Method and warp knitting machine for the manufacture of a looped pile warp knit fabric having a pile pattern

摘要

A warp knitting machine has a row of needles, a row of warp thread guides for feeding to the needles warp threads which form the chain stitches of a ground fabric and a row of weft thread guides for feeding to the needles weft threads which form the inlay of the ground fabric. At least one row of pile thread guides is used to feed a respective pile thread to each needle. A row of pile-thread reserve-forming supports is provided, each support being individually shiftable, by a jacquard mechanism, from a reserve-forming position to a reserve-releasing position. The reserve-forming support, when in the reserve-forming position, forms a reserve length in a respective pile thread, by increasing the length of the path which the pile thread takes to a respective needle. Each and every pile thread is provided with such a reserve length in each and every course of the fabric. Each needle is provided with a clamp which clamps the pile thread to the needle. Selected pile threads have their reserve-forming supports move to reserve-releasing position before the needles to which the selected pile threads are clamped reach cast-off position, as a result of which the selected pile threads are pulled through the old chain stitches of their needles and appear on a first side of the fabric. In contrast, the non-selected pile threads do not have their respective reserve-forming elements move to reserve-releasing position, and as a result during retraction of their needles to castoff position they are yanked out of their respective clamps, are therefore not pulled through the old chain stitches of their respective needles, and instead remain at the second side of the fabric where they constitute pile loops on the second side of the fabric. Because of this action, the amount of pile thread drawn is the same for both a selected and a non-selected pile thread. Accordingly, complex pile patterns can be implemented while still permitting supply of the pile threads to the needles from off a simple warp beam.