Sliver high pile fabric knitting machine

In a sliver high pile fabric knitting machine having a rotatable circle of independent needles and a plurality of sliver and yarn feeding stations spaced circumferentially around the needle circle, the improvement comprising means for knitting a plurality of pile fiber-retaining fabric courses at each of one or more of said stations, said means including, at a single station,

• a. a sliver feeding device adapted to deliver each of a plurality of separate laterally spaced rovings to one of separate angularly spaced fixed locations of the needle circle;
• b. yarn feeding means comprising a plurality of angularly spaced yarn tubes, each said yarn tube being disposed at a position adjacent to and trailing one of said fixed locations in the direction of needle rotation;
• c. a plurality of angularly spaced stitch cams, each stitch cam being disposed at a position adjacent to and trailing one of said fixed locations in the direction of needle rotation;
• and
• d. a plurality of angularly spaced compressed air jets, at least one each of said air jets being disposed at a position adjacent to and trailing one of said fixed locations in the direction of needle rotation.

The method of modifying a sliver high pile fabric knitting machine having a circle of independent needles and at least one sliver and yarn feeding station disposed adjacent the needle circle, to increase the pile fabric production thereof, comprising the steps of

• a. providing at each station a sliver feeding device adapted to deliver a plurality of separate laterally spaced individual rovings of sliver fibers to separate arcuately spaced locations on the needle circle;
• b. providing a plurality of arcuately spaced yarn feeding means at each station to feed yarn to the needles, each of said yarn feeding means being associated with a separate roving;
• c. providing a plurality of arcuately spaced sets of knitting cams at each station, each said set of knitting cams being associated with a separate roving and its associated yarn feeding means, and each said set of knitting cams being operative to actuate needles to receive sliver fibers and yarn and form said fibers and yarn into a course of sliver knit fabric at said station;
• and
• d. rotating the circle of needles relative to each sliver and yarn feeding station and actuating the needles at each said station to knit a plurality of fiber-retaining pile fabric courses at each said station.