Importance

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Abstract

A warp knitted textile spacer fabric, a process for producing same, and articles utilizing same are disclosed. The spacer fabric is of an at least six-bar Raschel construction produced on a double needle bar Raschel knitting machine by knitting front and back stretchable fabric substructures of respective sets of ground and elastic yarns interknitted with one another in a stretchable resilient stitch construction while simultaneously knitting at least two sets of monofilament pile yarns in a pile substructure integrated with and extending between the fabric substructures to form pile segments extending transversely between the fabric substructures in differing angular orientations to the widthwise and lengthwise dimensions of the fabric, producing a pyramidal truss-like system of pile segments which maintain the fabric substructures in spaced parallel relation yet are resiliently compressible and resist relative shear movements of the fabric substructures. The present spacer fabrics effectively simulate the stretchability, compressibility and resiliency of conventional plastic foam materials such as neoprene while providing enhanced air and moisture permeability. Under the present process, the spacer fabric may be heat set in a predetermined stretched condition following knitting to selectively engineer the fabric's physical and aesthetic characteristics. An athletic shoe and a knee brace are disclosed as representative products utilizing these spacer fabrics.

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First Claim