A rapier loom is a shuttleless

weaving loom Weaving is a method of textile production in which two distinct sets of yarns or threads are interlaced at right angles to form a fabric or cloth. Other methods are knitting, crocheting, felting, and braiding or plaiting. The longitudinal th ...

in which the filling yarn is carried through the shed of warp yarns to the other side of the loom by finger-like carriers called rapiers. A stationary package of

yarn Yarn is a long continuous length of interlocked fibres, used in sewing, crocheting, knitting, weaving, embroidery, ropemaking, and the production of textiles. Thread is a type of yarn intended for sewing by hand or machine. Modern manufact ...

is used to supply the

weft Warp and weft are the two basic components used in weaving to turn thread or yarn into fabric. The lengthwise or longitudinal warp yarns are held stationary in tension on a frame or loom while the transverse weft (sometimes woof) is draw ...

yarns in the rapier machine. One end of a rapier, a rod or steel tape, carries the weft yarn. The other end of the rapier is connected to the control system. The rapier moves across the width of the fabric, carrying the weft yarn across through the shed to the opposite side. The rapier is then retracted, leaving the new pick in place. In some versions of the loom, two rapiers are used, each half the width of the fabric in size. One rapier carries the yarn to the centre of the shed, where the opposing rapier picks up the yarn and carries it the remainder of the way across the shed.Weave Tech, India
/ref> The double rapier is used more frequently than the single rapier due to its increased pick insertion speed and ability to weave wider widths of fabric. The housing for the rapiers must take up as much space as the width of the machine. To overcome this problem,

loom A loom is a device used to weave cloth and tapestry. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics may vary, but th ...

s with flexible rapiers have been devised. The flexible rapier can be coiled as it is withdrawn, therefore requiring less storage space. If, however, the rapier is too stiff then it will not coil; if it is too flexible, it will buckle. Rigid and flexible rapier machines operate at speeds ranging from about 200 to 260 ppm, using up to 1,300 metres of weft yarn every minute. They have a noise level similar to that of modern projectile looms. They can produce a wide variety of

fabrics Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

ranging from

muslin Muslin () is a cotton fabric of plain weave. It is made in a wide range of weights from delicate sheers to coarse sheeting. It gets its name from the city of Mosul, Iraq, where it was first manufactured. Muslin of uncommonly delicate handsp ...

drapery Drapery is a general word referring to cloths or textiles (Old French , from Late Latin ). It may refer to cloth used for decorative purposes – such as around windows – or to the trade of retailing cloth, originally mostly for clothin ...

and

upholstery Upholstery is the work of providing furniture, especially seats, with padding, springs, webbing, and fabric or leather covers. The word also refers to the materials used to upholster something. ''Upholstery'' comes from the Middle English word ...

materials. Newer rapier machines are built with two distinct weaving areas for two separate fabrics. On such machines, one rapier picks up the yarn from the centre, between the two fabrics, and carries it across one weaving area; as it finishes laying that pick, the opposite end of the rapier picks up another yarn from the centre, and the rapier moves in the other direction to lay a pick for the second weaving area, on the other half of the machine. Rapier machines weave more rapidly than most shuttle machines but more slowly than most other projectile machines. An important advantage of rapier machines is their flexibility, which permits the laying of picks of different colours. They also weave yarns of any type of fibre and can weave fabrics up to 110 inches in width without modification.

History of the rapier loom

The development of the rapier loom began in 1844, when John Smith of

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

was granted a patent on a loom design that eliminated the shuttle typical of earlier models of looms. Subsequent patents were taken out by Phillippe and Maurice in 1855, W.S. Laycock in 1869, and W. Glover in 1874, with rigid rapiers being perfected by O. Hallensleben in 1899. The main breakthrough came in 1922 when John Gabler invented the principle of loop transfer in the middle of the shed. Flexible rapiers of the type used today were proposed in 1925 by the Spanish inventor R.G. Moya, while R. Dewas introduced the idea of grasping the weft at its tip by the giver or a carrier rapier and transferring it to the taker or a receiver in the middle of the shed. It was not until the 1950s and 1960s that rapier weaving became fully commercialized, with loom technology developing rapidly.

References

External links

* {{weaving Weaving equipment Industrial Revolution English inventions Textile machinery Shuttleless looms

History of the rapier loom

See also

References

External links