Patent Publication Number: US-2023151518-A1

Title: Mouth locking method of computerized flat knitting machine

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     This patent application claims the benefit and priority of Chinese Patent Application No. 202211297075.1 filed on Oct. 21, 2022, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety as part of the present application. 
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The present disclosure relates to the technical field of sweater mouth locking, in particular to a method for locking a sweater mouth effectively by using a computerized flat knitting machine. 
     BACKGROUND 
     One step during a sweater production process is mouth locking, that is, coils at an edge of a sweater fabric are stitched and fixed, so as to prevent the problem of sweater offline. At present, the mouth locking operation is mainly performed by adopting a manual mode, and the manual mouth locking faces the problems of hard recruitment for skilled workers, difficulty in quality control and increased risk of defective products. Now the mouth locking operation is also performed by adopting a narrowing point mouth locking method of a computerized flat knitting machine. Since the narrowing point mouth locking of the computerized flat knitting machine is processed by adopting narrowing points, namely, each coil is subjected to the mouth locking operation. An action of the narrowing point for locking mouth of each coil is called a stroke. The narrowing point mouth locking mode is required to be finished by successively connecting the strokes in series, in other words, the mouth locking mode is finished in a manner that the coils are successively connected in series by adopting the narrowing point. Therefore, the narrowing point has many mouth locking strokes, so it is very time-consuming Specifically, now the appearance of a thin thread sweater results in the greatly increased coil quantity that needs to finish the mouth locking operation by the size sweater, and the time for the narrowing point mouth locking is further increased. 
     The present disclosure provides a method for combining coils firstly and performing narrowing point mouth locking. The method can greatly reduce the stroke quantity required by the narrowing point mouth locking, thereby greatly reducing the narrowing point mouth locking time and improving the mouth locking efficiency. 
     SUMMARY 
     The present disclosure aims at providing a mouth locking method of a computerized flat knitting machine, so as to implement a high-efficiency mouth locking operation. 
     A mouth locking method of a computerized flat knitting machine, including the following steps: S 1 , firstly grouping a plurality of coils according to a predetermined quantity and performing a combination operation; and S 2 , performing a mouth locking operation on the combined coil groups. 
     Preferably, the quantity of each group of coil is 3, three coils of each group are respectively called a left coil, a middle coil and a right coil, and S 1  includes the following two small steps: S 11 , firstly transferring the right coil in each group of coil to the middle coil, and S 12 , secondly performing a combination treatment on the left coil in each group of coil and the middle coil in the same group. 
     Preferably, S 11  specifically includes the following steps: S 111 , firstly overturning a needle monomer corresponding to the right coil in each group of coil to a back needle bar from a front needle bar, and needle monomers corresponding to the left coil and the middle coil keeping still; S 112 , translating the needle monomer located at the back needle bar one stitch position to the left, and at this time, the needle monomer corresponding to the right coil in each group of coil corresponding to the needle monomer corresponding to the middle coil in the same group of coil; and S 113 , performing a stitch transferring operation on the needle monomer located at the back needle bar. 
     Preferably, S 12  specifically includes the following steps: S 121 , firstly overturning the needle monomer corresponding to the left coil in each group of coil to the back needle bar from the front needle bar, and needle monomers corresponding to the middle coil keeping still; S 122 , translating the needle monomer located at the back needle bar one stitch position to the right, and at this time, the needle monomer corresponding to the left coil in each group of coil corresponding to the needle monomer corresponding to the middle coil in the same group of coil; S 123 , performing the stitch transferring operation on the needle monomer located at the back needle bar; and implementing combination of the left coil in each group with the middle coil in the same group by the above actions. 
     Preferably, the quantity of each group of coil is 2, two coils of each group are respectively called the left coil and the right coil; S 1  specifically includes the following steps: S 11 , firstly overturning the needle monomer corresponding to the right coil in each group of coil to the back needle bar from the front needle bar, and the needle monomer corresponding to the left coil keeping still; S 12 , translating the needle monomer located at the back needle bar one stitch position to the left, and at this time, the needle monomer corresponding to the left coil in each group of coil corresponding to the needle monomer corresponding to the middle coil in the same group of coil; and S 13 , performing the stitch transferring operation on the needle monomer located at the back needle bar. 
     Preferably, the quantity of each group of coil is 4, S 1  further includes the following steps: S 11 , firstly taking every two coils in the four coils in each group as a group for grouping, and then taking every two coils as a group for combination; and S 12 , combining every two combined coils in each group again, so as to finish the combination treatment of four coils in each group. 
     Preferably, the quantity of each group of coil is 5. 
     Preferably, the quantity of each group of coil is 6. 
     The present disclosure provides a method for combing a coil firstly and performing narrowing point mouth locking. The specific technical solution adopts an operation mode that the coil is grouped and combined, and then each group of coil is subjected to mouth locking. The grouping and combining action of the coil is uniform through the computerized flat knitting machine and can be finished in a very short time, with little influence on the whole mouth locking time required by a product. However, the mouth locking process can be carried out by the mouth locking mode of each group due to combination, thereby greatly reducing the stroke quantity required by the narrowing needle mouth locking, reducing the narrowing needle mouth locking time and improving the mouth locking efficiency. In other words, each mouth locking process is to lock mouth of one group of coil, the previous mode for locking the mouth gradually is replaced, so as to greatly improve the mouth locking efficiency; and a great number of labor cost is saved, and at the same time, the defective percentage is reduced. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG.  1    is a process schematic diagram of combining three coils provided by the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  2    is a process diagram of combining three coils provided by the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  3    is a process schematic diagram of combining two coils provided by the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  4    is a process diagram of combining two coils provided by the present disclosure. 
         FIG.  5    is a process schematic diagram of combining four coils provided by the present disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS 
     The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure are clearly and completely elaborated below in combination with the drawings. It is apparent that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present disclosure but not all. Based on the embodiments of the present disclosure, all the other embodiments obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art on the premise of not contributing creative effort should belong to the protection scope of the present disclosure. 
     Please refer to  FIG.  1    to  FIG.  4    at the same time,  FIG.  1    is a schematic diagram of combining three coils provided by the present disclosure,  FIG.  2    is a process diagram of combining three coils provided by the present disclosure,  FIG.  3    is a schematic diagram of combining two coils provided by the present disclosure, and  FIG.  4    is a process diagram of combining two coils provided by the present disclosure. 
     The computerized flat knitting machine comprises a knitting needle unit and a fabric narrowing point unit. The knitting needle unit includes a front needle bar, a back needle bar and a plurality of needle monomers. At least one of the front needle bar and the back needle bar may move left and right. Specifically, in the present disclosure, the back needle bar may move left and right. The needle monomers may be selectively connected to the front needle bar and the back needle bar, and transform between the front needle bar and the back needle bar according to needs, namely, stitch transferring. It is understood that, in the present disclosure, signals are all sent through a computer for the left and right movement of the back needle bar and the transformation of the needle monomers, and a corresponding action is performed through a transmission drive mechanism. 
     The narrowing point unit is configured to perform mouth locking on coils at the edge of the fabric, so as to prevent the problem of sweater offline. In the present disclosure, the computerized flat knitting machine is a common computerized flat knitting machine on the existing market, so repetition is not made herein. 
     Embodiment 1 
     Please refer to  FIG.  1    to  FIG.  2    at the same time,  FIG.  1    is a process schematic diagram of combining three coils provided by the present disclosure, and  FIG.  2    is a process diagram of combining three coils provided by the present disclosure. In  FIG.  1   , a vertical upward arrow “↑” indicates a stitch passing operation, “□” indicates translating a stitch position to the right and performing a stitch transferring operation, and “□” indicates translating a stitch position to the left and performing a stitch transferring operation.  FIG.  2    is a process diagram of combining three coils provided by the present disclosure. 
     In this embodiment, first the plurality of needle monomers are all selectively connected to the front needle bar, and at this time each needle monomer is connected to one coil. The needles are successively named as a first needle monomer, a second needle monomer, a third needle monomer, a fourth needle monomer, a fifth needle monomer and so on in order from left to right; and the first needle monomer is correspondingly connected to the coil  1 , the second needle monomer is correspondingly connected to the coil  2 , and so on. The technical solution adopted by the present disclosure is that every three consecutive coils are taken as a group and subjected to the combination operation first, and then the combined coils are subjected to the narrowing needle mouth locking operation. The three coils in each group are successively named as the left coil, the middle coil and the right coil. The specific mode is that the right coil and the left coil are combined with the middle coil, so as to form a group of coil, and the narrowing point may implement the mouth locking on the group of coil (three consecutive coils) through successive mouth locking operations. 
     In this implementation mode, since the coil  1  belongs to the first group of coil, the coil  1  is used as the middle coil in the first group coil, and the coil  2  is used as the right coil in the first group of coil. It is understood that only two coils are in the first group of coil, namely, the middle coil and the right coil, without the left coil. It is understood that this grouping belongs to a preferred implementation mode. In other implementation modes, the coil  1 , the coil  2  and the coil  3  may be used as the first group of coil, and every three subsequent and consecutive coils are successively grouped. A limitation is not made in the present disclosure. 
     It is understood that, in this implementation mode, the first group of coil is the coil  1  (the middle coil) and the coil  2  (the right coil); the second group of coil is the coil  3  (the left coil), the coil  4  (the middle coil) and the coil  5  (the right coil), . . . , the N group of coil is the coil  3 N−3 (the left coil), the coil  3 N−2 (the middle coil) and the coil  3 N−1 (the right coil). The N is the group number of the coil, a positive integer and greater than and equal to 2. 
     The technical solution adopted by the present disclosure is that every three consecutive coils are taken as a group and subjected to the combination operation first, and then the combined coils are subjected to the narrowing needle mouth locking operation. The three coils in each group are successively named as the left coil, the middle coil and the right coil from left to right. The specific mode is that the right coil and the left coil are combined with the middle coil, so as to form a group of coil, and the narrowing point may implement the mouth locking on the group of coil (three consecutive coils) through successive mouth locking operations. 
     A specific mouth locking method of a computerized flat knitting machine in this embodiment is as follows: 
     S 1 , firstly taking every three coils as a group for grouping, and then performing a combination operation on the three coils in each group; 
     the specific implementation process in this step includes two small steps: 
     S 11 , firstly transferring the right coil in each group of coil to the middle coil; and 
     in this step, a preferred implementation mode in this embodiment specifically includes the following process: 
     S 111 , firstly overturning a needle monomer corresponding to the right coil in each group of coil to a back needle bar from a front needle bar, and needle monomers corresponding to the left coil and the middle coil keeping still. 
     S 112 , translating the needle monomer located at the back needle bar one stitch position to the left, and at this time, the needle monomer corresponding to the right coil in each group of coil corresponding to the needle monomer corresponding to the middle coil in the same group of coil. 
     S 113 , performing a stitch transferring operation on the needle monomer located at the back needle bar. 
     The right coil in each group has been successfully combined with the middle coil in the same group by the above actions. At this time, the needle monomer corresponding to the middle coil in each group of coil is hooked with two coils, and the needle monomer corresponding to the right coil in each group of coil has no coil. Of course, this purpose may also be implemented by other modes, and this implementation mode is merely a preferred embodiment. Repetition and limitation are not made in the present disclosure. 
     S 12 , secondly performing a combination treatment on the left coil in each group of coil and the middle coil in the same group; 
     Specifically, a preferred implementation mode in S 12  specifically includes the following two small steps: 
     S 121 , firstly overturning the needle monomer corresponding to the left coil in each group of coil to the back needle bar from the front needle bar, and needle monomers corresponding to the middle coil keeping still (except for the first group). 
     S 122 , translating the needle monomer located at the back needle bar one stitch position to the right, and at this time, the needle monomer corresponding to the left coil in each group of coil corresponding to the needle monomer corresponding to the middle coil in the same group of coil. 
     S 123 , performing the stitch transferring operation on the needle monomer located at the back needle bar. 
     The left coil in each group has been successfully combined with the middle coil in the same group by the above actions. At this time, the needle monomer corresponding to the middle coil in each group of coil is hooked with three coils, and the needle monomer corresponding to the left coil in each group of coil has no coil. So far, the combination of each group of coil is completed. 
     S 2 , performing the mouth locking operation on the combined coils. 
     The combined coils are subjected to the mouth locking operation. Specifically, the fabric narrowing point unit performs mouth locking gradually on the combined coils of each group, namely, the mouth locking quantity of each time is a group of coil, so as to greatly reduce the mouth locking times and improve the mouth locking efficiency. 
     It is understood that, in other implementation modes, the coil  1 , the coil  2  and the coil  3  may be used as the first group of coil, and every three subsequent and consecutive coils are successively grouped. The specific combination mode is the same as the above implementation mode, and not repeated herein. 
     It needs to be emphasized that the combination mode of each group of coil in this implementation mode belongs to a preferred embodiment, and in other implementation modes, the combination mode and step of each group of coil may be flexibly adjusted according to actual needs and not be limited to the above steps, and a limitation is not made in the present disclosure. 
     Embodiment 2 
     Please refer to  FIG.  3    to  FIG.  4    at the same time,  FIG.  3    is a process schematic diagram of combining two coils provided by the present disclosure, and  FIG.  4    is a process diagram of combining two coils provided by the present disclosure. Similarly, in the  FIG.  3   , a vertical upward arrow “↑” indicates a stitch passing operation, and “□” indicates translating a stitch position to the left and performing a stitch transferring operation. 
     In this embodiment, similar to the embodiment 1, first the plurality of needle monomers are all selectively connected to the front needle bar, and at this time each needle monomer is connected to one coil. The needles are successively named as the first needle monomer, the second needle monomer, the third needle monomer, the fourth needle monomer, the fifth needle monomer and so on in order from left to right; and the first needle monomer is correspondingly connected to the coil  1 , the second needle monomer is correspondingly connected to the coil  2 , and so on. The technical solution adopted by the present disclosure is that every two consecutive coils are taken as a group and subjected to the combination operation first, and then the combined coils are subjected to the narrowing needle mouth locking operation. The two coils in each group are successively named as the left coil and the right coil. The specific mode is that the left coil is combined with the right coil so as to form a group of coil, and the narrowing point may implement the mouth locking on a plurality of groups of coils (two consecutive coils) through successive mouth locking operations. 
     In this implementation mode, the coil  1  and the coil  2  belong to the first group of coil, the coil  1  is the left coil of the first group of coil, and the coil  2  is the right coil of the first group of coil. The coil  3  and the coil  4  in the second group of coil are used as a group, the coil  3  is the left coil, and the coil  4  is the right coil, . . . , the N group of coil is the coil N+1 (as the left coil) and the coil N+2 (as priority), and so on. Every two subsequent coils are grouped as a group. 
     The technical solution adopted by the present disclosure is that every two consecutive coils are taken as a group and subjected to the combination operation first, and then the combined coils are subjected to the narrowing needle mouth locking operation. The two coils in each group are successively named as the left coil and the right coil from left to right. The specific mode is that the right coil and the left coil are combined with the middle coil, so as to form a group of coil, and the narrowing point may implement the mouth locking on the group of coil (two combined consecutive coils) through successive mouth locking operations. 
     A specific mouth locking method of a computerized flat knitting machine in this embodiment is as follows: 
     S 1 , firstly taking every two coils as a group for grouping, and then performing the combination operation on the two coils in one group; 
     the purpose to be implemented in this step is that the right coil in each group of coil is transferred to the left coil, and the specific implementation process includes the following steps: 
     S 11 , firstly overturning the needle monomer corresponding to the right coil in each group of coil to the back needle bar from the front needle bar, and the needle monomer corresponding to the left coil keeping still. 
     S 12 , translating the needle monomer located at the back needle bar one stitch position to the left, and at this time, the needle monomer corresponding to the left coil in each group of coil corresponding to the needle monomer corresponding to the middle coil in the same group of coil. 
     S 13 , performing the stitch transferring operation on the needle monomer located at the back needle bar. 
     The right coil in each group has been successfully combined with the left coil in the same group by the above actions. At this time, the needle monomer corresponding to the left coil in each group of coil is hooked with two coils, and the needle monomer corresponding to the right coil in each group of coil has no coil. Of course, this purpose may also be implemented by other modes, and repetition and limitation are not made in the present disclosure. 
     S 2 , performing the mouth locking operation on the combined coils. 
     The combined coils are subjected to the mouth locking operation. Specifically, the fabric narrowing point unit performs mouth locking gradually on the combined coils of each group, so as to greatly reduce the mouth locking times and improve the efficiency. 
     It needs to be emphasized that the combination mode of each group of coil in this implementation mode belongs to a preferred embodiment, and in other implementation modes, the combination mode and step of each group of coil may be flexibly adjusted according to actual needs and not be limited to the above steps, and a limitation is not made in the present disclosure. 
     Embodiment 3 
     In this embodiment, similar to the embodiment 1, first the plurality of needle monomers are all selectively connected to the front needle bar, and at this time each needle monomer is connected to one coil. The needles are successively named as the first needle monomer, the second needle monomer, the third needle monomer, the fourth needle monomer, the fifth needle monomer and so on in order from left to right; and the first needle monomer is correspondingly connected to the coil  1 , the second needle monomer is correspondingly connected to the coil  2 , and so on. 
     In this implementation mode, the coil  1 , the coil  2 , the coil  3  and the coil  4  belong to the first group of coil, the coil  1  is the left coil of the first group of coil, the coil  2  is the left middle coil of the first group of coil, the coil  3  is the right middle coil, and the coil  4  is the right coil. The coils  5 - 8  in the second group of coil are successively the left coil, the left middle coil, the right middle coil and the right coil, and the subsequent grouping is followed. Each group of coil includes the left coil, the left middle coil, the right middle coil and the right coil. 
     Referring to  FIG.  5    in combination,  FIG.  5    is a process schematic diagram of combining four coils provided by the present disclosure. The technical solution adopted by the present disclosure is that every four consecutive coils are groups in pairs for combination treatment, and then the combined coils after grouping in pairs are combined again, and at this time four coils may be combined to one coil, and then the mouth locking operation is performed. 
     A specific mouth locking method of a computerized flat knitting machine in this embodiment is as follows: 
     S 1 , firstly taking four consecutive coils as a group for grouping, and then performing a combination operation on the four coils in each group; 
     The step includes the following two small steps, specifically as follows: 
     S 11 , firstly taking every two coils in the four coils in each group for grouping, and then taking every two coils as a group for combination; and 
     Specifically, the left coil and the left middle coil are used as a group for combination, and then the right middle coil and priority are used as a group for combination. This step is the same as the combination step in the embodiment 2, so repetition is not made herein. 
     S 12 , combining the every two combined coils in each group again, so as to finish the combination treatment of four coils in each group. 
     In this step, the combination treatment may be performed directly based on S 11 , or a layer of coil may be knitted after S 11 , namely, one coil is knitted first on the two combined coils, and then every two knitted coils are combined (similar to S 11 ), so as to implement the combination of the four coils. 
     It is understood that the purpose to be implemented in S 1  is to implement the combination of the four coils. The specific implementation process may have a plurality of implementation modes, and this implementation mode is a more preferred embodiment. In other implementation modes, the combination mode and step of each group of coil may be flexibly adjusted according to actual needs and not be limited to the above steps, and a limitation is not made in the present disclosure. 
     S 2 , performing the mouth locking operation on the combined coils. 
     Performing the mouth locking operation on the combined coils. Specifically, the fabric narrowing point unit performs mouth locking gradually on the combined coils of each group, so as to greatly reduce the mouth locking times and improve the efficiency. 
     It is understood that the combination of five coils, six coils or other quantity of coils may be implemented in other implementation modes, and then the mouth locking operation is carried out. The specific implementation mode, namely, the principle, is similar to the above implementation mode, so repetition is not made herein. 
     The technical solution provided by the present disclosure adopts an operation mode that the coil is grouped and combined, and then each group of coil is subjected to mouth locking. The grouping and combining action of the coil is uniform through the computerized flat knitting machine and can be finished in a very short time, with little influence on the whole mouth locking time required by a product. However, the mouth locking process can be carried out by the mouth locking method of each group due to combination, namely, each mouth locking is to perform mouth locking on a group of coil, and the previous mode for locking mouth gradually is replaced, thereby greatly improving the mouth locking efficiency, saving a lot of labor costs and reducing the defective percentage. 
     The present disclosure provides a method for combining coils firstly and performing narrowing point mouth locking. The method can greatly reduce the stroke quantity required by the narrowing point mouth locking, thereby greatly reducing the narrowing point mouth locking time and improving the mouth locking efficiency. 
     The specific implementation mode in the present disclosure enables those skilled in the art may understand and implement the present disclosure. A plurality of modifications to these embodiments are apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined in the present disclosure may be achieved in other embodiments without deviating from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the present disclosure is not limited to these embodiments shown in the present disclosure, and meets the widest range consistent to the principle and novel features of the present disclosure.