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There has been a tremendous growth in the production of fabrics in the decentralised
Powerloom sector accounting for nearly 70% of the total. The Powerloom sector
employs about 17 lakhs Plain Powerlooms catering to the domestic and export market.
But the quality of the fabrics produced by these Powerlooms is by and large inferior
compared to the international standards, inspite of availability of better quality of yarn.
And also, costwise it is becoming very difficult to compete with other developing
countries like China, Pakistan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia etc., The
players who are in a position to give maximum attention to productivity, quality and
economy will survive in such games. Modernisation is one of the tools to improve the
weaving performance and hence for the success of the trade. ?

 !"# # $ %?

In the conventional shuttle looms, it is necessary to pass a shuttle weighing around half
a kilogram through the warp shed to insert a length of weft yarn which weighs only
few grams. The shuttle has to be accelerated rapidly at the starting of picking cycle and
also to be decelerated, stopped abruptly at the opposite end. This process creates heavy
noise and shock and consumes considerable energy. Beat-up is done by slay motion
which again weighs a few hundred kilograms. The wear life of the picker and checking
mechanism is also limited due to heavy shock. Due to the above reasons smooth
sequence of weaving is disturbed which affects the maximum running speed and hence
machine production. In multi colour weft insertion, Drop box motion is attached which
is also further limits the speed of the machine. The small weft package in the shuttle
requires frequent replenishments and for each loom stoppage there is a possibility of
one defect. The probability of weft way fabric defects are high to the tune of 70% in
shuttle looms. Even in automatic shuttle looms there is chances of transfer failures and
weft lashing in defects. ?

% !"# ?

pome very commonly known disadvantages of shuttle looms are??

(i) Limitation in quality of fabric ?
(ii) Limitation in loom speed and hence productivity ?
(iii) More consumption of energy and frequent replacement of spares parts. ?
?
To overcome the above limitations of shuttle loom, the need for better weft insertion
system without shuttle has been realised.?

 !"   ?
?
Today's consumers are to be satisfied for their following needs ?
?
- Wider Width fabrics (Minimum 63" and above) ?
- Fine varieties ?
- Defect free cloth for longer length ?
- Competitive price ?
- Consistency in quality ?
- Adaptability in trend changes ?
- Quick delivery ?
- Value addition ?
- Best pervices ?
?
To fulfill the above requirements modernisation is a must. ?

c% !"# # $ % "#%?

The phuttleless weaving is becoming more and more popular due to the following
advantages compared to conventional looms. ?
?
..High labour and machine productivity due to high speed and wider width of looms. ?
..Reduced labour cost due to higher allocation of looms and productivity. ?
..Defect free cloth for longer length. ?
..Better environment due to low noise level. ?
..Pirn winding process is eliminated ?
..Less value loss of fabrics. ?
..Low consumption of stores and spares. ?
..Less space requirement per metre of cloth. ?
..More colours in weft direction (upto 12) by Pick and Pick method. ?
..Wider width fabrics and multi width fabrics can be woven, ?
..High degree of flexibiligy to suit a wide range of fibres and counts. ?
..Easily adaptable for market trends. ?
..Bigger flanges can accommodate 3 times more yarn. ?
Due to less beam changes lower down-time and lesser wastages. ?
..Less dependency on labour skill. ?
..Higher design capabilities dut to microprocessor and electronic controls. ?
..Easy maintenance and less work load for Jobbers. ?
..Lesser accidents. ?

& !"# #  ?

There are 4 types of shuttleless weaving technologies available ?
?
1. Projectile ?
2. Rapier ?
3. Air Jet ?
4. Water Jet ?

Recently multiphase weaving system is introduced to get 4 times weft insertion rate of
Air Jet. ?

All the above technologies have been successful in one or the other segments. There are
two categories of woven fabric in the market. ?

- Plain, Mass - production fabrics ?

- Fashion fabrics ?

For manufacture of Plain, mass production fabrics Air-Jet looms are the most
appropriate technology due to lower operating cost. pecond hand double width
projectile looms are the next best. These looms are best suited for long set lengths.
Owing to rising competition and growth in demand for the fancy fabrics set lengths are
shrinking thereby limiting the use of projectiles. Projectile looms are more suitable for
wider width Geo Textiles, Industrial fabrics, heavy fabrics like Canvas, Duck, Denim
etc. ?

Water-Jet looms are suitable only for mass production of pynthetic fabrics. It is not
suitable for Cotton fabrics. ?

Even though weft insertion rate is comparitively less, Rapier is known for its versatality
and more suitable for weaving fashion fabrics of any Count, Material, Construction like
dress Material, puiting, Furnishing etc,. The possibilities of bringing out more designs
and combinations even in smaller lengths for marketing, within a time limit is more
favourable for rapier looms. ?

$ !  ! !!  & !?

Weft insertion rate, defining the speed of the loom is given in Table 1. ?

'# ()&! !!  & !?

$ !  ?

Conventional Powerloom - 200 Mts / Min??

High ppeed Automatic Loom - 300 - 400 Mts / Min ?
Rapier Loom - 1000 - 1400 Mts / Min ?
Projectile Loom - 1200 - 1500 Mts / Min ?
Air Jet Loom - 1500 - 2000 Mts / Min ?
Multiphase Loom - 5000 Mts / Min?

?
 # !'# $ % " ?

›nlike the conventional loom, the selection of the appropriate weaving technology for
the envisaged application range becomes a major decision. Each system has its own
advantages and disadvantages and should be carefully selected to suit individual
product-mix. Therefore the system chosen should be capable of providing :- ?

- Return of Investment ?
- Ability to weave wider range of fabrics
- pecurity against obsolescence ?
- Easy maintenance ?

Economics alone cannot be taken as a main criteria for the selection of a particular
machine, since it involves other factors also as mentioned below. ?

a)  "#c& ?

The selected system should meet out the technical aspects like Count range, Weaving
Width, Weft pequence, phedding with Dobby or Jacquard, pelvedge construction etc., ?

b) !  #   ?

- Lead time for delivery ?

- After sales service ?
- Reliability ?
- Ease of operation and maintenance ?
- Ability to modify the machine ?

c) " #c& ?

Quantitative analysis of the following criteria should be done :??

- Capital investment ?
- Labour requirement ?
- Power requirement ?
- Yarn waste ?
- Value loss due to seconds quality ?
- Training costs ?
- ppare parts and maintenance cost, etc., ?
?

After understanding the need for modernisation and the technical merits of new
weaving technologies, the economics of different types of looms has to be considered.
Many people feel that fastest running machines will give better profitability. But in
many cases the fastest running machine is not the most economic and cheapest one. The
reasons are certain products have physical limitations, which do not allow full
utilization of the maximum speed. Furthermore, in the case of fashion fabrics, other
values have priority, quality, and design, running properties of the machine
independent of the different yarn structures. po, the decisive factor is only efficiency. 14
minutes stoppage per 24 hours working day reduce the efficiency by 1% and the
weaving costs are increased by more than 1.5%. ?

For arriving at the relative economics of different types of looms, two comparisons have
been illustrated. ?

Illustration I is for mass production fabric. 40s Warp 40s Weft, 136 EPI, 72 PPI, 63"
Width. ?

Illustration II is for fashion fabric phirting of 2/40s Warp, 20s Weft, 60 EPI, 52 PPI, 63"
Width. The weaving conversion costs per metre of cloth and the profit per year per
loom before paying the interest on capital and after paying the interest have been
worked out. The economic comparisons made here are based on many factors and
assumptions. In these illustrations, higher price realization per metre of cloth produced
in shuttleless looms has not been considered. Only the selling price of powerloom cloth
after adding a profit of Rs. 0.70 per mtr. for plain sheeting and Rs. 1.50 per mtr. for yarn
dyed shirting has been considered. But in real practice there will be higher selling price
and the profitability will be much more than shown in the illustration. ?

c*?

)&!+#,  '+ !!  & !?

GREY POPLIN FAB,REED 136,PICK 72,63" WIDTH 40s*40s??

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Net profit is one of the major considerations to keep any organisation running. Analysis
of the results shows that shuttleless looms are more economical than shuttle looms due
to the following reasons. ?

a)  
# ?

The reduction in value loss due to the improvement in quality is the major factor for
better profitability. Even 5% reduced value loss in shuttleless loom than a shuttle loom
for a fabric costing Rs.60 per metre will give additional profit of Rs.3 per metre. ?

b)
%" +& ?

Apart from the higher speed of shuttleless looms, the efficiency advantage of shuttleless
looms is about 10-15% as compared to conventional loom. This is mainly due to shuttle
changes and mending / unweaving of damages due to warp and weft breakages and
also due to reduced down-time for warp changes. 5% higher efficiency of shuttleless
looms than shuttle looms may give additional profit of Rs. 1/- per metre. This is due to
the reduction of labour cost, over-heads cost, power cost etc., due to higher production
of cloth. ?

c) -*$ ?

Ex - works cost is less for the shuttleless looms due to less mending cost for rectifying
the defects and less inspection charges due to better quality of fabrics. Ex-works cost is
also less in shuttleless looms due to non-requirement of pirn winding process. ?

From the above illustration, Air-jet looms would be more economical for mass
production of low priced fabrics. However from technology point of view it lacks
versatility for weaving different fabrics. Then comes projectile looms. But rapier looms
are more suitable and economical for value added fashion fabrics. If the fabric doesn't
get better price, reduction in value loss alone cannot fully compensate the increased cost
in rapier looms. po, the projects with shuttleless looms will be more successful if the
product mix is also changed towards high value added products. ?

)#?

With liberalization and globalisations of the trade and phasing out of multi fibre
agreement in 2005, there is an urgent need for examining our poor contributions
towards export of textiles compared to other developing countries and strategies for
modernisation, marketing etc., must be evolved to recover the lost ground and also for
the healthy future growth of our textile industry.?