Warping- The Soul of Textile Construction

When we set to select a textile, we consider many facts- color, texture, feel, looks, drapability and many others. Have you ever thought how much efforts are put in by the textile weavers to make that fine textile? We all know that weaving and knitting are the two major methods of fabric construction what gives the fabric its quality is how carefully it has been warped? Now, what is warping then? 'Warp' is the set of yarns that are laid out first on a loom or frame and 'Weft' is the yarn that is woven under and over the warp yarns that are already stretched onto the loom. Thus, textile warping is the process of creating the base yarn that runs top to bottom on a woven cloth.

The basic two types of warp knitting machines, Tricot knitting machine and Raschel knitting machine, that are equipped with compound needles have made textile warping a very easier task than it was when done on looms.

Yarn preparation is very crucial for weaving and knitting. In some cases, the ends of yarns can be fed directly off cones into theknitting machine and in some others, the yarn ends are fed off warp beams. A warp beam is a large spool holding all the warp yarns in a parallel wind for weaving. The quality of a warp beam is crucial for determining the quality of the knitted fabric. Variations in yarn thickness, tension, twist and other such issues might produce a defective fabric. If utmost care is not taken then it results in many warping defects such as lapped ends, bulges, broken ends, excessive or insufficient number of yarn ends, frequent yarn breakages, improper length of warping, coarse knots and many more. In most of the cases, warping mistakes are nearly impossible to correct during the knitting process.

The two basic methods that are used to prepare the warps for the knitting machines are- Indirect Warping and Direct Warping. Indirect warping involves winding of yarns from the yarn packages onto an intermediate cylinder (mill) in many parallel groups with a specific density after which they are back wound onto the warp beam. In direct warping, the yarns are wrapped in one operation, from the yarn packages onto the warp beam.