Italian sock knitting machine builder Busi Giovanni has launched a new machine which the company says offers all the usual high-quality components the firm’s customers have come to expect but with an extremely attractive price point.
Built entirely at the Italian family-owned company’s headquarters in Brescia, the Light MP is actually an optimized version of the existing Idea MP, the key difference being that the new machine does not have latch needles in the dial and therefore is not able create Busi’s globally renowned True Rib socks.
“With the aim of offering you a machine with a much more competitive price, but still with the same undisputed quality, Busi has always adopted over the past 55 years of our activity, we have recently optimized our model Idea MP, bearing now the name of LIGHT MP,” said Michele Castagna, Busi’s export manager.
Equipped with full electronic control, the Light MP is therefore a high production single cylinder knitting machine for the production of socks for men and children. The machine is capable of knitting plain and terry fabric with needle selection made by seven electromechanical actuators which enable the knitting of a range structures: double welt; embroidery patterns in 5 colours plus the ground; embroidery patterns on a mock rib elastic base in 4 colours plus the ground; and floated mesh patterns with additional 4 colours patterns.
The machine is also equipped with a striping unit and with a terry device for the production of the sandwich terry. Importantly, the Light MP can produce plain stitch, half terry and full terry in the same sock without the need of any manual change. It is supplied with a device for a fast saw blade change which allows different lengths of cut. The saw blade is automatically stopped in the heels.
Available with Busi’s Rimaglio device for Classic Linking, the Light MP is available in several diamters - 3 ¼, 3½, 3 ¾, and 4 ins, with 96-168 needles and in gauges 24, 36 and 48G. It is also possible to store several articles in memory, to run a sequence of up to 4 different articles and to modify the programs and/or the machine parameters during knitting.
Busi’s latest version of its renowned Rimaglio toe closing device on single cylinder sock machines has been developed with several simplifications, with respect to the original model, and various other modifications providing an enhanced and more reliable performance compared with the previous version.
The new Rimaglio 2.0 system involves the device mounted on-board a single cylinder sock knitting machine. It is located on the left-hand side of the machine, which means the knitting technician still has full accessibility to the knitting head. The sequential operation of the new device starts with the yarn finger head being raised when sock knitting has been completed.
The cylinder then stops in a pick-up position with the help of a mechanical clutch. The knitting head is then raised and the toe-closing device swings across and aligns itself exactly above the cylinder needles. It is then lowered to a position where pick-up elements position themselves precisely onto these needles. Individual knitted loops are then transferred from the cylinder needles on to the toe-closing device. The sock is then picked up and the arm swings the device back into its position underneath the tubular sock-turning piston on the left-hand side of the machine. The knitting head is closed again and knitting of the next sock commences.
As knitting of the next sock commences, the completed sock is pushed upwards and turned inside out by a sock-turning tube. This means stitching of the toe occurs on the inside of the sock to replicate traditional linking. Next, two half-crowns, on which the last knitted course is located, close like a jaw superimposing the two halves of the sock toe on top of each other. Loops from the two separate courses are placed on the same comb. At this point, the sock toe is ready to be stitched closed, and the linking device starts up sewing the toe area of the sock fabric with stitch-for-stitch linking. Needles pass through the loop twice to give a secure stitch and improve the elasticity of the seam.
After linking, the sock is then straightened and turned with the piston so it is no longer inside out. The sock is moved up toward the piston and waits in the upper part of the ejection tube until the knitting of the next sock is finished. When the robotic arm moves across to pick up the next sock, the finished sock is then ejected pneumatically from the machine perfectly linked and ready for boarding.
