Abstract: A vibration friction feed wheel mechanism for feeding thread to a thread processing machine having intermittent thread requirement. The feed wheel mechanism including a high friction contact surface, a thread guide level for lifting thread off of the feed wheel and a vibration generating arrangement for applying a vibrational movement to the thread. The vibration of the thread ensures that the thread lifts-off from the contact surface of the friction feed wheel by reducing the coefficient of friction between the thread and the high friction contact surface of the friction wheel.

Abstract: A yarn blow-in valve is constructed of a base body and a connecting piece. This permits locating a compressed air line behind a cover wall, assembling the yarn blow-in valve, and then coupling it to the air line in a readily performed manner. In order to facilitate the assembly, a coupling device is provided to connect the base body with the connecting piece.

Abstract: A spool rack (1) composed of carrying and connecting struts includes a connecting system for the struts connecting element (15) which are inserted in each case into one of the struts. The connecting element has a pressure transmitting portion (23) against which there is supported a screw bolt (17) which is screwed into the threaded socket (16) of the other strut to be connected. To enable mounting in correct position, the connecting element (15) is releasably fixable in the corresponding strut.

Abstract: In a lubricating device for a plurality of lubricating stations, in particular for supplying lubricant to knitting machines, a pump device is provided that serves at the same time as a distributor device. To that end, the pump device has a piston which is provided with a control groove. The corresponding pump cylinder has an inlet and a plurality of outlets distributed over the cylinder wall. Depending on which of the outlets the control groove of the piston is made to coincide with, a corresponding lubricating station is selected. The pump device is thus a distributor device as well.

Abstract: A yarn brake having two disklike or platelike brake elements pressed resiliently against one another has a substantially U-shaped bail (19) with two legs extending in spaced apart fashion an either side of the brake elements. Pinlike bearing means for the brake elements are secured to this bail by means of at least one bearing part receiving them, which part is embodied on or joined to at least one of the bail legs. At least one of the brake elements has a central opening, through which the bearing means extend.

Abstract: A yarn feeder, which has a yarn feed wheel connected to an electric motor for positive feeding of a yarn as needed, has a yarn travel path which is defined by yarn eyelets at an angle to the pivot axis of the yarn feed wheel that is greater than the sum of 90.degree. and an additional acute angle. This additional acute angle .alpha. is greater than the angle of inclination of a yarn lap on the yarn feed wheel in which adjacent windings contact one another. As a result, a smooth payout of the yarn on the yarn feed wheel is obtained.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for monitoring the scanning conditions when controlling a yarn feeding device including a storing surface for the yarn, a drive motor, a sensor device having at least one sensor oriented towards a scanning zone defined in the yarn feeding device, and a control circuit connected to the sensor device. The sensor generates an object-output signal for control purposes in response to the movement, absence or presence of an object in the scanning zone. A test signal is formed from and substantially synchronously with the object-output signal, and the signal level of the test signal is compared with an alarm threshold value representing a just barely acceptable deterioration level of the scanning conditions. An alarm signal is generated when the signal level of the test signal falls below a predetermined threshold value.

Abstract: A yarn feeder intended particularly for flatbed knitting machines and elastic yarns has a yarn tension sensor which is provided with a calibration device. This device lifts the yarn from a peg that is part of the yarn tension sensor, at times in which this can be done without impairing operation of the yarn feeder. Such times are preferably time slots when no yarn feeding is necessary. Once the yarn has been lifted from the peg, a zero point calibration is performed. Zero point drifting of the entire sensor system, including its measurement circuit, can be detected and compensated for.

Abstract: A yarn feeder device for feeding elastic (soft) yarns to a yarn consuming station whose yarn demand fluctuates over time. The device has a control unit which ascertains the current yarn demand or to which the current yarn demand is reported. In accordance with this demand, a yarn feed wheel is driven at a rotary speed suitable for the yarn demand. The yarn travels via a tensioning device to the yarn feed wheel. The tensioning device is arranged such that the yarn is stretched in a defined way. As a result, a fixed association between a desired yarn feed quantity and the rotary speed of the yarn feed wheel is enabled.

Abstract: A yarn supply apparatus for elastic yarns in knitting machines having abruptly fluctuating yarn consumption. A yarn wheel, around which the yarn to be supplied is wrapped, furnishes the yarn to a yarn store located between a knitting station and the yarn wheel. A closed-loop controller responsive to yarn tension operates the yarn wheel via a low-inertia drive motor. The yarn store is embodied as an essentially straight segment of yarn in the yarn path in which yarn is guided so it can expand freely. The combination of a low-inertia drive motor, a yarn store that utilizes the intrinsic elasticity of the yarn, and a closed-loop controller that monitors the yarn tension by means of a sensor device makes it possible to use the yarn supply apparatus for supplying elastic yarns and to keep the yarn tension essentially constant even when the demand for yarn fluctuates abruptly.

Abstract: In a yarn feeder, particularly for knitting machines, having a stationary housing and a rotational element which can be driven by a motor for winding on a yarn, and having a mechanical backturn-detent mechanism for the rotational element, which mechanism contains a detent member which is displaceable on a counter-member between a running position and a blocking position, in which blocking position the detent member engages at a braking surface. The detent member underlying a permanent drag power in each rotational direction which drag power is generated by means of friction contact in case of a rotational movement of the rotational element for displacing the detent member in dependence from the sense of rotation and in relation to the counter member either into the running position or into the blocking position. The counter-member and the detent member consist of ring bodies which are set within each other and which are rotatable in relation to each other about the rotational axis of the rotational element.

Abstract: For supplying yarns, a yarn supply apparatus is contemplated that is designed particularly for knitting machines whose yarn demand fluctuates greatly over time. The yarn supply apparatus has a rotor-driven yarn wheel, which in the ideal case furnishes yarn directly to the knitting machine or its yarn guides without the interposition of yarn storage devices. The yarn tension is monitored by means of a yarn tension sensor, which provides measured value detection for a closed-loop controller that controls the supply by the yarn wheel. The controller is also embodied such that it can process signals that contain information about the future yarn demand. Thus in the event of imminent drastic changes in demand, of the kind that in flatbed knitting machines periodically occur at the edges of the knitted goods (turning points of the yarn guide), the controller can react by presupplying yarn or by ceasing to supply yarn. Yarn tension spikes and overly steep yarn tension drops can thus be compensated for.

Abstract: A yarn supply apparatus is equipped with a clutch arrangement in order to couple a drive wheel to rotate with a yarn supply wheel as necessary. The clutch arrangement is constructed in an open design, in which any development of narrowing spaces is avoided. For this purpose one clutch half is provided with axial fingers, which engage in radially open longitudinal slots, formed by a toothing, of the other clutch half. The slots of the toothing are longer than the engagement length between fingers and toothing. The intermediate space formed between the ends of the fingers and the nearest wall in axial direction is open in radial direction or is in communication with a larger inner space. Thereby the compression or compaction of deposited fluff is prevented.

Abstract: A plate-type thread brake includes two brake elements pressed resiliently against each other by a load device and receiving the thread passing through between them. These brake elements are eccentrically suspended on bearings on the inside wall of a central opening which only fill out a small part of the opening. Thread guides are also arranged in the region of this central opening.

Abstract: For determining the movement of a thread supply boundary on the storage surface of a thread storage and feed device, different scanning properties of at least two circumferentially offset circumferential sections of the storage surface are scanned simultaneously and converted into storage surface signals which are nonidentical among themselves and which are discriminated from thread signals which are identical among themselves. The thread signals are generated by sensors which scan a scanning zone on the storage surface and formed on the basis of a scanning property of the thread windings when the thread supply is present in the scanning zone. The thread storage and feed device is provided with first and second circumferential sections on the storage surface differing from one another with respect to their scanning properties, and a plurality of sensors.

Abstract: A feeder device for feeding elastomer yarns in knitting machines has a housing split into two parts, on which bearing and drive rollers are rotatably supported, spaced apart from and parallel to one another. The housing encloses an internal chamber that accommodates gears for driving at least one of the bearing and drive rollers. The gears transmit force from a drive wheel, which is secured to a shaft protruding from the housing, to at least one bearing and drive roller. The bearing and drive rollers are supported via ball bearings, which are retained by corresponding bearing seats provided in the housing. The bearing seats are recessed in the respective integrally formed housing parts, which are preferably made by injection molding. The dividing line at which the housing parts border on one another extends through all the bearing seats, so that the ball bearings are retained between the housing parts.Securing the housing parts to one another fixes the ball bearings as well, simultaneously.

Abstract: A yarn brake has two brake disks, retained with axial play in a support or bearing device, which are retained against one another via resiliently yielding device, such as permanent magnets. The brake disks are rotatably supported in the support or bearing device. Via an oscillatory motion generator, such as an electromagnet, mechanical or other device, the support or bearing means is set into mechanical oscillation that is essentially axial to the brake disks or in other words parallel to the axis of rotation defined by the rotation of the brake disks. The brake disks are carried along only slightly or not at all by the support or bearing device and the oscillatory motion generator.

Abstract: A thread brake with two disc shaped or plate shaped brake elements resiliently pressed against each other operates with an associated oscillation generating device to set the brake elements in oscillatory motions which are preferably oriented transversely to the bearing axis of the brake elements.

Abstract: In a method and system for the detection of faults in a length of textile fabric, the length of fabric is continuously scanned by an electro-optical sensor head. Light detectors located in a strip-form sensing zone of the sensor head are assembled in groups and emit group-specific fault signals. These fault signals are analyzed multi-dimensionally for the identification of spot faults and/or long faults, the criteria for analysis being the signal amplitude, the signal length, the recurrence of the signals and their periodic repeat at each revolution of the machine. Display, control counter devices and the like are energized as a function of the result of the analysis.

Abstract: A lubricating device for supplying a plurality of lubricating points or positions, in particular of a knitting machine, with lubricant, preferably oil, has a lubricant distributor (16) which is connected on the inlet side to the pressure side of a piston-type lubricant pump (9-13) and which has lubricant outlets (26, 29) which are associated with the individual lubricating points and can be individually activated by the lubricant distributor. For this purpose, the lubricant distributor contains a distributor element (21, 21') which is rotated by a controlled motor (40) and is provided with a distributor channel via which a flow connection is established between the pressure side of the piston pump and the respectively selected lubricating point or position, in a program-controlled manner. The time duration of lubricant flow to the lubricating points or positions can be controlled, so that each lubricating point or position receives the required lubricant.