2016 3rd International Conference

2016 3rd on Information

International Science and
Conference on Control Engineering
Information Science and Control
Engineering

A CAD/CAM system for complicated jacquard circular knitting machine

Xin Ru, Laihu Peng, Weimin Shi,Weikang Zhou,Chunya Shen

Key Laboratory of Modern Textile Machinery & Technology of Zhejiang Province
Zhejiang Sci-Tech University
Hangzhou, China
Email:ruxinemail@[Link]
Abstract—To meet the requirement of knitted fabric design
and production using complicated jacquard circular knitting II. FUNCTION AND STRUCTURE OF THE SYSTEM
machine, an improved CAD/CAM system has been designed
in this paper. The system has two subsystem, one named Usually, the CAD system of circular knitting machine is a
“pattern design subsystem” is for needle selectors control, and graphical editing system with some action design tools[1-
the other one named “action chain subsystem” is for 2].In this system, except graphical editing system as usual,
+additional actuators control. In the pattern design subsystem, an individual action chain system is designed for inserting,
the color of a point in the image is corresponding to serial editing and compiling designed actions of machine actuators.
actions of several needle selections in this system. It is Fig. 1 shows the functions of the CAD/CAM system for
different with other CAD systems, in which the color of point
complicated jacquard circular knitting machine.
presents the color of yarn. Through data analysis according to
the designed image and set needle selector parameters, the data
In the pattern subsystem, jacquard pattern of knitting
for needle selector control are prepared for machine running. fabric is drawn generally. The image presents the color and
Data compression is employed for taking use of storage space. pattern of fabric. In this subsystem, the image present fabric
If bad situation for knitting fabric production exists, like long structure is drawn. The pattern subsystem offers a variety of
floating line, related decomposition algorithms are needed. In drawing and editing tools. Excepting usual drawing tools,
the action chain subsystem, action control information is added some special tools provided to improve the efficiency of
as orders in a table named action chain. In this system, the knitting fabric pattern designing. In addition, the pattern
form of mechanical action combination is used instead of a subsystem requires users to set the configuration file or
series of decomposed actuator actions. To ensure perfect select the standard configuration file provided by the system,
coordination of actuator actions in one mechanical action, the
in which the pattern's feasible colors set and each color
advanced position of every actuator is able to set individually.
Since there are flexible pattern design subsystem and easy-to- corresponding to a needle selector's action indicated. Based
use action chain subsystem in this system, it performs well as on the pattern and configuration file, file compiler of the
a CAD/CAM system for complicated jacquard circular knitting subsystem analysis the image and get the data executable for
machine. needle selector control[3].
In action chain subsystem, information about machine
Keywords-CAD/CAM;jacquard circular knitting machine; actions can be edited depending on the requirements of the
pattern design;action design process. Different templates of action chain files are useful,

I. INTRODUCTION
With the development of knitting fabric using
requirements, complicated jacquard circular knitting
machine has been made. It has a more complicated
mechanism than usual knitting machine. And it adopts the
electric needle selectors to control needle movement, which
is controlled by an electric signal from the computer control
system. The control data used by a computer control system
are usually prepared in a CAD/CAM system designed for a
certain machine. So it is necessary to design a CAD/CAM
system for the complicated jacquard circular knitting
machine.
In this paper, the function and structure of the CAD/CAM
system are presented at first. Then the process of data
preparation for the complicated jacquard circular knitting
machine control is discussed. At last, conclusion about the
CAD/CAM system is presented in this paper.
Figure 1. Functions of the CAD/CAM in this paper

978-1-5090-2535-0/16 $31.00 © 2016 IEEE DOI 10.1109/ICISCE.2016.11

978-1-5090-2534-3 /16 $31.00 © 2016 1 1
IEEE DOI 10.1109/ICISCE.2016.11
and the knitting machine can knit different fabric just
B. Needle selection information analysis
changing the pattern or making some adjustments in action
chain file. This makes design fast and simple. Experienced In general, the complicated jacquard knitting machine
user designs the actions according to their own requirements, has 8 feeders, each equipped with 2 actuator. Using the
which make knitting design more flexible. standard needle selector parameter file, the " structure
diagram" has four available colors, which are black, green,
In addition, in order to ensure the precision, effectiveness
red and yellow. Each color contains 16 needle selectors in 8
and safety in the process of executing action file, the
feeder, and each feeder have the same actions. Action of the
subsystem make sure of the correctness of action chain file. first and the second needle selector is : FB  1 1 ,
T

Then file compiler compile action data into the executable

FG  1 0 , FR   0 1 , FY   0 0 
T T T
file which control the equipment actions.
,where 0 means action, 1 means stop. The first row is the
III. PATTERN DATA ANALYSIS first needle selector for each feeder, the second row is the
As previously mentioned, the image drawn in usual second needle selector for each feeder. The relationship
CAD/CAM system described the color of knitting fabric. between the color and needle selector actions can be
described as a matrix:
1 1 0 0
The color of a point in the image is corresponding to serial
actions of several needle selections in this system. A certain
F  EB EG ER   
, named “matrix
EY  1 0 1 0 
needle selector actions combination in machine running
of color configuration”.
process could complete a definite structure of knitted fabric. When knit at one row in pattern, there are four situations
So the image in this system is similar to structure diagram needle selector move. Assuming four cases were S1, S2, S3,
of fabric[4]. And the relationship could be set in a file S4, respectively, corresponding to color number 1,2,3,4.
named needle selector parameter file. Table II analyze the movement of needle selector in row 3 of
A. Image Analysis Fig. 2. Please see last page of this document for SELECOTR
ACTION TABLE.
Generally, the first step is to set the configuration file Each needle selector can be used a four elements column
correctly while drawing pattern image[5]. The configuration T
of this file is about equipment information, including the vectors to represent, as Pj   p1 p2 p3 p4  . And then
number of total feeders, the number of needle selector in if i = color number, pi =1, otherwise pi =0.
every feeder and the information in needle selector
parameter file. This is the base for knitting fabric design. Using p j take place of every element in D3 , “the matrix of
Then the diagram of fabric could be drew or edited. For the needle selection action " is got:
example, as showed in Fig. 2, the width of pattern W is 8, T3  P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P7 P8 
P6
the height is 4, the number of colors of “structure diagram”
C is [Link] letter B in Fig. 2 represents black color (color 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0
 
number is 1), G represents green color(color number is 2), R 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
  
represents red color(color number is 3), Y represents yellow 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
color( color number is 4).  
Row vector Di denotes a row of “structure 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0
Needle selection data used to represent the actions of
diagram”, Di   a1 , a2 ,..., a j ,...aW  , a j is the color needle selection in every feeder while cylinder turn around,
 
number. So “the structure diagram” can be and each feeder is responsible to each line of the pattern. So
“selected data matrix” of the third knitting feeder which
as D   D1, D2 ,..., Di ,...DH 
T
represented corresponds to the third row in figure1 can be represented as:
.
A  F T 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1
B B G G R R Y Y , and row 1
3 3
  
G G R R Y Y B B 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 
R R Y Y B B G G presents the first actions of the selectors, row 2 presents the
Y Y B B G G R R second actions of the selectors.
Figure 2. structure diagram By analogy, “the matrix of the needle selection action" of
the whole pattern is T  T1 , T2 ,...,TH  , dimension
T
The diagram of figure 4 can be represented
of
 D1  1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 which is 4H W . Finally, “the selected data matrix” is
    A  F  T , dimension of which is 2H W . Every 2 rows
as D D2  2 2 3 3 4 4 1 1
 D3 3 3 4 4 1 1 2 2 correspond to the first needle selector and the second needle
 D  4 4 1 1 2 2 3 3 selector of a feeder. So far, needle selector's information has

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 4   been analyzed.

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 C. Bad Situation Deal
IV. ACTION CHAIN DATA
It's easy to form longer float when knitting jacquard
fabric, but the float should not be too long in the actual A. Action chain input design
production. Generally the length of float is less than 4 In action chain subsystem, action orders are designed as a
needles. Which means the float color number should be no part of one cycle. One cycle is corresponding to a row in the
more than four in knitting row vector. So it needs to add pattern. The machine running a cycle, a row in the pattern is
tuck into knitting row vector, and insert it in continuous [Link], an action with actual meaning is
float follow the rules “rising step by step” or “declining step
consisted of a series of actions of actuators. For example,
by step”. the plaiting of yarn finger experienced a series of actions
Setting length of float less than 3, which means the including half strike, full strike, yarn finger open ,yarn
position of interval inserting tuck SP=3. And this position is
finger reset, half back, and full back. And the triangular full
replaced by tuck color, for example, color 1 is float and strike action experienced the process from half strike to full
color 3 is tuck, matrix for the structure diagram shown as strike actually. In some action chain system of knitting
follows: machine, these actions of actuators need to design
2 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 individually, including their action position and their action
  combination. It is hard to some users. And it is inefficiency
1 4 1 1 1 1 4 1
  because these actuators need combination to complete a
1 1 2 1 1 2 1 1  certain processing action.
  In order to make the action chain data input more
1 1 1 4 4 1 1 1  intuitive, a method named compound action is designed in
For the mode “rising step by step”, each this system. Users just need to input the processing action
kij formula
name and position, the action chain subsystem decompose
inserting tuck position represent as(1) compound action of the processing action into a series of
[col-1+(h-1)*C+j-1]Mod(SP+1)=0 (1) intuitive actions with the set individual position offsets. The
col for column number of elements, col=1,2, …W, and design form is showed in Fig. 3.
the processed structure diagram shown as follows: In the last example, it is necessary to set offsets for
2 1 3 1 1 1 3 2 decomposed actions, so as to complete plaiting in specified
1  needle. Assuming the needle position of the compound
 4 1 1 1 3 4 1 action is POS, the offset of decomposed action is pre,then
3 1 2 1 3 2 1 1 the actual action is pos=POS-pre.
  The compound action offset completed in the 500 needle,
1 1 1 4 4 1 1 3
  the actual decomposed action are designed to act in different
For the mode “declining step by step”, each kij formula needle position. Assume the offset of half strike,full strike,
inserting tuck position represent as(2). yarn finger open. yarn finger reset, half back and full
[col-1+(H-h+1)*C-(j-1)]Mod(SP+1)=0 (2) back is 36,1,28,18,10 and 5 needles, the actual action position
and the processed structure diagram shown as follows: is 464,469,472,482,490 and 495 needle.
2 1 1 1 3 1 1 2 B. Methods comparison
1 
4 1 1 1 3 4 1 Compared with other methods to input the action orders,
  the designed compound action method is more effective.
1 1 2 1 1 2 3 1 After setting individual position offsets of decomposed
  actions, a compound action could be input conveniently.
3 1 1 4 4 1 1 3
  If the compound action consist of 5 decomposed action,

D. Data Compression
In the process of drawing pattern, some colors may be
used continuously in a row[6]. In this kind of situation, there
will be a lot of consecutive same elements in the row of the
corresponding matrix. If store these elements directly, the
repeated data will occupy amount of storage space. And this
problem is particularly prominent in the embedded system
or industrial computer where resource is not abundant.
Therefore, files are stored in compression where exits
repetitive data. Figure 3. design form of action chain

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 TABLE I. METHODS COMPRISON
show how to design the action chain subsystem and
Decomposed introduce how to decompose compound action. After
Step number Step number Ratio between
actions number of
a compound action of other using compound new method knitting test, the control data generated by this system meet
methods to action to input step number
and other
the requirements of fabric produce using complicated
input actions actions
methods step jacquard circular knitting [Link] knitting product
number reaches the design target very well.
1 1 1 100%
2 2 1 50% ACKNOWLEDGMENT
3 3 1 33.33%
4 4 1 25% I should like to express my deepest gratitude to all those
5 5 1 20%
6 6 1 16.67% whose kindness and advice have made this work possible,
… … … … specially to my teachers.
the input efficiency can increase dramatically. As can be REFERENCES
seen from TABLE I, once the decomposed action number of
[1] GUO [Link] and Realization of Pattern Preparation System of
a compound action is more than 1, the ratio between new Computerized Flat Knitting [Link] University of
method step number and other methods step number is Technology,2006:7-8.(in Chinese)
smaller than 100%. [2] ZHU [Link] on Cpmputer Aided Pattern Manufacturing
Using compound action, reduce the requirements of the System of the Circular Knitting [Link]
University,2002:52. (in Chinese)
designers to the mechanical action, decrease the repeat
[3] LIU Chuanbo,MO Yimin,JIN [Link] of pattern Preparation
calculation for the same action needle, improve the design System of Computerize Flat Knitting [Link] of Wuhan
efficiency. University of Technology,2006(09):112-114. (in Chinese)
[4] ZHAI [Link] on the flowerpreparation System for
I. CONCLUSION embedded Automatic flat knitting [Link]
University,2005:34.(in Chinese)
Depending on the working principle of the complicated
[5] XIAO Hongnian,ZHANG Jiangang,WU Xiaoguang,et [Link]
jacquard circular knitting machine and other CAD/CAM Data Preparation of Electronic Jacquard Circular Knitting Machine.
system of knitting pattern, this paper offers a CAD/CAM Journal of Donghua University,2005(01):101-104+114. (in Chinese)
system with two subsystems for complicated jacquard [6] LUO Bingyang, MO Yimin, GUO Yan. Design of pattern
circular knitting machine. Firstly introduce the function and prepareation system of computerized flat knitting machine. Journal of
structure of the system; Secondly describe how to analyze Textile Research, 2007, 28(7):116-120. (in Chinese)
"structure diagram" and deal with bad situations; Thirdly

TABLE II. SELECOTR ACTION

Selection No.1 No.2 No.3 No.4 No.5 No.6 No.7 No.8
action
S1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0
S2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
S3 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
S4 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0

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