Braiding

We have one of the most modern workshops in Europe dedicated to the weaving of all types of textile articles. Weaving consists of creating a flat or circular textile structure depending on the machine used. The braid is obtained by the interlacing of threads which evolve diagonally with respect to the longitudinal direction. Bobbins of thread or "cans" are arranged on a support called "spindle" which drives the threads in rotation. Each spindle moves inside a sinusoidal guide path machined on the machine table. We can produce 3 types of braids: tubular braid, round braid or flat braid.

The tubular braid is obtained by an even number of bobbins, half of which turn to the right, the other half to the left and it is the interlacing of these that will create a textile tube. We use between 16 and 96 spindles to produce our tubulars. We speak of tubular when the manufactured product is hollow.

This is the same manufacturing process as for a hollow tubular, except that this time we are going to add a soul to the product: we fill the void in the center of the braid by adding either rigid wire (to manufacture our ropes, laces, cords, piping, etc.), either stretched elastic thread (to make a bungee cord or elastic cord), or an item that you want to sheathe (electric wire, hydraulic hose, pipe, etc.).

This is obtained by a trajectory of the plate which is not in the shape of a circle but rather of a horseshoe, with an odd number of spindles which rotate alternately in one direction then in the other. The process is in fact the same as when making a braid in the hair of a little girl (whose design then corresponds to a 3 bobbin braid), but which can be made more complex by crossing many more bobbins. At STN, we use machines with up to 41 spindles.