2/3/2025
Warp knitting Warp knitting
• Warp knitting is defined as a loop forming process in which the yarn is fed into
knitting zone, parallel to the fabric selvedge.
• In warp knitting, fabric is made by forming loops from yarns coming in parallel
sheet form which run in the direction of fabric formation (like warp in weaving).
• Every needle is fed by a separate yarn for loop formation.
• In order to connect the loops into a fabric, the yarns are shifted (shogged) between
the needles.
• In this manner the needle draws the new loop through the loop formed by another
yarn in the previous knitting cycle.
• For the purpose of shogging, each yarn passes through a guide fitted on guide bar.
• Warp knitting machines are flat and comparatively more complicated than weft
knitting machines.
• A few of the popular warp knitted structures are locknit, sharkskin, queenscord,
double atlas, velour etc.
Comparison between Tricot and Raschel Knitting machine
• The sinkers used in Tricot knitting machine control the fabric throughout the knitting cycle.
The fabric is held in the throats of the sinkers while the needles rises to clear and the new loops
are formed/knocked over in between them.
• In Rachel knitting machine, however, the fabric is controlled by a high take-up tension and
the sinkers are only used to ensure that the fabric stays down when the needle rise.
2/3/2025
Knitting Elements
Although the said two types machines differ to certain features, their loop formation technique is Latch guard or wire
almost similar.
In Raschel machines, when the loops of the fabric clear the latches, the later have sometimes
Needles and needle bar the tendency to flick back and close the hooks of the needles. A closed hook does not receive a
new yarn. So a steel wire stretched across the whole width of the machine, parallel to the
Whatever may be the type of needle, all the needles move up and down together for loop
needles, is used as latch guard to stop the flicking latches.
formation, i.e., all the loops in a course are made simultaneously.
So instead of giving motion to the individual needles, all the needles are connected/fixed to a bar Sinkers and sinker bar
called needle bar. The sinkers are usually cast in units 1 inch long, which in turn are screwed into a bar called
The needle bar is lifted up and lowered down by means of a cam fitted outside the machine, sinker bar. The sinkers are given almost linear horizontal (forward and backward) motion
through the sinker bar. The drive generally comes from a crank or eccentric arrangement. The
generally at the driving side.
neb and the throat of the sinker are used to hold down the fabric while the belly of the sinker is
Needles are set in tricks cut in the needle bed of the machine. used as a knocking over platform.
Presser bar Guides and guide bars
In order to close the hook for casting-off of the old loop in Tricot machine, some closing element Guides are thin metal plates drilled with a hole in their lower end through a warp
(Presser bar) is must.: Separate bar across the full width controlled by cam fitted with main shaft end may be threaded if required.
Schematic diagram of warp
Knitting machine
Guides and guide bars
Guides are thin metal plates drilled with a hole in their lower end through a warp end may be
threaded if required.
The guides are held together at their upper end in a metal lead of 1 inch width and are spaced in
it to the same gauge as the machine.
2/3/2025
The guides hang from guide bar with each one occupying a position at rest midway between two
adjacent needles.
In this position the needles do not receive the warp yarns.
The needles only receive the warp yarns in their hooks if the guides wrap or lap the yarns across
the needles.
Knitting Zone of (a)Tricot and For the purpose, the guide bars are given a compound lapping movement.
(b)Raschel Machine
The number of guide bars in a machine is equal to the number of warp beams and each guide bar
contains guides equal to the number of yarns in each warp beam.
All guides in a conventional guide bar produce an identical lapping movement at the same time
and therefore have requirements of same warp tension and rate of feed although yarns may differ
in colour and composition.
But the two guide bars may have different lapping movement where requirement of warp feed and
warp tension may vary also.
Trick plate Principle of Loop Formation in Warp Knitting
The other name of needle bed is trick plate. Tricks or grooves are made on the bed for properly
Needle Bar movement
accommodating the needles so that they can move up and down freely without having any lateral
tilt. The needle bar is lifted up and lowered down for the purpose of loop formation.
Pattern wheel and chain links During upward movement, the old loop is cleared and needle catches the yarn wrapped around it
by the guide and forms the new loop during the downward movement.
These two are very important elements for the loop formation in warp knitting.
Such movement is imparted on the needle bar by means of a cam or eccentric fitted on a shaft
called eccentric shaft.
The shaft extends to the full width of the machine and the cam is located outside the machine,
generally at the driving side.
The cam is kept in an enclosed oil bath in order to have less vibration, noise, heat generation but
higher life
2/3/2025
Guide bar movement The shogging movement of the guide bar is the lateral motion of the guides
In order to feed the yarn to the needle for loop formation as well as to connect the which occur parallel to the needle bar.
adjacent wales, the guides of a guide bar are required to execute a compound lapping The shogging movement of guides may be from left to right or from right to left.
movement.
This compound lapping movement (Fig.) is composed of two separately derived Moreover, the extent of shog may vary from cycle to cycle or from bar to bar.
motions – swinging and shogging. The shogging of the guide bar may occur either in the front of the needles or at
• A swinging motion and a shogging motion the back of the needles and accordingly produces the overlaps or underlaps.
act at right angle to each other in order to A shogging movement can occur when the guides have swung clear of the
form overlap and underlap. needle heads on the back or front of machine.
• The swinging motion of the guides takes place The occurrence, timing, direction and extent of each shog is separately
controlled for each guide bar by its pattern chain links or pattern wheel attached
either from the front of the needles to the back
to a horizontal pattern shaft driven from the main cam shaft.
or from the back of the needles to the front.
The combined effect of underlap and overlap is the lapping of yarn around the
• It is in arc and it occurs between adjacent needle.
needles.
Depending upon the relative direction of underlap and overlap there are two
• The two swinging movements produce the two types of laps – closed lap and open lap.
side limbs when combined with the overlap
shog.
• Closed lap is produced when an underlap Tricot Machine knitting cycle with bearded needle
follows in the opposite direction to the overlap
(a)
and thus laps the thread around both sides of the
needle. one guide bar has been considered
for making the diagrams.
• An open lap is produced either when the The needles are in rest position at
underlap is in the same direction as the overlap, 2/3 of their full height from knock
or it is omitted so that the next overlap over and their beards are facing
towards the back of the machine.
commences from the space, where the previous
The presser is withdrawn and the
overlap finished. guides are at the front of the
machine with the sinkers forward
• Closed laps produce heavier, compact and less holding the old overlaps in their
extensible fabric than open lap produces. throats so that they are maintained at
the correct height.
1. An overlap followed by an underlap in the
opposite direction (closed lap). (b)
2. An overlap followed by an underlap in the same After swinging through the needles
to the beard side, the guides are
direction (open lap). overlapped across the beards
3. Only overlaps and no underlaps (open lap). usually by one needle space in
[Link] the
Only
lastunderlaps and no overlaps
two cases, overlapping (laying-in).
of another guide bar is required to hold them into the structure. opposite direction.
5. Neither overlaps nor underlaps (miss-lapping).
2/3/2025
(f)
Tricot Machine knitting cycle with bearded needle
(c) The needles continue descending
movement and the old loop is
As the guides swing to the front, the
needles rise to their full height so
castoff. The sinkers now move
that newly formed overlaps slip off forwards to hold down the fabric
the beards onto the stem above the loops and push them away from
old overlaps. the ascending needles which are
(d) rising to the rest position.
The needle bar descends so that the
open beards cover the new overlaps,
there is a slight pause whilst the
presser advances and closes the
beards.
(e)
As the sinkers move backward, the
upward curve of their bellies places
the old overlaps onto the closed
beards. The presser is withdrawn.
Run-in per rack should always be recorded when a new fabric is produced.
Some aspects of warp knitting science
The run-in per rack may vary from guide bar to guide bar, the relative amount of yarn fed from each
beam is also very important.
Course spacing, C = 1/(courses per inch) = 1/cpi The relation is called run-in ratio and the same is different for different fabric constructions and
qualities.
Wale spacing, W = 1/(wales per inch) = 1/wpi
A typical two bar machine the run-in ratio (front bar: back bar) is in the range of 1.19 : 1.0 to 1.47 : 1.0.
The loop length (l) in warp knitted structures is also From the values, it can be stated that the loop produced by the front guide bar is bigger than the loop
proportional to the course and wale spacing. produced by the back guide bar.
So, [1/cpi × l]] or 1/cpi = constant × l or l × cpi = constant
(Kc) “Yarn to fabric ratio” = (run-in per rack × courses per unit length) / 480.
•and
In [1/wpi
warp knitting The ratio between the length of yarn consumed by the knitting machine and the length of fabric which is
× l] or all the =
1/wpi yarn ends threaded
constant × l or l ×through
wpi = the guides of one guide bar knit produced.
the same
constant construction and are fed equally from one beam only.
(Kw)
• The yarn consumption of each guide bar is called run-in and is measured as the when knitting a fabric of 20 courses per cm and run-in per rack of 240 cm –
length of each yarn knitted into the fabric during 480 knitting cycles. Yarn to fabric ratio = (240 × 20) / 480 = 10
• A working cycle of 480 knitted courses is called a rack. So, 10 cm of warp is needed for knitting 1 cm of fabric.
• A longer run-in per rack produces a slacker fabric with big loops while a shorter
run-in per rack produces small and tight loops.
2/3/2025
Tightness factor
NON WOVENS – Introduction & History
For a machine with single guide bar. TF = √(tex)/l
Where l is the loop length in millimetre and tex is the yarn linear density.
the tightness factor of a two guide bar fabric: • A sheet of fibres, continuous filaments, or chopped yarns of any nature or origin
formed into a web by any means, and bonded together by any means, with the
Where suffixes f and b refer to front and back guide bars, and l is the exception of weaving or knitting
stitch length equal to (run-in per rack)/480 and is measured in • Non Woven fabrics consist of fiber mats held together because of their inherent
millimetres. properties or by mechanical or chemical processes involving the use of chemical
bonding agent
For most commercial two guide bar full set fabrics, the value of TF is in the range of 1–2 with a mean
tightness factor value of 1.5.
NON WOVENS – Historical development Why nonwovens
• Cuttings and waste can be used
• Felts made from wool or hair are the oldest fabrics made by man. • Properties displayed by conventional textiles are in excess of
• In early times, felts were made from animal hair using various chemical requirement
aides like water, urine or by mechanical means of trampling and beating • Better utilization of individual fibre properties than in conventional textiles
• Slowly other ways of forming the fabrics were identified with wool as raw
material, which had much more uses than felt
• Desire to reduce the cost
2/3/2025
Rates of production Manufacturing Process of nonwoven
Technology Machine Relative production rate
Weaving Automatic shuttle loom 1 (= 5m2/hr)
Shuttleless loom 2
Knitting Circular knitting 4
Warp knitting 16
Nonwoven Web formation Carding 120-400
Spunlaying 200-2000
Wet laid 2300
Aerodynamic web formation 600
Nonwoven Bonding Needling 30-500
Calendering 2000
Stitchbonding 40
Hot air bonding 5000
Manufacturing Process of nonwoven Manufacturing Process of nonwoven
2/3/2025
Manufacturing Process of nonwoven Raw Materials of nonwoven fabric
Polyester is the most frequently used fibre in
the United States.
Olefin is used for their strength,
Cotton and rayon are used for absorbency.
Acrylic, acetate are also being used.
WET-LAID NONWOVENS PRODUCTION MACHINERY
• Wet-laid nonwovens are nonwovens made by a modified
There are three characteristic stages in the manufacture of nonwoven bonded
papermaking process. That is, the fibers to be used are
fabrics by the wet-laid method :
suspended in water.
Swelling and dispersion of the fiber in water; transport of the suspension on a
continuous traveling screen
Continuous web formation on the screen as a result of filtration
• A major objective of wet laid nonwoven manufacturing is to
produce structures with textile-fabric characteristics, primarily Drying and bonding of the web
flexibility and strength, at speeds approaching those associate
with papermaking.
• In the roll good industry 5-10% of nonwovens are made by
using the wet laid technology
2/3/2025
Wet laid process: Advantages
Applications
SCHEMATIC PRESENATION OF THE WETLAID PROCESS
Latest Application of Wet laid nonwoven: MECHANICAL NEEDLE PUNCHING TECHNIQUE
Lenzing offers Flushable wipes BONDING
STITCH BONDING
HYDRO ENTANGLEMENT
SATURATION ADHESIVE BONDING
CHEMICAL SPRAY ADHESIVE BONDING
• Wetlaid Nonwoven products BONDING OR FOAM BONDING
featuring a blend containing any ADHESIVE BONDING APPLICATION OF POWDER
of the VEOCEL Lyocell fibers NON WOVEN
PRINT BONDING
(8mm to 12mm)and wood pulp FABRIC
BONDING DISCONTINUOUS BONDING
have been certified as “fully
flushable” according to TECHNIQUES THERMALBONDING HOT CALENDARING
BELT CALENDARING
INDA/EDANA
THROUGH AIR THERMALBONDING
• Nonwoven fabrics with 20 per
ULTRASONIC BONDING
cent of the new VEOCEL Lyocell
RADIANT HEAT BONDING
fibers and 80 per cent of wood
pulp reach more than 90 per cent BONDING OF -
disintegration within 30 minutes, SPUNLAID WEBS
which is faster than the passing
benchmark of the Disintegration
Test FG502 in INDA/EDANA
2/3/2025
Mechanical Bonding Needlepunching Technology
In mechanical bonding the
strengthening of the web is
achieved by inter-fiber friction
as a result of the physical
entanglement of the fibers
The webs are joined by means
of needles and jets of air and
water
The webs can also be
reinforced by working in
thread or fabric e.g. layer of
thread, woven or knitted
fabrics
Needlepunching Technology Needlepunching Technology
This needling action
interlocks fibers and holds
the structure together by
friction forces
2/3/2025
Barbed Needle In Action Hydroentanglement/ Spunlacing
Hydroentanglement/ Spunlacing
2/3/2025
Hydroentanglement/ Spunlacing Hydroentanglement/ Spunlacing
Hydro entanglement,
spun lacing, hydraulic
First few injectors – 120-
entanglement, and
150 microns
water jet needling are
synonymous terms Final injectors are finer –
describing the process 80-100 microns
of mechanically
bonding the fibers in a
web by means of high
energy water jets
Properties of spunlaced fabrics
Applications of spunlaced fabrics
• High drape
• Softness
• Comfortable handle
• High strength and
• low shear modulus
2/3/2025
Thermal bonding Chemical bonding
The chemical bonding process is used to develop
nonwovens used as wipes, interlinings, hygiene and medical
products, footwear, automotives, and homefurnishing
products.
Spunbond technology Meltblown Technology
The meltblown technology is based on
meltblowing process, where, usually, a
thermoplastic fibre forming polymer is
In the spunbond technology, usually a thermoplastic extruded through a linear die containing
fibre forming polymer is extruded to form fine filaments several hundred small orifices. Convergent
fibres of around 15–35 micrometer diameter. The streams of hot air (exiting from the top and
filaments are attenuated collected on a conveyor belt in bottom sides of the die nosepiece) rapidly
the form of a web. The filaments in web are then attenuate the extruded polymer streams to
bonded to make spunbond nonwoven fabric form extremely fine diameter fibres (1–5
micrometer). The attenuated fibres are
subsequently blown by high-velocity air onto
a collector conveyor, thus forming a fine
fibered self-bonded meltblown nonwoven
fabric.
2/3/2025
Thank You
