Weaving is an ancient textile art and craft. Weaving forms a crucial process in entire textile value chain. Weaving technology has remarkably evolved from centuries old hand looms to the most modern shuttle-less high speed rapier & airjet looms. With the continuous innovations & up-gradation in weaving technology, looms are becoming highly automated, high speed and energy & cost efficient. Excellent fabric quality & maximum profitability are major requirements in today’s competitive market. Mechanization, through automation of shuttle looms, has entered in a new era of electronics, microprocessors, information technology and their application to the production of woven fabrics. The cost of woven fabric consists of several costs like raw material cost, the energy or power cost, capital cost, labor cost, an auxiliary material cost. The share of cost factors in total cost depends upon the properties of fabric to be produced, operational properties of machines used, economic situation of weaving mill & country of production. Energy or power cost constitute of substantial share, so it becomes necessary to reduce the energy cost. Many machine manufacturers are in continuous efforts to reduce the energy cost & increase the efficiency with technology innovations.
Apart from technology, designing plays an important role in weaving. Before the fabric is woven, designer prepares a pattern depending upon weave of fabric commonly known as “Weave Plan”. Fabrics can be woven into number of weaves like plain, twill, satin, dobbies, filafil etc. These weaves can change the texture, feel & look of fabric. The designers develop trendy design collection by just playing with weaves. Today, weaving has changed face of Fashion Industry. Earlier, fashion industry was focusing more on dyeing, printing & finishing techniques but today weaving plays an important role into fashion. Various self-designed fabric patterns are currently into trend. Many fashion designers are giving preference to self-designed fabrics as they are offering environmental solution to the fashion industry. In fact, many designers are shifting their focus from age old dyeing & printing focused fashion to the innovative weaves. If we go to some years back, plain & doobies are most popular weaves amongst menswear. But today, jacquard fabrics are also trending into menswear. On the contrary, yarn dyed stripes & checks designs are getting popular into womenswear which were ruled by menswear some years back.
Major developments in weaving technology have been geared primarily towards following objectives:
- To increase productivity
- To improve fabric quality
- Reduce number of operations
- Reduce cost of production
Some of the past innovations as follow:
- Picanol NV, Belgium, provided the following information about its Adaptive Relay Valve Drive, which is featured on its OMNIplus 800 air-jet weaving machine. “Adaptive Relay Valve Drive (ARVD) automatically adapts the closing timing of the relay nozzle valves to the behavior of the filling yarn. Instead of applying one setting for all the different picks, ARVD applies the best relay valve timing for each individual pick, thus reducing the overall air consumption. Picanol notes that decreased air consumption reduces energy costs, and reduced blowing on the filling yarn reduces the number of broken picks. Also, Pick Repair Automation has a higher success rate because the type of filling stops changes.
- Switzerland-based Stäubli AG reports that automatic drawing-in machines for the weaving harness have long helped weaving mills around the world stay competitive. Automatically drawn-in warps are characterized by zero defect and high quality, and they are available as required for production in a fraction of the time compared with manual drawing-in. According to Stäubli, the upgraded Safir automatic drawing-in machine offers new opportunities regarding flexibility, thanks to the refinement of proven system components from the Delta line combined with established state-of-the-art technologies, particularly the Opal leasing machine. Since its introduction at ITMA 2007 in Munich, Germany, and after several upgrades, the machine can be configured to draw in one or two warp beams, each having up to eight thread layers. A camera system checks the yarn to be drawn in during each cycle and ensures against drawing-in of double threads or threads of the wrong color.
- Warp-tying is another cost factor in the weaving mill. Stäubli reports its Magma warp-tying machine is especially suitable for tying coarse yarns. A patent-pending system that works without yarn-specific settings enables separation of threads to be tied at the lease, which considerably simplifies operation and changing from one application to the next. A built-in camera system monitors the separation of the threads, thus eliminating doubled threads. Magma also can be set easily to tie double knots, and therefore can tie even very slick yarns reliably, according to the company.
Some of the technical innovations in ITMA 2015, Italy:
- Lower energy costs for BCF Yarn production from Oerlikon Neumag
- RoTac3 makes high energy savings and this technology forms the tangle knots with a pulsating instead of a continuous air current
- This means that compressed air is only consumed if a tangle knot is to be formed
- This is achieved with a special tangle nozzle that rotates with the yarn.
- Several holes are incorporated around the nozzle cover, according to the number of desired knots and the distance between them
- If a hole is now positioned over the compressed air opening, an air blast is released and tangles the yarn
- Tangle knots can not only be produced at defined distances and strengths
- The discontinuous compressed air impulse also considerably reduces the required volume flow and compressed air consumption by up to 50 per cent compared to conventional tangle units, depending on the yarn type
- Karl Mayer’s ground-breaking technical innovations at ITMA
- HKS 2-SE and a HKS 4-M
- A stylish, energy-efficient and ergonomic HKS 2-SE and a HKS 4-M of the next generation which will be processing patterned sectional beams produced on the new DS Opto-EC
- HKS 2-SE
- Width – 130″
- Gauge of E 36 produces an elastic locknit for sportswear
- The Low Energy Option LEO based on an improved interplay of drive technology, oil viscosity, heat-resistant machine components and operating temperature, reduces the energy consumption by up to 10%, which reduces costs and improves the sustainability of materials
- An integrated camera system for complete fabric inspection provided as standard equipment, ensuring total coverage, i.e. 100% monitoring of the
- An LED lighting system as standard in two colours, i.e. bright white for a clear view of the yarn sheet, the knitting elements and the fabric, as well as red, which is visible from some distance away, for signaling a machine stoppage in the event of a fault
- HKS 4-M EL – the four-bar high-speed tricot machine with N pattern drive
- Up to 25% faster than its predecessor
- Offers the usual high level of flexibility
- Enables the patterns to be changed very quickly and easily by inputting data at the machine’s display unit
- The machine can process even small batches efficiently, and can reduce the amount of time needed to develop new and innovative fabrics
- The EL feature opens up completely new design possibilities due to shog paths of 2″ and almost unlimited repeat lengths
- DS Opto-EC
- This innovative direct warper for processing non-stretch yarns combines sectional and direct warping, thus, offering highest flexibility
- Yarn warp for yarn warp, the winding guarantees a high level of efficiency when warping short warps for developing new products
- Cone warping with limited space requirements, since a minimum number of packages is needed
- It can be used for the rapid warping of SWBs in the piece which is especially useful with long running lengths
- It offers optimum quality and a resulting high level of efficiency during the subsequent processing stages
- New Generation Rapier Weaving Machines by Dornier
- P2 Rapier Machine
- Weaving of filter fabric for water & air filtration
- Positive controlled center transfer
- Machine width 320 cm, with 2 beams
- Earlier this kind of fabric was produced on special machines
- Specially developed cloth take-up results to produce high density fabric, sustains reed impact of 5 tons & uniformity in filling density
- High reed impact of 5 tons needs to regulate warp tension with warp let-off and cloth take-up at constant value
- SyncroDrive system regulates shedding tensions of such a heavy density filter fabric
- P2 Rapier Machine
- Rapier weaving machine – P1
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- For Upholstery fabric
- Monofilaments and different type of flock yarns used for filling
- It offers constant warp tension from full to empty beam due to Sensors for measuring warp tension and regulate let-off
- Airjet Weaving Machine – A1
- Gentle filling insertion due to newly developed nozzles
- Suitable for weaving of suits
- 1000 picks/min
- HKS 2-SE and a HKS 4-M
Summary:
Weaving technology has gone through number of changes in fast few years. A decade ago, need was faster & more productive machines. Today, the weaving machines are as fast as most yarn systems can handle. In recent years demand has been for more automation, more versatility & for better quality fabrics. Apart from automation system, microprocessors revolutionized entire weaving process including all available weft insertion systems. It is true that increase in loom performance in any type of shuttleless loom beyond the levels prevailing a few years ago has been made possible only through electronics. Leading manufacturers of projectile, rapier, airjet and waterjet looms have incorporated the advance technology in their machines which virtually can give any information connected with production, loom faults & design change. Today, one can view design prepared by designer sitting at the other corner of world at click of the button with the help of advance software. Indeed, the information technology has changed the face of fashion. Today’s consumer has more knowledge of fashion than ever which makes designer’s job tougher. Innovative weave patterns will definitely give designers an edge over fashion techniques. So, Future of weaving technology will not be just be sustainable technology & improved quality of fabric but also innovative designs!
Let us carve out…
A better tomorrow!
