Knitted fabric having open areas
AssigneePhillips Fibers Corporation
InventorsJames H. Blore, Bobby L. Balcombe
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fabric having open areas is knitted from a plurality of body yarns interspersed at intervals with locking yarns having a lower melting temperature by casting off selected loops in selected body yarns, causing the cast-off loops to unravel toward but not past the respective locking yarn, and heating the fabric to cause the locking yarns to fuse to the touching body yarns, thereby preventing the cast-off loops from unraveling past the respective locking yarn.
Claims23
A method of preparing a double knit fabric having a plurality of relatively open areas, which comprises:
- (I) forming a double knit fabric by
- (a) knitting at least one body course employing at least one first yarn;
- (b) then knitting, in immediate succession to said at least one body course, at least one first locking course employing at least one second yarn, said second yarn being formed of a thermoplastic material having a lower melting point than said first yarn;
- and
- (c) then in immediate succession to said at least one first locking course, knitting a first plurality of consecutive body courses employing a plurality of first yarns while causing, in each of a plurality of areas in said first plurality of consecutive body courses, at least one stitch to be cast off;
- (II) stressing the thus knitted fabric to cause the thus cast-off stitches to unravel to a point near to but not past said at least one first locking course employing at least one second yarn;
- (III) heating the thus stressed fabric to a temperature above the melting point of said at least one second yarn and below the melting point of said first yarns to cause said at least one second yarn to fuse to the first yarns touching said at least one second yarn;
- and
- (IV) cooling the thus heated fabric to a temperature below the melting point of said at least one second yarn to thereby prevent the cast-off stitches from unraveling through said at least one first locking course employing at least one second yarn.
A double knit fabric having a plurality of relatively open areas, which comprises
- at least one body course containing at least one first yarn;
- in immediate succession to said at least one body course, at least one first locking course containing at least one second yarn, each said second yarn being formed of a thermoplastic material having a lower melting point than said first yarn;
- and
- in immediate succession to said at least one first locking course, a first plurality of consecutive body courses containing a plurality of first yarns, in each of a plurality of areas in said first plurality of consecutive body courses at least one stitch having been cast off and unraveled toward but not past said at least one first locking course;
- said at least one second yarn being fused to the touching first yarns to prevent said cast-off stitches from unraveling past said at least one second yarn.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.