Circular knitting machine for knitting fine-pitch nap fabric

Abstract

The invention relates to a circular knitting machine for knitting fine needle pitch nap fabrics. The circular knitting machine is provided with a needle dial, a needle seat, a mouth defined by the needle dial and the needle seat, a plurality of knitting needles arranged on the needle dial, a plurality of nap hooking needles arranged on the needle seat, a cutter seat and a plurality of cutters which are arranged on the cutter seat and face the mouth. The movement track of each hook needle is staggered with the movement track of one of the knitting needles, and the movement track of each cutter is staggered with the movement track of one of the hook needles. Each crocheting needle is provided with a needle foot part, a needle hook part and a shoulder part arranged between the needle foot part and the needle hook part, the shoulder part forms an eye hole, and the shoulder part of each crocheting needle enables a yarn ring on one of the crocheting needles to expand. Therefore, one of the cutters cuts the yarn ring at the eye hole to form fluff.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention relates to a circular knitting machine, in particular to a circular knitting machine for realizing fine-gauge pile fabrics by using hook-and-loop needles with a shoulder portion and eyelets. Background Art

[0002] Although GB988865A and US9,890,486 respectively disclose technical solutions for circular knitting machines to directly form fluff during the knitting process, the two aforementioned solutions require the use of multiple fluff needles and multiple cutters arranged in parallel and at intervals, resulting in a reduction in the number of needles that can be inserted into one inch of the circular knitting machine, and the circular knitting machine cannot knit fabrics with fine stitches.

[0003] US4,592,212 discloses another technical solution, which realizes on-machine shearing through a specially structured down element (numbered 1 in the case) and a shearing element (numbered 2 in the case). In one embodiment, the down element is composed of two parts, and a space is formed between the two parts for the shearing element to extend into, and a blade for cooperating with the shearing element is formed on one of the two parts. During implementation, the shearing element swings toward the down element, and when extending into the aforementioned space, it cooperates with the blade to produce shearing and cut the yarn loop. One of the two parts of the down element is elastic so that it deforms when the shearing element extends into the aforementioned space. As a result, the control of the circular knitting machine needs to be very accurate, otherwise the down element and the shearing element may collide with each other by mistake, which is very unfavorable for the high-speed knitting of today's circular knitting machines. In addition, the tension state of the yarn loop is not changed during the shearing process of US4,592,212, and the yarn is a soft material, which may easily cause shearing failure. Summary of the invention

[0004] The main purpose of the present invention is to solve the needle distance problem derived from the need for multiple hanging needles and multiple cutting knives in the existing circular knitting machine.

[0005] Another main purpose of the present invention is to solve the problem that the existing architecture is not suitable for current circular knitting machines.

[0006] To achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a circular knitting machine for knitting fine-gauge pile fabrics, the circular knitting machine comprising a needle plate, a needle seat, a mouth defined by the needle plate and the needle seat, a plurality of knitting needles arranged on the needle plate, a plurality of hook needles arranged on the needle seat, a cutter seat, and a plurality of cutters arranged on the cutter seat and facing the mouth. The moving trajectory of each hook needle intersects with the moving trajectory of one of the knitting needles, and the moving trajectory of each cutter intersects with the moving trajectory of one of the hook needles. Each hook needle comprises a foot portion, a needle hook portion, and a convex shoulder portion between the foot portion and the needle hook portion, the convex shoulder portion forming a hole, and the convex shoulder portion of each hook needle causes a yarn loop on one of the hook needles to expand so that one of the cutters cuts the yarn loop at the eyelet to form a pile.

[0007] In one embodiment, each hook needle is formed by assembling two needle pieces, each needle piece has a bending section for forming an eyelet, and each needle piece has a boss and an inclined surface connected to the boss and extending toward the needle hook portion at the bending section.

[0008] In one embodiment, the inclined surface has a turning point, and the slopes of the inclined surface on both sides of the turning point are different.

[0009] In one embodiment, the opening and the boss of the hook portion of each hook needle are located on the same side of each hook needle.

[0010] In one embodiment, the circular knitting machine has a plurality of hook needle selectors for determining the moving trajectories of the hook needles, a plurality of hook needle horns for guiding the hook needles, and a plurality of cutter horns for guiding the cutters.

[0011] Through the above implementation of the present invention, compared with the existing ones, it has the following characteristics:

[0012] 1. The circular knitting machine of the present invention does not need to arrange multiple hair hanging needles and multiple cutters in parallel and at intervals, but can place more needles under the same distance condition to achieve a fine needle pitch.

[0013] 2. The present invention abandons the previous technical means of using two blades to shear to form fluff, and uses a hook needle to expand the yarn loop used to form the fluff before one of the cutters cuts it. The convex shoulder of one of the hook needles changes the tension, so that one of the cutters can cut the yarn loop more smoothly to form fluff.

[0014] 3. The eyelet on each hook needle of the present invention can allow the cutter to have an appropriate control error. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015] Figure 1 The local structure of the circular knitting machine of the present invention is shown in FIG. Figure 1 .

[0016] Figure 2The local structure of the circular knitting machine of the present invention is shown in FIG. Figure 2 .

[0017] Figure 3 It is a schematic structural diagram of the hook and loop needle of the present invention.

[0018] Figure 4 It is a schematic diagram of the partial structure of the hook and loop needle of the present invention.

[0019] Figure 5 The motion trajectory of the knitting needle, hook needle and cutter of the present invention is shown in FIG. Figure 1 .

[0020] Figure 6 The action diagram of the hook needle of the present invention is shown in FIG. Figure 1 .

[0021] Figure 7 The action diagram of the hook needle of the present invention is shown in FIG. Figure 2 .

[0022] Figure 8 The action diagram of the hook needle of the present invention is shown in FIG. Figure 3 .

[0023] Fig. 9 The circular knitting machine of the present invention is shown in FIG. Figure 1 .

[0024] Fig.10 The circular knitting machine of the present invention is shown in FIG. Figure 2 .

[0025] Fig.11 The structure side view of the hook needle of the present invention Figure 2 .

[0026] Fig.12 The structure side view of the hook needle of the present invention Figure 3 .

[0027] Fig.13 The motion trajectory of the knitting needle, hook needle and cutter of the present invention is shown in FIG. Figure 2 .

[0028] Fig.14 It is a schematic diagram of the structure of the fine-gauge pile fabric of the present invention.

[0029] Fig.15 The motion trajectory of the knitting needle, hook needle and cutter of the present invention is shown in FIG. Figure 2 . DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0030] The detailed description and technical contents of the present invention are now described as follows with reference to the accompanying drawings:

[0031] See also Figure 1 and Figure 2The present invention provides a circular knitting machine 20, in particular a circular knitting machine capable of knitting fine-gauge pile fabrics. The circular knitting machine 20 comprises a needle disk 21, a needle seat 22, a mouth 23, a plurality of knitting needles 24, a plurality of hook needles 25, a cutter seat 26 and a plurality of cutters 27. The mouth 23 is defined by the needle disk 21 and the needle seat 22, and the mouth 23 is where the circular knitting machine 20 implements needle sewing. The knitting needle 24 is disposed on the needle disk 21, the hook needle 25 is disposed on the needle seat 22, and the cutter 27 is disposed on the cutter seat 26. The knitting needle 24 of the present invention is implemented as a latch needle. Please also refer to Figure 3 , Figure 4 and Figure 8 Each hook needle 25 has a foot portion 251, a hook portion 252, and a shoulder portion 253 between the foot portion 251 and the hook portion 252. The shoulder portion 253 of each hook needle 25 forms a hole 254. When observing each hook needle 25 from the direction through the hole 254, each hook needle 25 is wider at the shoulder portion 253. Each hook needle 25 extends into a yarn ring 71 with the shoulder portion 253, and the yarn ring 71 will be expanded due to the shoulder portion 253. Please refer to Figure 3 , Figure 4 and Figure 8 In one embodiment, each hook and loop needle 25 is formed by two needle plates 255, each needle plate 255 has a bent section 256, and the two needle plates 255 are connected to form an eyelet 254 with the two bent sections 256. In addition, the width of the plurality of needle grooves 221 of the needle seat 22 for receiving the hook and loop needles 25 is consistent with the widest part of each hook and loop needle 25, that is, each hook and loop needle 25 will not be deformed when received in one of the needle grooves 221. In addition, a blade 271 of each cutter 27 faces the mouth 23.

[0032] Please refer to Figure 2 The knitting needle 24, the hook and loop needle 25 and the cutter 27 are controlled to move in the mouth 23. More specifically, the circular knitting machine 20 further comprises a plurality of knitting needle horns 28, a plurality of hook and loop needle horns 29 and a plurality of cutter horns 30. The knitting needle horns 28 are used to guide the knitting needle 24 to move, the hook and loop needle horns 29 are used to guide the hook and loop needle 25 to move, and the cutter horns 30 are used to guide the cutter 27 to move. In addition, the moving track of each knitting needle 24 (such as Figure 2 40) and the moving track of each hook needle 25 (such as Figure 2 41) staggered, each cutter 27 activity track (such as Figure 2 42) and the moving track of one of the hook needles 25 (such as Figure 2 Marked 41) staggered.

[0033] The knitting action of the circular knitting machine 20 of the present invention is described in the following. The knitting needles 24, the hook needles 25 and the cutter 27 have movement trajectories as shown in FIG. Figure 5 As shown, Figure 5 The reference numeral 50 is the movement track of each knitting needle 24 guided by the knitting needle corner 28. Figure 5 The reference numeral 51 is the movement track of each hook needle 25 guided by the hook needle mountain corner 29. Figure 5 The reference numeral 52 indicates the movement track of each cutter 27 guided by the cutter corner 30. Each knitting needle 24 is mainly used to knit a basic structure of the aforementioned pile fabric, that is, each knitting needle 24 continuously hooks yarn into loops during the knitting process. Figure 5 The present invention mainly forms the pile by hook needle 25 and cutter 27. Each hook needle 25 mainly moves in three positions, one of which is the needle closing position (such as Figure 5 The second is the yarn hook position (such as Figure 5 The third is the yarn cutting position (such as Figure 5 Observe the heights of the needle closing position 60, the yarn hooking position 61 and the yarn cutting position 62 in the mouth 23. The yarn hooking position 61 is the highest, followed by the yarn cutting position 62, and the needle closing position 60 is the lowest. As mentioned above, when one of the hook needles 25 moves from the needle closing position 60 to the yarn hooking position 61, the needle hooking part 252 hooks a yarn 70 fed from the yarn feeding nozzle 32, as shown in FIG. Figure 6 and Fig. 9 Thereafter, one of the hook needles 25 is displaced toward the needle seat 22, as shown. Figure 7 As shown, the line segment generated by one of the hook and loop needles 25 hooking the yarn 70 at this point will be used to form the fluff. One of the hook and loop needles 25 can be set to return to the needle closing position 60, but the present invention is not limited thereto. It is only necessary to make the hook portion 252 of one of the hook and loop needles 25 lower than the yarn cutting position 62. Thereafter, one of the hook and loop needles 25 hooked with the yarn 70 is guided by at least one of the hook and loop needle horns 29 and moves toward the yarn cutting position 62. During this process, the yarn loop 71 formed by the yarn 70 is expanded by the convex shoulder portion 253 of one of the hook and loop needles 25 and becomes slightly tight (i.e., the tension of the yarn loop 71 changes). Figure 8 and Fig.10 At the same time, the yarn loop 71 rests on the convex shoulder 253, and one of the cutters 27 is guided to move toward one of the hook and loop needles 25, and cuts the yarn loop 71 at the eyelet 254 of one of the hook and loop needles 25 to form the pile. It should be understood that when one of the hook and loop needles 25 hooks the yarn 70, one of the knitting needles 24 also adds the hooked yarn 70 into the knitting of the base tissue, that is, the pile is connected to the base tissue.

[0034] See also Fig.11In one embodiment, each needle piece 255 used to form one of the hook and loop needles 25 includes a boss 257 at the bending section 256 and a slope 258 connected to the boss 257 and extending toward the needle hook portion 252. In this embodiment, the slope 258 allows one of the hook and loop needles 25 to move from the needle closing position 60 to the yarn cutting position 62 (i.e., when the yarn loop 71 is ready to be expanded for yarn cutting) after hooking the yarn. The yarn loop 71 on one of the hook and loop needles 25 is more surely expanded by the slope 258, which is beneficial for one of the cutters 27 to cut the yarn. Please refer to Fig.12 In one embodiment, the inclined surface 258 may further have a turning point 259, that is, the inclined surface 258 is not a straight surface, and the slope of the inclined surface 258 on both sides of the turning point 259 is different. The turning point 259 makes the inclined surface 258 non-straight, so that when one of the hook and loop needles 25 moves from the needle closing position 60 to the yarn cutting position 62, the yarn loop 71 on one of the hook and loop needles 25 will be further restricted by the turning point 259, and will not be mis-moved when one of the cutters 27 performs yarn cutting. On the other hand, the opening of the hook portion 252 of each hook and loop needle 255 (such as Figure 4 The marked 250) and the boss 257 are located on the same side of each hook needle 25.

[0035] When the circular knitting machine 20 of the present invention is implemented, it is not necessary to have multiple hook needles and multiple cutters arranged in parallel and spaced apart, but more needles can be placed at the same distance condition (e.g., one inch) to achieve the purpose of fine needle spacing. In addition, the present invention abandons the previous technical means of cutting and forming the pile with two blades, so that the yarn loop 71 used to form the pile is expanded by the convex shoulder 253 of one of the hook needles 25 before being cut by one of the cutters 27, and the tension is changed, so that one of the cutters 27 can cut the yarn loop 71 more smoothly. Furthermore, the eyelet 254 on each hook needle 25 of the present invention allows the cutter 27 to have an appropriate control error.

[0036] In addition to the above, the implementation structure of the present invention further overcomes the limitations of existing circular knitting machines when knitting pile fabrics, so that the pile fabrics can be directly partially formed during the knitting process. Figure 3 In one embodiment, the circular knitting machine 20 has a plurality of hook needle selectors 31, each of which is connected to the foot portion 251 of at least one of the hook needles 25 to determine the movement trajectory of one of the hook needles 25. Fig.13 In this embodiment, the motion trajectory (51) of each hook needle 25 may selectively include one of the following: a hooking stroke 511 and a non-hooking stroke 512. Each hook needle 25 will only move in the hooking stroke 511 or the non-hooking stroke 512 in each activity. When one of the hook needles 25 moves in the hooking stroke 511, Figures 6 to 8Action, and finally cooperate with one of the cutters 27 to form fluff. When one of the hook needles 25 moves in the non-hooking stroke 512, one of the hook needles 25 does not hook the yarn, and no fluff will be generated. The knitted fabric is like Fig.14 As shown, 72 represents the villi and 73 represents the basic tissue. Thus, the secondary processing procedure (such as singeing) can be omitted.

[0037] Please refer to Fig.15 In one embodiment, the motion trajectory 51 of each hook needle 25 may selectively include two yarn hooking strokes 511 and 513. The two yarn hooking strokes 511 and 513 are selectively implemented. The two yarn hooking points 514 and 515 of the two yarn hooking strokes 511 and 513 are different. The two yarn hooking points 514 and 515 correspond to two yarn feeding nozzles 32 and 33. The yarn colors fed into the nozzle 23 by the two yarn feeding nozzles 32 and 33 are different, so that the color of the fluff produced subsequently is different depending on the color of the yarn hooked by the hook needle 25. In this way, the circular knitting machine 20 of the present invention realizes the technical solution of changing the color of the fluff on the machine, eliminating the step of performing secondary processing on the fabric. Furthermore, the present invention Fig.13 and Fig.15 The illustrated embodiments may be implemented in combination.

[0038] Description of the accompanying drawings

[0039] 20: Circular knitting machine

[0040] 21: Needle plate

[0041] 22: Needle seat

[0042] 221: Needle slot

[0043] 23: Mouth

[0044] 24: Knitting needles

[0045] 25: Hook and loop needle

[0046] 251: Pin part

[0047] 252: Needle hook

[0048] 253: Shoulder

[0049] 254: Eyelet

[0050] 255: Needle

[0051] 256: Bending section

[0052] 257: Boss

[0053] 258: Incline

[0054] 259: Turning point

[0055] 250: Opening

[0056] 26: Cutter seat

[0057] 27: Cutter

[0058] 271: Blade

[0059] 28: Knitting Needle Hill Corner

[0060] 29: Hook Needle Mountain Corner

[0061] 30: Knife Mountain Corner

[0062] 31: Hook and loop needle selector

[0063] 32, 33: Yarn feeding nozzle

[0064] 40: Knitting needle movement track

[0065] 41: Hook and needle activity track

[0066] 42: Cutter activity track

[0067] 50: Knitting needle movement trajectory

[0068] 51: Hook and loop needle movement trajectory

[0069] 511, 513: Yarn hooking stroke

[0070] 514, 515: hooking point

[0071] 512: No yarn hooking stroke

[0072] 52: Cutter movement trajectory

[0073] 60: Needle closing position

[0074] 61: Yarn hook position

[0075] 62: Yarn cutting position

[0076] 70: Yarn

[0077] 71: Yarn Ring

[0078] 72: Fluff

[0079] 73: Basic Organization

Claims

1. A circular knitting machine for knitting fine-gauge pile fabrics, the circular knitting machine comprising a needle disk, a needle seat, a mouth defined by the needle disk and the needle seat, and a plurality of knitting needles arranged on the needle disk, characterized in that: The circular knitting machine comprises a plurality of hook and loop needles arranged on the needle seat, a cutter seat, and a plurality of cutters arranged on the cutter seat and facing the mouth, the moving trajectory of each hook and loop needle is staggered with the moving trajectory of one of the knitting needles, the moving trajectory of each cutter is staggered with the moving trajectory of one of the hook and loop needles, each hook and loop needle has a stitch portion, a needle hook portion, and a convex shoulder portion between the stitch portion and the needle hook portion, the convex shoulder portion forms an eyelet, and the convex shoulder portion of each hook and loop needle causes a yarn loop on one of the hook and loop needles to expand so that one of the cutters cuts the yarn loop at the eyelet to form a fluff.

2. The circular knitting machine for knitting fine-gauge pile fabric according to claim 1, characterized in that: Each of the hook needles is formed by assembling two needle pieces, each of which has a bending section for forming the eyelet, and each of the needle pieces has a boss and an inclined surface connected to the boss and extending toward the needle hook portion at the bending section.

3. The circular knitting machine for knitting fine-gauge pile fabric according to claim 2, characterized in that: The inclined surface has a turning point, and the slopes of the inclined surface on two sides of the turning point are different.

4. The circular knitting machine for knitting fine-gauge pile fabric according to claim 2 or 3, characterized in that: The opening of the hook portion of each hook needle and the boss are located on the same side of one of the hook needles.

5. The circular knitting machine for knitting fine-gauge pile fabric according to claim 4, characterized in that: The circular knitting machine has a plurality of hook needle selectors for determining the moving tracks of the hook needles, a plurality of hook needle horns for guiding the hook needles, and a plurality of cutter horns for guiding the cutter.

6. The circular knitting machine for knitting fine-gauge pile fabric according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that: The circular knitting machine has a plurality of hook needle selectors for determining the moving tracks of the hook needles, a plurality of hook needle horns for guiding the hook needles, and a plurality of cutter horns for guiding the cutter.

Images