WEAVING

PART - II

Rupali Kakaria
Assistant Professor (ASFDT)
COMPONENTS OF
WOVEN FABRIC
Warp yarns or Ends
Warp yarns are the yarns running along the length of the fabric. They
are parallel to the selvedge and constitute the lengthwise grain of the
fabric. These yarns are very strong and stable, since they must
withstand great tension during weaving. And that’s why fabrics do not
normally stretch when pulled in the lengthwise direction.
Weft yarns, Filling yarns or Picks
Weft yarns are the yarns running along the width of the fabric. They are
at right angles to the selvedge. They constitute the crosswise grain of
the fabric. These are usually slightly weaker than the warp yarns.
Selvedge
Self-edge or Selvedge is the narrow, flat woven border, or the finished
edge, at both lengthwise sides of a fabric. The threads composing it are
strong and densely woven. Selvedge prevents the fabric from ravelling
and the edge from tearing when the fabric is under stress.
Grain
Grain is determined by the direction in the fabric.
- Lengthwise grain is the direction along the length of the fabric,
parallel to warp yarns and selvedge.
- Crosswise grain is the direction along the width of the fabric,
parallel to weft yarns and perpendicular to the warp yarns and
selvedge.

- Grain is important as it decides the drape of the fabric. Garments

that are made along the grain of the fabric have better drape and
durability. For instance, when the fabric hangs along its lengthwise
grain, it will have more body and drape.

- Fabrics can be on-grain or off-grain.

- On-grain fabric has warp yarns parallel to the selvedge and
perpendicular to filling yarns.
- Off-grain fabrics do not have their lengthwise and crosswise yarns
perpendicular to each other, thus creating problems in production
and use. They do not drape/hang properly and there is distortion in
printed design.
Thread Count/Cloth Count
Thread count is the number of warp and weft yarns per square inch of
fabric. A closely-woven fabric has more yarns than a loosely-woven
fabric, hence it is more durable. Thread count indicates the quality of
fabric. The higher the count, greater will be the compactness of the
fabric and better its quality.
Balance
Balance is the ratio of the warp yarns to weft yarns in a fabric. When
their ratio is 1:1 (approximately), it is said to be a well-balanced fabric.
For example, a muslin cloth with a thread count of 64*60 is considered
well-balanced while a broad cloth with a thread count of 100*60 has
poor balance. Good balance produces a fabric with good wearing
qualities.
Key Characteristics of Woven Fabrics
• Woven fabric have little stretch along warp or weft direction. These
fabrics show maximum stretch along the bias direction (45 degree)
• Their edges do not fray until cut, as they have a selvedge.
• They can be woven to different densities and have different weights.
• Woven fabrics are at their strongest on the grain line.
• Different interlacing patterns impart different designs and textures to
the fabric.
MECHANISM OF
WEAVING
• Weaving is one of the oldest and most widely and fabric
construction techniques.

• It is done on a machine called the loom.

• The purpose of the loom is to hold the warp yarns under tension and
weft yarns are inserted and pushed into place to make the fabric.

• The loom has undergone significant modifications since ancient

times, but the basic principle involved in weaving remains the same.
PARTS OF A
LOOM
Warp Beam
Located at the back of the loom, warp beam is a cylinder on which the
warp yarns are tightly wound and are released to the weaving area as
needed.
The Heddle/Healds
Heddles are wire or metal stripes with an eyelet in the centre through
which a warp yarn is threaded. The number of heddles is equal to the
number of warp yarns in a cloth as only a single warp can be
threaded through a heddle.
Harness
Harness is a frame to hold the heddles with the help of which a whole
set of warp yarns can be raised or lowered at one time in order to
produce the shed through which the filling yarn is passed. Each loom
has at least two harnesses. The number of harnesses, the position of
the harness and the number of heddles controlled by each harness
determines the pattern of interlacement.

Temple
As the selvedge is woven and the weft thread changes its direction,
the tension of the weft tends to pull the warp threads together. To
avoid this problem, temple is used. The temple provides an opposing
tension on the cloth thus keeping the warp threads evenly spread out.
A temple may be made of wool or metal.
Shuttle
Shuttle is a wooden boat-shaped device that holds the spools on
which the weft yarns are wound. The weft yarn is unwound and laid
across the fabric width as the shuttle travels back and forth through
the shed/opening.
Reed
Reed is a comb-like device placed between the heddle and the cloth
beam. It is responsible for pushing the filling yarns into place thus
making the fabric firm. It also keeps the warp yarns separated on the
loom and prevents them from entangling. Slots in between the wires
in the reed are known as dents. After passing through the heddle, the
warp yarns pass through the reed with each warp threaded through a
dent/opening.
Cloth Beam
Cloth that has been woven rolls up onto a cylinder, located at the
front of the loom. This cylinder is known as the cloth beam.
 YARN
PREPARATION
FOR WEAVING
Before their use for fabric construction, the warp yarns and filling
yarns must be prepared for weaving. It is necessary to spin them to
the desired size and give them the amount of twist required for the
type of fabric for which they will be used. The yarns undergo the
following stages before being woven into fabric.
BASIC WEAVING
OPERATIONS
Once the yarn preparation is done and both the warp and filling yarns
are set in place, the loom goes through a series of motions to form the
fabric. Regardless of the kind of loom or pattern to be woven, the
basic weaving operation consists of the following steps:
PRIMARY MOTIONS
Shedding (Harness)
The raising and lowering of the harnesses creates a shed/opening
between the warp yarns through which the filling yarn is inserted. The
process is called shedding.

Picking (Shuttle)
The insertion of the filling yarn into the shed is known as picking. A
single crossing of the filling from one side of the loom to the other is
known as a pick. Picking is done with the help of the shuttle or any
other device which carries the weft yarn.

Beating up/ Battening (Reed)

After two to three picks have been laid by the shuttle, the newly-
inserted filling yarns are pushed evenly into place against the newly-
constructed cloth with the action of the reed. This makes the fabric
firm and compact and the process is called beating up or battening.
 SECONDARY MOTIONS
• Taking up
• Letting off

Taking up (Cloth Beam) and Letting off (Warp Beam)

As the fabric is formed, it is withdrawn from the weaving area at a
constant rate and wound on or taken up on the cloth beam. At the same
time, more warp yarns must be unwound or let off from the warp beam
to the weaving area at the required rate. The two operations have to be
co-ordinated to ensure that the weaving process proceeds smoothly
without any breaks or change in tension in the yarns.
TYPES OF
LOOMS
Depending on the mode of operation and method of weft insertion,
there can be different types of looms.

Types of Looms

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Power Looms W
(Shuttle Looms)
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HANDLOOM
• The handloom (or hand shuttle loom) is the simplest type of loom
used for weaving.
• Everything is carried out manually in this loom.
• The warp is wound on to the warp beam during warping.
• From the warp beam the warp yarn is made to pass through the
heddle.
• Treadles activate the up and down motion of the harnesses or shafts.
• The filling yarns are manually placed into position through the shuttle.
• The reed, which is also worked by the operator or weaver, separates
the warp yarns and evenly pushes the filling yarns in place.
• The woven cloth is then taken up by the cloth beam.
• Handloom offers unparalleled flexibility and versatility, thus
permitting experimentation and encouraging innovations which
cannot be replicated by the power loom sector.
Backstrap Loom
• The backstrap loom is a portable loom in which the warps are
stretched from a fixed point up to the belt worn by weaver.
• The device used to provide a method of separating the warp yarns into
two parts is called a rigid heddle.
• Tension is created in the warp yarns by the back and forth movement
of the weaver.
• The weaver moves the rigid heddle up, passes a weft thread through,
then moves its down and again passes the weft thread through.
• Repetition of this process results in the formation of fabric.
• However, the fabric woven in this way is not too wide.
• This is an ancient technique mainly used by people in Northeast India,
such as Manipur, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram etc.
Vertical Loom
• The vertical loom, often referred to as the high-warp loom, is a
permanent loom that cannot be taken apart or transported.
• The loom consists of two vertical posts connected by two strong,
adjustable horizontal cross beams.
• This type of loom is designed primarily for weaving rugs.
• This is a throw shuttle loom.
POWER LOOM
• The power loom sector produces more than 60% of cloth in India and
accounts for more than 60% of the textile exports of the country.
• It produces a wide variety of cloth, both gray as well as processed.
• The major power loom weaving centres in India include Surat,
Ahmedabad, Sholapur, Bhilwara, Kanpur, Amritsar and many more.
• Production of cloth as well as generation of employment has been
rapidly increasing in this sector.
• Power looms can be shuttle looms or shuttleless looms.
SHUTTLE LOOM
• Shuttle loom is the oldest kind of loom that utilises a shuttle with a
bobbin to insert the filling yarns through the shed to produce the
desired weave.
• As the yarn is laid, the pick is battened in place, a new shed is formed
and the shuttle returns to lay a second pick.
• This process is repeated until the fabric is complete.

• The following are some disadvantages of shuttle looms:

- High energy consumption
- Low speed and productivity
- More defects in fabric as the shuttle may lead to abrasion on the
warp yarns and/or cause thread breaks.
- More maintenance is required for the upkeep of the loom.
- Deafening noise caused by the to and fro movement of the shuttle.
- Small capacity of shuttle device.
SHUTTLELESS LOOM
• In order to overcome the inherent problems of shuttle looms,
shuttleless looms have been developed which make use of entirely
different methods of weft insertion.
• There are many kinds of shuttleless looms depending on the method
employed for weft insertion.
Advantages of Shuttleless looms:
• Shuttleless looms are generally of wider widths enabling the
simultaneous weaving of two or more widths.
• They are suitable designed to match the requirements of high insertion
rates, shedding, beating and other auxiliary motions.
• Shuttleless weaving reduces the cost of production by almost 10% in
comparison to high-speed automatic shuttle looms.
• The quality of cloth obtained is far superior and is of a quality which
is acceptable in the international market.
• Reduction in waste and down time.
• The machines are equipped with features like automatic pick finding
and repairing.
• When patterned fabrics are woven on shuttleless looms, colours can
be changed more easily.
• Lower power requirement.
• Lower sound levels and less space requirement.
• Higher speed of fabric production.
TYPES OF SHUTTLELESS LOOMS
1. PROJECTILE/ MISSILE/ GRIPPER LOOM
• In the projectile loom, the weft insertion is carried out by bullet-like
projectile that grips the filling yarn from the supply package and carries
it across the shed.
• The yarn is cut with a pair of scissors on the other side and the
projectile comes back on a belt under the loom.
• The yarn may be inserted from one or both sides.
• The latter type is more common today.
• In a projectile machine with many projectiles, the projectiles work in
sequence, i.e. they are launched in succession and the yarn packages
are placed on both sides of the machine.
• Projectile weaving machines may be wide or narrow; they are available
in weaving widths up to approximately 200 inches.
• They are used for a variety of basic, technical and speciality fabrics.
• Multiple projectile weaving is suitable to weave dobby, jacquard and
terry fabrics.
1. RAPIER LOOM
• A rapier loom uses a rod known as the ‘rapier rod’ to carry the weft
yarn across the shed of warp yarns to the other side of the loom.
• One end of a rapier carries the weft yarn. The other end of the rapier is
connected to the control system.
• There can be single rapier or double rapier.
• For a single rapier, a long rapier rod is required to extend across the
full width of loom.
• For a double rapier loom, two rapiers enter the shed from the
opposite sides of the loom.
• Rapier loom is widely used to produce basic cotton and
woollen/worsted fabrics.
• They can also produce a wide variety of fabrics ranging from muslin to
drapery and upholstery material.
• The advantages of rapier loom are that they are highly flexible and
adapt to any type of fibre.
• They also work effectively in weaving fabrics up to 110 inches in width
without any modification.
1. AIR-JET LOOM
• Air-jet loom use a jet of air to propel the filling yarns through the shed.
• A main nozzle and several relay nozzles supply the flow of compressed
air.
• They can weave multi-coloured yarns to make plaids/checks and
available with different patterning mechanisms.
• This is the fastest of all types of weaving.
• Other advantages of this method are that these looms operate at a lower
noise level than the shuttle, missile or rapier looms and they can
produce a wide variety of fabrics of uniform quality.
1. WATER- JET LOOM
• In a water-jet loom, a premeasured length of filling yarn is carried
through the shed by a jet of water.
• A water jet, along with a weft yarn, is shot under force.
• The force of the water as it is propelled across the shed carries the yarn
to the opposite side.
• Fabrics made of the water-jet loom come off the loom wet and must be
dried.
• Water-jet weaving machines are not used as frequently as air jets, and
their use is limited to fabrics made of yarns that are non-absorbent and
those that do not lose strength when wet, such as acetate, nylon,
polyester and glass.
• The advantage of this method is that these looms are economical in
operation and can produce superior quality fabrics that have good
appearance and feel.