Abstract
Knitting is one of the most exciting textile technologies, due to its endless potential for various applications, from fashion industry to medical, industry, geotextiles, car upholstery ones. Knitting technologies are various and achieveing competencies in knitting products development is not an easy task for the enrolled students in the textile field. On the other hand, the level of competencies required from the textile engineers by the rapidly knitting industry progress, is high. Therefore, the higher education in the field must be strong correlated with the industry level and with the requests for high qualified personnel. In this context, the tutors must be creative in developing teaching and evaluating tools, for assesing the technical knowledge acquired by the students. Interactive lessons have been introduced to the learners, to provide them a sustainable training, independent of knitting and CAD laboratory and to meet their own studying rhythm. The relevant skills that students should achieve at laboratory classes for CAD knitting technology are concerning the design preparation with professional software, programming the design, design processing, setting the knitting parameters and manufacturing the fabric.
The paper highlights an interactive lesson, organised as an comprehensive guide for studying in details the group of weft knits with tuck patterns, produced on electronic flat knitting machines. Weft knitting represents a method of making a fabric by forming rows of stitches across its width, from the same yarn. In terms of work for fashion or technical applications, the tucks patterns demonstrate a good potential for design and functionality given to a product. Tuck stiches make the basic knit fabric wider, thicker and slightly less elastic. Tucks are usually patterned to increase fabric weight and thickness, to insert yarns difficult to knit, to knit-in intarsia yarns, to shorten long jacquard floats. The content of the laboratory class is covered by text information, drawings, flash animations of the loop formation, simulation of the knitted structure and demonstrative videos. This particular application deals with the: classification of weft knit patterns, principle of producing tuck stitches, design potential of tucks and applications of these fabrics. A self-assessment stage of the knowledge acquired during the course is completing the e-learning content, by using tests based on 'drag-and-drop" and "multiple choice" methods, reflecting thus the knowledge level, as an individual study result. The application is available for the students in html format, on the moodle paltform: http://www.moodle.tex.tuiasi.ro, and it is part of the module of "Advanced Knitting Technologies", developed within the project Adan2Tex, financed through the program Erasmus Plus, for supporting the professionals in the textile industry. |
