CA1068378A - Method and apparatus of selecting needles of a knitting machine - Google Patents
Method and apparatus of selecting needles of a knitting machineInfo
- Publication number
- CA1068378A CA1068378A CA253,172A CA253172A CA1068378A CA 1068378 A CA1068378 A CA 1068378A CA 253172 A CA253172 A CA 253172A CA 1068378 A CA1068378 A CA 1068378A
- Authority
- CA
- Canada
- Prior art keywords
- scanner
- carriage
- program
- needle
- patterning system
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Expired
Links
Classifications
-
- D—TEXTILES; PAPER
- D04—BRAIDING; LACE-MAKING; KNITTING; TRIMMINGS; NON-WOVEN FABRICS
- D04B—KNITTING
- D04B15/00—Details of, or auxiliary devices incorporated in, weft knitting machines, restricted to machines of this kind
- D04B15/66—Devices for determining or controlling patterns ; Programme-control arrangements
Abstract
ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE :
A patterning system in a straight knitting machine having a main body provided thereon with a needle bed for knitting needles and a carriage slidably mounted on the needle bed, comprising, in combination, needle selection means inclu-ding an electromagnet for selectively operating the knitting needles, control circuit means including an erasable temporary storage for selective energization of the electromagnet, a program providing means provided on the main body for providing signals representative of data for needle selection, and input means for providing control signals for conditioning the con-trol circuit means. The program providing means includes a program carrier carrying thereon a needle selection program, a support on the main body for removably mounting thereon the program carrier and adapted to be driven to rotate around a longitudinal axis thereof to incrementally feed the program carrier in one or the other direction, a scanner mounted for movement in a predetermined path between both of the two po-sitions in response to each of directional movements of the carriage, the scanner having thereon a sensor means for reading the needle selection program on the program carrier on the sup-port, and pulse generating means for generating an interval pulse by an increment of the scanner movement to provide a predetermined number ofpulses upon a scanner movement between the two end positions.
A patterning system in a straight knitting machine having a main body provided thereon with a needle bed for knitting needles and a carriage slidably mounted on the needle bed, comprising, in combination, needle selection means inclu-ding an electromagnet for selectively operating the knitting needles, control circuit means including an erasable temporary storage for selective energization of the electromagnet, a program providing means provided on the main body for providing signals representative of data for needle selection, and input means for providing control signals for conditioning the con-trol circuit means. The program providing means includes a program carrier carrying thereon a needle selection program, a support on the main body for removably mounting thereon the program carrier and adapted to be driven to rotate around a longitudinal axis thereof to incrementally feed the program carrier in one or the other direction, a scanner mounted for movement in a predetermined path between both of the two po-sitions in response to each of directional movements of the carriage, the scanner having thereon a sensor means for reading the needle selection program on the program carrier on the sup-port, and pulse generating means for generating an interval pulse by an increment of the scanner movement to provide a predetermined number ofpulses upon a scanner movement between the two end positions.
Description
~(:116~3378 The present invention relates to a patterning system in a straight knitting machine9 and particularly to a system for carrying out a method of selecting the needles of a knit-ting machine, particularly a household hand-knitting machine, and more particularly a method of selecting needles of a knitting machine in order to effec~ operation of the needles in accordance with a recorded pattern by reading out the re-cording medium wherein a profile of the pattern to be knitted is permanently ~tored.
A conventional needle-selecting method is one whereby a profile of the pattern to be knitted is recorded in a card in the form of multistage punched hole configurations. ~he punched hole~ of each stage are mechanically detected and me-chanicalIy recorded in a mechanica:L memory in the form of a group of needle selecting signals. ~he desired needle group may then be selectively actuated in response to carriage movement Such conventional needle-selecting methods are dis-ad~antageous in that the recording operation nece~sitates mi-nute attention because the punch holes mu~t be arranged inpredetermined positions on the card in order to produce a pro-file of the pattern to be knitted. In other word~, the profile representing the unit pattern to be knitted must first be sepa-rated beforehand into profile modules (corresponding to the respective aforementioned punched holes, or minimum composite units of the pattern) which mu~t be sequentiall~ arranged for proper recording That is, the profile indicating the whole unit pat-tern mu~t be digitally recorded in the form of profile module~, each corresponding to one needle. Such methods o~ needle ~e-lection, however, have an important drawback in that the num-ber of needles in one group employed in knitting a unit pattern ~., -1- ~
i6837~
cannot be altered, whereby the size of the unit pattern cannot be freely changed.
According to the present invention there is provided a pat-terning system in a straight krLitting machine having a main body provided thereon with a needle bed for knitting needles and a carriage slidably mounted on said needle bed, comprising, in combination, needle selection means including an electromagnet for selectively operating said knitting nee-dles, control circuit mean~ including an erasable temporary storage for seleotive energization of said electromagnet, a program providing mean~ provided on the main body for providing signals representative of data for needle selection, and input mean~ for providing control signals for conditioning the con-trol circuit means, lhe program providing means including a program carrier carrying thereon a needle selection program, a support on the main body for removably mounting thereon the program carrier and adapted to be driven to rotate around a longitudinal axis thereof to incrementally feed the program carrier in one or the other direction, a scanner mounted for movement in a predetermined path between both of the two po-sitions in response to each of directional movement~ of the carriage, the scanner having thereon a sensor means for reading the needle selection program on the progra~ ca~rier on the support, and pulse generating means for generating an interval pulse by an increment of the scanner movement to provide a predetermlned number of pulses upon a scanner movement between - the two end position~.
Other objects and various advantages and features of the invention will become apparent by reference to the following description taken in connection with the appended claims and the accompanying drawings forming a part thereof.
In the drawing~:
, -2-~ h 6~337~
~ ig. 1 is a schema.tic plan view of the whole hand-operated k~itting machine according to the present invention;
Fig~ 2 is an elevational view o~ the knitting machine llustrating a pxogram pro~iding means and an electronic wall on the main body;
~ ig. 3 is a partly exploded plan view of said program pro~iding mean~;
: ~igo 4 i~ a sectional view illu~trating the knitting machine inoluding the program providing means and a electro-magpet for needle selection;
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~ -3-106~37~3 Fig. 5 is a plan view of the carriage partially cut away;
Fig. 6 is a bottom view of the carriage partially cut-away;
Fig. 7 is a sectional view of Fig. 6 taken along the line VII-VII;
Fig. 8 is a sectional view of Fig. 6 taken along the line VIII-VIII;
; Fig. 9 is a sectional view of Fig. 8 taken along line IX-IX; and Figs.10 and 11 are a block~diagram and a time chart~
respectively,illustrating electric and electronic construc-tions.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED E~BODIMENT
. . . _ Referring now to Fig. 1, on a control panel 3 of main body X with needle bed x, are provided a program providing means A for providing a needle selection program including a program carrier 1 carrying thereon a needle selection program and a scanner 2 for optically scanning the knitting pattern recorded on the program carrier 1, and operating means adapted to operate various kinds of mechanisms, which will be described later, besides the program providing means A on the control panel 3 of the main body X with the needle bed x. Further, behind the needle bed x of the machine, there are provided a control box B including various kinds of electric or electronic circuits as described later, and a pair of left and right boundary members 4Q and 4r~ shiftable along a longitudinal direction of the needle bed x, adapted to define a range in which needle election is to be effective by setting them at desired positions of the longitudinal ~(~6837~3 direction. There are provided a pair of left and right needle selecting mechanisms Cl and Cr, each having an electromagnet for needle selection use, on the carriage Y
with a predetermined spacing therebetween along a longitudi-nal direction. Either one of the left and right needleselecting mechanisms Cl and Cr are adapted to effectively actuate the needles (not shown in Fig. 1) aligned in the needle bed x by means of electro-magnetic force responsive to electric signals obtained through scanning of said knitting pattern.
The scanner 2 is mounted for movement in a predeter-mined path between two end positions thereof and adapted to be moved between both of said two positions in response to each of said carriage movements in either direction, and scans a needle selection program recorded on the program carrier l during carriage mov;r~lent along the defined range to output electric signals in accordance with said scanning operàtion, and the processing thereafter of said output electric signal can be electronically effected by a control 20 circuit. Power may be supplied to the electric components of either one of needle selecting mechanisms Cl and Cr for effectLng the knitting operation effectively from the machine body X through the current collector means D arranged longitudinally on the back of the carriage Y. In this enbodiment, the mechanism located ahead in terms of carriage movement is supplied with power. Only the needles positioned in the range defined by said boundary members 4~ and 4r will be actuated selectively. (In this range, however, needles at rest positions are not subjected to the needle selection.) ~:96~3371~
significant construc-tion of said program providing means ~ will be described below referring to Figs.2 through 4.
A support 5 for holding the afore-mentioned program carrier 1 in a U-shaped configuration and for incrementally feeding same in a direction, is mounted in parallel.with : sald needle bed x, rotatably on a frame 6. Front and rear guide bars 71 and 72 are mounted horizontally on the frame 6 under the support 5, the scanner 2 is mounted on the frame 6 so as to run along the longi~udinal direction..
Namely, as illustrated in Fig. 4, the guide bars 71 and 72 slidably engagetransverse holes 91 and 92 provided at the front and rear portions of a scanning member 8.
At the top end of the scanner is provided a photo-electric detecting mechanism, that is, a pipe scanner 10 : with a luminous element and a light sensitive element to convert into an electric signal, the reflective light which is emitted from said luminous element and is reflected from one face of the program carrier 1, and the pipe scanner 10 serves to scan the program carrier 1 from side to side.
In space between the left and right perforations 1'adapted to engage pins of a known pin drum to the program carrier 1, a column 111 for recording a desired knitting pattern thereon and columns 112 and 113 for recording desired function marks thereon are formed by section divid-ing lines drawn in the color similar to that of said luminous element mounted on the scanner 10 and not dis-criminated by said light sensitive element (for example, "$5 837~
red, when a red luminous diode is employed as the luminous element).
In the column 111 for recording a knitting pattern thereon, a ver~ical line of said section dividing lines corresponds to the division line of each wale, while a transverse line of same corresponds to a division of each knitting operation stage, and numerals indicating said wale and said course are given in a coLor similar to that em-pl~yed in the section dividing line, in positions outside , the column.
- According to a more detailed description, the column 11 may be formed so that the minimum section thereof corresponds to one stitch, to wit, one section in its transverse arrangement corresponds to each wale, while one section in its vertical arrangement corresponds to each course, and in knitting the unit pattern involv:ing a given number of wales at the transverse line as one group unit, the desired pattern will be obtained by drawing a picture corresponding to the unit pattern to be knitted in the area defined by the vertical line at the extreme left and another vertical line positioned rom the former by the given number of wales and in black as illustrated in Fig. 2, by means of appropriate writing tools.
For example, when the operation for knitting the unit pattern involving 24 wales is intended by selecting 24 needles as one group unit, a desired picture can be drawn in the space defined by the vertical line at the extreme left end and the other vertical line as distant as to 24 lines to the right from the former.
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In the process, so long as the profile of the picture is within the predetermined area as described above, the picture may generally be drawn by a writing tool without inking in said minimum sections one by one. This is because reading out is effected b~ sampling each unit section.
In effecting the desired functional operation, appropriate unit sections of the columns 112 and 113 for recording function marks therein are to be completely inked in-When the program carrier 1 may be, for example, shifted to a desired position the program carrier l is automaticallyfed by one increment after the scanner 2 has completed one scanning stroke as will be described later, the unit section as a function mark corresponding to a signal source is inked in (for example, in black) to provide instructions that the needle selecting operation should be suspended substantially during scanning a~ter that time, or the program carrier 1 is to be automatically returned to a predetermined position, or an appropriate alarm is to be actuated.
As stated above, the knitting pattern indicating the unit pattern to be knitted may be inked in black on the column 111 of the program carrier 1, and the scanner 2 scans the inked knitting pattern from side to side along each transverse row. Thus, the electric signals derived by the scanning operation draw a mode of the knitting pattern of the unit section at the transverse stage, or a rectangular wave is formed in accor~ance with the mode generated by scanning of the knitting pattern, as shown in Fig. 11[1].
This demonstrates that the electric signal obtained by the ~?
~q~6~337~3 scanning has no one to-one correspondence with the needle to be actuated and the function mark recorded on the columns 112 and 113 also may be read out by said scanner 2 as in the knitting pattern. Therefore, it is converted into an electric signal in the same electric system. However, one o~ two different electric signals is converted to a digital electric signal having one-to-one correspondence with the needle~by a sampling pulse obtained during the scanning by the scanner 2 from a sampling pulse generator as will be described later, and the other is separated from the former..
. A flat through-hole 12 is formed between the transverse holes 91 and 91 on the scanning member 8 of the scanner member 2, and a pulse plate 13 which is mounted in horizontal with said frame 6, between the guide bars il and 72' lies through the through-hole 12.
The fixed member 13 is provided at its rear end with slots 141 for sampiing the electric signal obtained by scanning the program carrier so that each of the slots 14, corresponds to one ~lni~ ~section in the transverse row of the column 111 and is provided at its front end with slots 142, 143 for sampling the function mark so that each of the slots 142 and 143 corresponds to one unit section in the transverse row of the column 112 and 113.
On the scanning member 8 of the scanner 2, there are provided a sampling pulse generator al adapted to produce predetermined pulses for sampling the electric signal obtained by scanning the program carrier through optically reading out the slot 141, at the rear end of the fixed ~" 9 ~06~337~
member 13 during scanning movement, and a sampling pulse generator a2, adapted to produce a sampling pulse for sampling the func-tion mark by optically reading out the slots 142, 143, at the front end thereof as well (Fig. 2).
Above and under the through-hole 12 passing through the fixed member 13, luminous elements, 151 and 152, and a light sensitive elements, 161 and 162, are provided oppo-: sitely to each other at the position corresponding to the rear slots 1~1 and the front~slQts, 141 and 142, through the hole 12.
However, the sampling pulse generator al (more parti-cularly the light sensitive element 161 constituting said pulse generator al), serves to output one pulse each ~ime when the scanner 2 scans the unit section in the column 111 of the program carrier 1 while the sampling pulse generator a2 may be adapted to output one pulse each time when the scanner 2 scans the unit section in the column,~l2 and 113, as illustratea in Fig. 11[1~.
Automatic incremental feeding of the program carrier 1, will be described below:
Switch members, 171 and 17r, are mounted at both ends of said frame 6, and when the left switch member 17, is actuated by a left depression plate 18.~ on the scanning member 8 and the right switch member 17r is actuated ~y a right depression plate 18r, an electromagnetic device (not shown) mounted in the control box ~ urges the support 5 to rotate by one increment.
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A ferromagnetic member 19 is provided at the front portion (carriage side) of the scanning member 8 and the front head of said ferromagnetic member 19 is slidably en-gaged in guide slot 20' provided in a power supply wall 20 S extending over almost at a full length behind the needle bed of the machine body X, and the front of said head is exposed .
to the front face of the power supply wall 20. On the other ~hand, on the carriage Y, magnet 22 is mounted and provided ; with magnetic plates 23.1 and 232, which are mounted on its upper and lower surface at ai~osition flush with the magnet 22 in the center of a casing 21 made of non-magnetic material -: which is mounted in the rear side of the carriage.
If the ferromagnetic member 19 is caused to attract~
the magnetic plates 231 and 232 during the running of the carriage Y,~the scanner 2 starts to run together with the carriage Y. The scanning is completed by releasing the contact segment.l9 from attraction of the magnetic plates 231 and 232 when it reaches the left or the right ends of the guide slot 20'. This indicates that the scanner 2 . will.travel along with the carriage left to right or vice versa only between the guide slots 20', irrelevant of the carriage travelling outside of the limited range. Thus, the knitting pattern on the program carrier 1 is read out as a digital electric signal, one number of which is equivalent to the unit section of the column 111, as illustrated in Fig. 1.
ll[III]. This digital electric signal is stored in the storage MEM (see Fig. 10 of which details will be described .
later independently. Thus, the digital electric signal stored //
,~1,`,~) 1~61! 3378 is read out each time when the carriage travels left to right or vice versa activating either one of the two needle select-ing mechanisms, Cl and Cr, installed in both end sides of the carriage,which is responsive to the running time of the carriage Y. Therefore, one active needle selecting mechanism, Cl or Cr~ for effecting the selective operation is controlled by said digital electric signal in accordance with the number contents (1 or 0). With respect to the timing pulse generat-ing mechanism, it will be explained at below referring to Figs. 4 thru 7.
The current collector means D carries magnet 25 and non-magnetic segment 26 both of which are sandwiched together between two upper and lower metallic plate 241 and 242 f a fexromagnetic and conductive material, respectively, and 15 is generally formed as a single elongated strip by mounting a reflective plate 27 over the full length of the back surface of the magnet 25 and non-magnetic segment 26 between the metallic plates 241 and 242, and is slidably mounted in the elongated sleeve 21' of said casing 21 provided on the carriage Y, in a pre-determined range, and the back face thereof (Fig. 7) is exposed to the opening of the back face of the sleeve 21' The exposed face (back face) of said reflective plate 27 is light-sensitive and a plurality of rectangular holes 27' forming a non-reflective face are provided over the full length of the exposed face with the same spacing as a pitch of the needles 28 arranged on the needle bed x.
On the other hand, on the power supply wall 20, a plurality of timing pulse generators 29 (that is a combination 37~
of the luminous element and light-sensitive element) are arranged with a spacing shorter than the length of the reflective plate 27, for obtaining a timing pulse responsive to the running time of the carriage Y by irradiating the light against the reflective plate 27 and detecting the light reflected from the latter.
It is understood that at least one of the timing pulse generators 29 is necessarily opposed to the reflective plate 27, which is moved during the movement of the carriage Y.
Therefore, timing pulses are fed out from the timing pulse generators 29 as illustrated in Fig. ll[V] each time the carriage Y is shifted by one increment of the needle.
The timing pulse generators 27, which produce the timing pulses alternately at each running turn along the pre-deter-mined length of the carriage Y, is connected to a single output system. The timing pulses would be sequentially fed out from the pulse generators regardless of the setting Position,of the carriage Y as if the timing pulses were supplied from the same timing pulse generator.
Therefore, the digital electric signal stored in the storage MEM can be read out in accordance with the running time of the carriage Y regardless of the carriage position.
Since the digital electric signals are stored in the storage MEM separately in accordance with the running direction of the scanning member with the carriage movement as described above, reading out of the signal is to be effected along its running direction.
A mechanism for detecting the running direction of the carriage Y is provided in the machine along the running . 13 ~i6~3~1 direction of the carriage in order to store the digital electric signals into the storage ~EM and reading out the signals therefrom.
As described above, the upper and lower metallic plates 241 and 242 of the current collector means D always have a magnetic force, and projections 241, and 242, provided at multiple positions of the rear end thereof, normally attracted to a conductive and magnetic elongated plate 30, attached to the full front surface of the power supply wall 20 through a dielectric materia~l.
As stated previously, the current collector assembly D
is engaged with the sleeve 21' of the casing 21 to allow free sliding movement of same within the predetermined range limit. After the current collector assembly D is permitted to slide to the most right position of the casing 21, same is shifted by following the leftward running of the carriage Y while similarly, after the current collector assembly D is slid to the most left position reversely,same is shifted by following the rightward running of the carriage Y.
That is, the current collector assembly D is reversed to the right or left relative to the casing 21 in accordance with reversion of the running direction of the carriage Y.
As illustrated in detail in Fig. 7, a die 31~ is attached to the upper left facing of the current collector assembly D and a resilient switch 33 and a terminal 34 are provided at the inside of a cavity 32 Q ~here the die 31Q is received in the casing 21. If the carriage Y moves to the left, the die 31 Q disengages from the switch 33 which, ,~
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6~ 8 in time, parts from the terminal 34 due to the current collector assembly D being biassed to the right to lead same into an electrical non-conductive condition, while if the carriage Y is shifted to the righ-t, the switch 33 comes in contact with the terminal 34 due to the current collector assembly D being biassed to the left to lead same into an electrical conductive condition.
The terminal 34 is connected to a carriage panel 42 which also functions as a ground plate. To wit, the carriage panel 42 is electrically connéctèd by way of the needle bed x, a pipe provided along the needle bed x, a rail in-serted into the pipe to guide the carriage Y along the needle bed ~ to the negative pole of a direct current source, which is provided on the main body X, such as a transformer, a rectifier and a smoothing condenser combined to obtain a direct current power source from a commercially available alternate current.
Therefore, the switch 33 and terminal 34 function as a limit switch and accordingly, constitute a detector means _ for detecting the current moving direction of the carriage.
As illustrated in Fig. 5, the switch 33 and terminal 34 are electrically connected to a contact segment 35, which is mounted at the right portion of the back surface of the casing 21, by way of a lead means 36. Due to the fact that the contact segment 35 maintains contact with a conductive plate 37 (see Figs. 2 and 4) which is mounted over the full length of the front face of the conductive wall 20, it is understood that the detector means d is electrically ,, -,, ~, IS~
~6~337~
connected to electric and electxonic circuit elements which are accommodated in the control box B of the machine body.
As illustrated in Fig. ll[VI], a two-value electric signal is fed out and changed from a high level to a low level signal and vice versa by changing the running direction of the carriage Y.
Thus, the temporary storage MEM is controlled by the two-value electric signal and storing and reading-out of the digital electric signal to and from the storage is effected in accordance with the running direction of the carriage Y.
However, the digital electrib signal read out from the storage is to be transmitted to one of the pair of needle selecting mechanisms Cl and Cr.
~eferring, then, to Figs ~ through 7, description will be given as to a switch mechanism for alternately applying the read out digital electric signal to the needle selecting mechanisms Cl and Cr in accordance with the running direction of the carriage Y.
As described above, the upper and lower metallic plates 241 and 242 of the current collector means D are of conductive and magnetic material and they normally contact the conduct-; ing band 30 of conductive material which is provided in themachine body X so that power can be supplied from the machine body X.
; 25 The metallic plates 241 and 242, are provided, with holes 24Q and 24r, respectively, each having a predetermined length.
Conductive pieces 38~ and 38r provided in the casing 21, pass through the holes 24 Q and 24r.
, ., ~i .,, /~
., 1~6~33~
When the current collector means D is biassed to the right by tlle leftward running of the carriage Y, only the righ-t conductive piece 38r is electrically connected to the conducting band 30 of the machine body X through its contact with the left edge of the right hole 24r. Similarly, only the left conductive piece 38Q is electrically connected to the conductive plate 30 by the rightward running of the carriage Y.
As illustrated in Fig. 5, the right conductive piece 38r is normally electrically connected to an electro-magnet 40 of the left needle selecting mechanism Cl by a lead means 39, while the left conductive piece 38Q is normally electri-cally connected to an electro-magnet 40 of the right needle selecting mechanism Cr by a lead means 41. One end of each electromagnet 40 is connected to a carriage base plate 42 functioning as a grounding plate.
The digital electric signal Erom the machine body X is transmitted to the electro-magnet 40 of the left needle selecting mechanism Cl through the right conductive piece 38r when the carriage Y is moved leftward, while same is transmitted to the electro-magnet 40 of the left needle selecting mechanism Cr through the left conductive piece 381 when the carriage is moved rightward. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the conductive pieces 38~ and 38r and the holes 24~ and 24r constitute the left and right switch means El and Er for alternate supply of the digital electric signal.
Next, referring to Figs. 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9, the left and right needle selecting mechanisms Cl and Cr will be described , ~, . - . ~
,i.j`,~", I
~6~3378 below. Arrangement of the components o~ the right and le~t mechanisms is symmetrical.
The electromagnet 40 is mounted on the carriage base plate 42. Horizontal portions 43a and 44a of the ferromagnetic conductors 43 and 44 are mounted on the top and bottom of the electro-magnet 40, respectively,an~ different magnetic poles are generated at the ferromagnetic conductors 43 and 44 as a result of the excitation of the electromagnet 40.
On the other hand, a butt guide 45 made of non-magnetic material is attached to the under sur~ace of the carriage base plate 42.
A butt passage 45a is formed under the butt guide 45 as depicted in Fig. 4 and the butts 28' of the needles 28 can be received into the butt passage 45a through a side cam 46.
` 15 The width of the butt passage 45a is almost equal to that of the butt 28'. As understood from Fig. 8, the ùpper wall face of the butt passage 45a lowers gradually inwardly at an outer half 45b and maintains a constant level at an inner half 45c slightly lower than the normal position of the butt 28' (Fig. 4).
Accordingly, while passing through the butt passage 45a below the outer half 45b, the butt 28' is gradually depressed in opposition to a plate spring 47 shown in Fig. 4, until the butt 28' reaches the inner half 45c. Thereafter, the butt 28' proceeds with its top maintaining the level slightly lower than the normal position thereof until the butt 28' is re-leased back to normal position by operation of the plate spring 47.
.. ... .
. i~
IL~61337~3 The magnetic conductor 43 allows the outer bottom 43d of vertical extension 43c extending to the lower side of the carriage base plate 42 to be inserted into the butt guide 45 and the flat bottom face of the outer lower portion 43d thereof is flush with the inner half of the upper wall of the butt passage 45a and is disposed in almost the center of the butt passage 45a.
The lower edge of the central bottom portion 43e extend-; ing to the inside from the outer lower portion 43d and formed as a part of the vertical extension 43c is gradually inclined inwardly and at the same time, the front of the lower edge thereof is bevelled as illustrated in FIG. 9.
The other ferromagnetic conductor 44 is constructed such that through hole 44 is provided between the outer half 44b and the inner half 44c of the vertical portion extending from the front edge of its horizontal portion 44a. Accordingly, the magnetism from the electromagnet 40 exerts its force to the upper half 44b, but not to the inner half 44c.
The outer half 44b adapted to be magnetized has the same length as the distance between two adjacent needle butts and is positioned behind the outer bottom portion 43d of the ferromagnetic conductor 43, extending vertically to the position lower than the level of the lower edge of the outer bottom portion 43d.
However, selection of the needles which permits the butt 28' to be inserted into the butt passage 45a, is effected as described below.
The butt 28', guided through the butt passage 45a as a result of carriage~movent, is gradually depressed in opposltion ,;
3~6837~3 to the urging of the spring 47 with its forward and backwardmovement prevented, and proceeds, with its top portion kept in contact with the lower face of the outer bottom portion 43d of the ferromagnetic conductor 43, until the butt 28' reaches the outer half 44b of the ferromagnetic conductor 44.
If the electromagnet 40 is excited while the butt 28' moves along the outer half 44b having the distance t, a magnetic circuit is formed between the ferromagnetic conductors 43 and 44 by way of the butt 28'. As re~ult, the butt 28' is guided backward along the outer half 44b.
As illustrated in detail in Fig. 9, the butt 28' biassed backward is attracted to the inner half 44c, as shown by a dotted line in Fig. 9, since a magnet piece 48 is provided between the portion 44e of the inner half 44c (not excited by the electromagnet 40) of the ferromagnetic conductor 44 and the portion 43f of the ferromagnetic conductor 44. The butt 28' regains its original height due to the urging of the spring 47 behind the central bottom portion 43e of the ferro--magnetic conductor 43 and further proceeds to push open a switch member normally closed by the urging of a spring 49, thus taking the rear course.
On the other hand, when the electromagnet 40 is excited, the butt 28' proceeds on a straight course because it is not attracted by the inner half 44b of the ferromagnetic conductor 44. In this way, the butt 28' proceeds on the front side of the ferromagnetic conductor 43 by being intro-duced to the bevel 43'e as shown by a full line, and proceeds through the front guide passage after passing a point 44d'.
6~3378 On the vertical por-tion 43b of the ferromagnetic conductor 43, a buffer magnet piece 51 is mounted so that its magnetic pole is provided so as to eliminate residual magne~sm createl~ by the electromagnet 40. In this way, it is possible to carry out the selecting operation more effectively by eliminating the residual magnetism still existing in the electromagnet 40 or both ferromagnetic conductors 43 and 44 while the electromagnet is not excited.
It is noted that the needle 28 entering the butt passage 45a is subjected to the selecLing operation one by one as stated above, but if the needle 28 entering the butt passage 45a is positioned out of the limit range of the left and right boundary members 4¢ and 4r, the electromagnet 40 remains unexcited. In this way, the needles are not subjected to the selecting operation.
In the construction described above, a cavity 32r (Fig. 5) is provided at the right portion of the casing 21 while a left cavity 32Q (Fig. 7) is provided at the left portion of same on the bottom of the carriage Y. The piece 311 at the left portion of the current collector means D and the piece 31r in the reversed position are provided the casing 21.
Above the upper wall of the left and right cavities 321 and 32r in the casing 21 and substantially behind the needle selection effecting point (the width t) of the left and right needle selecting mechanism Cl and Cr, left and right movable magnet pieces 52~ and 52r are provided for vertically sliding same along guide slots thereof, respectively. The movable ,.,: ~l 1~6~3378 magnet pieces 52 and 52r are actuated vertically by movement of the dice 31 and 31r, respectively. The left die 31 is raised and the right die 31r is lowered when the current collector me~ns D is biassed at the right position while they are moved into a reverse direction when the latter is biassed at the left position.
On the other hand, each of the boundary members 4 and 4r, which are slidably mounted on the inclined portion of the top end of the power supply wall 20, is provided, on its bottom face, with a reed switch 53 and two separate contact segments 54 electrically connected to each reed switch 53, respecti~ely. The two separate contact segments 54 of each boundary member is arranged on the bottom face of the inclined portion of the power supply wall 2~ in a parallel relation to each other. The two contact segments 54 of the boundary member 4r contact a left conductive leaf 55 and a center conductive leaf 55 when viewed in Fig. 4, respectively, while the two contact segments 54 of the boundary member 4 con-tact a left conductive leaf 55 and a right conductive leaf 55 also when viewed in Fig. 4. The contacts are kept by the resiliency of thè contact segments. "ON" and "OFF" signals are separately provided to the reed switches 53 of the boundary members 4r and 4 , respectively.
The reed switches 53 are disposed above the movable magnet pieces 52Q and 52r along the lines of their movement so that any one of the reed switches 53 can be operated by either of the movable magnet pieces 52Q and 52r which is in a raised posi~ion.
~ ' , :~6l~378 Therefore, each of the reed switches 53 is turned on by the left magnet piece 52~ during the leftward movement oE the carriage and by the right magnet piece 52r during the rightward movement of the carriage. As a result, the boundary members 4~ and 4r produce pulses as shown in Fig.
ll~VII] and [VIII]. (In the waveforms illustrated in this figure, obstructive noises such as chattering, are eliminated for obtaining a required ~aveform.) The above-mentioned pulses produced by the boundary members 4a and 4r indicate the initiation or termination of~th~e needle selection by the needle selecting mechanisms Cl and Cr. In other words, signals are produced so that only the needles between the boundary members 4Q and 4r carry out the needle selection operation. In this way, the boundary members 4 Q and 4r one adapted to indicate the left and right ends of a knitting pattern and defines a range in which needle selection is to be effective. As will be mentioned later, one of the pair of boundary members is adapted to constitute a reference means for selectively determining the reference needle for knitting. The bounaary 2n members 4Q and 4r have an indicium 56 at their front to inaicate "left" and "right", respectively, and provided with a pointer 57. Needle indication marks 58 are impressed on the inclined portion of the top of the power supply wall 20 in correspondence to the respective needles 28. The points 57 and needle indication marks 58 are adapted to indicate the exact boundary between a range in which needle selection is to be effected and a range in which needle selection is not effected. In this way, the needles 28 in ~3 i~
11~6~33~3 a range defined by the pointer 57 provided on each of the boundary members ~1' and 4r is subjected to needle selection by the needle selection mechanisms Cl and Cr. As a result, the knitted product has a pattern only on a portion when those selected needles are concerned.
The mechanical construction can be understood by the foregoing descriptionO Referring next to Figs. 10 and 11, :~
the electric and electronic construction including control circuit means for the electromagnets will be stated below.
The two-value signal(Fig'. 11[1]) from the scanning member 2 and the sampling pulse [11] from the sampling pulse generator al are applied together to a recording and reading out control circuit F, wherein the signal [1] is converted to the digital electric signal as illustrated in [III] in the control circuit by sampling it. The digital electric signal is stored in a predetermined address of the storage MEM
relative to the scanning direction of the scanning member 2, that is, the running direction of the carriage Y under the control of the recording address assigning circuit G and the carriage running direction detecting means d.
That is, the recording address assigning circuit G
includes an up-down counter for counting the sampling pulses from the sampling pulse generator al. The output signal [VI]
from the carriage running direction detecting means d is adapted to effect switching of the counting operation in accordance with the running direction of the scanner 2, and the digital electric signal, with 60 numbers for one-stage scanning of the column 111 on the program carrier 1, namely ~ .
~J
~837~3 for scannin~ all the unit sections (in this example, 60 numbers in the row is separately stored into the predetermined address in the storage MEM for khe left and right runnings of the scanner 2. [I] to [IV] in ~ig. 11 are time charts showing the storing operation into the temporary storage MEM and 1V]
to [XVII] in Fig. 11 are time charts showing the reading-out operation from the temporary storage MEM.
Reading-out of the digital electric signal which has been stored in the memory will be described below.
The pulses 1VII] and [VIII-~ from the boundary members 4 and 4r are applied to a signal forming circuit H including a flip-flop circuit for determining a needle selecting range, thereby the signal [IX] may be formed in accordance with the interval of the pulses from the ~oundary members 4 Q and 4r.
This signal [IX] is applied to an efficient timing pulse forming circuit I comprising a gate circuit etc. whereby the timing pulses [X] equal to the set number minus one of the knitting needles 28 provided between the boundary member 4Q
; and 4r are fed out one by one in correspondence to one pitch of the needle in each movement of the carriage Y.
The timing pulse [X] are applied to a carriage position detecting circuit J including the up-down counter, where adding or substracting operation is effected in accordance with the running direction of the carriage Y~
The maximum counting value is optionally set by a setting means K for setting a unit pattern knitting needle number which functions as a setting value preset means (this manually operable member is mounted on the operation panel 3 .~
~L~6~378 of the control box B). Each time the timing pulse [X] is added or subtrac~ed by as much as the setting number, as illustrated in Fig. 11 [XIII], the detecting circuit takes the same value (parallel binary electric signal) repeatedly.
In other words, it is considered that the carriage position detecting circuit J addresses, in a given direction repeatedly, the needles 28 provided between the boundary members 4 and 4r.
The starting point of the adding or subtracting, to wit, the reference needle for knitting, is decided b~ either one of the boundary members 4 and 4r (usually by the boundary member 4). In other words, the leftmost knitting needle among the needles 28 in a range in which needle selection is to be effective, to wit, the need:Le indicated by the pointer 57 of the left boundary member 4 1 is selected as the reference needle for knitting. In this way, this specific needle 28 always knits the contents of column l (left end) of the program carrier.
The output of the detecting circuit J is applied to the storing and reading-out circuit F as a reading-out address signal for the storage MEM only during output of the efficient needle selecting range determining signal [IX]. The stored digital electric signal having 12 numbers from 0 to 11 is repeatedly read out. After the signal is fed out from the storing and reading out control circuit F in the form of the signal as illustrated in Fig. ll [XVl, same is applied to a drive signal forming circuit L including an "AND" circuit to which the efficient needle selecting range determining signal 1~613378 IX is applied, and fed out to the electromagnet ~0 of the needle selecting mechanism C1 or Cr which effects the efficient selecting operation by the switch means El or Er as the two-value electric signal during output of the signal [IX]-Thus, as illustrated in Fig. 11 [XIV], the needles 28provided between the boundary members 4 and 4r may be selected in one group consisting of 12 needles, in accordance with the configuration of the knitting pattern drawn between the minimum section at the leift end of the column 111 and the minimum section at the right by as many as 11 sections therefrom.
As is apparent from the foregoing description, the column 111 on the program carrier 1 is scanned from side to side and all the numbers of the digital electric signal obtained through the scanning are stored in the storage MEM. Thus, ; the numbers to be read out is determined by the setting means K for setting the unit pattern needle number. For e~ample, when the numbers is set at 12, if recording is effected ~rom the left end on the column 111 to the right end of same and once stored in the storage MEM through the scanning operation, the recorded information is not read out as a signal for effecting the needle selecting operation. As described above, the unit pattern knitting operation can be effected, in the a~ore-mentioned construction, corresponding to the knitting pattern on the program carrier 1. The machine has such a further construction that the configuration of the pattern to be actually knitted can be changed by operation of ."'~
1~6~378 operative members provided on the control panel 3 without changing the knitting pattern, which will be described below.
A pattern reversing means ~ from the right to the left and vice versa is so provided that the output electric signal ; 5 can be reversed as illustrated in Fig. ll[XI] by switching ; the operation of a manually operable member from high level to low level and vice versa. The signal [XI] is compared with the output ~VI] of the carriage running direction detecting means d in a comparison circuit N (wherein an exclusive logical sum is cariiea out) so that the adding and substructing direction of the up-down counter in the carriage position detecting circuit J may be determined by the com-parison signal [XII].
Thus, knitting patterns having profiles reversed to each other can be obtained from a sing:Le needle selection program recorded on the program carrier 1 by reversing the adding ; and subtracting direction in the above switching operation.
In this case, the above-mentioned reference needle is also changed by the above switching operation. In other words, the rightmost needle out of the knitting needles 28 within a range in which needle selection is to be effective, ; to wit, the specific knitting needle 28 indicated by the pointer 57 of the right boundary member 4r, will be selected as the reference needle to be used for knitting and will always knit the contents of column 1 (left end) of the program carrier 1.
However, the counting value of the carriage position detecting circuit J is determined by the operation of the ....
1~6~7~3 pattern reversing means M, in other words, according to either signal [XIII] or [XVII] obtained in accordance with the running direction of the carriage Y. Therefore, even if the knitting pattern on the program carrier 1 is identical, the pattern to be knitted can be reversed.
Next, a needle selecting mode reversing means P puts out the electric signal similar to that of the pattern revers-ing means M by the switching operation of the manually - operable member. The electric signal is applied to the drive signal forming circuit L and~the output from the drive signal forming circuit L takes the form of the signal [XVI] or the reversed form of same according to the operation of the means P.
Accordingly, the mode of selecting the needles 28 can be reversed by the means P whereby the ground pattern of the pattern to be knitted can be changed without changing the knitting pattern on the program carrier 1.
So far~ the storing into the storage MEM of the signal is effected with respect to the digital electric signal con-taining all the bits concerned with the scanning along onewhole stage and only the signal with a limitted numbers -set in the reading-out operation is taken out to effect the unit pattern knitting operation. However, such storing operation can he effected with respect to only the signal with the set numbers. In this case, all of the stored signals are read out with the same result.
,"'~';, ~9
A conventional needle-selecting method is one whereby a profile of the pattern to be knitted is recorded in a card in the form of multistage punched hole configurations. ~he punched hole~ of each stage are mechanically detected and me-chanicalIy recorded in a mechanica:L memory in the form of a group of needle selecting signals. ~he desired needle group may then be selectively actuated in response to carriage movement Such conventional needle-selecting methods are dis-ad~antageous in that the recording operation nece~sitates mi-nute attention because the punch holes mu~t be arranged inpredetermined positions on the card in order to produce a pro-file of the pattern to be knitted. In other word~, the profile representing the unit pattern to be knitted must first be sepa-rated beforehand into profile modules (corresponding to the respective aforementioned punched holes, or minimum composite units of the pattern) which mu~t be sequentiall~ arranged for proper recording That is, the profile indicating the whole unit pat-tern mu~t be digitally recorded in the form of profile module~, each corresponding to one needle. Such methods o~ needle ~e-lection, however, have an important drawback in that the num-ber of needles in one group employed in knitting a unit pattern ~., -1- ~
i6837~
cannot be altered, whereby the size of the unit pattern cannot be freely changed.
According to the present invention there is provided a pat-terning system in a straight krLitting machine having a main body provided thereon with a needle bed for knitting needles and a carriage slidably mounted on said needle bed, comprising, in combination, needle selection means including an electromagnet for selectively operating said knitting nee-dles, control circuit mean~ including an erasable temporary storage for seleotive energization of said electromagnet, a program providing mean~ provided on the main body for providing signals representative of data for needle selection, and input mean~ for providing control signals for conditioning the con-trol circuit means, lhe program providing means including a program carrier carrying thereon a needle selection program, a support on the main body for removably mounting thereon the program carrier and adapted to be driven to rotate around a longitudinal axis thereof to incrementally feed the program carrier in one or the other direction, a scanner mounted for movement in a predetermined path between both of the two po-sitions in response to each of directional movement~ of the carriage, the scanner having thereon a sensor means for reading the needle selection program on the progra~ ca~rier on the support, and pulse generating means for generating an interval pulse by an increment of the scanner movement to provide a predetermlned number of pulses upon a scanner movement between - the two end position~.
Other objects and various advantages and features of the invention will become apparent by reference to the following description taken in connection with the appended claims and the accompanying drawings forming a part thereof.
In the drawing~:
, -2-~ h 6~337~
~ ig. 1 is a schema.tic plan view of the whole hand-operated k~itting machine according to the present invention;
Fig~ 2 is an elevational view o~ the knitting machine llustrating a pxogram pro~iding means and an electronic wall on the main body;
~ ig. 3 is a partly exploded plan view of said program pro~iding mean~;
: ~igo 4 i~ a sectional view illu~trating the knitting machine inoluding the program providing means and a electro-magpet for needle selection;
~ ' /
' /
, . /
/
/
/
/
~ -3-106~37~3 Fig. 5 is a plan view of the carriage partially cut away;
Fig. 6 is a bottom view of the carriage partially cut-away;
Fig. 7 is a sectional view of Fig. 6 taken along the line VII-VII;
Fig. 8 is a sectional view of Fig. 6 taken along the line VIII-VIII;
; Fig. 9 is a sectional view of Fig. 8 taken along line IX-IX; and Figs.10 and 11 are a block~diagram and a time chart~
respectively,illustrating electric and electronic construc-tions.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED E~BODIMENT
. . . _ Referring now to Fig. 1, on a control panel 3 of main body X with needle bed x, are provided a program providing means A for providing a needle selection program including a program carrier 1 carrying thereon a needle selection program and a scanner 2 for optically scanning the knitting pattern recorded on the program carrier 1, and operating means adapted to operate various kinds of mechanisms, which will be described later, besides the program providing means A on the control panel 3 of the main body X with the needle bed x. Further, behind the needle bed x of the machine, there are provided a control box B including various kinds of electric or electronic circuits as described later, and a pair of left and right boundary members 4Q and 4r~ shiftable along a longitudinal direction of the needle bed x, adapted to define a range in which needle election is to be effective by setting them at desired positions of the longitudinal ~(~6837~3 direction. There are provided a pair of left and right needle selecting mechanisms Cl and Cr, each having an electromagnet for needle selection use, on the carriage Y
with a predetermined spacing therebetween along a longitudi-nal direction. Either one of the left and right needleselecting mechanisms Cl and Cr are adapted to effectively actuate the needles (not shown in Fig. 1) aligned in the needle bed x by means of electro-magnetic force responsive to electric signals obtained through scanning of said knitting pattern.
The scanner 2 is mounted for movement in a predeter-mined path between two end positions thereof and adapted to be moved between both of said two positions in response to each of said carriage movements in either direction, and scans a needle selection program recorded on the program carrier l during carriage mov;r~lent along the defined range to output electric signals in accordance with said scanning operàtion, and the processing thereafter of said output electric signal can be electronically effected by a control 20 circuit. Power may be supplied to the electric components of either one of needle selecting mechanisms Cl and Cr for effectLng the knitting operation effectively from the machine body X through the current collector means D arranged longitudinally on the back of the carriage Y. In this enbodiment, the mechanism located ahead in terms of carriage movement is supplied with power. Only the needles positioned in the range defined by said boundary members 4~ and 4r will be actuated selectively. (In this range, however, needles at rest positions are not subjected to the needle selection.) ~:96~3371~
significant construc-tion of said program providing means ~ will be described below referring to Figs.2 through 4.
A support 5 for holding the afore-mentioned program carrier 1 in a U-shaped configuration and for incrementally feeding same in a direction, is mounted in parallel.with : sald needle bed x, rotatably on a frame 6. Front and rear guide bars 71 and 72 are mounted horizontally on the frame 6 under the support 5, the scanner 2 is mounted on the frame 6 so as to run along the longi~udinal direction..
Namely, as illustrated in Fig. 4, the guide bars 71 and 72 slidably engagetransverse holes 91 and 92 provided at the front and rear portions of a scanning member 8.
At the top end of the scanner is provided a photo-electric detecting mechanism, that is, a pipe scanner 10 : with a luminous element and a light sensitive element to convert into an electric signal, the reflective light which is emitted from said luminous element and is reflected from one face of the program carrier 1, and the pipe scanner 10 serves to scan the program carrier 1 from side to side.
In space between the left and right perforations 1'adapted to engage pins of a known pin drum to the program carrier 1, a column 111 for recording a desired knitting pattern thereon and columns 112 and 113 for recording desired function marks thereon are formed by section divid-ing lines drawn in the color similar to that of said luminous element mounted on the scanner 10 and not dis-criminated by said light sensitive element (for example, "$5 837~
red, when a red luminous diode is employed as the luminous element).
In the column 111 for recording a knitting pattern thereon, a ver~ical line of said section dividing lines corresponds to the division line of each wale, while a transverse line of same corresponds to a division of each knitting operation stage, and numerals indicating said wale and said course are given in a coLor similar to that em-pl~yed in the section dividing line, in positions outside , the column.
- According to a more detailed description, the column 11 may be formed so that the minimum section thereof corresponds to one stitch, to wit, one section in its transverse arrangement corresponds to each wale, while one section in its vertical arrangement corresponds to each course, and in knitting the unit pattern involv:ing a given number of wales at the transverse line as one group unit, the desired pattern will be obtained by drawing a picture corresponding to the unit pattern to be knitted in the area defined by the vertical line at the extreme left and another vertical line positioned rom the former by the given number of wales and in black as illustrated in Fig. 2, by means of appropriate writing tools.
For example, when the operation for knitting the unit pattern involving 24 wales is intended by selecting 24 needles as one group unit, a desired picture can be drawn in the space defined by the vertical line at the extreme left end and the other vertical line as distant as to 24 lines to the right from the former.
~ - , ~06~337~
In the process, so long as the profile of the picture is within the predetermined area as described above, the picture may generally be drawn by a writing tool without inking in said minimum sections one by one. This is because reading out is effected b~ sampling each unit section.
In effecting the desired functional operation, appropriate unit sections of the columns 112 and 113 for recording function marks therein are to be completely inked in-When the program carrier 1 may be, for example, shifted to a desired position the program carrier l is automaticallyfed by one increment after the scanner 2 has completed one scanning stroke as will be described later, the unit section as a function mark corresponding to a signal source is inked in (for example, in black) to provide instructions that the needle selecting operation should be suspended substantially during scanning a~ter that time, or the program carrier 1 is to be automatically returned to a predetermined position, or an appropriate alarm is to be actuated.
As stated above, the knitting pattern indicating the unit pattern to be knitted may be inked in black on the column 111 of the program carrier 1, and the scanner 2 scans the inked knitting pattern from side to side along each transverse row. Thus, the electric signals derived by the scanning operation draw a mode of the knitting pattern of the unit section at the transverse stage, or a rectangular wave is formed in accor~ance with the mode generated by scanning of the knitting pattern, as shown in Fig. 11[1].
This demonstrates that the electric signal obtained by the ~?
~q~6~337~3 scanning has no one to-one correspondence with the needle to be actuated and the function mark recorded on the columns 112 and 113 also may be read out by said scanner 2 as in the knitting pattern. Therefore, it is converted into an electric signal in the same electric system. However, one o~ two different electric signals is converted to a digital electric signal having one-to-one correspondence with the needle~by a sampling pulse obtained during the scanning by the scanner 2 from a sampling pulse generator as will be described later, and the other is separated from the former..
. A flat through-hole 12 is formed between the transverse holes 91 and 91 on the scanning member 8 of the scanner member 2, and a pulse plate 13 which is mounted in horizontal with said frame 6, between the guide bars il and 72' lies through the through-hole 12.
The fixed member 13 is provided at its rear end with slots 141 for sampiing the electric signal obtained by scanning the program carrier so that each of the slots 14, corresponds to one ~lni~ ~section in the transverse row of the column 111 and is provided at its front end with slots 142, 143 for sampling the function mark so that each of the slots 142 and 143 corresponds to one unit section in the transverse row of the column 112 and 113.
On the scanning member 8 of the scanner 2, there are provided a sampling pulse generator al adapted to produce predetermined pulses for sampling the electric signal obtained by scanning the program carrier through optically reading out the slot 141, at the rear end of the fixed ~" 9 ~06~337~
member 13 during scanning movement, and a sampling pulse generator a2, adapted to produce a sampling pulse for sampling the func-tion mark by optically reading out the slots 142, 143, at the front end thereof as well (Fig. 2).
Above and under the through-hole 12 passing through the fixed member 13, luminous elements, 151 and 152, and a light sensitive elements, 161 and 162, are provided oppo-: sitely to each other at the position corresponding to the rear slots 1~1 and the front~slQts, 141 and 142, through the hole 12.
However, the sampling pulse generator al (more parti-cularly the light sensitive element 161 constituting said pulse generator al), serves to output one pulse each ~ime when the scanner 2 scans the unit section in the column 111 of the program carrier 1 while the sampling pulse generator a2 may be adapted to output one pulse each time when the scanner 2 scans the unit section in the column,~l2 and 113, as illustratea in Fig. 11[1~.
Automatic incremental feeding of the program carrier 1, will be described below:
Switch members, 171 and 17r, are mounted at both ends of said frame 6, and when the left switch member 17, is actuated by a left depression plate 18.~ on the scanning member 8 and the right switch member 17r is actuated ~y a right depression plate 18r, an electromagnetic device (not shown) mounted in the control box ~ urges the support 5 to rotate by one increment.
~. ..,, ~; , ~b i o ~16~337~
A ferromagnetic member 19 is provided at the front portion (carriage side) of the scanning member 8 and the front head of said ferromagnetic member 19 is slidably en-gaged in guide slot 20' provided in a power supply wall 20 S extending over almost at a full length behind the needle bed of the machine body X, and the front of said head is exposed .
to the front face of the power supply wall 20. On the other ~hand, on the carriage Y, magnet 22 is mounted and provided ; with magnetic plates 23.1 and 232, which are mounted on its upper and lower surface at ai~osition flush with the magnet 22 in the center of a casing 21 made of non-magnetic material -: which is mounted in the rear side of the carriage.
If the ferromagnetic member 19 is caused to attract~
the magnetic plates 231 and 232 during the running of the carriage Y,~the scanner 2 starts to run together with the carriage Y. The scanning is completed by releasing the contact segment.l9 from attraction of the magnetic plates 231 and 232 when it reaches the left or the right ends of the guide slot 20'. This indicates that the scanner 2 . will.travel along with the carriage left to right or vice versa only between the guide slots 20', irrelevant of the carriage travelling outside of the limited range. Thus, the knitting pattern on the program carrier 1 is read out as a digital electric signal, one number of which is equivalent to the unit section of the column 111, as illustrated in Fig. 1.
ll[III]. This digital electric signal is stored in the storage MEM (see Fig. 10 of which details will be described .
later independently. Thus, the digital electric signal stored //
,~1,`,~) 1~61! 3378 is read out each time when the carriage travels left to right or vice versa activating either one of the two needle select-ing mechanisms, Cl and Cr, installed in both end sides of the carriage,which is responsive to the running time of the carriage Y. Therefore, one active needle selecting mechanism, Cl or Cr~ for effecting the selective operation is controlled by said digital electric signal in accordance with the number contents (1 or 0). With respect to the timing pulse generat-ing mechanism, it will be explained at below referring to Figs. 4 thru 7.
The current collector means D carries magnet 25 and non-magnetic segment 26 both of which are sandwiched together between two upper and lower metallic plate 241 and 242 f a fexromagnetic and conductive material, respectively, and 15 is generally formed as a single elongated strip by mounting a reflective plate 27 over the full length of the back surface of the magnet 25 and non-magnetic segment 26 between the metallic plates 241 and 242, and is slidably mounted in the elongated sleeve 21' of said casing 21 provided on the carriage Y, in a pre-determined range, and the back face thereof (Fig. 7) is exposed to the opening of the back face of the sleeve 21' The exposed face (back face) of said reflective plate 27 is light-sensitive and a plurality of rectangular holes 27' forming a non-reflective face are provided over the full length of the exposed face with the same spacing as a pitch of the needles 28 arranged on the needle bed x.
On the other hand, on the power supply wall 20, a plurality of timing pulse generators 29 (that is a combination 37~
of the luminous element and light-sensitive element) are arranged with a spacing shorter than the length of the reflective plate 27, for obtaining a timing pulse responsive to the running time of the carriage Y by irradiating the light against the reflective plate 27 and detecting the light reflected from the latter.
It is understood that at least one of the timing pulse generators 29 is necessarily opposed to the reflective plate 27, which is moved during the movement of the carriage Y.
Therefore, timing pulses are fed out from the timing pulse generators 29 as illustrated in Fig. ll[V] each time the carriage Y is shifted by one increment of the needle.
The timing pulse generators 27, which produce the timing pulses alternately at each running turn along the pre-deter-mined length of the carriage Y, is connected to a single output system. The timing pulses would be sequentially fed out from the pulse generators regardless of the setting Position,of the carriage Y as if the timing pulses were supplied from the same timing pulse generator.
Therefore, the digital electric signal stored in the storage MEM can be read out in accordance with the running time of the carriage Y regardless of the carriage position.
Since the digital electric signals are stored in the storage MEM separately in accordance with the running direction of the scanning member with the carriage movement as described above, reading out of the signal is to be effected along its running direction.
A mechanism for detecting the running direction of the carriage Y is provided in the machine along the running . 13 ~i6~3~1 direction of the carriage in order to store the digital electric signals into the storage ~EM and reading out the signals therefrom.
As described above, the upper and lower metallic plates 241 and 242 of the current collector means D always have a magnetic force, and projections 241, and 242, provided at multiple positions of the rear end thereof, normally attracted to a conductive and magnetic elongated plate 30, attached to the full front surface of the power supply wall 20 through a dielectric materia~l.
As stated previously, the current collector assembly D
is engaged with the sleeve 21' of the casing 21 to allow free sliding movement of same within the predetermined range limit. After the current collector assembly D is permitted to slide to the most right position of the casing 21, same is shifted by following the leftward running of the carriage Y while similarly, after the current collector assembly D is slid to the most left position reversely,same is shifted by following the rightward running of the carriage Y.
That is, the current collector assembly D is reversed to the right or left relative to the casing 21 in accordance with reversion of the running direction of the carriage Y.
As illustrated in detail in Fig. 7, a die 31~ is attached to the upper left facing of the current collector assembly D and a resilient switch 33 and a terminal 34 are provided at the inside of a cavity 32 Q ~here the die 31Q is received in the casing 21. If the carriage Y moves to the left, the die 31 Q disengages from the switch 33 which, ,~
,.`~,t,, .~
6~ 8 in time, parts from the terminal 34 due to the current collector assembly D being biassed to the right to lead same into an electrical non-conductive condition, while if the carriage Y is shifted to the righ-t, the switch 33 comes in contact with the terminal 34 due to the current collector assembly D being biassed to the left to lead same into an electrical conductive condition.
The terminal 34 is connected to a carriage panel 42 which also functions as a ground plate. To wit, the carriage panel 42 is electrically connéctèd by way of the needle bed x, a pipe provided along the needle bed x, a rail in-serted into the pipe to guide the carriage Y along the needle bed ~ to the negative pole of a direct current source, which is provided on the main body X, such as a transformer, a rectifier and a smoothing condenser combined to obtain a direct current power source from a commercially available alternate current.
Therefore, the switch 33 and terminal 34 function as a limit switch and accordingly, constitute a detector means _ for detecting the current moving direction of the carriage.
As illustrated in Fig. 5, the switch 33 and terminal 34 are electrically connected to a contact segment 35, which is mounted at the right portion of the back surface of the casing 21, by way of a lead means 36. Due to the fact that the contact segment 35 maintains contact with a conductive plate 37 (see Figs. 2 and 4) which is mounted over the full length of the front face of the conductive wall 20, it is understood that the detector means d is electrically ,, -,, ~, IS~
~6~337~
connected to electric and electxonic circuit elements which are accommodated in the control box B of the machine body.
As illustrated in Fig. ll[VI], a two-value electric signal is fed out and changed from a high level to a low level signal and vice versa by changing the running direction of the carriage Y.
Thus, the temporary storage MEM is controlled by the two-value electric signal and storing and reading-out of the digital electric signal to and from the storage is effected in accordance with the running direction of the carriage Y.
However, the digital electrib signal read out from the storage is to be transmitted to one of the pair of needle selecting mechanisms Cl and Cr.
~eferring, then, to Figs ~ through 7, description will be given as to a switch mechanism for alternately applying the read out digital electric signal to the needle selecting mechanisms Cl and Cr in accordance with the running direction of the carriage Y.
As described above, the upper and lower metallic plates 241 and 242 of the current collector means D are of conductive and magnetic material and they normally contact the conduct-; ing band 30 of conductive material which is provided in themachine body X so that power can be supplied from the machine body X.
; 25 The metallic plates 241 and 242, are provided, with holes 24Q and 24r, respectively, each having a predetermined length.
Conductive pieces 38~ and 38r provided in the casing 21, pass through the holes 24 Q and 24r.
, ., ~i .,, /~
., 1~6~33~
When the current collector means D is biassed to the right by tlle leftward running of the carriage Y, only the righ-t conductive piece 38r is electrically connected to the conducting band 30 of the machine body X through its contact with the left edge of the right hole 24r. Similarly, only the left conductive piece 38Q is electrically connected to the conductive plate 30 by the rightward running of the carriage Y.
As illustrated in Fig. 5, the right conductive piece 38r is normally electrically connected to an electro-magnet 40 of the left needle selecting mechanism Cl by a lead means 39, while the left conductive piece 38Q is normally electri-cally connected to an electro-magnet 40 of the right needle selecting mechanism Cr by a lead means 41. One end of each electromagnet 40 is connected to a carriage base plate 42 functioning as a grounding plate.
The digital electric signal Erom the machine body X is transmitted to the electro-magnet 40 of the left needle selecting mechanism Cl through the right conductive piece 38r when the carriage Y is moved leftward, while same is transmitted to the electro-magnet 40 of the left needle selecting mechanism Cr through the left conductive piece 381 when the carriage is moved rightward. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the conductive pieces 38~ and 38r and the holes 24~ and 24r constitute the left and right switch means El and Er for alternate supply of the digital electric signal.
Next, referring to Figs. 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9, the left and right needle selecting mechanisms Cl and Cr will be described , ~, . - . ~
,i.j`,~", I
~6~3378 below. Arrangement of the components o~ the right and le~t mechanisms is symmetrical.
The electromagnet 40 is mounted on the carriage base plate 42. Horizontal portions 43a and 44a of the ferromagnetic conductors 43 and 44 are mounted on the top and bottom of the electro-magnet 40, respectively,an~ different magnetic poles are generated at the ferromagnetic conductors 43 and 44 as a result of the excitation of the electromagnet 40.
On the other hand, a butt guide 45 made of non-magnetic material is attached to the under sur~ace of the carriage base plate 42.
A butt passage 45a is formed under the butt guide 45 as depicted in Fig. 4 and the butts 28' of the needles 28 can be received into the butt passage 45a through a side cam 46.
` 15 The width of the butt passage 45a is almost equal to that of the butt 28'. As understood from Fig. 8, the ùpper wall face of the butt passage 45a lowers gradually inwardly at an outer half 45b and maintains a constant level at an inner half 45c slightly lower than the normal position of the butt 28' (Fig. 4).
Accordingly, while passing through the butt passage 45a below the outer half 45b, the butt 28' is gradually depressed in opposition to a plate spring 47 shown in Fig. 4, until the butt 28' reaches the inner half 45c. Thereafter, the butt 28' proceeds with its top maintaining the level slightly lower than the normal position thereof until the butt 28' is re-leased back to normal position by operation of the plate spring 47.
.. ... .
. i~
IL~61337~3 The magnetic conductor 43 allows the outer bottom 43d of vertical extension 43c extending to the lower side of the carriage base plate 42 to be inserted into the butt guide 45 and the flat bottom face of the outer lower portion 43d thereof is flush with the inner half of the upper wall of the butt passage 45a and is disposed in almost the center of the butt passage 45a.
The lower edge of the central bottom portion 43e extend-; ing to the inside from the outer lower portion 43d and formed as a part of the vertical extension 43c is gradually inclined inwardly and at the same time, the front of the lower edge thereof is bevelled as illustrated in FIG. 9.
The other ferromagnetic conductor 44 is constructed such that through hole 44 is provided between the outer half 44b and the inner half 44c of the vertical portion extending from the front edge of its horizontal portion 44a. Accordingly, the magnetism from the electromagnet 40 exerts its force to the upper half 44b, but not to the inner half 44c.
The outer half 44b adapted to be magnetized has the same length as the distance between two adjacent needle butts and is positioned behind the outer bottom portion 43d of the ferromagnetic conductor 43, extending vertically to the position lower than the level of the lower edge of the outer bottom portion 43d.
However, selection of the needles which permits the butt 28' to be inserted into the butt passage 45a, is effected as described below.
The butt 28', guided through the butt passage 45a as a result of carriage~movent, is gradually depressed in opposltion ,;
3~6837~3 to the urging of the spring 47 with its forward and backwardmovement prevented, and proceeds, with its top portion kept in contact with the lower face of the outer bottom portion 43d of the ferromagnetic conductor 43, until the butt 28' reaches the outer half 44b of the ferromagnetic conductor 44.
If the electromagnet 40 is excited while the butt 28' moves along the outer half 44b having the distance t, a magnetic circuit is formed between the ferromagnetic conductors 43 and 44 by way of the butt 28'. As re~ult, the butt 28' is guided backward along the outer half 44b.
As illustrated in detail in Fig. 9, the butt 28' biassed backward is attracted to the inner half 44c, as shown by a dotted line in Fig. 9, since a magnet piece 48 is provided between the portion 44e of the inner half 44c (not excited by the electromagnet 40) of the ferromagnetic conductor 44 and the portion 43f of the ferromagnetic conductor 44. The butt 28' regains its original height due to the urging of the spring 47 behind the central bottom portion 43e of the ferro--magnetic conductor 43 and further proceeds to push open a switch member normally closed by the urging of a spring 49, thus taking the rear course.
On the other hand, when the electromagnet 40 is excited, the butt 28' proceeds on a straight course because it is not attracted by the inner half 44b of the ferromagnetic conductor 44. In this way, the butt 28' proceeds on the front side of the ferromagnetic conductor 43 by being intro-duced to the bevel 43'e as shown by a full line, and proceeds through the front guide passage after passing a point 44d'.
6~3378 On the vertical por-tion 43b of the ferromagnetic conductor 43, a buffer magnet piece 51 is mounted so that its magnetic pole is provided so as to eliminate residual magne~sm createl~ by the electromagnet 40. In this way, it is possible to carry out the selecting operation more effectively by eliminating the residual magnetism still existing in the electromagnet 40 or both ferromagnetic conductors 43 and 44 while the electromagnet is not excited.
It is noted that the needle 28 entering the butt passage 45a is subjected to the selecLing operation one by one as stated above, but if the needle 28 entering the butt passage 45a is positioned out of the limit range of the left and right boundary members 4¢ and 4r, the electromagnet 40 remains unexcited. In this way, the needles are not subjected to the selecting operation.
In the construction described above, a cavity 32r (Fig. 5) is provided at the right portion of the casing 21 while a left cavity 32Q (Fig. 7) is provided at the left portion of same on the bottom of the carriage Y. The piece 311 at the left portion of the current collector means D and the piece 31r in the reversed position are provided the casing 21.
Above the upper wall of the left and right cavities 321 and 32r in the casing 21 and substantially behind the needle selection effecting point (the width t) of the left and right needle selecting mechanism Cl and Cr, left and right movable magnet pieces 52~ and 52r are provided for vertically sliding same along guide slots thereof, respectively. The movable ,.,: ~l 1~6~3378 magnet pieces 52 and 52r are actuated vertically by movement of the dice 31 and 31r, respectively. The left die 31 is raised and the right die 31r is lowered when the current collector me~ns D is biassed at the right position while they are moved into a reverse direction when the latter is biassed at the left position.
On the other hand, each of the boundary members 4 and 4r, which are slidably mounted on the inclined portion of the top end of the power supply wall 20, is provided, on its bottom face, with a reed switch 53 and two separate contact segments 54 electrically connected to each reed switch 53, respecti~ely. The two separate contact segments 54 of each boundary member is arranged on the bottom face of the inclined portion of the power supply wall 2~ in a parallel relation to each other. The two contact segments 54 of the boundary member 4r contact a left conductive leaf 55 and a center conductive leaf 55 when viewed in Fig. 4, respectively, while the two contact segments 54 of the boundary member 4 con-tact a left conductive leaf 55 and a right conductive leaf 55 also when viewed in Fig. 4. The contacts are kept by the resiliency of thè contact segments. "ON" and "OFF" signals are separately provided to the reed switches 53 of the boundary members 4r and 4 , respectively.
The reed switches 53 are disposed above the movable magnet pieces 52Q and 52r along the lines of their movement so that any one of the reed switches 53 can be operated by either of the movable magnet pieces 52Q and 52r which is in a raised posi~ion.
~ ' , :~6l~378 Therefore, each of the reed switches 53 is turned on by the left magnet piece 52~ during the leftward movement oE the carriage and by the right magnet piece 52r during the rightward movement of the carriage. As a result, the boundary members 4~ and 4r produce pulses as shown in Fig.
ll~VII] and [VIII]. (In the waveforms illustrated in this figure, obstructive noises such as chattering, are eliminated for obtaining a required ~aveform.) The above-mentioned pulses produced by the boundary members 4a and 4r indicate the initiation or termination of~th~e needle selection by the needle selecting mechanisms Cl and Cr. In other words, signals are produced so that only the needles between the boundary members 4Q and 4r carry out the needle selection operation. In this way, the boundary members 4 Q and 4r one adapted to indicate the left and right ends of a knitting pattern and defines a range in which needle selection is to be effective. As will be mentioned later, one of the pair of boundary members is adapted to constitute a reference means for selectively determining the reference needle for knitting. The bounaary 2n members 4Q and 4r have an indicium 56 at their front to inaicate "left" and "right", respectively, and provided with a pointer 57. Needle indication marks 58 are impressed on the inclined portion of the top of the power supply wall 20 in correspondence to the respective needles 28. The points 57 and needle indication marks 58 are adapted to indicate the exact boundary between a range in which needle selection is to be effected and a range in which needle selection is not effected. In this way, the needles 28 in ~3 i~
11~6~33~3 a range defined by the pointer 57 provided on each of the boundary members ~1' and 4r is subjected to needle selection by the needle selection mechanisms Cl and Cr. As a result, the knitted product has a pattern only on a portion when those selected needles are concerned.
The mechanical construction can be understood by the foregoing descriptionO Referring next to Figs. 10 and 11, :~
the electric and electronic construction including control circuit means for the electromagnets will be stated below.
The two-value signal(Fig'. 11[1]) from the scanning member 2 and the sampling pulse [11] from the sampling pulse generator al are applied together to a recording and reading out control circuit F, wherein the signal [1] is converted to the digital electric signal as illustrated in [III] in the control circuit by sampling it. The digital electric signal is stored in a predetermined address of the storage MEM
relative to the scanning direction of the scanning member 2, that is, the running direction of the carriage Y under the control of the recording address assigning circuit G and the carriage running direction detecting means d.
That is, the recording address assigning circuit G
includes an up-down counter for counting the sampling pulses from the sampling pulse generator al. The output signal [VI]
from the carriage running direction detecting means d is adapted to effect switching of the counting operation in accordance with the running direction of the scanner 2, and the digital electric signal, with 60 numbers for one-stage scanning of the column 111 on the program carrier 1, namely ~ .
~J
~837~3 for scannin~ all the unit sections (in this example, 60 numbers in the row is separately stored into the predetermined address in the storage MEM for khe left and right runnings of the scanner 2. [I] to [IV] in ~ig. 11 are time charts showing the storing operation into the temporary storage MEM and 1V]
to [XVII] in Fig. 11 are time charts showing the reading-out operation from the temporary storage MEM.
Reading-out of the digital electric signal which has been stored in the memory will be described below.
The pulses 1VII] and [VIII-~ from the boundary members 4 and 4r are applied to a signal forming circuit H including a flip-flop circuit for determining a needle selecting range, thereby the signal [IX] may be formed in accordance with the interval of the pulses from the ~oundary members 4 Q and 4r.
This signal [IX] is applied to an efficient timing pulse forming circuit I comprising a gate circuit etc. whereby the timing pulses [X] equal to the set number minus one of the knitting needles 28 provided between the boundary member 4Q
; and 4r are fed out one by one in correspondence to one pitch of the needle in each movement of the carriage Y.
The timing pulse [X] are applied to a carriage position detecting circuit J including the up-down counter, where adding or substracting operation is effected in accordance with the running direction of the carriage Y~
The maximum counting value is optionally set by a setting means K for setting a unit pattern knitting needle number which functions as a setting value preset means (this manually operable member is mounted on the operation panel 3 .~
~L~6~378 of the control box B). Each time the timing pulse [X] is added or subtrac~ed by as much as the setting number, as illustrated in Fig. 11 [XIII], the detecting circuit takes the same value (parallel binary electric signal) repeatedly.
In other words, it is considered that the carriage position detecting circuit J addresses, in a given direction repeatedly, the needles 28 provided between the boundary members 4 and 4r.
The starting point of the adding or subtracting, to wit, the reference needle for knitting, is decided b~ either one of the boundary members 4 and 4r (usually by the boundary member 4). In other words, the leftmost knitting needle among the needles 28 in a range in which needle selection is to be effective, to wit, the need:Le indicated by the pointer 57 of the left boundary member 4 1 is selected as the reference needle for knitting. In this way, this specific needle 28 always knits the contents of column l (left end) of the program carrier.
The output of the detecting circuit J is applied to the storing and reading-out circuit F as a reading-out address signal for the storage MEM only during output of the efficient needle selecting range determining signal [IX]. The stored digital electric signal having 12 numbers from 0 to 11 is repeatedly read out. After the signal is fed out from the storing and reading out control circuit F in the form of the signal as illustrated in Fig. ll [XVl, same is applied to a drive signal forming circuit L including an "AND" circuit to which the efficient needle selecting range determining signal 1~613378 IX is applied, and fed out to the electromagnet ~0 of the needle selecting mechanism C1 or Cr which effects the efficient selecting operation by the switch means El or Er as the two-value electric signal during output of the signal [IX]-Thus, as illustrated in Fig. 11 [XIV], the needles 28provided between the boundary members 4 and 4r may be selected in one group consisting of 12 needles, in accordance with the configuration of the knitting pattern drawn between the minimum section at the leift end of the column 111 and the minimum section at the right by as many as 11 sections therefrom.
As is apparent from the foregoing description, the column 111 on the program carrier 1 is scanned from side to side and all the numbers of the digital electric signal obtained through the scanning are stored in the storage MEM. Thus, ; the numbers to be read out is determined by the setting means K for setting the unit pattern needle number. For e~ample, when the numbers is set at 12, if recording is effected ~rom the left end on the column 111 to the right end of same and once stored in the storage MEM through the scanning operation, the recorded information is not read out as a signal for effecting the needle selecting operation. As described above, the unit pattern knitting operation can be effected, in the a~ore-mentioned construction, corresponding to the knitting pattern on the program carrier 1. The machine has such a further construction that the configuration of the pattern to be actually knitted can be changed by operation of ."'~
1~6~378 operative members provided on the control panel 3 without changing the knitting pattern, which will be described below.
A pattern reversing means ~ from the right to the left and vice versa is so provided that the output electric signal ; 5 can be reversed as illustrated in Fig. ll[XI] by switching ; the operation of a manually operable member from high level to low level and vice versa. The signal [XI] is compared with the output ~VI] of the carriage running direction detecting means d in a comparison circuit N (wherein an exclusive logical sum is cariiea out) so that the adding and substructing direction of the up-down counter in the carriage position detecting circuit J may be determined by the com-parison signal [XII].
Thus, knitting patterns having profiles reversed to each other can be obtained from a sing:Le needle selection program recorded on the program carrier 1 by reversing the adding ; and subtracting direction in the above switching operation.
In this case, the above-mentioned reference needle is also changed by the above switching operation. In other words, the rightmost needle out of the knitting needles 28 within a range in which needle selection is to be effective, ; to wit, the specific knitting needle 28 indicated by the pointer 57 of the right boundary member 4r, will be selected as the reference needle to be used for knitting and will always knit the contents of column 1 (left end) of the program carrier 1.
However, the counting value of the carriage position detecting circuit J is determined by the operation of the ....
1~6~7~3 pattern reversing means M, in other words, according to either signal [XIII] or [XVII] obtained in accordance with the running direction of the carriage Y. Therefore, even if the knitting pattern on the program carrier 1 is identical, the pattern to be knitted can be reversed.
Next, a needle selecting mode reversing means P puts out the electric signal similar to that of the pattern revers-ing means M by the switching operation of the manually - operable member. The electric signal is applied to the drive signal forming circuit L and~the output from the drive signal forming circuit L takes the form of the signal [XVI] or the reversed form of same according to the operation of the means P.
Accordingly, the mode of selecting the needles 28 can be reversed by the means P whereby the ground pattern of the pattern to be knitted can be changed without changing the knitting pattern on the program carrier 1.
So far~ the storing into the storage MEM of the signal is effected with respect to the digital electric signal con-taining all the bits concerned with the scanning along onewhole stage and only the signal with a limitted numbers -set in the reading-out operation is taken out to effect the unit pattern knitting operation. However, such storing operation can he effected with respect to only the signal with the set numbers. In this case, all of the stored signals are read out with the same result.
,"'~';, ~9
Claims (9)
1. A patterning system in a straight knitting ma-chine having a main body provided thereon with a needle bed for knitting needles and a carriage slidably mounted on said needle bed, comprising, in combination, needle selection means including an electromagnet for selectively operating said knit-ting needles, control circuit means including an erasable temporary storage for selective energization of said electro-magnet, a program providing means provided on said main body for providing signals representative of data for needle selec-tion, and input means for providing control signals for con-ditioning said control circuit means, said program providing means including a program carrier carrying thereon a needle selection program, a support on said main body for removably mounting thereon said program carrier and adapted to be driven to rotate around a longitudinal axis thereof to incrementally feed said program carrier in one of the other direction, a scanner mounted for movement in a predetermined path between both of said two positions in res-ponse to each of directional movements of said carriage, said scanner having thereon a sensor means for reading the needle selection program on said program carrier on said support, and pulse generating means for generating an interval pulse by an increment of the scanner movement to provide a predetermined number of pulses upon a scanner movement between said two end positions.
2. A patterning system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said program providing means further includes a switch member electrically connected to said control circuit means and pro-vided in a position with at least one of said two end positions of the path for detecting whether said scanner is currently positioned in the end position or not.
3. A patterning system as claimed in claim 2, wherein said switch member is of the type which is responsive to magnetic fields, and said scanner has a piece of permanent magnet mounted thereon.
4. A patterning system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said scanner is slidably mounted on a pair of guide bars which are arranged in parallel with each other and also with said longitudinal axis of said support.
5. A patterning system as claimed in claim 4, wherein said path of said scanner is arranged in parallel with the pas-sage of said carriage, and means is provided for temporarily coupling said scanner to said carriage whereby said scanner is moved by and together with said carriage between said two end positions.
6. A patterning system as claimed in claim 5, wherein said means for temporarily coupling said scanner to said car-riage includes a magnet mounted on either one of said scanner and said carriage, and a ferromagnetic member mounted on the other of the two not mounting said magnet.
7. A patterning system as claimed in claim 4, wherein said pulse generating means of said program providing means comprises a fixed member mounted in parallel with said path of said scanner and having thereon a plurality of interval mar-kings, and a photoelectronic reading head mounted on said scanner for reading said markings on said fixed member, said reading head including a light source and a photoelectric transducer.
8. A patterning system as claimed in claim 7, wherein said interval markings of said fixed member are in the form of interval slots formed thereon.
9. A patterning system as claimed in claim 7 or 8, wherein said program carrier is provided thereon with a column to fill therein with a mark indicative of one of machine ope-rations, the contents in said column also being read by said sensor means on said scanner.
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| JP50061480A JPS5834584B2 (en) | 1975-05-24 | 1975-05-24 | Amikinosenshinhouhou |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CA1068378A true CA1068378A (en) | 1979-12-18 |
Family
ID=13172269
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA253,172A Expired CA1068378A (en) | 1975-05-24 | 1976-05-21 | Method and apparatus of selecting needles of a knitting machine |
Country Status (14)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| JP (1) | JPS5834584B2 (en) |
| AR (1) | AR210601A1 (en) |
| AU (1) | AU499823B2 (en) |
| BR (1) | BR7603202A (en) |
| CA (1) | CA1068378A (en) |
| CH (1) | CH615232A5 (en) |
| DE (1) | DE2623222A1 (en) |
| ES (1) | ES448178A1 (en) |
| FR (1) | FR2312583A1 (en) |
| GB (1) | GB1536745A (en) |
| IT (1) | IT1078831B (en) |
| MX (1) | MX143185A (en) |
| NZ (1) | NZ180919A (en) |
| ZA (1) | ZA762861B (en) |
Families Citing this family (3)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DE2728332C2 (en) * | 1977-06-23 | 1986-10-23 | H. Stoll Gmbh & Co, 7410 Reutlingen | Device for controlling the working width of a flat knitting machine |
| JPH0222081U (en) * | 1988-07-25 | 1990-02-14 | ||
| WO2020262215A1 (en) | 2019-06-24 | 2020-12-30 | Sony Corporation | Particle analysis system having autofluorescence spectrum correction |
Family Cites Families (1)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CH570490A5 (en) * | 1973-07-07 | 1975-12-15 | Empisal Knitmaster |
-
1975
- 1975-05-24 JP JP50061480A patent/JPS5834584B2/en not_active Expired
-
1976
- 1976-05-13 ZA ZA762861A patent/ZA762861B/en unknown
- 1976-05-14 GB GB20060/76A patent/GB1536745A/en not_active Expired
- 1976-05-19 AU AU14089/76A patent/AU499823B2/en not_active Expired
- 1976-05-20 BR BR7603202A patent/BR7603202A/en unknown
- 1976-05-21 IT IT23516/76A patent/IT1078831B/en active
- 1976-05-21 AR AR263364A patent/AR210601A1/en active
- 1976-05-21 CA CA253,172A patent/CA1068378A/en not_active Expired
- 1976-05-21 FR FR7615477A patent/FR2312583A1/en active Granted
- 1976-05-21 NZ NZ180919A patent/NZ180919A/en unknown
- 1976-05-22 ES ES448178A patent/ES448178A1/en not_active Expired
- 1976-05-24 DE DE19762623222 patent/DE2623222A1/en not_active Withdrawn
- 1976-05-24 CH CH652276A patent/CH615232A5/en not_active IP Right Cessation
- 1976-05-31 MX MX164858A patent/MX143185A/en unknown
Also Published As
| Publication number | Publication date |
|---|---|
| JPS5834584B2 (en) | 1983-07-27 |
| AR210601A1 (en) | 1977-08-31 |
| CH615232A5 (en) | 1980-01-15 |
| FR2312583A1 (en) | 1976-12-24 |
| AU1408976A (en) | 1977-11-24 |
| IT1078831B (en) | 1985-05-08 |
| BR7603202A (en) | 1977-02-15 |
| DE2623222A1 (en) | 1976-12-09 |
| FR2312583B1 (en) | 1979-04-20 |
| NZ180919A (en) | 1979-08-31 |
| ES448178A1 (en) | 1977-07-01 |
| JPS51139953A (en) | 1976-12-02 |
| GB1536745A (en) | 1978-12-20 |
| AU499823B2 (en) | 1979-05-03 |
| ZA762861B (en) | 1977-04-27 |
| MX143185A (en) | 1981-04-01 |
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