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US 5,209,084 AGranted
Knitted fabric having low stretch for upholstery
AssigneeGeneral Motors Corporation
InventorsFrank Robinson, Gerald F. Day
Life of this patent
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AssigneeGeneral Motors Corporation
InventorsFrank Robinson, Gerald F. Day
Estimating the term…
A weft knitted double-jersey fabric is knitted in a construction of repeating groups of courses in which some courses have loops pulled to both fabric faces and some courses have loops pulled to one fabric face and are transversed by yarn regions which extend across at least two wales and up to seven or more wales. The yarn feed to the needle beds of the knitting machine is limited to no more than 4.0 cm/cm of bed length over which the fabric is knitted in courses in which loops are pulled to both faces of the fabric and to no more than 2.0 cm/cm of bed length, preferable no more than 1.8 cm/cm, in courses in which loops are pulled to one face of the fabric. The fabric has an extensibility of no more than 12% in wale and course directions. It is knitted with a high count yarn of 550 to 850 decitex which may be an air-textured polyester yarn. It is suitable for use as upholstery fabric particularly in the form of a vehicle seat upholstery cover which may be shaped to fit the seat in the knitting process.
A weft knitted double jersey fabric suitable for use as an upholstery fabric of which at least a substantial part of the fabric has a repeating structure of a group of at least three courses including at least one course having loops pulled to both faces of the fabric, at least one course having all, or substantially all, loops pulled to one face of the fabric, and yarn regions extending course-wise without loops, and wales transverse to said group of courses comprising repeating sets of wales in which a first set of two or more wales is adjacent to a second set of two or more wales, adjacent wales in the first set having loops on opposite faces of the fabric with the loops on one face being in number ratio to the loops on the other face of at least 3:1 and the second set of wales being traversed in at least one of the courses having all, or substantially all, of the loops pulled to one face of the fabric by a yarn region without loops which extends between loops across two or more wales, said structure and the tightness of the knitting being such that the stretch of the fabric is no more than 12% in wale and course directions respectively.
A process for weft knitting a double jersey fabric suitable for use as an upholstery fabric comprising feeding yarns to beds of needles on a weft knitting machine and knitting the yarns using said needles to form a weft knitted fabric wherein at least a substantial part of the fabric is knitted with a repeating structure of a group of at least three courses including at least one course having loops pulled to both faces of the fabric and at least one course having all, or substantially all, loops pulled to one of the faces of the fabric and having yarn regions extending course-wise without loops, and repeating sets of wales transverse to said group of courses having a first set of at least two wales located adjacent to a second set of at least two wales, forming adjacent wales in the first set with loops on said both faces of the fabric with the loops on the one of said faces being in number ratio to the loops on the other face of at least 3:1, and the second set of wales being traversed in at least one of the courses having all, or substantially all, of the loops pulled to one face of the fabric by a yarn region without loops extending between loops across two or more wales, and limiting the yarn feed to the needle beds such that in at least some courses having loops pulled to said both faces of the fabric the length of yarn supplied per length of needle bed over which the fabric is knitted is no more than 4.0 cm/cm and in at least some courses having all, or substantially all, of the loops pulled to one face of the fabric, the length of yarn supplied per length of needle bed over which the fabric is knitted is no more than 2.0 cm/cm.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.