Age of Hand Spinning and Weaving:

It is said that humans began weaving fiber to make cloth before 5000 B.C.

The first fibers used were plant fibers such as flax and cotton. Later animal fibers such as wool and silk were used.
Woven cloth is made from the following three basic processes. [Stomatal Opening] [Weft inserting]. [Beating].

Modernization of Spinning and Weaving Due to the Industrial Revolution : It was the English industrial revolution at the beginning of the 18th century that changed spinning and weaving from a completely manual operation. In 1733, John Kay invented the flying shuttle, and in 1764, Harguripsu invented the Jenny Spinner. Then in 1820, Roberts completed the power loom, which became the basic model for modern looms thereafter.

Import of Western European Technology to Japan:

In Japan, modernization of looms was planned from around the Meiji Era. The progress of power looms in Japan took two paths . Flying shuttle. To implement Western looms. it imported water powered looms from America.

Increased Speed Through Introduction of the Shuttle-less Loom: After the 1960s, the goal of automatic loom manufacturers was to increase the speed of weft inserting and to reduce noise. Methods of holding the yarn, such as the rapier loom and the gripper loom, spread rapidly. Then domestic water jet looms and air jet looms that use water or air to transport the yarn during weft insertion were produced domestically.

Implementation of Electronic Control and Applications in Industrial Fabrics: With the development of electronic technology the latest technologies, such as using computer control in automatic looms, are being used. Much development is taking place with completely automatic looms that are easy to use because only the conditions such as yarn type and weave width need to be input in order for the optimum operations to be performed.

PASSAGE OF MATERIAL THROUGH LOOM :

i. Sley of Lay ii. Shuttle iii.Shuttle Box iv.Picker v. Reed vi.Warp Beam vii.Back Beam viii.Breast Beam ix.Cloth Beam

Sley of Lay
It is made of wood and consists of the sley race or race board, reed cap and metal swords carried at either ends. The sley mechanism swings to and fro. It is responsible for pushing the last pick of weft to the fell of the cloth by means of the beat up motion. Shuttle It is basically a weft carrier and helps in interlacement of the weft with the warp threads to form cloth. The shuttle which is made of wood passes from one end of the loom to the other. Shuttle Box It is the housing for the shuttle and is made of wood. It has a spindle and a picker. It may also accommodate the picker without spindle. The top and side of the box towards the sley race are open. Picker The picker is a piece made either of leather or synthetic material. It may be placed on a spindle or grooves in the shuttle box. It is used to drive the shuttle from one box to another.

Picker The picker is a piece made either of leather or synthetic material. It may be placed on a spindle or grooves in the shuttle box. It is used to drive the shuttle from one box to another. Reed It is a metallic comb that is fixed to the sley with a reed cap. The reed is made of a number of wires and the gap between wires is known as dents. Each dent can accommodate one, two or more warp ends.

The reed performs a number of functions which are enumerated as follows: It pushes the lastly laid pick of weft to the cloth fell It helps to maintain the position of the warp threads

It acts as a guide to the shuttle which passes from one end of the loom to the other. It determines the fineness of the cloth in conjunction with the healds. It determines the openness or closeness of the fabric. There are various types of reed such as ordinary reed, gauze reed, expanding reed, V reed etc.

Warp Beam This is also known as the weavers beam. It is fixed at the back of the loom. The warp sheet is wound on to this beam. The length of warp in the beam may be more than a thousand metres. Back Beam This is also known as the back rest. It is placed above the weavers beam. It may be of the fixed or floating type. In the first case the back rest merely acts as a guide to the warp sheet coming from the weavers beam. Breast Beam It is also known as the front rest. It is placed above the cloth roller at the front of the loom and acts as a guide for the cloth being wound on to the cloth roller. The front rest together with the back rest helps to keep the warp yarn and cloth in horizontal position and also maintain proper tension to facilitate weaving. Cloth Beam It is also known as the cloth roller. The woven cloth is wound on to this roller. This roller is placed below the front rest.

ADVANCED POWER LOOM MACHINE

Automatic shuttle looms are essentially simple power looms to which has been added means of automatic weft replenishment. However, in order to gain full advantage of this latter feature, thus enabling a weaver to look after more looms, shuttle looms should also be equipped with an automatic warp let-off motion and an automatic warp-stop motion (which immediately stops the looms if a warp thread break occurs). All these features are considered standard fitments on an automatic loom. Figure III.9 shows an automatic Pirn change loom with under-pick motion.

Automatic pirn-change loom with under-pick motion

1.Weft replenishment
The operation of automatic weft replenishment can be performed in two ways.
In the first method, the empty shuttle is ejected from the loom at some convenient time in the loom cycle (i.e. when the shed is changing) and a new shuttle is inserted with a full weft package. In the second method, which is currently by far the most common, the empty weft package (pirn) is ejected and immediately replaced with a new full pirn of weft. The first method requires at least two shuttles per loom and to the extent possible, these have to be identical in all respects, including the degree of wear due to service. The second method requires only one shuttle per loom, but this shuttle is of a special shape.

2.Shuttle changers and pirn changers In operation, shuttle changers require that a magazine be kept supplied with charged and threaded shuttles, whereas the magazine only requires to be loaded with pirns in the case of pirn changers. In times when hand-spun and mule-spun weft were commonly used, the shuttle changer had a possible advantage in that miscellaneous cops taken directly from the spinner could be loaded into the shuttles.

Automatic power loom manufacturers

(i) Cooper Engineering of Poona who, in collaboration with North American Rockwell, offer a loom based on the Draper (X2) model, a loom of essentially pre-1940 design;

(ii) (ii) National Machinery Makers Ltd., of Kalwe Thana, produce the Ruti B type automatic shuttle loom, one of the best of such looms made during the 1950/60 period;
(iii) (iii) Central India Machinery Manufacturers Company (CIMMCO) of Gwalior which, in collaboration with Sakomoto of Japan, offer an automatic loom based on a Japanese design of about 1950