Loom
- A loom is a machine or device for weaving thread or yarn into textiles. Looms can range from very small hand-held frames, to large free-standing hand looms, to huge automatic mechanical devices. The ancient Egyptians and Chinese used looms as early as 4000 BC.
In practice, the basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics may vary, but the basic function is the same.
Hand Looms
- The first and original loom was vertically twist-weighted types, where threads are hung from a wooden piece or branch or affixed to the floor or ground. The weft threads are manually shoved into position or pushed through a rod that also becomes the shuttle. Raising and lowering each warp thread one by one is needed in the beginning. It is done by inserting a piece of rod to create a shack, the gap between warp threads in order for the woof to easily traverse the whole warp right away.
Ground Looms
- Horizontal ground looms permit the warp threads to be chained between a couple of rows of dowels. The weaver needs to bend forward to perform the task easily. Thus, pit looms with warp chained over a ditch are invented to let the weaver have his or her legs positioned below and leveled with the loom.
Back Strap Looms
- They are well recognized for their portability. The one end of this loom type is secured around the waist of the weaver and the other end is attached around a fixed thing like door, stake, or tree. Pressure applied can be customized by just bending back.
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Shuttle Looms
- It is the key component of the loom along with the warp beam, shuttle, harnesses, heddles, reed, and take up roll. In the loom, yarn processing includes detaching, battening, alternative, and taking-up operations.
Shuttleless Looms
- Because the shuttle can cause yarns to splinter and catch, several types of shuttleless looms have been developed. These operate at higher speeds and reduced noise levels.
- Some of the common shuttleless looms include water-jet looms, air-jet looms, rapier looms, and projectile looms.
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