US3490252A

US3490252A - Cam systems for circular knitting machines

Info

Publication number: US3490252A
Application number: US683247A
Authority: US
Inventors: Horst Paepke; Johann Martinetz
Original assignee: Mayer and Cie GmbH and Co
Current assignee: Mayer and Cie GmbH and Co
Priority date: 1967-11-15
Filing date: 1967-11-15
Publication date: 1970-01-20
Anticipated expiration: 1987-01-20

Description

Jan. 20,- 1970 H. PAEPKEZ ET AL 3,490,252

' CAM SYSTEMS FOR CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES Filed Nov. 15, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN VENTORS Horsi PAEPKE Johann MARHNETZ ATTORNEY Jan. 20, 1970 H. PAEPKE ET AL 3,490,252

CAM SYSTEMS FOR CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES Filed Nov. 15, 1967 2 Sheets-Sheet z IN VEN TORS:

HorsT PAEPKE Johann MARTINETZ BY Maw ATTORNEY United States Patent O 3,490,252 CAM SYSTEMS FOR CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINES Horst Paepke, Rottenburg, and Johann Martinetz, Hechingen, Germany, assignors to Mayer & Cie, Tailfingen, Wurttemberg, Germany Filed Nov. 15, 1967, Ser. No. 683,247 Int. Cl. D04b 15/32 US. Cl. 66-57 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A cam system, for a circular knitting machine, making it possible to conveniently replace one cam with another. The cam system of the circular knitting machine includes a cam means which defines a track which determines the positions of the needles during operation of the machine, and this track has a region where the needles are in a knitting position. A support means which has an interior and an exterior carries the cam means at the interior of the support means, and the cam means has at least one cam which is situated at the latter region of the cam track where the needles are in their knitting positions. A mounting means coacts with this one cam to removably mount the latter on the support means at an operating position at the interior thereof defining part of the cam track, while at the same time mounting this one cam for removal at the exterior of the support means from the latter without requiring removal of the support means itself from the machine, so that in this way this one cam can easily be replaced.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to circular knitting machines.

In particular, the present invention relates to cam systems for circular knitting machines, such cam systems defining at least one cam track for the needles so as to determine the positions taken thereby. For example, such a cam track may coact with needle butts or with jack butts and a number of cams which form the cam means determine the positions of the needles.

With cam systems of this general type it is already known to render individual cams adjustable from the exterior. For this purpose the adjustable cams are supported in the cam system either for shifting or turning movement and are capable of being adjusted by way of a lever system which is accessible at the exterior so as to be actuated from the outside. It is also already known to arrange individual cams so that they can be disconnected from the cam system, for exchanging such cams or for selectively replacing them with other cams of different configurations. For this purpose, however, it is necessary to remove the entire cam system from the machine, in order to render the control side of the cam system body with the cam freely accessible.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is accordingly a primary object of the present invention to provide a cam system which makes it possible to exchange at least one predetermined cam from the exterior, so that in this way at the location of this one exchangeable cam differently shaped cam components for guiding the needles or jacks can be respectively introduced into the machine to achieve different types of knitting, without requiring the body of the cam system to be removed from the machine.

Thus, it is a more specific object of the invention to provide a construction which will very conveniently enable at least one cam to be removed, by way of manipulations only at the exterior of the machine, and replaced 3,490,252 Patented Jan. 20, 1970 by another cam with manipulations onl at the exterior of the machine, ina very convenient manner, which does not require removal of any other components, such as the entire body which carries a plurality of the cams.

In addition, it is an object of the present invention to provide a construction which will accurately determine the operating osition of the removable cam.

Furthermore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a simple effective structure which will reliably hold the replaceable cam removably in its operating position in the machine. 7

In accordance with the invention, the above objects are achieved by providing at the interior a support means, which carries a cam means, which determines the track for controlling the needle positions, at least one cam located at that region of the track where the needles are in their knitting positions and a mounting means which coacts with this one cam to mount the latter, not only in an operating position at the interior of the support, but also for removal from the support means at the exterior of the latter, without requiring removal of the support means itself from the machine, so that in this way it becomes possible to remove and replace this one cam sim ply by movement of the mounting means and without any removal of the support means itself.

This mounting means preferably takes the form of an elongated cylindrical carrier body which has an inner end, where the one removable cam is located, and this cylindrical carrier body is situated in a bore which is formed in and extends through the support means at a body of the latter which carries the cams, this bore extending from the exterior to the interior of this body of the support means. This one removable cam can be a tucking and clearing cam, which can be situated either in a tucking or in a clearing position by turning of a shaft which is connected to the cam and which is supported for rotary movement in a bore of the cam carrying body itself, so that in this way the cam is adjustable to determine, at at least one side, the part of the track where the needles are displaced either to their tucking or to their clearing positions. However, it is also possible to situate at the inner end of the cam-carrying body, which is removable from the support means and forms the mounting means, a stitching or knitting cam which retracts a needle from its clearing position to its idle position. A needle-retracting cam of this type can, for example, be situated in a dial cam system 'in the case where knitting is to take place only with cylinder needles and not with dial needles. In this latter event the dial needles serve the purpose of holding down the loops which have been knitted by the cylinder needles, when the dial needles have been advanced outwardly to their tucking positions, with the retracting cam retracting the dial needles to their idle positions before the location where the yarn is fed.

However, the cam-carrying body, which can be replaced from the exterior, can also be situated at other suitable locations of the cam track and can then be provided with components to carry out diflerent functions. Thus, when the replaceable cam and its carrier body are located in the region of a knitting position, it is possible for the carrier body to be provided, for example, selectively with a tucking cam component or with a clearing cam component.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention is illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings which form part of this application and in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of' part of a dial knitting system of a circular knitting machine, FIG. 1 illustrating the cams of a pair of sections of the dial cam system as seen from the interior;

FIG. 2 is a section of the structure of FIG. 1 taken along line IIII of FIG. 1 in the direction of the arrows;

and

FIG. 3 is a plan view of part of the structure of FIG. 2 as seen in the direction of arrow HI of FIG. 2.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now to FIG. 1, there are illustrated therein a pair of sections 1 and 2 of a dial cam system of a machine having short and long needles. In order to clearly indicate the configuration of the tracks for the short and long needles, the track for the butts 3 of the short needles and for the butts 4 of the long needles are schematically indicated in FIG. 1. The direction of movement of the needle butts 3- and 4 at the beginning and ends of the cam tracks for the dial sections 1 and 2 is indicated by the arrows at the left and right of FIG. 1, so that the needle butts are to be considered as moving from left to right, although it is of course also possible, as is well known, to rotate the cam system with respect to the needles which in this case will only be displaced radially.

A cam means determines in a known way the configuration of the cam tracks which determine the needle positions, and this cam means is of course composed of a plurality of cams which determine the configuration of the cam track. The cam tracks for the short and long needles are substantially the same. Therefore, the corresponding cam components for both types of needles are referred to below with the same reference characters, whereas the reference characters for the components of cam system 2 are indicated with the same reference characters primed as those which are used for corresponding components of the cam system 1.

The cam means which is formed by the plurality of cams is carried by a support means which includes the cam-carrying

bodies

10 and 10 of the sections 1 and 2, and the cam means includes, among other cams, a pair of

cams

5a and 5b which are connected together and which are radially shiftable between a position for displacing the needles outwardly to their tucking position or a position for maintaining the needles in their idle running position where they do not participate in the knitting. Thus, in FIG. 1 the interconnected

cams

5a, 5b are shown for the needle butts 3 in the position for advancing the needles to their tucking positions and in the cam section 1 in a position for advancing the longer needles to their tucking position, while at the section 2 the inner

interconnected cams

5a and 5b are shown at their position for maintaining the longer needles in their idle running position.

The cam systems also include two-part known

knitting cams

6a and 6b or 6a or 6b which are radially adjustable and which serve to retract the needles from their clearing positions so as to carry out a stitching or knitting operation, according to which one loop is pulled through another loop.

At the knitting region of the cam tracks, however, the

needle butts

3 and 4 are guided by cam components :apable of being introduced into the cam system bodies and 10' from the exterior of the support means formed thereby in a direction which is perpendicular to the plane of FIG. 1 which shows the support means 10 and 10' as they appear from the interior. As is apparent from the sectional illustration in FIG. 2, the removable cam of the cam means is supported by a mounting means which includes an elongated cylindrical carrier body 7 situated in a bore 8m 9 which extends through the cam system body 10. The replaceable cam component is fixed to the :ylindrical carrier body 7 at its inner end. In the cam system 1 the carrier bodies 7 have integrally formed therewith retracting cam components 11 having the configuration of segments of a circle and forming a onepiece body with the cylindrical bodies 7, these cams 11 projecting inwardly beyond the inner ends of the body 7.

At their outer ends the cylindrical bodies 7, which are of circular cross section, are also integrally formed in one piece with a lateral extension 12 which projects at at least one side laterally beyond the body 7. At its projecting portion the extension 12 is formed with a bore through which can extend a threaded screw having a knurled head so that it can conveniently be turned by the operator for the purpose of fixing the extension 12 to the body 10, or a positioning pin 13 can pass slidably through the bore of the extension 12 into an aligned bore 14 formed in the body 10 for the purpose of reliably situating the body 7 at its proper angular position. The extent to which the pin 13 projects beyond extension 12 into the opening 14 is precisely so that it has a length which is at least equal to the axial extent to which the cam 11 projects inwardly beyond the inner end of the body 7, so that when the pin 13 is not situated in the bore 14 the cam 11 is not situated at an operating position where it forms part of the cam track of the cam system. Furthermore, the lateral extension 12 is provided with a threaded bore to receive a bolt which facilitates removal of the body 7 out of the body 10 during exchange of the cam. For this purpose a bolt need only be threaded into the tapped bore 15 so that through such a bolt it is possible to pull outwardly on the body 7 to remove the latter and the cam 11 therewith.

As is apparent from the plan view of FIG. 3, the latter extension 12 has an irregular configuration, which is in part determined by the aavilable space at the exterior of the support means 10. The edges of the lateral extension 12 can, however, simultaneously be formed also as stops which reliably assure a proper angular positioning of the body 7 when it is introduced into the support means.

This body 7, which forms the mounting means for the exchangeable cam component is held in position by a releasable holding or fixing means in the form of a detent device shown in FIG. 2 as including a spring-loaded ball member 16 which extends into an annular groove 17 formed in the body 7, so that in this way the body 7 together with the cam 11 are secured in the support means 10 against undesired shifting movement. Thus, with such a construction a screw-type of fixing of the extension 12 is unnecessary.

At the cam system or section 2 there are, in the same way as in FIG. 1, carrier bodies 7' which form mounting means for the exchangeable cams of the section 2, these latter cams being in this case earns 18 forming tucking and clearing cams. Each cam 18 is capable of selective placement either in a tucking position or in a clearing position by way of an elongated control shaft extending longitudinally through a central coaxial bore of the body 7' and connected at the outer end of the latter to a lever accessible to the operator for turning the cam 18 either to a tucking position or to a clearing position. Thus, the cam 18 is shown at the track provided for the needle butts 3 in a clearing position where it will displace the short needles from their tucking position outwardly to a clearing position where the beards of the needles will clear the loops thereon, while the inner body 7' of FIG. 1 is shown with its adjustable cam 18 situated at a tucking position for the needle butts 4 of the longer needles. However, as will be apparent from the de scription below, in the illustrated example while the outer edge of the cam 18 would determine the tucking position, the inner edge of the cam 18 is shown in FIG. 1

coacting with the needle butts 4 to maintain them in their idle position, so that these cams 18 serve a dual function.

FIG. 1 shows outwardly beyond the outer edge of the dial cam systems 1 and 2 the knitting path 20 taken by the short needles whose butts 3 are initially advanced by way of the cam component 5a outwardly to the tucking position 20a at which these short needles will contribute to the operations of the unillustrated cylinder needles, during knitting carried out by the latter, by holding down the already knitted loops. Then the needle butts 3 engage the retracting cam 11 which serves to retract the needles along the path 20b into their idle running position 20c, and, of course, had the needles been displaced outwardly to their clearing positions, then the retracting cam 11 would have displaced the needles inwardly during retraction thereof so as to stitch or knit by pulling one loop through another. However, since the displacement is only in from the tucking position 20a, the needles are simply retracted without knitting back to their idle running position 200. The sinker cams 6a and 6b bring about the sinking movement 20d after which the dial needles are displaced outwardly by the cams 5a of the second knitting system 2 so that the short needles initially reach the tucking position 20c. Then these needles are displaced by the outer cam 18 to the clearing position 20f where the beards of the needles will clear the loops thereon so that subsequently the sinker cam 6a will in a known way retract the needles to the sunk position 20g with simultaneous knitting taking place during this retraction of the needles which previously have been displaced to their clearing positions.

The knitting path for the long needles is not illustrated. The butts 4 of the long needles are, in contrast to the short needles, maintained in th system 2, by a corresponding positioning of the retracting

cams

5a and 5b, by way of the outer retracting cam 51), in the idle running position indicated by the dotted knitting path section 2011. This idle running position is limited outwardly by the way of the inner cam 18 which has been turned to its tucking position so that instead of holding the needles in a tucking position by its outer guiding edge the inner cam 18 has its inner guiding edge coacting with the stationary cam 19, With which it is aligned, to hold the needles at their idle running position 20h.

The invention can of course be carried out with many different types of constructions. For example, the cylindrical carrier body for the removable cam component can be secured reliably in its desired angular or circumferential position in the cam system body by way of a tongue and groove structure. The securing of the exchangeable cam component can also take place by way of the other cam components. Thus, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a cam can have a portion which extends over the open inner end of the through-bores 8 and 9. In FIG. 1 there is shown at the outer region of the system 1 at the body of the support means a cam components 21 provided with a notched cutout 22 which receives an edge of the retracting cam 11 which is of the configuration of a sector of a circle, and this part of the cam 21 which is provided with the notch 22 extends over the inner end of the bore 9 which receives the outer body 7 of FIG. 1. In the same way, other cams can be provided with portions extending into overlapping relation with the inner open ends of the through-bores 8 and 9 and formed with suitable notches to coact with replaceable cams to determine their angular positions. A notch such as the notch 22 prevents turning of the cam 11 in both directions.

In general it is suflicient, when knitting only with the cylinder needles, to use either only the long needles or only the short dial needles for participating in the knitting with the cylinder needles by way of holding down the already knitted courses or loops at the regions of the knitting positions, so that only one of the cam paths need be provided with replaceable cam components. Of course, the use of the interchangeable cam component in accordance with the invention is not limited to dial cam systems. It is possible in the same way to provide a cylindrical cam system with a replaceable cam which can be replaced from the exterior.

What is claimed is:

1. In a cam system for circular knitting machines, cam means for defining a track which determines needle move ment and which has a region where needles have a knitting position, support means, having an interior and an exterior, carrying said cam means at said interior of said support means, said cam means including at least one cam situated at said region of said track, and mounting means coacting with said one cam for removably mounting said one cam on said support means in an operative position at said region of said track and for removal from said support means at the exterior thereof without removing said support means from the circular knitting machine, so that said one cam can be replaced from the exterior of said support means.

2. The combination of claim 1 and wherein said mounting means includes a cylindrical carrying body having an inner end where said one cam is located and said support means including a body formed with an opening in which said cylindrical carrier body of said mounting means is located, and means for releasably fixing said carrier body to said support means.

3. The combination of claim 2 and wherein said one cam situated at said inner end of said carrier body is a tucking and clearing cam, said cylindrical body being formed with an axially extending bore in which a control shaft which is fixed to said one cam is located for turning movement, so that through the latter shaft said one cam can be situated either in a tucking position or in clearing position, and said one cam determining on at least one side thereof a part of the track of said cam means.

4. The combination of claim 2 and wherein said one cam situated at said inner end of said carrier body is a knitting cam for retracting needles from their clearing positions to their idle positions.

5. The combination of claim 4 and wherein said one cam is integral with and forms a one-piece structure with said carrier body.

6. The combination of claim 3 and wherein said one cam also limits, at at least one side, a part of said track which determines the path of idling movement of the needles.

7. The combination of claim 2 and wherein said releasable fixing means includes a spring-pressed detent ball carried by said support means and a recess formed in said cylindrical carrier body receiving said ball.

8. The combination of claim 2 and wherein said cylindrical carrier body has an outer end carrying a fixing extension, which extends laterally from said outer end of said body at the exterior of said support means for releasably fixing the carrier body to said support means at the exterior of the latter.

9. The combination of claim 8 and wherein said lateral extension at said exterior of said cylindrical body is formed with an opening passing therethrough and wherein said support means is formed with an opening aligned with said opening of said extension, and a positioning pin extending through said opening of said extension and into said opening of said support means for positioning said cylindrical body and said one cam therewith at a predetermined angular position with respect to said support means.

10. The combination of claim 2 and wherein said support means has at its interior a projection extending across a part of said bore at an inner end thereof to be engaged by part of said one cam to determine the position thereof at the interior of said support means.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,756,574 7/ 1956 Shortland 6625 2,895,317 7/1959 Millet et al 6624 3,158,012 11/1964 Kahan 6631 RONALD FELDBAUM, Primary Examiner