GB1457844A - Flat knitting machine - Google Patents

Abstract

1457844 Knitting machines EMPISAL KNITMASTER LUXEMBOURG SA 5 July 1974 [7 July 1973 11 May 1974] 30030/74 Heading D1C Patterning is carried out in a flat, e.g. hand, knitting machine by a system including a reading head 16 on the carriage 13 which contactlessly scans a pattern data carrier 14 and stores the data in mechanical form, by selectively setting through an electromagnet 29 bistable selector levers of a storage dial 17 or 18, for controlling the needles the system also comprising a pulse generator such as a second reading head 20 which scans markings 19 having the same pitch as the needles for producing pulses at intervals corresponding to the movement of the carriage through successive distances of one needle pitch and a gating circuit 32 which transmits a signal or signal change to the electromagnet 29 in response to an output from the head 16 only when there is also present a pulse from the head 20, thereby avoiding uncertainty over the scanned information. The storage dials 17, 18 are set and control the needles, respectively, during alternate strokes of the carriage. A limit switch 30 connects the circuitry to the appropriate electromagnet 29. An inverting switch 25 allows the pattern to be reversed. In an alternative embodiment three reading heads responsive to different colours on the data carrier 14 and scanning the same point feed information to a colour data store as well as to the gating circuit, the colour data store determining in turn which of three coloured yarns is fed to each needle.