Flames bring to mind raging infernos, destruction and fire-fighting, but they are also often used to represent passion, romanticism and startling colour effects. The lace shown here, with its flickering palette of red and yellow and orange, is just one example which arouses the senses and sets pulses racing. The bright, bold colours blaze playfully and unrestrained over the delicate design, which features luxurious flowers in a simple, abstract arrangement with ornamental foliage – a classic look in terms of the pattern but a real trail-blazer in terms of the colours used.

Two specialist companies, Karl Mayer, a leading manufacturer of warp-knitted lace machinery and Amsler Tex AG, a company with unique ideas and an innovative supplier of equipment for producing fancy yarns, have cooperated to create this fabric, which represents a modern interpretation of the timeless art of seduction.

Fabrics and garments made from Amsler Tex yarns bring diversity to textiles and an air of extravagance to classic favourites, regardless of whether they are being used to produce melange effects in T-shirts, salt-and-pepper effects on denim or a pronounced natural look on shirts. The Swiss company which manufactures machinery for producing fancy and special yarns has been active at an international level for more than forty years, and is highly regarded within the sector.

Several thousand machines running in more than forty countries worldwide and a considerable growth rate bear testimony to the success of Amsler Tex AG. The experience and creativity of this company and the high quality of the yarns produced by Amsler are the reasons why it has enjoyed consistent growth.

The equipment produced by Amsler Tex produces high-strength yarns, enables the flame effects to be located in just the right places, can be incorporated into virtually every type of spinning machine, and is complemented by professional software solutions, both for developing the yarns as well as for the spinning process. Amsler Tex operates a worldwide service network and is always happy to liaise with its clients, enabling it to develop products specifically tailored to meet the needs of its customers. Karl Mayer is particularly impressed by this strategy.

A new fancy yarn for producing warp-knitted lace

The product designers at Amsler Tex and Karl Mayer have developed a special flame-effect yarn which is designed to stir the emotions. The development work was based on an injection process. In the process, two yarns are twisted together and short fibres are injected into the form-locking connection. So called slubs or flames are produced, whose length, thickness and distance apart can be varied to create different structural effects on the fabric. The slubs can also be used to produce coloured effects.

This gives rise to a whole wealth of design possibilities, which can only be fully utilised, however, if the yarns can meet the high demands of processing on high-tech warp knitting machines in terms of their stability, quality and strength. This is backed up by thorough and extensive work carried out by both Karl Mayer and Amsler Tex.

Textile specialists in both companies drew up a list of requirements, modified the spinning sequences, and studied yarn running on the warp knitting machine. The latest model in the multibar raschel machine series was used for doing this in order to simulate high-tech production conditions and also to make full use of the performance features of the new ML 45. The optimum construction of the fancy yarn for use in warp knitting was found to be a combination of polyamide and Tencel for the twists and cotton for the slubs. The thick spots that were required for creating the design were located fairly close together, so that they could be used to produce eye-catching colour effects as the yarns were processed during warp knitting.

Test runs carried out on the ML 45 showed that this type of yarn construction could be processed without any difficulties whatsoever. The trials involved producing short runs over a section of the working width. An attractive pattern was produced, which should make the world of lace brighter, livelier and more interesting, especially for younger women.