US3868650A

US3868650A - Readout device for fabric patterns for the formation of corresponding electric pulses, on hosiery machines

Info

Publication number: US3868650A
Application number: US432584A
Authority: US
Inventors: Mario Piro
Original assignee: Nuova San Giorgio SpA
Current assignee: Selex Elsag Datamat SpA
Priority date: 1973-01-11
Filing date: 1974-01-11
Publication date: 1975-02-25
Anticipated expiration: 1992-02-25
Also published as: IT978121B; GB1404114A; FR2214303A5; DD109904A1; DE2400223A1; JPS49108361A; ES422151A1; CH570491A5

Abstract

A device is disclosed for reading out the pattern of a fabric to be woven on a hoisery machine, in which the pattern is caused to advance stepwise under a plate having a transversally formed window capable of showing the fabric pattern row by row, a set of conducting tabs, two for each square of the pattern, and mounted on opposite sides of the row being checked, a light source for each pair of conducting tabs, a control circuit being connected to each pair of tabs, and an electrode for generating, when put in contact with one tab for the generation of an activation signal and, when put in contact with the confronting tab, the light source being lighted when the delivery of an activation signal is preset.

Description

United States Patent n91 Piro [451 Feb. 25, 1975 [75] Inventor:

[73] Assignee: Nuova San Giorgio S.p.A.,

Genova-Sestri, Italy 22 Filed: Jan.l1,1974

21 App]. No.: 432,584

Mario Piro, Genova, Italy 1 e ia sa i ati n P iqrit D Jan. 11,1973 Italy 19165/73 [52] US. Cl. 340/173 R, 66/154 A [51] Int. Cl H01! 13/50 [58] Field of Search 66/75, 78, 154 A, 50;

139/55, 317, 318, 319; 235/616 A, 61.6 B; 178/18, 19, 20; 340/365 P, 172.5, 173 LT,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,644,671 2/1972 Scarbrough 178/18 3,783,642 l/1974 Hadam 66/154 A Primary Examiner-James W. Lawrence Assistant Examiner-D. C. Nelms Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Diller, Brown, Ramik & Wight [57] ABSTRACT A device is disclosed for reading out the pattern of a fabric to be woven on a hoisery machine, in which the pattern is caused to advance stepwise under a plate having a transversally formed window capable of showing the fabric pattern row by row, a set of conducting tabs, two for each square of the pattern, and mounted on opposite sides of the row being checked, a light source for each pair of conducting tabs, a control circuit being connected to each pair of tabs, and an electrode for generating, when put in contact with one tab for the generation of an activation signal and, when put in contact with the confronting tab, the light source being lighted when the delivery of an activation signal is preset.

5 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures PATEN TED FEB? 51975 sum 2 or 2 READOUT DEVICE FOR FABRIC PATTERNS FOR THE FORMATION OF CORRESPONDING ELECTRIC PULSES, ON I'IOSIERY MACHINES The formation of a fabric requires, at the outset, its graphical representation on a drawing: this drawing, in addition to giving an initial idea of the appearance the fabric will have, is the operative program of the weaving machine.

More particularly, for the formation of knitted fabrics, the pattern is usually divided into squares, each of which shows one mesh: each square will have, in addi tion, a colour which, properly read out and converted into an electric signal, will have the corresponding needle to become active in the machine for bringing the thread of preselected colour to make up the fabric.

The program, as represented by the drawing, is the means which, when properly read out, permits to deliver a plurality of signals, which are adapted to give an exact positioning to the needle controlling mechanical members, in hoisery machines. For example each read out row of the pattern will enable the pins exactly to be positioned along a generating line of the control cylinder for the needles in a mechanical Jacquard type machine.

More recently. there have been suggested hosiery machines in which the needle control is carried out by means of electromagnetic actuators; in this case the fabric pattern is the program which, when properly read out and processed permits to send to the actuator command electric pulses.

Considering the very high number of informational data which should be read out and transferred, the operation takes a considerable time and involves a high possibility of errors; inasmuch as an error leads to a reject of the material which is woven as a test and a delay of the start of the manufacture, it is apparent that it is necessary to be able to interpret and to carry out with rapidity and without faults the presetting of the machine on the basis of the pattern.

Devices are known for reading out and transferring the information from the pattern to the weaving machine, which generally require of the operator to read out, the transcription of data, and subsequent sequential actuation of a double manual control for preparing the patterning cylinders in the mechanical Jacquard machines; the result being an exceedingly high probability of errors and long times for reading the patterns out, or automatized systems which, however, have high costs which are admissible for machines having electromagnetic actuators.

The devices as suggested, however, have not solved in a satisfactory and economical way the problem of speeding up and preventing errors in the pattern readout.

The present invention has the object of providing in a cheap and simple form a device adapted to carry out the readout ofa fabric pattern by converting it into corresponding electric pulses which can be controlled by an operator by means of a luminous display first to a storage, be it of a mechanical type or any other at choise; more particularly the invention intends to suggest a device which permits the quick and accurate readout of the pattern with a continuous possibility of check of the information to be delivered. The device according to the invention comprises:

A guideway which supports slidably the fabric pattern sheet; a plate which can be superposed to said guideway and two pluralities of contact members arranged on two parallel rows perpendicularly to said guideway and between which a window is formed which permits the readout of a row of squares of said pattern; a plurality of light sources, each arranged in the vicinity of a couple of confronting elements of the two rows; means for manually actuating said contact members, the one or the other of a couple of confronting elements controlling a bistable'circuit either to actuate or deactuate the deliver of a signal which energizes one of said light sources, a storage member being further provided for storing the delivered signals.

The mode of operation of the device according to the invention and its essential constructional features will be better understood from the ensuring description of an exemplary embodiment, as shown in the accompanying drawings; wherein FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the device according to the invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a detail of the device of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram of the device shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

As can be seen in FIGS. 1 and 2, on a baseplate 10 the strip pattern 11 is laterally guided, it being of the known type in which the meshes are shown as squares. and each square has the indications of actuation of a needle with a thread of a preselected colour.

The pattern is wrapped around

rollers

12 and 13, which allow it normally to be fed forward according to the manner to be described later.

A plate 14 is hinged at 35 to the baseplate 10 and in the closed position rests on the pattern 11 to lay it flat; in the plate 14 there is formed a rectilinear slot 15 which permits the readout of a row of the squares of the pattern 11, which thus appears through it; at the sides of the slot 15 there are arranged

tabs

16 and 17, each pair 16-17 corresponding to one of the squares of the row of the pattern which is seen through the slot 15.

Each tab corresponds to a contact on which an electrode can be placed to rest, having a conducting tip 18 carried by an insulating handlel9;

Within the baseplate 10 there are housed, in a throatlike recess 20, microlamps 21, each of which is arranged between the tabs of a tab pair such as 16-17; thus each microlamp is in correspondence with one square of the pattern 11.

FIG. 3 shows the circuit diagram of a circuitry which can be housed within the baseplate 10.

As can be seen in FIG. 3, to the several pairs of

tabs

16, 17 are associated respective logical circuits 25, whose outputs are connected to respective inputs 1,. .,n of a common storage means 26. Each of these logical circuits comprises a bistable multivibrator 27 equipped with an actuating input connected to the tab 16 and a deactivation or cancelling input connected to the output of an OR gate 28, one of whose inputs is connected to the tab 17. Another input of the OR gate 28, together with the corresponding other input of the OR gates 28 comprises in the several logical circuits 25, is connected, conversely, through a delay element 29 (for example a single-shot multivibrator) to the output of a pulse shaper 30 (single-shot multivibrator) controlled by a reset pushbutton 31. The bistable multivibrator 27 continued in each of the logical circuits 25 is equipped, in addition, with an output which is connected both to a pilot lamp 21 and to an input of a logical AND gate 32. Another input of the latter, together with the corresponding other input of the AND gates 32 as contained in the several logical circuits 25, is connected, instead, to the output of the pulse shaper 30 (single-shot multivibrator).

Lastly, the output of each AND gate 32 is connected to a respective one of the inputs 1, .,n of the storage 26.

In operation, whenever a contact is made between the electrode 18 and one of the tabs 16, an actuation pulse is generated for the corresponding bistable multivibrator 27, which, changing its state, causes the lamp 21 to be lighted and an actuation signal to be preset at one input of the logical gate 32.

The above indicated bistable multivibrator can, if desired, be restored to the original inactive state by completing the contact between the electrode 18 and the tab 17 associated with the same multivibrator.

Once the desired presetting of the several bistable multivibrators 27 has been effected, it is possible, conversely, to transfer from the storage 26 the combination of signals as obtained at the outputs of the same multivibrators, by acting on the pushbutton 31. By so doing, the pulse shaper 30, in fact, delivers a signal which, beingadded to the one which is already present at the input of the several AND gates 32, causes the transfer of the storage 26.

After a corresponding delay time as set by the member. 29, the signal delivered by the pulse shaper 30v causes, moreover, through the OR gates 28, the resetting of all the bistable multivibrators 27 and the consequent restoration of the original at rest condition.

It is apparent how easily the electrode 18 can cause to slide over the tabs 16 which are involved on the base of the pattern row which appears through the window 15. If, by error, one acts on a tab 16 which should not be involved, the information can be cancelled, by touching with the electrode 18 the tab 17 which corresponds.

As the operator has terminated the row readout, he can immediately check that all the lamps are lighted which light by transparence the squares concerned, and only those: if the check shows the absence of errors, the information can be sent to the storage by actuating the pushbutton 31 and an appropriate manipulation of the

rollers

12 and 13 permits to place in the slots the next row of the pattern.

It is apparent that a further device can be provided with advantage for causing the pattern to be fed forward automatically step by step in correspondence with the distance between a row and the next one to be read out.

The nature of the storage 26 is, of course, a function of the kind of hosiery machine which is to be controlled; it can be, for example, of the magnetic type, card or perforated strip type; it can also be a kind of mechanical storage, that is, the amplified pulses can control actuators which preset in the appropriate manner control mechanical members of the machine.

For example in a copending patent application in the name of the same Applicants there is disclosed an apparatus for presetting the pins in the cylinders of a Jacquard machine, which can be advantageously controlled by the device according to the present-invention, each pulse as delivered due to the contact of. the electrode 18 with a tab16 can control, in fact, the introduction of a pin in its appropriate seating; each row of the pattern, in fact, corresponds to a row of seats arranged along the generating line of a cylinder.

The cylinders which carry the appropriate pins are.

actually, a form of a storage device for pattern data of fabric, which are mechanically transferred to the hosiery machine during operation.

Suitable modifications can be introduced in the device according to the invention, which could also have different practical embodiments without therefor departing from the scope of the present invention.

What is claimed is: I

1. A readout device fora fabric pattern and formation of the corresponding pulses, comprising a guideway which slidably supports the pattern sheet in which a row' of meshes is represented by a row of reference symbols, a plate which can be superposed to said guideway, two pluralities of contact elements arranged on parallel row's perpendicular to said guideways and between which a window is opened which permits the readout of said pattern, a plurality of light sources, each arranged in the vicinity of a pair of confronting elements in the two rows: means of manual actuation of each of said contact elements, the one and the other element of a couple of confrontingelements controlling a bistable circuit to actuate or deactivate, respectively, the emission of an energizing signal for the corresponding light source, a storage member for the delivered signals being further provided.

2. A device according to claim 1, characterized in that said contact elements are formed by conducting tabs and the actuation means are formed by an electrode integrally attached to a handle.

3. A device according to claim 1, characterized by comprising means for controlling the delivery of signals to said storage member.

4. A device according to claim 3, characterized by comprising additional controlmeans of the bistable circ'uits for discontinuing the signal delivery, operatively connected to said means for controlling the delivery of signals to said storage member, in the sense of being energized when they are energized, in an immediate sequential order.

5. A device according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises members for stepwise feeding forward the sheet in said guideway, so as sequentially to bring each row of reference symbols in registry with said window.

Claims

1. A readout device for a fabric pattern and formation of the corresponding pulSes, comprising a guideway which slidably supports the pattern sheet in which a row of meshes is represented by a row of reference symbols, a plate which can be superposed to said guideway, two pluralities of contact elements arranged on parallel rows perpendicular to said guideways and between which a window is opened which permits the readout of said pattern, a plurality of light sources, each arranged in the vicinity of a pair of confronting elements in the two rows: means of manual actuation of each of said contact elements, the one and the other element of a couple of confronting elements controlling a bistable circuit to actuate or deactivate, respectively, the emission of an energizing signal for the corresponding light source, a storage member for the delivered signals being further provided.

4. A device according to claim 3, characterized by comprising additional control means of the bistable circuits for discontinuing the signal delivery, operatively connected to said means for controlling the delivery of signals to said storage member, in the sense of being energized when they are energized, in an immediate sequential order.