Patent ID: 7117696

Claim:
A needle selector for a knitting machine, which comprises a plate-like piezoelectric body having a piezoelectric element and a finger aligned with said piezoelectric body and disposed to be movable, and in which a rear end portion of said piezoelectric body is rotatably supported in a groove of a support body or housing, a front end portion of said piezoelectric body is rotatably connected to a rear end portion of said finger, an intermediate position between said rear end portion and front end portion of said piezoelectric body is clamped by a rotary member rotatably provided to said support body or housing, and said finger is actuated by applying a voltage to said piezoelectric element to select a working needle of said knitting machine, so that a fabric having a predetermined pattern texture can be knitted, characterized in that said rotary member comprises shaft necks formed at two ends thereof to be supported by bearings provided to said support body or housing, and a central portion between said two shaft necks, and a slit which clamps said piezoelectric body is formed in at least part of said central portion in a widthwise direction of said piezoelectric body, and an axial sectional structure of said central portion on a plane which is perpendicular to an axis of said rotary member and perpendicular to a plane of said piezoelectric body is formed such that a bend in the widthwise direction of said piezoelectric body is suppressed to be smaller than a bend in a longitudinal direction of said piezoelectric body.