Weft Feeders for Textile Machinery

A weft feeder — also called a weft accumulator — sits between the weft package and the loom, winding a store of weft onto its drum and releasing it to the insertion system at a controlled, even tension. Without that buffer, the loom would pull each pick straight off the package, with ballooning, tension peaks and snarls turning into weft breaks and machine stops. On modern high-speed rapier and air-jet looms the feeder is not an accessory but part of the insertion system itself, and its setting decides how gently the loom can weave difficult yarns.

How a Weft Feeder Controls the Pick

The feeder winds a reserve of yarn in separated coils on a stationary drum, then releases the coils one by one as the loom calls for a pick. Because the yarn leaves from a controlled store rather than unwinding over-end from a package, tension stays low and steady through the whole pick, and the peaks that break weft or pull it out of a gripper largely disappear. Feeder models add control of the coil separation, the reserve size and the release sensing to suit the yarn — fine filament, spun yarn, elastic or heavy weft each behave differently leaving the drum. LGL Electronics S.p.A. of Italy, listed below, is a leading company in the manufacture of weft feeders, with a position of high respect throughout the world.

Its TWM feeder offers the weaving machine the possibility to weave with the minimum of weft tension, and drastically reduces the number of weft stops.

Service, Setting and Spares

Feeders repay correct setting: reserve size matched to the pick length and loom speed, clean drums and guides, and sensors kept free of fly. A feeder that is dirty or badly adjusted gives the faults it was fitted to prevent — tension variation, reserve run-outs and false stops — so mills treat feeder cleaning and checking as scheduled loom care. LGL supports its feeders with a worldwide presence in the market and first-class after-sales service; in the Far East, including Japan, its branch is managed by Japanese personnel who take care of both the loom manufacturers and the weaving mills in their area. That maker-level support matters when a feeder range has to be matched to new loom models or new weft yarns. Feeder choice itself follows the loom and the weft range: insertion system, maximum pick rate, the counts and types of weft to be woven, and how many colours or weft channels the loom works with. A feeder sized or set for one weft will misbehave on another — a reserve wound for a fine filament behaves differently from one wound for a coarse spun weft — so mills changing styles reset and recheck their feeders as part of the style change, alongside the loom's own insertion settings, rather than treating the feeder as fit-and-forget equipment. The same discipline applies when a loom changes weft supplier: a new package shape or a different yarn finish changes how the weft unwinds into the feeder, and a short trial at the feeder settings catches trouble before a full beam is woven.

Companies Supplying Weft Feeders