US3005430A

US3005430A - Method for forming a non-bulky seam in ladies' full-fashioned hosiery

Info

Publication number: US3005430A
Application number: US704491A
Authority: US
Inventors: Robert M Matthews; Roy E Clark
Original assignee: Chadbourn Gotham Inc
Current assignee: Chadbourn Gotham Inc
Priority date: 1957-12-23
Filing date: 1957-12-23
Publication date: 1961-10-24
Anticipated expiration: 1978-10-24
Also published as: FR1198646A; GB882310A

Description

Oct. 24, 1961 R. M. MATTHEWS ET AL METHOD FOR FORMING A NON-BULKY SEAM IN LADIES FULL-FASHIONED HOSIERY Filed Dec. 25, 1957 SEA/WING D/REC 7'10 N t, y I

Fl 9 3 INVENTORS ROBERT/W. MATTHEWJ 6 BY ROY E. CLARK 74/44 a 7gim ATTORNEYS 3,005,430 METHOD FQR FGRMING A NGN-BULKY SEAM 1N LADIES FULL-FASHIONED HOSIERY Robert M. Matthews, Charlotte, N.C., and Roy E. Clark,

Flowery Branch, Ga., assignors to Chadbourn Gotham,

Inc., a corporation of North Carolina Filed Dec. 23, 1957, Ser. No. 704,491 1 Claim. (Cl. 112-262) This invention relates to the seaming of ladies fullfashioned hose, and more particularly to the seaming of such hose with a non-bulky seam that flattens against the wearer when worn.

According to the present invention a non-bulky seam, of the general type disclosed by US. Patent No. 2,8063 67, is produced by seaming a conventional full-fashioned hosiery blank in a uniquely regulated manner by which flattening characteristics are obtained in the resulting seam structure. Briefly described, the seaming method of the present invention comprises forming a seaming stitch chain along the selvage edges of a full-fashioned hosiery blank with a relatively large seaming stitch and with a relatively few wales at each selvage edge included in the seam.

Ordinarily, a full-fashioned hosiery seam is formed with a three-thread seaming chain holding about 6 to 8 wales at each selvage edge of the hosiery blank in a tight cordlike formation. In the non-bulky seam structure of the present invention this cord-like formation is entirely eliminated so that there is substantially no diiference in the feel of the hosiery fabric at the seam.

For this purpose, the seaming operation is carried out according to the present invention with the hosiery blank fed so as to capture from 3 to wales at each selvage edge in the seaming stitch chain while forming a seaming stitch about double normal size. To enlarge the seaming stitch in this manner, the stitch forming steps are arranged to produce the enlarged stitch formation while supplying the seaming thread or yarn at a sufliciently increased rate to provide for the stitch enlargement and in a relation that balances the seam structure eifectively for flattening as described in further detail below in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is an exaggerated diagrammatic illustration of the non-bulky seam structure formed according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary perspective illustration illustrating the general arrangement of the seaming means employed according to the present invention for forming the non-bulky seam structure shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a sectional detail taken substantially on the line 33 in FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is a plan view illustrating further the thread ratio control means seen in FIG. 2 as provided according to the present invention for supplying seaming thread or yarn to the seaming operation.

Referring now in detail to the drawings, FIG. 1 illus trates diagrammatically the arrangement of a hosiery fabric knit conventionally with a body yarn and then seamed according to the present invention so that a relatively few selvage wales of the hosiery fabric are incorporated in a non-bulky, fiattenable seam formed by needle cast loops 12 enchained with pairs of looper cast loops 14 and 16, and in which seam the needle cast loops 12 have a length corresponding substantially to the aggregate length of the pairs of looper cast loops 14 and 16 so as to balance the seam structure, as previously mentioned, and provide the flat, non-bulky form by which the seam is characterized.

The arrangement of seaming means for forming a nonbulky seam of this sort in accordance with the present invention is indicated in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 of the drawings,

3,065,431 Patented Get. 24, 1961 FIG. 2 representing fragmentarily a stitch forming mechanism of the type commonly employed for seaming fullfashioned hosiery blanks as disclosed, for example, in US. Patent No. 2,448,774. A stitch forming mechanism of this type conventionally comprises a stitching needle, as indicated at 18, arranged to reciprocate transversely in relation to the nip of rear and front feed cups 20 and 22 which are arranged for gripping and feeding a fullfashioned hosiery blank (not shown) past the needle 18 with the selvage edges of the blank disposed to have successive needle loops (such as are designated by the reference numeral 12 in FIG. 1) cast therethrough by the needle 18. In addition, a rear looper 24 and a front looper 26 are arranged for oscillation in relation to the reciprocating needle 18 for casting the respective loops 14 and 16 illustrated in FIG. 1 while enchaining these loops with the needle cast loops 12 to form a seaming stitch chain joining the selvage edges of the hosiery blank,

separate seaming threads

12, 14' and 16 being supplied respectively to the needle 18 and

loopers

24 and 26 for forming the respective

seaming chain loops

12, 14 and 16.

The seaming stitch chain described above is formed in the usual manner during the seaming operation about a stitch tongue 28 as seen in FIG. 3, this stitch tongue 28 being mounted above the rear feed cup 20 with a stitch forming portion thereof disposed on the tangent axis of the feed cups 2t and 22 and just ahead of and above the nip thereof to clear the reciprocating needle 18. Also, a guide member 30 of the usual type is provided so that the selvage edges of the hosiery blank to be seamed may be uncurled ahead of the feed cups K20 and 22 and disposed properly at the nip thereof for seaming, as indicated generally in FIG. 3.

According to the present invention, the reciprocating needle 18 is arranged to reciprocate across the top of the feed cups 20 and 22 just as closely as possible, and the guide member 30 is set to lead the selvage edges of the hosiery blank to the feed cups 2t and 22 so that the seaming intersection of the blank by the needle 18 takes place at a spacing of only a relatively few wales from each selvage edge, which is preferably controlled in accordance with the present invention so that not more than five and not less than three wales at each selvage edge are disposed above the needle 18 for resulting incorporation in the seam being formed. If more than five wales at the selvages are incorporated the seam will usually be more bulky than is desirable, While if less than three wales are incorporated the body fabric is apt to be distorted by the seam structure upon stretching. Also, according to the present invention, the'stitch forming portion of the stitch tongue 28 is proportioned in cross section for producing a substantially enlarged stitch formation while being disposed at a position lowered as much as possible above the reciprocating needle 1-8. The enlarged form of the stitch tongue 28 as employed according to the present invention is normally such as substantially to double the usual or conventional seaming stitch size.

In addition, in order to provide for the enlarged stitch formation of the seaming stitch chain formed about the stitch tongue 28, and to balance the stitch chain structure for flattening, seaming thread is supplied to the reciprocating needle 1-8 at an increased rate in relation to the

loopers

24 and 26. For this purpose, the respective supply threads 12', 14' and 16 are fed to the stitch forming means through a tension disc arrangement, as indicated at 32 in FIGS. 2 and 4, and then separately wrapped about a freely rotatable thread ratio control Wheel 34, at

separate drum portions

3e, 38 and 40 thereon, before being trained respectively to the needle 18 and

loopers

24 and 26. As seen best in FIG. 4, it should be noted particularly that the drum portion 36 provided for the needle seaming thread 12' is substantially larger in diameter than the

drum portions

38 and 40 provided for the respective looper seaming threads 14' and 16', whereas normally the drum portion provided for determining the needle thread ratio is smaller in diameter than that provided for the looper threads in forming a conventional seam. Accordingly, the practice followed in setting the thread control ratio pursuant to the present invention is exactly contrary to usual practice. In particular the diameter of the drum portion 36 for the needle seaming thread 12' is determined so as to afford a needle thread supply sufiicient to allow needle loops 12 to be cast by the stitch forming mechanism in a length corresponding substantially to the aggregate length of the pairs of loops 14 and 16 cast respectively by the rear and

front loopers

24 and 26, and thereby form a balanced seam structure as illustrated in FIG. 1 that will flatten with all of the seaming threads so related as to distribute equally the stretch ing forces imposed thereon when the seamed hose is worn to provide maximum strength in the seam structure.

The result is to provide a full-fashioned hosiery seam structure that is uniquely flat and nonbulky, that has a balanced formation providing unusual strength, that allows seaming threads corresponding to the body yarn to be used advantageously when desired, and that makes it possible to seam full-fashioned hosiery so the steam is not felt at all by the wearer and is often hardly detectable when the hosiery is worn.

The foregoing characteristic advantages of the seam structure provided by the present invention can also be obtained when a two-thread seaming chain is employed, rather than a three-thread chain as described above, if the seaming threads are similarly regulated to balance the resulting two-thread seam structure for flattening. For this purpose, the needle thread supply for a two-thread seam must be regulated in relation to the single looper thread therefor so that the needle cast loops and the looper cast loops are substantially equal in length, in which case the two-thread stitches formed will be balanced and flattenable in the same manner as the stitches of the three-thread seam previously described. Such regulation of the needle and looper threads for a twothread seam requires rearrangement of the thread ratio control Wheel 34 to provide drum portions for the respective seaming threads that are related in diameter so as to supply the needle and looping means in the relation explained above. Otherwise, the seaming operation is carried out according to the present invention in exactly the same way for a two-thread seam as for a three-thread seam.

The method and means for producing fiat or non-bulky type seams of this invention have been described hereinabove with particular reference to producing full fashioned hosiery but it is to be understood that this type of seam is of advantage, from the comfort and appearance standpoints, in other knitted garments and in knitted fabrics generally and the method and means of the present invention are applicable to the forming of flat or nonbulky seams in knitted fabrics generally. Also, it is to be understood that the present invention may be used to produce a flat seam in hosiery or other garments knitted with stretch yarns or non-stretch yarns.

The present invention has been described in detail above for purposes of illustration only and is not intended to be limited by this description or otherwise except as defined in the appended claim.

We claim:

A method of seaming knitted fabrics with a non-bulky seam that flattens when stretched, which method comprises feeding walewise selvage edges of fabric blanks for seaming along the wales while feeding to include in the seam 3 to 5 wales from each selvage edge of said blanks, seaming said Walewise selvage edges with a seaming stitch chain formed by needle cast loops enchained with looper cast loops, while forming said stitches over a stitch finger of sufficient widt-hto produce a seam of a width greater than the total width of the wales included in said seam so that the selvage edges are spaced apart upon stretching said fabric and the seaming stitches will lay substantially flat.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,715,372 Kohler June 4, 1929 1 1,987,090 Weinholz Jan. 8, 1935 2,012,560 Goodman Aug. 27, 1935 2,050,790 Goodman Aug. 11, 1936 2,133,229 Rubel Oct. 11, 1938 2,332,921 Kucera Oct. 26, 194-3 2,332,932 Riviere Oct. 26, 1943 2,448,774 Cook Sept. 7, 1948 2,512,489 Dills June 20, 1950 2,720,854 Cook Oct. 18, 1955 2,751,866 Schweda June 26, 1956 2,806,367 Bolles et al. Sept. 17, 1957 2,871,806 Bley Feb. 3, 1959 FOREIGN PATENTS 568,970 Germany Feb. 1, 1933