Patent GB-189924477-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to Knitting Machines.
Inventor: BOULT ALFRED JULIUS
Filed: 1899-12-08
Granted: 1900-09-29
Abstract: 24,477. Boult, A. J., [Franck, E. J.]. Dec. 8. Circular knitting-machines.-Relates to circular machines with bearded needles of the type described in Specifications No. 12,761, A.D. 1893, and No. 7483, A.D. 1895. The webs dividing the needle tricks in the cylinder are notched at 21 to receive the clasp ring, widened a little above the notches to receive a dished ring 18, and contracted at the top to receive a ring 22. The ring 22 is grooved to receive the heels of the web holders 20, which are pressed inwards by spring rings 26 and have projections near the top which limit their inward motion, the dished plate 18 limiting their outward motion. The upper ends of the web holders work in the tricks of a presser ring 25 fixed to the sinker bed, which is fastened by bolts to the ring 18. The needle beards are pressed both in their upward and downward motion. The sinkers work in grooves in the bed and in the presser ring and have two upwardly-projecting bits 23, and are rounded at 24 to facilitate the use of a transferring-frame. The instep and heel needles 1 and the fashioning-needles 2 are of the form shown in Fig. 23 ; the instep needles have their bits clamped to the reciprocated disc C by plates 4 fixed in position by bolts and keyhole slots so as to be capable of easy removal to enable needles to be taken out. The heel needles are similarly clamped to a disc C<1>. The spring bits of the fashioning-needles, when circular work is being made, Fig. 8, engage a groove 7 in the disc C', and are held in place by a plate 9 which has a shallower groove 8, into which the spring bits are forced during fashioning, Fig. 9. Segmental strippers D, D<1>, operated step by step, when fashioning, as described in the above-mentioned Specifications, are made in two parts 13, 14, which have an adjustable relative motion ; the parts 14 carry rims 11, which, when the strippers are actuated for narrowing, act on the springs of the needles 2 and force the bits out of the grooves 7 so that the needles are not raised by the disc C<1> and remain out of action. Fingers 12 on the parts 13 project through slots in the part 14, but have no effect during narrowing ; when the motion of the strippers is reversed for widening, the fingers 12 trail behind the edges of the rims 11 ; the parts 14 drive the parts 13, the slots, in which the fingers 12 work, allowing the fingers to lag. The fingers do not compress the springs of the needles so much as the rim 11, and consequently, as the needle bits are in the slots 8, they are not depressed so far, and during widening the re-introduced needles tuck for a course or two and so fill up the holes. The thread-carrier with an oval mouth is pivoted between the legs of a forked block 30 on the sinker head near the sinker cam, which is carried by pins projecting down, through the sinker head, from a forked sliding block 31, which has springs to give sufficient friction to damp its motion, springs-32 to counterbalance centrifugal action, and a downwardly-projecting lip 45, by which it is operated to move the cam and regulate the length of loop. A downward projection 34 acts on the inner bits 23 of the sinkers. The lip 45 on the revolution of the sinker head passes between a pair of pins 46, one adjustable, on one arm of a bell-crank lever 40 working in a bracket 36. The other arm is connected by an adjustable rod 41 to a lever 42, acted on in one direction by a spring and in the other by cams on a pattern chain. As the bell crank rocks, the pins 46 move inwards or outwards, and so regulate the position of the sinker cam and the length of loop sunk. A grooved cylinder which controls the strippers has on its end a crown cam which acts on a lever controlling the shipper arm ; when a bowl drops in a groove in the cam, the shipper arm is actuated by a weight &c. and shifts the belt, at the same time actuating a bell-crank lever which removes pressure from a spring and allows the pawl actuating a ratchetwheel, on the above-mentioned cylinder, to fall out of action.