Patent ID: 7954343

Claim:
A method for closing a tubular knitted article at one of its axial ends, at an end of a production cycle on a circular knitting machine for a knitted article, comprising an initial step for producing the article up to the formation of the last row of knitting, at the axial end of the article that lies opposite the axial end at which knitting began, by retaining the loops of knitting of said last row of knitting in the head of the needles of the machine that formed them, further comprising the following additional operating steps: a grip step for individually picking up the loops of knitting by extracting said needles, with one of their portions starting from the head, from the needle cylinder in which they are accommodated, keeping the loops of knitting of the last row of knitting in the head of the needles; arranging coaxially to the needle cylinder, around the region occupied by the portion of said needles that is extracted from the needle cylinder, the annular body of a pick-up device provided with pick-up members arranged radially to the axis of said body of the pick-up device, each provided with an end directed toward the axis of said pick-up device that can engage the stem of a needles in a region that is proximate to the latch of the needle on the opposite side with respect to the head; engaging each of said pick-up members with the stem of the corresponding needle; moving the loop of knitting, previously retained in the head of the corresponding needle along the stem of the needle, until it is brought beyond the corresponding latch and engaged with the pick-up member in engagement against the stem of the corresponding needle; a step for removing the article from the machine that produced it, retaining each loop of knitting of the last formed row of knitting by means of said pick-up members; a step for positioning the article at a sewing or looping station; a step for the individual passage of the loops of knitting from said pick-up members to spikes of an annular handling device composed of two semiannular elements, one of which can be overturned with respect to the other about a diametrical axis; a step for turning the article retained by said handling device; a step for superimposing each of the loops of knitting of one half-row of knitting on a corresponding loop of knitting of the other half-row of said last row of knitting on a same spike of said handling device by means of the overturning, through an arc of substantially 180° about said diametrical axis, of one of said two semiannular elements of the handling device with respect to the other semiannular element; a step for sewing or looping the mutually superimposed pairs of loops of knitting; a step for disengaging the article from said handling device.