Germany - Stoll has applied for a patent for a knitted article, such as a cardigan or a pullover, which has a waist-band followed by a base fabric which contains a knitted pocket. The invention aims to alter the conventional pocket placing above the waistband in order to deepen the former substantially.
This is achieved by starting the knitted-in pocket part (4) in the waist-band (2) and extending the former into the main part of the garment (3), producing a deeper pocket to prevent stored items from falling out and to enable the wearer to put their hands into the enlarged pockets.
A distinctive knitting linkage of the pocket part is adapted in the waist-band region with regard to its appearance and elasticity. The patent application also includes an independent claim for a method of producing a knitted garment piece with a knitted-in pocket section.
Patent number: DE102008051993 Publication date: 22 April 2010 Applicant: Stoll
Circular knitting
Patterning method
Germany - The German Research Institute, SIPRA has applied for a patent for a knitting machine with a newly designed needle cylinder to produce patterned knitted goods. The needle cylinder accommodates movable knitting elements which may be either latch or compound needles.
Cams can select needle butts to pass through one or another cam track in accordance with the pattern. The patterning device is designed so that in each selection step at least two knitting elements lying adjacent in the needle cylinder are simultaneously selected and controlled in one or other of the two cam tracks or the same cam track.
Patent number: WO2010066219 Publication date: 17 June 2010 Applicant: SIPRA
Warp knitting
Tension setting
Germany - Karl Mayer has recently published three patent applications. The first is a device for tension setting of individual threads during the warping operation for a warp-beam. The operation involves winding the warp threads on to a warping drum under a predetermined tension. The invention aims to set the tension of the warp threads to the required level at low operational cost by using an energy back-feeding unit.
The break energy needed to set warp thread tension is not transferred into heat but fed back into a net or energy storage facility.
Fed back energy can be used to drive other machines or installations, whilst the reduction of heat makes it possible to carry out warping operations in halls which do not need expensive climatising plants.
The device has a rotary body partially wrapped by a yarn, where the former is connected to an electric machine which acts as a generator. This is connected to an energy recycling device, a four quadrant adjustor. The recycling device has a transformer, rectifier and multi-phase structure inverter and is connected to an energy supply device. An independent claim is also included for a warping device.
Patent number: EP2192072 (A1) Publication date: 2 June 2010 Applicant: Karl Mayer
Knotting device
Germany - Karl Mayer’s second patent application concerns a knotting device used during the warping process. Much conventional warping for warp knitting machines uses yarn package creels which can only hold a limited number of yarn packages. These are insufficient to supply threads for the warp’s full width so the warping process involves a great deal of knotting.
The invention aims to simplify the yarn change operation by combining the advantages of a manual knitting tool with those of a fully automatic knotter, which also saves cost. The knotting device (1) has a carrier (2) connected to a handle (3) for movement control by an operator.
A suction device (17) is provided on the chassis where a thread-catch mechanism (15) and a knotter (16) are arranged. A support unit (11) is mounted on the carrier where the thread catch mechanism and knotter are fitted in a height-adjustable manner. The operator pulls or pushes the carrier to individual knotting points on the creel and the yarn catch unit substantially shortens knotting time.
Patent number: EP2196424 Publication date: 16 June 2010 Applicant: Karl Mayer
Needle-bar design
Germany - The third patent application by Karl Mayer concerns needlebar design for very fine gauge warp knitting machines. The invention facilitates use of filler elements in the needlebar between neighbouring needles.
Simply reducing needle thickness brings the danger that a warp knitting machine needle will lose its sideways stability, creating a risk that it will collide with the guidebar guides.
The arrangement has a needle-bar which contains tricks or grooves to accommodate, in a removable manner, a section of knitting needles. The filling elements are arranged between adjacent needles in the region between the holding and working-end needle sections. An independent claim is included for a method of forming the knitting needle arrangement.
Patent number: ES2341372 Publication date: 18 June 2010 Applicant: Karl Mayer
Carbon fibre
China - Changzhou Diba Textile Machine company has applied for a patent concerning a multiple axial warp knitting machine for knitting carbon fibre.
The machine consists of a pan-head device, a head component, a head frontend working mechanism and a weft laying-in mechanism. The head component is connected between the head front-end working mechanism and a weft laying-in mechanism.
A weft laying-in frame is connected with a separation device, a press roller and a 0- degree warp delivery device of a 0-degree of a warpheating transition wherein the separation device contains carbon fibre stocks and release paper.
The press-roller is arranged between the separation device and the 0-degree warp heating transition roller device. The position of the pan-head device can be adjusted.
The invention has the advantage that carbon-fibre warps are fully widened, the fibres are laid on the warps and the latter are delivered into the machine head to be knitted in a smooth and clean way.
The technical configuration of the 0-degree warp knitting of carbon fibres is fully achieved and the defects which have occurred when using carbon fibre warp knitting machines in China are said to have disappeared.
Patent number: CN10166 0244 Publication date: 3 March 2010 Applicant: Changzhou Diba Textile Machine
Support shaft
Germany - Karl Mayer has recently applied for a patent concerning a warp knitting machine with a section containing at least one support shaft for levers for the knitting elements which is able to turn and is fixed in an axial direction.
The section of the machine also includes a patterning installation. The knitting elements (needles and warp thread guides), working together, have, depending on the machine gauge, little distance from each other. To prevent collision of needles and guides during knitting, precise positioning of knitting elements is essential.
On conventional warp knitting machines it is necessary to support the shafts which promote movement of knitting elements by a number of frames within the machine frame, making it difficult to ensure precise positioning of the elements.
Furthermore, patterning facilities determining axial movement guide-bar guides extend the full width of the machine, whilst necessitating an additional machine frame.
The invention aims to increase precision of positioning of the support shafts of the knitting elements and to reduce the machine’s frame width.
Patent number: CH700191 Publication date: 15 July 2010 Applicant: Karl Mayer
Hosiery knitting
Hosiery machine
Italy - Lonati has applied for a patent for a new circular knitting machine for producing hosiery articles. The machine has a needle cylinder with a vertical axis and multiple number of tricks on the cylinder for accommodating needles and a needle actuating element.
Each actuating element has one connecting element with a radially extractable, movable butt that engages the connecting element actuation cams which face the cylinder surface. The cams comprise at least one extraction cam or one retraction cam with a portion whose profile is inclined with respect to an ideal plane perpendicular to the cylinder axis.
The knitting machine comprises means for extracting the movable butt of the connecting elements and keeping the butts in an extracted position over the entire extension of the cam portion which has an inclined profile, namely the extraction-cam or the retraction-cam.
Patent number: US2010011816 Publication date: 3 June 2010 Applicant: Lonati
Loop transfer
Italy - Lonati has also applied for a patent for a needle for transferring loops to adjacent needles on circular knitting machines for producing hosiery articles. The new needle comprises a shank, the upper end of which has a latch pivoted to it in order to open and close the needle head.
The needle comprises one elastic element formed on the shank’s opposite sides below the latch. There are thus two receptacles, one for each side of the shank. An adjacent needle head can be inserted in each of the receptacles in order to transfer the loop from the knitting needle to the adjacent needle.
Patent number: US2010043498 Publication date: 25 February 2010 Applicant: Lonati
Knitted garments
Underwear method
France - Euralis has filed a patent for a knitted undergarment and manufacturing method (Fig 3).
The underwear garment, e.g. panties, (1) has a body (2) which forms the main part and comprises an upper peripheral edge (3) and lateral peripheral edges (4, 5).
The body is knitted in a jersey structure. Bands (6, 7, 8) comprise longitudinal edges (9, 10) and are assembled at the body by a seam in a nonsuperimposed position, in which one of the longitudinal edges of the bands is greater than 5mm.
The bands are knitted from spandex. An independent claim is also included for a method for producing the underwear.
Patent number: EP2141347 (A1) Publication date: 13 January 2010 Applicant: Euralis
Sport’s garment
Switzerland - A Swiss inventor has recently applied for a patent for a pair of sport’s trousers. These have an airtight outer skin made of an elastic material and a distancing layer arranged under the outer layer, made of a knitted fabric using mono-filament yarns.
The sealing edges are produced by wrapping the outer skin over the knitted distancing layer. A vacuum tube is connected to a connection piece. A portable vacuum pump produces a medically and advantageously indexed negative differential pressure in relation to atmospheric pressure which extends into the article of clothing as a result of the distancing layer, knitted in an open-work structure.
The vacuum pump is fastened to a strip which can be worn on an operator’s shoulders or other appropriate position. The invention aims to produce a spacer garment that makes it possible to simplify overall design of the clothing and corresponding pump unit while simultaneously lowering the costs substantially.
Patent number: US2010145237 Publication date: 10 June 2010 Applicant: Egli Wendelin
Crotch closure
Czechoslovakia - A Czech inventor has applied for a patent for knitted articles such as briefs, knickers and tights including the body part and leg parts which are closed in the crotch area by extra courses in opposition (Fig 4).
Extra courses are (7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4), at least one of which is created in the direction of the top (V1, V2, V3, V4) at first by the extending part (7.1A, 7.2A, 7.3A, 7.4A) and then by the narrowing part (7.1B, 7.2B, 7.3B, 7.4B).
Using the method, briefs, knickers and tights are closed in the crotch area by at least one pair of opposite extra courses knitted by reversing runs. The extra courses for leg parts have their edge links of the extending part knitted together with the links of the last continuous line of the leg part. The extra body part courses, on the other hand, have the edge links in the extending parts knitted together with the links of the first continuous body part line.
Patent number: US2010132411 (A1) Publication date: 3 June 2010 Applicant: Ando Jan
Ancillary
Cam assembly
Germany - Groz-Beckert has recently applied for a patent for a cam assembly part for a circular knitting machine set with slider needles (Fig 5).
The aim is to offer a new cam assembly to control slider butt movement. According to the patent application, the cam assembly can also be adapted for use on flat knitting machine carriages.
The invention allows adjustment of one cam assembly part (22) with respect to another (27) meaning timing of closing and opening of the slider needle hook inside can be adjusted relative to slider needle retraction timing and set as needed.
The invention aims to increase knitting quality and operational safety of a knitting machine set out with compound needles. When the invention is adapted for use on flat knitting machines set up with compound needles the knitting cam assembly path is linear.
Patent number: US2010147034 (Al) Publication date: 17 June 2010 Applicant: Groz-Beckert
Thread guide
Germany - Another new patent application filed by Groz-Beckert concerns a knitting machine without holding-down sinkers. Instead, the circular knitting machine has a thread-guide associated with a runner.
The runner holds open the latches of the rising needles of a first group, while needles of a second group are driven out. Due to time staggered driving out of the latch needles by way of a first and second group and alternating arrangement of the needle groups, rising of the cast off loops on the needle stems is prevented, making use of knock-over and holding down sinkers unnecessary. The runner, separate from the thread-guide, is used to hold open the needle latches and can be adjusted independently from the thread-guide position.
Patent number: US201014735 (A1) Publication date: 17 June 2010 Applicant: Groz-Beckert
Needle monitoring
Germany - Memminger has applied for a patent for a new method and apparatus for monitoring knitting machine needles. The invention is based on a system of optical supervision where individual signal impulses are produced when a needle or its hook passes through the inspection field of an optical sensor.
Time intervals between individual signal impulses are registered and if the interval between signal impulses is larger or smaller than that occuring between two previous signal impulses an alarm signal occurs. The alarm signal is activated when a needle is broken or bent. Memminger states that the invention results in a dependable, robust and reliable needle monitoring method.
Patent number: AT469256 Publication date: 15 June 2010 Applicant: Memminger IRO
Yarn feeder
Germany - Another patent application filed by Memminger concerns a new yarn feeder for circular knitting machines with an overload-protected anchoring clip (Fig 6).
The aim is to improve handling security of the yarn-feed installation.
According to the invention, the new yarn feeder has a clip (14) with overload protection in the form of a force limiting element (25) comprising a sheet-metal piece (24) with an attachment screw (18). The sheet-metal piece is dimensioned with respect to its flexural strength so it permits reliable tightening of the clip (14) preventing damage, in particular expansion.
Patent number: DE112007003544 Applicant: Memminger IRO Publication date: 15 July 2010