For the modern weaving millmanager, or fabric designer sittingnear their network or designconsoles it must be hard to believethe changes that have taken place. Alittle over a decade ago the averagemill producing fancy woven fabricshad vast storage areas of punchedcards and offices littered with pointpaper designs and punchingmachines.

Customer requests for wovensamples, short production runs ordesign changes that were once thescourge of the weaving department,can now easily be designed oredited at the CAD system orjacquard controller then simplydown loaded to the loom in rapidtime.

In fact two decades have passedsince the start of the electronicjacquard revolution. It was started

by design engineers and thedevelopment of compact electromechanical selection systems thatcould be manufactured in largenumbers cost effectively.

New mechanisms were designedaround these selectors in such away that the high load of liftingthousands of warp threads wastaken by the mechanical compo-

nents. This left the electroniccomponents to be involved only inselection and resulted in very lowpower consumption and runningcosts.

In those early days the designengineers and their innovationswere driving the revolutionforward. With the rapid replace-ment of mechanical jacquards theweaving industry came to termswith the new technology. Weavers

and fabric designers became moredemanding.

The design engineers responded tothese demands by turning theirdreams into reality.

HOW IT STARTED

The 1983 ITMA saw the launch ofthe first electronic jacquard over anarrow fabric needle loom.

These early machines had a capacityof 256 ends for weaving taffetalabels for sowing into garments.The 1987 ITMA saw the launch ofthe first electronic jacquards overbroad cloth rapier and airjet looms.These jacquards had capacities of1344 and 2688 and were generallyused for weaving apparel, lightfurnishings tableware and ticking

In 1989 the Belgium carpet-weavingmanufacturer Van De Wiele enteredinto an alliance with the UK basedBonas Machine Company tointroduce the first electronicjacquard for weaving face to facecarpets and velvets.

The future would show that this wasa very significant event in the life ofboth companies.

The Electronic Jacquard Revolution 1

The Electronic Jacquard RevolutionTechnical InnovationThis is a paper written by Alan Bousfield.Alan has over 25 years design engineering experience with the UK based electronic jacquard manufacturer Bonas Machine Company.

BONAS - UKDUKESWAY, TEAM VALLEY GATESHEAD NE11 OLF UNITED KINGDOMPhone : +44 (191) 491 0444 Fax : +44 (191) 491 0999Mail : sales@bonas.co.uk Web : www.bonas.co.uk

Typical punched card for mechanical jacquard

Bonas 256 EJI Electronic Jacquard Weaving 30 mm wide taffeta labels

MEETING THE WORLD WIDE DEMAND

The following quotation from apaper given by Sophis Systems NVshows the dramatic change injacquard fabric design lead times inthe early nineties: The design whichsold one million (yards) per yearhas become a third of the past.Today, the runs are shorter anddesigns valid for shorter times. Aprivate survey made from data inthe region of Kortrijk (Belgium)showed that the number of designsmade in 1990 were three times morethan in 1980, but the number of(yards) woven per design was onlyone third the length.In order to deliver these shorterruns weaving mills of the nineties

had to change their methods ofdesigning and weaving jacquardfabrics. The major enabler inachieving this change was theelectronic jacquard. The worldwidedemand for these machines becamefurious and the manufacturersstrove to satisfy this demand.

The demand for innovatory changedid not reduce. This period saw thedevelopment of the greatest numberof new jacquard models. Each newmodel of jacquard had improved

mechanics and electronic interfacesto keep pace with increasing loomspeeds and communication require-ments of a growing number of newmodels of weaving looms.

Although the world still had largequantities of mechanical jacquards,the replacement in the westernworld peaked around 1995. Duringan eight-year period from the ITMAof 1987 the jacquard weavingindustry experienced what can trulybe referred to as a Revolution.

CONTROLLERDEVELOPMENT

Pattern storage for the electronicjacquard is housed in a control box(known as the controller). These

controllers are located at the side ofthe loom and need to communicatewith the loom electronics.

During the nineties loom manu-facturers made great advances inconverting most weaving functionsfrom mechanical to electroniccontrol. Examples of these func-tions are weft selection, warp let off,and pick finding. This together with increased demands from fabric designers generated a lot ofcontroller development. There wasan intense demand for each newmodel of controller to be more userfriendly, with more functionalityand memory. Intense developmentof new generations of loomsresulted in an ever growing com-plexity of software.

The computer skills of the modernweaver match that of their loomskills. The use of an office PC for monitoring mill performancemeasures is now common place.Todays jacquard controllers need tobe very user friendly and thereforehave software that is compatiblewith the latest version of operatingsystems. New issues of Windows can generate either upgrades or newdesigns of controller.

THE MJ RANGE

Today the weaving industry is evenmore demanding, creating the needfor further jacquard innovations.

These demands now focus onimproved speed / reliability withimproved fabric quality / reducedweave faults combined withincreased flexibility.

Fabric designers are demanding theability to weave larger patternswithout the restriction of mirroredharnesses or repeats. In some casesthey are demanding single endcontrol over the full weaving width.

Weaving managers are realizing thatthere are productivity opportunitieswith single end control. Production

The Electronic Jacquard Revolution 2

Typical installation of Bonas BLJ2688 weaving Terry Towels

The Bonas Series 500 Controller

schedules can be simplified, set upsdrastically reduced and loomutilization improved if varyingfabrics can be woven with the sameset up. An Example of which wouldbe the weaving of hand towels, bathtowels and beach towels on the sameloom, jacquard, harness, warp andweft combination.

In 1999 Van De Wiele purchasedBonas Machine Company.Identifying the above marketdemands the combined expertise ofResearch and Development Depart-ments of both organisations startedon the development of a new rangeof multi hook jacquards - The MJ.

At the 2001 ATME the first MJ6 wasintroduced.

MODULAR DESIGN

The MJ range of jacquards cansatisfy all weaving requirementswhatever the fabric type. It ismodular in design giving a widerange of choices of end capacityfrom 2304 ends up to 13824. Thisalso provides commonality of partsthroughout the range.

It is remarkable to think that fromthe first electronic jacquard capacityof 256 ends and only twenty yearslater the MJ has a maximumcapacity of 13824 ends.

ON-PICK RELIABILITY

The MJ is fitted with a selectorbased on the unique Bonas patent.This system is acknowledged as thebest selection system in the marketwith a single moving part and opendesign which is ideal for dirty, lintfilled environments.

With the philosophy that even thebest can improved, a new selectorhas been developed with a singlecoil solenoid and low friction hookguides. Power is supplied to thesolenoids by the current drivetechnology, ensuring consistentsolenoid selection at all tempera-tures, lowering power consumptionand reducing heat generationwithin the jacquard.

Diagnostics at solenoid level hasbeen introduced, thus preventingthe production of second gradefabric due to mis-selection.

This is achieved by On-Pickmonitoring to prevent weavingerrors through mis-selection bystopping the loom and imme-diately communicating the typeand location of any fault to theweaver.

The single moving part togetherwith the above improvements offersunparalleled reliability.

Full compatibility with networksoftware allows connection tocentral production managementsystems.

ROBUST MECHANISM

The MJ mechanism uses a wellproven Van De Wiele system with abalanced fulcrum lift mechanismand complimentary cams runningin a fully sealed oil bath. This systemprovides dwell profiles to meet thedemands of all modern looms withvibration free operation.

It is robust in construction andeasily maintained with largecommonality of parts throughoutthe range.

Knife height and shed opening arefactory set but can be very easilychanged if required.

INSTALLATION

All the electrical components arehoused within the chassis of thejacquard. There are no subframe orspecial gantry requirements and theMJ can be easily lifted via forklift oroverhead.

The Installation of the MJ istherefore a very simple task and canbe completed by the customerwithout technical support fromBonas.

SUMMARY

The MJ offers new value addingopportunities in the fabric designand weaving processes and allowsthe users current dreams to becomereality.

The future will determine whetherthe introduction of these new multihook jacquards results in thejacquard weaving industry movingfrom revolution to evolution.

The Electronic Jacquard Revolution 3

The Bonas MJ6