Used Looms (rapier)

You can find used Looms (rapier) on Wotol

Rapier weaving is one of the technology for weaving with, air jet weaving, water jet weaving, projectile weaving.

There are still few weaving companies using older methods like shuttle looms weaving and even hand weaving.

With rapier looms the weft yarn is carried through the warp with rapiers.

In rapier technology the weft yarn is carried by grippers with flexible tapes or rigid profiles.

The grippers meet in the meedle of the loom and exchange the yard.

There are two types of grippers: negative grippers which is the most common type and positive grippers.

Positive gripper offers the best flexibility because it can catch any type of yarn during the same weaving process.

Rapier weaving is the most commonly used technology. It offers more versality than other technoligy such as air jet and higher productivity than projectile looms as an example.

Rapier weaving is suitable for any type of fabric: clothing, home fursnishing or technical.

The width of the looms varies from 150cm to 540 cm for the widest.

They can be fitted with dobby (also cam) and jacquard.

Main air jet looms producers are Picanol (Belgium), Dornier (germany), Itema (Italy), Sulzer (Swiss), Somet (Italy), Vamatex (Italy), SMIT (Italy), Panter (Italy) and older manufacturers like Nuovo Pignone (Italy) Saurer Diedrich (France) of SACM MAV (France).
 

Q&A corner - questions and answers received from members

Q: Is Dornier the only loom with positive grippers?
A: There are other looms with positive grippers such as Panter or the Saurer Vamatex 9000+ but Dornier is the most spread and popular brand. Picanol is working on positive grippers too.

Q: What is the benefit of Picanol Sumo motor?
A: Picanol Sumo motor gives you more flexibility. It can manage the slow motion. Also it is more eco friendly because it has lower electric consuption. It also enalbles an easy pick finding.

Q: I have been offered recent G6300 but I thought Sulzer stopped production in before 2004.
A: Seems the G6300 is now produced in China under license by an other brand but we don't have many information about it.

Q: What is the difference between free flight and guided hooks?
A: In guided hook rapier technology the tape that holds the gripper is driven inside a chanel of hooks. IN the case of free flight there is no more hooks. There is less friction with the free flight technology but for some types of fabric this technology is not suitable and guided hood is recommended.

Q: I want to weave very large fabric. What are the widest rapier looms available on the market?
A: You can find Some Dornier and Picanol looms in 540cm. Seems it is difficult to go wider because of the limitation of possible lenght of rapier tapes or rapier profiles. If you want to weave wider fabric you should consider Sulzer projectile looms.