US2723543A

US2723543A - Means for preventing soiling of knitted fabrics during the knitting operation

Info

Publication number: US2723543A
Application number: US318556A
Authority: US
Inventors: Samuel F Chiodine; John B Lawson
Original assignee: Lawson Products Inc
Current assignee: Lawson Products Inc
Priority date: 1952-11-04
Filing date: 1952-11-04
Publication date: 1955-11-15
Anticipated expiration: 1972-11-15

Description

1955 s. F. CHIODINE ETAL MEANS FOR PREVENTING SOILING OF KNITTED FABRICS DURING THE KNITTING OPERATION Filed Nov. 1952 III lNVE/VTORS SAMUEL F CH/OD/NE By JOHN B LAWSON MJM g United States Patent MEANS FOR PREVENTING SOILING OF KNITTED FABRICS DURING THE KNITTING OPERATION Samuel F. Chiodine, Providence, and John B. Lawson, Pawtucket, R. I., assignors to Lawson Products, Inc., Pawtucket, R. I., a corporation of Rhode Island Application November 4, 1952, Serial No. 318,556

15 Claims. (Cl. 66--19) The soiling of knitted fabrics during the knitting operation by dirt and by the lubricant necessarily employed on the needle beds in all types of knitting machines, has been a very serious cause of loss, producing seconds and even rejects. The object of the present invention is to eliminate the possibility of soiling the fabric by reason of dirt and the lubricating oil that is in practice invariably used on or applied to the needle beds and which works its way along, or in the knitting operation is moved along the needles to the verge of the needle carrier where the stitch is being formed.

The invention may be practiced in any type of knitting machine having independent needles, whether they be of the latch type or bearded needle type, and whether the machine be flat or circular and if circular, whether it be provided with a dial or be without a dial.

In the herein disclosed embodiment or example of the invention, we have represented in the drawing and will describe in the specification a circular, independent, latch needle machine provided with a dial and dial needles therein, but, as stated, our invention isnot limited to any one type of independent needle knitting machine but is of very general application.

In the drawing:

Fig. l is a vertical cross section of a part of the needle cylinder and a part of the needle dial of an independent latch needle knitting machine;

Figs. 2 and 3 represent in side elevation a cylinder knitting needle in two different positions in its groove, such needle being of usual type;

Figs. 4 and 5 represent in side elevation our novel dial needle in two different positions in its needle groove; and

Fig. 6 represents by way of contrast the usual construction of dial needle.

It is to be understood that while we have shown our improved needle as a dial needle, the same improvement may be applied also to cylinder needles.

Referring more particularly to the drawing and first to Fig. l, a portion of a needle dial of a rib body knitting machine is represented in vertical cross section at 1, extending from the verge nearly to the axial center thereof. The needle cylinder of the machine is represented at 2. The said cylinder is provided with an encircling needle bed 3 and an encircling verge 4.

At 5 in Figs. 2 and 3 is represented the needle which is of the usual latch type, but it may be a bearded needle that is slidable in a needle groove. The latch needle 5 here shown slides vertically in the needle cylinder 2, being guided by the walls which are cut or set into the needle cylinder 2. The butt 7 of said needle 5 projects from the needle bed 3 and is moved by appropriate camming, not shown, from its low stitch level, as shown at A (Fig. 2), to a high clearing level as shown at B (Fig. 3). The said needle 5 may be of the same novel construction herein shown as applied to a dial needle, and which will be subsequently described herein with reference to Figs. 4 and 5.

Heretofore, little or no attention has been applied to the distance separating the verge 4 and the needle bed 2,723,543 Patented Nov. 15, 1955 3, with the consequence that the needle bed is defined as by the dotted lines 7' and 8 in Fig. 1, with a consequent shortening of the needle cylinder to the dotted line' 12.

A comparatively narrow groove 10 shown in Fig. 1 has been customarily turned around the needle cylinder such as in the well-known Scott and Williams machines, said grooves being turned or formed slightly in excess of and inward beyond the bottom of the needle grooves 11, thereby to prevent the needle 5 acting as a pump or agent to force lubricating oil from the needle bed 3 into the verge 4, by thus breaking the continuity of the surface on which the cylinder needles ride.

We have realized or discovered in the operationof knitting machines, that soiling of the fabric being knitted is caused by something in addition to any oil that might be pumped from the needle bed into the verge, and after painstaking investigation and study, we have finally determined that the soiling of the fabric is actually caused by the needle carrying lubricating oil and even dirt from the needle bed to the verge, and then spreading such oil and dirt brought to the verge through the length of the needle, until finally the oil and dirt get onto the fabric being knitted.

We have succeeded in remedying this serious defect by a further separating of the needle bed and the verge to such an extent that the part of the cylinder needle, as between the

lines

12 and 13 indicated upon the cylinder needle 5 shown in Fig. 2, enters in the knitting operation neither the needle bed 3 nor the verge 4. In such case the usual needle presser 14 that holds the needle back as it enters behind the yarn guide, and the spring band 15, rests on that part of the needle that is restricted to the verge, so as to prevent dirt and oil from the needle bed working up onto these parts.

In addition, the needle itself is or may be made with an elevated or oifset portion, such as is subsequently herein .described with respect to the dial needles, but which novel construction may be employed in cylinder needles.

Essentially the same problem of the soiling of the fabric that is being knitted is also encountered in the needle dials of rib knitting machines and the dial needles thereof, as in the needle cylinder. However, in the dial, separation of the verge 16 thereof and the needle bed 17 thereof, with consequent lengthening of the distance between the needle butt 18 and the hooks 20 of the said needles, causes complications in the dial knitting cams that move the dial needles by acting upon their butts, since the dial is necessarily in the form of a disk, and therefore the greater the distance between the needle butt 18 and the hook 20 of a dial needle, as shown in Fig. 6, the more crowded the cams necessarily become. Also the angles on the dial cams must be increased if Referring now to Figs. 4 and 5, wherein the novel construction of needle is show appliedto a dial needle, the front shank 21 of such needle is elevated or reversely bent outward and again inward at sufiiciently spaced points to present the portion 21 parallel to but positioned slightly further outward so as to ride over the top of the verge 16. Moreover, the stem 22 of the needle, just to the rear of the latch of such needle is made shorter than usual so that when the needle is moved out to latch clearing position, as in Fig. 4, the back face of such shorter portion of the needle just to the rear of the latch, will rest near to edge of the verge but never beyond the verge edge.

the head of the d1al needle is to move at the same angle in its operation.

The needle bed 17 of the dial is separated from the verge 16, and the amount of such separation is so related to the dimensions of the dial needle that the butt 18 of such novel dial needle will not move out beyond the edge of the needle bed 17, and the stem 22 of such dial needle will not enter the needle bed 17.

The new form of needle does not require the usual needle presser cams customarily used with the usual type of dial needle, and which we have represented in Fig. 6 and wherein the butt of the needle is also represented at 18 and its hook at 20. Desirably the portion of the needle back of the butt 18 is bent back upon itself as shown at 19.

With the new construction of needle, particularly when used in the dial, the needle operating cams prevent the needles being raised by the knitted fabric due to the friction between the stitches and the cylinder needles as the latter rise. Moreover, with the novel needle of our invention the normal dial cams act to hold the needles down, in place of the presser cams. Furthermore, difficulty with dirt getting under the needle and raising it, and thereby causing the needles to draw longer stitches, is avoided, because of the fact that the stem 22, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5, never enters the needle bed 17 indicated in Fig. 1.

Inasmuch as the shank 21 of the novel needle shown in Figs. 4 and 5 rides above the verge 16 and does not enter it, the needle shank cannot carry dirt from the needle bed 17 to the verge 16. Yet this very construction makes possible less separation between the verge and the needle bed of the dial, particularly, and consequent shortening of the needle so that the needle cams do not have to be moved so far back, while still obtaining the advantage of preventing the needle carrying lubricant from the needle bed 17 to the verge 16, with consequent dirtying of the fabric.

As already stated, our invention includes the use of the dial needle construction shown in Figs. 4 and 5, for cylinder needles, and thus to avoid lengthening of the needle cylinder.

The space separating the verge 16 of the dial from the needle bed 17 is represented at 23 in Figs. 1, 4 and 5, and it is of greater depth than the needle bed 17, as in the case of the needle cylinder, as already described.

While our invention is not limited to the precise definitions specified, we state that in order effectively to carry out the object of our invention, the edge of the needle bed where the dial or cylinder needle butts ride must be separated from the edge of the cylinder or dial by at least the amount of the needle travel from stitch drawing point to clear point, plus at least one sixteenth of an inch when a special needle such as shown in Figs. 4 and 5 is used. If a straight needle is employed, as shown in the other figures of the drawing, then the separating groove 10, shown in Fig. 1, must be at least as wide as the distance the needle travels, plus the amount of room taken up by the spring band or by the needle presser.

In certain of the claims, we specifiy that the needle carrier has side-by-side needle receiving grooves. This term side-by-side is employed in a generic sense and does not mean that the grooves are absolutely parallel with each other. In the dial the needles, while. side-byside in a generic sense, are generally on radially extending lines, but in many machines such as Scott and Williams machines, the dial slots are slightly off the radial line, to secure better camming action.

In Figs. 5 and 6 we have represented at 18 a portion of the dial cap, and at 18" in Fig. 6 a presser cam previously referred to as employed in the ordinary construction, the necessity for which has been eliminated in our herein disclosed construction, as stated in a slightly preceding portion of this specification.

We have shown at 24 in Fig. 5 an air pipe that is connected to a suitable supply of compressed air or air under pressure, and the course of the discharged air is indicated by the arrows in Fig. 5. The reason for the use .of air in the present invention is as follows:

In order to obtain the full benefit of the invention on the dial it is necessary to prevent yarn lint and rubber powder, (the latter where rubber is used), from accumulating on the needles and in the separating space 23 between the verge 16 and the needle bed 17 of the dial and acting as a wick for transmitting oil from one position to the other.

The lint and rubber powder can be and are eliminated in our improved mechanism by blowing air against a bafiie, which desirably is the dial cap itself, so that the air will be directed down into the space 23, and from thence rebound upwardly and a little outwardly to lift the accumulation from the needles, and from the space 23, and deposit it harmlessly on the outside of the machine. Air is controlled so as to blow for at least one complete revolution at the end of each garment so that no appreciable accumulation can collect before it is removed. The air pipe for this purpose is shown at 24 in Fig. 5. It is connected to any suitable source of air under pressure.

The reason for directing air in this manner instead of, for example, along the needle and outward, is to prevent the vacuum that follows behind an air blast from pulling oil from the needle bed 17 out into the air stream and thence onto the needles and into the verge.

We have, in one embodiment of the invention, positioned the air blast just following the dial knitting point at one feed only on the machine. This circumferential position is not regarded as critical, and our invention is in no wise limited thereto.

While the use of air for the purpose stated is not a necessity on the cylinder needles, due to the vertical position of the cylinder, it is regarded by us as desirable.

We state explicitly that better lubrication is obtained by the use of the herein disclosed invention.

Having thus described one illustrative embodiment of the invention, it is to be understood that although specific terms are employed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense and not for purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention being set forth in the following claims.

We claim:

1. In an independent-needle knitting machine, a grooved needle bed, a grooved verge spaced from the needle bed in the direction of needle travel, the grooves of the bed and the verge being aligned, the space between bed and verge presenting an ungrooved surface offset from alignment with the bottoms of the aligned grooves, and a needle having a shank of which a part between the yarn-receiving portion and the butt portion protrudes beyond the corresponding needle bed groove when the needle is furthest retracted in the knitting operation, and the dimensions of the verge and the Spacing thereof from the bed being such that said protruding needle shank part also never enters the corresponding verge groove in the knitting operation.

2. An independent needle knitting machine and needles therein in accordance with claim 1, wherein the needle is of the hook and latch type.

3. An independent needle knitting machine and needles therein, in accordance with claim 1, wherein each of such needles has an elevated portion back of the yarn receiving part, that in the knitting operation rides over the top of the verge.

4. An independent needle knitting machine and knitting needles therein, in accordance with claim 1, wherein the said needle grooves are in the cylinder of the knitting machine.

5. An independent needle knitting machine and knitting needles therein, in accordance with claim 1, wherein the said needle grooves are in the dial of the knitting machine.

avaasas 6. In a knitting machine, a needle carrier having sideby-side needle receiving grooves, each comprising a needle bed portion and a forward verge portion where the yarn is knitted into the fabric by the formation of stitches; independent needles received in said grooves respectively and provided with butts to be acted upon by knitting cams having formations to engage the butts of the needles and to advance the knitting portion of the needles to the verge portion, there to receive the yarn, and then to withdraw said knitting portion to cast off the stitches into the forming fabric; the verge portion of each needle groove being spaced lengthwise from the needle bed portion thereof by an intermediate portion, the said intervening portion being sufficiently prolonged so that a portion of the stern of each needle does not, in the knitting operation, enter either the verge portion or the needle bed portion of its groove, thereby preventing the carrying of oil or dirt from the needle bed portion to the verge portion of each groove and the spreading of oil or dirt throughout the length of the verge portion onto the forming fabric.

7. In a knitting machine, a needle carrier having sideby-side needle receiving grooves, each comprising a needle bed portion and a forward verge portion Where the yarn is knitted into the fabric by the formation of stitches; independent needles received in said grooves respectively and provided with butts to be acted upon by knitting cams having formations to engage the butts of the needles and to advance the knitting portion of the needles to the verge portion, there to receive the yarn, and then to withdraw said knitting portion to cast off the stitches into the forming fabric; the verge portion of each needle groove being spaced lengthwise from the needle bed portion thereof by an intermediate portion that is of slightly greater depth than the verge portion and the needle bed portion, the said intervening portion that is of slightly greater depth being sufliciently prolonged so that a portion of the stem of each needle does not, in the knitting operation, enter either the verge portion or the needle bed portion of its groove, thereby preventing the carrying of oil or dirt from the needle bed portion to the verge portion of each groove and the spreading of oil or dirt throughout the length of the verge portion and onto the forming fabric.

8. In a dial type of knitting machine, a needle cylinder and a co-operating needle dial having radially extending needle receiving grooves, each of said grooves including a needle bed portion and a forward verge portion where the yarn is knitted into a fabric by the formation of stitches; independent dial needles received in said needle grooves respectively and provided with knitting portions including yarn receiving formations and with butts to be acted upon by knitting cams having formations to engage the butts of said dial needles and to advance the knitting portion of the needles to the verge portion, there to receive the yarn in said formations and then to withdraw said knitting portion to cast off the stitches into the forming fabric; the verge portion of each dial needle groove being spaced lengthwise from the needle bed portion thereof by an intermediate recess that is of slightly greater depth than the said verge groove portion and the said needle bed groove portion; each of said dial needles being provided with an elevated portion that is spaced from the yarn receiving formation of such needle by a short stem portion that, when the needle is positioned in its said groove, is in contact with the bottom of said groove; the said elevated portion being sufiiciently elevated to ride in action above the top of the verge of such dial needle groove.

9. A dial type of knitting machine in accordance with claim 8, wherein the said stem portion of each dial needle is of such extent that when such dial needle is moved forward to clearing position, the back face of such stern portion will rest near the edge of said verge but will never rest beyond such verge edge.

10. A dial type of knitting machine in accordance with claim 8, wherein the length of the said slightly deeper portion of each dial needle groove is such that inthe knitting operation the needle butt of the dial needle in such groove will not move outward beyond the forward edge of the needle bed portion of its dial needle groove, and the said stem of such dial needle will not enter the said needle bed portion of such dial needle groove.

11. In a dial needle type of circular, independent needle knitting machine, a dial having radially extending needle grooves each provided with a verge portion at its outer end and spaced therefrom a needle bed portion at its inner end, and independent needles positioned in said needle grooves and provided with needle stems back of the yarn receiving front end formations, the needles being so shaped with elevated portions directly in the rear of their stem portions and the spacing of the verge portions from the needle bed portions of the needle grooves being such, and the length of the needles being so correlated to the spacing of the verge portions from the needle bed portions of the needle grooves, that the butts of the needles do not in the knitting operation move beyond the forward edge of the needle beds and the stern portions of the needles do not enter the said needle beds, and the portions of the needles in the rear of the stem portions ride above the tops of the verge portions.

12. In an independent-needle knitting machine having a needle bed and verge grooved in line, with the corresponding bed and verge grooves spaced apart lengthwise thereof, a shanked needle having a portion of the shank that protrudes beyond the needle bed in the maximum retracted position of the needle therein and having a hook portion receivable in the verge, the dimensioning and location of the verge relative to the bed and to the protrudable portion of the needle being such that said protrudable portion of the needle does not enter the verge groove in the knitting operation of the machine, whereby the needle is afforded a portion of shank which normally enters neither the bed nor the verge.

13. For an independent-needle knitting machine having a needle bed and associated verge with aligned grooves and having an ungrooved surface separating the bed and verge and offset from alignment with the bottoms of the aligned bed and verge grooves, a knitting needle having a yarn-receiving portion operable in a verge groove, a butt portion operable in the corresponding bed groove and an intermediate shank connecting said portions and itself having a portion which in the furthest retracted needle position protrudes clear of the bed groove and in the furthest advanced needle position remains clear of the associated verge groove.

14. In an independent-needle knitting machine, a grooved needle bed, a grooved verge spaced from the needle bed in the direction of needle travel, the grooves of the bed and the verge being aligned, the space between bed and verge presenting an ungrooved surface oifset from alignment with the bottoms of the aligned grooves, a knitting needle having a yarn-receiving portion operable in a verge groove, a butt portion operable in the corresponding bed groove and an intermediate shank connecting said portions, the space between corresponding bed and verge grooves being of greater extent in the direction of needle motion than the operating stroke of the needle whereby a portion of the needle shank remains at all times between the adjacent ends of the aligned grooves and never enters either of them.

15. In an independent-needle knitting machine, a grooved needle bed, a grooved verge spaced from the needle bed in the direction of needle travel, the grooves of the bed and the verge being aligned, the space between bed and verge presenting an ungrooved surface offset from alignment with the bottoms of the aligned grooves, a knitting needle having a yarn-receiving portion operable in a verge groove, a butt portion operable in the corresponding bed groove and an intermediate shank connecting said portions, a portion of the needle shank bridging said ungrooved surface being offset from the bearing portions of the needle so as to be spaced from said surface, and said offset intermediate portion of the needle being of a length greater than the operating stroke of the needle whereby no part of the needle portion which operates in the needle bed ever enters the verge and no part of the needle portion which operates in the verge ever enters the needle bed.

Adgate Oct. 3, 1882 Williams Oct. 7, 1902 8 Scott May 26, Williams Oct. 27, Wildrnan Feb. 20, Kunau Aug. 16, Mills Mar. 3, Koppel Apr. 30, Allen June 17, Lawson Sept. 12,

FOREIGN PATENTS Great Britain July 6,