Patent GB-650663-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in and relating to wrap striping in knitting machines
Inventor: DEANS FREDERICK EDWARD
IPC: D04B9/18
Filed: 1945-09-12
Abstract: 650,663. Knitting-machines. BENTLEY ENGINEERING CO., Ltd. Sept. 12, 1945, No. 23469. [Class 74 (ii)] Wrap thread fingers, each feeding a single thread, are adapted to feed their threads to selected needles of the same group of needles one after another in order to embody different coloured yarns in one and the same course of a knitted fabric, the needle or needles initially selected to receive yarn from one finger being lowered and a further selection from the same group being made for the purpose of taking yarn from another finger. As described with reference to Figs. 1 and 3, two wrap fingers 6, 6a feeding individual threads are arranged in a superimposed needle cylinder machine, each finger being mounted in a groove in a cylinder 8 rotatable with the needle cylinders and adapted to be rocked across the needle circle by cams 11. The fingers 6, 6a extend from the cylinder 8 to the knitting points and are enclosed within the top needle cylinder, the resilience of the fingers allowing them to be deflected circumferentially in the direction of rotation of the needles by a lever 20 engaging a projection 19 on the finger 6 which directly engages the finger 6a to deflect it in the same direction. A front stop 24 on a plate 38 engages the bottom of the fingers and prevents them from springing back when the lever 20 is withdrawn. The guide end 7 of the finger 6 is then passed across the needle circle by the action of the cams 11 and engages a stop 28, the disengagement of the finger 6 allowing the finger 6a to engage the stop 24. As the group of needles continues to rotate, the yarn is laid above the spoons of the open latches of the selected needles which have been raised to take the wrap yarn without clearing the latches of their previous loops. The finger 6 is held stationary by the stop 28 until it is engaged by the back stop 23 of the plate 38 when it is again rotated with the needles and the guide end 7 returned to the plain side of the needles. At this point the selected needles taking yarn from the finger 6 are lowered and other selected needles raised. The second finger 6a which has been held by the front stop 24 is then passed across the needle circle and supported by a stationary stop 28a until the group of needles has passed, whereupon the finger engages the rear stop 23 and is withdrawn across the needle circle. The needles are then cleared of their body yarn loops and continue to the knitting point where a new course together with the wrap threads is drawn through the old loops. To prevent the wrap threads from being cleared with the old loops prior to the feeding of the new course, the wrap threads are separated from the old loops, during the feeding and clearing operations by a separator comprising a length of wire 34 connected at one end to a stationary tube 35, and extending across a gap 36 in the tube at the wrapping point to a position just beyond the clearing point so that the wrap thread is fed over the wire and held apart from the old loops on the needles. As the needles rotate the wrap threads pass off the end of the wire after the old loops have been cleared. Specifications 400,623, 650,662 and 650,664 are referred to. Reference has been directed by the Comptroller to Specification 526,963.