The Weaving Process

The company's modern machine park ensures that HSV can produce fabrics of the highest quality.

All our looms are made by the German manufactor Dornier GmbH. We have both Rapier and air-jet weaving machines.

In a Rapier loom, the insertion of yarn is done by toothed racks, whereas the much faster air-jet looms transport the yarn by compressed air. 

To produce a woven fabric you need two sets of yarns, where one set of yarns is placed at a 90 degree angle on the other set. It is the oldest known way of producing garments next to natural skins or fur.

The one set of yarns is known as the ‘warp’ yarns and the other set is known as the ‘weft’ yarns.

Warping comprises of winding parts of the warp yarns, normally from bobbins, onto a warping beam, where sequential parts are wound next to each other until the full weaving width is covered. The warping beam is then fully prepared and ready to be used for beaming. The warping process is more suitable when mixing different yarn types and colours.

At HSV we produce warp beams made from 400 to 9000 threads and into beams with a length of just a few meters all the way up to 10,000 meters.

The prepared beam will be placed at the back of the loom and the yarn threads are drawn through stop motion guards, then divided into two or more groups for the heddles at the shafts, and then finally through the reeds ready for weaving.

In the weaving process some of the warp yarns will be raised, and some lowered, thus making an opening – or a shed. The weft yarn will then pass through the shed and the reed will push it up. In the next sequence the raising and lowering of the warp yarn will change positions thus making a new shed for the weft yarn to pass through. This process happens 3 –10 times per second depending on type of fabric and type of weaving loom used. 

The fabric will then be picked up by a cloth roll in front of the weaving machine in lengths of 150-500 linear meters.