Improvements in Warp Knitting Machines used for Knitting Warp Fabrics.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 16th Aug., 1890
Complete Specification Left, 13th May, 1891-Accepted, 13th June, 1891
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Warp Knitting Machines used for Knitting Warp
Fabrics.
We, THOMAS KIDDIER, JAMES KIDDIER and JOHN WILLIAM KIDDIER, all
of Bell Street, Arkwright Street, in the Town and County of the Town of
Nottingham, Machinists, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
Our invention relates to kuitting machines known as warp knitting machines
The methods
more especially to the class known as traverse warp machines.
usually adopted for drawing the threads from the bobbins which are mounted on
the traverse carriages by the sudden and intermittent tightening and slackening of
the threads prevent these machines from being run at higher speeds and cause the
fabric produced to be hard or tighter than desirable.
Now our improvements consist in the application of tension rollers mounted on
the traverse carriages of the machine. We cause the threads to pass from the
ordinary bobbin on the traverse carriage, beneath the tension roller which is of such
a weight as to be raised by the threads which pass underneath it.
On the frame of the traverse carriages we form arms or brackets which are
provided with slots and act as supports for the tension rollers allowing them to be
suddenly raised as the threads are drawn on the needles, and then to remain
temporarily suspended on the threads, for the purpose of taking up the looseness of
the threads. In this way the irregular impulses given to the threads is compensated
by the tension roller instead of occasioning sudden intermittent drawing off of the
threads from the bobbins.
This enables us to run the traverse warp, machine at a much greater speed than
heretofore attained, with the ease and smoothness of motion required, and at the
same time enables us to produce a much slacker knitted warp fabric.
Dated this 16th dow of August 1890.
THOMAS KIDDIER.
JAMES KIDDIER.
JOHN WM. KIDDIER.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Warp Knitting Machines used for Knitting Warp
Fabrics.
We, THOMAS KIDDIER, JAMES KIDDIER and JOHN WILLIAM KIDDIER; all
of Bell Street, Arkwright Street, in the Town and County of the Town of
Nottingham, Machinists, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
By the methods usually adopted for drawing the threads from the bobbins which
are mounted on the traverse carriages the threads are liable to be suddenly and
intermittently tightened and slackened and in consequence the machines cannot be
run at a high speed and the fabric produced has to be made harder or tighter than
is desirable.
According to our invention we in order to remedy this evil mount a horizontal
tension roller or bar upon each traverse carriage and cause the threads to pass

page_text: from the ordinary bobbin beneath this roller or bar which is of such a weight as to
be raised by the threads whenever any sudden strain comes upon them.
In this way the oscillating to and fro of the bobbins to alternately give off and
wind up thread is reduced to a minimum and consequently the machine can be run
at higher speeds and the amount of friction put upon the bobbin to impede them
from turning can be much reduced.
Figure 1 is a vertical section of an old warp machine in which the threads are
led upwards direct from the bobbins on the traverse carriages.
Figure 2 is a perspective view on a smaller scale of the endless chain of traverse
carriages and of the two fixed bars W over which the threads are led to the
needles V.
Each traverse carriage consists of a base a mounted on three castor wheels bbb
and it is jointed to the next carriage on either side at a¹ a'. The carriages thus
constitute an endless chain which while the machine is at work travels round and
round always over the same course. On each base a there are standards a² a² and
the bobbin X on which the threads are wound is carried in suitable bearings on the
top of the standards. Whilst the fabric is being made the fabric is alternately
moved backwards and forwards along the needles and the bobbins oscillate to and
fro to give off thread as the work is moved to the back of the needles and to take
up thread as the work is moved forwards. To allow of this the bobbin has a
pulley e fixed to it, a cord is lapped two or three times around this pulley and its
ends are attached to two weights and h.
When the bobbin turns in consequence
of the threads being drawn off from it the heavier weight is raised and the lighter
weight is lowered when the threads are again slackened by the work being moved
forwards the heavier weight descends and turns the bobbin in a direction to wind
up the threads. Whenever (owing to the threads being worked up in the production
of fabric) the lighter weight. in its descent comes against the base plate a the cord f
is rendered slack and it then slips around the pulley e and the weight falls a
distance.
y
With this tension arrangement whenever the weighted tension cord is slackened
in the manner above described to allow of a further draw off of threads from the
bobbin the bobbin is liable to overrun and allow the threads to become slack unless
heavy weights are suspended to the tension cord and then the warp fabric produced
is tighter than is in many cases desirable and the machines can only be worked at a
comparatively slow speed.
'
The way in which we remedy this is shewn at Figures 3, 4, 5 and 6.
Figures 3 and 4 are vertical sections of one of the traverse carriages.
Figure 5 is an elevation and Figure 6 a plan of some of the traverse carriages.
The traverse carriages are all precisely similar the one to the other but for greater
clearness and to avoid repetition the details are not repeated in every case in the
two last figures.
In Figure 3 the horizontal tension roller is shewn in its lowest position and in
Figure 4 it is shewn as having been lifted by a sudden increased strain upon the
threads.
The standards a are formed with arms a³ projecting horizontally from them and
at the ends of the arms are vertical slots which receive the axes of the tension
roller or the axes of the tension roller may be carried by links jointed to the
carriage. In place of a roller a bar which cannot turn may be employed but less
advantageously. The threads d as they are drawn from the bobbins X
pass beneath
the tension roller and thence upwards to the needles by which the fabric is
produced. The weight of the roller c represents slightly more than the minimum
tension required to be maintained on the threads.
In this way whenever the fabric which is being made is moved back along the
stems of the needles by the sinkers Y and the threads are sunk below the needles
by the lapping bar Z as shewn in Figure the roller c is raised and remains
temporarily suspended on the threads as shown in Figure 4 and the extent to which
the bobbin oscillates is but small. When the fabric which is being made is again

page_text: moved forwards along the stems of the needles and the lapping bar rises the roller c
descends into the position shewn in Figure 3 and there is again but little oscillation
of the bobbin.
This enables us to run the traverse warp machine at a much greater speed than
heretofore attained with the ease and smoothness of motion required and at the
same time we are enabled to produce a much slacker knitted warp fabric.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is
1. In a traverse warp knitting machine a chain of traverse carriages each carrying
a bobbin and a tension roller or bar and so arranged that the tension roller or bar
presses upon the threads as they pass from the bobbin to the needles deflecting
them from the course they would otherwise take but yields to the sudden strains to
which the working of the machine exposes the threads.
2. A bobbin carriage for a traverse warp knitting machine in which the thread
tension device consists not only of the ordinary pulley e fixed upon the bobbin and
a cord wound around this bobbin and having a weight suspended to cach of its ends
but also in addition of a bar or roller c beneath which the threads are led as they
pass from the bobbins and which is free to rise and fall a distance.
Dw
Mf 1901
T. KIDDIER.
J. KIDDIER.
J. W. KIDDIER.