High Speed Rapier Loom 2FAST - SMIT

Exceeding 800 rpm, 2Fast is the fastest free-flight rapier loom in the world.

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Designed and manufactured in Italy, the 2Fast made its global premiere at ITMA Barcelona, capturing the attention of advanced fabric manufacturers.

The "Robust Design" methodology guarantees extended machine life and minimal spare parts consumption.

FAST AND EASY!

The star of the weaving room continues to advance, offering added value and higher quality to finished products.

TW Special Report

While the weaving process remains fundamentally the same—creating a shed, inserting the filling, and beating up the pick—today's weaving machines are highly technical instruments featuring numerous innovations. These advancements speed up production, enhance quality, and save energy.

Recent developments have focused on automation, digital upgrades, and innovative end products, including technical textiles, e-textiles, and 3D structures.

“With labor shortages impacting every weaving mill in North America, we see increasing demand for automation technologies,” said Oliver Meier, Textile Director, North America, Stäubli. “Additionally, in the residential contract business, we see a trend for greater jacquard machine flexibility to address a wide range of fabric constructions, allowing us to satisfy market demands more quickly.”

Here, Textile World presents a few weaving machine innovations available for all end-use markets.

Weaving Machines

Italy-based Itema S.p.A. combines the historic weaving brands of Somet, Sultex, and Vamatex, merging Swiss precision with Italian creativity. The company has also established Itematech, a technical division devoted to weaving machines for technical fabrics, after acquiring Italy-based Panter/PTMT. The alliance offers a product portfolio that includes negative and positive rapier machines, as well as air-jet and projectile options. Itematech aims to provide technical fabric producers with a comprehensive range of weaving solutions and a skilled technical team to fulfill specific customer requirements.

The Itematech A air-jet weaving machine is particularly beneficial in demanding markets, such as the United States, Russia, and India. This machine merges two Itema technologies—shed geometry and air-jet weft insertion—to guarantee high-quality fabrics, even at high speeds.

In real-world testing during customer trials, the A model successfully avoided “snarls” and delivered excellent results while weaving high-density fabrics. Itema's customers are utilizing this machine in medical, automotive, and parachute applications.

The machine features a reinforced whip roller that minimizes friction, enhances warp tension control, and reduces warp stops. It also has a longer dwell time for more efficient weft filling and uses double tandem nozzles for weaving coarse yarns at high speeds. Itema offers two technologies for leno binding: the patented Electronic Leno Device (ELD) and the Rotary Leno Device (RLD), suitable for various man-made fiber yarns.

Belgium-based Picanol NV specializes in air-jet and rapier weaving machines. Their latest introduction, the TerryPlus-i air-jet weaving machine, features a new pile formation system capable of creating any pile height from 0 to 12 millimeters on a pick-by-pick basis, regardless of the pattern. “It doesn't matter if it's high pile, low pile, high density, low density, complex or simple styles—the TerryPlus-i can handle it all,” said Johan Verstraete, Vice President, Weaving Machines, Picanol.

Other innovations from Picanol include:

• The GTMax-i 3.0S rapier weaving machine with full electronic monitoring and control, SUMO main motor, and microprocessor-controlled filling insertion.
• The OptiMax-i rapier machine designed for gentle treatment of all weft yarns, which can be easily modified and upgraded due to its modular design.

Picanol recently launched PicConnect, a fully digital platform supporting Internet of Things (IoT) applications. This web-based, cloud application can be accessed on any device and connects all machines to monitor production, energy consumption, style administration, and spare parts ordering.

The production monitoring application allows users to track production in real-time and react to operational tasks quickly. The energy monitoring application helps reduce costs by providing insights into air and power consumption.

With the style administration application, machine settings can be quickly opened, edited, and managed, ensuring optimal settings for each fabric. The PartsLine online web store for spare parts facilitates price quotes and order management.

The introduction of PicConnect enables weavers to react flexibly to changes in the weave room, significantly impacting machine performance. “This new platform is just the beginning of a new journey for Picanol, with new applications continuously in development,” said Erwin Devloo, Marketing Communication Manager at Picanol.

Italy-based SMIT joined the Santex Rimar Group a few years ago and specializes in rapier technology for weaving machines. Their newest introduction, the 2FAST rapier weaving machine, represents "Flexible Advanced Shuttleless Technology," inspired by Italy's motorsport heritage. The 2FAST features high starting acceleration, maximum torque for heavy shedding requirements, and minimal vibration even at high speeds. This modular machine incorporates the leno-force system, adaptable to different fabric types, allowing operators to program false selvedge and leno yarn crossing pick-by-pick for each side of the fabric, effectively controlling weft stretching.

With energy-saving goals in mind, the 2FAST is suitable for various applications, including apparel, denim, home textiles, and technical fabrics. “Software-based control, automation, smart algorithms, and data analysis are embodied in this loom, which is Industry 4.0-ready,” stated Giuseppe Castelli, Chief Technology Officer at SMIT.

SMIT also offers the ONE modular concept built on the GS940 Smart Platform architecture. This machine is highly versatile, thanks to its dynamically controlled flexible tape rapier system, which works efficiently across various reed widths and reduces energy consumption significantly.

Germany-based Lindauer Dornier GmbH shifted to engineering weaving machines after being restricted from producing aircraft post-World War II. They now specialize in rapier and air-jet machines suitable for technical applications, such as airbags and bulletproof products. The Dornier P2 rapier machine is known for its flexibility and has seen application in various fields, including filtration fabrics and artistic installations.

Japan-based Tsudakoma Corp. recently launched the ZAX001neo air-jet loom and ZW water-jet loom, both featuring a newly designed robust frame structure that enhances performance and reduces vibration. Their ZW water-jet machine boasts a 10-percent increase in rpms and water efficiency.

Belgium-based Van de Wiele NV has established itself in the carpet weaving market. Their latest machine, the Rug & Carpet Expert RCE2+, emphasizes a blend of fewer mechanics and more electronics for high-capacity production.

Narrow Fabrics: Müller

Switzerland-based Jakob Müller AG Frick brings over a century of experience to narrow fabric weaving, catering to a variety of industries. Their latest generation of narrow fabric loom, the NFM®, is designed for light- to medium-weight fabrics and features modular designs for easy modifications.

Shedding Technologies: Stäubli

Switzerland-based Stäubli Group specializes in shedding solutions. Their high-speed S series electronic rotary dobbies ensure precise shed formation, combining quality machinery with extensive experience and R&D input.

For more information, please visit Automatic Weaving Equipment.