As early as 150 years ago, shuttle looms gradually replaced hand weaving. At that time, the output of shuttle looms was twice that of hand weaving. In 1844, shuttleless looms began to appear, while flexible rapier weaving machine came into being in 1925. After World War II, commercial production was realized in the 1950s and 1960s, and it had gradually made significant progress . At present, the weft insertion rate ofrapier weaving machine has reached more than 1500m/ min.
Rapier weaving machine are mainly designed to solve the weft insertion method, including rigid, flexible and retractable weft insertion methods. Its main product is clothing fabrics. Compared with other weft insertion methods, the weft insertion method of the rapier weaving machine is suitable for multi-color weft insertion, and can produce 12-color weft insertion products with multi-pattern patterns, including various types of previous Yarn, production of various types of fabrics. The positive rapier drive can complete the weft insertion of many yarns that are difficult to weft.
The biggest advantage of the rigid rapier weft insertion system is that the weft is actively transferred to the center of the weaving fell without any guiding device. The rigid rapier weaving machine occupies a small area, mainly because the reed width has a certain limit.
The weft insertion system of the flexible rapier weaving machine has strong adaptability and wide application range. Its weft insertion rate is significantly increased, and the reed width is up to 460cm.
In the last 15 years of the 20th century, electronic computers were introduced into looms, and the microelectronics CAD-CAM system was widely used, which made a perfect combination of microelectronics technology, information transmission technology and weaving technology. The combination of many electronic devices and systems and looms has become an integral part of rapier weaving machine, especially the wide application of microelectronics technology in rapier looms, including weft insertion technology. Some weft insertion elements have been greatly improved, making them compact and lightweight.
Due to the wide application of microelectronic technology, the speed and weft insertion rate of rapier looms have been greatly improved. In various weft insertion methods, such as projectile weft insertion, rapier weft insertion, air-jet weft insertion and water-jet weft insertion systems, the rapier weft insertion speed is also very high in addition to air-jet weft insertion. Rapier weaving machine made significant progress in the last 50 years of the 20th century, especially at the 1995 Milan and 1999 Paris exhibitions, showing the world the latest high-tech rapier looms.
From 1963 to 1999, the running speed and weft insertion rate of rapier weaving machine on display at the International Textile Machinery Exhibition changed a lot. For example, the weft insertion rate of flexible rapier looms increased from 315m/min in 1963 to 2000m/min in 1999; the rotational speed increased from 200r/min in 1971 to 800r/min in 1999. The weft insertion rate of rigid rapier looms increased from 400m/min in 1963 to 1300m/min in 1999, and the rotational speed increased from 300r/min in 1971 to 650r/min in 1999.
Efforts to improve the output and performance of looms, improve weaving efficiency and product quality are the goals of machine manufacturers to participate in world competition. The rapier weaving machine not only has greatly improved the speed and weft insertion rate, but also increased the width of the loom rapidly. The width cannot be compared with the projectile loom.
The more outstanding progress is that the new rapier weaving machine has completely realized the perfect combination of electronic computer technology, sensing technology, frequency conversion speed regulation technology and loom machinery, which has brought the rapier weaving technology into a new level. The automation level of the new rapier weaving machine is mainly manifested in the following 12 aspects:
(1) Automatically remove weft defects; (2) Automatic weft finding; (3) Electronic warp let-off and electronic cloth winding; (4) Automatically start marking protection device; (5) Automatically control forward and reverse speed; (6) (7) Automatic packing supply system; (8) Automatic opening uniform control system; (9) Electronic weft braking system; (10) Automatic tension compensation; (11) Automatic change of weft density; (12) Electronic selection weft system.
It is expected that the rotation speed and weft insertion rate of rapier weaving machine may increase in the future. But more importantly, the level of automation is further improved, making the rapier more modern, mainly in the automatic adjustment and more accurate setting of the opening size.