Woven curtains with special effects

Modern curtain weavers can no longer just concentrate on the fancy and stylish decoration of windows as a single element, but, more and more, have to integrate the whole room into their design visions. This not only demands diversification in using various yarns in the filling but also requires adaptions in machine widths. Curtains are now available in widely differing widths whereby the trend towards room height is not so strong as for decorative fabrics. The latter is still part of the production range of curtain weavers which altogether has led ultimately to standard weaving machine widths of 290 cm and 330 cm.

Leading European manufacturers in this trade use the DORNIER system family of rapier and air-jet weaving machines to be able to meet production demands for the wide range of curtain and drapery fabrics.

These DORNIER customers are, in alphabetical order:

ADO Gardinen-Werke GmbH & Co. KG, Aschendorf, Germany.
Création Baumann Weberei und Färberei AG, Langenthal, Switzerland.
Cordima AG-International, Greven, Germany.
GARDISETTE GmbH, Eystrup, Germany.
Joh. Hohmann GmbH & Co. KG, Helmbrechts, Germany.
Keller AG, Wald, Switzerland.
Unland GmbH & Co. KG, Saterland, Germany.

Altogether they have more than 700 DORNIER machines in operation.

When reviewing the areas of application of both DORNIER machine types, the following general pattern becomes visible:

Voile curtains in plain weave, usually ordered with substantial production yardages are produced most economically on fast running air-jet machines. High speeds and the resulting fast throughput are of great importance to keep the customary short-term delivery schedules. Technical advantage of these air-jet machines are the movable tandem nozzles which provide better air distribution during yarn acceleration. The reed-drive-cam design in both gear boxes provides a wide filling insertion window. Consequently sufficient time for gentle insertion of a large range of filling yarns is available. This again means that, depending on the order-yardage, voile curtains with certain fancy yarns in the filling can also be effectively and economically woven on DORNIER air-jet machines.

Marquisette leno curtains are an established product on the market. They have the lowest production yield at highest sales prices, but they provide better visual effects, finer drape and interesting shades. Large wholesale dealers have to serve various market segments with differing qualities and therefore must offer leno curtains along with raschel-produced fabrics. The optics of the curtains demand using the most varied fancy yarns in filling, but unfortunately the leno technology limits speeds to 200 rpm approximately. DORNIER rapier weaving machines are the perfect production means for this type of specialty weaving. The positively controlled thread feed and transfer of the filling by the rapier heads eliminates the risk of stripping back or displacing of fancy effects and avoids stretching of the core yarn and yarn breakage. The low thread tension level during insertion, typical on the DORNIER rapier machine, helps to avoid these defects. The marquisette weaving business typically works with short yardages so that the fast restarting after style changes with a wide variety of filling yarns is of significant importance. Time-consuming resetting and adjustments for new fancy filling yarns are not necessary, which accelerates production to a great degree.

Exact, sensitive warp tension and reliable adjustment for automatic start-mark prevention, called ASP feature, are of immense importance for fine curtain fabrics, especially when producing with the so-called clip-spot technique.

ASP is equally valid for DORNIER rapier – as well as for air-jet – weaving machines.