Attività

The term knitwear includes two main textile techniques, weft and warp knitting (Spencer, 2001; Weber and Weber, 2008) (Table 7.1). After weaving, it is the most common method of manufacturing textile fabrics. Because of the interlooped structure of the knitted fabric, the properties are completely different to woven fabrics. The difference in weft and warp knitting originates in the way the needles move during the production and in the way the yarn is supplied. Weft knitting is a one fibre technique, which means that only one fibre is needed to build the stitches. The needles are moved separately, whereas the warp knitting needles are moved simultaneously. Therefore, all needles need the fibre material at the same time. For this reason, the yarn is supplied with the help of warp beams. The most important knitwear fabrics are circular knitted, warp knitted, flat-knitted fabrics and fully-fashioned fabrics.

The specific features influencing yarn delivery on large-diameter single jersey circular knitting machine are high productivity, continuous knitting and a great number of simultaneously processed yarns. Some of these machines are equipped with a striper (yarn guide exchange), but only a few enable reciprocated knitting. Small diameter hosiery machines have up to four (or occasionally eight) knitting systems (feeders) and an important feature is the combination of rotary and reciprocal movement of the needle bed (beds). Between these extremes are the middle diameter machines for ‘body’ technologies.