Flexible Type Patents (Class 66/242)
  • Patent number: 5259216
    Abstract: In a knitting machine, a plurality of stepping motors (10) is controlled by an electronic control unit (35) and each motor transmits horizontal oscillations to a tube bar (5). Each oscillation is built up of a plurality of horizontal-movement steps, each step being delimited between two limit points to which a centered positioning of the threading tubes (8) in the spaces defined between the needles (9) corresponds. A photoelectric sensor interlocked to the control unit detects the passage before a given read point of optical locators reproduced on plate-like elements, each associated with the drive shaft of one of the motors, in order to check whether the individual bars perform correct movements. Should a cutoff in the electric supply to the knitting machine (4) occur, each tube bar (5) would be stopped at anyone of the limit points.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 26, 1992
    Date of Patent: November 9, 1993
    Inventor: Luigi O. Zorini