Jacquard Machine Speed and Pick Rate Capabilities
topic
Modern electronic Jacquard machines operate at 400 to 800 picks per minute on high-speed rapier looms and 600 to 1200 picks per minute on air-jet looms when weaving fine filament fabrics, with the maximum speed limited by the hook knife travel cycle time, actuator selection response time, and the mass of the hook and harness system that must be accelerated and decelerated in each pick cycle, with larger-capacity machines having higher harness inertia that reduces maximum speed compared to small-format machines.
Role
Determines the production throughput achievable in Jacquard weaving that governs fabric unit cost and the economics of Jacquard fabric production, with speed being particularly important for commodity figured fabrics where production cost competitiveness requires maximising loom throughput, and with the speed-capacity tradeoff influencing machine selection between large-capacity slower machines and smaller-capacity faster machines for each production application.