GB478596A - Improvements in automatic knitting machines - Google Patents

Abstract

478,596. Knitting-machines. TENNANT, W. J. (Soc. Etablissenients Lebocey) July 23, 1936, No. 20479. [Class 74 (ii)] The needle-selecting cylinder 1 of a flat machine and the ratchet wheels 22, 23 for controlling it are carried by a carriage 4 which is given a rectilinear reciprocatory movement. The movement of the carriage is governed positively in both directions, and the cylinder 1 carries elements 16 acting directly on the butts of the needles. The carriage 4 is carried at its ends by guides 5, 6, resting on rollers 7, 8. One or more groups of eccentrics 9, 10, carried by a driving shaft 11, rock a shaft 14 through levers 12, 13, and so through another lever 15 impart the transverse linear reciprocation toward and away from the needles, and positively in both directions, to the cylinder 1. A ratchet wheel 22 and a cam 44 are rigid with the shaft of the cylinder, and a ratchet wheel 23, cams 25 and 26, and a circular plate 24, can rotate as a unit about the shaft. A pawl 27, carried on a pivoted crank 28, can rock the ratchet 22 one tooth and hence rotate the cylinder 1 in the reverse stroke of the carriage 4, except when an end 35 of a lever 34 is on a rise on the cam 25, so lowering a stop member 29 out of the path of the pawl by forcing down a spring- pressed slide block 32. The ratchet wheel 23 is similarly rocked by a pawl 40 carried on a crank 41, and controlled by a stop member 42, but, in this case, two slide blocks 49, 50 are provided, controlled by the cams 26 and 44. Thus, ratchet wheel 22 is controlled by cam 25 whilst ratchet wheel 23 may be controlled by either of cams 26, 44. The ratchet wheel 22 can also be rotated by a pawl 36 mounted on a fixed support 37. This pawl is controlled by a lever 38, and the lever allows the pawl to drop on to the ratchet whenever a gap occurs in the series of removable pins 39 which are carried on the ratchet and support the lever at its mid-point. A latch opening blade 17, Fig. 2, acting over' the whole width of the bed, is operated by a cam 21 on the shaft 11, through levers 18, 19. The invention may be applied to machines having one or two needle beds, and in the latter case the beds may be operated simultaneously or alternately and the machine can be used for passing automatically from rib to tubular fabric and vice versa. In one process, one or more rows of rib work are knitted by simultaneous operation of both beds. The beds are then operated alternately to produce tubular work, widenings and narrowings being meanwhile effected by the selecting mechanism.