GB1310719A - Electronic method and apparatus for the pattern formation in circular knitting machine - Google Patents

Abstract

1310719 Programmed control of textile machines AGENCY OF INDUSTRIAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 6 July 1970 [7 July 1969] 32597/70 Heading G3N [Also in Division D1] An original for a three-colour pattern to be formed on a circular knitting machine, having 12 yarn feeders, is prepared as a diagram 1 and converted, course by course, to a binary coded tape 2. The tape is subsequently interrogated by a reader 3 and the red and blue signals fed through gates 4a, 4b, to corresponding pattern registers 5a, 5b. Each pattern register is composed of such a number of paired ring registers 6, 6'; 7, 7' as equals the desired number of knit positions in the pattern width. A register, say 6, is filled as its pair 6' is being used to control, through gates 8a, 8b and selection circuits 9a-c, needle actuators 10a-10p disposed on the outer peripheral surface of the knitting machine. The selection circuit 9b produces a pattern signal for the white colour when the pattern signals for red and blue are both absent. The completion of one course of knitting is detected by a counter 13 responsive to pulses from a generator actuated by the passage of a knitting needle. When the contents of the counter reaches a set total, a circuit 12 controls pattern registers 5a, 5b to change over ring registers 6, 6'; 7, 7'. A slanted knitted pattern is produced by increasing, or decreasing the set count in the counter 13 by one. A pattern can be omitted from a given area by interposing a circuit between registers 5 and selection circuits 9. The omitted pattern is temporarily stored on a magnetic core, disc or drum memory and can subsequently be inserted inverted or 90 degrees rotated.