Cutting Needle With Detachable Knife For Knitting Machines
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Solution Overview
Problem
Cutting needles in knitting machines suffer from reduced quality of knitted fabric due to blunted blades, requiring frequent replacement and disrupting machine maintenance.
Innovation Solution
A cutting needle design with a detachable knife system, allowing for easy replacement and regrinding of blades without opening the knitting machine, featuring a slot for precise holding and a latching device for secure attachment, enabling quick maintenance and separate optimization of needle body and knife materials.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the cutting needle is used with a fixed blade, then the needle structure is simple, but the blade cannot be replaced when worn, requiring complete needle replacement and increasing maintenance time
Solution Approach 1:
The cutting needle is divided into two separable components: a reusable needle body and a replaceable blade section. The needle body contains a receptacle that can receive and hold different blade sections through a latching mechanism. This segmentation allows the blade to be replaced independently without replacing the entire needle, resolving the contradiction between ease of blade replacement and structural simplicity.
Solution Approach 2:
The blade section is extracted as a separate, removable component from the needle body. The latching mechanism allows the blade to be easily detached and reattached. This extraction enables independent replacement of the worn blade while retaining the needle body, improving maintenance efficiency without significantly complicating the overall structure.
2Loss of time
If the blade is made detachable for easy replacement, then maintenance time is reduced, but the attachment mechanism adds structural complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The latching mechanism incorporates a resilient latching tongue that can be dynamically actuated. The tongue is biased by a spring to engage with a projection on the blade, providing automatic locking. During replacement, the tongue can be easily depressed to disengage and released to re-engage. This dynamic design enables quick blade replacement while keeping the attachment mechanism relatively simple through the use of elastic deformation and mechanical camming action.
3Reliability
If the needle body and blade are made from optimized materials separately, then cutting performance is improved, but manufacturing and assembly becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The needle body and blade section are manufactured from different materials optimized for their specific functions. The needle body is made from a material suitable for withstanding mechanical stresses and repeated use, while the blade section is made from a material optimized for sharpness and cutting performance. This local quality optimization allows each component to be manufactured using the most appropriate process and material for its specific requirements, with assembly facilitated by the standardized receptacle and blade interface.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3~5
AI summary
A cutting needle (1) for knitting machines and similar applications has been provided, comprising a needle body (2) to which a knife (6) is preferably detachably held by a locking device (19). Such a cutting needle (1) reduces the maintenance costs of knitting machines and opens up possibilities for the manufacturing and material optimization of the needle body (2) and knife (6).