VIRTUAL REPRESENTATION OF THE KNITTING PROCESS
VIRTUAL REPRESENTATION OF THE KNITTING PROCESS

Summary/Abstract: The need for online courses amplified by the pandemic situation has brought up a difficult issue with engineering training: the need for the students to interact with mechanisms and machinery in general, in order to understand the working principles, detailed structures and design. The current paper takes into consideration how to solve this problem applied to the activity into laboratories of knitting fundamentals. One of the most important subjects, with use in other courses, is the definition and characterization of the knitting trajectories specific for latch needles in weft knitting machines. The students must understand how the needles move under the action of the knitting cam system in order to obtain normal stitches, tuck stitches and miss stitches. These are common to all knitted structures. In order to present online the needle trajectories explained in the laboratories, an interactive simulation of each trajectory was developed using the SketchUp 3D modelling application. Each model is based on the detailed reproduction of the ensemble made of the needle bed, the latch needles and the cam system. The needles interact with the cam system and can be pushed up to the knock over position, tuck position or are left into the needle bed without working. In the first stage the students visualized the positions of the latch needles in the needle bed and also the virtual representation of the cam system. The trajectories of the needles are simulated emphasizing the cam positions. In the second stage the students must change the cam positions in order to obtain different trajectories.

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