Courtaulds Plc

Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Courtaulds Aerospace, Inc.

Frank Robinson

Nigel Stephen Whatmough

Gerald F Day

Max W Betts

Keith Jeffcoat

Keith Harry Girt

Dennis J Williams

Thomas R Burrow

Patricia A Solomon

Patrick A White

Thermal insulation materials

A piece of upholstery fabric for covering three-dimensional supports such as vehicle seat bases and seat backs is machine-knitted, preferably in a mainly double jersey structure, with integral tubular portions. These serve as anchorage devices for securing the fabric piece to the support which it is to cover using rods or tapes which are threaded through the tubular portions. The tubular portions may be located at the margins of the fabric piece and also at intermediate positions where the fabric piece needs to be held down, for example in a depression in the support. They may project from a surface of the fabric piece and may be like loops or they may be in the form of tubular hems or a tube lying between front and rear faces of a double jersey structure.

Upholstery fabric

A piece of upholstery fabric for covering three-dimensional supports such as vehicle seat bases and seat backs is machine knitted, preferably in a mainly double jersey structure, with integral tubular portions. These serve as anchorage devices for securing the fabric piece to the support which it is to cover using rods or tapes which are threaded through the tubular portions. The tubular portions may be located at the margins of the fabric piece and also at intermediate positions where the fabric piece needs to be held down, for example in a depression in the support. They may project from a surface of the fabric piece and may be like loops or they may be in the form of tubular hems or a tube lying between front and rear surfaces of a double jersey structure.

A method of knitting an upholstery fabric having at least two adjoined regions of different knitted structures located side-by-side in a wale-wise direction and having courses extending continuously through both regions in which the fabric is knitted with stitches having a first loop length in one region and a second, different loop length in the adjacent region, the loop lengths of the two adjacent regions being relatively adjusted so that, in the relaxed condition of the fabric, the same number of courses in each of the two regions of different knitted structures in the wale-wise direction extend for substantially the same wale-wise distance, so as to give the overall structure a balanced even appearance.

Fabric and knitting

A weft knitted double-jersey fabric is knitted in a construction of repeating groups of courses in which some courses have loops pulled to both fabric faces and some courses have loops pulled to one fabric face and are transversed by yarn regions which extend across at least two wales and up to seven or more wales. The yarn feed to the needle beds of the knitting machine is limited to no more than 4.0 cm/cm of bed length over which the fabric is knitted in courses in which loops are pulled to both faces of the fabric and to no more than 2.0 cm/cm of bed length, preferable no more than 1.8 cm/cm, in courses in which loops are pulled to one face of the fabric. The fabric has an extensibility of no more than 12% in wale and course directions. It is knitted with a high count yarn of 550 to 850 decitex which may be an air-textured polyester yarn. It is suitable for use as upholstery fabric particularly in the form of a vehicle seat upholstery cover which may be shaped to fit the seat in the knitting process.

Knitted fabric having low stretch for upholstery

Knitted joins are made in double jersey knitted articles using a method which minimizes the effect of hole formation at the join. Single jersey edges are knitted along the edges to be jointed, being knitted on from one to six needles in each of the courses of knitting which form part of the edge of the join. The edgings need not extend along the whole length of the join. In a further embodiment superimposed strips of single jersey knitting are knitted between the edgings so as to split hole formation into two smaller series which are less noticeable. With this embodiment, one or both edgings can be omitted. The method is useful for upholstery fabric joins, particular for vehicle seat covers, where exposure of the padding is to be avoided.

Knitting method for forming integrally formed joins for three dimension

A weft knitted double jersey fabric is knitted with a textured continuous filament synthetic yarn on a knitting machine having a gauge of 10 to 14 to give, in the relaxed state of the fabric, from 4 to 6 wales per cm and from 10.5 to 22 courses per cm. The yarn used preferably has a count of 550 to 850 decitex, especially 680 to 750 decitex and may be an air textured polyester yarn. The fabrics produced are dense, heavyweight fabrics with a weight of at least 380 gms/square meter. They have superior abrasion and snag resistance and are suitable for use as upholstery fabrics particularly for vehicle seat covers.

Knitted fabric

A fabric reinforcement for use with synthetic plastics material to produce a composite article is shaped to exhibit a tubular portion having a longitudinal axis, which can be curved, and at least one flange extending in the direction of the longitudinal axis. Using up to several interlinked tubular portions and a plurality of the flanges gives wide possibilities for the shape of the fabric reinforcing elements produced. Woven or knitted fabrics can be used.

Composite articles

To facilitate control of a presser foot between knocking over bits in a flat V-bed knitting machine, at least some of the knocking over bits have inner edges whose lower portions have a smooth profile and are inwardly inclined, in the downward direction, with respect to the knocking over bits of the opposite needle bed.

Knitting machine

A presser foot device for a knitting machine includes a blade-like support which, when mounted in the knitting machine, extends downwardly with respect to the needles of the machine, a presser element carried by the support near its lower edge, and a channel-like protective element which enfolds the lower edges of the blade-like support to protect it. The channel-like protective element may include two laminas one at each side of the blade-like support and extending at least as low as the lower edge of the blade-like support, and at least one connecting member joining the laminas and extending between them below the lower edge of the blade-like support.

Presser foot device for a knitting machine

A method of knitting a blank for a garment comprises the steps, carried out in a sequence involving knitting from one waist line to the other in the blank, of (a) knitting two front panels for the garment body with courses extending lengthwise of each front body panel and wales extending in the direction across each front body panel, in the finished garment; (b) knitting two sleeve panels for the garment with courses extending lengthwise of each sleeve panel; and (c) knitting a single rear panel for the garment body with courses extending across the rear panel and wales extending lengthwise of the rear panel. During the knitting, joins are formed between the front panels and the associated sleeve panels by a process involving the procedures of taking needles out of action while holding knitted loops on those needles, and then reintroducing the inactive needles to knitting action, at least one of said procedures being carried out progressively so that suture joins are produced. Also during the knitting, joins are formed between the rear panel and the sleeve panels by forming knitted wales which extend from the sleeve panels into the rear panel.

Knitting method and knitted garment

A composite structure such as an aircraft brake disc has a matrix material reinforced by knitted panels of fabric arranged in a stack. The panels are knitted directly into the desired disc shape so that there is no fabric waste, by knitting a helix of fabric on a flat-bed weft knitting machine having a patterning mechanism which allows shaping and a presser foot or sinkers to hold the knitting down on the needles. The helix of fabric can be closed down to constitute the stack of disc panels directly or it can be separated into discrete disc panels by knitting in draw threads connecting successive windings of the helix. The disc panels may be knitted from oxidised acrylic yarn and then heated to carbonise the yarn. A stack of carbon fibre fabric panels may be embedded in a carbon matrix by carbon vapor deposition to form a brake disc.

Composite structure in the form of a disc of knitted carbon fibers

A method of knitting a blank for a sleeved garment wherein the blank is knitted in one piece in the form of a cross starting at the waist of a body panel, subsequently knitting fabric constituting a sleeve and shoulder region of the blank and finally knitting a further body panel in the direction from the neck region to the waist. In knitting the portion of the first body panel above the arm pit level, progressively shorter courses are formed and in knitting the portion of the further body panel above the arm pit level, progressively longer courses are formed, whereby the outer parts of the sleeve and shoulder fabric are inclined with respect to the courses in the body panels.

Knitting method

A method of knitting a blank for a sleeved garment on a knitting machine comprises the steps, not necessarily in the order specified, of knitting fabric for one sleeve and for an associated sleeve shoulder portion of a yoke for the garment, in which knitted courses extend lengthwise of the sleeve fabric and through the associated sleeve shoulder portion towards the neck of the garment, knitting front and rear body fabrics and associated front and rear body shoulder portions of the yoke, in which knitted courses extend in the waist-neck direction in the body fabrics and continue towards the garment neck through the body shoulder portions, and knitting fabric for the other sleeve of the garment and for an associated sleeve shoulder portion of the garment yoke, in which knitted courses extend lengthwise of the sleeve fabric and through the associated sleeve shoulder portion towards the garment neck, whereby the garment yoke comprises front and rear fabrics, each of which comprises a body shoulder portion and a part of each of the two sleeve shoulder portions, and in which wales extend in the direction around the yoke and the yoke is shaped by knitting some courses shorter than the longest courses so that the shorter courses do not extend to the neck of the garment.

A method of manufacturing a knitted garment to cover at least the upper body, for example a jacket, involves knitting two front panels to form the front of the garment, each of these panels being started from a non-run set-up, and incorporating each of these front panels in a garment so that the line of each of the non-run set-ups is located in the front of the garment and extends in an up-and-down line when the garment is worn, whereas the knitted wales of each of the panels extend from the set-up line of the panel, horizontally in the garment when worn, to an associated side of the garment front. Each front panel may incorporate a strip of fabric, disposed in an up-and-down direction when the garment is worn, which is distinguished from the main part of the panel by color and/or stitch structure. Methods of joining the front panels to sleeve panels, and the sleeve panels to one or more rear panels, on a knitting machine are described.

Growing community of inventors

Breaston, United Kingdom

Frank Robinson