Patent ID: 6920768

Claim:
A device for gripping thread in a circular hosiery knitting machine provided with a structure, a needle cylinder and needles, comprising: a supporting element fixable to the structure and that supporting thread guides proximate to a drop or feed, above the needle cylinder and proximate to the needle work area of the machine, said supporting element being provided with and bearing at least one elastic lamina element that is arranged on a plane that lies substantially radially with respect to the needle cylinder, and furthermore being provided with and supporting a thread locking lever that is pivoted thereto with a portion thereof, said supporting element having a pivoting axis that is orientated substantially at right angles to a plane of arrangement of said elastic lamina element; said locking lever being laterally adjacent to said elastic lamina element and having a grip portion for engaging thread dispensed by at least one thread guide at a corresponding feed or drop; actuation means for actuating said locking lever for scissor-like rotation thereof with respect to said elastic lamina element about said pivoting axis and for passage of said locking lever from an inactive position, in which said thread, grip portion is spaced from said elastic lamina element in an opposite direction with respect to an axis of the needle cylinder, to an active position, in which said thread grip portion is closer to said elastic lamina element and laterally superimposed thereon, in order to grip thread between said elastic lamina element and said locking lever, and vice versa, and wherein said thread grip portion has two mutually opposite shoulders that delimit bilaterally movement of the thread toward or away from the axis of the needle cylinder.