US2041133A - Presser mechanism for spring needle knitting machines - Google Patents

Description

W M, A. o. A. KARLBERG f i, ZULME I PRESSER MECHANISM FOR SPRING NEEDLE KNITTING MACHINES Filed April 10, 1935 Patented May 19, 1936 PATE-NT OFFICE PBESSER MECHANISM FR SPRING NEEDLE KNITTING MACHINES Axel 0. A. Karlberg, Franklin, N. H., assignor to Sulloway Page Company, Frankll 'n, N. H., a

corporation of New Hampshire Application April 10, 1933, -Serial No. 665,325

` 1 Claim.

l tuck at certain times, various patterns may .be

formed in the knitted fabric. For satisfactory stitching, it lis necessary that the spring of the needle -b'e pressed while the needle travels a suiiicientV distance to ensure that the loop will be 151 castioff. Furthermore, the pressure fon the spring during this period should be uniform. Insufficient pressure fails to close the hook of the needle. Excessive pressure is liable to injure the needie, or at least to shorten its period of use- 20. fulness.` It is an object of the invention to provide mechanism for pressing the springs uniformly through fasufficient distance of travel of the needle, but without undesirable rubbing kas tion on the `spring as by a fixed cam.

According to the invention I provide a series of jacks or presser elements each movable to engage the spring of `a needle as it `cornes along, the spring-engaging portion of the jack traveling along with the needle for a sufficient distance toensure the casting .off of the loop. The motion of the needle-engaging `portion of the jack is such as to follow the travel :movement of the needle so thatduring the entire period of engagement, the end of the jack presses uniformly against the lspring of a .needle to hold the hook of `the needle closed. The jacks .may be conveniently mounted in a Vrotatable disc having radial slots in which the jacks may slide, the sliding movement of the jacks being controlled by suitable :cams .as .hereinafter described. If the slots in the discs are so spaced as to line up successively with successive needles in the operation of the knitting machine, a complete set of operative jacks in the slots will result in plain knit $5 ting in which all the needles stitch uniformly.

By removing certain jacks so as to leave vacant some of the slots in the disc, various patterns may be knit since the needles coming opposite the empty slots will tuck instead of stitching.

Instead' of leaving certain of the slots vacant,

mechanism may be provided, according to the invention, for rendering predetermined jacks inoperativeor operative, as desired, the remaining 55 jacks being always operative, so that the machine may change `:from plain to pattern knitting vor vice versa during operation.

For a more complete disclosure of the invention, reference may be had to the following "description thereof, and to the drawing, of Vvwhich 5 `Figure 1 is an elevation vof a portion Yof a knitting machine including an embodiment of the invention, portions being broken away to show working parts in section.

Figure 2 is a perspective view of a slotted disk 10 and a driving -gear therefor.

Figure 3 is a section on the line 3--3 of Figure 1.

Figure 4 is a perspective View of three :springjacks having butts of different lengths.

Figure 5 is `a fragmentary section on the line 13 5-5 of Figure 1.

.A portion of a knitting machine is illustrated in Figure `1, mostly in section, this machine being of the ribb'er type having twosets of needles for rib knitting. As shownon the drawing, a presser 20 mechanism embodying the invention is employed for pressing the springs or beards of the upper set `of needles corresponding to the `dial needles on a dial machine. `In the yparticular machine illustrated `on the drawing, an upper Iconical 25 member 20 `supports a set of spring needles 2i. A loweruconicalmember 22 supports a `set of needles 23. The springs of either or both sets of needles may be pressed by mechanism embodying the present invention. As illustrated, the needles -of 30 the upper set are provided wi-th such a mechanism. This mechanism comprises a disc .30 rotatably mounted on a fixed shaft 3i. The disc may be driven by any suitable means; As shown,

a gear wheel 32 is mounted on a common hub 35 with the disc so as to rotate therewith. The teeth of the gear Wheel 32 are adapted to mesh with the .needles 23 so Aas to be driven thereby. This ensures the rotation vof the disc 30 instep with the needle-holdingmembers 20 and 22. .As V4.0 indicated in Figure 2, the disc 30 is provided on its upper face with a series of radial slots 35. These slots are adapted to receive jacks 36 such as 'are illustrated in Figure 4 for frictional sliding therein, the jacks being preferably made with spring tails to Vensure proper frictional engagement in the slots.y `*Each jack may, if desired, have a nose 31 thicker than the stock of .the jackitself, this nose being for the purpose of engaging the spring of a needle and pressing the spring to yclose 59 the hook of the needle at the right time for casting `off the old loop so as to form a stitch. Each jack is provided with a butt 38, 39 or 40, projecting upwardly therefrom. Above the disc 30 iS mounted a cam member `1H having cam elements 55 42, 43, and 44, which are engaged by the butts 40 of the jacks so as to control the radial movement of the several jacks as for swinging around the axis of the disc with the rotation of the disc 30. As is evident from Figures 3 and 5, the jacks have no radial movement during the larger portion of a revolution around the axis of the disc 30. When a jack `approaches the line of centers between the disc`30 and the needle holders 20 and 22, itv

is projected outwardly so as to engage the spring of a needle which is approaching by reason of the movement of the needle holder 20. v'I'he guide edges of the cam elements 42, 43 vand 44 are so shaped that after the jack is projected outwardly to engage and press the spring of one'ofthe needles 2|, it is thereupon retracted and again projected, these movements being at such a rate that its nose 31 follows the path of motion of the needle against which it presses, so that during the period of engagement between the nose of a jackand the opposite needle 2|, the pressure is uniform. Thus the jacks serve to holdthe springs Of-'lopposing needles in such a way as to close the springs of these needles eiiciently without excessively bending the upper portions of the needles themselves. 'I'he cam surfaces of the members 42, 43and 44 are furthermore so shaped as to hold the jacks in engagement with their opposing needles during a suflicient distance of travel of the" needles tol ensure the proper casting off of the loops thereon. It is evident that if, as shown, the slotsv35 are so spaced in the disc 30 as to come opposite to successive needles during the operation of the machine, and if all of these slots are occupied by operative jacks, then all of the needles will be pressed as they reach the line of centers between the dsic and the needle-holding member 20 so that plain rib knitting will result. Pattern knitting may easily be effected by removing selected jacks from the disc 30, thus leaving some of the slots vacant. When, in the operation of the machine, needles come opposite the empty slots of the discsV 30, the springs of these needles will not be pressed, so that instead of stitching these needles will tuck, thus forming a pattern in the fabric in a, manner well known in the art. 'I'he cam member 42 is preferably provided with a'suitable gate (not shown) by which jacks may be easily inserted or removed. Thus any pattern of which the mechanism is capable may be readily formed by arranging the jacks accordingly.

l-It is often desirable to change from pattern knitting to plain knitting and vice versa in makingv a fabric. According to the invention, mechanism is provided for making these changes without interrupting the operation of the machine. To this end, the jacks 36 may be provided respectively with butts 38, 39 and 40 of three different heights, as-indicatedv in Figure 4. For cooperation with such butts, the cam member 44 is adapted for movement toward and away from the upper face of the disc 30, as indicated in Figure 1. To this` end, the cam member 44 may be provided with a stem 55 about which is a spring 5| tending topress the cam `member 44 toward the disc 30. The upper end of the stem 50 may be forked to receive a controlling cam 52 extending through the fork beneath a pin 53. Thus the pin 53 rides on the upper edge of the cam bar 52. vThis upper edgeV has a low portion 54 so that when the bar is drawn toward the left, the pin 53 rides down on the low portion 54, thus permitting the cam mem'ber`44 to approach sufficiently near to the face of the disc 30 to engage butts of any of the lengths shown in Figure 4. When the pin 53 rides on the upper surface of the bar 52, as shown in Figure l, the cam member 44 is retracted from the disc 30 so that it operates only on the longest butts 40. If jacks having long butts 40 or short butts 38 are arranged in the slots of the disc 30, it is evident that the long-butt jacks will be operative while the short-butt jacks will be inoperative when the cam member 44 is lifted as shown in Figure 1. Thus with the parts in the positions shown, pattern knitting results, the particular pattern depending upon the arrangement Vof long and short-butt jacks on the disc 30. If

the bar 52 is retracted toward the left so that the cam member 44 takes a position in which both long and short butts are engaged thereby, then all of the jacks become operative and plain knitting results. The short butts are preferably provided with two lengths, jacks having butts 38 of the'shorter length being employed in one half of the disc, jacks having butts 39 of intermediate length being employed in the other half of the disc, jacks having long butts 40 being used where desired in both halves of the disc. The purpose of ,the intermediate and short butts is to enable the cam member 44 to reach its operative .position for plain knitting when the bar 52 is retracted toward the left. When such retraction of the bar 52 takes place, the spring 5| presses the cam member 44 toward, the disc 30.

It is evident that the inner portion 55 of thek memberr44 will ride on the topsof the intermediate or short butts if jacks having such butts are fairly well distributed about the disc 30. If

the downward progress of the cam member 44 35 happens to be arrested first by butts of intermediate length, the half of the disc containing these butts will have passed the cam member 44 before the completion of a half revolution of the disc.l The member 44. can then descend to the level of the tops of the shortest butts, since in this succeeding half of the disc there are no butts of intermediate height. Within the next half revolution of the disc, the intermediate butts are again encountered, but at this time the member 44, having descended to the tops of the shortest butts, now operates on the butts of intermediate length so as to guide them outwardly together with the long butts. As the .half disc which contains jacks with butts of intermediate height has none of the short butts, the member 44 can then descend to its lowermost position whereupon it thereafter operates on all the jacks including those having the shortest butts. I vr'Ihe presserV mechanism may be mounted on a movable bracket 60 slidably mounted in a pair of ears 6| and 62 of a stationary bracket 65. An adjustable stop 66 may be provided to regulate the proximity of the presser mechanism to the needles 2| and 23, aspring 61 being employed to press the presser mechanism toward the needles. It is .evident that various modications and changes may be made in the particular embodiment of the invention herein described and illustrated on the drawing without departing from the spirit or scope thereof as defined by the following claim.

I claim:

In a circular knitting machine having a vcirclilar series of spring needles, a pattern-forming mechanism comprising a rotatable disk having radial slots in the face thereof and presenting its edge to the needle circle, jacks slidable in said slots, each said jack having thereon a longyintermediate or short butt, jacks with long butts occupying selected slots in said disk according to the pattern desired in the fabric to be knitted, the remaining slots being occupied by jacks with intermediate or short butts, a cam member movable toward and from the plane of the -disk between an outer position in which it is in the path of and engageable by the long butts only and an inner position in Which it is in the path of and 1o engageable by al1 said butts, means operable to move said cam member to its outer position, and spring means resiliently pressing said cam member towards its inner position, the jacks with the intermediate and short butts being arranged so that the jacks with intermediate butts are 1ocated only in one half of the disk and jacks with short butts are located only in the other half of the disk, as and for the purpose described.

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