1

Flat Knitting machines

There has been much improvement in flat knitting machines over the past 20years. Comparing a flat knitting machine using jacquard steels for needleselection with the latest state-of-the-art machine capable of knitting the wholegarment, one can easily imagine how many breakthroughs were needed to makethe transition. The huge improvement in the efficiency of loop transfer haseffectively eliminated the flat bed purl knitting machines employing doublehooked latch needles.

Development of modern V-bed machines

• ITMA95 showed Tsudakoma, the knitting machine with no cam plates.And Shima Seiki with four needles beds.

• Typically, modem flat knitting machine will have gauges ranging from E3to E14 and the needle bed widths of a shorter 120cm and longer 240cm.

• To meet the demands of the industry, the range will include machines withdifferent numbers of knitting systems.

• Single system knitting is sometimes desirable but the production is low.Dual-head, single system would be a sensible choice, so that two piecescan be knitted simultaneously.

• The cam systems for these machines should have an electronicallycontrolled stitch setting and varying for individual needles

• Loop transfer is very important function in flat knitting. The cam systemshould be able to perform loop transfer very efficiently for every systemirrespective of carriage traverse direction, and to perform knitting andtransfer at the same time in order to reduce non-productive stroke.

• Owing to the very efficient loop transfer, fully fashioned knitting orshaping of fabric is very common in flat knitting, and the ability to varycarriage stroke becomes important in raising production.

• The number of available yarn carrier should be about 12 and up to 32, withthe swinging type of yam carrier for Intarsia knitting as an option.

Sinker system and Start-up comb accessories in flat knitting

• The sinker system is a standard facility for versatile flat knitting machine.• It is essential for knitting complex structural designs, double layer

application and 3-D fabrics.• To cater for the need to knit complex structure and shaped pieces, fabric

rollers can programmed for an appropriate fabric take-down tension.

2

• A start-up comb for piece-by-piece knitting is becoming standard facilityfor knitting machine with shorter needle bed

• Yam cutting and clamping devices for yam striping and cleaning isessential.

In short, they have built-in sinker and programmed take-down tension forknitting complex design and start-up comb, yarn cutter and clamping for specialeffect.

SHIMA FIRST machine in ITMA99

• FIRST stands for Full-fashioning, Intarsia, Rib-Transfer and Sinker.• Designed to be very versatile, the machine can knit everything from

integral knitting to rib shaping and even the whole garment without thehelp of seaming and linking.

• The slide needle (with four needle beds) in FIRST allows the knitted loopto be held centrally all the time, leveling the tensions in both arms of theloop.

• Unwanted tension and friction can thus be minimized, reducing both yambreakage and loop distortion.

• The slide needle also allows changes in loop size regardless of gauge,even while knitting the same piece.

• Gauge range is no longer applicable to the FIRST machine.• Instead they use slide needles of three different hook sizes, each knitting

to the equivalent of a range of "gauges", e.g. 7 gauge and 12 gauge effectscan be knitted on the same machine in the same piece.

ITMA 99 Survey 4, Textile Asia, August 1999