Classifications

• • D—TEXTILES; PAPER
  • D04—BRAIDING; LACE-MAKING; KNITTING; TRIMMINGS; NON-WOVEN FABRICS
  • D04B—KNITTING
  • D04B1/00—Weft knitting processes for the production of fabrics or articles not dependent on the use of particular machines; Fabrics or articles defined by such processes
  • D04B1/22—Weft knitting processes for the production of fabrics or articles not dependent on the use of particular machines; Fabrics or articles defined by such processes specially adapted for knitting goods of particular configuration
  • D04B1/24—Weft knitting processes for the production of fabrics or articles not dependent on the use of particular machines; Fabrics or articles defined by such processes specially adapted for knitting goods of particular configuration wearing apparel
  • D04B1/26—Weft knitting processes for the production of fabrics or articles not dependent on the use of particular machines; Fabrics or articles defined by such processes specially adapted for knitting goods of particular configuration wearing apparel stockings

Definitions

• IMPROVED KNITTED SOCK This invention is concerned with knitted hosiery for men, women and children.
• the invention is directed specifically to hosiery that does not extend above the knee of the wearer, and referred to as socks.
• the invention relates to socks having a leg length not extending above the mid-calf part of the human leg when in normal position (position of minimum energy) during wear. Included in this category of socks are items known as “short socks”, “ankle socks”, “anklets”, “half hose”, “crew socks”, “below-the-calf socks”, “mid-calf socks”.
• the invention also relates to socks that extend close to the wearer's knee and sometimes referred to as “executive length socks", “knee high socks” or "walk socks”.
• socks will mean knitted garments for clothing the foot and leg that do not extend above the knee of the wearer when in the normal wearing position and composed of a fabric having less than about 105 stitches per square centimetre (700 stitches per square inch) when measured fully stretched in course and wale directions and at standard conditions for testing textiles.
• socks as distinct from stockings which reached over the knee, were chiefly of a length reaching to the wearer's knee, or else to the mid-calf part of the wearer's leg, the latter being known as "half-hose".
• half-hose In order to restrain the leg of the knee length socks from slipping down a wearer's leg whilst walking, circular garters generally made from rubber elastic braid were used. The leg of the half-hose type of sock was restrained from slipping by suspenders, attached to the wearer's leg between the knee and calf muscle, and clipped to the top of the leg of the sock.
• a sock After a period of wearing, during which the wearer walks with a normal gait and velocity of leg, it is usual for a sock to progressively slip down the wearer's leg, forming wrinkles in the fabric of the lower part of the leg of the sock. This slippage commonly occurs even when the elastic top exerts pressure on the leg of such magnitude as to cause temporary skin indentation and irritation. It is the purpose of the present invention to provide socks, particularly those with leg length not extending above the mid-calf position of wearer's legs, and which exhibit superior resistance to slipping down wearer's legs during walking also causing minimal and generally negligible skin indentation or skin irritation.
• the part of the human leg is approximately the shape of an inverted truncated cone.
• the fabric of the leg portion of the sock usually exerts a pressure on the leg of the wearer and this sock-to-leg pressure will generally vary according to position between the two locations referred to above.
• the pressures are exerted as a consequence of the varying circumferential extensions giving rise to varying circumferential tensions within the fabric of the leg of a sock.
• the force exerted by the fabric on to the leg in a circumferential plane is, by virtue of the shape of the leg, not normal to the leg surface. It may, therefore, be resolved into two components, one being normal to the leg surface and the other one downwards along the leg surface, a fact to which reference is made hereinafter.
• the chief contra-slip forces are:- (d) That resulting from the friction between the leg fabric and the skin of the wearer,
• the decrease in the fabric-to-leg pressure at the mid-calf is to between 57. to 607o of that at the location of minimum leg circumference, and preferably to between 20% to 40%.
• the minimum percentage decrease in the fabric-to-leg pressure from the value at the minimum leg circumference to the top marginal portion is 40%, multiplied by the ratio of the distance from the minimum leg circumference to the marginal top of the sock to the distance from the minimum leg circumference to the mid-calf.
• This portion of fabric has moderate to high circumferential tension whilst on the leg and, therefore, moderate to high fabric-to-leg pressure. Then there is required a decreasing of the circumferential tension and fabric-to-leg pressure at a selected and relatively rapid rate whilst proceeding from the region of minimum leg circumference to the top margin of the sock.
• the ability of a sock of such construction to resist slipping down the leg of a wearer may be explained by considering the leg of the sock as a series of bands of fabric (as illustrated In Figure 1).
• the portion of fabric at the minimum leg circumference (band 1) and extending down to the ankle joint is located on an approximately conical shaped section of the wearer's leg and, therefore, the circumferential fabric tension has a force component 'parallel' to the leg surface tending to push the fabric upwards.
• the position of fabric at the minimum leg circumference possesses an added ability to resist displacement downwards. Frictional resistance is also present.
• the adaptation of the Hatra Hose Pressure Tester involves replacing the woman's foot portion by appropriately larger ones for mens' socks and appropriately smaller ones for children's socks then extending the suspender clips from the locations existing for hosiery of which the legs extend above a wearer's calf, so as to be able to secure during test various socks with legs which extend to locations below a wearer's calf. Additional modification for testing children's socks involves replacement of the fixed and removable arms by ones with smaller cross section. For purposes of specification of socks of the present invention and control of quality in manufacture various appropriate settings of the Hose Pressure Tester have been adopted.
• the "M" position is the one designated for women's surgical, therapeutic and support stockings and pantyhose comparison and contrast can be made between the pressure generated by these hosiery items at various locations on the leg and by the socks of the present invention.
• socks of the present invention differ markedly and, therefore, belong to a different class of garment to conventional socks and to surgical, therapeutic and leg-support hosiery and support socks and are characterized by a much greater decrease of fabric-to-leg pressure from the location of minimum leg circumference to mid-calf.
• Ref.l USP Re 25,046 Oct 3 1961 Example 111: Pressure in ankle 20 mm of mercury, in calf 19 mm and in lower thigh 18 mm.
• Ref.2 Technical Production Guidelines for Two-Way Stretch Surgical Stockings with the Quality Mark.
• the percentage figure for the minimum decrease of fabric-to-leg pressure from the minimum leg circumference to the top marginal location will be the same proportion of 407, as the distance between the minimum leg circumference and top margin of the sock is to the distance between the minimum leg circumference and the location of the mid-calf circumference.
• this invention is particularly applicable to socks having a leg length not extending above the mid-calf part of the human leg when in the normal position of wear, nevertheless, it is applicable to socks which extend above the mid-calf, for example knee-length socks.
• Socks having a leg length extending above the mid-calf are characterized by a decrease in fabric to leg pressure at mid-calf of at least 60%, from the figure for fabric-to-leg pressure at the minimum circumference position, with fabric-to-leg pressure in locations from mid- calf to the top margin not being critical. Owing to the resistance to slipping exhibited by the leg fabric below the mid-calf, the circumferential fabric tension and fabric-to-leg pressure in the leg portion between mid-calf and knee will not need to be as great as required in knee length socks of conventional construction, and thus the socks in addition will produce enhanced personal comfort. While the actual fabric-to-leg pressure at the minimum leg circumference may be relatively high even up to 50 mm mercury, preferred ranges are minimum leg circumference about 8 to 16 mm mercury, mid-calf circumference about 2 to 6 mm mercury.
• a sock it is common practice to design a sock to fit a range of one or more foot sizes. Such foot sizes may be designated by shoe size or by foot length according to the system used. Within any range of one or more foot sizes, the contours of the feet and legs of the population of wearers vary and in this particular case, those portions of legs located below the knee.
• the one design of sock is, nevertheless, expected to fit not only wearers' feet of varying dimensions but also wearers' legs of varying dimensions. Socks with the characteristics of this invention can exhibit resistance to slipping down wearers' legs and minimal or negligible skin indentation or skin irritation for a high percentage of any population of wearers and for selected values of sock characteristics this percentage will exceed 907,.
• the performance in wear exhibited by the socks of the present invention differs noticeably, therefore, from that of mid-calf and below the calf socks having the prior known elastic tops.
• these latter types of percentage of population which finds resistance to slipping down the leg during walking together with freedom from skin indentation and skin irritation may be as low as 107,.
• the production of socks with legs not extending above the mid-calf, without discrete elastic tops, but with an elastic yarn knitted or laid into the whole length of the leg fabric with constant yarn length per course does not greatly increase the percentage of a population of wearers with socks which resist slipping down their legs during walking.
• the required fabric-to-leg pressure of the sock may be achieved by incorporating elastic threads into the fabric of the sock. These threads may be made either wholly or partly of elastomeric material and/or textured or otherwise processed polymeric filament or fibre imparting elastic quality to the thread.
• the variation in the pressure may be achieved by varying the quantity of elastic thread or by varying the tension in the thread during the actual incorporation thereof into the fabric.
• the variation in tension may be obtained by variation in the form or size of stitch used.
• a suitable knitting machine for production of a sock according to the present invention is one in which there is the capability of altering the length of all or some of the yarns fed (knitted or laid) into the knitting needles at each knitted course or at pre-determined intervals during the knitting of the leg of the sock and/or varying the feed pattern for yarns.
• a particular yarn may be fed into the needles at every course, every second course, or not at all (varying the yarn course density).
• Knitting machines may have cylinders varying in diameter from approximately 21 ⁇ 4 inches (6 cm) to approximately 6 inches (15.2 cm) and may have a number of needles varying from 36 to 280.
• Fabric construction may be plain knit (also known as single jersey), rib knit or jacquard knit.
• Sock construction may' include a heel pocket knitted by a reciprocating action, or it may be of a "tube" type without such heel pocket and with or without yarn knitted or laid into the tube fabric to form a heel patch.
• Knitting yarns employed in the production of the sock may be any of those commonly used in the present art. Such yarns may be spun from the following fibres: cotton, wool, acrylic, polyamide, polyester, regenerated cellulose or may be continuous filament yarns of the following types : polyamide, polyester, regenerated cellulose, spandex (segmented polyurethane), rubber (natural or synthetic).
• knitting may be performed from any mixtures of any two or more of any of the above mentioned fibres or continuous filaments in the form of blended mixtures, twisted mixtures or as core-spun yarns or wrapped fibres or filament yarns.
• This invention particularly concerns the leg portion of the sock, the knitting of the leg and the setting of the leg fabric.
• the knitting of the heel, foot and toe is performed according to the chosen design of sock, and according to known art. Following completion of knitting the toe opening (if present) is closed by any of the present available means.
• a sock it is an optional current practice to place a sock, if it contains some fibre which can be plasticized by heat and steam on a flat metal former of a shape a little larger than that of the sock in a flat relaxed state. Socks fitted to former are placed in an autoclave and subjected to steam pressure, or in other vessels and subjected to heat, In order to achieve a moulding and setting of the sock fabric and thus a certain shape to the sock. Depending on whether this is done before or after scouring and dyeing it is known as pre-boarding or post-boarding respectively.
• the sock has in the leg portion between the lines A and G, a fabric construction of 1 x 1 rib type. Characteristics of the fabric in the respective sections of the leg portion of the sock (to fit size range as specified in Example 2), are shown in the following table.
• the required variation in fabric-to-leg pressure is obtained by varying the number of courses of 235 dtex Spandex relative to the total number of courses in the respective sections of the sock.
• This sock provides comfortable fit without skin irritation and will resist slipping down the leg of 90%, of that population of wearers for which it was designed.
• Knitting Machine in this example is an Esta, Model JU3 with 4 inch cylinder diameter and having 176 needles.
• This sock provides comfortable fit without skin irritation and will resist slipping down the leg of over 90% of that population of wearers for which it was designed.
• the socks were then scoured at 45oC in an aqueous medium containing an appropriate detergent, rinsed, dried, placed on metal shapes in an autoclave, subjected to steam for from 40 to 50 seconds at a temperature in the range of 119°C to 124 oC, and excessive moisture removed by convection drying with hot air.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Textile Engineering (AREA)
• Socks And Pantyhose (AREA)
• Knitting Of Fabric (AREA)
• Knitting Machines (AREA)

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Publications (1)

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Citations (11)

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• 1980
  • 1980-11-07 CA CA000364203A patent/CA1156002A/en not_active Expired
  • 1980-11-11 DE DE8080902163T patent/DE3071800D1/de not_active Expired
  • 1980-11-11 EP EP80902163A patent/EP0039707B2/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1980-11-11 NZ NZ195521A patent/NZ195521A/xx unknown
  • 1980-11-11 JP JP55502541A patent/JPH0235042B2/ja not_active Expired - Lifetime
  • 1980-11-11 WO PCT/AU1980/000085 patent/WO1981001425A1/en active IP Right Grant
  • 1980-11-12 IT IT25922/80A patent/IT1134234B/it active

Patent Citations (11)

Non-Patent Citations (1)

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