GB2031968A - Improvements in or relating to making knitted articles - Google Patents

Abstract

Knitted articles are assembled (Figure 2) from regularly-shaped pieces of knitting (GK) knitted in article yarn only for the parts of the article, the rest of the piece (WK) being in web yarn, which can be discarded or recovered. Article parts still in the piece (PK1, PK2) are registered (SP) for assembly using the web for transport (CC) and guidance (GR, GL). Assembled parts are separated from the web as completed or partially completed articles. The process can be continuous and wholly-mechanised. A knitting machine to knit the regularly-shaped piece has a plurality of yarn feeder carriers selectively operable to provide row-by-row control of changing row portions knitted in web or article yarn with all wales secured. The web knitting can be thickened along the piece edge (EK). <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Improvements in or relating to knitting machines This invention relates to the manufacture of articles in knitted material.

Knitted material is produced by forming a first loop in one thread of a suitable fibre and putting another loop through the first loop using a presented yarn which can be the same or a different yarn. In machine knitting a row or ring of first loops is formed on a bank of needles and the next row is formed by catching a yarn, presented along the row, with a specially formed partofthe needle, pulling the presented yarn through the first loop to maintain it in existence and retaining the presented yarn as a loop of the next row on the needle for a repetition of the cycle. Various types of needle, operational cycle and needle banks (or beds) are known and it is wellknown that a new row of loops can be in a yarn different from that on the needle bank, subject to obvious limitations on yarn size and material.

From the above it is probably apparent that knitting is a very efficient way of making a uniformly sized and coloured sheet or tube of a fabric from a single source ofyarn. From the nature of knitting the loops are not locked and therefore knitting can unravel easily from a finishing edge or cut edge.

Despite this one method of efficient production of garments and other articles from knitted fabric is practised by cutting garment parts from the sheet or tube and seaming the parts, sometimes using an overlock stitch to control unravelling, into a complete garment. In this case the cheapness and speed of production of the sheet material offsets the cost of both waste of good fabric as off-cuts and the labour to assemble the cut parts.

An alternative method is to use a knitting machine, frequently of the fully-fashioned type, on which stitches can be cast on or cast off as required to produce a shaped, in plan, piece of knitted fabric as a garment part which can then be seamed into a garment as above. The savings in yarn and fabric must be balanced against the slower speed of knitting the shaped piece. The garment can have a higher selling price however as the "fashioned" pieces can produce an appearance which is more attractive to the wearer.

Both approaches require skilled labourto sew the garment parts together and such labour has become scarce and expensive. As raw material prices rise any waste also becomes more expensive. The economic forces on the knitting industry further require the fullest use of the machines in producing the maximum of saleable material from a given amount of raw material.

In more complicated machines, such as the V-bed, with interleaved needle banks, double jersey fabric, in which the loops are alternately behind and before a cross-over plane in the fabric, can be knitted and by using more than one yarn colour patterns can commonly be made by deciding which yarn is at the front of the material for each loop.

In warp knitting machines sheets or parallel yarns are created and by using such a machine two layers of fabric can be formed at one time. By suitable control these layers can be knitted together at selected points and along predetermined contours, e.g. as described in U.K. P.S. 1483040. In this way a complete garment seamed at the knitted together parts can be knitted on the machine and when the surplus is cut away and the edges hemmed a usable garment is produced. However waste of material is still significant, hand hemming is still required, the garment form is limited and the machine is very much more complex and therefore requires extra skills for maintenance.

Thus at present the knitting art must balance the cost of simple, speedy knitting with eventual waste against slower, costlier or more complex mechines for shaped knitting and still rely on skilled hand labour for garment part assembly.

It is an object of the invention to provide an improved method of manufacturing knitted articles which reduces waste without unduly reducing knitting speed and permits at least some automatic assembly of garment parts, while retaining flexibility of garment design and conventional garment construction.

According to the invention there is provided a method of producing articles such as garments of parts knitted to shape and assembled together, including operating a knitting machine to knit a continuous regularly-shaped piece of knitting partly in a garment or other article yarn and partly in a web yarn, controlling the machine knitting to knit piece areas in web yarn around article parts knitted in garment yarn to maintain the regular piece shape and provide a piece edge in web yarn, guiding the regularly shaped piece to align an article part therein in registration with another for assembly to such another article part in the or another such piece, assembling the registered parts together and separating the web yarn knitting, thereby releasing the assembled parts.

Preferably the method includes controlling the web yarn at least the edge areas of the continuous piece of knitting together with the remainder of each row across the width of the piece where not prevented on a row by row basis from so doing, causing the garment yarn to merge with and displace the web yarn in the knitting of that part of a row corresponding to a garment part in the finished piece.

The web yarn may be controlled to knit a modified edge to the continuous piece to provide a grippable guide portion and/or calibration or registration marks. The modified edge may be a more thickly knitted portion.

Two types of web yarn may be used in one piece of knitting. One easily destroyable yarn may form a band around the garment part and the other less easily destroyable yarn extend to the piece edge.

The more easily destroyable yarn may be chemically or thermally removed at or after seaming to release the seamed garment parts.

Two or more types of garment yarn may be used to produce patterned garment parts. The garment parts may include apertures or re-entrants of web yarn. A draw thread or yarn may be provided across the piece width at a garment part welt.

The alignment station may be manually controllable including spikes or like devices in a movable belt on which the garment parts are fixed in specified relation for supply in seaming registration to a seaming apparatus such as an automatically positioned sewing machine.

The alignment station guides may engage the modified edge and grip thereon to guide the knitted piece to a stretched form for garment part registration. The alignment station may further temporarily retain the garment parts in position on a conveyor.

The conveyor may include a longitudinally fixably spaced sequence of laterally adjustable spikes or like devices to retain the garment parts. When the knitted piece contains specific longitudinal registration marks in the web area these may be detected and matching garment parts and associated web areas held for placing in bodily alignment with each other on already adjusted retaining devices on the conveyor. The retaining devices may be adjusted by cams controlled by a suitable programmer.

The invention also provides an intermediate in the production from yarn of articles such as garments of parts knitted to shape and assembled together the intermediate being a regularly-shaped piece of knitting knitted partly in garment or other article yarn and partly in discardable web yarn the web yarn augmenting garments parts knitted to shape to form the regularly-shaped piece and an edge thereof.

In the intermediate the web yarn can conveniently be of two types a first easily destroyable yarn around a garment part and a second less-easily destroyable yarn extending to the piece edge.

The invention also provides apparatus for the automatic production of seamed knitted articles such as seamed garment parts including a knitting station of means to knit a continuous length of a regularly shaped piece of knitting including garment part forms knitted in garment yarn, the piece being elsewhere knitted in web yarn, the web yarn also providing a knitted modified edge guide portion, means to transfer the continuous knitted length to an alignment station including means to engage the edge guide portion to grip and guide the knitted length to register garment parts for seaming and engage said parts in seaming registration in temporary retention on a conveyor including longitudinal and lateral retention means at least laterally adjustable to the garment part form to engage the knitting near to the garment part edge, the apparatus also including a seaming station to which the conveyor delivers, in operation, garment parts in seaming registration for seaming along garment part edges and a delivery station at which seamed parts are separated from the web yarn knitting and delivered for use or further assembly to a finished article.

The invention also provides a knitting machine to knit a continuous length of a regularly shaped piece of knitting part of which is knitted in garment yarn, and elsewhere in web yarn, the piece having a modified edge of web yarn providing a grippable guide portion, the machine including a multiple bank needle bed and a plurality of yarn feeder carriers for said needle bed movable along carrier guides overthe needle bed, the machine being modified to selectively position and limit yarn carrier movement during knitting to permit the row by row control of web and garment yarn allocation to at least some needles in a bank maintaining continuous knitting with all wales in a width secured but changing relative width of web and garment knitting, and also modified to provide extra yarn feeders for web knitting adjacent each edge to modify the edge by thickening the knitting in a controlled manner.

The machine may include movable yarn carrier stops for the movable yarn carriers providing frictional restraint up to a dead stop at a movable abutment. The movable abutment may be driven by a leadscrew and a stepping motor, the leadscrew being settable by the action of the stepper motor to control the yarn carrier stop position on a needle by needle basis. The garment yarn carrier stops only may be driven in a controlled manner, web yarn carrier stops being linked to the garment yarn carrier stops to control the web yarn supply in a fixed relation with the selective garment yarn supply to ensure continuity of knitting on change from one yarn to another.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 shows in outline part of knitting machine modified in accordance with an aspect of the invention; Figure 2 shows pieces of knitting produced according to the invention by a machine, such as shown in Figure 1, being fed into the input of a garment sewing machine and Figure 3 shows an arrangement according to the invention for making up garments from rolls of knitted fabric.

The techniques to be described can be applied to various types and forms of knitting machine and for that reason the general manner of application will be described without reference to any particular machine. However the invention has, in one embodiment, been put into practice on a Dubied knitting machine of V-bed form (Type NF4). This machine has yarn carriers which traverse the banks of needles as required, powered by the reciprocating cam system with which they are synchronized. As manufactured the carriers run on smooth guide rails between stops whose positions are preset prior to knitting a particular fabric piece or pieces. The stop positions have to be such that the carriers traverse the complete width of knitting.

Generally on "V" bed machines (although not on the particular model quoted) it is possible to produce intarsia knitting by using patterning means, known as steels, to select particular needles to knit with different yarns on some or all of the courses. This procedure is slow, since it necessitates two or more traverses to form each complete course. It is expensive because the steels have to be specially made, and a lot of them are generally required even for one pattern.

Figure 1 shows in outline how the above machine is modified to put the invention into practise in respect of the production of a regular shaped piece of knitwear with garment parts only knitted in gar ment yarn.

The modifications include making the stops controllably movable during knitting and arranging to control their position from row to row by moving the stops to selected needle positions, for example using a stepping motor-driven leadscrew drive to engagement with a stop. The yarn feeders are modified to operate in the dynamic manner made available by the movable stops without becoming entangled with one another or the action of the machine. To this end the feeders can pass one another in the knitting zone, remain stopped in the knitting zone without fouling the needles or latches as the needles rise and descend and can feed yarn in a precise manner close to the needles to ensure that a selected adjacent needle takes the yarn. As a result of these modifications the feeders are much thinner.

To achieve the control of feeder position a suitable control unit operates the stepping motors. Instructions for the stepping motors are generated by a suitable memory or other device, e.g. a punched papertape, and converted into motorenergisation signals in any suitable manner readily apparent to those skilled in the control art. One suitable arrangement is based on the control unit described in UK PS 1483040.

Referring to Figure 1 a needle bed NB is formed by two inclined needle banks B1, B2 in conventional manner, (only a part of the bed is shown). Three yarn feeder guide bars, GB1, GB2, GB3 extend alongside the needle bed in known manner and carry respective yarn feeders GF, WF, EF. Feeder GF is supplied with garment yarn GY from a source (not shown).

The garment yarn is selected to produce the required texture and quality of the finished garment or other article. Feeder WF is supplied with web yarn WV from a source (not shown). The web yarn is chosen to be as light and cheap as possible as it is used only during the manufacturing process and is then scrapped as waste. Feeder EF is supplied with edge yarn EY. This may be web yarn, or a slightly heavier yarn, for reasons described below but is also eventually waste, although recycling may be possible.

The elements described so far are provided for one edge of the knitted fabric. Further elements WF, EF and their associated parts are provided for the other edge (not shown) as will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art.

The yarn weeders are moved by the knitting machine in the conventional way but the range of movement is controlled in accordance with the invention, as is now described. Guide bars GB1, GB2 carry movable yarn feeder stops GFS, WFS respectively and these stops are also linked with lead screws SD1, SD2 respectively. In one form the lead screw is offset (SD1) and a drive block GFD is coupled to the stop GFS. In another form the lead screw (SD2) passes through the stop (WFS). The lead screws extend along the machine length from drive motors of the stepping type, SM1, SM2 respectively, to support S1, S2 respectively in which the screws are free to revolve. Index plates ID1, ID2 are provided to monitor the screw motion.Conveniently the space between each division of these plates is a movement of one needle position or one-half of a needle position on the needle bed but clearly other values may be used.

A control unit CU is energised from a supply mains PS and controls the energisation of the knitting machine over lead KMS and energises the stepper motors, SM1, SM2, all in accordance with control signals derived from a punched paper tape PT, and additional manual controls on the unit CU if needed.

The control unit can act to periodically reset the stepper motors. This provision ensures that errors in stop position do not accumulate during knitting. In one arrangement the stepper motors are reset at the end of each garment piece by causing the stop to be driven to an extreme position such as that determined for the garment feed stop GFS by micro switch MS. When motor SM1 is instructed by control unit CU to drive the stop GFS to operate micro switch MS a signal GRS indicates that the stop GFS has done so. Any discrepancy is indicated by signal GRS and correction can be made in any suitable manner or a fault condition signalled to an operator.

During knitting the machine operations are kept in synchronism by a synchronising signal SYNC derived from the machine action on a traverse - by traverse basis, or any other suitable method.

The movement of indicators ID1 and ID2 may be detected in suitable means and used for an automatic or semi-automatic feedback control network if required. The detectors may be opto-electronic.

The operation of the machine is as follows. Knitting is started with the required width of the needle bed being knitted in web thread. This full width is the two groups of edge needles EN; (only one of which is shown), and the needles between, divided in a time varying basis between web needles, WN, and garment needles GN. Throughout the knitting of a piece the edge feeder EF supplies edge yarn EY to the small group of edge needles EN, say three to ten needles. The feeder and needles are controlled to knit a tube or rib of material, thicker than the web knit, along both edges of the piece. The yarn or thread used is determined by the need to provide the thickened rib and web yarn may therefore be usable with the thickened knitting. The stops for the edge feeder are fixed for any particular piece and do not need to be motorised. For this reason they are not shown in Figure 1.

Web yarn feederWF is driven between the right hand piece edge (shown in the Figure) and the web feeder stop WFS positioned at that instant by motor SM2 under the control of control unit CU. Garment yarn feeder GF is driven between a point a few needles beyond the left hand needle position of the web yarn feeder, set by stop WFS, and the right hand needle position of web yarn feed on the left hand of the piece (not shown). After a few rows, knitted fu ll-width in web yarn only, control unit CU is operated by pattern tape PTto start knitting garment yarn, starting usually with the welt of the garment part, into a shape required for a garment part and filling in the rest of the full width of the piece with web yarn. The transition between web and garment yarn is preferably performed to avoid loose stitches.

Identifying garment and web needles by G and W respectively two possible knitting actions are...

GGGWGWW... or. . . GGW/GWW... WIG, indi cates web and garment yarn on one needle. Techniques to achieve this are known in the art and will not be described further.

The machine thus knits a piece of knitting of constant width with an edge rib on each side and an area of garment yarn knitting on needles GN surrounded by web yarn knitting on needles WN. The control unit determines the shape of the garment knitting to make, say, a front or a back of a slipover or a pullover or the sleeves of a sweater or a cardigan.

Figure 2 shows the outline of the knitting produced by the technique of the invention.

Referring to Figure 2 two pieces of knitting each produced as described above are provided as roll PK1, PK2 in the correct facing relationship for a seamed garment. As shown slipover fronts, PK1, and slipover backs, PK2, are provided. The knitwear pieces are introduced on to stretcher tables STU, STL. Each table (lower table STL being similar but on the underside as drawn) has guide rails GRL, GRR on left and right respectively. The rails are supported, e.g. by cantilever arms not shown, to be within a small distance, say 1 mm, of the smooth table surface. This distance is chosen to receive the thin, web, knitting and not allow the thicker, edge, knitting to pass through. In this way the edges remain outside the guide rails. The guide rails diverge initially and then run parallel.In this way the knitting is stretched to the correct size and shape (by about 10% widthways) for making up. The knitting is, in continuous operation, drawn through by suitable means, e.g.

pinch rolls, not shown in the direction of arrow A.

The stretched knitting held by upper and lower rails, GRRU, GRLU and GRRL, GRLL respectively. Clearly the tables can face in the same sense if required or be displaced so as not to be one above the other The next stage may be carried out by the skill of an operator or automatically. Thus far the attendance required has been only the skilled knitting machine attendant and unskilled manual labour for loading rolls etc. In fact by using two knitting machines continuous pieces of suitable knitting could be fed to tables STU, STL without rolling the pieces. The control units of the knitting machines would ensure appropriate balance of supply rate.

In the manual form of the next stage the operator controls the feed of the knitted pieces until the garment parts are in registration and then impales the registered parts together on Spikes SP in correctly facing relation on a chain conveyor or like device CC.

The upper and lower guides have merged to single guides GR, GL over the initial part of the chain conveyor. Once impaled the garment parts stay in position and the guides are not needed. The impaled parts moved to a manually or automatically controlled sewing machine (not shown) which produces the appropriate seams. The garment parts are released from the spikes to the sewing region. Tension on the knitted material may be maintained on such release by suitable spring-loaded grippers holding the thickened edge and pulling the garment part against a lower sewing foot projecting from the sewing table and an upper sewing foot urged against the lower one. The garment parts are cut from the web before, during or after seaming as convenient.

In the automatic form the registration of the garment parts is produced by suitable sensors and control means which replace the judgement and skill of the operater. Firstly registration markers are provided in the knitting. These may be features of the garment parts or additional knitted bars or other shapes. Alternatively the edge knitting can be modified to provide registration markers. The garment parts are impaled on to respective spiked belts in this arrangement. The spikes are evenly spaced in two rows along the belts but are cam controlled laterally of the belts.

A length of knitting having a single complete garment part is detected from the registration marks and drawn forward over the spikes being positioned by the cams. The whole part is lowered on to the spikes and another part drawn forward. The matching part is similarly drawn forward on to the other belt. Preferably the spikes enterthe web knitting not the garment partto avoid damage to the finished product although the seam allowance could be used.

The belts are then moved along into alignment of the garment parts and, when aligned, both parts are placed on one belt, in a manner similar to that in Figure 2, where they are also clamped in correct relation. The aligned parts are then seamed together, for example using a Mathbirk linker.

A preferred arrangement for placing the knitted material on to the spiked belts is shown in Figure 3.

As in Figure 2 rolls of knitted pieces PK1, PK2 are arranged to feed knitting into spreading guides GO and GU which in this case do not act against a table surface but against a similar guide element. The knitted pieces are fed through the machine, brought together at pinch roll RP and taken up on take up rollerTR. During this passage the garment parts are brought into registration, fixed and transferred in superimposed registration and seamed by sewing machine SM.

Registration is brought about by the combined action of clamps CLO and CLU and spiked chain conveyors CCO, CU. Each clamp is clearly in two parts, one each side of the conveyor. The conveyors pass over pulleys, two pairs of which P10, P20, and P1 U, P2U, are movable between the positions shown in Figure 3 and positions close to the respective clamps CLO, CLU. The action of the arrangement is as follows, starting with the pulleys close to the clamps.

The pulleys, locked to prevent rotation, move away from the clamps, drawing knitting from the rolls and feeding already registered garment parts to the sew ing machine for seaming and take-up. The knitting includes registration markers which are detected e.g.

by optical sensors and gripped by the paired clamp elements of the clamps CLO, CLU. Typically four markers and therefore four clamp elements are used, the clamps spreading out along the knitting feed path as the markers arrive in turn at the parked position of the clamps. When the whole garment part is clamped in position on each set of clamps the garment parts from each roll are in registration. The feed stops. Any surplus clamps remain unused. The pulleys are released and return to the clamp area pushing spikes on the conveyors through the knitted fabric. The spikes are aligned across the conveyor width with the garment part edge by cams controlled by optical detectors. The pulleys are again locked as described above to complete and restart a cycle.In the next cycle the registered impaled garment parts are brought together and overlaid by the movement of the pulleys and the conveyors. The two conveyors move through pinch PR and the garment part on the upper conveyor CCO is transferred to the lower one as shown in the detail to Figure 3. In the next cycle the garment parts are held on the spikes until fed from the lower conveyor CCU to the sewing machine SM, positioned close to the last conveyor roller, and there seamed together. All the other actions stop during the return motion of the pulleys two enable accurate positioning of the garment parts.

The techniques described above are examples of the manner in which the invention can be put into effect, with varying proportions of automation, to improve the efficiency of the manufacture of knitted articles. Clearly the degree of automation can range from the use of a stretching table for hand registration of garment parts for subsequent hand controlled seaming by sewing machine to the coupling of two knitting machines directly to an arrangement as in Figure 3 with the addition of automatic cutting to produce finished garments, say a slipover, in a continuous process from the bobbins of yarn without direct action by an operator.

Many variations and detail points are within the scope of the invention and some are now summarised, without excluding many others apparent to those skilled in the art on putting the invention into practice.

The degree of stretch required prior to garment part assembly and the technique to achieve registration, using markers especially at critical pattern areas, are selectable for any particular garment.

Techniques to ensure reliable knitted fabric feed, such as stenters, air jets, brushes etc. will be used as appropriate. The use of the technique for sleeves can be based on folding knitwear from one piece along the piece length, gripping the thick edges together on one side and using a plate projecting between the grips as a fold line before fixing and seaming.

Yarn or thread size depends on the article to be produced but clearly a reasonable difference between garment and web yarn is needed. A typical ratio is in the range 8 to 10 to 1 but a value as low as 6 to 1 at least is usable. In one example 80 or 100 denier polyester provided the web and 610 denier polyester provided the garment part. The web knitting is then about 0.004 inch (0.01 mm) thick and the garment about 0.015 inch (0.04mm) thick. The stretch varies from about 12% for the garment part to 6% or less for the web.

An important feature of the material knitted in accordance with the invention is that as the garment part changes width loops do not have to be gained or lost, they are merely interchanged between the web and garment areas. There is therefore much less risk a "run" developing compared with "fashioned" knitting.

The thickened edge can have various forms but wastage of web yarn in the thicker edge knitting can be substantial. Treble knitting can be used to thicken the edge and aid gripping but a narrow edge is desirable subject to satisfactory gripping at the initial stretching stage.

Footage or other information in the thickened edge will generally consume too much material and interfere with gripping. However such information can be provided by a garment yarn row or rows or part-row or rows knitted out beyond the garment form or elsewhere in the knitted piece to form footage or registration markers.

In one significant variation the garment part may be separable from the web, when seamed, by heat or chemical action. In theory the whole web could be dissolved or removed this way but to reduce cost a narrow band of narrow expensive degradable fabric can surround the garment part. Clearly extra guides and feeders are required but the cost ana Knitting speed penalty are not high in terms of the end product. Similarly to separate successive garment parts a conventional draw th read may not be convenient and the degradable fabric may be used.

The exact relation between feeder stops and needle pitch may vary from machine type to machine type. In the described embodiment the feeder is stopped midway between needles. However a fractional offset may prove more reliable in long term use. Clearly leadscrews are only one of many means of moving the stops. Reciprocating bars, rack and rod linkage or cable drive are some possible alternatives. Similarly other forms of control unit and pattern memory such as pattern chains, punched cards, magnetic tape or solid state memory. Clearly the pattern instructions must be synchronised with the machine either by direct action or in a feed back loop.

The techniques exemplified in the above description are representative of those provided by the invention to improve the production of knitted articles, and are not to be read as limiting the application of the invention.

Claims (25)

1. A method of producing articles such as garments of parts knitted to shape and assembled together, including: operating a knitting machine to knit a continuous regularly-shaped piece of knitting partly in a garment or other article yarn and partly in a web yarn, controlling the machine knitting to knit piece areas in web yarn around article parts knitted in garment yarn to maintain the regular piece shape and provide a piece edge in web yarn, guiding the regularly shaped piece to align an article part therein in registration with another for assembly to such another article part in the or another such piece, assembling the registered parts together and separating the web yarn knitting, thereby releasing the assembled parts.

2. A method according to Claim 1 including: controlling the web yarn to knit at least the edge areas of the continuous piece of knitting together with the remainder of each row across the width of the piece where not prevented on a row by row basis from so doing, causing the garment yarn to merge with and displace the web yarn in the knitting of that part of a row corresponding to a garment part in the finished piece, thereby knitting a regularly shaped piece of knitting with garment parts spaced along it, only said garment parts being in garment yarn.

3. A method according to Claim 1 or Claim 2 including providing at an alignment station guides to receive and engage the regular shape of said piece and to cause or permit the garment parts to be in seaming registration for seaming assembly.

4. A method according to Claim 1 or Claim 2 or Claim 3 including defining said piece edge as a modified portion of knitting forming a grippable guide portion.

5. A method according to Claim 4 including modifying said knitting by thickening the portion either continuously along the piece or intermittently to produce calibration or registration marks.

6. A method according to any one of Claims 1 to 5 including providing at the alignment station guides to engage the piece edge and guide the knitted piece to a stretched form for garment part registration.

7. A method according to any one of Claims 1 to 5 including providing at the alignment station manually controllable spikes or like devices on a movable belt, fixing the garment parts on said devices in a specified alignment relation and supplying the parts in seaming registration to an automatic seaming apparatus.

8. A method according to any one of Claims 1 to 6 including providing at the alignment station a conveyor having a longitudinally fixed sequence of laterally adjustable spikes or like devices to retain garment parts by engagement with the knitted piece, detecting the garment parts or associated registration marks, adjusting the spikes or the like laterally to conform to the detected garment part form, holding matched garment parts and associated web areas registered in bodily alignment and placing the registered parts on the adjusted spikes or like devices for assembly together.

9. A method according to any one of Claims 1 to 8 including releasing the garment parts by thermally or chemically destroying the web yarn at least around the parts.

10. A method according to any one of Claims 1 to 9 including recovering at least some of the separated web yarn for re-use.

11. An intermediate in the production from yarn of articles such as garments of parts knitted to shape and assembled together the intermediate being a regularly-shaped piece of knitting knitted partly in garment or other article yarn and partly in discardable web yarn the web yarn augmenting garment parts knitted to shape to form the regularly-shaped piece and an edge thereof.

12. An intermediate according to Claim 11 in which the web yarn is of two types a first easily destroyable yarn around a garment part and a second less-easily destroyable yarn extending to the piece edge.

13. An intermediate according to Claim 11 or Claim 12 in which the web yarn, or some part thereof is chemically or thermally removable or destroyable to release the garment parts from the piece.

14. An intermediate according to Claim 11 or Claim 12 or Claim 13 including an edge of modified knitting thickened continuously along the piece or intermittently to provide calibration or registration marks.

15. An intermediate according to any one of Claims 11 to 14 in which a garment part is patterned by knitting in more than garment yarn type.

16. An intermidiate according to any one of Claims 11 to 15 in which a garment part includes an aperture or re-entrant of web yarn.

17. An intermediate according to any one of Claims 11 to 16 including a draw thread or yarn across the piece width at a garment part welt.

18. Apparatusforthe automatic production of seamed knitted articles such as seamed garment parts including a knitting station of means to knit a continuous length of a regularly-shaped piece of knitting including garment part forms knitted in garment yarn, the piece being elsewhere knitted in web yarn, the web yarn also providing a knitted modified edge guide portion, means to transfer the continuous knitted length to an alignment station including means to engage the edge guide portion to grip and guide the knitted length to register garment parts for seaming and engage said parts in seaming registration in temporary retention on a conveyor including longitudinal and lateral retention means at least laterally adjustable to the garment part form to engage the knitting near to the garment part edge, the apparatus also including a seaming station to which the conveyor delivers, in operation, garment parts in seaming registration for seaming along garment part edges and a delivery station at which seamed parts are separated from the web yarn knitting and delivered for use or further assembly to a finished article.

19. A knitting machine to knit a continuous length of a regularly-shaped piece of knitting part of which is knitted in garment yarn and elsewhere in web yarn, the piece having a modified edge of web yarn providing a grippable guide portion, the machine including a multiple bank needle bed and a plurality of yarn feeder carriers for said needle bed movable along carrier guides over the needle bed, the machine being modified to selectively position and limit yarn carrier movement during knitting to permit the row by row control of web and garment yarn allocation to at least some needles in a bank maintaining continuous knitting with all wales in a width secured but changing relative width of web and garment knitting, and also modified to provide extra yarn feeders for web knitting adjacent each edge to modify the edge by thickening the knitting in a controlled manner.

20. A machine according to Claim 19 including movable yarn carrier stops for the movable yarn carriers providing frictional restraint up to a dead stop at a movable abutment.

21. A machine according to Claim 20 including a movable abutment as a yarn carrier stop drivable by a lead screw and a stepping motor, the lead screw being settable by the action of the stepper motor to control the yarn carrier stop on a needle-by-needle basis.

22. A machine according to Claim 20 or Claim 21 in which the garment yarn carrier stops only are driven in a controllable manner, web yarn carrier stops being linked to the garment yarn carrier stops to control the web yarn supply in a fixed relation with the selective yarn supply to ensure continuity of knitting on change from one yarn to another.

23. A method of manufacturing articles from shaped knitted parts substantially as herein described with reference to Figure 1 or Figure 2 or Figure 3 of the accompanying drawings.

24. A knitting apparatus for knitting shaped knitted parts for assembly substantially as herein described with reference to Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings.

25. An intermediate in the manufacture from yarn of articles assembled from knitted shaped parts substantially as herein described with reference to Figure 2 of the accompanying drawings.