Flatbed Knitting Machine Sinker Mechanism for Pile Yarn Capture
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing pile knitting method requires knitting needles with locking hooks, which increase production costs, and is not necessary for plain or rib knitting in flatbed knitting machines.
Innovation Solution
A flatbed knitting machine with needle beds and knitting needles that use hooks to advance and retreat within a needle bed gap, along with sinkers having claws for separating and capturing ground and pile yarns, allowing pile knitting without locking hooks by using a capturing up-and-down mechanism to raise sinker tips and draw yarns below the needle bed gap.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If knitting needles with locking hooks are used for pile knitting, then pile knitting can be performed, but production costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the locking hook component from the knitting needle system. Instead of requiring locking hooks on knitting needles, the patent transfers the yarn securing function to the sinker mechanism, which uses a claw structure to catch and hold the yarn loop. This eliminates the need for complex locking hooks while maintaining pile knitting capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary mechanism - the sinker with claw structure - that mediates between the knitting needle and the yarn. The sinker's claw catches the yarn loop formed by the knitting needle and holds it in place, serving as an intermediary that performs the yarn securing function without requiring modifications to the knitting needle itself.
2Adaptability or versatility
If sinkers advance to and retreat from between knitting needles to separate ground yarn and pile yarn, then pile knitting is achieved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The sinker mechanism is designed to perform multiple functions: it advances to separate ground yarn and pile yarn, forms loops with the pile yarn, and uses the claw to capture and hold the yarn loops. This multi-functional design eliminates the need for separate components for each function, reducing overall device complexity while maintaining yarn separation capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the yarn separation function and the loop formation function into a single sinker mechanism. The sinker simultaneously separates the ground yarn from the pile yarn and forms the pile loops in one coordinated motion, rather than requiring separate mechanisms for each operation.
3Reliability
If locking hooks are added to knitting needles, then yarn can be secured, but knitting efficiency decreases due to interference with yarn feeders
Solution Approach 1:
The invention removes the yarn securing function from the knitting needle and places it on the sinker. This extraction eliminates the interference problem between locking hooks and yarn feeders, as the sinker operates in a different spatial and temporal sequence, capturing yarn after the knitting needle has passed.
Solution Approach 2:
The sinker claw is positioned and ready to capture the yarn loop before the knitting needle completes its cycle. This preliminary positioning ensures that yarn securing occurs at the optimal moment without interfering with the yarn feeder's operation, maintaining knitting efficiency while ensuring reliable yarn capture.
Data Source
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AI summary
An object is to provide a flatbed knitting machine for pile knitting and a pile knitting method, allowing pile knitting even when using a knitting needle without a locking hook for knitting yarn. A capturing up-and-down means 10 drives a sinker 4 to raise the tip thereof upwards in a needle bed gap 1a, capture the ground yarn fed through a yarn feeder between a claw for ground yarn 4a and a claw for pile yarn 4b, and draw the ground yarn below the needle bed gap 1a. The solid lines show the sinker 4 when driven to capture the ground yarn. The dashed lines show the sinker 4 with the tip having retreated from between knitting needles 3. The two-dot chain lines show of the sinker 4 re-advancing to between the knitting needles 3, after the steps of separating the ground yarn 8a and the pile yarn 8b, and being driven so that the tip retreats from between the knitting needles 3 after the stitch formation by yarn drawing with a hook 3a. Pile knitting is performed even when using the knitting needles 3 without a locking hook for knitting yarn because the sinker 4 is capable of capturing and drawing the ground yarn 8a.