Weaving is the most popular method of fabric manufacturing. Different types of woven fabric could be produced with this process. This post is mentioning the basic concept on weaving mechanism. Soon I will publish more articles on advance weaving mechanism.
Fabrics can be constructed in a variety of ways, ranging from the matting together of fibrous materials to the intricate interlacing of complex yarn systems. A major method of fabric construction is weaving. Weaving is interlacing of two sets of yarns (warp & weft) at right angle. The technique probably became known before spinning. Primitive people may have observed the interlaced grasses and twigs in the nests of birds, and thus discovered how they could make clothing for themselves, baskets and nets, and thatch like huts and fences. Or they may have seen rushes naturally interlacing as they grew. Spinning developed when people discovered that the raw materials could be improved before they were woven. In the course of time, rude looms were made, which were crudely simple and handoperated.
The modern power loom used in the textile industry today essentially performs the same operations as the simple hand-operated loom. Fabrics can be woven from yarns on a simple handloom or on a highly complex, totally automated power loom. In either case, the fabric that is produced will be made by interlacing one yarn with another. The lengthwise-direction yarns in a woven fabric are called the warp yarns or ends. Crosswise yarns are called filling yarns, weft yarns, or picks. Warp and filling yarns normally interlace with each other at right angles.
Automation of Weaving
To transform weaving from a hand to a mechanical operation, several conditions had to be satisfied. The various motions made in hand weaving had to be automated. The Encyclopedia of Textiles (1980) notes, “the power loom of today is essentially the hand loom adapted to rotary driving” (p. 30). A further requirement of power looms was that a power-operated loom had to stop automatically when a warp or filling yarn had broken. If the loom continued to function, the cloth would be flawed.
The first automatic loom was devised by Edmund Cartwright in 1784. Although it had a number of defects, this loom did work well enough to demonstrate that automatic loom weaving was feasible. Gradually, inventions by different individuals each contributed to the development of an economically viable automatic loom.
Eventually, upper limits on production speed of shuttle looms were reached. Also, shuttle looms are extremely noisy. To overcome these deficiencies, looms were invented that transported filling yarns without a shuttle. These shuttle-less weaving machines are faster and less noisy than shuttle looms. Currently, their operations are monitored by computers.
Modern Weaving Processes
Present-day weaving machine or looms can be divided into two major classifications: those that produce cloth in flat form and those that produce cloth in tubular form. Looms that produce flat woven cloth predominate. Flat looms can be further subdivided into two categories:
(1)Those that use a shuttle to transport filling yarns and
(2)Shuttle-less weaving machines, those that use some other means for carrying the filling from side to side.
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