SINKER FOR A CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINE

PLATINE POUR TRICOTEUSE CIRCULAIRE

English Abstract

Disclosed is a sinker for a circular knitting machine being
characterized by two symmetrical L-shaped recesses formed
at two lateral sides of an upper half of a front top
portion of the sinker, including a nose and a nose slot
formed above the portion. The L-shaped recesses are so
formed that, when the sinker is moved into a corresponding
channel on the needle cylinder in front of the sinker, the
recesses are located slightly above the channel. When the
sinker reciprocates back and forth to together with the
up and down latch needle form and knit piles, dust so
produced settles on the L-shaped recesses and is removed
therefrom without falling into and cumulating in the channel
of the needle cylinder due to the movements of the sinker at
high speed. The cleaning of needle cylinder and sinkers can
be minimized and the quality of knitted fabrics can be
enhanced with the arrangement of such L-shaped recesses on
two sides of the sinker.

French Abstract

La présente invention se rapporte à une platine de métier circulaire se caractérisant par deux encoches en forme de L pratiquées dans deux côtés latéraux, dans la moitié supérieure de la portion avant supérieure de la platine, ainsi que par un mentonnet et une fente de mentonnet formée au-dessus de ladite portion. Les encoches en forme de L sont conçues de manière à ce que lorsque la platine est amenée dans le canal correspondant du cylindre d'aiguilles, placé devant ladite platine, elles se retrouvent légèrement au-dessus du canal. Lorsque la platine se déplace dans un mouvement de va-et-vient avec la forme ascendante et descendante d'aiguilles à clapet et les poils, la poussière ainsi produite retombe sur les encoches en forme de L et est éliminée sans obstruer le canal du cylindre d'aiguilles sous l'action des mouvements rapides de la platine. Le fait de prévoir des encoches en forme de L sur deux côtés de la platine permet de réduire au minimum le nettoyage du cylindre d'aiguilles et des platines et améliore la qualité des tricots produits.

Claims

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What is claimed is:
A sinker for a circular knitting machine, comprising a main
body, a nose formed on a front top portion of said main
body, and a nose slot defined between said front top portion
of said main body and said nose; said sinker having an upper
front portion having a thinner upper half than the remaining
part of said sinker, such that two recesses each having a
substantially L-shaped cross section are symmetrically
formed at either side of said upper front portion of said
sinker to extend along a longitudinal axis of said sinker,
said L-shaped recesses receiving cotton dust attached to
said nose and said nose slot and falling down during the
forward and backward movements of said sinker to form piles,
and permitting said dust to be removed either from a front
end or from a rear end of said sinker when said sinker is
reciprocated back and forth at a considerably high speed.

Description

215029 1
-- 1 --
SINKER FOR A CIRCULAR KNITTING MACHINE
BACKGROUND OF THE I NVENT I ON
Generally, piles on the toweling or double plu.sh are formed
by separately guiding a pile yarn and a ground yarn to an
upper and a lower part of a sinker in the course of
knitting, so that loops of the pile yarn and the ground yarn
formed on the sinker can not be pulled to the same height by
a latch needle. Thereby, the pile yarn passing the upper
part of the sinker forms the piles. No matter what knitting
method is adopted to form the piles, the sinker is a
necessary element.
,
There are many different structural designs made to improve
the sinker so as to obtain better and desired knitting
manner and to result in more beautiful patterns. The
knitted fabrics can be structurally divided into Eabric with
thicker and thinner piles. Knitted fabrics with either
thicker or thinner piles can have better quality only when
the sinker is properly designed. Presently, most of the
sinkers are designed to knit fabrics with thicker piles.
But, there are also some sinkers improved from sinkers used
to knit fabrics with thinner piles. However, all of these
sinkers have some or other disadvantages. Fig. 1
illustrates a sinker C designed for knitting fabrics having
thicker piles. The sinker C has two recesses Cl separately
formed at either side of a front portion of the sinker C,
such that the recesses Cl vertically extend the whole height
of the front portion of the sinker and give that portion a
thickness smaller than that of the remaining part of the
sinker. When the sinker C moves forward or backward and the

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2 --
latch needle B moves upward and downward to work
alternately, the latch needle B shall have larger space to
move due to the thinner front portion of the sinker between
the two recesses Cl. At this point, cotton dust produced
during the knitting shall easily settles on a nose slot C3
defined between a nose C2 of the sinker C and the front
portion thereof, instead of falling on the latch needle B.
Then, when a next yarn passing the nose slot C3 to form
another pile, the dust previously settled on the nose slot
C3 shall be brought out of the nose slot C3 by the next yarn
and falls along the recesses Cl to accumulate on the
knitting machine.
As it can be clearly seen from Fig. 2, when the sinker C
moves backward and out of a corresponding channel Al on the
knitting machine, it shall moves forward again. Cotton dust
3 shall follow the forward moving sinker C and enters^the
channel Al and clogs the same. A clogged channel Al has
reverse influence on the operation of the sinker and even
shortens the life of the sinker after a long period of time.
A sinker with such vertically extended recesses at two sides
indeed solves some problems found in the earlier stages,
such as the smooth operation of the latch needle, it on the
other hand allows the cotton dust to fall into the channel
Al because the thickness of the front portion of the sinker
C (that is, the thickness between the two recesses Cl) is
smaller than the width of the channel Al and the sinker C
operates in the channel Al. The clogged channels Al shall
cause the individual sinkers C to move at different .speeds
and the piles so formed shall have inferior or crinkly
texture. In addition, it is a time- and labor-consuming
work to clean the needle cylinder and the channels Al.

lS0294
There are many patents granted to needle cylinders which
have improved or new structure to solve the problems in
connection with the cotton dust. These improved or new
needle cylinders may probably have the expected effect, but
the cotton dust problem occurs on the sinkers has not yet
been effectively resolved.
SUMMARY OF THE I NVENT I ON
A primary object of the present invention is to provide a
sinker for a circular knitting machine which may prevent
cotton dust produced during the knitting process from
falling into the channel of the needle cylinder in which
the sinker operates to form piles. The sinker according
to the present invention has two L-shaped recesses
symmetrically formed at two lateral upper sides of a front
portion thereof, giving the upper half of the front portion
a narrower thickness than the remaining part of the sinker.
Moreover, the narrowed upper half of the front portion of
the sinker, that is, where the two L-shaped recesses locate,
is above the channel of the needle cylinder when the sinker
moves into the channel. With this arrangement, the cotton
dust possibly produced during a fabric having thicker piles
is knitted shall fall onto the lower edges of the two
L-shaped recesses. When the sinker is moved back and forth
at a considerably high speed in the course of knitting, the
cotton dust settled on the L-shaped recesses shall be
completely removed from the sinker without reversely
affecting the pile texture and the quality of the knitted
fabrics.

21S~294
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The above-mentioned and ther objects of the present
invention, as well as the structure and techniques adopted
to achieve such objects can be better understood by
referring to the following detailed description of the
preferred embodiments and the accompanied drawings, wherein
Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing a conventional sinker;
Fig. 2 is a top plan view showing a conventional sinker
moving into a needle cylinder;
Fig. 3 is a perspective view showing a first embodiment of
the sinker according to the present invention;
Fig. 4 illustrates the position of a sinker of the present
invention in a needle cylinder;
Fig. 5 is an enlarged, fragmentary, perspective view showing
in more details the position of a sinker of the present
invention in a needle cylinder;
Figs. 6 and 7 illustrate the manner in which cotton du.st
settled down on the sinker is removed therefrom; and
Figs. 8A and 8B illustrate another two embodiments of the
sinker according to the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Please refer to Figs. 3 through 8. In these drawings, like
elements will be denoted by the same reference numerals.

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Fig. 3 illustrates a sinker 1 formed according to the
present invention. The sinker 1 includes ~ main body and a
nose 11 formed at a front top portion of the main body. The
nose 11 has a ridge portion extending upward and forward to
merge in a curve-profiled front end. Behind the front end
there is a backward extended lower portion of the nose 11,
which together with an upper front portion of the sinker 1
below the nose 1, define a nose slot 12 therehetween. The
upper front portion of the sinker 1 further has a thinner
upper half, such that two substantially L-shaped recesses 13
are symmetrically formed at either side surface of the upper
front portion of the sinker 1 to extend along a longitudinal
axis of the sinker 1. The L-shaped recesses 13 have
chamfered and rounded corners and are formed on the upper
front portion of the sinker 1 at such a height that, when
the sinker 1 is moved into a needle cylinder 2 with its
front upper portion extended into and located at one of the
channels 21 formed on top of the needle cylinder 2, the
recesses 13 shall be sufficiently higher than a top plane of
the channels 21. Multiple pieces of sinker 1 are separately
located in the channels 21 side by side and moved in and out
the channels 21 in a synchronous manner, and therefore,
description of the movement,of only one individual sinker 1
shall be made herein.
As shown in Figs. 4 and 5, there are multiple channels 21
provided on the needle cylinder 2. Cam plates 6 for
controlling the movement of latch needles B are fixed onto a
base 8 so that they are located at outer side of the needle
cylinder 2 to surround the latter. The sinker 1 each is
seated on a sinker ring 4 surrounding the needle cylinder 2
and is movably received in one of the beds formed on a top
portion of the sinker ring 4. A cover 5 is disposed above

21~029~
-- 6
the sinker ring 4 to control the movement of the sinkers 1.
A yarn feeding means 7 is fixed to an outer end of the cover
5 to feed pile yarn and ground yarn for forming piles by the
sinkers 1 and the latch needles B.
As it can be more clearly seen from Fig. 5, the main body of
the sinker 1 has a thickness the same as the width of the
channel 21, and the narrowed upper half of the sinker 1 at
where the L-shaped recesses 13 are formed upward projects
beyond the channel 21. When the latch needles B work
together with the sinkers 1 to knit piles, the knitting
operation is always done within an area defined by the nose
11 and the nose slot 12. When viewing from the front end of
the sinker 1, steps are formed between the L-shaped recesses
13 and the top plane of the channels 21, leaving an
operating distance between the two elements.
Figs. 6 and 7 illustrate how cotton dust falls onto the
L-shaped recesses 13 when the sinker 1 works with the latch
needle B to knit piles, especially when the piles are
densely knitted. When the sinker 1 is moved forward toward
the needle cylinder 2 for`forming a pile, or, when the latch
needle B is moved downward to knit the pile, most of the
dust 3 from the yarn shall fall and settle to attach to the
nose 11 and the nose slot 12. When the sinker 1 and the
latch needle B return to their respective original position
to knit the next pile, the sinker 1 is moved forward again
to form a pile, and the latch needle B is moved upward to
pull the pile. When the latch needle B is moved downward
again, dust on the nose 11 and the nose .slot 12 is brol.lght
down from the nose 11 and the nose slot 12 along with the
pile and falls on the two L-shaped recesses 13 on either
side of the sinker 1. At this point, the pile is

- 2150294
continuously pulled by the latch needle B to a proper
position and the sinker 1 keeps moving forward until it
reaches a foremost front position it is allowed to. Since
the L-shaped recesses 13 are laterally formed on two sides
of the sinker 1, they form a barrier to prevent the dust
from falling down into the channel 21, at least not falling
in large quantity. A blower nozzle (not shown) disposed
outside the channel 21 is used to help blowing any dust 3
away from the sinker 1 and out of the channel 21. By this
way, dust settled on the sinker 1 can be brought away
without cumulating on the L-shaped recesses 13 due to the
forward and backward movements of the sinker 1 at a
considerably high speed. It is therefore not required to
shut down the whole knitting machine for the purpose of
cleaning the channels 21.
What to be noted is the sinker 1 with two L-shaped recesses
13 on either side thereof as disclosed by the present
invention is designed mainly for knitting a textile having
thicker piles. There are, of course, other sinkers`desi~ned
to knit thinner piles.
Figs. 8A and 8B illustrate another two embodiments of the
sinker 1 of the present invention for use in different
knitting manners. In Fig. 8A, the L-shaped recess 13 has a
centrally upward curved bottom. In Fig. 8B, the L-shaped
recess 13 has a bottom edge slightly declines forward and
downward. In either case, the recesses 13 laterally formed
on two sides of the sinker 1 are designed to prevent dust 3
from cumulating on the sinker 1 and/or the channel 21 so as
to avoid any reverse influence on the pile textures and the
quality of knitted fabrics.

Representative Drawing