Patent GB-190411610-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to Knitting Machines.
Inventor: SPIERS HERBERT VERNON
Filed: 1904-05-20
Granted: 1905-04-27
Abstract: 11,610. Spiers, H. V. May 20. Circular knitting-machines, - Relates first to needle-selecting apparatus for varying the number of needles in action during heel and toe knitting. A fluted picker 9, arranged on an external universal or ball-and-socket joint and seen in end view in Fig. 3, rests at right-angles to the cylindrical cam-carrier 2 in a V-groove 12. At each reciprocation, the picker engages the butt of the foremost needle and is urged by the resistance of the rest of the needles up the incline 15, still carrying the needle butt, which it deposits in an idle track 14. The needles, after passing the picker 9, are deflected below the cams 7, 8 by guiding-gates 17 which are pivoted vertically so as to yield when the needles pass in the other direction, viz , up between the pairs of cams 7, 5 or 6, 8. Guiding-gates of similar form may be employed to bring needle pickers of the type described in Specification No. 1752, A.D. 1897, into the path of the needles at each reciprocation. The gates 17 may be pivoted vertically, as shown at x in the outside view of the cam carrier, Fig. 5, or horizontally as in the inside view, Fig. 7. Levers 20 rocked by the gates 17 at each passage of the needles act either directly on the needle pickers 9, Fig. 7, or on peripheral projections on discs 21<a>, Fig. 5, attached to the rocking needle pickers. According to the second part of the invention, the double-butted jacks or slides employed in machines with two superimposed needle cylinders, as illustrated in Specification No. 15,008, A.D. 1900, are replaceable by jacks with one butt which is acted on both for knitting and for transferring the needles. The instep needles can also be put out of action during heel and toe knitting by the action of a sliding cam 29, Fig. 11, on cut-away parts of the tails of the corresponding jacks. To lift the jacks, this cam is slid into a cut-away zone of the needle tricks by the cam action of a lever 38, (shown in cross-section). The butts 26, Fig. 9, of these jacks may with advantage be of steel wire and detachable, and this construction can be applied to jacks with several butts. The jacks 25 are suitably recessed and formed with angular slots 31 to accommodate the pointed ends of the wires 32, which may be cramped at the central parts 32<a> to grip the sides of the tricks. In a modified form, a shorter wire 32, Fig. 10, is sunk in a corresponding recess, and the thickness of the jack is somewhat reduced at the central part 33. The third part of the invention relates to the application of rib-changing mechanism to the type of machine with two camcylinders and double-ended needles illustrated in Specification No. 15,008, A.D. 1900. Two jacks may work side by side in the same trick, so that their needles share the same loop, which can be divided to make a rib by transferring one needle of the pair to the upper cam-cylinder. One jack has a long lower butt and can be actuated independently of the other jack, which has a short butt, by means of the narrow arm 41, Fig. 15, of a cam operated by a star-wheel attached to its pivot 43. The needles may also be transferred by the simultaneous action of a wide arm 42 on both the long and the short butted jacks. The pattern of rib may be further varied by placing between the two sets of cylinder needles a radially grooved ribbing-dial carrying needles operated by fulcrumed jacks worked by cams fixed to the upper cam carrier. The needles may also be transferred by a pair of cams 55, 56, Fig. 19, connected by a link 59 and forming a continuation of the knitting-track 57. The lower cam 56 is fixed to a pivoted lever 58, and the upper cam 55 to a lever 58<a> which passes through a slot in the lower cam. The cams can be swung about their pivots b into or out of engage. ment with the jacks by means of sliding spring- returned stops which can also operate the cams 41, 42, Fig. 15. The sliding stops are brought into engagement at the right moment for effecting the changes required in producing seamless hosiery by adjustable studs on intermittently rotated pattern discs and intermediate levers &c. In connection with the hand-lever K' and toothed sector R described in Specification No. 20,915, A.D. 1895, the fourth part of the invention relates to an alternative mode of starting the reciprocating motion. The sector R carries a side cam 73, Fig. 23, which rocks the lever K<1> by means of a link 77 and shifts a clutch 78, Figs. 23 and 27, a projecting portion on which presses on a spring bolt 80 on the face of the pinion 79. As the pinion 79 and clutch 78 continue to rotate relatively, the projecting portion on the latter eventally slips into a space between the spring bolt on the pinion and a fixed projection and effectually clutches the pinion. The change-motion is effected by a stop on a pattern chain which actuates two levers arranged at rightangles and brings a roller 90 into the path of a V-shaped nose 82 on the outer face of the clutch 78. The latter then slides and engages as before, a spring or other yielding means being suitably interposed between the levers to prevent damage should the position of the clutch at the moment be unsuitable for sliding to take place.