In recent years, when a guide bar for supporting a guide needle for feeding thread in a warp knitting machine is concerned, with further complication and size increase of pattern constitution of lace fabric for clothing, a number of so-to-speak pattern guide bars for leading patterning yarns that form pattern structure is increased, in relation to ground guide bars for leading ground yarns that form ground fabric among knitting yarns to be led.
Currently, there has emerged a warp knitting machine referred to as Multibar Raschel having substantially eighty sheets of pattern guide bars.
Under the situation, there is no bounds in insatiable intention for high grade formation of lace pattern and even in the current state, the market is in pursuit of bringing forth gorgeous lace of wide width lace having a dense and complicated pattern constitution which is equivalent to that of slender width lace by further increasing the number of pattern guide bars.
However, as is well known, a pattern guide bar is constructed by constituting a nesting structure (fan shape arrangement, which is referred to as nesting or nest) around a knitting needle row of guide needles (refer to FIG. 20). In FIG. 20, numeral 501 designates a support member fixed to a machine frame 502. Notations 514a, 514b, 514c, 514d, 514e and 514f designate thread feed guides of one unit of nesting, that is, thread feed guides of a nest constituted by taking a set of guides in which thread guide holes of distal ends of guide needles are aligned in one row. Notation N designates the knitting needle row.
Because of the above-described structure, although a number of nests (units) of pattern guide bars can further be increased when enlargement of a motional range of the knitting needles and occupied areas of the guide bars as well as lowering of a rotational number are not considered, the volume of a warp knitting machine is restricted in view of a size of a building and with regard to rotational number, conceivably, the number is not significantly lowered but is increased in view of economic performance.
Attempts have been made to increase the number of guide bars without increasing a nest angle .theta. between a face of a thread feed guide (guide needle and its support portion) for attaching to a frontmost guide bar in one unit of a conventional nest, and a face of the thread feed guide for attaching to a rearmost guide bar. No increase of nest angle .theta. means no significant change of a height of a warp knitting machine and a width thereof in the front and rear direction.
For example, JP-B-47018061 (Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 47-18061) discloses a guide structure in a warp knitting machine having a constitution in which bar-like members each in correspondence with a guide bar for attaching a thread feed guide of guide needles and the like are held in plural ranks successive in the up and down direction and slidably in the width direction of the warp knitting machine in respect of a lead hanger attached to a plurality of hangers in a fan shape constituting a support member by which a number of the bar-like members for attaching the thread feed guide is increased without increasing a necessary space in respect of a reed oscillating direction (front and rear direction of warp knitting machine).
However, in this case, driving means for causing displacement of the bar-like member comprises pattern wheels, chain links and so on installed at a side portion of the warp knitting machine similar to those in the conventional case of driving reed and accordingly, a comparatively large installation space is needed.
Further, JP-A-06049754 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 6-49754) discloses a constitution for driving a guide bar (thread leading reed) for attaching a thread feed guide in which pattern wheels, chain links and the like are not installed at a side portion of a warp knitting machine as in the conventional case but a linear motor is installed at one end of the guide bar to be able to drive directly.
In this case, not only the driving means is invariably installed at the side portion of the warp knitting machine but there poses a problem similar to that of the conventional nesting structure by the fan shape arrangement of guide bar.
Further, in the case of a guide driving device disclosed in PCT WO 95/19362, a thread feed guide is movably installed to a holding member having a guide path and the thread feed guide is moved by driving means of a linear motor or the like. However, a total nest number is not increased more than that of a conventional Multibar Raschel machine of a guide bar directly driving type. Accordingly, in one repeat width of a pattern, a number of guides capable of intersecting at a time of shogging motion of a thread feed guide for pattern cannot be increased.
Hence, it is a first object of the present invention to provide a guide drive device which is capable of increasing a number of guide attaching members such as guide bars or the like and the nest number within a conventional installation space, and which needs no large space at a side portion of a warp knitting machine by installing a drive source thereof (displacement causing means) by effectively utilizing a space above fan shape arrangement.
Meanwhile, even when guide attaching members such as guide bars or the like are arranged in plural ranks, if each one guide attaching member is driven by one guide path, in order to further increase a number of guide attaching members, guide paths must be added in the longitudinal direction of the thread feed guide, with thread lead holes at distal ends of the thread feed guides as start points. Therefore, an extremely long thread feed guide needs to be used and there is a limitation in further increasing the nest number.
Hence, it is a second object of the present invention to provide a guide drive device in a novel warp knitting machine having patterning function comparable to or surpassing a drive device of a thread feed guide for patterning in a Multibar Raschel machine having one hundred sheets or more of pattern reeds which has not been realized yet.