US3777511A

US3777511A - Knitted garment panel

Info

Publication number: US3777511A
Application number: US00167173A
Authority: US
Inventors: M Betts; F Robinson
Original assignee: Courtaulds PLC
Current assignee: Akzo Nobel UK PLC
Priority date: 1971-07-29
Filing date: 1971-07-29
Publication date: 1973-12-11
Anticipated expiration: 1990-12-11

Abstract

A method of knitting a shaped panel for making up together with other panels into a garment; needles are taken out of action at the edges of the panel to reduce the number of wales in the panel to shape it, and knitted loops are held on the inactive needles whilst knitting continues, at a later stage, said inactive needles are brought back into knitting action again or the loops are cast off.

Description

United States Patent [1 1 Betts et al.

[ Dec. 11, 1973 KNITTED GARMENT PANEL Inventors: Max William Betts, Coventry; Frank Robinson, Borrowash, both of England qurta m t d Lsmd m England Filed: July 29, 1971 Appl. No.: 167,173

Assignee:

US. Cl. 66/76 Int. Cl D04b 7/10 Field of Search 66/67, 70, 76, 189

. References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 5/1962 MacQueen 66/76 650,376 5/1900 Donner 66/189X FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 348,499 10/1960 Switzerland ,66/189 Primary Examiner-Ronald Feldbaum Attorney-Davis, Hoxie, Faithfull & Hapgood [57] ABSTRACT 3 Claims, 1 Drawing Figure "Wi l/iii. "W /W6 PAIENTED DEC] 1 I975 llllllilllHHf! Inventors MEX WILLAAH B571:

F214 K. ROBIN s Attorneys KNITTED GARMENT PANEL 7 Thisinven tion relates to the knitting of shaped panels for garments.

One :method of producing a knitted garment com 7 method of knittingshaped. garment panels. on a flat V-bed knitting machine having independently operable needles and. onwhich the patterningpotential can be greater than on a fully fashioned flat bar machine.

A method of knitting ashapedgarmentpanel according to the invention includes the step of narrowing the panelbyltakingneedlesat one edge at least of the panel out of action whilstmaintaining loops on the needles thus made inactive, knitting being continued on other needles, and. bringing the said inactive needles, back into operation tocontinue knitting, or to press off their loops torelease the knitted panelfromthe machine.

The method can be carried. out on a, flat V-bed knitting: machine having web-holding sinkers or having a presser foot, suchias that described in thespecification of-published German Application P 19 56 190, serving inwplace of normaltake down rollers and7may. also be carried out insuitable circumstanceson other V-bed machines having takedown mechanismscapable of exerting a downward force on the knitting which can be varied across the machine and/or during knitting. The invention may be carried out on other knitting machines with independently operableneedles and a take down mechanism or, alternative mechanism with suitable characteristics.

If part of thepanel has to be widened, the widening canbe effected by needle introduction at an edge or edges of the panel.

. In one example of the method according. to the invention the body panel shown in the accompanying drawing is knitted in rib knitting on a V-bed knitting machine having a presser foot as described inthe afore mentionedspecification and a looper arrangement as described in the specificationof published German Application P 20 59 094. Take down rollers are not used.

A length of ribknitting is cast on to theneedles of the machine to commence knitting at the waist end of the panel. Casting onto empty needles can be effected without difficulty using the presser foot referred to above. Knitting is then carried out on thesame number of needlesuntilthe number of courses required for the waist band 1 of the panel has been completed.

The garment panel is then widened by needle introduction at the edges of the panel to produce theportion 2 of the panel. In the present example, needles are introduced in pairs at the two edges of the panel. The introduction is effected by programming the patterning mechanism of themachine in such a way that the butts of four extra needles, are presented to a cam track in the cam box in each course in which widening is to take place.

The yarn carriers of the machine are arranged to move over a number of needles in excess of the number required to knit the widest part of the panel so that yarn is available for newly operated needles as they are brought into action.

Of the four needles brought into action at each widening, two are at one end of the bank of previously active needles and two are at the other end. In knitting the present rib knitted panel, of each adjacent pair of needles brought into action, one needle is in one bed of the machine and one in the other.

After the widened portion 2 of the panel hasbeen knitted, a parallel-sided portion 3 of the panel is knitted up to the underarm position 4 and thereafter narrowing of the panel is commenced to produce the portion 5 of the panel.

Narrowing is effected, in the present example, by taking out of action pairs of needles at the ends of the bank of activeneedles on the machine producing the stepped line seen along theedges 6 of the panel. Of the pairs of adjacent needles taken out of action, one is in one bed of the machine and one in the other. The needles are taken out of 7 action by programming the patterning mechanism of the machine in such a way that, in each course in which narrowing is to be effected, butts of two needles at each edge of the panel are removed from the positions at which they can enter a cam track in the cam box of the machine. These needles are thus made inoperative in such a. way that the last loop formed on each of these needles is retained in the hook. The fact that loops are maintained in the hooks of needles not performing a knitting action whilst the knitting I of the panel proceeds is indicated schematically at 7. in

the drawing. 7

In the present example, to produce a Raglan style garment, narrowing is carried out every second course until the neck of. the panel is reached. The programming mechanism is arranged to bring all the needles holding loops back into operation at this juncture, so thatthe previously inactive needles are raised by the cams to cast off theirloops. No yarn is supplied to the 7 empty needles to the full width required for the next panel.

Instead of casting off loops only when the knitting of the panel is complete, held loops can be cast off when asubstantial part of the panel has been completed and before further. narrowing, creating 7 additional held loops, is carried out. For example casting off may be carried out once or perhaps twice or more during the knitting of a panel.

Since no loops are cast off until all or a substantial part of the panel has been completed, no non-knitting traverses of the cam box are required in order to operate needles tocast off loops at frequent intervals during the knitting of the panel. The overall time taken to knit a panel is therebyreduced.

Patterning and stitch effects can be incorporated in the panel according to the capabilities of the machine on which the panel is knitted.

Although the knitting of a panel in rib knitting has been described in detail, the method according to. the invention can also be carried out in plain knitting. If desired a rib border can be knitted first on needles of two opposed beds of needles before the loops on one bed are transferred to the opposite bed to continue in plain knitting.

Instead of casting off loops held on inactive needles when the panel is complete, with the result that garment panels drop individually from the machine, a succession of panels joined together can be knitted by supplying a draw thread or waste yarn to the still active needles which are knitting the narrow upper end portion of the panel when the previously inactive needles are again brought back into operation to cast off the held loops. One or more courses of draw thread or waste yarn can be knitted before knitting the first course of the next panel without need for widening the said draw thread or waste yarn courses before knitting the said first course.

In previous methods of knitting shaped panels, successively longer courses of draw thread or waste yarn have been knitted to widen the knitted fabric from the narrow upper portion of one panel to the longer first course of the next. In the present method the inclusion of such successively longer widening courses is not necessary.

What is claimed is:

1. A method of knitting a flat shaped panel for a finished garment in which the knitted wales run substantially vertically, said method comprising the steps of knitting the panel on needles of a knitting machine with independently operable needles, narrowing at least a portion of the panel along at least one edge thereof by taking a plurality of needles serially out of action whilst maintaining loops of said panel on the needles thus made inactive, meanwhile continuing knitting of the panel on other needles of the machine, bringing said needles and only said needles which have been taken out of action serially back into action together, and casting off loops to release at least said portion of the panel from the needles.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein said inactive needles are brought back into operation when the knitting of the panel has been completed.

3. A method according to claim 1 wherein needles rendered inactive whilst holding loops are brought back into operation together for casting off before completion of the panel and further needles at one edge at least of the panel are taken out of action whilst loops are maintained on said further needles, knitting of the panel being continued on other needles, said fur ther inactive needles being brought back into operation together for casting off.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. "CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Pat t N 3,777,511 Dated December 11, 1973 Inventor(s) Max William Betts-Frank Robinson 1 It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent i and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

I n In the heading the following should appear:

Claims priority of Great Britain 1 38840, filed August 12 1970 Signed and sealed this 23rd day of July 1974. 1

( SEAL Attest:

MCCOY M. GIBSON, JR. C. MARSHALL DANN Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents

Claims

3. A method according to claim 1 wherein needles rendered inactive whilst holding loops are brought back into operation together for casting off before completion of the panel and further needles at one edge at least of the panel are taken out of action whilst loops are maintained on said further needles, knitting of the panel being continued on other needles, said further inactive needles being brought back into operation together for casting off.