Patent GB-641669-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to knitting machines and to knitted articles produced thereon
IPC: D04B13/00
Filed: 1947-09-22
Abstract: 641,669. Knitting-machines. WILDT & CO., Ltd., BARSBY, E. S., and SAUNDERS, A. P. Sept. 22, 1947, No. 25738. [Class 74 (ii)] A machine for knitting fullyfashioned hosiery has a single head having a vertically movable curved needle bed furnished with an arcuate series of fixed spring beard needles. The needle bed, Figs. 1, 1A, comprises a ring 2, a segment of which is occupied by the needles 3, the ring being vertically movable by a shaft 11 oscillated from the main cam-shaft 218. The ring 2 is located opposite the shaft 11, by a fixed shaft 12 against which slide adjustable rollers 13, 14 carried by a needle bed carrier ring 10. The ring 10 may be lowered to clear the rollers 13. 14 from the shaft 12 and the needle bed swung horizontally clear of the machine about a shaft (not shown) to which it is connected by a link 19. Dividing and loop - forming sinkers 21, Figs. 1, 6, are carried between upper and lower beds 23, 22. Alternate sinkers are advanced by levers 35 under the action of a cam 42 carried on a revolving ring 43. The ring 43 is operated by a shaft 81, Fig. 1A, connected to a continuously rotating shaft of the machine. All sinkers have lugs 25 engaged by levers 26 operated by independently raised and lowered arcuate bars 260, 261. The bars 260, 261 actuate the sinkers for dividing and the bar 261 returns all sinkers to their retracted position. The levers 26 may be removed after the raising manually of the ring 260. Pressers, 47, Figs. 1, 6 are mounted in and below the upper sinker bed 23 and have stepped lower edges whereby the sinkers 21 may be accommodated at their upper edges between the stepped formations 48 and the trick walls of the bed 23. The pressers 47 are arranged in connected groups of three, the centre presser having a butt 52 which is engaged by oscillating cam rings 65, 66 carried above the bed 23. The cam rings 65, 66 are controlled from the cam-shaft 218. Yarn feeding means, Figs. 1, 1A, 4, 5 comprises independently operable feeder arms 83 mounted to swing about the axis a of the machine, one above the other. Each feeder arm carries a pinion 87 mounted on a stub shaft, the stub shafts being arranged in two concentric interfitting groups between a recess in the upper end of a fixed shaft 89 and a bracket 90. Each pinion 87 is in mesh with a sector gear 91. A single selecting lever 95 is movable vertically by a control rod 268 to oscillate any one sector gear 91, the lever 95 being oscillated by a forked member 103 actuated by a rod 104 from a cam-shaft operating at one half the speed of the shaft 218. A spring connection between members 103, 104 permits the carriers 83 to be limited in their travel by outer 196, 197 and inner 194, 195 stops, Fig. 5, the outer stops controlling main yarn carriers and the inner stops controlling splicing yarn carriers. The stops 196, 197 are mounted on rings 198, 199 which are racked for narrowing by pawls 206, 207 mounted on levers 214, 215 operated from the cam-shaft 218 to give movements of half a rack tooth. Each ring 198, 199 has a pair of check pawls 208, 209, 210, 211, which in widening, are tripped by the action of a slide 216 to permit the rings and stops to move back under the action of a peripheral coil spring 202. All check pawls may be tripped simultaneously at the extreme position of the slide 216 for resetting the machine. The slide is operated from the cam-shaft 218. The stops 194, 195 are controlled in a similar manner to the stops 196, 197, being mounted on'rings 232, 233 and racked by pawls 239, 240 with check pawls 241-244 and a slide 252. When the check pawls 241-244 are all tripped, the splicing yarn carriers are automatically swept clear of the needles by the stops 194, 195 under the action of peripheral springs 238, 237. Welt forming and picot instruments, Fig. 1, are carried in a bed 107 supported on the shaft 89 and operated by arms 114, 115 pivoted with their upper ends engaged by pairs of spaced rings carried on vertically slidable members 124, 137 operated by the main cam-shaft. The welt instruments 110 are arranged in pairs operating conjointly and the picot instruments alternate with them. The weltpicot bed 107 is movable vertically in the course of producing a stocking. Transfer points, P, Figs. 1, 1A are carried in two groups on two rings 145, 146 connected by gears to rotate in opposite directions. The upper ring 146 is driven by a worm gear 157 connected to a shaft carrying oppositely cut rack wheels 165, 166 operated by pawls 167, 168. The pawls 167, 168 are carried by slides 171, 172 oscillated by plungers 271, 272 and levers 273, 274 from the cam-shaft 218. The transfer head 151 is carried by a boss 152 on the shaft 89 and may be moved vertically by a lever 191 actuated from the shaft 218. Each group of points P is deflected radially by a pivoted lever 176, an arm 179 of which, is in contact with a ring 182. The ring 182. is lowered by the rotation of a further ring 185 having cam faces 184 which thereby ride out of corresponding recesses in the ring 182. Knitting method.-The machine makes a complete full fashioned stocking blank including a welt. The welt instruments are moved to take and hold - loops of the initial course from the sinker nibs and half of the welt is formed by normal knitting the fabric being engaged by draw-off mechanism, not shown. The picot instruments advance to transfer loops on the sinker nibs to adjacent needles to form a picot course and the rest of the welt is knitted, the welt instruments then returning their loops. The pivot instruments form a few anti-run courses and the rest of the stocking is knitted as in a normal straight bar machine. Various shaped spliced areas may be formed. The heels may be made without employing the transfer head. The Provisional Specification states that fixed or movable knock-over bits may be fitted and describes a pattern chain and drum arrangement for machine control. It refers to a fabric draw-off device having arcuate shape and telescopic members to assist in disengaging it from the fabric and states that there may be fine vertical adjustment of the needle and sinker beds and that loop quality may be varied by radial adjustment of the cam 42. It states that one or more of the gears 91 may be operated independently of the lever 95, that the picot and welt instruments are of the same form and both mounted in pairs and are retained by spring bands and that a constant travel splicing carrier may be employed to knit a block toe. Also that the ring 182 may have oblique slots engaged by pins in the head 151 and is turned to operate the levers 176.