Actually, the research work on the shuttle loom was dropped in the first half of the 70’s, with the arrival on the market and the prevalence of systems using for weft insertion other ways than the shuttle. The new shuttleless machines are simply called ″weaving machines″, this term implying looms working without the shuttle.
The weaving machines present following advantages over traditional looms:
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- Total elimination of any spooling operation
- Production increase, thanks to the fact that these machines can work at
high speed, owing to the reduction or elimination of moving masses - Reduction of the shed size, therefore lower tension of the warp threads
and consequently reduction in the number of yarn breaks - Noise reduction thanks to the elimination of the shuttle pick
- Automation of various devices.
Classification
On the basis of the system used for weft insertion, the weaving machines can be divided into:
- machines with mechanical weft insertion system:
- by rigid rapiers
- by flexible rapiers
- by projectiles
- machines with non-mechanical weft insertion system:
- by jets of compressed air
- by jets of compressed water
