Patent GB-190207161-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in Circular Knitting Machines.
Inventor: HIRNER EMIL ARTHUR
Filed: 1902-03-24
Granted: 1902-07-24
Abstract: 7161. Hirner, E. A. March 24. Circular knitting-machines.-Relates to machines provided with thread-changing mechanism for producing horizontally-striped tubular stockings and plain heels and toes, and with special cams for tucking on certain needles, so producing the effect of longitudinal stripes, both the thread-changing mechanism and special cams being automatically operated by jacks in the same pattern wheel. The thread-changing levers are carried on a disc 50 concentric with the fixed needle cylinder and rotary cam-cylinder 23. The disc 50 is capable of rotation in a ring 39 adjustably secured to a bolt 31, which can be raised by a screw and pinion, and which is guided by a rod 37. By raising the ring till the head 35 is free of the rod 37, the ring can be swung aside. When in position, the ring is supported at the other side by an adjustable post 43. The disc is driven by a spring bolt 60 carried by the cam-cylinder. Four bobbins are carried on a stand supported by the disc 50, and the threads, after passing through various eyes, proceed under cross-bars 94, 104, Fig. 11, through eyes in weighted thread-lock levers 102, pivoted at 99, tension wires 116, eyes 83 in four threadchanging levers 82, and then through a V-shaped thread-carrier slot 66 in the flange 63, and so to the needles. When the thread-changing levers 82 are in their upper position, the tension wires 116 and the thread-lock levers 102 hold the thread taut and out of action. When a lever 82 is depressed, the thread is laid in the carrier 66, and draws down the tension wire, the pressure of the thread lock-levers being released. When a thread-changing lever is depressed, a spring trigger causes the previously-acting lever to rise, and at the same time a thread-severing hammer 166 is caused to drop and to sever the last thread and the waste end of the new thread close to the inside of the tube. When out of acton the end of a thread is held by clip wires 150, and when it goes into action the thread is passed under the clip wires and comes under the hammer 166. The threadchanging levers are operated by three-armed levers 122, one arm of which acts on the above-mentioned spring trigger, while another is acted upon by a cam, which is adjusted to a suitable height by means controlled from a pattern wheel. The rod carrying this cam is raised a fixed amount each revolution of the cam-cylinder, but its fall is limited by projections at various heights on the jack in the pattern wheel, which is racked the space of one jack every course. When a heel or toe pocket is being made, the thread is not changed, and the pawl which drives the pattern wheel is automatically put out of action. When there is no projection on a jack, the cam-carrying rod operates means by which the belt is shifted and the machine is brought to rest. The motion of the cam-cylinder is changed from rotary to reciprocatory, as follows:-On the main shaft 19, Fig. 22, is a fast pulley 25, on a sleeve of which is a loose pulley 26. The loose pulley 26 has a pinion 246, which gears, through intermediate wheels, with a spurwheel having a crank-pin engaging a slot in a rack, which gears with the pinion 254 loose on the shaft 19. When the clutch 260 is engaged with the pinion 254, and the belt is on the loose pulley, the cam - cylinder reciprocates. The clutch 260 is shifted automatically by means controlled from the pattern mechanism, or by throwing over a hand-lever 258, and the belt can be shifted by another hand-lever 283, or automatically, and the machine can thus be made seven-eighths or threequarters automatic. The part 260 of the clutch has a gapped flange 256, and the pinion 254 has an annular groove 255, Fig. 24, in which is a pin 251. A ring with a web 250 works loose in the annular groove. The two parts of the clutch can only be engaged when the pinion 254 is moving in one direction. When the machine reciprocates, the rack which operates the pinion 254 engages a bell crank 275, and racks round a ratchet-wheel and sprocket, over which runs the pattern chain 241. When a high tooth 239 comes to the top, it throws the lever 265, 268, and shifts the clutch, so that reciprocation ceases. A pivoted lever 236 acted on by the same high link 239 is connected by a link 227 with a pivoted lever 288, which prevents the belt fork from being moved during reciprocation. The hand-lever 283 can be used to shift the belt positively in one direction only, as it has a pin- and-slot connection with the link 281, which is pivoted to the belt fork. In order to raise certain selected needles above the cam 342, Fig. 26, and so to allow them to tuck, a rotary switch cam 232 with alternate toothed and blank elements 345, 346 is used. The toothed elements lift certain needles, while the blank elements allow them to remain on the level of the ledge 319 and to knit in the ordinary manner. A rotary jack cam 348, Figs. 29 and 30, is used in conjunction with the switch cam; this jack cam is rotated half a revolution at intervals by means controlled from the pattern mechanism and renders the action of the switch cam intermittent, and so prevents more than a certain number of loops from accumulating on a needle.