The present invention relates to a garment, such as briefs, tights or the like, to a method and to a machine for knitting it.
Currently, the most widely used method for producing tights or the like is that of knitting two tubular knitted fabrics on a single-cylinder circular knitting machine, cutting them, in length direction, in the panty area and joining them by sewing together the respective cut edges. The tights produced in this way have a good fit, but the presence of seams is unsightly and uncomfortable, particularly in the inguinal area. To obtain a greater comfort, in some cases a fabric gusset is sewn in the inguinal area of the garment, thus however increasing the production cost of the pantyhose.
In order to overcome these drawbacks, various methods and corresponding knitting machines have been developed, as well as corresponding knitting machines for producing tights that have, when exit from the machine, an already wearable configuration, without the need for further seams in the panty area.
One of these methods is described, for instance, in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,011,738, granted on Mar. 15, 1977, and provides for knitting this kind of garment by means of a double-cylinder circular knitting machine. The machine produces a first tubular fabric, suitable to fit the pelvis by means of both the cylinders, which rotate with reciprocating motion and which work the same yarns, the needles of a cylinder working a first half of the tubular fabric when the cylinders rotate in one direction, and the needles of the other cylinder working the other half when the cylinders rotate in the opposite direction. Thereafter machine starts to rotate with continuous motion, contemporaneously producing with both the cylinders two other tubular fabrics, one for each cylinder, for the legs (hereinafter “leg pieces”), each of which is knitted as a continuation of a respective half of the first tubular fabric.
Even if, at first glance, the appearance of such a garment is completely acceptable thanks to the lack of seams in the panty, however it has some significant drawbacks that have prevented the industrial use of this knitting system. In particular, whilst working the panty with reciprocating motion, the two facing cylinders of the machine must be moved toward each other as much as possible, in order to minimize the interstitch connecting the two halves of the first tubular fabric. To allow the movement of the needles of a cylinder to pick-up the yarn and form stitch in one or more feeds without interfering with the corresponding needles of the other cylinder, only alternate needles are therefore used in both the cylinders, for example odd needles in the lower cylinder and even needles in the upper cylinder. As a result, the panty part is worked with half of the needles available in each cylinder, thus obtaining a more than halved stitch density relative to an equivalent garment sewn in a classic manner and knitted on a machine of equal fineness, and this significantly limits the fit and the covering power of the garment, especially in large sizes.
The object of the present invention is to provide a knit knitting method for a garment with a body and two leg pieces, such as for example a pair of briefs, pantyhose or the like, of the type described in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,011,738, but substantially improved, so as to overcome, partially or completely, at least one of the cited drawbacks.
This object is obtained with a knitting method for a knitted garment comprising a body and two leg pieces by means of a double-cylinder circular knitting machine, comprising the phases of:
In this way, both the body and the leg pieces are produced with a similar density of stitches. The garment has a better fit. Furthermore, using at least two yarns and feeds for knitting also the body, it is possible to use in combination so-called “S” and “Z” yarns in combination. These yarns are obtained from covering a core made of an elastic yarn with a covering filament helically wound around the core. The yarns are called “S” or “Z” according to the direction of winding of the covering filament. As each yarn covered in this manner tends to curve in a direction according to the direction of winding of the covering filament, the use of two yarns of “S” and “Z” type allows to compensate the fact that the two yarns tend to curve in opposite manners, thus obtaining an article of better quality. This technique is known in the field of sock production, but it cannot be applied in the method described in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,011,738. Alternatively, parallel yarns can be used, in a number equal to or greater than two, therefore also in odd number, for example three, with three feeds.
It is possible to start knitting from the toe, or distal end, of the two leg pieces, working with continuous motion with the two cylinders to knit simultaneously the two leg pieces, and subsequently knitting the body with reciprocating motion. However, knitting of the body is preferably carried out firstly, starting from the waist thereof, followed by simultaneous knitting with continuous motion of the two leg pieces, ending with the toe thereof. Specific reference will be made hereunder to this second method of embodiment, but it must be understood that at least some of the advantageous characteristics and embodiments described with reference to this second method can be obtained also in the first method.
According to some embodiments of the method according to the present invention, a first tubular fabric, the upper part of the body, is substantially knitted by means of both the cylinders with a reciprocating motion, using a first arc of adjacent needles lower than 360°, i.e. lower than the overall number of needles of the cylinder. Thereafter, when said first tubular fabric has been knitted, the cylinders knit with continuous motion the lower part of the body and the two fabrics forming the leg pieces of the tights using all their needles. At the beginning of this second phase, needles of the two cylinders, that have not knitted during the previous phase, pick-up a same yarn to form at least one common initial partial course of stitches for connecting the two tubular fabrics of the leg pieces, this partial course of stitches defining, in the finished garment, a lower segment of the crotch line of the garment. Preferably, the partial course is formed with two yarns. The yarn(s) forming the partial courses define an interknitting, whose length is proportional to the number of needles that remained inactive during the reciprocating motion-knitting phase. These are the same yarns, with which the first part of the body of the tights has been formed during the knitting phase with reciprocating motion.
In this way, the pantyhose according to the present invention substantially has fit comfort and resistance substantially better than the comfort and resistance which can be obtained with the method described in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,011,738.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the method is implemented by means of a double-cylinder machine, wherein the needles of each cylinder are offset by half a pitch relative to the needles of the other cylinder. In some preferred embodiments of the present inventions the sinkers have a doffing or recess to allow the corresponding needle of the other cylinder to form stitch. The so designed machine allows the two cylinders to be brought very near one to the other, thus obtaining a high-quality knitted article.
In this way, for processing the first tubular fabric with reciprocating motion all the needles of both the cylinders can be used, comprised in said first arc of adjacent needles. For instance, for knitting the panty each cylinder can use a 270° arc of needles, thus obtaining a stitch density highly similar to that of a pantyhose sewn in a classic manner, knitted on a machine of equal fineness whilst, as described above, the leg pieces of the pantyhose are connected to each other according to a joining line extending for a 90° arc of needles along the crotch. The pantyhose according to this embodiment of the present invention is therefore more comfortable to wear than the known tights.
In preferred embodiments of the present invention a method is provided for knitting a knitted garment comprising a body and two leg pieces by means of a double-cylinder circular knitting machine, comprising the steps of:
It is furthermore provided for an arc of needles to be maintained temporarily inactive on each of said two cylinders during knitting of said at least one part of the body with reciprocating motion; and it is provided for said temporarily inactive needles to be set to work at the end of the knitting of said at least one part of the body with reciprocating motion, thus forming an interknitting line for joining the two leg pieces, then continuing knitting with continuous rotary motion with all the needles of both the cylinders.
In some embodiments of the method according t the present invention it is provided for said garment to be formed by joining three tubular fabrics. In this case preferably a first tubular fabric is obtained by means of both the cylinders of the machine, which rotate with reciprocating motion and work yarns fed by at least one yarn guide of at least one feed, the needles of a cylinder working when this cylinder rotates in one direction and the needles of the other cylinder working when this rotates in the opposite direction. Furthermore, the other two tubular fabrics are obtained by simultaneously and separately knitting a first of said other two fabrics by means of the first cylinder and a second of said other two fabrics by means of the second cylinder, by rotating the first and the second cylinder with a continuous motion and feeding the first and the second cylinder with respective yarns from respective yarn guides of at least one feed for each cylinder. In this embodiment of the invention, preferably to work the first fabric, each cylinder uses a first arc of adjacent needles having a number of needles lower than the overall number of needles of the cylinder, preferably maintaining for each cylinder a respective arc of needles inactive, and each of the two tubular fabrics are knitted by means of all the needles of the respective cylinder.
At the arc of needles remained inactive during the phase of knitting of said first part of the body, interknitting is formed with at least one partial course of common stitches along a crotch line of the garment, said at least one partial course being knitted by means of the needles of the arcs of needles of both the cylinders that remained inactive. The partial course of stitches is preferably formed with two yarns that in the previous phase have knitted with reciprocating motion the upper part of the body.
According to another aspect, the present invention relates to a double-cylinder circular knitting machine for producing a garment such as briefs, tights or the like, characterized by being programmed so as to carry out a knitting method as defined above. The double-cylinder circular machines are known per se to those skilled in the art, and do not require particular explanations herein. In general, they comprise a lower cylinder and an upper cylinder, coaxial to each other and arranged with opposite needles, i.e. the needles of the lower cylinder with the hooks facing upwards and the needles of the upper cylinder with the hooks facing downwards.
According to some embodiments of the present invention, the two cylinders are angularly offset relative to each other, in such a manner that each cylinder presents its own needles aligned with the sinkers of the other cylinder, so that the needles of a cylinder do not interfere with the needles of the other cylinder while working the garment, and both the cylinders can be used in their effective fineness for knitting all the parts of the garment.
According to a further aspect, the present invention also relates to a garment such as tights, briefs or the like, formed by joining tubular fabrics, wherein said tubular fabrics are joined together in a seam-freely manner according to respective courses of stitches, the garment being obtained by the above defined method.
According to an embodiment, the present invention provides for a knitted garment comprising a body and two leg pieces, joined along a crotch area, wherein said body and said leg pieces are formed by a continuous knitted seamless fabric, where in the crotch area a joining line is provided for joining the two leg pieces, formed by at least a partial interknitting course, common for the two leg pieces. The joining line is preferably formed by an interknitting of at least two courses.
According to some embodiments, the present invention provides a garment such as a pantyhose, briefs or the like, formed by joining tubular fabrics defining a body and two leg pieces, wherein both the body and the leg pieces are formed each by at least two yarns and with a similar stitch density for the leg pieces and the body. In some embodiments of the present invention the body comprises at least one portion, formed by a number of columns of stitches greater than the number of columns of stitches forming a single leg piece. In some embodiments of the present invention the number of columns of stitches of said part of the body is equal to the sum of the number of columns of stitches of the two leg pieces. In other preferred embodiments of the present invention, the number of columns of stitches of said part of the body is comprises between 1.4 and 2 times the number of columns of stitches forming a single leg piece. Preferably the number of columns of stitches of said part of the body is comprises between 1.5 and 1.9 times the number of columns of stitches forming a single leg piece.
In some embodiments of the present invention the body comprises at least one upper part, formed by two portions joined along two interstitch lines generated by the reversal of the reciprocating motion of the needle cylinders and consequent passage of the yarns from one to the other of the two circular needle beds of the double-cylinder machine on which the article is knitted. The two interstitch lines develop respectively on a front portion and on a back portion of the garment.
In some embodiments of the present invention the body comprises a lower part constituting the prosecution of the upper part of the body and developing until it forms the crotch area and the leg pieces of the garment. The interstitch lines extend in the upper part of the body and the front interstich line is joined to the back interstich line by means of the joining interknitting between the two leg pieces, which extends along the lower part of the body. In practice, the two interstich lines and the interknitting line of the crotch develop according to a curve extending from the front central area of the edge until the back central area of the edge of the garment, passing in the inguinal area, i.e. between the two leg pieces.
Practically, the body is advantageously formed by two columns of stitches extending from an waist of the body until the leg pieces, and, in the lower part, by further columns of stitches extending from said interknitting to said leg pieces.
In some embodiments of the present invention, whilst knitting with reciprocating motion the upper part of the body and the interknitting line of the crotch, the two cylinders, each together with the respective needles actuating cams, are moved axially, by means of a specific device, each towards the other as much as possible. In this way the length of the interstitch is reduced where the yarn passes from the needles of one cylinder to the needles of the other cylinder during the knitting phase with reciprocating motion of the body, so as to make almost invisible the joining lines that join a part of the body, knitted with reciprocating motion on a cylinder, with the corresponding part, knitted on the other cylinder.
In this case, in order to pick up the yarn and to form stitch, during the reciprocating motion the needles of each cylinder penetrate partially inserting between the needles of the opposite cylinder. In this situation, between the so interposed needles a minimum peripheral clearance remains tangentially to the cylinders. For instance, this clearance, for a machine of a 4-inch diameter with four hundred needles for cylinder, is in the order of 0.05 mm, and it is therefore clearly apparent that a high accuracy is needed for the motion transmission between the two cylinders to avoid that the needles of one cylinder come into contact with the needles of the other cylinder, and this accuracy can be obtained only by means of rectified and, as the case may be, doubled gears for taking up any construction clearance, and this entails a significant increase in the costs relative to a traditional machine.
To avoid this drawback, according to some embodiments of the present invention an angular connection device is provided between the cylinders, which is used only when the cylinders are adjacent to each other knitting with reciprocating motion. This device can comprise an axial pin fixed inside a cylinder at the point in which the reversal of the reciprocating motion occurs, with the passage of the yarn from one to the other of the two cylinders during the phase of knitting with reciprocating motion the body. The spin projects axially towards the other cylinder that carries a corresponding seat for said pin. The pin and the seat are so arranged that, with the needles moving reciprocally axially towards each other in the work arrangement to form the parts of the body with reciprocating motion, the pin is inserted in the seat, bringing the cylinders mutually in a specific angular position even if clearances of transmission occur, whilst, when the cylinders are moved axially away from each other to work the parts of the tights with continuous motion, the pin is completely released from the seat.
During working with continuous motion, the pin and the seat are spaced apart from each other so as to leave free the passage of the fabric of the leg pieces of the pantyhose during their formation, whilst the pin inserted in the seat does not prevent the passage of the fabric of the body during the reciprocating motion as, in this phase of working the pantyhose, the fabric of the body is formed as two borders of fabric joined together at respective ends according to two columns of stitches that, in the knitting phase, pass at opposite sides of the pin, as it will be clearly apparent from the description below.
Further advantageous characteristics and embodiments of the method, of the machine, and of the garment according to the present invention are described hereunder with reference to an example of embodiment and in the appended claims, which form an integral part of the present description.
The invention will be easier to understand by means of the description below and the attached drawing, which shows a non-restrictive practical embodiment of the invention.
More in particular, in the drawing:
Hereinafter a knitting method is described for producing a pantyhose with a body and two leg pieces that can end with feet portions with closed toe or open toe that is subsequently sewn outside of the machine. However, the method according to the present invention can be also used to knit other types of garments, for example briefs or the like, wherein the leg pieces are reduced only to small portions of fabric surrounding the aperture for the legs near the inguinal area.
Furthermore, a particularly advantageous process will be described hereunder wherein whilst knitting the body an arc of needles is excluded to form a crotch area, i.e. a joining area between body and leg pieces, which is not point-like as in the process known from the U.S. Pat. No. 4,011,738. However, it should be understood that in less advantageous embodiments of the present invention, the entire circular needle bed (therefore a 360° arc) of the two cylinders can be used also for knitting the body. In this case the advantage is anyhow obtained of knitting the body with a stitch density equal to the maximum density allowed by the fineness of the machine and equal to the stitch density of the leg pieces or legs, using preferably at least two feeds with “S” yarns and “Z” yarns respectively.
In particular, in
Conversely, the lower part 7A, 7B of the body 1 and the leg pieces 9A, 9B are manufactured with continuous motion, the left part 7A and the left leg piece 9A on one cylinder of the machine and the right part 7B and the right leg piece 9B on the other cylinder of the machine. Two dotted lines A1, A2 indicate the courses of passage stitches between the upper part 5A, 5B of the body 1, manufactured with reciprocating motion, and the lower part 7A, 7B of the body 1, manufactured with continuous motion. The leg pieces 9A, 9B are mutually joined along a partial arc of stitches CC defining the crotch line of the pantyhose, extending between the end points C1, C2 of join of the lines A1 and A2 and which is formed, practically, by one or more partial courses of stitches, as better described hereunder with reference to the knitting method. These partial courses are obtained with an interknitting formed by the yarns which have formed the upper part 5A, 5B of the body 1 and that are engaged simultaneously by the needles of the two upper and lower cylinders.
In
Summarizing, the garment is formed as follows:
By reversing the rotational movement of the cylinders, the yarn of each of the feeds forming the elastic waist or the upper part 5A, 5B of the body 1 therefore passes from the needles of one cylinder to the needles of the other cylinder, forming in the motion reversal points at the ends of the respective courses an interstitch with length as smaller as much the two cylinders are axially adjacent to each other. These points of motion reversal define the mentioned central lines (m, n) for joining the two halves 3A, 3B of the elastic waist and the two halves 5A, 5B of the upper part of the body 1.
It should be noted that in this phase not all the needles of the cylinders 11 and 13 are active. In each cylinder an arc of contiguous needles is used corresponding to a preponderant part of the total needles, for example for a cylinder with 400 needles 350 needles are used, forming an arc of contiguous active needles. The remaining needles form an arc C of inactive needles. This occurs both for the cylinder 11 and for the cylinder 13. The needles of the arc C of each of the two cylinders are substantially in the same angular position, i.e. they are mutually opposite. They are inactive, i.e. they remain always out of work, both when the cylinders rotate in clockwise direction and when they rotate in counterclockwise direction. Vice versa, as previously mentioned, the remaining needles, forming the arc complementary to the arc C of inactive needles, work alternatively, the needles of one cylinder when the rotation is in clockwise direction, and the needles of the other cylinder when the rotation is in counterclockwise direction.
There is therefore a substantial difference with respect to the knitting methods described in the patent documents of the prior art mentioned in the introduction of the present description, wherein in the reciprocating motion-knitting phase all the needles both of the upper cylinder and the lower cylinder are set to work, alternatively firstly the ones when the rotation is clockwise and the others when the rotation is counterclockwise. Practically, the waist 3A, 3B and the upper part 5A, 5B of the body 1 can be knitted by using a preponderant part of the needles of each cylinder, for instance 350 needles of a cylinder with 400 needles. In this way the overall number of stitch columns of the elastic waist 3A, 3B and of the upper part 5A, 5B of the body is equal to 700. N5 will indicate hereunder the number of stitches of the upper part of the body 5A, 5B. Nc/2 will indicate the number of needles remained inactive in this knitting phase with reciprocating motion.
After the two halves 5A, 5B of the upper part of the body 1 have been knitted with reciprocating motion with respective end partial courses A1, A2, the phase of knitting the lower part 7A, 7B of the body 1 and subsequently the knitting phase of the leg pieces 9A, 9B (see
At the beginning of this phase, also the needles of the arcs C of both the cylinders remained inactive during the reciprocating motion are set to work together with the needles that have knitted the part 3A, 3B of the elastic waist and the upper part 5A, 5B of the body 1. These needles, previously remained inactive, form one or more initial partial courses CC, and continue knitting, with continuous motion, the lower part 7A, 7B of the body 1 and then the leg pieces 9A, 9B together with all the other needles of the respective cylinders. This passage phase will be described in detail hereunder.
The lower part 7A, 7B of the body is therefore knitted with a number of needles equal to the sum of the needles of the two cylinders. Vice versa, each leg piece 9A, 9B is knitted with the needles of a cylinder 11 or 13. Each leg piece will have therefore a number of columns of stitches N9, equal to the number of needles of the cylinder (400 needles in the example). The lower part 7A, 7B of the body will have a number of columns of stitches equal to 2×N9, i.e. equal to the double of the number of needles of each cylinder 11, 13. A part of these columns of stitches extends from the semi-courses A1, A2, which have ended the part knitted with reciprocating motion, towards the leg pieces 9A, 9B, whilst a part of these columns of stitches form the interknitting C, from which they extend towards the leg pieces 9A, 9B. As the number of needles of each cylinder 11, 13 remained inactive during the previous knitting phase with reciprocating motion of the upper part 5A, 5B of the body 1, is Nc/2, therefore the number of columns of stitches involving the interknitting will be equal to Nc.
During knitting, inside the lower cylinder 11, an air flow is generated from the bottom through a traditional intake system not shown in the drawing. In this way the pantyhose, as it is formed, is sucked towards the bottom and moves inside the lower cylinder 11 with the parts 3B of the waist and 5B of the panty and the leg piece 9B inserted inside the corresponding parts 3A, 5A 9A of the pantyhose, so that, when the pantyhose is extracted from the machine, it is in the condition as shown in
This operation of extracting one leg piece from the other after having knitted the pantyhose can be carried out also automatically on the machine, once the knitting of the tights is ended, by initially detaching only the inner leg piece 9B from the needles 13 that have formed it, and simultaneously reversing the direction of the air flow upwards. In this way, whilst the last course of stitches of the other leg piece 9A is still attached to the needles 15 that have formed it, the inner leg piece 9B is slid out of the outer leg piece 9A and unfolded upwards. At this point, also the last course of stitches of the outer leg piece 9A is detached from the needles 15 and the pantyhose is discharged indifferently upwards or downwards already in the unfolded arrangement of
In each cylinder the needles 15 can be seen, that slide along an outer longitudinal grooves 11A, 13A of the cylinders under the action of control cams and of underneedles, which will be described hereunder, and the sinkers 17 sliding horizontally in radial grooves of respective plates or “outer rings” 19, 21 integral with the cylinders 11, 13. The sinkers are controlled by cams 23, 25 carried, for each cylinder, by a respective ring 27, 29, which is prevented from rotating by means of specific angular abutments (not shown) of a non rotating part of the machine.
In
Therefore, in
This arrangement allows working the elastic band 3A, 3B and the upper part 5A, 5B of the body with reciprocating motion with all the needles of an arc of active needles of each cylinder, i.e. using the real fineness of the machine to obtain the required stitch density in the body, as explained above.
As during knitting the elastic waist 3A, 3B and the upper part 5A, 5B of the body 1 with reciprocating motion it is necessary, as explained above, that the distance between the two facing cylinders is as small as possible, to reduce as much as possible the interstitch joining the ends of the courses formed by the two cylinders, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention the sinkers 17 have the knocking off plane 17C (
Respectively above and below the development of the needle and of the underneedle control cams the paths 51, 53 of the heels 17T of the sinkers 17, respectively of the upper cylinder and of the lower cylinder, are shown, which extend at the same plane as the needle control members, to show the movements thereof relative to these latter. However, it should be noted that actually the sinkers 17 move along a horizontal plane, whilst the needles and the underneedles move vertically in the respective grooves of the cylinders of the machine.
In the longer horizontal segments 51A, 53A of sinker paths so represented, the sinkers are in the completely advanced position shown in
Furthermore, in
In the phase of
In the phase of
In the phase of
At the beginning of the continuous motion knitting phase, involving all the needles of the two cylinders, i.e. both the needles that have formed with reciprocating motion the waist 3A, 3B and the upper part 5A, 5B of the body 1, the needles along the arc C of inactive needles of the two cylinders 11, 13 are devoid of stitches on their shank, as they did not participate in the previous knitting phase. At the beginning of the continuous motion knitting phase these arcs C of needles remained inactive during the previous phase form, at the beginning of the knitting with continuous motion, the course or the courses for joining the leg pieces along the crotch line CC (see also
When, during the formation of the first course (wA), the arcs of needles C previously remained inactive of both the cylinders 11, 13 (whose latch has been previously opened by means of a common needle opening device, not shown in the drawing) pass in front of the yarn guide 55A, to pick up this yarn needles in odd position (b1, b3, etc.) of the upper cylinder and needles of even position (a2, a4, etc.) of the lower cylinder are actuated. In this way at the arc C of needles the yarn wA is arranged in a zigzag as shown in
In this way two mutually interknitted initial courses of stitches are formed at the arcs of needles, and afterwards all the needles of the arc C of both the cylinders 11, 13 can work together with all the other needles of the two cylinders, as illustrated and described in
In the above description it has been assumed that the body is knitted with reciprocating motion using two lower feeds and two upper feeds with two working yarn guides 55A, 55B of the lower cylinder. Consequently, the initial courses of the interknitting formed by the arc C of needles inactive in the previous phase on each cylinder 11, 13, which are set to work when the reciprocating motion knitting ends and the continuous motion knitting starts, are obtained with the same lower yarn guides which feed the yarns wA, wB, with which the upper part 5A, 5B of the body 1 has been knitted. However, it is possible to operate in a reversed manner, i.e. forming the body 1 feeding two yarns with yarn guides of the upper cylinder. In this case, the interknitting will be formed by two yarns wA, wB, which have been fed by the yarn guides of the upper cylinder to both the cylinders in the reciprocating motion knitting phase to form the upper part 5A, 5B of the body 1.
It is also possible to obtain this interknitting also with reciprocating motion, but this solution is more complex and less quick.
During the reciprocating motion it is therefore necessary to maintain the two cylinders exactly phased with each other with the respective needles offset by half a step. This can be obtained in a usual manner producing the transmission of motion between the cylinders with rectified gears and by recovering at the assembly stage the inevitable clearance of the transmission by using doubled gears. This is however very expensive.
To overcome this drawback, in some embodiments of the present invention a particular arrangement is provided, illustrated in
A similar hollow block 109 is fixed by means of screws 11 to the upper cylinder 13, said block inferiorly having a hole inside which an angular reference plug 107 is forced, which also has an axis Y-Y. The plug 107 can be inserted in the bushing 105 with a minimum radial clearance only sufficient for the free reciprocal axial sliding.
In the arrangement of
In this way any angular clearance resulting from the mechanical transmission between the cylinders 11 and 13 is recovered, in particular the clearance the gears and of any joint forming it, and it is not necessary to use rectified gears.
In the arrangement of
Each head 200, 300 furthermore comprises control cams for controlling the respective needles and underneedles (not shown in the drawing), cams that are applied to supports called “mantles” 218, 220; 318, 320 fixed to an intermediate plate 222; 322 and to the base plate 202, 302, respectively.
The lower base plate rests on the base 324 of the machine and the head receives the motion for the rotation of the cylinders by means of a toothed belt and a pulley 326.
The upper semi head 300 has the base plate 302 integral with shoes 328 of a prismatic guide 330 parallel to the axis X-X of the cylinders and fixed to a lateral support, which is in turn integral with the base plate 202 of the lower semi head 200. A pneumatic actuator 334 is interposed between the base plates 202, 302 of the two semi heads, to move them towards or away from each other, the displacement run being defined by adjustable abutments (not shown).
It is therefore possible to move the cylinders 11, 13 towards each other with the relative semi heads 200, 300 in the arrangement of
It should be understood that the reciprocal axial movement of the two cylinders towards each other with the needles of one cylinder inserting between the needles of the opposite cylinder in the knitting phase with reciprocating motion is particularly advantageous, as it allows to obtained a more regular finished article, wherein the area of the body obtained at the reversal of the motion of the cylinders is practically not visible. However, it is also possible to maintain the cylinders spaced from each other also during the reciprocating motion knitting phase of the body. In this case less mechanical complications occur, with a lower quality of the finished fabric.
Above an embodiment has been described in detail, wherein an arc of needles remain inactive whilst knitting the body with reciprocating motion, said needles being set working operation to form an interknitting in a closing area of the crotch. In this way it is possible to obtain an article of high quality and better fit, substantially improved relative to what can be obtained with methods according to the prior art. In particular, the article has a significantly greater stitch density in the area of the body than that which can be obtained with the traditional systems, wherein the body is knitted only with half of the needles of the cylinders, i.e. maintaining active for each of the cylinders only the even needles or only the odd needles. Maintaining inactive only the needles at the interknitting C, which correspond only to a fraction of the needles of the entire circular needle bed, the number of columns of stitches of the portion of the body knitted with reciprocating motion is significantly greater than the number of columns of stitches of a single leg piece. For example, if a fourth of the needles of each circular needle bed, i.e. of each cylinder, is excluded from working during the reciprocating motion knitting step, the body is knitted (in the part formed by reciprocating motion) with a number of stitch columns equal to 1.5 times the number of stitch columns of a leg piece. Typically, the number of needles excluded from working in the reciprocating motion phase is however lower than the 25% of the overall needles. For example, on a machine with 400 needles, 50 needles can be excluded from work during reciprocating motion knitting, and therefore the interknitting C is formed by 50 needles per cylinder, whilst the part of the body knitted with reciprocating motion is formed by 2*(400−50)=700 needles.
In less advantageous embodiments of the present invention is it possible to provide for knitting the body with reciprocating motion by using all the needles (and not alternate needles as in the prior art) on all the circular needle bed of both the cylinders, i.e. using the needles on all the 360° of the needle beds of the two cylinders.
As mentioned, in the introductory part of the description, it is possible to knit the article starting from the toes of the leg pieces, with continuous motion of the two cylinders, and finishing with the waist of the body. Also in this case it is possible to generate the interknitting C, excluding from work an arc of needles on both the cylinders, when passing from knitting the leg pieces to knitting the body. The interknitting can be stabilized or make run-proof for example by using a melt blown yarn, or with a 1/1 interknitting, or with a Lycra fraying, or with other known methods.
It is understood that the drawing only shows an example provided by way of a practical arrangement of the present invention, which can vary in forms and arrangements without however departing from the scope of the concept underlying the invention. Any reference numbers in the appended claims are provided for the sole purpose of facilitating reading of the claims in the light of the description and the drawing, and do not in any manner limit the scope of protection represented by the claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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FI2009A0156 | Jul 2009 | IT | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
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PCT/IT2009/000559 | 12/11/2009 | WO | 00 | 2/17/2012 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2011/004407 | 1/13/2011 | WO | A |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
3768277 | Uhlir | Oct 1973 | A |
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