Tubular knitting machine

A device for knitting together a tubular structure of continuous fibers with a stitch yarn, comprising:

• a cylinder having a plurality of axially oriented holes equally spaced about a circumference of the cylinder;
• a plurality of needles, corresponding in number to the plurality of holes, each said needle having a latch mechanism at an end thereof and a base at the other end thereof, each needle inserted base end first into one of the holes, an interstitial space being defined between each pair of adjacent needles,
• a means for introducing a plurality of a first set of the continuous fibers to the cylinder effectively radially thereto, with one said first continuous fiber corresponding to each said interstitial space between the needles;
• a means for introducing at least one second continuous fiber to the cylinder effectively tangentially thereto at an insertion point;
• a means for introducing the stitch yarn to the latch mechanism of one of the needles on the cylinder adjacent the insertion point for each said at least one second continuous fiber;
• a cam section interacting with the needles to sequentially raise and lower the base ends thereof;
• and
• a means for rotating the cam section, the introducing means for the at least one second continuous fiber, and the introducing means for the stitch yarn in a stepwise sequential manner around the cylinder, to knit the stitch yarn around the first and second continuous fibers, forming the knitted tubular structure.