Keywords

1 Introduction

The knitting is a process of manufacturing a fabric by inters looping of yarns. Knitting is the second most important method of fabric formation. It can be defined as a needle technique of fabric formation, in which, with the help of knitting needles, loops are formed to make a fabric or garment. Fabric can be formed by hand or machine knitting, but the basic principle remains.

A knitting machine is a device used to create knitted fabrics in a semi or fully automated fashion. There are numerous types of knitting machines, ranging from simple spool or board templates with no moving parts to highly complex mechanisms controlled by electronics. All, however, produce various types of knitted fabrics, usually either flat or tubular, and of varying degrees of complexity. Pattern stitches can be selected by hand manipulation of the needles, or with push-buttons and dials, mechanical punch cards, or electronic pattern reading devices and computers.

Manual knitting machines require the knitter to move the specific needles, based on a chart, into pattern position. In this research I study the knitting structure is plain and rib. Plain knit, the basic form of knitting can be produced in flat knit or in tubular (or circular) form. It is also called jersey stitch or balbriggan stitch. A row of latch or beard needles is arranged in a linear position on a needle plate or in a circular position on a cylinder. Rib stitch produces alternate lengthwise rows of plain and purl stitches and as such the face and back of the fabrics are a lookalike. Rib stitch can be produced on a flat rib machine as well as circular rib machine.

2 Experiment

In this research, the expert and non-expert were observed their arm moment during knitting process. Both of them fabricated the knitted products through the same knitting machine. Two types of yarns as cotton yarn and glass fiber yarn were selected to compare a knitted skill between the expert and non-expert. The knitted fabric was prepared, knitted and steaminess process following as show in Figs. 1, 2 and 3.

Fig. 1.
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The preparation of knitting process

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Fig. 2.
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Knitting process

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Fig. 3.
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Seaminess process

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2.1 Knitting Preparation

  1. 1.

    Through right tension guide eyelet “A”.

  2. 2.

    Between tension dial “B” and guide bar “C”.

  3. 3.

    Between two tension discs “D”.

  4. 4.

    Through right yarn guide eyelet “E”.

  5. 5.

    Through right tension spring eyelet “F”.

  6. 6.

    Put the yarn end under tarn clip “G”.

Adjust the tension dial according to type of yarn by turning the tension dial “B” until required number corresponds to the < shape “H” using the following as a guide

  1. 1.

    Yarn comes out freely from the yarn bell.

  2. 2.

    Distance between the tension spring and the horizontal line “I” 10~20 cm must be maintained.

2.2 Knitting Process

Slide the handle from left to the right with consistent force. Repeated this step 89 rounds or until it completed.

2.3 Seaminess Process

After that seam the fabric by inserting the needle and create loops from the first roll to the last.

3 Results and Discussion

3.1 Comparison of Knitting and Seaminess Speed Between Expert and Non-expert (Plain Cotton and Plain Glass)

Figure 4 indicate the plain cotton knitting speed of the expert and non-expert. For the knitting speed, the non-expert spent a longer time per one cycle when compared the expert’s speed as shown in Fig. 4(a). There is show the unstable speed of non-expert. Some knitting cycle the non-expert spent a double time. Thus, the video was used to investigate this strangeness. It was pound that the main problem is the entanglement of fiber during process. Whereas the speed of the non-expert are quite constant. The expert shows the average knitting speed of 0.61 s/cycle that is faster than non-expert obviously as shown in Fig. 4(b).

Fig. 4.
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Knitting and seaminess speed of plain cotton of the expert and non-expert

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The seaminess speed of expert and non-expert were shown in Fig. 4(c). The results of both knitters indicate an extremely deviation especially the result of non-expert. In Fig. 4(d) the average seaminess speed of the expert is clearly faster than the non-expert. In this process the seaminess skill of knitter is required. The cause of the lateness in this process is the needle usage skill. As explained in the seaminess method, the needle was used to hook the fiber out from the machine’s needle. If the knitter has a high seaminess experience, she can hook the fiber loop accurately.

The plain glass knitting speed of the expert and non-expert was show in Fig. 5(a). The results of knitting speed of the expert and non-expert are similar with the plain cotton results. The expert still spent a small time for knitting and seaminess as shown in Fig. 5(b).

Fig. 5.
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Knitting and seaminess speed of plain glass fiber of the expert and non-expert

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3.2 The Arm Movement Measurement of the Expert and Non-expert

The arm movement of the knitters was analyzed from four movement steps in one knitting cycle. The first different point before the knitters move the handle is the left hand position of the expert and non-expert. The expert held the machine bar by left hand whereas the left hand of the non-expert held on the handle as show in Figs. 6(a) and  7(a). In step 2, 3 and 4, the left hand of the expert and the non-expert still held on the machine bar and the handle, respectively as shown in Figs. 6(b)–(d) and 7(b)–(d). This is because of the fitness of the knitter.

Fig. 6.
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Arm movement images of the expert

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Fig. 7.
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Arm movement images of the non-expert

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Figure 8 shows schematic of arm movement measurement position. The knitter’s arms were measured their movement 6 positions. There is shoulder, elbow and hand of right hand and left hand. Figure 9 shows the gait data that measured from the images in Figs. 6 and 7 in one knitting cycle. Figure 9(a) and (c) indicate the right arm movement of the expert and non-expert, respectively. The handle movement distance of the expert and the non-expert are quite different. The handle movement distance of the expert is shorter than the non-expert. These results were supported by the image as shown in Figs. 6(c) and 7(c). The handle position of the non-expert in step 3 was held over the knitting bed groove whereas the expert stopped the handle at the knitting bed groove edge. It can say that the long handle movement distance impact on the knitting speed of the expert and non-expert. Figure 9(b) and (c) show the left arm movement of the expert and non-expert, respectively. As mentioned before, the left hand of the expert held on the machine bar. Therefore, there are no movement of the expert’s hand and elbow. However, the shoulder of the expert shows a small movement. The non-expert arm movement shows the similar movement direction with the right arm.

Fig. 8.
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Schematic of arm movement measurement position

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Fig. 9.
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The gait data of arm movement of the expert and non-expert

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3.3 The Quality of Knitting Fabric

The pattern of plain cotton fabric was control by the knitting machine. Thus, the defects do not appear and show the complete pattern in both of the expert and non-expert fabrics as shown in Fig. 10(a) and (b). However, loop size of plain fabric was measured to investigate the quality of them. In Fig. 10(c) show the loop length distribution curve. The range of loop length of the expert is around 0.24 to 0.33 cm and 0.25 to 0.33 cm for the non-expert. It can be seen that the loop size of the expert and non-expert are very similar.

Fig. 10.
figure 10

Plain cotton fabric images and loop length distribution curve of the expert and non-expert.

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Figure 11(a) and (b) show the plain glass fabric of the expert and non-expert. The majority of the loop size of the expert is 0.24 to 0.28 cm and 0.23 to 0.29 cm for the non-expert as show in the loop length distribution curve (Fig. 11(c))

Fig. 11.
figure 11

Plain glass fabric images and loop length distribution curve of the expert and non-expert.

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3.4 The Quality of Knitting Seam

Figure 12 shows the quality of the cotton seams of the expert and non-expert. Which can be seen that the seams of the expert do not reveal the defects. All of loop seams are beautiful and regular. The seaminess of the non-expert indicates the defects as a wide gap of loop. This is because of the accuracy of the non-expert skill. The seam photograph of the glass seam of the expert and non-expert are show in Fig. 13. The seaminess of both knitters do not show the desirable products. However, the non-expert seam appears many defects. Besides the human error that effected on the quality of seam, a sliding of glass fiber impacted on the difficulty of hooking by needle and tension of seam.

Fig. 12.
figure 12

The plain cotton seaminess images of the expert and non-expert

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Fig. 13.
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The plain glass fiber seaminess images of the expert and non-expert

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4 Conclusion

The plain knitting of cotton and glass fiber were studied in this research. The skill of knitters do not affect on the a quality of knitting fabric significantly. However, the seaminess process is required the skill of knitting. The expert show the high knitting and seaminess speed and a good fabric quality when compared with the non-expert.