Page 93 - Industrial Cutting of Textile Materials

80 Industrial Cutting of Textile Materials

Fig. 6.23 ‘Blue Jay’ fabric spreader with stationary fabric feeding system by Eastman.

pull it down the table to the desired spread length. When the fabric ply is laid, the
manual or automated round knife (fixed to a guide rail perpendicular to the width of
the material) cuts the fabric from the roll.
The spreading machines with stationary fabric feeding systems are mostly used
to spread large and heavy fabric rolls (500–1000 kg), very wide fabrics (more than
3.5 m), to feed more than one roll at the same time, and, in situations when fabric
during spreading process has to be cut longitudinally, manufacturing home textiles
and technical textiles for bed linens, table linens, kitchen linens, bath linens, uphol-
stery, curtains, tarpaulins, tents, and other textiles for technical applications.
The fabric spreaders with stationary fabric feeding system are manufactured by
2
1
companies Cosmotex, Eastman, and Lidem. 13
6.4.1 Advantages and disadvantages of spreading machines
with stationary feeding systems
Advantages– Fabric spreading is faster and more accurate than using traditional cradle
spreaders; extremely large and very heavy rolls can be spread; several rolls simultaneously
can be spread; double-folded rolls that have to be opened before lying on the table can be pro-
cessed; and during the spreading process, fabric can be cut also longitudinally (see Fig. 6.24).
Disadvantages – Fabric winding system is more complicated; therefore, these
kinds of spreading machines are more expensive than traditional cradle spreaders;
their technical assistance is also more complicated; if machine uses bar feeding sys-
tem, the diameter of the carton roll on which the fabric is rolled has to fit the diameter
of the bar on which it has to be fixed.

6.5 Spreading machines with mixed feeding systems

Spreading machines with a mixed feeding system are designed as a traditional spread-
ing machine with special clamps on the cradle that pulls the fabric from a stationary