Surface figured weaves

Surface figured weaves:

Many decorative and patterned fabrics can be made by inserting extra warp and/or filling yarns during the fabric construction process. When extra warp yarns are used, they are wound on to an additional warp beam and threaded into separate heddles so that they can be controlled-depending on the complexity of the pattern, either by the dobby or the Jacquard attachment. Looms used for such constructions must have numerous harnesses or individual yarn control, in order to have sufficient warp control for the design to be formed.

Controls for such fabrics permit great design flexibility, the use of several colors in the filling direction as well as the warp which may be strung with several different colors of yarn etc and the use of various types of yarns provides methods for producingfigure weaves in selected or spot areas of a fabric. The main types of fabric made through the use of additional yarns are lappet, swivel and spot.

a. Lappet weave:

Lappet is a fabric in which figure is achieved by introducing extra warp threads into a base fabric that is normally plain.

b. Swivel weave:

A fabric in which figure is achieved by the introduction of additional weft threads into a base fabric to produce spot effects.

c. Spot weave:

Spot designs can be made with either warp or extra filling yarns. The yarns are inserted the entire length or width of the fabric in predetermined areas.

d. Leno weave:

The leno weave may be called the doup weave or the gauze weave.

e. Pile weave:

The word pile comes from the Latin word for hair or fur. To obtain the hairlike or furlike surface, woven pile fabrics are made with three sets of yarns-a regular set of warp yarns (called warp ground yarns), a regular set of filling yarns (called filling ground yarns) and an extra set of either warp or filling yarns to form the pile surface (called pile yarns).

f. Double-cloth weave:

Double weaves are those in which atleast two sets of filling yarns and two sets of warp yarns are interlaced so that the interlacing moves between the sets at various points.

g. Dobby weave:

Dobby weave is a patterned weave used to construct designs that cannot be produced by the plain, twill or satin weaves.

Dobby fabrics have small figures, such as dots, Geometric designs and small floral patterns, woven into the fabric. These decorative weaves are made with small patterns that repeat frequently.

h. Jacquard attachment:

Jacquard fabrics, frequently called Jacquard weaves, are large figured designs that depend on considerable flexibility in the control of the warp yarns to form sheds for placing filling yarns in the fabric.