Field of activity
The knitting industry produces knitted goods such as pullovers, vests and socks but also hosiery and knitted goods such as underwear, curtains and laces. It also manufactures fabrics for applications in aircraft manufacture and wound dressings for use in medicine. The various fields of production can be distinguished as follows: standard knitting, tricot knitting, raschel and stitch-bonding and circular knitting. Textile mechanics – knitting set up and maintain the usually fully automated and electronically controlled flat and circular knitting machines and weft and warp knitting machines which produce knitted goods in tubular form, as broad fabric or as made-to-measure parts. They have an understanding of technical interactions and the functioning of knitting machines and draw up technical documents and instructions taking account of quality and commercial considerations.
Occupational skills
Textile mechanics – knitting:
- distinguish between different textile fibres and textile products on the basis of their properties and intended purposes;
- portray knitting designs and develop and apply design rules;
- process materials and fix machine attachments to knitting machines;
- handle systems to capture and evaluate operating data and electronically controlled assemblies in knitting machines;
- set up and adjust knitting machines and create media for pattern data;
- monitor work processes in all production stages;
- maintain knitting machines and eliminate machine-induced and material-induced faults and their causes;
- evaluate reject goods and initiate quality assurance measures;
- capture and evaluate technical data on machine parameters, work processes and production results.
