Earlier this year Karl Mayer launched an upgraded and optimised version of its HKS MSU S weft insertion warp knitting machine. The German company says the new HKS MSU S machine not only enables a wider range of yarns to be processed, such as finer yarns, but is also more versatile when it comes to incorporating reinforcing yarns.

Karl Mayer’s high-speed tricot machines with parallel weft insertion are used to efficiently produce textiles that are mainly used in semi-technical and technical applications and the company is a market leader in the production of warp knitting machines with magazine weft facility and is continuously improving and expanding its range of products.

Warp-knitted fabrics are extremely versatile as far as their design and construction is concerned and they can also be engineered to have specific tensile strength values. In this case, the reinforcing yarns are mainly responsible for producing a fabric’s high load-bearing capacity. Highly stable yarns can be incorporated in line with the courses which lie at an angle of 90º in the fabric and are inserted as full wefts. The types of constructions produced in this way include insect-repellent nets, lightweight yet dense shading and screening materials, high-quality warp knits for soft furnishings and a variety of interlinings.

At the beginning of this year, Karl Mayer launched the HKS MSU S machine as part of a new generation of machines and the revamped machine incorporates a number of optimised features, which give the user access to an even greater range of applications than its predecessor.

The improved performance features relate to the flexibility of the machine but also to the productivity of the machine. The parameters that illustrate the success of Karl Mayer’s development work include a fabric width of 6.27 metres, even at a gauge of E 28 and a productivity rate of 2000 square metres of fabric per hour. Karl Mayer says a wide range of yarns can also be processed and whereas at one time, viscose and acrylic spun yarns were typically used as the weft, now extremely fine yarns, such a polyester filament yarns with a count of 17 dtex, can now be used. These weft insertion yarns are similar in count to those used in the formation of knitted stitches.

Karl Mayer claims that the new HKS MSUS S not only enables a wider range of yarns to be processed but it is also more versatile when it comes to incorporating the reinforcing yarns. Even long underlaps, e.g. in an arrangement of 1-0/4-5//, can be processed without any problems, the company says.

Selecting the option, ‘weft repeat’, is said to enable yarns to be incorporated only at the points at which they are actually needed. Zones having different densities can also be alternated with each other, and the segments produced can be configured to have specific widths, Karl Mayer says. In addition to this, the transition from open to dense knitted constructions can therefore be worked very smoothly via the Multi Speed function.

Karl Mayer stresses that practical textiles can also be attractive and that Atlas net lappings can be used to make the weft-inserted fabrics more attractive. The use of lustrous yarns produces elegant fabrics, whereby the weft yarns on the inside do a sterling job and also look attractive on the outside, the company says.

Examples of constructions produced on the HKS MSU S at Karl Mayer Malimo

No.: 10915

Machine: HKS MSU S

Gauge:                 28 E

Stitch density: 3 stitches/cm

Construction: GB 2: 1-0/0-1//

Threading: GB 2: fully set

Weft: fully set

Yarns: GB 2: polyester, text., 76 dtex f 24

Weft: viscose, Nm 20

No.: 10917

Machine: HKS MSU S

Gauge:                 28 E

Stitch density: 52 stitches/cm

Construction: GB 2: 1-0/0-1//

Threading: GB 2: fully set

Weft: fully set

Yarns: GB 2: polyester, text., 76 dtex f 24

Weft: polyester, text., 167 dtex f 32