Electronic patterning process for a knitting machine

Claim 1

A circular knitting machine comprising a rotatable cylinder having a plurality of longitudinally extending circumferential grooves therein, latch needles positioned in said grooves adjacent the top of the cylinder, selector jacks positioned in the grooves at the bottom of said cylinder each having patterning butts, an operating butt and a knitting butt thereon with the knitting butt being in engagement with the latch needles whereby on raising each of the individual selector jacks the individual latch needle associated therewith will be raised into a knitting position, cam means positioned adjacent the selector jacks engageable with the knitting butts of the selector jacks for moving the selector jacks up on rotation of the cylinder in accordance with the configuration of the cam means, and structure for electronic patterning processing including storage means for memorizing pattern information, a rotary stepping motor responsive to the storage means in accordance with the pattern memorized for bi-directional rotation in two angular directions a predetermined amount, a spindle secured to the rotary stepping motor for rotation into and out of the two angular directions in accordance with actuation of the stepping motor, a crank arm secured to the spindle extending perpendicular to the spindle and a selector lever extending substantially perpendicularly to the crank arm and spindle and radially of the cylinder pivotally secured at one end to the crank arm for rotation about a fixed pivot axis with respect to the crank arm, the other end of which is positioned adjacent the operating butts of the selector jacks on rotation of the cylinder, said other end having a beveled edge for engagement with the operating butts of individual selector jacks as they rotate toward the selector lever whereby on actuation of the rotary stepping motor to turn the crank arm through a predetermined arc toward the cylinder the selector lever is moved toward the cylinder to sequentially engage the operating butts of selector jacks moved past the selector lever whereby the selector jacks are pivoted toward the cylinder to prevent engagement of the knitting butts with the cam means and thus prevent movement of the selector jacks and latch needles into a knitting position and a plurality of manually patterned additional selector levers positioned radially outward from and adjacent the cylinder which are adapted to engage the patterning butts of the selector jacks to selectively cause the selector jacks to pivot inwardly of the cylinder and prevent movement of the latch needles into a knitting position in accordance with the manual patterning of the additional selector levers whereby both manual and electronic patterning to produce actuation of the selector jacks is possible simultaneously to improve the patterning possibilities of the knitting machine.