A yarn tensioning device capable of delivering yarn under tension from a spool to a braiding, weaving or knitting machine consisting of a base and a center rod mounted perpendicular to the said base serving to locates the spool while allowing it to pivotally rotate. The device further includes a pawl jointed to the base either via a pin joint or via a flexural hinge and operates in conjunction with a ratchet solidly attached to the spool. The device further includes a compliant yarn guiding means which ensure that yarn reels off at an essentially constant tension. The yarn reel-off tension can be adjusted by modifying the operating length of a stiffening spring using a screw and jam-nut pair, and by limiting the maximum deflection of the compliant yarn guiding means.

A footing for circular knitting machines for hosiery, comprising a supporting structure that comprises: uprights that are extended along substantially vertical directions; at least one tubular reinforcement element, which is connected rigidly to the uprights and mutually connects the uprights.

A drive mechanism for driving a plurality of components arranged in a ring shape to move back and forth in a radial direction, the drive mechanism is disposed in an annular disk, each component has a shoulder, the drive mechanism includes: a circular body coaxial disposed on the annular disk; a drive wheel rotatably disposed coaxially with the circular body; a cam ring disposed coaxially with the drive wheel, having a diameter smaller than that of the drive wheel, and including at least one cam; a plurality of pushing elements provided for contacting the shoulder of the respective components and each having a driven portion abutted against the cam ring, so that the pushing elements are moved toward or away from the axis, and the pushing elements contact the shoulders to drive the components to move in the radial direction or in the direction of the axis.

An automated unspooling mechanism capable of dispensing of knitting material strands in a dynamically-controlled tension on a knitting machine. An unspooling device is configured to sense the tension of a strand fed to the knitting machine, and responsively adjust the strand deployment speed to avoid too little or too much strand dispensing without interrupting the knitting process. The unspooling device includes a variable motor drive that can rotate the strand package in various speeds, and a spring arm trigger that can sense the current tension of the dispensed material. The spring arm trigger can vary its arm position based on the sensed tension. The arm position is then processed and converted to a signal to vary the motor speed. Therefore, the deployment speed of the strands can be dynamically controlled based on a sensed tension of feeding the strand.

A device for processing threads or yarns of textile fibers includes a supporting structure for at least one spool for feeding a thread or a yarn of textile fibers and at least one textile machine, associated with a control panel, which uses the thread or yarn unwound from the at least one feeder spool. The device also includes a supporting structure for weighing the feeder spool, which is functionally connected to a control and actuation device. The weighing device is associated with protection elements adapted to avoid excessive stresses of the weighing device during the operations for loading and/or unloading the feeder spool onto and/or from the supporting structure.

A process and system for forming an apparel fabric having a predetermined requisite optical colour and pattern effect and predetermined physical fabric properties are disclosed. The process comprises the steps of: (1) providing a first plurality of n yarn; (ii) providing at least one further plurality of m yarn; and (iii) knitting the first plurality of n yarn with the at least one further plurality of m yarn by way of a knitting process to form a multi-ply apparel fabric; wherein each yarn is formed from a plurality of fibers formed from a polymeric material, wherein the fibers are formed from a dope dyeing process and wherein the fibers are colored during the dope dyeing process; wherein upon knitting the first plurality of n yarn with the at least one further plurality of m yarn to form the multi-ply apparel fabric, the apparel fabric is formed having the predetermined requisite optical colour and pattern effect devoid of optically detectable variants in the requisite optical colour and pattern effect; and wherein the first plurality of n yarn and the at least one further plurality of m yarn are selected to provide the predetermined requisite optical colour and pattern effect and the predetermined physical fabric properties.

A yarn tensioning device capable of delivering yarn under tension from a spool to a braiding, weaving or knitting machine consisting of a base and a center rod mounted perpendicular to the said base serving to locates the spool while allowing it to pivotally rotate. The device further includes a pawl jointed to the base either via a pin joint or via a flexural hinge and operates in conjunction with a ratchet solidly attached to the spool. The device further includes a compliant yarn guiding means which ensure that yarn reels off at an essentially constant tension. The yarn reel-off tension can be adjusted by modifying the operating length of a stiffening spring using a screw and jam-nut pair, and by limiting the maximum deflection of the compliant yarn guiding means.

A loading arrangement for a spin-knit machine includes a loading device that is movable at least with one part along at least one preset or presettable path and that is configured for loading the spin-knit machine with full roving bobbins.

A knitting needle assembly has a needle body including a tip at one end and a cord connected to the needle body at other end. An adjustable slider is disposed on the cord. The cord stabilizes and holds stitches of yarn used to create a knitted workpiece. The distance between the needle tip and the slider can be adjusted by the user to accommodate the width of the knitted workpiece. Two such assemblies are used to knit. The sliders on each assembly can be adjusted to compress previously formed stiches of the workpiece so that the stitches are delivered to the needle body under a resiliency force. The sliders can also be adjusted to accommodate newly formed stitches without compression so they move freely away from the needle tip once they are formed.

Systems and methods are provided for feeding thread at a knitting machine. One embodiment is a thread feeding device which includes a spool that supplies thread to a knitting device through a thread path and a motor that drives the spool. The device and further includes a mobile guide in the thread path that changes position due to changes in thread tension as the knitting device draws thread through the mobile guide. The thread feeding device also includes a sensor that measures a change in position of the mobile guide, and a controller that determines an amount of tension applied to the thread by the knitting device based on the change in position, and adjusts a speed of a motor that drives the spool based on the amount of tension.