From the animal skins and rattan clothing of millions of years ago, primitive humans began to seek warmth and learn to cover their bodies, and the seeds of civilization sprouted and grew from this point. Looking back on history is like chasing a star. I see this brightest star shining beside the Seine River two thousand years ago, where Gauls, wearing trousers, danced and drank around campfires; this star also twinkled on the Nile River four thousand years ago, where Egyptians washed linen garments and awaited the return of their hunters; I also see this star hanging quietly above the Yellow River and Yangtze River six thousand years ago, where the Chinese gathered mulberry leaves, raised silkworms, and dried their magnificent silks. Amidst the rising starlight, I, along with history, witnessed the printed fabrics of the Caucasus, the woolen garments of the Aegean Sea, and the melodious camel bells along the Silk Road.
Figure 1. Tang Dynasty painting of pounding silk. Figure 2. The gentle sound of camel bells.
Today , we'll be discussing how fabric is woven. Of course, everyone may have different opinions during this discussion. If you have any better insights, please leave a comment below, and we will learn from them.
As the saying goes, a person's life revolves around clothing, food, shelter, and transportation, with clothing being the most important. The flourishing of textiles has largely propelled the progress of civilization. Regarding weaving, this crucial环节 (link/step), with significantly increased market demand and the continuous improvement of mechanical technology and electrical automation, shuttle looms, due to their low speed and high noise levels, have been gradually phased out. Shuttleless looms, with their high efficiency, have taken over the market. Currently, shuttleless looms in textile mills mainly include rapier looms, air-jet looms, and water-jet looms; their main difference lies in their weft insertion mechanism.
Rapier loom: The weft yarn is held and guided by a rigid or flexible rapier head or rapier strap.
Air-jet loom: It uses compressed air jets to pull the weft yarn through the shed.
Water jet loom: Uses water as the weft insertion medium, with the jet of water generating frictional traction on the weft yarn, thus guiding the weft yarn into the shed.
Figure 3. Rapier head Figure 4. Rapier tape
Since the three major shuttleless looms share the same basic principle, let's take a brief look at looms and weaving through the example of a water-jet loom:
The water-jet loom is a new type of shuttleless loom that emerged in the 1950s. Invented by V. Svaty of Czechoslovakia, the world's first prototype was exhibited at the Brussels International Textile Machinery Exhibition in 1955. Later, Japanese companies such as Tsudakoma, Toyota, and Nissan launched water-jet loom series that are still renowned worldwide today. my country began developing water-jet looms in the 1970s, and with continuous in-depth research, many well-known machinery manufacturers have emerged.
Water jet looms are shuttleless looms that use jets of water to guide the weft yarn through the weft insertion point. Water jet weft insertion provides greater frictional traction on the weft yarn than air jet weft insertion, with less dispersion, making it suitable for weaving smooth-surfaced synthetic fibers, glass fibers, and other long filaments. It also increases the electrical conductivity of the fibers, effectively overcoming static electricity during weaving. Furthermore, water jet weft insertion consumes less energy and produces the lowest noise level because it eliminates the need for an air compressor.
The entire weaving process on a water-jet loom can be briefly described as follows:
1. The weft yarn is unloaded from the weft yarn bobbin and fed into the weft feeder. The weft feeder stores the fixed length of weft yarn in a container, and the weft yarn passing through the weft feeder enters the nozzle through the yarn clamp to be sprayed.
2. Water is drawn into the tank by the pump, pressurized, and then ejected from different nozzles under the control of the rotary valve. This allows the weft yarn from different weft feeders to be drawn through the nozzles at different times.
3. With the cooperation of the loom's opening and the beat-up mechanism, the weft yarn is beaten towards the weft opening and interwoven with the warp yarn to form the fabric. Because the water jet loom uses single-sided weft feeding, the left-side cutter cuts the weft yarn during beat-up, and there are selvage devices on both sides to tighten the edges of the fabric.
4. The function of the weft detector is to detect the state of each weft thread reaching the back edge. Once a weft break or shrinkage occurs, a stop signal should be issued immediately, and the machine should be stopped at a fixed angle so that the machine operator can handle the situation and pull out the weft thread in time.
5. After the warp and weft yarns have interwoven, the remaining weft yarns are cut off by the cutter on the right side and then fed into the waste edge collector after passing through the guide roller. The fabric absorbs most of its moisture through the slit in the breast beam and is then fed into the roll-up roller, thus completing the entire weaving process.
The control system of a water jet loom is largely the same as that of other shuttleless looms, primarily ensuring the normal operation of the loom and performing tasks such as rapid start-up (over-start), positioning braking, electronic weft storage, electronic warp feeding, and electronic take-up. It also needs to have the following functions:
1. Monitoring, adjustment, and production management functions for the loom's working status, such as setting loom parameters, setting process parameters, monitoring the loom's working status, and transferring production data to the network.
2. Functions that improve the product quality and variety adaptability of looms, such as electronic dobby, electronic jacquard, electronic color selection, electronic take-up, electronic warp feed, automatic weft insertion, anti-stop stop, tension monitoring, and weft yarn length setting.
Our company's independently developed and manufactured loom electrical control system not only fully includes the above functions, but also adds many unique features. Furthermore, due to its high degree of integration, it can now eliminate the need for weft insertion boxes, tension transmitters, and weft feeder power supply boxes, and has received consistent praise from our clients.
1. Weaving navigation: Built-in textile expert database algorithm automatically sets the most suitable operating parameters based on fabric conditions, fabric specifications, and machine conditions.
2. Digital weft detection: The main controller has built-in digital weft detection technology. When the yarn characteristics are input on the touch screen, the system will automatically calculate the relevant weft detection parameters. It is simple and easy to operate, and greatly reduces the occurrence of idle or missed stops.
3. Supports copying process parameters. Process parameters and other data can be copied to a USB flash drive, allowing for repeated use after a single setting. Data is stored as corresponding files based on different yarn characteristics; after changing yarns, simply access the USB flash drive file to start the machine.
