Flatbed knitting machine with electronic control
AssigneesUniversal Maschinenfabrik, Dr. Rudolf Schieber GmbH & Co., KG
InventorsAlbin Weingartner, David Retallick
Life of this patent
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Abstract
In a flatbed knitting machine with electronic control and comprising programmable fixed-word stores and freely accessible stores, all the data for the operation of the machine is split into five divisions, namely motif pattern draft, needle set-up, knitting plan, function number schedule, and plan run. Data sub-groups from the needle set-up division, together with associated special function numbers for call-up, are stored in the fixed-word stores. Motif designs are created using the data stored in the divisions for needle set-up and plan run and by means of external selector switches on the machine. Facilities are provided for mirror-imaging and for suppression of part or all of a motif.
Claims10
In an electronic control system for a flatbed knitting machine with electronic control, and control system being of the type having memory means for storing a first division of data containing motif pattern draft data, a second division of data containing needle set-up data, a third division of data containing knitting plan data, a fourth division of data containing function number schedule data and a fifth division of data containing plan run data, said knitting machine further comprising data entry means for entering data into said memory means, said knitting machine being of the type wherein a pattern is knitted in accordance with selected data retrieved from said memory means according to a knitting program, said knitted pattern employing at least one of a predetermined number of special knitting techniques corresponding to data sub-groups from said second division, the improvement comprising:
- said memory means comprising a programmable fixed word memory, e.g. a programmable read only memory (PROM), for storing said data sub-groups from said second division together with associated special function numbers for call-up, whereby said at least one special knitting technique can be employed by merely designating its corresponding a special function number;
- said memory means further comprising a freely accessible memory, e.g. a random access memory (RAM), for storing said second and fifth divisions of data as received from said data entry means, said freely accessible memory also storing an altered version of at least a portion of said second and fifth divisions of data, whereby a pattern portion corresponding to an altered version of at least a portion of said second and fifth data divisions can be knitted by merely retrieving said altered data version from said freely accessible memory;
- and
- said electronic control system further including a plurality of switches for selectively inhibiting portions of the pattern to be knitted by said program.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.