Importance

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Abstract

A picker device having an up-picker mechanism (A) and a down-picker mechanism (B) for increasing and decreasing stitches in knitting a heel portion and a toe portion of hosiery. When the knitting of the heel portion or the toe portion is started, a short butt (2a) of a knitting needle in a knitting level comes in contact with a front end portion (17a or 18a) of an up-picker (17 or 18) as a knitting cylinder alternately rotates forward and backward. The up-picker (17 or 18) is thereby rotated horizontally and a rear end portion (17b or 18b) of the up-picker (17 or 18) is guided by an inclined guide slot (20a or 20b), so that the rear end portion (17b or 18b) is lowered and thus thus the front end portion (17a or 18a) of the up-picker (17 or 18) is raised. The knitting needle (2) is thereby raised from above a stitch cam (9a or 9b) to a position above a center cam (8), whereby the knitting needle (2) is moved to a non-knitting level and thus one stitch is decreased. When one stitch is increased, the short butt (2a) of the knitting needle (2) in the non-knitting level presses a front end portion (25a) of a down-picker (25). The down-picker (25) is guided by an inclined cam portion (21a1 or 21a2) and thereby lowered. Thus, the knitting needle is returned to the knitting level. An actuator (29) that is controlled with a signal received from a knitting control unit (35) locks the front end portion (25a) of the down-picker (25) to a predetermined position. Malfunction or the like of the knitting machine caused by rebounding of the pickers (17, 18, and 25) is suppressed by coil springs (19a and 33).

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First Claim