A novel mechanism for driving the sley in a shuttle loom

Abstract In spite of extraordinary progress in the technology of weaving, the majority of weavers, particularly in the developing world, use shuttle looms. These looms suffer from various deficiencies, one of them being the severe abrasion between warp threads and shuttle, particularly when the shuttle leaves the shed. This can be avoided or reduced by allowing the sley to dwell near the back centre. Changing the drive of the sley from the currently used four-bar mechanism to a cam-driven mechanism will easily achieve this objective. However, weavers currently using shuttle looms are reluctant to accept this modification because of the significant increase in cost that it entails. A compromise would be a six-bar mechanism that can give a dwell or “near-dwell” condition, i.e. very slow motion, near the back centre. Such a mechanism, based on the Watt chain, has been explored in this article. It gives 0.06° of maximum angular displacement of the output link for 95° rotation of the input link. The suitability of the mechanism in satisfying the other requirements of sley movement of a shuttle loom has also been discussed.