GB2036815A - Attachment of a Knitted Strip to Fabric - Google Patents

Abstract

In a method of attaching a knitted strip 16 to a piece of fabric, one or both of the longitudinal edges of the strip being formed by a non-welt edge, a first longitudinal edge is pressed onto points of the linking machine at 30, the edge of the piece of fabric is then pressed onto the point of the linking machine and then the second longitudinal edge is pressed onto the points at 50 so that the strip envelops the edge of the piece of fabric, the strip and fabric are then presented to a sewing means 14 for attachment of the strip to the fabric, wherein when the first or second edge is formed by a non-welt edge that edge is folded prior to being pressed onto the points so that the points pass through the main portion of the strip and its folded marginal portion. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Attachment of a Knitted Strip to Fabric The present invention relates to attachment of a knitted strip to fabric, and in particular to attachment of a knitted strip to a garment to form an edging around the neck opening.

Generally, a knitted strip for a neck opening is knitted so that the wales extend transversely across the strip. Accordingly, at least one longitudinal edge of the strip is formed by a nonwelt edge and is therefore liable to unrove.

Therefore when the strip is attached to a garment it is important to tie in all the stitches of the nonwelt edge otherwise unroving of the strip can occur. Thus, when using a linking machine to attach the strip to the garment it is necessary to initially locate the non-welt edge on the points of a linking machine whilst making sure that each loop of the course running along that edge of the strip, is located on a point. Normally, the strip is provided with courses which are used to help the operative handle the strip when locating it on the points. It is essential to locate each loop of the edge on a point as mentioned above since after completion of attaching the strip to the garment neck opening the additional courses are removed by unroving.Consequently, those loops along the edge which were not located on a point will not be tied in by stitches from the linking machine and will therefore be free.

As will be appreciated from the above, locating each loop of the existing non-welt edge on an individual point is a highly skilled operation which is time consuming and requires skilled operatives.

One aim of the present invention is to reduce the skill factor necessary for attaching a knitted strip to a neck opening.

According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of attaching a knitted strip to a piece of fabric which strip has a pair of longitudinal edges and in which one or both of said edges is formed as a non-welt edge, which comprises the steps of folding the strip adjacent to the or each non-welt edge to form a marginal edge portion prior to attachment of the strip to the piece of fabric, pressing a first longitudinal edge of the strip defined by either a welt edge or a folded marginal edge portion onto the points of the linking machine, pressing the edge of the piece of fabric onto the points of the linking machine, pressing the second longitudinal edge defined by either a welt-edge or a folded marginal edge portion onto the points so that the strip enfolds the edge of the piece of fabric, and presenting the strip and fabric to a sewing means of the linking machine for attachment of the strip to the fabric.

It is envisaged that the strip may include a knitted portion projecting laterally from the strip, so that when the strip is attached to the neck opening of a garment, the knitted portion forms a collar.

The above method is particularly suitable for attaching an edging strip to a piece of fabric wherein the edging strip is knitted so as to have one longitudinal welt edge and an opposite longitudinal edge which has a folded marginal edge portion, which portion is automatically formed during knitting of the strip. A long continuous edging strip may be formed by knitting a plurality of short strips on a rib machine separated by a draw thread the individual short strips are joined in an end to end fashion to form a long continuous strip.In a preferred construction of strip, initially a welt edge is knitted and then the main portion of the strip is knitted on both beds of the machine to give a strip of a desired width; the stitches on one bed are then transferred to the other bed and a plurality of courses are knitted to form the marginal edge portions, and preferably a thin yarn, such as cotton is used so that the fabric of the marginal edge portion is thinner than the main portion of the strip.

Finally, a draw thread is then knitted in before knitting of the welt edge of the next strip.

According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a linking machine having a dial of points and spaced about the circumference of the dial, a first guide means for guiding the strip to the points so that one of the longitudinal edges of the strip is positioned just below the points, pusher means for pushing the strip onto the points and further guide means for presenting the other longitudinal edge just below and in front of the points as the dial is indexed and further pusher means for pushing the said other longitudinal edge of the strip onto the points.

Other aspects of the invention are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of a linking machine according to the present invention; Figures 2a and 2b are respectively a more detailed perspective view and end view of the folding guide shown in Figure 1; Figure 3a and 3b are respectively schematic perspective views of two types of strip.

Referring initially to Figure 1, there is shown a linking machine 10 having a dial of points 12 and a sewing head 14. The entire machine 10 is rotatably mounted on a table (not shown) for rotation about the axis of the dial of points 1 2.

The strip 1 6 to be attached to a garment is made in a continuous length and is fed to a leadon guide 30 via a guide arrangement 20 similar to the one described in our co-pending U.K. patent application 291 50/77.

Accordingly, the strip 1 6 may be stored in a basket (not shown) and continuously fed to the machine.

Tensioning means (not shown) may be provided for tensioning the strip prior to it being pressed onto the points.

As indicated in Figure 3a, the strip 1 6 is knitted so as to have a first longitudinal edge 1 spa defined by a welt edge and a second longitudinal edge 1 Sb which is formed by fold line defined by a folded marginal portion 1 sic. The strip 16 is knitted so that the marginal portion 1 sic automatically folds to the position shown after removal from the knitting machine. For instance the strip 16 may be knitted on a rib machine in which both needle beds knit from edge 16a to edge 16b and then the stitches are transferred to one bed only and knitting is continued for several courses to produce the marginal portion 16c.

The strip 16 is fed to the points via guide 30 so as to be presented to the points in a substantially vertical orientation with longitudincal edge 16b being lowermost.

The marginal portion 1 sic is arranged to be located on the radially outwardly directed side of the strip when considered in relation to the dial of points. The guide 30 has adjustable slides 31 for adjusting the height of the strip in relation to the points. The adjustable slides are positioned so that the longitudinal edge 1 sub of the strip 16 is positioned just below the points so that when the strip 16 is pressed onto the points by means of a pusher blade 35 the points pass through the strip 1 6 at a location just above the longitudinal edge 16b and also pass through the marginal portion 16c. By locating the strip on the points in this manner there is no need to ensure that each loop is picked up by a point.

The pusher blade 35 is of similar construction and is similarly actuated as the pusher blade described in our co-pending U.K. patent application 29150/77.

Thus as the dial of points 1 2 is rotatably indexed on operation of the machine the strip 1 6 is automatically pressed onto the points adjacent its longitudinal edge 16b.

The strip 16 when so located on the points lies substantially horizontally with the longitudinal edge 16a being located radially inwards relative to edge 16b.

Folding guide means 50 are mounted on the stationary frame 51 of the machine 10 at a location upstream from the sewing head in the direction of indexing of the dial of points 12. The guide means 50 serve to fold the strip 1 6 about a longitudinal fold line and present the longitudinal edge 16a at a position in front of and slightly below the points. A second pusher blade 36 is provided for pushing the edge 16a onto the points as the dial is indexed relative to frame 51.

The pusher blade 36 is similar in construction and similarly actuated as pusher blade 35. The folded strip 1 6 is then presented to the sewing head 14 on further indexing of the dial of points 12.

Accordingly folding of the strip and pushing of the longitudinal edge 16a onto the points is achieved automatically as the dial of points is indexed.

As shown in the drawings the folding guide means includes three separate guides but it is envisaged that these may be combined into a unitary guide.

The illustrated folding guide means 50 includes a first guide 53 in the form of a piough which serves to raise the strip 1 6 from its horizontal orientation and move the edge 16a radially outwards causing the strip to begin to fold along a longitudinal line.

The strip is then fed to a second guide 55 which acts to fold the strip and has an inverted channel which is curved longitudinally to extend parallel with the curvature of the dial 12 and which, in cross-section, is of generally 'U'-shape.

The guide 55 serves to ensure that the strip is folded longitudinally and that longitudinal edge 16a is urged downwards before the folded strip is presented to guide 60.

Guide 60 serves to accurately position edge 1 6a just below the points and also maintain the edge 1 6a spaced in front of the points prior to being pushed onto the points by pusher blade 36.

The guide 60 includes a mounting block 61 which is fixedly mounted on the frame 51.

The block 61 has circumferentially extending limbs 61a, the radially outer face of which defines a guide face 61 b for the outer face of the strip 1 6 extending upwardly from the points. The face 61 b is preferably curved longitudinally so as to be parallel with the curvature of the dial 12.

A guide member 68 is mounted on the block 61 for slidable movement in a vertical direction.

The guide member 68 and block 61 are arranged so that the guide member may be locked in a desired vertical position by means of an adjusting screw member 70.

The guide member 68 defines a U-shaped channel 64 with guide face 61b and is similarly curved longitudinally. As shown in Figures 1 and 2a, the channel 64 may be extended longitudinally by means of a block 64a having a U-shaped channel and which is attached to the guide member 68.

The guide member 68 has a depending support arm 68a on which is mounted a further guide member 69. The guide member 69 has a blade 69a which extends upwardly into the channel 64 and serves to separate the folded portions of the strip from one another. The blade 69a also cooperates with the guide member 68 to ensure that the longitudinal edge 16a is spaced in front of the points prior to being fed to the pusher blade 36.

The guide member 69 defines a shoulder 69b over which longitudinal edge 1 6a is guided. The guide member 69 is slidably mounted in an adjustable manner on support arm 68a so that the height of shoulder 69b may be adjusted relative to the points thereby ensuring that longitudinal edge 16a is at the correct level when leaving guide 60.

It will be appreciated from the above, that the operative only has to locate on the points at a position upstream from guide means 50, the edge of the garment to which strip 16 is to be attached and that location of the strip on the points and folding of the strip are achieved automatically.

Since the points pass through the strip and marginal portion 1 sic and since the marginal portion 1 sic is located on the inside of the attached folded strip, the risk of the marginal portion unroving is minimal therefore removing the need for each loop of longitudinal edge 16a to be picked up by a point.

It will be further appreciated that there are no finishing operations necessary when removing the attached strip from the machine since marginal portion 1 sic is located inside the folded strip.

It will be appreciated that the strip 16 need not necessarily be preformed with a folded marginal edge portion prior to it being fed to the points.

Accordingly it is envisaged that folding guide means may be provided on the linking machine for folding the strip to form the marginal edge portion prior to it being pressed onto the points.

There is shown in Figure 3b a second type of strip which includes a knitted portion 40 projecting laterally of the strip 16. The longitudinal edges of the strip 1 6 are both of the non-welt type and as shown the strip is folded adjacent to both edges to form folded marginal edge portions 1 sic which are pressed onto the points of the dial. After the strip 1 6 has been attached to the neck opening of the garment 41, the portion 40 of the strip 1 6 defines a collar.

It will be appreciated that the guides on the linking machine for folding and positioning the strip prior to it being pressed onto the points will be suitably adapted to enable a first edge of the strip 16 to be initially pressed onto the points and enable an operative to then press on the edge of the garment prior to the second edge of the strip being pressed onto the points on indexing of the dial.

Claims (10)

Claims

1. A method of attaching a knitted strip to a piece of fabric, which strip has a pair of longitudinal edges and in which one or both of said edges is formed as a non-welt edge, which comprises the steps of folding the strip adjacent to the or each non-welt edge to form a marginal edge portion prior to attachment of the strip to the piece of fabric, pressing a first longitudinal edge of the strip defined by either a welt edge or a folding marginal edge portion onto the points of the linking machine, pressing the edge of the piece of fabric onto the points of the linking machine, pressing the second longitudinal edge defined by either a welt-edge or a folded marginal edge portion onto the points so that the strip enfolds the edge of the piece of fabric, and presenting the strip and fabric to a sewing means of the linking machine for attachment of the strip to the fabric.

2. A method according to Claim 1 wherein when one edge of the strip is defined by a welt edge and the other edge is defined by a folded marginal edge portion the folded marginal edge portion is pressed onto the points prior to the edge defined by the welt edge.

3. A method of attaching by a knitted strip to a piece of fabric substantially as described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

4. A linking machine for attaching a knitted strip to a piece of fabric, the machine including a dial of points and spaced about the circumference of the dial, a first guide means for guiding the strip to the points so that one of the longitudinal edges of the strip is positioned just below the points, pusher means for pushing the strip onto the points and further guide means for presenting the other longitudinal edge just below and in front of the points as the dial is indexed and further pusher means for pushing the said other longitudinal edge of the strip onto the points.

5. A linking machine according to Claim 4 wherein the first guide means is arranged to present the strip substantially perpendicularly to the plane containing the points.

6. A linking machine according to Claim 4 or 5 wherein the second guide means includes an inverted U-shaped channel and a guide member having a guide face for supporting said other longitudinal edge of the strip and a blade for spacing said other longitudinal edge of the strip from the points.

7. A linking machine according to Claim 6 wherein the guide member is movable relative to the channel for the purpose of adjusting the level of the said other longitudinal edge relative to the points.

8. A linking machine according to Claim 6 or 7 wherein the U-shaped channel and guide member are longitudinally curved to extend parallel with the curvature of the dial.

9. A linking machine according to Claim 8 wherein the second guide means further includes a plough for moving the strip radially outwards prior to being fed on indexing of the dial to a folding guide which serves to fold the strip longitudinally prior to it being fed to said inverted U-shaped channel.

10. A linking machine for attaching a knitted strip to a piece of fabric substantially as described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.