Knitting machine and parts having diamond-like carbon coated surfaces
AssigneeSIPRA Patententwicklungs- und Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH
InventorErnst-Dieter Plath
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The knitting machine has knitting elements including needles, sinkers, and the like and guide parts for the knitting elements, including cam parts, guide tricks and the like, these groups of parts moving relative to each other and being provided with mutually contacting sliding surfaces or faces. To reduce heating during operation, the need for auxiliary lubricating devices, and to lower power requirements during operation the opposing sliding surface or faces of the moving parts of the knitting machine are at least partially provided with a friction-reducing and wear-resistant coating of diamond-like carbon. This coating is applied by a plasma CVD process (FIG. 3).
Claims9
In a knitting machine with a first group of parts in the form of knitting elements including at least one member selected from the group consisting of needles, sinkers and jacks and with a second group of parts in the form of guide elements including at least one member selected from the group consisting of cam parts, needle bed and sinker bed walls, wherein said first and second groups of parts have mutually contacting sliding faces and undergo relative movement in operation and thus slide with sliding faces on one another, said faces being at least partially formed as rear-resistant faces, the improvement wherein said faces are also at least partially formed as rear-resistant and also friction-reducing surfaces, and said faces which are wear-resistant and friction-reducing are provided with a friction-reducing coating of diamond-like carbon applied by plasma discharge in a carbon-containing gaseous atmosphere.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.