A CAD/CAM System for Complicated Jacquard Circular Knitting Machine

To meet the requirement of knitted fabric design and production using complicated jacquard circular knitting machine, an improved CAD/CAM system has been designed in this paper. The system has two subsystem, one named "pattern design subsystem" is for needle selectors control, and the other one named "action chain subsystem" is for +additional actuators control. In the pattern design subsystem, the color of a point in the image is corresponding to serial actions of several needle selections in this system. It is different with other CAD systems, in which the color of point presents the color of yarn. Through data analysis according to the designed image and set needle selector parameters, the data for needle selector control are prepared for machine running. Data compression is employed for taking use of storage space. If bad situation for knitting fabric production exists, like long floating line, related decomposition algorithms are needed. In the action chain subsystem, action control information is added as orders in a table named action chain. In this system, the form of mechanical action combination is used instead of a series of decomposed actuator actions. To ensure perfect coordination of actuator actions in one mechanical action, the advanced position of every actuator is able to set individually. Since there are flexible pattern design subsystem and easy-to-use action chain subsystem in this system, it performs well as a CAD/CAM system for complicated jacquard circular knitting machine.