Picanol,
based in Ieper, Belgium, is recognized as the world’s
leading company in the design and production of weaving
machines. Picanol utilizes SR Drive® technology
for the servo systems on its Gamma Rapier high-tech loom.
Picanol’s R & D department were
charged with the task of developing a new weaving machine
that would outclass existing machines in every respect. The
concept was for a greatly simplified loom with fewer
moving parts, fewer transmissions, a drastic reduction
in the number of lubrication points and a complete absence
of toothed belts. Such a concept has many advantages
for the user: the weaving quality is not affected by
mechanical interactions, fine tuning is kept simple since
there are fewer settings to adjust, fewer moving
parts means lower
Picanol, a world leader in the design
and manufacture of weaving machines, incorporates SR
Drive® technology in
its latest high-tech loom.
SR Drive® system
provides a
high-performance solution for the main take-up
drive.
maintenance and reduced energy
consumption. From
this concept, Picanol’s new Rapier loom, the Gamma,
was born.
A major feature of the Gamma is the
combination of electronically controlled cloth take-up
and warp let-off motion, driven by SR Drive® switched
reluctance servo motors. The
SR Drive® position controlled servo system gives outstanding
controllability and accuracy at a low system cost. The
advantages the SR Drive® servo
system brings to the Gamma include the ability to monitor
the fabric weight exactly, resulting in considerable yarn
saving and the ability to pull new warp yarn through very
quickly. The combination
of the take-up and let-off servo system makes procedures
for eliminating starting marks much easier and significantly
improves cloth quality.
The Gamma puts Picanol at the forefront of weaving technology
with its ability to run at unequalled industrial speeds,
giving high productivity with extremely low power consumption.
