US3699782A

US3699782A - Knitting machines, especially flat machines

Info

Publication number: US3699782A
Application number: US98236A
Authority: US
Inventors: Wilhelm Hadam
Original assignee: H Stoll GmbH and Co KG
Current assignee: H Stoll GmbH and Co KG
Priority date: 1969-12-15
Filing date: 1970-12-15
Publication date: 1972-10-24
Anticipated expiration: 1989-10-24
Also published as: FR2073613A5; CH517853A; DE1962787B2; DE1962787A1; GB1280428A; ES386329A1; DE1962787C3

Abstract

In a flat knitting machine with needle-actuating jacks mounted in the needle bed tricks, each with a working or operating butt acted on by the needle cams or lock parts for control of the needle movements, each jack is made as an elastically flexible rod or bar supported at both ends, on which a presser element can act, and the working butt of each jack is disposed in the area of maximum bending, such that it is moved out of range of the cam parts when the jack is bent. The jack is coupled with its associated needle so that the needle does not have to have a working butt of its own and necessarily must follow the movement of the jack in the needle trick, in either direction. For bending the jacks, presser jacks can be provided, or there can be provided an articulated slide or pusher on a selector jack, the slide or pusher having a wedge-shaped end which cooperates with a stationary oblique surface.

Description

United States Patent Hadam [54] KNITTING MACHINES, ESPECIALLY FLAT MACHINES [72] Inventor:

many

[73] Assignee: II. Stoll and Company, Stollweg,

Germany [22] Filed: Dec.15,1970

[21] Appl. No.: 98,236

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Germany ..P 19 62 787.3

Wilhelm Hadam, Reuthlingen, Ger- Oct. 24, 1972 Germany ..66/75 Switzerland .66/ 75 ABSTRACT In a flat knitting machine with needle-actuating jacks mounted in the needle bed tricks, each with a working or operating butt acted on by the needle cams or lock parts for control of the needle movements, each jack is made as an elastically flexible rod or bar supported at both ends, on which a presser element can act, and the working butt of each jack is disposed in the area of maximum bending, such that it is moved out of range of the cam parts when the jack is bent. The jack is coupled with its associated needle so that the needle does not have to have a working butt of its own and necessarily must follow the movement of the jack in the needle trick, in either direction. For bending the jacks, presser jacks can be provided, or there can be provided an articulated slide or pusher on a selector jack, the slide or pusher having a wedge-shaped end which cooperates with a stationary oblique surface.

6 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PATENTEDUBI 24 I972 SHEET l 0F 2 llg 5F Nu? N9 2 ME ON PATENTEDncI 24 I972 SHEET 2 [IF 2 mm NNP 2 mp KNITTING MACHINES, ESPECIALLY FLAT MACHINES FIELD OF THE INVENTION BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In machines of the previously mentioned type, the height adjustment of the needle butts or of the butts of the jacks that cooperate with the needles, as they extend beyond the needle bed tricks, is already known in the art for the selection of needles. In such known constructions, the shafts of the needles are either made with two butts, one working butt for the needle lock or cam and a pattern butt for the pattern lock or cam of the machine, or they may be provided with only onebutt, and the needle shafts may be made as beams that are subjectable to bowing under bending stress in the manner of a unilaterally supported and loaded beam.

These known knitting machines have the disadvantage that the so-called needle wedge, by means of which the exact height setting of the needles is determined, is subject to considerable wear from the needles that are under bending stress, thrust in and out in a bent or bowed state in the needle tricks under the needle wedge. This rapidly leads to an inexact guiding of the needles, and therewith to the danger of flaws in the knitted product, to be traced to, among other things, the fact that the working butts of the needles no longer spring back to their starting positions; In addition, the presser members that act on the needle shafts must effect relatively long setting strokes to move a needle butt away from the region of the cam parts.

A further drawback of known knitting machines resides in the fact that in a selection of needles according to pattern, the non-working needles are not sufficiently positively guided, so that they are liable to be brought into striking range of like parts which have not been taken out, with the danger that these needles will engage the yarn when this is not desired.

The instant invention is directed to the problem of developing a knitting machine for patterned needle selection, with elimination of the drawbacks that have been mentioned, in such a way that the needles can in any indicated operational position be brought into engagement and again out of engagement with the cam parts, with little expenditure of force and with a short setting stroke of the control elements, in such a way that a change in the width of the knitted product can be effected independently of the needle selection by the Jacquard device.

Generally in accordance with the invention, this proposed objective is achieved by a construction in which each jack for control of the needle movements is made as an elastically or resiliently flexible rod or bar supported at both ends, on which rod or bar a presser element can act, and in which the working butt of the jack is disposed in the area of maximum bending, in such a way that it is moved away from the cam parts when the jack is bent or bowed. The jack is connected with the needle in question in close configuration, so

that the needle does not have to have a working butt of its own and necessarily must follow the movement of the jack longitudinally in the needle trick, in either direction.

A known presser jack or bar can be used as the presser member that acts on the jack, the presser jack being pivotably borne in or on the needle bed, and urged by presser cam parts against the elastic force of a spring element. The presser jack can be adjustably disposed in a known way between the acting areas of several presser cam parts, whereby one of the said cam parts, especially the one nearest the needles, is used for stopping the needles that at the moment are beyond the width of the knitted product. In stopping or arresting the needles, the needles are therefore not drawn back into the tricks as in knitting machines heretofore known, but rather all needles of a needle bed, including those that for the moment are beyond the width of the knitted product, are always at the same height in the needle bed. The non-working needles are selected in each knitting course.

As presser members acting on the jacks, there may also be intermediate jacks that are operated by the cam parts via control butts, the said intermediate jacks being acted on in turn by presser jacks. Such an intermediate jack can advantageously be applied to the jack in the vicinity of the working butt, or it can be at some distance from it.

A substantial advantage of the invention is one form resides in the fact that for arresting or stopping a needle only a force that initiates bending needs to be applied to the related intermediate jack. The further bending and holding of the jack in the bent position develops without further expenditure of setting force, because according to one form of the invention the intermediate jack has a wedge-shaped end that can move against a stationary oblique surface. The stationary oblique surface is advantageously constituted as a strip or bar that extends longitudinally with reference to the needle bed, across the needle tricks.

In accordance with the invention, in knitting machines without presser cam parts in the carriage, there can be used a pusher or slide pivotably coupled to a selector jack as the presser member that acts on the elastically flexible jack. This articulatedly connected slide can move with its wedge-shaped end against a stationary oblique surface. The selector jack has a control butt that extends into the region that is acted on by selectively engaged cam parts.

The invention offers the further advantage that it can be used both on knitters with V-shaped needle beds and also on knitters with needle beds in a common plane (links-and-links machines) and that a needle can be shifted to or out of any of its characteristic positions during a traverseof the lock, thus, for example, into or out of its retracted position, its advanced yarn receiving and holding position and its stitch transfer or receiving position. The needles that are beyond the width of the knitted product and are in their retracted positions remain beyond the range of action of the sinker lock parts. A marked wear stress of machine parts, as in the case of previously known knitting machines, is avoided by the invention. The control paths of the machine parts are all short. The springing back of the jacks after their release, to their starting position, occurs in a fraction of the time with the construction of the sinkers as beams on two supports, as compared to the construction of beams that are unilaterally tensioned or supported only at one end. The withdrawal of needles in changing the width of the knitted material is entirely superfluous, without any danger that the disengaged needles will come into the effective area of a pattern device. The movement of bending of the jacks for stopping the needles does not cause any displacement movement of the needles, and the jacks when they are in their inoperative position are held there without external force, whereby the needle associated with the jack in an appropriately interengaged manner is likewise securely held. The fact that the jack is always acted on in each needle passage either by bending or by a longitudinal displacement in the needle trick reliably prevents binding of the jack that could be caused by accumulation of dust, even if the needles are stopped.

Other and further object s, advantages and features of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following description of preferredembodiments, taken in conjunction with the drawings in which examples of embodiments of needle control and auxiliary members are shown more or less schematically, only so much of a total knitting machine being illustrated as is necessary to an understanding of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic section through one of the needle beds of a tlat knitter in accordance with the invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial illustration corresponding to FIG. 1 showing a jack in its bent or sunken state.

FIG. 3 is a schematic section through one of the needle beds of a flat knitter in accordance with another embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic section through one of the neewith a third embodiment of the invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 shows a section through one of the needle beds 10 of a double cam flat knitter that can be furnished with a Jacquard pattern device. The section runs along one of the needle tricks 13 of the needle bed 10, in which a latch needle 11 is longitudinally slidable. Latch needle 11 is articulatedly or hingedly connected in a close fitting manner with one end of a jack 12, which end is constructed as a pivot head or spherical joint 121. Jack 12 is in the form of a flexible bar or rod which in its illustrated position runs at a distance from base 131 of the needle trick 13, and which is supported at both ends, on the one end by pivot head 121 in needle 11, and at the other end by supporting foot or butt 122 which rides on the base 131 of the needle trick 13. Jack 12 is provided at its center, that is, in the region of maximum flexibility, with a working or operating butt 123 which in the illustrated position extends into the area of the cam parts disposed in the carriage of the machine, which is not illustrated. The individual needle tricks 13 are separated from each other in a known manner by individually inserted webs or rods 30.

One end 141 of presser member 14 is applied to jack 12 in the general vicinity of its working butt 123. Presser member 14 is made as a two-armed lever, and it is lirnitedly pivotable about a lower supporting butt 142 which bears against a bar strip 15, and is longitudinally displaceable between various settings with reference to the needle trick. In the vicinity of its striker end 141 on the cam side it is provided with an upper presser butt 143 on which the presser cam or lock parts 16 of the machine carriage act. As the drawing shows, with further presser butts 143, there is a presser cam element 16 in the carriage of the machine in each position of presser members 14. The innermost presser cam element 16 which in FIG. 1 acts on sinker butt 143 serves to stop the needles that at the moment are beyond-the width of the knitted product. Presser member 14 is deflected clockwise by presser cam element 16, via presser butt 143 against the elastic restoring force of a foam rubber pad 17, whereby the elastically flexible jack 12 is forced downward as shown in FIG. 2 such that its working butt 123 is brought below the region acted on by the camming parts of the machine carriage.

In the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 1, to increase the number of possibilities of control of each presser member 14, an additional longitudinally adjustable presser member 18 is provided, which bears on presser member 14 by means of a lower butt 181, and on which two

additional cam elements

19 and 20 can act via two

presser butts

182 and 183. The second member 18 is applied against the underside of strip 21 by a butt 184, and it is pivotable in a clockwise direction against the resilient force of a foam rubber pad 22. The

foam rubber pads

17 and 22 conveniently can be disposed on steel bars or strips that extend over the whole length of needle bed 10 with its needle tricks. The longitudinal adjustment of the presser members occurs in known fashion at their stepped thrust ends in the case of pattern devices with steel Jacquard cards. The displacement of a presser member 14 with its butt 143 to a position under the innermost cam presser part 16 for stopping the needles can be effected either manually or automatically by means of adjustable bars or strips that are mounted in front of the Jacquard card. In this foremost position the presser member is then no longer subject to the Jacquard device, and the restoration of

members

14 and 18 from their thrust position to the starting position can be effected by knock-back or take-off parts in the carriage that are not illustrated.

In the embodiment of FIG. 3 there are also two

presser members

14 and 18 that are actuatable by cam presser elements that are not illustrated, but in this case presser member 14 and its end 141 no longer act directly on elastically flexible jack 12, but rather on an intermediate jack 23 with a hairpin turn end section 231, which is borne displaceably between strip 15 and the base 131 of the needle trick. In the region of its other end, intermediate jack 23 is provided with an operating butt 232, and it presents a wedge surface 233. Operating butt 232 of intermediate jack 23 extends into the working area of the camming parts of the machine carriage, which parts control the lengthwise displacement of the intermediate jack in the needle trick. Thereby with simultaneous actuation of presser member 14 with which the intermediate jack is pressed down into the needle trick 13, the pushing of the oblique surface 233 of intermediate jack 23 onto a corresponding counter oblique surface of narrow strip 24 is effected, the strip 24 extending above jacks 12 over the entire length of needle bed 110 with its needle tricks. In this way the intermediate jack 23 presses with its lower butt 234 against the flexible middle portion of jack 12.

In this embodiment (FIG. 3), the presser cams need effect only the depression of intermediate jacks 23 into needle tricks 13, via presser members 14. The further work is undertaken by the cam parts that thrust the intermediate jacks by control butts 232 in depressed state below strip 24. Thereby working butts 123 of jacks 12 will be pressed into the needle tricks and withdrawn from the region of the camming parts, to be held there without further expenditure of external force until the intermediate jack is again drawn out from under strip 24 by the cam parts via control butt 232, so that, provided presser member 14 is no longer acted upon, it can spring back to the rest position illustrated in FIG. 3.

In the embodiment of FIG. 4 each elastically or resiliently flexible jack 12 is controlled by a slide or pusher 25 that acts as a presser member. Slide 25 is applied to the flexible middle portion of jack 12, and on its forward end, as in the case of intermediate jack 23, it presents an oblique bevel surface 251. Surface 251 can run onto the counter-oblique bevel surface of strip bar 24, being at the same height. Slide 25 is connected at its other end via a pivot head 252 with a selector jack 26 which is slidable in the longitudinal direction of the needle trick on two bar strips 27 and 28. Selector jack 26 presents two operating

butts

261 and 262 which are acted on by the cam parts. By the said control butts 261 and 262, the longitudinal displacement of selector jack 26 in the needle trick is effected and controlled. In case of a shift of the selector jack 26 of FIG. 4 toward the right, the oblique surface 251 of slide 25 runs onto the counter-oblique surface of strip 24, so that the slide 25 is pivoted about its pivot head 252 in a clockwise direction, and thereby flexible jack 12 is pressed into the needle trick, so that working butt 123 of the jack is out of the range of action of the cam parts.

I claim 1. In a knitting machine, especially a flat knitter of the type having jacks borne in the needle tricks of the needle beds, the jacks being operatively coupled to the needles and having working butts that can be acted upon by the needle lock parts of the machine for control of needle movement, the improvement wherein each jack comprises an elastically flexible rod supported at both ends above the base of the needle trick,

on which flexible rod a presser member can act, the working butt of each jack being disposed in the area of maximum flexibility of the jack such that when the jack is bent the working butt is out of the range of the needle cam parts, a presser member for acting on each needleactuating jack so as to selectively move its butt into or out of range of the needle cam parts, said presser member being pivotably borne near the needle bed such that a pivotable portion thereof can act on the associated jack, presser cam parts for actuating the presser members to in turn actuate the jacks, and resilient means urging the presser members pivotably away from the jacks.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising intermediate jacks each disposed to be acted on by cam parts via a control butt and moved longitudinally of its needle trick, and acted on by a presser member to be depressed for actuating the jack, each intermediate jack being provided with a wedge-shaped end for cooperation with a stationary oblique surface to secure the position of a needle-actuating jack, the operating butt of which is moved out of the range of action of the cam parts.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a presser member for acting on each elastically flexible jack, each presser member comprising a slide pivotally connected with a selector jack, said slide being movable by said selector jack longitudinally of a needle trick and having a wedge-shaped end movable against or away from a stationary oblique surface to effect movement of the slide and its associated needle-actuating jack toward or away from the base of the needle trick, said selector jack having at least one control butt which extends into the range of action of selectively operable cam parts of the machine for effecting movement of the selector jack and its slide.

4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein the stationary oblique surface is formed on a bar that extends in a direction that is longitudinal with reference to the needle bed and transverse with reference to the needle tricks.

5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3 wherein the stationary oblique surface is formed on a bar that extends in a direction that is longitudinal with reference to the needle bed and transverse with reference to the needle tricks.

6. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said elastically flexible jack rod is pivotally connected at one end to its associated needle, and is supported at its other end by a supporting butt bearing on the base of the needle trick.

Claims

1. In a knitting machine, especially a flat knitter of the type having jacks borne in the needle tricks of the needle beds, the jacks being operatively coupled to the needles and having working butts that can be acted upon by the needle lock parts of the machine for control of needle movement, the improvement wherein each jack comprises an elastically flexible rod supported at both ends above the base of the needle trick, on which flexible rod a presser member can act, the working butt of each jack being disposed in the area of maximum flexibility of the jack such that when the jack is bent the working butt is out of the range of the needle cam parts, a presser member for acting on each needleactuating jack so as to selectively move its butt into or out of range of the needle cam parts, said presser member being pivotably borne near the needle bed such that a pivotable portion thereof can act on the associated jack, presser cam parts for actuating the presser members to in turn actuate the jacks, and resilient means urging the presser members pivotably away from the jacks.