Patent ID: 7827828

Claim:
A circular knitting machine, comprising: a cylinder; needle cams disposed about the cylinder and defining a cam track having cam surfaces; knitting needles having needle butts engaged in the cam track such that relative rotation between the cylinder and needle cams causes the needles to be raised and lowered by engagement between the cam surfaces and needle butts; sinkers disposed about the cylinder, each of the sinkers extending generally radially and having radially spaced first and second sinker butts; and a sinker cam ring disposed about the cylinder and comprising a plurality of sinker cam segments arranged edge-to-edge to form the sinker cam ring, the sinker cam ring defining a first sinker cam track having first working surfaces that include first sinker-advancing surfaces and first sinker-retracting surfaces, and a second sinker cam track radially spaced from the first sinker cam track and defining second working surfaces including second sinker-advancing surfaces and second sinker-retracting surfaces; each sinker having the first and second sinker butts simultaneously engaged with the first and second sinker cam tracks, respectively, such that relative rotation between the cylinder and sinker cam ring causes the sinkers to be advanced inwardly and retracted outwardly relative to the needles by engagement between the sinker butts and cam tracks.