Knitting Technology

Evolution of knitting
Knitting is one of the most important process for producing garments and worldwide represents a considerable and increasing percentage of the population apparel Knitting is used to produce garments that cover every part of the human body, in a wide range of garment types from socks, caps, gloves, underwear, T- Shirts, jackets, Pyjamas, Tnightwear, sweat shirts, tops, skirts, Bermudas, sports wear, shorts, baby wear, infant wear, hooded T- Shirts, Tjogging suits etc

Knitted fabric may constructed with a single yarn that is formed into interlocking loops by the use of hooked needles

Knitted fabrics also give warmth because of the insulative air pockets contained in this type of construction. Yet they are porous and provide breathing comfort because body movements cause the loops to expand and contract, thus pushing air through close fitting garments.

Hand Knitting
It s area of origin and time of invention are unknown Hand knitting precedes machine knitting as a technique by many hundreds of years Hand knitting is one of the oldest of man s construction techniques and is also one of the world s most popular pastimes.

Knitting Machines
In 1589, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the Reverend William lee, presented himself at the court of the queen with a request for letters patent for his newly invented knitting machine which knitted 8 loops to 1 of width. Mr. Lee in 1598 introduced a refined version of his machine which knitted 20 loops per inch.

Knitting Industry
In the middle of 18th century there were total of 14000 machines in the industry in England. There were modifications and improvements in the machine. The most modifications were The rib frame Jacquards Warp frames Selection device to produce tucked fabrics All these inventions occurred in Nottingham town. The first cotton from India was knitted in Nottingham in 1730

In 1960s every knitting machine builder produced an exclusive, patented, needle selection mechanism to carry out the functions of lifting needles to knit or leaving them down to miss.

In the 19th century, the first circular knitting machine appeared and during the period 1880 1910 knitwear became as an established item of female fashion

Twentieth Century Developments

Developments in the 20th century have largely involved increasing the productivity of knitting machine. The knitted garment is now established as part of every day dress and most people irrespective of age or gender are usually wearing knitted garments.

General Terms & Principles of Knitting Technology

Machine knitting: Knitted structures are progressively built up by converting newly fed yarn into new loops in the needle hooks; the needle hook then draws these new loops head first through old loops which they have retained from the previous knitting cycle. Knitted loop structure: Intermeshing of loops is securely achieved by the needles. Knitted loops are arranged in rows and columns roughly equivalent to warp and weft of woven structures termed courses and Wales respectively.

Role of loop structure in quality knitting: Loop length plays a key role in determining the dimensional behavior of knitted fabric Length of yarn in an unit cell is the fundamental unit of weft knitted fabric Loop shape determines the dimensions of the fabric & this shape depends upon yarn & the treatment which the fabrics has received The fabric compactness & looseness depend on the length of yarn in one loop & yarn count value

Fabric Quality The term fabric quality is sometimes used when referring to wales and courses per inch or centimeter, either in knitted or finished relaxed state. As knitted loops tend to assume a recognizable configuration the results can give an indication of the approximate stitch length and possible machine gauge used in knitting the structure provided the state of relaxation and type of structure is taken into consideration. Generally the higher the figure for a given linear measurement, fabric structure and state of relaxation, the finer the machine gauge and the smaller the stitch length

Face Loop

Back Loop

Wale:
Wale is predominantly vertical column of needle loops produced by same needle knitting at successive knitting cycle.
Wale

Course

Course: Course is a predominantly horizontal row of loops produced by adjacent needles during the same knitting cycle. Course Length In weft knitting, the term course length refers to the measurement of a straight length of yarn knitted by all or a fraction of the needles in the production of a particular course. Stitch Density: The term stitch density is frequently used in knitting instead of a linear measurement of courses or Wales; it is the total number of needle loops in a square measurement. It is obtained by multiplying, the no. of courses and Wales per inch together. SD = WPI x CPI

LATCH NEEDLE

The latch needle has nine main features The hook which draws and retains the new loop. The slot or saw-cut which receives the latch-blade (not illustrated). The cheeks or slot walls which are either punched or riveted to fulcrum the latch-blade (not illustrated). The rivet which may be plain or threaded. This has been dispensed with on most plate metal needles by pinching in the slot walls to retain the latch blade. The latch-blade which locates the latch in the needle.

The latch spoon which is an extension of the blade and bridges the gap between the hook and the stem covering the hook when closed as shown in broken lines. The stem which carries the loop in the clearing or rest position. The butt which enables the needle to be reciprocated when contacted by cam profiles on either side of it forming a track. Double-ended purl type needles have a hook at each end, whilst one hook knits; the inactive hook is controlled as a butt by a cam reciprocated element called a slider. The tail which is an extension below the butt giving additional support to the needle and keeping the needle in its trick

 MACHINE GAUGE In Latch needle weft knitting machines the gauge is normally expressed in needles per inch This in the USA is referred to as CUT CAM ARRANGEMENT Cams are the devices which converts the rotary machine drive into a suitable reciprocating action for the needles.

Cams are of two types namely

Engineering Cams: are used in warp knitting machines Knitting Cams: Cams acts directly on to the butts of needles to produce individual movement in the tricks of latch needle weft knitting machines.

 Knitted Stitch: - is the basic unit of intermeshing and usually consists of three or more intermeshed

Selvedge Fabric: - A selvedge fabric is one having a self edge to it and can only be produced on a machine whose yarn reciprocates backwards and forwards across the needle bed so that a selvedge is formed as the yarn rises upto the next course at the edge of he fabric. Cut Edge Fabric: - is usually produced by slitting open a tube of fabric produced on a circular machine. Tubular Fabric: - is produced in circular knitting machine and also in flat knitting machine.

Basic Weft knit Structures

In Woven fabric structures, three weaves are called basic weaves namely Plain Twill Satin All other modification of the structures is derivatives of these basic weaves. In a similar way in weft knit structures, the following four structures are considered as basic weft knit structures namely Plain Single Jersey Rib Interlock Purl

Plain Plain is produced by the needles knitting as a single set, drawing the loops away from back and towards the face side of the fabric. Rib Rib requires two set of needles operating in between each other so that the wales of face stitches and wales of reverse stitches are knitted on each side of fabric. Interlock Is originally derived from rib but requires a special arrangement of needles knitting back-to-back in an back-toalternate sequence of two sets so that the two courses of loops show wales of face loops on each side of the fabric exactly in line with each other thus hiding the appearance of the reverse loop. Inter lock is the interlocking of two 1x1 Ribs structures in such a way that the face wale of one rib fabric is directly is front of reverse wale of rib fabric. Purl Purl is the only structure having certain wales containing both face and reverse meshed loops.

Knitting Notations
A knitting notation is a simple, easily understood symbolic representation of a knitting repeat sequence and its resultant fabric structure The notational method for weft knitting is developed by Leicester school of textiles. In this method, a square represents a needle or stitch, and X symbol is placed in a square represents a face stitch occurs and O symbol is represents a back or reverse stitch

Characteristics of single jersey structures

The simplest and the most widely used weft knit fabric is jersey or plain knit fabric. It consists of face and back stitches. The loops have a v shaped appearance on technical face and show semi circular loops on the technical back side It has potential recovery of about 40% in width after stretching. Its width shortens if Length is stretched. Normally width way extensibility is approximately twice the lengthwise extensibility.

Singly Jersey curls upwards at the bottom & top and backwards at the sides Production Rate is high because of its simplicity and its cost is low because of machine simplicity It is knitted on a singly cylinder or on a single bed with a single set of needles

Tuck stitch appears on the back of the fabric as an inverted V Tuck stitch is made when a needle receives a new yarn while still holding its farmer loop, thus forming two loops in open needle hook. Miss (or) Float is another variation, which is created when one (or) more needles are deactivated, as no loop is formed the yarn forms a float on the back of the fabric The fabric that has both more wales & more courses per area will have better recovery from stretching. Fabric that has more wales will shrink less in width & that have more courses will shrink less in length. The quality of the needles will affect the quality of the knitted fabric Needle are actuated through butt by cams

Mechanism of loop formation with latch needles

For producing weft knitted fabrics the individually moveable latch needles are arranged either in a line (flat knitting machines) or radially (circular knitting machines), during stitch formation the following needle positions are to be noted:

1.

Rest position: The needle is in its rest position when it is outside the cam

Tucking position: The needle cam takes over the needles butts and these are pushed upwards. In the tucking position the old loop is still in the area of the needle hook. This position can also be used for patterning. Clearing Position (Knitting position): The old loop is now on the needle stem behind the needle latch. Safety elements, like small brushes or even the yarn feeder itself, prevent the closing of the latches.

Yarn feeding position: A new yarn is presented to the needle hook while the needle is moved downwards by the draw-down cam. When the needle moves drawfurther down, the loop closes the needle book (cast(caston) and will be able to slide over it. Knock over position: The new yarn can now be drawn through the old loop. This process is over when the needle is at the lowest position of the draw down cam. If the knock over point is shifted by altering the position of the draw down cam vertically, the stitch length is changed. Knock over / cast off means new loop is drawn into the old loop Brush in flat knitting m/c The object of brush in flat knitting m/c is to open the latch to enable to receive the new yarn on to the hook of the needle to form new loop into the old loop.

Knitting

Weft knitting

Warp Knitting

Flat Knitting Hand flat knitting

Circular knitting Double Jersey

Automatic/ computerized Single Jersey Flat knitting

Double Cylinder

Jacquard

Non Jacquard

Rib

Inter lock

Jacquard Jacquard Non Jacquard

Non Jacquard