Weft insertion magazine with continuous provision of weft thread for a warp knitting machine

Claim 1

Weft insertion means for feeding a plurality of weft threads to a warp knitting machine comprising: (a) a pair of spaced forwarding means, each having a plurality of spaced holders, for carrying weft threads held on said holders in a forward, longitudinal direction; (b) a carriage mounted adjacent to said forwarding means and reciprocatable transversely with respect thereto; (c) a plurality of thread guides mounted on said carriage for laying said weft threads in parallel about respective ones of said holders, said carriage and guides being operable to transport said weft threads from one of said pair of forwarding means to the other; (d) a plurality of spools for delivering tangentially and untwisted from each, one of said weft threads, the threads on said spools comprising flat, untwisted ribbons, each of said spools being mounted to rotate about its spool axis; and (e) a delivery arrangement having a drive roller for pulling the weft threads from said spools, said drive roller being operable to rotate at a constant tangental speed equivalent to the mean rate of consumption of weft thread by said knitting machine; (f) weft thread storage means for engaging said threads between said spools and said thread guides and for compensating for the periodically varying rate of consumption against the continuous delivery of the weft threads.