EP0845553B1 - Relaxing knee sock - Google Patents

Abstract

The knitwear socks, having soles (7) with heels (5) and toes (6), are made with ridges (8) on the soles to promote relaxation when worn. The ridges are, for example, zigzag in shape and are made from small projecting ribs in the knitwear, made by different types of knitting. The sole ribs can be in the form of lines spaced between 1 and 3 mm apart, with each line covering a width of less than 6 mm. The ribs are made only on the soles of the feet, i.e. covering about half the circumference of each sock's foot.

Description

The invention relates to a knitted footwear, in particular a knee-high.

It is known to place a sole in a shoe independent possibly carrying reliefs of relaxation, such as pimples.

II. is also known to permanently associate with a knitted footwear (for example a baby bootie) a sole made of another material (usually plastic); the sole is then generally glued, heat-bonded or heat-sealed to footwear. Such an additional operation in the manufacture of the item strikes the cost. Instead of a sole, it can be isolated protrusions attached to the knit, as the document teaches EP-0 348 023 A, but here again an additional operation is necessary. It is also known by US 4,149,274 and US 4,195,497 to knit soles to give them a pattern perceptible to the eye, but such a pattern is insensitive to the foot.

The object of the invention is to provide a knitted footwear of a new kind, can be manufactured in a single operation and having not the disadvantages of the articles of the prior art.

The invention achieves its goal by proposing an article of footwear knitted, especially a mi-has. the sole of which has patterns in relief made by knitting, at the same time as the knee-high itself, which eliminates the need to bring a separate sole the reliefs being tubular portions whose lips are maintained by specific meshes.

By relief patterns is meant patterns which retain a noticeable relief even after the article is put on the foot and the knitting is in extension.

The relief patterns are advantageously in the form of small beads, that is to say partially tubular portions of knitted fabric, rising above the average surface of the knitted fabric; portion lips partially tubular are retained in the plane of said surface by specific meshes. These tubular beads can be obtained by knitting according to various techniques known per se, such as techniques "needle attachment", "plate attachment" or "double needle bed ". We can refer for example to document US 2,872,800 A. But unlike the prior art, the beads of the invention, which do not initially have an aesthetic function but are intended to form sensitive reliefs under the feet, are knitted in the circular loom only on the part that will form the sole (i.e. roughly the half of the bottom) and not on the entire periphery of the bottom. On the other hand, beads of the invention are advantageously knitted with a thread additional, so as to give more consistency to the bead.

Unlike the ribs formed by knitting, which almost completely disappear when knitting is extended, the beads of the invention form tubular portions which certainly crash under the foot but nevertheless constitute an extra thickness notable, sensitive by its relaxing effects.

In an exemplary embodiment leading to excellent results in terms of the feeling of relaxation experienced by users, the reliefs are in the form of parallel zigzags.

Preferably, the reliefs have a height less than about 6 mm and they are arranged in lines spaced about 1 to 3 mm apart.

• la figure 1 est un schéma d'un mi-bas relaxant conforme à l'invention, avec une partie en coupe au niveau de la semelle,
• la figure 2 est un schéma de la partie du mi-bas formant semelle,
• la figure 3 détaille le tricotage de chaque partie du mi-bas,
• les figures 4 et 5 montrent schématiquement le plan de tricotage de la semelle respectivement au niveau du plan d'ensemble et du rattachement des mailles,
• la figure 6 montre en perspective ces mailles du tricot au niveau d'un bourrelet,
• les figures 7 et 8 montrent les bourrelets tubulaires de l'invention en coupe transversale, respectivement à l'état non écrasé et à l'état écrasé,
• la figure 9 est un graphique déformation/force établi pour trois articles différents.

Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will emerge from the following description. Reference is made to the appended drawings in which:

• FIG. 1 is a diagram of a relaxing knee-high according to the invention, with a part in section at the level of the sole,
• FIG. 2 is a diagram of the part of the knee-high forming the sole,
• FIG. 3 details the knitting of each part of the knee-high,
• FIGS. 4 and 5 schematically show the knitting plane of the sole respectively at the level of the overall plan and of the attachment of the stitches,
• FIG. 6 shows in perspective these knitted stitches at the level of a bead,
• FIGS. 7 and 8 show the tubular beads of the invention in cross section, respectively in the non-crushed state and in the crushed state,
• Figure 9 is a strain / force graph drawn for three different items.

Figure 1 shows a knee-high 1 with a leg portion 2 and part of foot 3.

The leg part 2 can be made, as known per se, so as to exert a gradual pressure from the calf to the ankle. She ends with a ribbing 4.

The foot part 3 has a finished sole part 7 on one side by the heel part 5 and on the other by the toe part 6, these two parts 5 and 6 being reinforced as known per se.

According to the invention, the sole 7 is three-dimensional and comprises, obtained directly during knitting and therefore not reported, relief patterns 8, for example in parallel zigzags as shown in FIG. 2. The reliefs 8 are separated by flat parts 9.

The height of the knitted beads constituting the reliefs 8 can vary depending on the desired effect. From a very low height (a few tenths of a millimeter), a sensation appears under the foot. The higher the relief, the more the hardness decreases, so that we consider in practical that the height must be less than 6 mm.

The distance between the raised parts 8 (between the lines in zigzag for the embodiment shown) is preferably included between 1 and 3 mm.

The knee-high of the invention can be knitted according to the method and the characteristics illustrated in figure 3 where we will find the parts indicated numbered above. In a particular example of realization, we used a LONATI L304 knitting loom.

Leg 2 and the top of foot 3 are knitted with or without play of stitches in every other fall, with progressive clamp for the leg; the sole is knitted every fall so as to give a shape shapely fitting perfectly to the foot and heel.

On a sticky item, the bottom of the foot is knitted in general with leg 2 and toe 3 wires alternated with a large wrapped yarn added. Knitting is done in jersey on all needles at the flat parts 9 following the sole of the foot. For the bead parts 8, the 2 threads are knitted 2 needles out of 3 (with possibility 1 of 2 or 2 of 4) always on the same needles on all the rows; needles not knitting in this part keep the last stitches made in the previous flat part 9 which will be attached to the first stitches of the following flat part 9. this is better illustrated in Figures 4 to 6. Figures 4 and 5 show in particular the herringbone shape given to the beads 8 and to the intermediate parts 9.

Figure 6 shows the tubular shape of a bead 8 between two flat regions 9. The hatched wire corresponds to the wrapped wire added in the sole part. The figure shows in particular the meshes 10 hanging between them the lips of the tubular part 8.

On the cross sections of Figures 7 and 8, we see that, at the crushed state (Figure 8) the bead 8 will flatten, of course, but continue to form an allowance.

This technique of attachment by meshes 10 is called more commonly "needle hooking", and can be used for example for making tights belts. But, as has been said previously, we can use the techniques "shelf hooking" or "double needle bed" on suitable knitting looms.

The upper part of the foot 3 can be carried out in fine titration or in large titration by knitting only the corresponding threads 1 row on 2 in an identical positioning at the bottom of the foot.

We carried out deformation measurements as a function of the force exercised on different supports; the results are illustrated on the graph of FIG. 9 which shows the deformation / stress curves obtained respectively for a traditional knit (curve A), a sole relaxing according to the invention (curve B) and a foam sole of 2 mm thick (curve C).

The measurements were made by placing a knee-high (size 38) on a form, in wearing condition. Using a cylinder with a surface area of 1 cm ² , a force is exerted on the sole and the deformation of the sole is measured as a function of said force.

By comparing curves A and B, we see that at equal force, the sole of the invention deforms much more (for a force of 4N, the deformation is less than 0.3 mm for ordinary knitting and reaches 0.9 mm for the sole of the invention). The sole of the invention plays therefore a role of shock absorber improving comfort: indeed, during the walking, the foot is under high pressure on small areas in contact with the ground; a deforming sole increases the surface in contact, which reduces pressure.

We now compare the energy absorbed by the different supports between 2.5 N / cm ² and 4.5 N / cm ² represented by the hatched sectors on the graph in Figure 9. These two values correspond substantially to the range variations in the pressure values exerted on the foot during walking.

We see by comparing the curves A and B that we absorb twice as much energy with the relaxing sole of the invention as with an ordinary knit sole.

On the other hand, by comparing curves B and C, we note that we absorb substantially the same amount of energy with the sole of the invention on the one hand and with a 2 mm foam sole on the other part, and this with half the deformation.

Claims (9)

1. Knitted footwear article, in particular knee-length socks (1), in which the sole (7) has patterns (8) in relief which are produced by knitting, characterised in that in the non-compressed state the relief patterns (8) are tubular portions, the lips of which are held by specific stitches (10).
2. Article according to claim 1, characterised in that the relief patterns (8) are knitted using the needle hooking, plate hooking or double bed techniques.
3. Article according to any one of claims 1 or 2, characterised in that the said patterns (8) are in the form of small rolls.
4. Article according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterised in that a thread is added for knitting of the sole.
5. Article according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterised in that the patterns (8) form parallel relief patterns, for example zig zags.
6. Article according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterised in that the patterns (8) are in the form of lines spaced 1 to 3 mm apart.
7. Article according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterised in that the relief patterns (8) are less than 6 mm in height.
8. Article according to any one of claims 1 to 7, characterised in that the relief patterns (8) are at least some tenths of a millimetre in height.
9. Article according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterised in that the relief patterns (8) are knitted only on the sole (7), ie. substantially over half the circumference of the article.

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