Textiles: knitting – Fabric manipulation – Transferring fabric
Patent
1998-10-21
2000-04-04
Worrell, Danny
Textiles: knitting
Fabric manipulation
Transferring fabric
D04B 956
Patent
active
060446684
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND ART
In circular machines for producing stockings or socks, one of the methods for closing the toe of the garment directly inside the machine that produces the latter is to start its formation with the toe itself, i.e. the foot, rather than with the cuff or upper edge; after the formation of a series of stitches to start the article, only an arc of needles, approximately corresponding to one half of the circumference of the cylinder, is employed to make the portion of fabric that will form the toe of the garment, after which the free edge of said portion of fabric is transferred to and over the needles of the opposite arc of needles corresponding to the remaining semicircle of the cylinder. This transfer may take place in two stages: in the known methods it is initiated in the first place by mechanical members that grip the fabric to be transferred and position it in such a way that, in the second stage, other mechanical members intervene on it to complete its transfer to the needles of the opposite arc, which proceed to "knit it into" the tubular portion of the article, the manufacture of which proceeds from this moment onward. However, this necessarily involves a not insignificant complexity of the mechanism necessary for carrying out the operations indicated above, and of the mechanical members of which this mechanism is composed.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The present invention, by contrast, greatly reduces the complexity of the mechanical members necessary for achieving this transfer of the portion of fabric that is to form the toe of the garment, while offering other results and advantages that will be clear from a perusal of the following text.
According to the present invention, then, the first stage of the transfer of the portion of fabric that is to form the toe of the garment is effected by utilizing the pneumatic suction system--generally present in circular machines for the purpose of take-down and tensioning of the article during its production--in order to create a region of concentrated suction of air, that is to say a concentrated suction stream, around the semicircle of needles where said portion of fabric is to be formed, and, therefore, around the free edge of this portion. Since the cylinder of the machine - depending on the case--is driven with a continuous rotary motion, or its rotary motion is reversed each time it has turned through an arc of 180.degree., and since, on the other hand, the orifice through which the abovementioned suction stream enters is in a fixed position, the free edge of the portion of fabric to be transferred comes close to said pneumatic suction stream, is captured by it and is progressively moved toward the arc of the needle circle opposite the arc where this portion of fabric was formed.
At the end of said first stage of the transfer --which was carried out by making use of the suction of air--mechanical members come into action, consisting of radially movable sinkers provided with spikes by means of which they engage the free edge of the fabric pouch intended to form the toe of the sock or stocking, and carry it radially out beyond the circle of the needles, which rise up through it to "knit it into" the series of stitches with which the article was started and, therefore, into the tubular portion of the garment, which is formed thereafter.
In practice, in order to create the region of concentrated suction of air, or concentrated suction stream, a mouth is provided that is connected by a tube to the pneumatic suction system referred to earlier, and in particular to the pipe that forms part of this system, with a valve also being provided to close this pipe so that all the suction draft goes through the mouth specified immediately above.
As an alternative to the above, said region of concentrated suction may be produced by providing a flat, elastically bendable component capable of being moved so as to cover the inlet orifice of the pneumatic tensioning system, with the exception of a slot defined by a cutout in said flat component, said slot
REFERENCES:
patent: 5052196 (1991-10-01), Turini
patent: 5231856 (1993-08-01), Lonati et al.
patent: 5617744 (1997-04-01), Conti
patent: 5647229 (1997-07-01), Conti
patent: 5924309 (1999-07-01), Conti
Golden Lady S.P.A.
Worrell Danny
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