Patterning servo-mechanism for a circular warp knitting machine

Warp knitting is always performed on flat (linear) knitting machines. A cir cular warp-knitting machine is recently made possible by using a novel conc ept of a conical needle bed and patterning cams with enclosed cam followers to drive the patterning rings. This also requires a mechanical linkage to transmit the motion from the patterning cam to the patterning rings, which is prone to vibration at undesirable levels. A new generation design replac es the mechanical cam and linkage with high-speed AC brushless servomotors enabling limitless precision patterning possibilities. A method of selectin g servomotors based on minimising the power required to perform the fastest motion required for a given application is reported. This method ensures c ost minimising by selecting the smallest servomotor suitable for a given ap plication. A circular warp-knitting machine using servomotor to drives sele cted using the method reported is designed, built and successfully tested. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.