Jacquard circular knitting machine

Claim 1

A jacquard circular knitting machine comprising a needle cylinder provided thereon with a plurality of patterning functional members including knitting needles, a patterning mechanism capable of controlling at least every knitting needle mounted on the needle cylinder so that the knitting needles are moved vertically to knit a jacquard fabric, a plurality of yarn feed units mounted at predetermined positions around the needle cylinder and each having a plurality of yarn feed elements, yarn feed element switching means for performing a switching operation while the needle cylinder is rotated in either of a first direction and a second direction through a plurality of rotational positions and a driving mechanism for driving the needle cylinder; said driving mechanism including an electric motor interlocked through mechanical transmission means with the needle cylinder and a first controller which transmits control signals successively to the electric motor to control the rotary motion of the same; said first conductor including cylinder motion memory means for storing a predetermined cylinder operating procedure which includes a procedure for rotating the needle cylinder so that a plurality of spaced rotational positions of the needle cylinder is determined for each course according to a shape of a pattern to be knitted, first detecting means for detecting and generating a signal for each of said plurality of spaced rotational positions of said needle cylinder, second detecting means for detecting abnormalities in the yarn being fed to the needle cylinder and/or in the operating condition of the jacquard circular knitting machine, first reading and instructing means for comparing each signal given by the first detecting means with the contents of the cylinder motion memory means and instructing the electric motor of needle cylinder driving conditions and to stop the needle cylinder at a variable position predetermined by the shape of the pattern to be knitted, and stop instructing means for instructing the electric motor to stop upon the reception of a signal from the second detecting means; said patterning mechanism including pattern forming means for operating the patterning functional members of the jacquard circular knitting machine and a second controller for controlling the pattern forming means by successively applying signals to the pattern forming means; and said second controller including pattern memory means for storing a predetermined operation procedure of the patterning functional members and second reading and instruction means for comparing each signal given by the first detecting means of said first controller with the contents of the pattern memory means and instructing the pattern forming means of the operation of the patterning functional members; said pattern forming means includes the needle driving means for driving the knitting needles for vertical motion and the yarn feed element switching means which move at least one of the yarn feed elements to the respective yarn feed positions and retract the same from the yarn feeding positions, and said pattern memory means includes first pattern memory means for storing a predetermined knitting needle driving procedure and second memory means for storing a predetermined yarn feed element switching procedure for controlling a plurality of the yarn feed elements so that each vertical motion of said knitting needles and each yarn feed element switching motion during knitting of the jacquard fabric is controlled at each of said plurality of spaced rotational positions of the needle cylinder as determined by said first pattern memory and said second pattern memory.