Claims
- 1. In a pile fabric circular knitting apparatus including a rotatable needle cylinder and reciprocatable knitting needles therein, supply means for delivering fibers to a plurality of feeding means providing zones spaced about the circumference of the cylinder wherein the fibers are picked up by certain of said knitting needles as they are selectively reciprocated into the respective zones, and yarn feed means for delivering backing yarn between certain of said zones to be picked up by the knittig needles actuated to receive said yarn, the combination which comprises: means for selectively reciprocating the individual knitting needles into said zones to cause the needles to remove fibers from the zones for transfer to knitted fabric; pattern means controlling said supply means to vary the amount of fibers supplied to the respective zones; controllable means separate from said supply means selectively regulating the cooperative relationship of the needles with the zones to modify the quantity of fibers that said knitting needles will transfer from a respective one of said zones to the knitted fabric; dynamic control means functioning with the apparatus in continuous and uninterrupted operation, for actuating said controllable means, whereby to control the density of pile in the knitted fabric; and means separate from said controllable means and said dynamic control means for reciprocating the needles to pick up yarn from said yarn feed means and integrate the fibers and the yarn into interlocking loops of the knitted fabric, said needles comprising companion relatively slidably operative needle elements one of which elements is adapted to transfer more fiber than the other of said elements, and said controllable means being operative to select said elements for picking up fiber in any of the respective zones.
- 2. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said one of the needle elements has a maximum open hook to receive a maximum quantity of fibers therein and the other of the needle elements has a hook partially closed to receive a minimum quantity of fibers therein.
- 3. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said companion needle elements work in a common slot in the needle cylinder.
Parent Case Info
This is a divisional application of application Ser. No. 689,066 filed May 24, 1976, which was a division of Ser. No. 358,398 filed May 8, 1973, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,973,414, issued Aug. 10, 1976.
US Referenced Citations (3)
Foreign Referenced Citations (1)
Number |
Date |
Country |
315,055 |
Jul 1929 |
GBX |
Divisions (2)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
689066 |
May 1976 |
|
Parent |
358398 |
May 1973 |
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