Tufting
corn
Here the yarn is printed on the thread with a repetition of the pattern after 80 metres. The short loops look like corn kernels. It is a difficult process because every now and then the thread crosses over and disturbs the regularity.
Colour repetition is also hard to measure resulting in ‘stains’ a kind of concentration of colour.
These samples are a good example of what the same yarn looks like in different tuft heights, and in a cut- and uncut pile.
Tufting is a technique whereby a tufting needle and a tufting gun are used to prick or shoot yarn through a cloth by means of compressed air. At the back of the cloth a loop pile is formed that can be cut as well.
The pile always has to be fixed to the fabric, because you would otherwise be able to just pull the thread out again. Fixation is usually done with latex.
In pass-tufting and machine-tufting a number of tufting needles are placed next to each other and the thread is pricked through the fabric, as with the manual system. No compressed air is used.
