Design of a New Washing Machine to Clean the Needle Bed of an Electronic Flat Knitting Machine

Abstract

An electronic flat knitting machine is traditionally used for knitting pullovers and other outerwear garments. When a typical electronic flat knitting machine runs for a certain time, the needle bed is filled with dust and lubrication. In order to solve this problem, a new needle bed cleaning machine is designed and manufactured by R&D department of NIT ORME Co. located in Turkey. In this article, the introduction of the washing machine, of which the prototype is produced and patented, and some analyzes, such as; structural, fluid flow and vibration, performed during the design of the machine is presented. SoloidWorks, ANSYS-Structural and ANSYS-CFX are the commercial softwares used for the analyses. As a result of the prototype production, the needle bed of knitting machines is automatically washed and dried faster than similar products in a practical, easier and functional way. Additionally, the cleaning costs are reduced by 70% with the washing machine.