Weft Cutting and Waste Minimisation
topic
Weft cutting in shuttleless looms uses scissor blades driven by the loom mechanism or electronic servo actuators to cut the weft yarn at the selvedge after each pick, with cut position precision governing the weft tail length that extends beyond the selvedge and is wasted as trimmed selvedge, with minimum tail lengths of 5 to 15 millimetres being required for reliable tucking or leno binding while longer tails increase raw material waste from trimming, making cut position optimisation a significant cost reduction opportunity particularly for expensive technical yarns.
Role
Manages the raw material waste at the selvedge that is inherent to shuttleless weaving where each pick insertion leaves a cut weft tail extending beyond the fabric edge, with waste minimisation being economically significant for high-value yarns where the selvedge waste can represent 3 to 8 percent of total weft consumption, and with cut position adjustment being a readily accessible operational improvement that reduces waste within the minimum tail length constraint of the selvedge system.