US1114539A - Rib-knitting machine. - Google Patents

Description

R. W. SCOTT.

RIB KNITTING MACHINE. APPLIUATION rum) D5021, 19111 1 1 1 4,539. Patented Oct. 20, 1914.

INVENTOR ROBERT w. SCOTT BY HIS ATTORNEY UNITED STATES PATENT OFFIQE.

ROBERT W.- SCOTT, OF BOSTON, MKSSAGHUSETTS, .ASSIGNOR TO' SCOTT & WILLIAMS, INCORPORATED, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

RIB-KNITTING MACHINE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed December 21-, 19:1.

Patented Get. 20, 1914.

Serial No; eemsn.

To all whom it may concern":

Be it known that I, Ronnn'r W. Sco'rr, a citizen of the United States, residing in Boston, Massachusetts, have invented certain Improvements in Rib-Knitting Machines, of which the following is a specification.

The object of my invention" is'to provide a rib knitting machine with web holders of such a character that knocking over of the stitches from the ribbing needles can be effected without the use of weights, draft rolls or the like for imparting tension to the ribbed web, so that fabric can be dropped from the machine automatically after any given length has been knit, and the knitting commencedagain on empty needles.

Heretofo-re in the manufacture of ribbed tops for half hose and the ribbed leg portions of footed ribbed hose, it has always been the practice to knit the tube incontinu ous lengths with welt portions and slack courses formed at suitable intervals, the fabric being then separated into suitable lengths by severing it close to the welt and between the welt and the slack course portion. Usually a space of about one-half inch intervenes between the slack course and the welt, which portion, after the fabric is sevcred, is used by the operator to facilitate the placing of the stitches upon the needles of the footing machine, or upon the impal ing points of a transferring. These surplus courses are then raveled' away, but when the fabric is severed as described, the raw edge left is extremely difficult to revel and considerable loss of time results. If, on the other hand, each piece were pressed or cast off separately from the needles on the rib knitting machine, these superfluous courses would be raveled away by simply drawing out the one loose end. When the ordinary practice is followed, as described above, the welted or selvaged end of the ribbed fabric is left with each terminal stitch or loop can rying short pieces of yarn, which presents a ragged and unfinished appearance. Moreover, it is impossibleto sever the fabric in one andthe same course, and this results in an unsightly welt. If, however, each separate piece of fabric can be started with the needles empty, a perfect welt orselvage will Figure 1 is a sectional view of part of a circular knitting machine, provided with special web holders and operating device therefor, in accordance with my invention;

Fig. 2 is a sectional View of. part of a circular knitting machine-showing the relative positionsof the cylinder or primary needle and the web holders; Fig. 3 is a view partly in plan andpartly in sectional plan of the parts shown in Fig. 2; Fig. i is a perspective view of one of the web holders; 5

is a view similar to Fig. 2, but illustrating a modification of the invention; Fig; 6 is a side view illustrating another modification of the web holder; Fig. 7 is'a front view of the same, and Fig.8 is an enlarged view in plan, of two dial needles and one cylinder needle with two web holders showing the action thereof when at work.

It will be obvious that the needle carriers may be the flat beds of an ordinary straight knitting machine, or the cylinder and dial of an ordinary circularrib knitting machine, the latter type of machine having been se lected for illustrating my invention. The needles may, for knitting purposes, be projected and retracted in said cylinder and dial by means of cams of the usualcharacter carriedby the cylinder cam ring and dial cam plate, and the machine may have rotary needle carriers and stationary cam carriers or the reverse of this, it being necessary, however, that a clear opening be provided between the carriers as the presence of dogs would obviously prevent knitted Web from dropping freely from the needles of the machine- Any. of the well known methods of maintaining the cylinder in and obviously the primary knitting may be accomplished on either the cylinder or the dial needles or both may have a primary action, as is customary in some types of knityweb in combination with a distinct web holder which functions in the production of plain web, but while it has been found in practice that the special web holder for the ribbed Web will function well inthe production of the ribbed portion of the fabric, its construction and use as shown was open to serious objection. In the first place, it .was located within the circle of the cylinder needles and below the dial needles, and this not only made the parts involved difficult of access, but necessitated separate web holder carriers and cam carriers therefor. Moreover, when working in a vertical plane the strain was applied substantially at a right angle to the direction of movement of the dial needle, and when applied at an angle as shown in Fig. 3 of said patent the direction of pull upon the stitch to be 'knocked over was exerted in a still more unfavorable direction, in being clear that this "strain would effect the knocking over of the old stitch on the rib knitting needles more readily if applied in a direction the opposite of that of the movement of the dial needle when the latter is about to cast off its stitch.

In mechanism shown in Patent No. 925,- 036, above referred to, I have shown a unitary web holder, that is to say, one that might be used in connection with plain fabric as well as with ribbed fabric, but this construction did not lend itself readi y to the accomplishment of the purpose in mind,

, nor has it been possible to secure a combination of the parts that would operate in a simple and mechanical manner, on account of the necessity of imparting motion to said web holder in four directions, that is to say, in and out and up and down, with reference tho the hooked end of the cylinder needles.

In this my present invention I have overcome all of the named objections to the mechanisms employed in the two patents above recited, by employing web holders of peculiar form that are set in grooves in the needle carrier which supports the primary needles, and I secure the d 'ed results by a simple to and fro motion of the web holders, and am not obliged to provide separate slotted carrier therefor, all of the parts which I have added to an or inary rib knitting machine being outside of the needles, so that ready access may he had. thereto for adjustment or replacement of any of the parts.

Referring "to Fig. 1 of the drai'vings, a construction of ordinary character is shown, and I have selected a machine of the stationary needle carrier type for illustrative purposes, the bedplate l, carrying the cog ring 2, which, in turn, carries and supports the various parts of a segmental cam structure 3, upon which is mounteda supplemental cam structure 4, the latter carrying the cams for imparting vertical motion to the web holders. The cylinder 5 carries in its grooves needles of the ordinary construction, but somewhat longer, over all, than the needles of an ordinary rib knitting machine. This increase in the length of the needle furnishes ample room for the application of the cams in section 4 to the butts of the web holders 6; '7 is the ordinary needle dial, 8 the ordinary dial cam cap and 9 the spindle upon which these are mounted.

In Fig. 2, I have shown a web holder and needle, greatly enlarged, mounted in their respective slots'or grooves in, the cylinder 5. The cylinder is preferably reduced in diameter at its upper portion to correspond to the depth of the cutting for the shanks of the needles, but at the lower portion the cylinder is enlarged, as at 12, to give the necessary bearing to withstand the side thrust of the came when they act upon the butts of the needles; I prefer to employ two Web holders for each cylinder needle, one on each side, as clearly shown in Fig. 3. Theseweb holders are preferably reduced in thickness at their upper ends, say from the line 13, so as to provide the necessary yarn room at each side of the needle, and they are mounted in slots 14, which are form-ed at each side of the groove, which carries the needle, and preferably of about twice the depth of the needle groove as shown in Fig. *2.

The operation of these parts is as followsz rassuming the needles of both car riers to be empty, that is to say, having no loops own. them, the latches of tho needles thrown back or opened by the use of any suitable form of latch opener and the yarn is fed to their hooks by the usual yarn feed or thread carrier, the yarn ordinarily being fed to the primary needles (in this case the cylinder needles) which as they draw downwardly lay a bight of the yarn over the dial needles and within their hooks. By preference, at this point the draft imparted to the cylinder needles is somewhat less than that used in knitting the rib, so that the init al coins of the fabric will be of about me it u h as a normal knitted course. After the machine has made one or more TG OlUlIlOIlH, and each needle has at least one loop or bight of yarn in its hook, the secondary or dial needles, if awelt is to be formed, are thrown out of action, out of the path of the cylinder needles, and permitted to retain their stitches, and several courses (depending upon the number required in the Welt) are formed upon the cylinder needles only. The dial needles are then returned to active position, that is to say, so that their hooked ends receive the yarn from the cylinder needles, and the machine now proceeds to produce ordinary ribbed fabric.

The operation of the web holders will be understood by reference to Fig. 8. The cams carried by the section 4 act to raise these Web holders at a point somewhat in advance of the raising of the cylinder needles, which serves to force the horn 16 of the web holder past the yarn carried in the hooks of the dial needles so that said horn is brought above the. yarn as shownin Fig. 8. The web holders are now, by preference, slightly lowered so that the lower face 17 of the horn 16 is just barely in contact with said yarn, and they are held in this position while the cylinder and dial needles are both operated by their cams to pass the loops upon them back of their latches and to receive new yarn from the yarn carrier. The cylinderneedles are first retracted to place a bighr. of the new yarn within the hooks of the dial needles and at the same time the old loop on the cylinder needle is knocked over the new yarn in the hook of said cylinder needle. The dial needle is now correspond ingly retracted so that the old loop upon it is brought into position for being cast over the new yarn in 'its hook and at this juncture the cams carried by section 4 on the cam ring act to depress the web holders, which, acting upon the old: loop on each side of the dial needle serve to cli'ectually cast it over the new loop. At the next revoiution of the inaohine the loop previously aciid upon by the web holders has now become the sinker Wale of the ribbed fabric and at each revolution these sinker wales are acted upon in i an altogether similar manner by the horns of the web holders so that the strain is applied to the loops of the course preceding that which is being drawn by the dial needi s to effect the knocking of the stitches of said preceding course over the new thread in the hooks of the dial needles.

When a sufficient amount of fabric has been knit to form the ribbed top or ribbed leg, the needles are'preferably projected and retracted by a special cam in advance of the ordinary knitting cam to the end that the stitches carried thereby are cast from the needles and the finished product is thus dropped from the machine, whereupon the yarn is again introduced to the needles as above described and a continuous production of separated articles is thus HCCDlIiplished.

While I preferthe fornrof web holder shown in Fig. 2, various modifications may be employed without departing from the spirit of my invention, two forms of which are shown in Figs. 5, 6 and 7. In the preferred form, shown in Fig. 2, the bottom of the needle groove forms a platform upon which the needle 11 slides, and, in the usual construction, the width of the needle and the width of the groove for receiving it are substantially the same. Either after or before the needle grooves are cut, I form comparatively narrow slots 14, one at each side of the needle groove, and extending a suflicient distance below the top of the cylinder to allow of ample movement bein imparted to the web holder. (See Fig. 2.5 These slots are cut back into the body 0 the metal of the cylinder substantially twice the depth of the needle groove, and the front edge of the web holder lies flush with the front edge of the needle when both are in working position. By thus cutting the web holder slots deeper than the needle grooves I am enabled to provide suflicient bearing for the web holders, which would not be the case if these slots were of the same depth as the needle grooves. Moreover, the side strain applied to the web holders would tend to bind the needles between said web holders. This construction is particularly important in line gage nia chines. Where, however, the gages are com- 'iaratively coarse, excellent results may be secured by applying a web holder such as that shown in Fig. 5. In this case, the slots for the web holder are of the same depth as the grotwes for the needle, the needle having its bearing, as usual, on the bottom of the groove, but not occupying all of the depth of the same, whereas the web holder 6, Fig. 4, occupies with its width the full depth of the slot, the cylinder at this point, being of nearly the same diameter as the cam surface for the butt end of the needle.

As before stated, where coarse gages are employed, the side thrust of the web holder operating cams is not sufiicient to bend or twist the butts of the web holders, but where such a tendency occurs, I may employ a supporting piece 24, riveted or otherwise secured to one web holder of a pair, the thickness of which is equal to the space between the two contiguous faces of any given pair of web holders; this is shown in Figs. 5

and 6. a

As before stated, I have found that the best results are secured when the strain is applied both downwardly and toward the cylinder needies, instead of at right armies to the plane of movement of the dial needles, and to accomplish this I prefer to form the under face 17 ofthe web holder horn at an angle of about forty-five degrees, so that when downward movement is imparted to the web holders engaging the sinker wales of a course, this angular shape of the under face of the horn tends to draw the old loop 5 away as well as down from the retracted dlial needle. The top portion of the horn is also homer preceding lat wh h is being formed by tin needles will slip below it, and in order to insure roper action in this respect I form the dia with notches 29, Fig. 3, so that if the yarn of the sinker Wale should by any chance lie close to the edgeof the dial, the ends of the horns of the web holders play ing in these notches would be certain to engage with the yarn.

In machines where it is necessary to knit welts at one edge of sections of rib fabric, and where these welt portions consist-of a plurality of courses, it becomes necessary to provide means for feeding these courses of plain fabric over the hooks of, and away rom, the cylinder needles. To accomplish this, I have provided the tops of the web holders with a beveled head, the beveled surface 31 bearing such relation to the hook of the needle that it serves to permit the bight of yarn between the needles to slip downwardly, so thatthe sinker wales of the plain courses finally reach the portions 32 of the web holders, which extend inwardly some distance beyond the inner faces of the needles, and in practice this results in feeding the old stitch over the needle hook and away from the needle in the direction of the knitting, and insures a perfect formation of stitch, by preventing the needle from entering the cast off stitch a second time, as would be the case where no weight was employed and no means used for feeding this loop away from the needle.

I claim 1. The combination of the needle carriers and needles of a rib knitting machine with web holders mounted in one of the needle carriers and movable in line with the nee- "les carried thereby, said. web holders having horns for engaging sinker wales ex tending between the stitches of the knitted web.

2. The combination of the ne dle carriers and needles of a rib knitting machine with web holders mounted in one of he needle carriers and movable in line with the nee-- ing horns for engaging the sinker wales extending between the stitches of the knitted i web, to knock over the stitches upon one set each an. angle that, as the web the sinker Wale oi the course i of needles, the engaging faces of said horns hen: so termed to draw the stitches that are being knocked over outwardly on the hooi; of the needle as well across the same.

i, The combination of the needle carriers and needles of a rib knitting machine with web holders flanking the needles of one of the carriers, each web holder being mounted in a groove in the needle carrier which opens into the needle groove at the knitting edge of the needle carrier.

5. The combination of the needle carriers and needles of a rib knitting machine with web holders disposed one on each side of each of the needles of one oi the needle car'- riers, said web holders being mounted in a groove in the needle carrier which opens into the needle groove at the knitting edge of said needle carrier.

6. A needle carrier for a rib knitting machine, said needle carrier having slots for the reception of slidable needles, said slots being amplified for part of their length to receive web holding devices and such amplification extending to the knitting edge of the needle carrier.

7. A needle carrier for a rib knitting machine, said needle carrier having slots for the reception of slidable needles, said slots being anilplified in width for part of their length to' receive web holdin devices flanking the needles such ampli cation extendingto the knitting edge of the needle carner.

8. A needle carrier for a rib knitting machine, said needle carrier having slots for the reception of slida'ble needles, said slots the needle 0311161,

9. A needle carrier for a rib knitting machine, said needle carrier having slots for the reception of slidable needles, said slots being amplified both in width and depth for part of. their length to receive web holding devices flanking the needles and of greater depth than the latter such amplification extending to the knitting edge of the needle carrier.

10. The combination of the needle carriers and needles of a rib knitting machine with web holders having herbs for engaging the sinker wales between adjoining stitches on the needles, one of said needle carriers having, between the needle grooves, notches for the reception of said horns of the web holders.

11, The combination of the needle carriers and needles of a rib knitting machine, I with Web holders having horns for engaging name to thisspecification, in the presence of the sinker Wales between adjoining stitches two SUbSCIiblIlg wltnesses.

i In testimony whereof, I have signed my 1 on the needles, said Web holders also having, ROBERT W. SCOTT.

above the horns, beveled tops Whose inner VVit-nesses: faces proiech inwardly beyond the backs of ARTHUR M. BLADES, the needles along side of the same. M. T. Goon.

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