With the trend for elegant seamless garments or near seamless garments continuing to grow, machine builders such as Karl Mayer are striving to satisfy the needs of designers in the fashion world.

In their pursuit to develop machines for producing seamless garments or garments with fewer seams, product developers at Karl Mayer have been experimenting with their multibar Textronic Lace machine to produce lingerie which is almost ready to wear from the machine (see image right).

Karl Mayer claims that the TL 43/1/24, a multibar-Jacquard Raschel machine for the production of high-quality elastic and inelastic lace, offers an extended range of performance features when compared to the established TL 31/1/24 and TL 66/1/24 models. It claims that it enables garments to be produced efficiently which require very little making-up.

The key features of the concept are speeds of up to 600 rpm, depending on the lapping movement and the yarns being processed and extended patterning options, which are the result of having 14 pattern bars behind the fall plate and shog paths of up to 170 needles.

The Textronic Lace machine can be used to accurately place small motifs and in the case of the bra opposite, places small star patterns on a delicate, decorative background. The tiny, star-shaped patterns are free-standing and, with their yellowish tones, sparkle attractively against the fabric. The bra-cups are patterned in a wide but flat, filigree, hatched design. A fine yarn is processed in the pattern bars in front of the fall plate to produce the flat, discreet star pattern.

Karl Mayer claims that the pattern bars can process most types of yarn currently used in the lingerie sector to produce a wide range of different patterns, including fall-plate patterns with long floats. The yarns that are carried along and not incorporated accumulate when shaping the contours of the bra or placing the stars, and can easily be clipped.

Garments with fewer seams on the TL 43/1/24 are just the latest attempt by Karl Mayer to explore the potential of raschel knitting for garment manufacture. The advantage of the TL 43/1/24 is that it is capable of making very intricate patterned lace fabrics with motifs for lingerie. If garments can be produced with no or few seams then the concept has good potential in the lingerie sector.

Karl Mayer recently announced the launch in September this year, of their Smart Seamless DJ 4/2 double needle bar raschel machine. The narrow width (42 inch) DJ 4/2, will be the latest dedicated seamless garment machine from Nippon Mayer. Previous models are much wider and are normally split into divisions to produce a number of garments simultaneously. The Obertshausen company also recently developed a range of seamless lingerie on its ML 35 C multibar raschel machine, which was developed to produce patterned stretch and non-stretch lace fabrics.

The full technical specification for the TL 43/1/24 is given below.

Technical Data TL 43/1/24

Textronic^®Lace

Overall max-width: 6740 mmOverall depth: 7700 mmOverall max-height: 4600 mm

Working width / gauge

3353 mm = 132 inches(+2 inches extension of stentering selvedge to 134 inches)Gauge: E 24

Bars / knitting elements

Individual needle bar, knockover comb bar, tongue bar, stitch comb bar,Jacquard bar in split execution (JB 33/34),two ground guide bars (GB 32 and 52 elastane),24 pattern guide bars (string bars 1 to 24) in front of the fall plate,2 or 4 pattern guide bars (string bars 26 to 29) for picot binding,14 pattern guide bars (string bars 35 to 42 and 44 to 50)

Yarn let-off device

3 electronically controlled yarn let-off gearsfor GB 32, JB 33/34 and GB 52, driven bygeared motor, controlled via Motion Control

Pattern drive - EL

Electronic guide bar control Ground guide bars and Jacquard bar EL type 4, pattern guide bars (string bars) EL type 3

KAMCOS®

Motion Control / Multi Speed for the control of the basic functions, Pattern Control for the control of the ground guide bars, pattern guide barsand Jacquard barFloppy disk drive3 ½" floppy disk drive for the reading andwriting of pattern floppy disks. Operator Interface 12,1" Color Touch screenfor production data display, network interface(Ethernet) for data collection, Teleserviceand integrated yarn inspection - Laserstop

Fabric take-up

Electronically controlled, consisting of4 rollers coated with Black-Grip-Tape,driven by geared motor,controlled via Motion Control

Batching device

Batching device No. 13Dintegrated, with central drivemax. batch diameter of 762 mm (30 inches)

Electrical equipment

Speed-regulated driveTotal connected load of the machine 33 kVA

Operating conditions for Piezo elements

Maximum air humidity of 65%

Performance

Max. 600 rpm, depending on the respective lapping and material to be processed

Rights for technical modifications reserved

Catalogue courtesy of Karl Mayer Textilamaschinenfabrik GmbH