After the introduction of the handlook carpet innovator HCiX2 in reed 1000 d/m six years ago, Van de Wiele has come up with an even higher carpet quality in reed 1200 d/m. Today, the impossible is made possible: Van de Wiele has introduced the HCiX2 in reed 1500 d/m, an astonishing high density carpet weaving machine producing handlook carpets with up to 5 million points per square meter.
The three rapier weave structure assures a flexible carpet with no warp yarns visible at the back side, just like hand-knotted carpets. The Handlook Carpet Innovator HCiX2 is equipped with several servomotors to produce, at high efficiency, handlook carpets of superior quality.
In order to weave carpets with a crystal sharp pile side and a back side with no warp yarns visible, Van de Wiele has developed a patented three rapier weave structure as shown in figure 1.
By using three rapiers, production is 50% higher compared to similar qualities woven on a double rapier machine. The three rapier technique gives many other advantages. As only the working pile yarns are moving and the incorporated pile yarns are stationary, the machine has a higher weaving efficiency and the carpets have a cleaner back side. Moreover, a thicker pile yarn can be used. The incorporated pile yarn is perfectly straight, reducing consumption of dead pile yarn.
As all pile tufts go to the back side of the carpet, pile fixation is perfect. Thanks to the three rapiers, some colour switches can be made over the inside pick, automatically eliminating possible mix-contours and double points. By following some basic design rules and using the We@velink Design Master, a perfect design on pile and back side is obtained.
When weaving a handlook quality in reed 1500 dents/m, with a density of 15 pile rows/cm, the result is a carpet with 4.500.000 (pile) points/m². If we slightly increase the pick density to 16,6 pile rows/cm, an astonishing 5.000.000 points/m² is reached. The most common used pile yarns are acrylic. The weight of the carpet is similar to handlook qualities in reed 1000 and 1200 d/m.
Handlook Carpet Innovator HCiX2 machine
This is a three rapier weaving machine, specially developed for weaving handlook carpets. The machine is based on the innovator generation with a strong and rigid frame, equipped with several servomotors for increased flexibility and productivity. Figure 3 shows the HCiX2 handlook carpet weaving machine in reed 1500 dents/m, with 8 colour frames on a width of 3m. This revolutionary handlook quality can also be woven on 4m width.
The Handlook Carpet Innovator HCiX2 is foreseen with a Smart Cutting Motion. This programmable servo-driven cutting motion assures a better stability and less mechanical parts and wear.
The programmable servo-driven Smart Edges are installed under the cumberboard for easy access and adjustment in the width.
For weaving handlook carpets in reed 1500 d/m, Smart Frames are required. A separate servomotor drives each of the 12 heddle frames (see figure 4). The advantages of this system are numerous as all following parameters can be programmed from the controller in a user-friendly way: weave structure, timing, lift, dwell, etc., are used for the tight warp. This allows putting the tight warp in two layers, leading to a higher weaving efficiency, a better pile height control and carpets with more points that are easy to fold.
The Smart Filling Selector is driven by linear actuators, switching between thick and thin fillings for the outside rapiers. The new filling brakes and updated prewinders guarantee a smooth insertion of the filling.
In order to reduce power consumption of all servomotors, the HCiX2 machine has an energy bus wherein the energy flow between the different motors is controlled.
The enhanced and reinforced HCiX2 Jacquard machine gives, with only one solenoid per harness band, the four positions that are required for three rapier weaving. The asymmetric settings and the unique possibility to put the pile yarns in layers increase the efficiency. The big Jacquard capacities, up to more than 48.000 solenoids, allow weaving qualities in different reed densities (from 300 d/m up to 1500 d/m), in different widths (from 3m to 5m) and different colours. A new quality, for instance, is the reed 750 d/m, 16 colour frames.
Picture weaving
Apart from traditional designs, the Handlook Carpet Innovator HCiX2 fits perfectly for picture weaving. With this technique, a real picture is converted to a design that can be woven on a high density carpet weaving machine. The result is a photo-realistic carpet with up to 5 million points/m² and numerous beautiful colour effects, and this with only 8 colours on the creel. An example woven in reed 1200 d/m is shown in figure 5.
This innovative approach opens doors for a potential new market: instead of the traditional labour-intensive designing of woven carpet, a photo-realistic picture can be processed in real time and converted to a design that fits the weaving machine. In picture weaving, the most time consuming job is to choose the picture you want to weave.
Growing market for handlook carpets
The Handlook Carpet Innovator HCiX2 is a new three rapier weaving machine for weaving handlook carpets with no visible warp yarns at the backside. By using three rapiers, 50% more production is obtained than on a double rapier machine. The HCiX2 machine is equipped with several servomotors for the cutting motion, the edges and the drive of the heddle frames in order to weave high quality carpets at the highest possible efficiency.