed with levers 122, Fig. 31, springs 124, Figs. 32, 36, and 45, or burrs 127, Figs. 44 and 39, which serve to hold open the loops while they are being penetrated by a needle of the other set, either ribbing or frame. The butts of frame needles of which the loops are to be transferred are directed by a cam 85, Fig. 23, to a raised pathway 86 ; after the loops have been transferred, the butts are guided by a cam 88 to a pathway 90 and so remain out of action When loops are to be transferred to the frame needles again, the butts are guided by cams 95 or 93 to pathways 91, 92. When separate U-shaped transferrers are used, their butts 130 are guided by a cam to raised pathways similar to 86 ; their pointed upper ends, which may be set aside, then enter the loop on the ribbing - needle. The ribbing-needles may be cut to a knife edge on their undersides. The butts 130 of the transferrers are of round metal slotted to engage the turned-up lugs on the sides of the transferrers, Fig. 43. Figs. 40, 41, 42, and 43 show a U-shaped transferrer with a slct 136 through which the ribbing-needle passes and a side spring 132. The butts of the needles may be graded so that the cams which move them into the transferring-pathways may select one or other series of needles ; by this means loops can be transferred from ribbing to frame needles, or vice versÔ, in any order, and the pattern of rib changed at will. The ribbing-needles and jacks may be of the hanging type as in Fig. 5, and may be made from one piece of wire, or the needles may be soldered to the jacks. They have graded projections 116, 117 or different lengths of tails 139, and cams 119, 120, 140 may be arranged of such a size as to project any series of needles for transferring loops to frame needles. The hanging needles may have hanging butts 114, Fig. 22, for the out-throw trough-shaped cam to act on. The web holders 145 are bent as shown in Fig. 49, so that an up-and-down motion of the cams on the sleeve 8 will cause an inward and outward, as well as upward and downward, motion of the notched ends 147. The grooves for the web holders may be cut on the inside of the needle cylinder or on the outside of a special cylinder 149 ; grooves are cut on the upper edge of the needle cylinder for the web holders to work in. The throw of the webbers may be adjusted by raising or lowering the sleeve 8 to suit loops of different lengths. The web holders may slide on a conical or horizontal bed. The web holders may be in the form of discs pivoted on a ring and operated by suitable cams connected to the sleeve 8. The cams 77, 78, Fig. 23, are pivoted at 78<a> to a plate which is raised or lowered to regulate the length of loop ; pins 78<e> on the cams work in slots 79 in the plate. Two web holders may be connected and have a stem working in one groove, only half the usual number of grooves in the bed being then necessary. The cams 53, 73, 95, 93, 88, &c. are all set by hand by means of an external lever on their pivots.