Patterning servo-mechanism for a circular warp knitting machine

Warp knitting is always performed on flat (linear) knitting machines. A circular warp-knitting machine is recently made possible by using a novel concept 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 replaces the mechanical cam and linkage with high-speed AC brushless servomotors enabling limitless precision patterning possibilities. A method of selecting servomotors based on minimising the power required to perform the fastest motion required for a given application is reported. This method ensures cost minimising by selecting the smallest servomotor suitable for a given application. A circular warp-knitting machine using servomotor to drives selected using the method reported is designed, built and successfully tested.