WO2011042299A1

WO2011042299A1 - Circular knitting machine for manufacturing items of clothing of the seamless type, with increased functionality

Info

Publication number: WO2011042299A1
Application number: PCT/EP2010/063923
Authority: WO
Inventors: Ettore Lonati; Tiberio Lonati; Fausto Lonati
Original assignee: Santoni S.P.A.
Priority date: 2009-10-07
Filing date: 2010-09-21
Publication date: 2011-04-14
Also published as: IT1396192B1; CN102575391A; ITMI20091712A1

Abstract

A circular knitting machine for manufacturing items of clothing of the seamless type with increased functionality, comprising a supporting structure (2), which supports a needle cylinder (4) which has a vertical axis (4a) and a dial (7), which is arranged above and coaxially to the needle cylinder (4). The needle cylinder (4) is supported so that it can rotate about its own axis (4a) by the footing (3) of the supporting structure (2). The supporting structure (2) comprises a frame (16), which is fixed above the footing (3) and comprises at least three posts (17, 18, 19) that rise from the footing (3) and are angularly spaced with respect to each other about the axis (4a) of the needle cylinder (4). The posts (17, 18, 19) are jointly connected to each other, at their upper end, by an upper supporting element (20), which supports the dial (7) so that it can rotate about its axis (4a) and can slide along its axis (4a). The upper supporting element (20) supports means for the translational motion of the dial (7) with respect to the needle cylinder (4) along its axis (4a). At least the needles (9) arranged in the dial (7) are needles of the transfer type and the machine is provided with needle actuation means which comprise means for transferring stitches at least from the needles (9) arranged in the dial (7) to needles (6) arranged in the needle cylinder (4).

Description

CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINE FOR MANUFACTURING ITEMS OF CLOTHING OF THE SEAMLESS TYPE, WITH INCREASED FUNCTIONALITY

Technical field

The present invention relates to a circular knitting machine for manufacturing items of clothing of the seamless type, with increased functionality.

Background art

Circular knitting machines are known for manufacturing items of clothing of the so-called seamless type, i.e., items of clothing, such as for example undershirts, body suits, underpants, bras, corsets or the like, without lateral seams, i.e., with a tubular body that has no seams on its lateral surface. The manufactured articles obtained with these machines can be finished items or can require extremely limited sewing operations, such as for example hemming or the joining of two flaps of the manufactured article.

Machines of this type, often referenced as seamless machines for the sake of simplicity, have the great advantage of reducing considerably the operations for finishing the items, also reducing the labor that these operations would require. For the sake of simplicity in exposition, hereinafter the expression "seamless machines" will designate, as in the jargon of the field, particularly circular knitting machines for manufacturing knitted items of the seamless type.

Seamless machines are machines that derive conceptually from single-cylinder circular hosieiy knitting machines, with the difference that they have a larger diameter of the needle cylinder which is generally comprised between 7 inches and 24 inches.

As in some types of circular hosiery knitting machine, seamless machines, too, have, above the needle cylinder, a plate, which is arranged coaxially to the needle cylinder and has a plurality of hooks that can be extracted radially from the plate or retracted into the plate so as to cooperate with the needles of the needle cylinder in some particular type of knitting, such as for example in the forming of a double hem that is often performed at the beginning of the production of the tubular manufactured item. This double hem, on the finished knitted article, can constitute for example the lower hem of an undershirt, the upper hem of a pair of undeipants, or the lower hem of a bra, etcetera.

The plate is connected kinematically, by virtue of a mechanical transmission, to the needle cylinder so as to rotate jointly with the needle cylinder during the operation of the machine.

The plate that carries the hooks, in circular hosiery knitting machines and in seamless machines, can move vertically, i.e., along the axis of the needle cylinder of the machine, in order to allow the operator to inspect and optionally access the inner part of the needle cylinder proximate to its upper end in order to identify and fix quickly any problems in the forming of the knitting so as to minimize machine downtime.

The plate, in current seamless machines, is supported at the end of a substantially horizontally elongated arm, which engages, by virtue of its opposite end, a shaft with a vertical axis which is arranged on the rear side of the machine. This arm can usually slide on command along said shaft in order to actuate the raising and lowering of the plate.

The need to produce manufactured articles that approximate as closely as possible the finished item and thus require less and less finishing operations has always been felt in the field of seamless machines.

Another need that is felt by the users of these machines is to be able to increase the quality and quantity of the type of knitting that can be performed.

From this viewpoint, the double hem is qualitatively less valuable than other types of hem, such as for example the hem with rib knitting. This type of hem can be obtained with medium- or large-diameter knitting machines that have a cylinder and a dial with needles both in the cylinder and in the dial with the possibility, indeed to provide the knitting with rib knitting, to transfer the stitches at least from the needles of the dial to the needles of the needle cylinder. The needles used on these machines for this knitting are special needles called "transfer needles".

These machines, due to their dimensions and to the way in which they are structured, would not be usable for the manufacturing of knitwear of the seamless type. It should be noted, moreover, that in medium- and large- diameter circular knitting machines, unlike seamless machines, the dial is supported above and coaxially to the needle cylinder without the possibility to be raised except as part of actual maintenance interventions that require an at least partial disassembly of the machine.

On the other hand, the simple replacement of the plate with a dial that has transfer needles on current seamless machines is not feasible because of the structure of these machines, which would not ensure the necessary precision in the positioning of the needles of the dial with respect to the needles of the needle cylinder.

Disclosure of the invention

The aim of the present invention is to solve the drawbacks mentioned above, providing a circular knitting machine for manufacturing items of clothing of the seamless type, which can perform knitting with rib-knitting.

Within this aim, an object of the invention is to provide a machine that can produce knitwear of the seamless type with a rib-knit hem.

Another object of the invention is to provide a machine that has a high structural rigidity and excellent precision in operation.

Another object of the invention is to provide a machine that is highly reliable in operation.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a machine that can produce qualitatively superior manufactured articles with respect to the articles that can be obtained currently with current seamless machines. This aim and these and other objects that will become better apparent hereinafter are achieved by a circular knitting machine for manufacturing items of clothing of the seamless type, characterized in that it comprises:

- a supporting structure, which comprises a footing;

- a needle cylinder, which is supported so that it can rotate about its own vertically oriented axis by said footing, and can be actuated with a rotary motion about its own axis, on the lateral surface of said needle cylinder there being a plurality of axial slots, each of which accommodates a needle;

- a dial, which is arranged above and coaxially to said needle cylinder and is supported so that it can rotate about its own axis by said supporting structure, on the upper face of said dial there being a plurality of radial slots, each of which accommodates a needle;

- means for kinematic connection of said needle cylinder to said dial in rotation about the common axis;

- means for the actuation of the needles along the corresponding axial slots of the needle cylinder and means for the actuation of the needles along the corresponding radial slots of the dial in order to form knitting both with the needles arranged in the needle cylinder and with the needles arranged in the dial;

- means for the translational motion of said dial with respect to said needle cylinder along its axis;

- means for feeding yarns to the needles arranged in the needle cylinder and to the needles arranged in the dial;

- a disk-like yarn cutter which is fixed coaxially to the upper face of said dial;

- means for the pneumatic suction of the manufactured article within the needle cylinder during its formation;

said supporting structure comprising a frame, which is fixed above said footing and comprises at least three posts that rise from said footing and are angularly spaced with respect to each other about the axis of the needle cylinder, said posts being jointly connected to each other, at their upper end, by an upper supporting element, which supports said dial so that it can rotate about its own axis and can slide along its axis, said upper supporting element supporting said means for the translational motion of said dial with respect to said needle cylinder along its axis;

at least the needles arranged in the dial being constituted by needles of the transfer type, said needle actuation means comprising means for transferring stitches at least from the needles arranged in the dial to needles arranged in the needle cylinder.

Brief description of the drawings

Further characteristics and advantages of the invention will become better apparent from the description of a preferred but not exclusive embodiment of the machine according to the invention, illustrated by way of non-limiting example in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the machine according to the invention;

Figure 2 is a schematic sectional view of the machine according to the invention, taken along a vertical plane that passes through the axis of the needle cylinder and with some elements omitted for the sake of greater clarity;

Figure 3 is an enlarged-scale view of a portion of Figure 2;

Figure 4 is an enlarged-scale sectional view, taken similarly to Figure 2, of a detail of the machine according the invention related to the region where the needle cylinder and the dial face each other;

Figure 5 is a perspective view of the same detail in Figure 4;

Figure 6 is a perspective view of a portion of the dial.

Ways of carrying out the invention

With reference to the figures, the machine according to the invention, generally designated by the reference numeral 1, comprises a supporting structure 2, which has a footing 3 that can be rested on a substantially horizontal resting surface, such as for example a floor.

The supporting structure 2 supports a needle cylinder 4, which can rotate, with respect to the supporting structure 2, about its own vertically oriented axis 4a. The needle cylinder 4 can be actuated with a rotary motion about its own axis 4a with respect to the supporting structure 2, and on its lateral surface there is a plurality of axial slots 5, each of which accommodates a needle 6.

Above and coaxially to the needle cylinder 4 there is a dial 7, which is supported, so that it can rotate about its own axis 4a, by the supporting structure 2. On the upper face of the dial 7 there is a plurality of radial slots 8, each of which accommodates a needle 9.

The machine comprises means 50 for kinematic connection of the needle cylinder 4 to the dial 7 so that the actuation with rotary motion of the needle cylinder 4 about its own axis 4a is transmitted, with a unitary transmission ratio, to the dial 7, as will become better apparent hereinafter.

The machine further comprises means for the actuation of the needles 6 along the corresponding axial slots 5 of the needle cylinder 4 and means for the actuation of the needles 9 along the corresponding radial slots 8 of the dial 7 so as to allow the formation of knitting both with the needles 6 arranged in the needle cylinder 4 and with the needles 9 arranged in the dial 7.

The machine has means 51 for the translational motion of the dial 7 with respect to the needle cylinder 4 along its axis 4a, so as to allow, as in known types of seamless machine, to raise the dial 7 with respect to the needle cylinder 4 in order to inspect the inside of the needle cylinder 4 and optionally act to restore the correct operating conditions of the machine if necessary.

Around the needle cylinder 4, at preset regions that constitute the so- called feeds or drops of the machine, there are yarn feeding means, which can be constituted by sets of yarn finger assemblies 10 of a known type, which can be actuated in order to dispense to the needles 6, 9 that are moved to knit at a preset feed the yam or yarns required in order to form knitting.

A disk-like yarn cutter 11 is fixed to the upper face of the dial 7, is arranged coaxially to the dial 7 and is designed to engage the yarns, at the end of their feeding on the part of the yarn finger assemblies 10, in order to cut them in cooperation with blades 12, as will become better apparent hereinafter.

The inside of the needle cylinder 4 is connected to pneumatic suction means, by way of which the article is tensioned during its knitting and is removed outside the needle cylinder 4. Said pneumatic suction means can be constituted, in a per se known manner, by a duct 13, which is connected to suction means, not visible in the figures, and is connected, with its inlet end, to the lower end of a hollow cylinder 14, which is fixed internally and coaxially inside the needle cylinder 4. The duct 13 ends with a bell 15 that faces a basket 60 for collecting the manufactured articles that are unloaded from the machine.

The supporting structure 2 comprises a frame 16, which is fixed above the footing 3 and comprises at least three posts 17, 18, 19 that rise from the footing 3 and are angularly spaced with respect to each other about the axis 4a of the needle cylinder 4. The posts 17, 18, 19 are jointly connected to each other, at their upper end, by an upper supporting element 20, which supports the dial 7 so that it can rotate about its own axis 4a and so that it can slide along the same axis 4a. The upper supporting element 20 also supports means 51 for the translational motion of the dial 7 with respect to the needle cylinder 4 along its axis 4a.

More particularly, the posts 17, 18, 19 are fixed, with their foot, to the upper face of the footing 3, for example by means of screws, and, with their upper end, for example again by means of screws, to the upper supporting element 20, proximate to its edge. The means 51 for the translational motion of the dial 7 with respect to the needle cylinder 4 along its axis 4a comprise a central portion 21 of the upper supporting element 20, which is provided as a body of a fluid- operated cylinder. More particularly, the central portion 21 has a substantially cylindrical shape and is arranged coaxially to the needle cylinder 4. Said central portion 21 is jointly fixed to the remaining part of the upper supporting element 20, and a chamber 22 is formed coaxially inside it which accommodates coaxially, so that it can slide along its axis 4a, a hollow piston 23, which can move axially on command with respect to the central portion 21 and supports internally and coaxially a shaft 24, which is fixed to the dial 7 by means of its lower end. The shaft 24 is supported by the hollow piston 23 by means of a pair of bearings 25, 26 arranged proximate to the ends of the shaft 24, which protrudes, with its lower end and with its upper end, from the axial ends of the hollow piston 23. The lower end of the shaft 24 is fixed coaxially to the dial 7, while the upper end of the shaft 24 is connected to the kinematic connection means 50, which transmit the rotary motion from the needle cylinder 4 to the dial 7.

The chamber 22, which is formed inside the central portion 21, is divided, by an intermediate region 23a of the hollow piston 23 that engages hermetically the side walls of said chamber 22, into two mutually opposite portions, which can be connected selectively to a source of a pressurized fluid or to an outlet so as to cause the sliding of the hollow piston 23 in one direction or the other along the axis 4a with respect to the central portion 21.

The hollow piston 23, proximate to its upper end, is connected to guiding shafts 27, which are arranged so that their axes are parallel to the axis 4a and each of which engages, so that it can slide axially, within a corresponding seat 28 formed in the central portion 21. In this manner, the hollow piston 23 is guided in its sliding along the axis 4a with respect to the central portion 21 and its rotation about said axis 4a with respect to the central portion 21 is prevented. The means 50 for kinematic connection of the needle cylinder 4 to the dial 7 in rotation about the axis 4a comprise: a lower gear 29, which is fixed coaxially around the needle cylinder 4 inside the footing 3, a connecting shaft 30, which is supported so that it can rotate about its own axis 30a, which is parallel and spaced from the axis 4a of the needle cylinder 4, by the supporting structure 2, and an upper gear 31 , which is arranged coaxially to the lower gear 29 and is supported, so that it can rotate about its own axis 4a, by the upper supporting element 20. The connecting shaft 30 is provided with a first gear 32, which meshes with the lower gear 29, and with a second gear 33, which meshes with the upper gear 31. The first gear 32 and the second gear 33 are keyed on the connecting shaft 30, which is supported, so that it can rotate about its own axis 30a, proximate to its lower end, by the footing 3 by means of a bearing 34 and, proximate to its upper end, by the upper supporting element 20 by means of another bearing 35.

It should be noted that the lower gear 29 and the upper gear 31 have the same diameter and the same number of teeth, and the first gear 32 and the second gear 33 keyed on the connecting shaft 30 have the same diameter and the same number of teeth, so as to obtain, in the transmission of the motion from the needle cylinder 4 to the dial 7, a unitary transmission ratio with minimum play.

The upper gear 31 is provided with guiding shafts 36, whose axes are vertical, i.e., parallel and spaced with respect to the axis 4a, with which corresponding sliding seats 37 mate which are formed in a disk 38 that is fixed to the upper end of the shaft 24. In this manner, the upper gear 31, which is supported so that it can rotate about its own axis 4a by the upper supporting element 29 by virtue of the bearing 39, is jointly connected to the shaft 24 in rotation about the axis 4a.

Conveniently, between the hollow piston 23 and the upper supporting element 20 there are further centering means, which achieve high precision in the mutual positioning of these two elements, which are prevented from rotating about the axis 4a; said means are constituted by a pin 41, which is jointly connected to the hollow piston 23 and can be coupled, when the hollow piston 23 is translated downward, to a corresponding seat 42 formed in the upper face of the central portion 21 of the upper supporting element 20.

The means for actuating the needles 6 arranged in the axial slots 5 of the needle cylinder 4 can be constituted, in a per se known manner, by a set of cams, which are supported by the supporting structure 2 and face the lateral surface of the needle cylinder 4. The cams, as a whole, define paths that can be engaged by heels of the needles 6 that protrude radially from the axial slots 5. These paths are shaped so as to cause, as a consequence of the rotation of the needle cylinder 4 about its own axis 4a with respect to said cams, the alternating sliding of the needles 6 along the axial slots 5 so as to obtain, on the part of these needles, the formation of knitting by means of the yarns that are supplied by the yarn fmger assemblies 10 arranged at the various feeds of the machine.

Inside each axial slot 5 of the needle cylinder 4, below each needle 6, it is possible to provide, in a per se known manner, selectors that can be actuated by means of adapted selection devices 43, also of a known type, which face the lateral surface of the needle cylinder 4. By means of the selectors and the selection devices 43 it is possible to select the needles 6 that have to be moved to knit at a specific feed so as to perform particular types of knittings and/or patterns with the needles 6 of the needle cylinder 4.

Likewise, the means for actuating the needles 9 arranged in the radial slots 8 of the dial 7 comprise a set of cams that are supported by a disk-like element 45 that is fixed coaxially to the lower end of the hollow piston 23 and faces the dial 7 in an upward region. The cams define a plurality of paths that can be engaged by the heels of the needles 9 that protrude upward from the upper face of the dial 7. These paths are shaped so as to cause, as a consequence of the rotation of the dial 7 about the axis 4a with respect to the set of cams connected to the disk-like element 45, an alternating motion of the needles 9 along the corresponding radial slots 8 of the dial 7, which causes the formation of knitting on the part of the needles 9 by means of the yarn or yarns dispensed by the yarn finger assemblies 10 arranged at the several feeds of the machine.

A selector can be accommodated also in the dial 7, inside each radial slot 8, between the end of each needle 9 that is directed toward the axis 4a and the axis 4a, and can be actuated by means of selection devices 44 that face the upper face of the dial 7 so as to select the needles 9 that have to be moved to knit at a specific feed of the machine.

In the machine according to the invention, at least the needles 9 that are arranged in the dial 7 are needles of the transfer type, i.e., needles of a known type that allow to transfer a stitch from a needle 9 arranged in the dial 7 to a needle 6 arranged in the needle cylinder 4. This allows to perform, at the beginning of the production of a manufactured article, a hem knitted with rib-knitting.

It should be noted that if it is necessary to perform knitting with rib- knitting also in other regions of the manufactured article or more generally knitting that requires the passage of stitches from needles of the dial 7 to needles of the needle cylinder 4 and vice versa, it will be possible to provide needles of the transfer type in the needle cylinder 4 as well.

The transfer of the stitches from the needles arranged in the dial to needles arranged in the needle cylinder 4 and/or vice versa is performed by means of cams for actuating the needles and/or the selectors of a known type, which are not described further for the sake of simplicity.

Preferably, there is a needle 9 in the dial 7 for each needle 6 of the needle cylinder 4, although in order to meet particular requirements some needles 9 of the dial 7 might be omitted.

The machine is completed by other elements of a known type, some of which are visible in the figures, such as for example the sinkers 53 and a control panel 54 arranged on the front side of the footing 3, which are not described further for the sake of simplicity.

Operation of the machine according to the invention is as follows. The needle cylinder 4 is actuated with a rotary motion about its own axis 4a with respect to the supporting structure 2, and this motion is transmitted, by means of the lower gear 29, to the first gear 32 and consequently from the second gear 33 of the connecting shaft 30 to the upper gear 31 jointly connected to the shaft 24 and thus to the dial 7, which rotates jointly with the needle cylinder 4 about the axis 4a. The rotation of the needle cylinder 4 and of the dial 7 with respect to the needle actuation cams causes the actuation of needles, which can be selected in a per se known manner, by means of the selection devices 43, 44, to pick up the yarn or yarns dispensed by the yarn finger assemblies 10 at a specific feed of the machine and to form knitting. The needles 6 arranged in the needle cylinder 4 produce plain knitting, while the needles 9 arranged in the dial 7 perform purl knitting. In this manner it is possible to perform, for example at the beginning of the formation of the manufactured article, a hem knitted with rib-knitting.

At the end of the formation of the hem with rib-knitting, the last stitches produced by the needles 9 of the dial 7 are transferred to the corresponding needles 6 of the needle cylinder 4 in order to continue the production of the manufactured article.

Should problems that require the intervention of an operator occur during knitting, it is possible to raise the dial 7 with respect to the needle cylinder 4 by supplying with a pressurized fluid the portion of the chamber 22, which is defined between the intermediate region 23 a of the hollow piston 23 and the lower end of the central portion 21, so as to cause the upward sliding of the hollow piston 23 with respect to the central portion 21. In this manner, the operator can inspect the inside of the upper end of the needle cylinder 4 as well as the region of the machine arranged adjacent to the knitting region of the needles 6, 9 and optionally intervene to obviate the problem that has occurred.

At the end of the intervention, the operator can cause the lowering of the dial 7, by actuating the supply with a pressurized fluid of the chamber 22, which is defined between the intermediate region 23a of the hollow piston and the upper end of the central portion 21.

The manufactured article, during its formation, is sucked inside the hollow cylinder 14 in the needle cylinder 4 and, at the end of its formation, is extracted in a downward region from the needle cylinder 4, conveyed along the duct 13 and discharged inside the collecting basket 60.

During the formation of the manufactured article, the yarns used for its knitting can be replaced with other yams by using, in a per se known manner, the yam cutter 11 that, in each instance, hooks the yam for which the supply by the yam finger assemblies 10 is interrupted and entrains it up to a blade 12, which, being rested on the upper face of the yam cutter 1 1 at the region occupied by the teeth of said cutter, as shown in particular in Figure 6, cuts the entrained yam. The end of the cut yarn is held by suction inside suction ports 52 that face, in a per se known manner, the upper face of the dial 7 proximate to the blades 12. In this manner, the yam is ready to be fed again to the needles 6, 9 when its use will be required, in a per se known manner.

In practice it has been found that the machine according to the invention fully achieves the intended aim, since it allows to manufacture items of clothing of the seamless type and can perform types of knitting with rib-knitting that improve the quality of said items of clothing. In particular, the machine according to the invention allows to produce items of knitting of the seamless type with a rib-knit hem.

The machine thus conceived is susceptible of numerous modifications and variations, all of which are within the scope of the appended claims; all the details may further be replaced with other technically equivalent elements.

In practice, the materials used, as well as the dimensions, may be any according to requirements and to the state of the art.

The disclosures in Italian Patent Application No. MI2009A001712 from which this application claims priority are incorporated herein by reference.

Where technical features mentioned in any claim are followed by reference signs, those reference signs have been included for the sole purpose of increasing the intelligibility of the claims and accordingly, such reference signs do not have any limiting effect on the interpretation of each element identified by way of example by such reference signs.

Claims

1. A circular knitting machine for manufacturing items of clothing of the seamless type, characterized in that it comprises:

- a supporting structure (2), which comprises a footing (3);

- a needle cylinder (4), which is supported so that it can rotate about its own vertically oriented axis (4a) by said footing (3) and can be actuated with a rotary motion about its own axis (4a), on the lateral surface of said needle cylinder (4) there being a plurality of axial slots (5), each of which accommodates a needle (6);

- a dial (7), which is arranged above and coaxially to said needle cylinder (4) and is supported so that it can rotate about its own axis by said supporting structure (2), on the upper face of said dial (7) there being a plurality of radial slots (8), each of which accommodates a needle (9);

- means (50) for kinematic connection of said needle cylinder (4) to said dial (7) in rotation about the common axis (4a);

- means for the actuation of the needles (6) along the corresponding axial slots (5) of the needle cylinder (4) and means for the actuation of the needles (9) along the corresponding radial slots (8) of the dial (7) in order to form knitting both with the needles (6) arranged in the needle cylinder (4) and with the needles (9) arranged in the dial (7);

- means (51) for the translational motion of said dial (7) with respect to said needle cylinder (4) along its axis (4a);

- means (10) for feeding yarns to the needles (6) arranged in the needle cylinder (4) and to the needles (9) arranged in the dial (7);

- a disk-like yarn cutter (1 1) which is fixed coaxially to the upper face of said dial (7);

- means (13, 14) for the pneumatic suction of the manufactured article within the needle cylinder (4) during its formation;

said supporting structure (2) comprising a frame (16), which is fixed above said footing (3) and comprises at least three posts (17, 18, 19) that rise from said footing (3) and are angularly spaced with respect to each other about the axis (4a) of the needle cylinder (4), said posts (17, 18, 19) being jointly connected to each other, at their upper end, by an upper supporting element (20), which supports said dial (7) so that it can rotate about its axis (4a) and can slide along its axis (4a), said upper supporting element (20) supporting said means (51) for the translational motion of said dial (7) with respect to said needle cylinder (4) along its axis (4a);

at least the needles (9) arranged in the dial (7) being constituted by needles of the transfer type, said needle actuation means comprising means for transferring stitches at least from the needles (9) arranged in the dial (7) to needles (6) arranged in the needle cylinder (4).

2. The machine according to claim 1 , characterized in that said upper supporting element (20) has a substantially cylindrical central portion (21 ), which is arranged coaxially to said needle cylinder (4) and is provided as a body of a fluid-operated cylinder; said central portion (21) accommodating coaxially a hollow piston (23), which can move axially on command with respect to said central portion (21) and supports internally and coaxially a shaft (24) which is fixed, by means of its lower end, to said plate (7) arranged below said hollow piston (23); said shaft (24) being supported so that it can rotate about its own axis (4a) by said hollow piston (23); a chamber (22) being defined between said central portion (21) and said hollow piston (23) and being suppliable with a pressurized fluid for the translational motion of said hollow piston (23), together with said shaft (24) and said dial (7), along the common axis (4a).

3. The machine according to claims 1 and 2, characterized in that the lower end of said hollow piston (23) is fixed to a disk-like element (45); said means (9) for actuating the needles (9) arranged in the dial (7) comprising a set of cams which are connected to said disk-like element (45) and face the upper face of said dial (7).

4. The machine according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that said kinematic connection means (50) comprise: a lower gear (29), which is fixed coaxially around the needle cylinder (4), a connecting shaft (30), which is supported so that it can rotate about its own axis (30a), which is parallel and spaced from the axis (4a) of the needle cylinder (4), by said supporting structure (2), and an upper gear (31), which is arranged coaxially to said lower gear (29) and is supported so that it can rotate about its own axis (4a) by said upper supporting element (20); said connecting shaft (30) being provided with a first gear (32), which meshes with said lower gear (29), and with a second gear (33), which meshes with said upper gear (31); said first gear (32) and said second gear (33) being keyed on said connecting shaft (30); said connecting shaft (30) being supported so that it can rotate about its own axis (30a), proximate to its lower end, by said footing (3) and, proximate to its upper end, by said upper supporting element (20); said upper gear (31) being connected to said shaft (4) so as to rotate jointly about its own axis (4a).

5. The machine according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized in that it comprises blades (12) for cutting the yarns dispensed by said yarn feeding means (10), said blades (12) being supported by said disk-like element (45) and being engageable so as to rest against the upper face of said yarn cutter (1 1) in order to cut the yarns entrained by the teeth of said yarn cutter (11).