Automated home knitting machine

Abstract

A home knitting machine is provided with electronic control means which function pursuant to patterning instructions on a program card and in response to the operation of control devices by an operator causing needle actuators on the carriage of the machine to be selectively operated and fabric knitted in a prescribed manner on the machine.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION1. Field of the InventionThe invention relates to automatic knitting machinery and has particular application to home knitting machines which can be programmed to produce prescribed patterns on a fabric.2. Description of the Prior ArtAutomated home knitting machines are now well known and are exemplified by the machines of the following Patents and applications:U.s. pat. No. 3,885,405 -- issued May 27, 1975French Pat. No. 2,212,830 -- Reg. July 23, 1972Japanese Application No. 85853, laid open Nov. 13, 1973Although such machines can be programmed to produce various patterns in knitted fabric, there are a variety of desirable control functions pertaining to the formation of patterned fabric which the existing machines can not be programmed to perform automatically. Furthermore, existing machines do not permit the operator to exercise a large measure of control over the knitting of the fabric after the initial programming.SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONIn order to remedy the deficiencies of the prior art machines, electronic control means are provided in a home knitting machine enabling the machine to perform automatically a variety of control functions which an operator may prescribe by suitably marking a program card to be read by the machine and/or by operating various control instrumentalities, preferably located on the carriage of the machine, and enabling the operator after the machine has been programmed to exercise easily close control over the knitting of fabric on the machine.More particularly, the machine of the invention is rendered capable of reading and executing instructions which an operator may prescribe by marking the card, including instructions defining a design configuration for fabric to be knit on the machine, size delineating instructions for a unit design area to be formed repetitively in the fabric, instructions specifying that each unit design area be expanded an integral number of times, either horizontally or vertically or in both directions in the fabric, instructions directing that in conjunction with the unit design areas, mirror images thereof also be formed in courses or wales or in both courses and wales of the fabric, and an instruction directing a particular number of wales to be knit as selvedge without the design configuration at opposite side edges of the fabric. The machine is also provided with switches which offer an operator an alternative to the use of certain instructions on the program card. With such switches he can cause the machine to expand the unit design areas, produce mirror images, knit a selected number of wales of selvedge, invert the design configuration and background specified on the card, reverse the left-right orientation of a design configuration as prescribed on the program card and repeat a design row in fabric being knit. In addition, the machine is adapted to execute supplementary and/or modifying instructions in response to the actuation of switch means by an operator including instructions specifying the placement of a pattern between the side edges of a fabric to be knit on the machine, and an instruction directing the formation of selvedge in punch lace fabric with both the yarn and thread used in knitting the punch lace construction.The machine includes a liquid crystal display which provides an operator with meaningful information enabling him to better control the knitting of designs and to prevent defects due to operating error. The display informs an operator of the row of the program card being knit, of the number of times a given row has been selected for vertical multiplication, of the fact that the machine has been readied for automatic knitting before a card has been read properly where such is the case, of a failure by the operator to select a particular needle for a wale corresponding to an end column of a designated unit design area on the program card, and of the condition of the power supply.

Description

Claims

1. In a knitting machine, the combination comprising a needle bed supporting a plurality of needles in side by side relation; a carriage mounted on the bed for movement traversing such needles, the carriage including needle actuating camming; a program card including individual stitch instructions within one area of the card for a design shape to be repetitively formed in fabric to be knit on the machine, and other instructions outside the design area for controlling the knitting of said fabric; means for reading out the instructions in both of said areas of the program card; electronic control means connected with the reading means, the electronic control means being adapted to store signals representing instructions on the program card; a pulse generator on the carriage operable in timed relation to movement of the carriage, and needle actuating means on the carriage operable in synchronism with the pulse generator and responsive to the operation of said electronic control means for selectively determining paths for the needles through the said needle actuating camming according to the instructions on the card in and outside the design area.

2. The combination of claim 1 wherein the individual stitch instructions are defined by marks on the card in conjunction with unmarked portions of the card.

3. The combination of claim 2 wherein said marks are erasable.

4. The combination of claim 2 wherein the other instructions are specified by marks on the card.

5. The combination of claim 4 wherein the marks specifying said other instructions are erasable.

6. The combination of claim 1 wherein said other instructions prescribe for repetitive reproduction a unit area of fabric wherein a design shape shall be contained.

7. The combination of claim 1 wherein said other instructions specify an expansion, by an integral multiple, in at least one direction on the fabric, of the design shape prescribed on the card for repetition in the fabric.

8. The combination of claim 7 wherein said other instructions specify expansion in one direction only.

9. The combination of claim 8 wherein said other instructions specify expansion in two directions.

10. The combination of claim 9 wherein said directions are mutually perpendicular.

11. The combination of claim 1 wherein said other instructions prescribe for formation in conjunction with each reproduction on the fabric of the design shape specified on the card, a mirror image thereof in at least one direction on the fabric.

12. The combination of claim 1 wherein said other instructions prescribe for formation in conjunction with each reproduction on the fabric of the design shape specified on the card, a mirror image in one direction only on the fabric.

13. The combination of claim 1 wherein said other instructions prescribe for formation in conjunction with each reproduction on the fabric of the design shape specified on the card, a mirror image thereof in each of two directions on the fabric.

14. The combination of claim 13 wherein said directions are mutually perpendicular.

15. The combination of claim 1 wherein said other instructions specify the formation of a selected number of wales with like stitches at side edges of the fabric.

16. The combination of claim 1 including switch means connected with the electronic control means, the switch means being operable to cause the electronic control means to modify the operation of the needle actuators.

17. The combination of claim 1 including switch means on the carriage connected with the electronic control means, the switch means being operable to cause the electronic control means to modify the operation of the needle actuators.

18. The combination of claim 1 including a switch connected with the electronic control means and operable to prescribe an expansion by an integral multiple in at least one direction on the fabric of the design shape on the card.

19. The combination of claim 1 including switch means connected with the electronic control means and operable to prescribe an expansion by an integral multiple in either of two directions on the fabric of the design shape on the card.

20. The combination of claim 1 including switch means connected with the electronic control means and operable to prescribe an expansion by an integral multiple in two directions on the fabric of the design shape on the card.

21. The combination of claim 19 wherein the two directions are mutually perpendicular.

22. The combination of claim 1 including switch means connected with the electronic control means and operable to prescribe for formation in conjunction with each reproduction on the fabric of the design shape specified on the card, a mirror image thereof in at least one direction on the fabric.

23. The combination of claim 1 including switch means connected with the electronic control means and operable to prescribe for formation in conjunction with each reproduction on the fabric of the design shape specified on the card, a mirror image thereof in either of two directions on the fabric.

24. The combination of claim 1 including switch means connected with the electronic control means and operable to prescribe for formation in conjunction with each reproduction on the fabric of the design shape specified on the card, a mirror image thereof in two directions on the fabric.

25. The combination of claim 24 wherein the two directions are mutually perpendicular.

26. The combination of claim 1 including switch means connected with the electronic control means and operable to prescribe the formation of an integral number of wales with like stitches at side edges of the fabric.

27. The combination of claim 1 including a display connected to the electronic control means, and a switch also connected to the electronic control means movable into a position wherein it causes the display to symbolically indicate successively a plurality of integral multiplication factors, and movable from said position to prescribe when so moved an expansion of the design shape in the fabric by the multiplication factor in view at the time it is so moved.

28. The combination of claim 27 wherein the multiplication factor which is in view when the switch is moved from the said position is retained on the display.

29. The combination of claim 1 including a display connected to the electronic control means, and a switch also connected to the electronic control means, movable into a position wherein it causes the display to symbolically indicate sequentially and cyclically a plurality of integral numbers, and movable from said position to prescribe when so moved the formation of like stitches at each of the side edges of the fabric in a number of wales corresponding to the number indicated on the display at the time.

30. The combination of claim 1 wherein the card includes a plurality of different types of stitch instructions marked upon the card by an operator and includes textless graphic symbols indicating the locations of the different types of instructions.

31. The combination of claim 1 wherein courses of fabric are successively knit pursuant to instructions during successive movements of the carriage back and forth on the bed and the carriage includes needle detectors operable according to the position of needles in the bed for indicating to the electronic control means the position of the carriage with respect to the edge of the fabric thereby enabling the electronic control means to determine when a course is completed.

32. The combination of claim 1 wherein the carriage includes lever means operable to arrange cams among the needle actuating camming in a predetermined manner as required to enable the machine to perform punch lace knitting with a yarn and thread, a switch on the carriage which operably connects with the electronic control means, the switch being operated by the lever means when the lever means is disposed to arrange the cams for punch lace knitting and the electronic control means in response to the operation of the switch being effective to control the actuators to provide for the formation of like selvedge stitches with both the yarn and thread.

33. The combination of claim 1 wherein different types of said other instructions may be prescribed singly or in combination and are executable in like manner, including an instruction specifying an expansion of the design shape, an instruction calling for the formation of a mirror image in conjunction with the design shape and an instruction specifying the formation of a predetermined number of wales of selvedge at each end of the fabric.

34. The combination of claim 1 including a device operably connected to the electronic control means for indicating information concerning the operation of the machine.

35. The combination of claim 34 wherein said device displays a warning signal when power available to the electronic control means falls significantly to or below a predetermined level which is sufficiently high to provide for operation of the actuators.

36. The combination of claim 34 wherein said device indicates when power available to the electronic control means falls below a predetermined level at which the actuators can no longer be operated reliably.

37. The combination of claim 34 wherein said device is operable by the electronic control means to indicate to an operator an error condition if the program card has been misread.

38. The combination of claim 34 wherein said device is operable by the electronic control means to display an error symbol if inconsistent instructions have been read from the card.

39. The combination of claim 1 wherein the electronic control means includes predetermined instructions for at least one pattern and the electronic control means includes switch means operable to render such instructions effective for controlling knitting operations on the machine.

40. The combination of claim 1 wherein the actuators may be activated for only a fixed portion of the time taken by the carriage to traverse a needle position.

41. The combination of claim 40 wherein the activation time can not exceed a predetermined time period.

42. In a programmable knitting machine, the combination comprising a program card and a card reader for reading rows of instruction marks corresponding to courses of a pattern to be knit on the machine, electronic control means for controlling the operation of the machine pursuant to the instruction marks during the knitting of fabric, and a device operably connected to the electronic control means operable for indicating to an operator the row of instruction marks being executed during the knitting of a course.

43. The combination of claim 42 wherein the machine may be programmed to expand the area of a pattern vertically by repeatedly knitting courses and the said device is operable to indicate the number of times a row is knit pursuant to a prescribed multiplication factor.

44. The combination of claim 42 wherein the machine may be programmed to knit repetitively a prescribed design shape and its vertical mirror image and the said device is operable to indicate rows counting upwardly during the knitting of the prescribed design shape and counting down during the knitting of mirror images.

45. The combination of claim 42 wherein the device shows an up arrow when counting upwardly and a down arrow when counting down.

46. The combination of claim 42 wherein said device is operable to display an error symbol if the machine has been erroneously programmed, the actuators are prevented from operating while the error symbol is in view and the machine thereby conditioned for other than pattern knitting.

47. In a knitting machine the combination comprising a needle bed supporting a plurality of needles in side by side relation; a carriage mounted on the bed for movement traversing such needles, the carriage including needle actuating camming; programmable electronic control means; means operably connected to the electronic control means for prescribing a particular number of stitches of selvedge to be formed in each side edge portion of fabric to be knitted on the machine; needle actuating means on the carriage operably connected with the electronic control means for selectively determining paths for needles through the needle actuating camming; needle detectors on the carriage operably connected with the electronic control means, the detectors being operable according to the position of needles in the bed for indicating to the electronic control means the position of the carriage with respect to the edge of the fabric thereby enabling the electronic control means to control the actuators so as to provide for the formation of the prescribed number of selvedge stitches in each side edge portion of the fabric.

48. In a knitting machine, the combination comprising a needle bed supporting a plurality of needles in side by side relation; a carriage mounted on the bed for movement traversing such needles, the carriage including needle actuating camming; photoelectric reading means; means for prescribing individual stitch instructions for a design shape to be produced in fabric on the machine and readable by the photoelectric means, and for prescribing size delineating instructions for a repetitively reproduceable unit area of fabric including the design shape and also readable by the photoelectric means; electronic control means connected with the reading means, the electronic control means being adapted to store signals in accordance with the prescribed instructions; a pulse generator operable in timed relation to movement of the carriage; and needle actuating means on the carriage operable in synchronism with the pulse generator pursuant to the stored signals in the electronic control means for selectively determining paths for the needles through the said needle actuating camming.

49. The combination of claim 48 wherein courses of fabric are successively knit pursuant to successive movement of the carriage back and forth on the bed, said combination including means for providing the electronic control means with additional signals for controlling the knitting of said fabric, and including means to sense the completion of a course and indicate to the electronic control means that the course has been completed to thereby provide for the knitting of a new course pursuant to signals in the electronic control means.

50. The combination of claim 48 including means for providing the electronic control means with additional signals calling for an expansion by an integral multiple, in at least one direction in a fabric, of the design shape.

51. The combination of claim 48 including switch means operably connected with the electronic control means for providing the electronic control means with additional signals calling for an expansion by an integral multiple, in at least one direction in a fabric, of the design shape.