Flat knitting machine and circular knitting machine

Both flat and circular knitting machine are weft knitting machines. The biggest difference between them is the position of the knitting needles. On the flat needle bed is the flat knitting machine. On the cylindrical cylinder and needle tray is the circular machine.

Flat knitting machine

Flat knitting machine belongs to weft knittng machine. It can knit a plane with a definte shape. Sometimes it can also knit 3d ready-to-wear pieces and other products.

There are two kinds of flat knitting machine. One is Hand-operated flat knitting machine, the other is computerized flat knitting machine. The needle bed of this machine is flat. And it usually contains two needle bed, front and back. The width of needle bed is between 500 to 2500mm. The knitting machine gauge of the machine is from E2 to E18. We often use it for sweater gloves and accessories such as collar, hem and entrance guard.

Circular knitting machine

Circular knitting machine has a circular cylinder for storing needles. The threads run continuously around the fabric. Needles are arranged on the machine in a form of a circle and are knitted in the weft direction.

There are many ways to classify circularknitting machines. Such as the diameter of the needle cylinder, Or the side of the products. Circular knitting machine is mainly used to produce weft knitted fabrics. The shape of weft knitted fabrics is tube generally. These types of fabric are suitable for application in clothing, industrial textiles, medical and orthopaedic garments, automotive textiles, hosiery, agro and geo textiles, etc.

Differerces between flat and circular knitting machine

Different fabric shapes

Flat knitting machine is mainly used to knit double-sided sheet fabric such as collar, hem and so on. Or single-sided cylindrical fabric such as forming woolen sweater, etc.;

The circular machine can knit cylindrical both single and double jersey knitted fabric.

Different fabric grain

Generally speaking, flat knitting machine knits fabric with a coarse grain. Knitting machine gauge is lower and yarn is thicker.

Circular knitting machines mostly knit fine fabric. The knitting machine gauge is higher and the yarn is thinner.

Learn more about knitting machine gauge. You can read this article.

Whether we can adjust the fabric width

Flat knitting machine sizes have different lengths. Due to this size, we can change the width of the knitted fabric can by adding or subtracting needles. That is to say, this machine can knit wide pieces and narrow pieces.

But the circular machine is different. A machine with a certain diameter, a certain needle pitch. Under the condition of constant density. It can only knit a certain diameter of cylindrical fabric.

Different production

From the perspective of running speed, the running speed of circular machine is very high, and the production is very high. The running speed of flat machine is relatively low, so the production is lower than circular knitting machine.

Our company provides flat bed knitting machine DW0931. It is suit for Lab research and University while not for bulk production. We also produce DW0910 and DW0910S series circular knitting machine. If you want to know more information about these machines, you can send email to [email protected].