Claims
- 1. Improved knitting apparatus for knitting terry loop fabric having knitted-in terry loops on both the technical front and technical back surfaces of a base fabric, said apparatus comprising:
- needle means for forming a knitted base fabric;
- a plurality of sinker elements cooperating with said needle means, each said sinker element comprising a back loop-forming portion and a front loop-forming portion, said back loop-forming portion being spaced from said front loop-forming portion defining a space therebetween forming a sinker throat, said front loop forming portion being provided along its front surface with a front loop throat, said front loop-forming portion having an upper edge containing a recessed portion,
- means for feeding ground, front loop and back loop yarns;
- fabric lifting means for lifting the level of the base fabric sufficiently high so that said fabric will be at least as high as the upper edge of the front loopforming portion of said sinker means so as to permit feeding of the front loop yarn below the fabric;
- fabric shoe means for depressing said fabric into the recessed portion in said front loop-forming portion of said sinker means so that loops forming said base fabric which are still retained by said needle means are depressed away from a position where severing of previously formed loops could occur; and
- means for operating needles means and said sinker elements.
- 2. An improved knitting mechanism as claimed in claim 1 wherein said needle means comprises a plurality of needles and pattern selecting means for determining the actuation of said needles; and wherein said means for operating said sinker elements further comprises pattern selection means for selectively actuating each of said sinker elements.
- 3. An improved knitting mechanism as claimed in claim 1 wherein each of said plurality of sinker elements is a one piece element.
- 4. In the method of knitting terry cloth fabric on a row of knitting needles provided with hooks and latches which comprises feeding back terry yarn on an upper level, feeding front terry yarn on a lower level and feeding body yarn between said back terry yarn and said front terry yarn, drawing out the front terry yarn and the back terry yarn into front and back loops, respectively, and interknitting the yarns into a fabric and retaining the previously formed fabric loops on said needles below the latches, wherein the improvement comprises: depressing the fabric and the previously formed fabric loops retained on the needles downwardly on the needles as the sinkers are advanced to draw the front terry yarn into front terry loops so that the loops retained on the needles below the latches are moved away from the position where scissoring can occur and holding the fabric and previously formed fabric loops depressed at least during the formation of the front terry loops.
- 5. The method of forming terry cloth fabric having front terry loops on a knitting machine having needles comprising a stem, and a latch retained between needle cheeks, cooperating sinkers provided with a sinker throat containing a recessed portion and a cooperating fabric shoe comprising the steps of:
- engaging the fabric with the fabric shoe forcing the fabric into the recessed portion of the sinker throat and the previously formed fabric loops downwardly on the needle stem away from a location where scissoring of the fabric loops between the needle cheeks and the latch can occur and holding the fabric and loops as depressed while the front terry loops are being formed.
- 6. The method of forming terry cloth on a knitting machine having a row of needles comprising a stem, a latch and a hook, cooperating sinkers provided with a sinker throat containing a recessed portion, and a cooperating fabric shoe, comprising the steps of:
- advancing the needles and sinkers to a yarn-receiving position such that previously formed fabric loops are moved onto the stem portion of the needle under the latch and retained thereon,
- feeding a ground yarn to the needles,
- raising the level of the ground fabric, and feeding a front loop yarn under the raised fabric and across the needle latch,
- drawing out the front loop and simultaneously positioning a fabric shoe within the sinker throat so as to depress the fabric into the recessed portion located of the sinker throat causing the fabric to move downwardly on the needle stem,
- retracting said sinker so as to create slack in the front loop yarn formed around the latch while retracting the needles and simultaneously with the retraction of the needles feeding a back loop yarn to the needles,
- whereby the retraction of the needles causes the previously formed fabric loops to move upwardly on the needle stem so as to contact the latch and begin the closing thereof to the extent permitted by the slack formed in the front loop yarns, continuing retracting the needle and sinker until a sufficient amount of slack is formed to allow the latch to close, and thereafter advancing the sinker to reform the front loop, and fully retracting the needle to form the back loop and interknitting the yarns into the fabric.
- 7. The method of forming double loop terry cloth on a knitting machine having a row of needles each having a hook and a latch, cooperating sinkers provided with throats on a plurality of levels and fabric lifting means comprising the steps of:
- advancing the needles and sinkers to a yarn-receiving position so that fabric loops previously formed thereon are moved downwardly on the stem of the needle, below the latch so as to be retained thereon;
- lifting the fabric and feeding a front loop yarn thereunder across the needles;
- feeding a ground yarn to the needles;
- advancing the sinkers to draw out the front loop while simultaneously moving said fabric downwardly thereby causing the previously formed fabric loops retained on the needles to move downwardly on the needles;
- partially retracting the sinkers so as to create slack in said front loop yarn around said needles;
- retracting said needles and said sinkers so that the fabric and previously formed fabric loops can rise upwardly until the amount of slack in said front loop yarn allows the rising fabric loops to close the latch, advancing the sinkers to remove the slack thus formed so as to reform the front loop while continuing the retracting of said needles until the previously formed loops are knocked over into the fabric.
Parent Case Info
This is a division, of application Ser. No. 569,742 filed Apr. 21, 1975 now U.S. Pat. 3,977,216.
US Referenced Citations (9)
Foreign Referenced Citations (2)
Number |
Date |
Country |
12,490 |
Feb 1881 |
DD |
5,518 |
Oct 1878 |
DD |
Divisions (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
569742 |
Apr 1975 |
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