Metallic Card Clothing for Textile Machinery
Textile and clothing machine spare parts — what the part does, how to specify it, and the companies that supply it.
Metallic card clothing is the modern carding surface: a continuous ribbon of saw-tooth wire, wound under tension into grooves on the card's rollers — cylinder, doffer, licker-in and workers — so the entire roller becomes one toothed working surface. It replaced flexible clothing on the main rollers of high-production cards because it is more precise, more durable and suited to high speeds, and its wire profiles are engineered fibre by fibre. Flexible clothing remains the standard on flats; metallic clothing owns the rollers.
Textile Machinery Directory
Saw-Tooth Wire and Its Profiles
The wire's cross-section, tooth pitch, height and front angle are chosen together for the fibre and the roller position: aggressive hooked teeth where fibre must be opened at the licker-in, finer, denser profiles where the cylinder carries and cards, and profiles designed to release fibre cleanly at the doffer. Wire is specified in points per square inch with its profile code, and the maker's catalogue maps profiles to fibres — cotton, synthetics, wool and blends each behave differently against the tooth. James Holdsworth & Brothers of Mirfield, listed below — the oldest privately owned manufacturer of card clothing in the world — produces a complete range of metallic and flexible card clothing for the textile and allied industries, exporting to over 30 countries.
Winding, Grinding and Wire Life
Metallic clothing is wound onto the roller under controlled tension and its edges finished, a specialist operation done on site or at the maker's works. In service, tooth tips dull and occasional teeth damage from tramp material; grinding restores the points (see the grinder page in this section), and wire is renewed when grinding can no longer recover the profile or damage is widespread. The related maintenance range from the same maker includes the metallic cleaning tool for keeping the tooth surface free of embedded waste. Changing a wire profile is a carding decision — it changes opening, transfer and nep performance — and is normally made with the clothing maker's technical advice for the fibre mix in use.
Companies Supplying Metallic Card Clothing
James Holdsworth & Brothers Ltd
James Holdsworth & Brothers Ltd is the oldest privately owned manufacturer of card clothing in the world. Based in Mirfield, West Yorkshire in the UK, it produces a complete range of flexible and metallic card clothing for the textile and allied industries worldwide, as well as related machinery, exporting to over 30 countries. Innovation is readily associated with the Holdsworth name — for example the creation of the Holdsworth Sliver Ring, a unique patented product for card clothing.
Supplies: Metallic Card Clothing · Flexible Card Clothing · Card Clothing Machinery
Textile & Clothing Machine Spare Parts
- Beam Heads
- Beams for Weaving Machines
- Bulb Socket
- Cams
- Ceramic Friction Disks
- Ceramic Thread Guides
- Circular Knitting Machine Parts
- Creel Stands
- Cutters for Looms
- Cylinders
- Dials
- Electric Shears
- Feed Wheel
- Feeders
- Fineblanked Stampled Parts
- Flexible Card Clothing
- Grinder
- Grippers
- Guide Unit s - textile machinery
- Hosiery Camboxes
- Knitting Machine Spare Parts
- Loop Forming Elements
- Loose Needles
- Lycra Feeders
- Metallic Cleaning Tool
- Mounting Pads
- Papermakers for Felt Weaving
- Patterning
- Positive Feeders
- Poy Winder Machines
- Pulleys for textile machines
- Rapier Tapes
- Rapier Wheel
- Raschel Machinery Parts
- Rotary Hooks
- Safe Needles
- Sample
- Sensors for Looms
- Sewing Machinery Spare Parts
- Sinkers Rings
- Slide Electronic yarn Control Devices
- Springs for Textile Machines
- Stamped Bent Parts
- Stitch Bonding Machine Parts
- Striper
- Swatch Cutters
- Tension Meters
- Thread Break Guard
- Thread Guide Units
- Tricot Machinery Spare Parts
- Warp Knitting Spare Parts
- Warper Beams
- Weaving Machinery Spare Parts
- Weft Feeders
- Weight Scales
- yarn Carriers
- yarn Retainer
- yarn Sensor
- yarn Splicers
- yarn Suction Cups for Winders
- yarn Supervisor by Drop
- yarn Supervisor by Tearing
- yarn Supervisor by Tearing & Drop
Knitting & Weaving Machinery
- Circular Knitting Machinery
- Crotchet Knitting Machinery
- Double Jersey Knitting Machinery
- Fleece fabric Knitting Machines
- Hosiery / Socks Machinery
- Knitting Lubricator
- Knitting Software
- Mesh fabric Knitting Machines
- Pile fabric Knitting Machines
- Plush fabric Knitting Machines
- Rib fabric Knitting Machinery
- Ring Temples
- Seamless Knitting Machinery
- Sewing Machinery Attachments
- Single Jersey Knitting Machinery
- Terry fabric Knitting Machinery
- Terry Machinery
- Velour fabric Knitting Machinery
- Weaving Machines
Related Guides and Resources
Common Questions
How does metallic card clothing differ from flexible?
Metallic clothing is a continuous saw-tooth wire wound onto rollers; flexible clothing sets individual hooked wires into a cloth foundation. Metallic suits high-speed roller positions; flexible remains standard on flats.
What decides a wire profile?
Fibre type, roller position and production duty — tooth pitch, height, angle and points per square inch are chosen together, usually from the maker's fibre-mapped catalogue.
When is metallic clothing renewed?
When grinding no longer restores the tooth profile, or damage from tramp material is widespread. Profile changes are made deliberately, with the maker's advice.