Glass yarns are absolutely indispensable for producing technical textiles nowadays. They are ageing-, weather- and chemical-resistant and are non-flammable. They also have a high elastic modulus and optimise the mechanical characteristics of composites containing them.

Glass-fibre-reinforced composites are some of the most important materials currently being used in the construction industry. Demand for them has been growing constantly and they have therefore been the focus of intense development work aimed at optimising their production. One of the main factors contributing to this success is the close cooperation between various manufacturers in the production chain

Heinrich Essers GmbH & Co. KG and KARL MAYER Malimo Textilmaschinenfabrik GmbH showed how this could be done by cooperating on a joint project in the summer of this year.

One of the activities of KARL MAYER Malimo is the development and building of warp knitting machines with parallel weft insertion, and these are used for producing composites, mainly for use in technical applications. For example, the RS 3 MSUS-V produces composites from nonwoven webs by simultaneously superimposing mono- or biaxial layers in a single step. In addition to handling natural and synthetic materials, it can also process technical yarns.

Until now, experts have believed that glass rovings having counts above 600 tex had to be taken-off directly from the creel and delivered to the fabric-forming machine. However, take-off from the creel poses many challenges. A huge amount of space is needed when handling a large number of yarns, and this restricts production in this area. This problem can be solved by warping the glass rovings, which may have a count of e.g. 2,400 tex, onto sectional warp beams. This is the perfect job for Heinrich Essers in Wassenberg.

In addition to processing yarns and filaments for producing conventional textiles, this company, which specialises in sectional warping and direct beaming, also processes high-tech yarns, such as PES, PA, PP, glass and aramid, for producing textiles that can withstand high mechanical loads. This traditional textile company, which was founded in 1912, sets great store by providing a top-quality service and a high level of technical expertise, and uses high-quality sectional warping and direct warping and beaming machines in its plant. One of these is the DS 65/40 direct warping machine, which has been specially configured and equipped with a specially designed creel. Heinrich Essers uses this flexible technology to produce sectional warp beams from glass rovings, which are used by KARL MAYER Malimo to produce the textiles. The warped glass material can be processed without any problems on the RS 3 MSUS-V, which manufactures premium-quality, knitted glass textiles and optimises the processing of glass fibres.