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Weaving machines for carpets and industrial fabrics

CRABTREE Textile Machines Ltd., a subsidiary of Cobble Blackburn Ltd., has recently relocated its machine building and spare parts divisions to within its parent company's factories in Blackburn. The Company continues to support its global customer base in the woven sector of the carpet industry, and those in the multi-ply industrial fabric weaving industry.

Crabtree's products include the following ( which includes the product range of Wilson and Longbottom ):

• Axminster carpet and rug weaving machinery.
• Weaving machinery for belting and associated products.
• Weaving machines for multi-ply industrial fabrics.
• Beaming machinery for warp and pile beaming.
• Creels for direct beaming and loom creeling.

Carpet production

For Axminster carpet weavers, the company offers a range of new Axminster looms:

Stage IVCX loom: for broadloom contract carpet production, this highly successful electronic jacquard loom, built for either 7 or 8 pitch weaving, has earned a deserved reputation for reliability and productivity. Weaving from warp beams or warp feed from creels, this machine continues to sell well in existing and new markets.
Stage IVR loom: for the rug weaving sector, this electronic jacquard loom produces unique coarse gauge (4 pitch) speciality rug constructions or alternatively can be built to weave fine gauge (9 pitch) for high-quality rug production.

Industrial fabric weaving

For industrial fabric weavers, a range of machinery is offered, the specification of which is dependent on the fabric to be produced. Centred on the basic elements of weaving machine, multi-frame dobby, multiple let-off units and fabric roll-up, two basic machine types would be offered:

MPB loom: for the production of solid woven multi-ply, conveyor belt carcassing, this rapier weaving machine is acknowledged to be the market leader, and is used by all the major solid woven belting manufacturers across the world. Weaving from either creels or multiple warp beam stands, the loom is available in a variety of widths. The 3 metre wide 'double' loom produces two separate fabrics simultaneously, both with genuine woven selvedges.
IFL loom: for the production of industrial and technical fabrics, and build with a reedspace of 1 metre, this rapier weaving machine is unique in its ability to produce dense, multi-ply fabrics for industrial brake linings and other solid woven fabrics manufactured up to 38mm in thickness.

A programme of upgrades is available for existing machinery, including retrofitting of servo drives and modified components to improve machine performance.

Crabtree is continuing an active machine research programme for the development of Axminster weaving machines.

For the tufted carpet industry, Crabtree produces a pile beaming machine for the preparation of pile beams as an alternative to tufting from creels. Built on the drum winding principle, the machine is one of the heaviest in its class.