of its casing is composed of three plate parts 40 50 60 and the parts 40 50 60 are connected with one another on the welding lines 41 and 42 the shown subdivision of the total casing of the machine into several plate parts 40 50 60 is shown in fig2 as an exemplary embodiment it is to be understood that also other subdivision into any number of individual plate bending parts is possible fig5 shows a section through the structural group support 21 of fig1 reference numeral 51 identifies a bearing surface for the front needle bed and reference numeral 52 identifies a bearing surface for the rear needle bed a bearing groove 53 for a guiding element of the rear needle bed which is displaceable in the longitudinal direction is provided in the bearing surface 52 for the rear needle bed moreover the structural group support 21 has a bearing 54 for an offset device for the rear needle bed a bearing 55 for a product discharge device is provided on the lower side of the structural group support 21 it will be understood that each of the elements described above or two or more together may also find a useful application in other types of constructions differing from the types described above while the invention has.