Method and apparatus for joining two edges of a knitted tubular article

An apparatus for closing an end of a tubular knitted article, the apparatus comprising:

• a knitting machine with a plurality of needles, said plurality of needles being divided into a first set and a second set, said first set of needles being positioned on one side of the tubular article and for forming a first partial course of the tubular knitted article, said second set of tubular articles being positioned on another side of the tubular article and for forming a second partial course of the tubular knitted article, said knitting machine including a cylinder holding said plurality of needles, and sinkers for holding stitches on said needles;
• first cam means for lifting and lowering said plurality of needles when said knitting machine has finished knitting the tubular article, said first cam means being in an inoperative condition when said knitting machine is knitting;
• a linking station spaced from said knitting machine said linking station closing the end of the tubular article;
• transfer means for removing stitches from said first set of needles, said transfer means including a plurality of pairs of spikes, each of said pairs of spikes being positionable adjacent one of said needles of said first set of needles, said transfer means also including a closing peg with said each pair of spikes, said each pair of spikes with said closing peg forming grasping means for grasping a stitch, said transfer means also including a sector slidably housing said spikes and closing pegs in radial slots, said sector being rotatable about a diametrical axis of the tubular article, said sector being supported by a horizontal crown connected to an arm rotatable about a transfer axis substantially parallel to and spaced from a longitudinal axis of the tubular article to move said crown from said knitting machine to said linking station, said crown being movable in a direction along said transfer axis between a first position for engagement of said crown on a knitting head of said knitting machine and a second position for disengagement of said crown from said knitting machine, said crown being also rotatable in a plane orthogonal to said longitudinal axis of the tubular article when said crown is positioned at said linking machine by a transmission means engaged to a corresponding driving member, thereby allowing a suitable movement of the stitches to be united during closing with respect to said linking station;
• second cam means for rotating said transfer means about said diametrical axis of the tubular article;
• third cam means for moving said spikes and closing pegs in said transfer means;
• crown transfer means for operating rotation of said arm through a pneumatic cylinder with a stem having a free end connected to a lever solid to a base of column supporting the arm, said column including a stem of a column cylinder aligned with said transfer axis for rotation of the arm about the transfer axis the column during transfer of the article from the knitting machine to the linking station, and said column cylinder being for translation movement along the transfer axis during engagement/disengagement of the crown on the knitting head of the knitting machine and on the linking station;
• crown rotation means for causing said crown to rotate fixed with the cylinder holding the needles upon an initial article-linking stage, said crown rotation means including a pivot solid to the crown and angularly oscillatable between a first position for coupling the crown to an element solid to the cylinder, and a second position for coupling the crown to a stationary plate to cause the crown to stop at a predetermined angular position;
• sinker housing means for holding said sinkers in fixed predetermined angular position, with a sinker cam able to freely oscillate about a pivot solid to a support, an angular position of said sinker cam with respect to the needles cylinder is variable and is mounted on a fixed part of the knitting machine, said sinker cam defining two curvilinear grooves according to two corresponding arcs of circumference, each of said grooves forming a guiding element for a corresponding pin solid to the sinker housing means;
• fourth cam means for driving said spikes and closing pegs before dosing of the article;
• fifth cam means for operating opening of the pegs for releasing the article;
• a seamer-linker means positioned at said linking and for joining the stitches of said first and second partial course with a linking thread fed from a supply reel;
• cutting means for cutting the linking thread and holding an end of the linking thread.