Patent ID: 7213422

Claim:
A needle selecting apparatus for a weft knitting machine having a needle bed with a plurality of needle grooves in rows; a carriage including a selecting mechanism and a cam mechanism, the carriage traveling along the needle bed; and knitting needles each disposed in the needle groove and each having a butt on which the cam mechanism of the carriage acts, the needle selecting apparatus comprising: selecting jacks each disposed in the needle groove, the selecting jack being selectively pressable away from the carriage by the selecting mechanism to separate the butt of the knitting needle from the cam mechanism; selectors each disposed in the needle groove, for shifting the selecting jack to select any of positions predetermined in correspondence with a plurality of knitting operations including non operation, the positions being established such that an initial position of the selecting jack corresponds to a non-operative position; a holding member disposed in a predetermined position in a vicinity of each of the selecting jacks located in the initial position at a distance from the selecting jack; and a locking member provided for each of the selecting jacks, wherein when the selecting jack is pressed away from the carriage at the initial position, the locking member is fitted in a space between the selecting jack and the holding member formed on the needle groove so as to maintain the pressed condition of the selecting jack by the locking member inserted between the selecting jack and the holding member, and when the selecting jack is shifted to a position other than the non-operative position by the selector, the locking member is removed from the space so as to release the pressed condition of the selecting jack.