FABRIC AND APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR MAKING SAME

摘要

I A fabric is produced in a stitch-through type machine such as a Malimo maching using the apparatus and method of the invention which has at least two warp yarn design elements laid on a flexible substrate (e.g., a layer of textile filling elements) along rectilinear or non-rectilinear paths and on which a plurality of adjacent design elements are twisted (e.g., symmetrically at 180.degree. per twist) in an aesthetically pleasing configuration at spaced intervals along the warp direction. The design elements are bound to the substrate by knitting thread which forms a multiplicity of warpwise loop chains (e.g., a half-tricot stitch) to secure the substrate and design elements against relative displacement and to form thereby an integrated fabric structure. The apparatus for guiding the war yarn design elements onto the flexible substrate in a twisted and aesthetically pleasing configuration at spaced intervals along the warp direction includes at least one shaft rotatable about its longitudinal axis to which is joined a guide bar having a number of spaced-apart warp yarn guides. The apparatus is adapted to be mounted on the machine for rotation of the shaft about its axis in synchronization with reciprocal linear movement of the shaft along said axis. In the present method of producing the fabric, a plurality of adjacent design elements are twisted at spaced time intervals by means of the herein disclosed apparatus at a location upstream from the point at which the substrate and design elements are joined by the knitting thread.