Are circular knitting machines better than flat knitting machines?

In the world of textile manufacturing, flat knitting machines and circular knitting machines stand out as common choices for manufacturers around the world. While both types of knitting machines have the common goal of creating knitted fabrics, circular knitting machines do have one aspect that is superior to flat knitting machines.

 

Circular knitting machines operate in a continuous circular motion. Circular knitting means that you can create items with circular patterns and without seams. The most common garments that use this type of knitting are socks and gloves. There are some tricks you can use to speed up the creative process of knitting, but circular knitting machines may be a good choice.

 

This knitting machines consist of a cylinder, often called a knitting head, which contains countless rows of needles arranged in a circular pattern. The yarn is fed into the needles through sinkers and yarn guides. During the knitting process, as the cylinder rotates, the yarn continues to form a tubular fabric.

 

Flat knitting machines are known for their versatility and flexibility, allowing manufacturers to create complex patterns and designs effortlessly. These machines operate by fixing the yarn on a flat surface and forming flat knitted fabric panels by moving the needles horizontally and vertically. Flat knitting machines usually consist of a needle bed, a carriage, and guides.

 

The needle bed has many narrow slots or grooves that serve as bases for the needles. Each needle is manipulated by a cam system or computer control, allowing for precise control of the pattern formation. A carriage moves the needles horizontally across the bed, while yarn guides accurately feed the yarn into the needles to form the fabric.

 

To summarize the above text, circular knitting machines are known for their high-speed production capabilities, making them ideal for batch fabric manufacturing. Especially for the double jersey circular knitting machine. Due to the circular motion of large circular knitting machines, they can easily produce large quantities of single-piece fabric designs. The characteristics of flat knitting machines limit the width of the fabric they produce, making them less suitable for a variety of overall designs. In addition, producing large fabric panels on flat knitting machines can be very time-consuming, especially compared to other fabric production methods.