Method for knitting a three-dimensional knitted fabric

Abstract

A three-dimensional knitted fabric with a large-diameter circular knitting machine is knitted with a plurality of stitches that form a plurality of stitch courses oriented in each case in a stitch-course direction of the knitted fabric and a plurality of stitch wales oriented in each case in a stitch-wale direction of the knitted fabric, wherein at least one of the stitches is in the form of at least one corrugation-forming stitch, which extends in the stitch-wale direction over a plurality of stitch courses and binds at least one corrugation in the knitted fabric.

Claims

1. A method for knitting a three-dimensional knitted fabric with a circular knitting machine, comprising: knitting the knitted fabric with a plurality of stitches that form a plurality of stitch courses oriented in each case in a stitch-course direction of the knitted fabric and a plurality of stitch wales oriented respectively in a stitch-wale direction of the knitted fabric; wherein at least one of the stitches is in the form of at least one corrugation-forming stitch that extends in the stitch-wale direction over a plurality of stitch courses and binds at least one corrugation in the knitted fabric; and wherein the binding of the at least one corrugation by the corrugation forming stitch takes away excess material from a two-dimensional pattern such that the three-dimensional knitted fabric is created.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one corrugation at least partially shortens the knitted fabric in the stitch-wale direction.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one corrugation-forming stitch folds a plurality of stitch courses to form the at least one corrugation.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one corrugation extends in the stitch-course direction.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein, in at least one stitch course, a plurality of corrugation-forming stitches are formed extending in the stitch-wale direction at least partially over a different number of stitch courses.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein two corrugation-forming stitches that are adjacent in the stitch-course direction are spaced apart by at least one stitch wale.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one corrugation-forming stitch is formed by at least one float stitch.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one corrugation is formed on an inner side of the knitted fabric.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one corrugation-forming stitch extends in the stitch-wale direction of the knitted fabric over at least 5 stitch courses.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the at least one corrugation-forming stitch extends in the stitch-wale direction of the knitted fabric over at most 150 stitch courses.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein, following the formation of the at least one corrugation-forming stitch, the at least one corrugation-forming stitch gathers at least one corrugation in the knitted fabric.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein, following the formation of the at least one corrugation-forming stitch, the at least one corrugation-forming stitch is tightened such that a spacing between a stitch feet of the at least one corrugation-forming stitch and a stitch head of the at least one corrugation-forming stitch is reduced.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein, following the tightening of the at least one corrugation-forming stitch, a length of the at least one corrugation-forming stitch in the stitch-wale direction corresponds to a length of the stitch that is adjacent in the stitch-course direction in the stitch course of the at least one corrugation-forming stitch.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one corrugation-forming stitch binds a region, located between a stitch feet of the at least one corrugation-forming stitch and a stitch head of the at least one corrugation-forming stitch, of the knitted fabric to form the at least one corrugation.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one corrugation is in the form of a loop or of a dart.

Description

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The present subject matter is explained in more detail in the following text on the basis of the figures. It should be noted that the figures show a particularly preferred embodiment variant of the invention but the latter is not limited thereto. In this case, identical elements in the figures are provided with the same reference signs. In the figures, by way of example and schematically:

(2) FIG. 1 shows the structure of a knitted fabric;

(3) FIG. 2 shows an enlarged illustrated of a stitch of the knitted fabric;

(4) FIG. 3 shows a schematic illustration of a hemisphere to be knitted by a three-dimensional knitted fabric;

(5) FIG. 4 shows a two-dimensional pattern of the hemisphere;

(6) FIG. 5 shows a pixel description for a controller of a large-diameter circular knitting machine for producing corrugation-forming stitches;

(7) FIG. 6 shows the stitch pattern associated with the pixel description;

(8) FIG. 7 shows a left-hand fabric side of the three-dimension knitted fabric knitted as a hemisphere; and

(9) FIG. 8 shows a right-hand fabric side of the three-dimension knitted fabric knitted as a hemisphere.

DESCRIPTION WITH REFERENCE TO THE DRAWINGS

(10) FIG. 1 shows an enlarged illustration of the structure of a knitted fabric 1 made up of a plurality of stitches 2. The stitches 2 each consist of a thread loop interlinked with other thread loops. The stitches 2 arranged alongside one another in a stitch-course direction 3 form a stitch course 4. The stitches 2 arranged one above another in a stitch-wale direction 5 form a stitch wale 10.

(11) FIG. 2 shows an enlarged illustration of one of the stitches 2, which is held by four binding points. The stitch 2 includes of a stitch head 13, two stitch shanks 14 and two stitch feet 15.

(12) FIG. 3 shows by way of example a hemisphere 16 to be produced from a three-dimensional knitted fabric 1, and FIG. 4 shows an associated two-dimensional pattern 9. The two-dimensional pattern 9 has flat sphere surface segments 17, which are required for composing the hemisphere 16. Located between the sphere surface segments 17 is excess material 8, which, during the present method, is taken away by the formation of corrugation-forming stitches 6, shown in FIG. 6, in the region of the excess material 8, such that the hemisphere 16 shown in FIG. 3 is produced from the flat material.

(13) FIG. 5 shows an excerpt from a pixel description 18 for a controller of a large-diameter circular knitting machine in the region of the excess material 8 shown in FIG. 4, and FIG. 6 shows the associated stitch pattern 19. The pixel description 18 indicates by way of pixels the point at which a stitch 2 (identified by an “x”) is to be formed and the point at which a float stitch 11 (identified by “−”) is to be formed. It should be clarified that, rather than a stitch 2, the “x” can also represent what is known as a “loop” as formation element. It can be seen from FIG. 6 that four corrugation-forming stitches 6 have been formed in the stitch course 4. The stitch shanks 14 span six stitch courses 4 between the stitch head 13 and the stitch feet 15 of the corrugation-forming stitches 6 in the stitch-wale direction 5. The individual corrugation-forming stitches 6 are each spaced apart in the stitch-course direction 3 by a stitch wale 10. The individual stitch wales 10 are connected together via a float stitch 11. The corrugation-forming stitches 6 are shown merely schematically in FIG. 6. The corrugation-forming stitches 6 actually have a length in the stitch-wale direction 5 that matches the length of the other stitches 2. As a result, the knitted fabric 1 is bound, in the corrugation region 20 located between the stitch heads 13 and the stitch feet 15 of the corrugation-forming stitches 6 or in the stitch courses 4 located in the corrugation region 20, to form a corrugation 7 shown in FIG. 7.

(14) FIG. 7 shows the three-dimensional knitted fabric 1, knitted to form the hemisphere 16, from a left-hand fabric side 12. The sphere surface segments 17 and the excess material 8 taken away by corrugations 7 are apparent. The corrugations 7 are located on a left-hand fabric side 12 of the three-dimensional knitted fabric 1.

(15) FIG. 8 shows the three-dimensional knitted fabric 1, knitted to form the hemisphere 16, from a right-hand fabric side 21, on which the corrugations 7 cannot be seen.

(16) The proposed method for knitting the three-dimensional knitted fabric is characterized by particularly high productivity and low costs.

LIST OF REFERENCE SIGNS

(17) 1 Three-dimensional knitted fabric 2 Stitch 3 Stitch-course direction 4 Stitch course 5 Stitch-wale direction 6 Corrugation-forming stitch 7 Corrugation 8 Excess material 9 Two-dimensional pattern 10 Stitch wale 11 Float stitch 12 Left-hand fabric side 13 Stitch head 14 Stitch shanks 15 Stitch feet 16 Hemisphere 17 Sphere surface segment 18 Pixel description 19 Stitch pattern 20 Corrugation region 21 Right-hand fabric side