Flatbed Knitting Machine Slider Cam Mechanism
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Solution Overview
Problem
In flatbed knitting machines with compound needles, old stitches tend to drop into hooks, and knitting yarns often get caught on tongues, leading to issues in forming reliable new stitches, especially at high speeds and in rib knit fabrics where the old stitch is retained at a high position close to the needle bed gap.
Innovation Solution
A movable cam mechanism is introduced to control the position of the slider, allowing it to be positioned either high into the needle bed gap to prevent old stitches from dropping into the hook or low to avoid the yarn getting caught on the tongue, using a lever-shaped cam member with an actuator and press member to switch the slider's position based on the knitting yarn's location relative to the needle bed.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the slider is positioned high into the needle bed gap to retain old stitches, then old stitches are prevented from dropping into the hook, but the knitting yarn gets caught on the tongue
Solution Approach 1:
The slider position is made dynamic rather than fixed. The movable cam mechanism allows the slider to be positioned at different heights depending on the knitting pattern being produced. For rib knit fabrics, the slider is positioned high to retain old stitches; for plain knit fabrics, the slider is positioned low to prevent yarn catching. This dynamic adjustment resolves the contradiction by adapting the slider position to the specific knitting requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
The position parameter of the slider is changed based on the knitting pattern. The invention introduces a control mechanism that adjusts the slider's vertical position as a variable parameter. By changing this positional parameter, the system optimizes performance for different fabric types, preventing both old stitch dropping and yarn catching issues.
2Object-generated harmful factors
If the slider is positioned low to avoid yarn catching on the tongue, then the knitting yarn can be caught in the hook, but old stitches drop into the hook
Solution Approach 1:
The slider position is dynamically adjusted based on the knitting pattern requirements. The movable cam mechanism enables the slider to be positioned low for plain knit fabrics to prevent yarn catching, and high for rib knit fabrics to retain old stitches. This dynamic control resolves the contradiction by making the slider position adaptive rather than fixed.
Solution Approach 2:
The vertical position parameter of the slider is changed according to the fabric type being knitted. The invention introduces a control system that varies this parameter to optimize performance for different knitting patterns, preventing both yarn catching and old stitch dropping by selecting the appropriate position for each situation.
3Device complexity
If a fixed cam mechanism is used for slider control, then the structure is simple, but it cannot adapt to different fabric structures and knitting patterns
Solution Approach 1:
The invention transforms the fixed cam mechanism into a movable one. The cam can shift its position along the slider's movement path, allowing different cam profiles to be applied for different knitting patterns. This maintains relative structural simplicity while adding the necessary adaptability through the movable cam design.
Solution Approach 2:
The movable cam mechanism serves multiple functions: it can control the slider for both rib knit and plain knit fabrics, adapt to different knitting patterns, and maintain a relatively simple overall structure. By making the cam movable rather than fixed, a single mechanism achieves universal applicability across different fabric types and knitting operations.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution effectively prevents old stitches from dropping into the hook and ensures the knitting yarn is caught in the hook without getting caught on the tongue, simplifying the cam mechanism and allowing consistent stitching across different fabric structures by changing the slider's position in response to the yarn's position and the fabric type.
Implementation Method 1
a needle driving butt of the needle body and a slider driving butt of the slider are driven by a cam system
Data Source
Figure 1(a)~1(b)
Figure 2(a)~2(b)
Figure 3(a)~3(b)
AI summary
[Problem to be solved] It is an object of the present invention to provide a flatbed knitting machine, which is provided with compound needles, to be capable of making old stitches hardly to drop into hooks from tongues and also of making a knitting yarn which is to be caught in the hook in order to form a new stitch hardly to get caught on the tongue, and also to provide a method for controlling a slider of the flatbed knitting machine. [Solution] When a needle driving butt 22 is moved along a trajectory 22t and a hook 12a is thereby advanced into a needle bed gap 2, a tongue 13a opens a hook mouth of the hook 12a, so that an old stitch which has been formed in the hook 12a is transferred onto the tongue 13a and cleared from the hook 12a. When the hook 12a is withdrawn toward the needle bed 3, 4 side, a knitting yarn is fed from a yarn feeder port 7a so as to pass within a range through which a hook mouth of the hook 12a passes and caught in the hook 12a. A movable cam mechanism 40 provided in a slider cam 36 can produce a difference d in the position of the tongue 13a by switching action or inaction of a control portion 41a of a cam member 41 on a slider driving butt 23 near a centerline 7c.