Weft Knitting Technology
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Loop Formation Technique of Latch Needle
The stitch formation process is
divided in to ten operations.
Those are-
1. Clearing,
2. Yarn lying or feeding,
3. Under lapping or yarn
drawing,
4. Pressing,
5. Landing,
6. Joining,
7. Casting off or knocking over,
8. Loop forming and Sinking,
9. Loop draw off.
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Loop Formation Technique of Spring Latch Needle
1. Clearing(a):
The process of formation loop started by clearing operation in latch needle.
Its aim is to draw the old loop below the latch. Sinker are constant and the
latch is opened and when the needle in high position then this clearing
operation performed.
2. Yarn lying or feeding(b):
While the needle motion is downwards, the hook take hold the yarn from
yarn guide. Here, the new feed yarn stay below the hook.
3. Under lapping or yarn drawing(c):
The laying yarn is fertilized in the hook and the yarn is in tension when the
needle comes down. In this situation, while the needle moves downwards
yarn lying and under lapping occurs instantaneously.
4. Pressing(c):
The aim of pressing is to close the needle hook with the new feed yarn and
needle moves downwards.
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Loop Formation Technique of Spring Latch Needle
5. Landing(d):
Placed the old loop on the latch is called landing. In latch needle machine, pressing
and landing operation performed instantaneously.
6. Joining(d):
Touching of new loops with the old loops is called joining. In this stage, the needle
comes downwards.
7. Casting off or knocking over(e):
The old loops is completely release from the hook and then it falls on the new loops
and in this stage, the stem of needle comes downwards too. Joining and casting off
occurs simultaneously.
8. Loop forming(e,g):
Loop is formed here.
9. Sinking(e,g):
After making the loop its sink here for loop drawing off.
10. Loop draw off:
By formation of new loops along the horizontal a new course is made. By using take
down mechanism, produced course is drawn downwards. Then again the loop
formation process start and the needle come up.
4
Knitting Action of Spring Bearded Needle
The stitch formation process are-
1. Yarn feeding
2. Yarn sinking
or kinking
3. Under lapping
4. Pressing
5. Landing
6. Joining and
casting-off
7. Clearing
4.Pressing
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Knitting Action of Spring Bearded Needle
1. Yarn feeding: The newly fed yarn is laid under the throats of kinking sinkers.
2. Yarn sinking: The sinkers fall down between the needles, with the yarn held in the
Sinker throats. Depth of sinking determines the loop length, i.e, the yarn length used
to form a knitted loop.
3. Under lapping: The yarn laid on the needle stems is withdrawn by the sinkers in
direction of needle hooks and under the needle beards.
4. Pressing: Now, the needle beard is immersed in the needle groove by a presser disc.
In this way the fed yarn is closed in the needle hook.
5. Landing: The knitted fabric resting on the needle stems at the needle bed is now
pushed by cast-off sinkers towards the pressed needle beards, and the fabric loops
(called old loops) land on the beards.
6. Joining and Casting-off: After passing the presser disc, the cast-off sinkers push
further the knitted fabric towards the tips of the needles. At the same time the kinking
sinkers leave the kinked yarn and the cast-off sinkers push the old loops off the
needles on to the kinked lengths of yarn.
7. Clearing: At this stage the newly formed loops are pushed back along the needle
stems, towards the needle bed; the knitted fabric enlarged by a new course of knitted
loops, is drawn down by means of a take-down mechanism, and the process of loop
formation may be started again.
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Knitting Action of Compound Needle
The stitch formation process are-
1. Clearing,
2. Yarn lying or overlapping
3. Underlapping
4. Pressing,
5. Landing over
6. Joining or meshing
7. Sinking
8. Casting off or knocking over
9. Loop forming
10.Loop draw off.
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Weft Knitting Machine
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Main feature of a knitting
machine
• Frame
• Power Supply
• Yarn supply or feeding
• Knitting action
• Fabric take away
• Quality control
• Stop motion
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Classification of weft knitting
machines:
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Classification of weft knitting
machines:
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Classification of weft knitting
machines:
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Flat Knitting Machine
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Flat Knitting Machine
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Flat Knitting Machine
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Flat Knitting Machine
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Circular Knitting Machine
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Circular Knitting Machine
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Rib gating
• With this arrangement the cylinder and dial needles cross
one another. In any given working point (feeder) all the
cylinder and dial needles can be used.
• The following figure shows this setting in a front view and in
a top view. The grooves 1 to 6 of the dial(Y) and the grooves
1 to 6 of the cylinder(Z) are alternately arranged or gated.
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Interlock gating
• With this arrangement the cylinder and dial needles are
directly one opposite to the other. In any given working
point (feeder) the cylinder and dial needles opposite to one
another can never work at the same time, because they
would collide while being cleared.
• In figure the grooves 1 to 6 of the dial(Y) are aligned directly
opposite to the grooves 1 to 6 of the cylinder(Z).
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VDQ Pulley
• VDQ pulley means variable diameter quality pulley. It is
very important part of knitting machine.
Function:
• Control yarn supply
• Control yarn tension
• Control stitch length
• Finally control G.S.M
Changing of stitch length by VDQ pulley:
• There is a nut or screw under or over the pulley. After
losing the nut we can change the diameter controlling
parts. If we rotate ‘+’ direction diameter will increase and
stitch length will increase. If we rotate ‘-‘ direction
diameter will decrease and stitch length will decrease.
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Basic Weft Knitted Structures
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Basic Weft Knitted Structures
All weft knitted structures are classified into four
basic groups
1. Plain
2. Rib
3. Interlock
4. Purl
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Plain knit structure or plain fabric
• Simplest and most basic structure
• Also called plain knit or single knit or single jersey
• Produced by one set of needle
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Rib Structure or Rib Fabric
• Second family of knit structure
• Also double knit fabric
• Require two set of needle and this needle
arrangement is called rib getting
• The simplest knit structure is 1×1 rib
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Rib structure
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Purl structure
• Third family of knit structure
• Also called links-links/left-left/reverse-reverse
• Need double ended latch needle or need loop
transfer between the bed
• On purl machine, the tricks of two needle bed are
directly opposite and in same plane.
• The simplest purl structure is 1×1 purl
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Purl structure
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Interlock Structure
• Interlock is another 1×1 rib variant structure
• Need two set of needle
• Produced by two 1×1 rib structure interlace to each
other.
• It has the technical face side of plane fabric on each
side.
• It is a balanced, smooth, stable structure.
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Interlock Structure
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Comparison between basic structures of weft knitted fabric
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Basic Loops or Stitch Type
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There are three basic types of loops or stitch
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Knit loop or stitch
• When the needle is raised sufficiently high by the
camming action to obtain the yarn in the hooked
portion of the needle and the old loop is below the
latch [i.e, the old loop is cleared], a knit stitch will
be formed as the needle descends.
• A knitted loop stitch is produced when a needle
receives a new loop and knocks over the old loop
that it held from the previous knitting cycle.
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Tuck Stitch
• A tuck stitch is composed of a held loop, one or
more tuck loops and knitted loops.
• It is produced when a needle holding its loop also
receives the new loop, which becomes a tuck loop
because it is not intermeshed through the old loop.
• The tuck loop thus assumes an inverted V or U-
shaped configuration.
• The head of the tuck is visible on the reverse of
the stitch.
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Tuck Stitch Formation
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Effect of tuck stitches
• Fabric with tuck stitches is thicker than knit stitches due to
accumulation of yarn in stitches at tucking places.
• The structure with tuck stitches is wider than with knit
stitches as the loop shape has a wider base.
• As the loop length is shortened, the tuck stitched structure
is less extensible.
• Due to thicker in nature, the tuck stitched fabric is heavier in
weight per unit area than the knit stitches.
• Tuck stitched structure is more porous and open than the
knit stitched fabric.
• Tuck stitch is also used to get fancy effects by using coloured
yarns.
• Tuck loops reduce fabric length and length-wise elasticity
• The tuck stitch may also be employed to produce open-work
effects, improve the surface texture, enable stitch-shaping,
reinforce, join double-faced fabrics, improve ladder-
resistance and produce mock fashion marks.
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Float or Missed
Stitch
• A float stitch or welt stitch is composed of a held
loop, one or more float loops and knitted loops.
• It is produced when a needle holding its old loop
fails to receive the new yarn that passes, as a float
loop to the back of the needle.
• The float stitch shows the missed yarn floating
freely on the reverse side of the held loop.
• A single float stitch has the appearance of a U-
shape on the reverse of the stitch.
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Float Stitch Formation Process
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Effect of float stitches
• Float stitches make the fabric thinner than the tuck
stitched one, as there is no yarn accumulation.
• It makes the fabric narrower as there is no looped
configuration and hence the whole structure is
pulled to minimum width.
• Less extensible than either knitted or tucked
structure.
• Fabric is lighter in weight due to minimum yarn
used in construction.
• Fabric is flimsy and less rigid compared to others.
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The held loop
• A held loop is an old loop that the needle has
retained.
• It is not released and knocked-over until the next,
or a later yarn feed.
• A held loop can only be retained by a needle for a
limited number of knitting cycles before it is cast-
off.
• The tension on the yarn in the held loop becomes
excessive.
• The limbs of the held loop are often elongated.
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Drop or press off stitch
• Dropped stitches are usually associated with
knitting failures.
• They can however be employed to pattern a fabric,
if used according to a controlled procedure.
• A drop stitch fault will result if a needle releases its
old loop without receiving a new one.
• Sometimes this technique is used to achieve a
press-off on all needles at the end of a garment-
length sequence.
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The formation of dropped stitch
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Weft Knitting Calculation
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Weft Knitting Calculation
Important Formula
𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒 /𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑡𝑒
1. Fabric length= cm/min
𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒 /𝑐𝑚
𝑁𝑜.𝑜𝑓 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑒𝑟×𝐶𝑦𝑙𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 60
= × ×E% m/hour
𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒/𝑐𝑚 100
𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒 /𝑚𝑖𝑛𝑢𝑡𝑒
Fabric length for interlock= cm/min
2×𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒 /𝑐𝑚
π𝐷𝐺
2. Fabric width= cm
𝑊𝑎𝑙𝑒𝑠/𝑐𝑚
3. Total no. of needle=πDG
D= Machine Diameter
G= Machine gauge
4. Stitch density=CPC×WPC
=CPI×WPI
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Weft Knitting Calculation
Important Formula
𝑆𝑙𝑇 S=CPC×WPC
5. GSM= l = Stitch Length(mm)
100
T= Tex count
6. Production /hour in length=
𝐶𝑦𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 ×𝑁𝑜.𝑜𝑓 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑒𝑟 60
× × 𝐸% yds
𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑛𝑐ℎ 36
7. Production/hour in weight=
60
Cylinder speed × No. of feeder × πDG × SL(inch) ×
36
1
× × Efficiency% lbs
840×𝐶𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡 54
Weft Knitting Calculation
Weight calculation by GSM
𝐹𝑎𝑏𝑟𝑖𝑐 𝐿𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑡ℎ 𝑚 ×𝐹𝑎𝑏𝑟𝑖𝑐 𝑤𝑖𝑑𝑡ℎ(𝑚)×𝐺𝑆𝑀
Weight in kg=
1000
Problems
CPI=30, WPI=24
No. of feeder=96
m/c guage=18
Cylinder dia=24 inch
Stitch length=25mm
m/c Speed=20 rpm
Count=20’s
Find,
Fabric Length/hour, Fabric width, GSM & oz/sq. yds .
55
Weft Knitting Calculation
Calculate nominal production of a single jersey-knitting
machine per hour from the data given:
• Machine Gauge = 24
• Machine Dia = 30 inches
• Number of Feeders = 90
• Machine RPM = 26
• Yarn Count = 24s
• Stitch length = 4 mm
• Efficiency = 85% 26.55 Kilo grams
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Weft Knitting Calculation
Calculate the production of a circular knitting machine of
8 hours in meter from the following data.
No of feeder=48
Width of the fabric=264cm
Stitch density= 15
m/c speed=20
Dia of cylinder=30cm
Gauge=14
Efficiency=75% 451.76m
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