Design Guide

Guide Sinker Tongue And Trick Plate

These four parts meet at the same point in the machine, which is why a fault in one looks like a fault in the others. Telling them apart is most of the diagnosis.

Each One In Turn

The guide is a thin blade with an eye at the tip. It carries the warp end, swings through the needle line and shogs sideways. The combination of swing and shog is the lapping, and the lapping is the fabric structure.

The sinker holds the fabric down while the needle rises and supports the loop during knock-over. The tongue closes the compound needle hook so the old loop can be cast off. The trick plate carries the slots that hold the needles in line and fixes the spacing.

Reading The Fabric

A single vertical line down the piece is one element at one needle position — most often a guide with a worn or chipped eye.

Press-off at one place across the width is a bent or broken sinker at that position, letting the fabric lift with the needle.

An occasional dropped stitch on one repeat is usually a worn tongue on a compound needle machine.

Uneven loop length across the whole width, with no single line, points at the trick plate or the separators rather than at any one element.

Checking Without Guesswork

For the trick plate, fit a new needle in the suspect slot with the machine stopped and feel for sideways play. If a new needle still moves, the slot is worn and the needle is not the problem.

For the tongue, look at the needle groove. A tongue that stands proud scores the groove, so a scored needle is evidence about the tongue.

For the guide, run a thread through the eye by hand and feel for a groove or a sharp edge.

Replace The Unit, Not The Element

All four are supplied as cast units on this catalogue. Replacing the unit preserves the setting across the block. Straightening a bent element or fitting a single replacement into a worn body puts the machine back into the same fault within days.