Karl Mayer, the leading warp knitting machinery manufacturer, reduces the energy required in warp knitting by using machine components made from temperature-stable carbon fibres as part of the company’s commitment to the sustainability initiative entitled Blue Competence, organized by VDMA, German Engineering Federation.

Limited performance due to metals

Energy-saving machine concepts have been the key aspect of Karl Mayer’s research and development work for many years. The machine parts of warp knitting machines should be solid and sturdy because they must withstand different effective forces. This is the reason why in the past the component design mainly focused on metal. But some of the material properties of metals considerably restrict the freedom of mechanical engineering, according to the manufacturer.

In particular, the weight of the metal bars and the thermal expansion of the material, as well as its limited stiffness, restrict the machinery builder’s possibilities to increase the rotational speed of the machines for obtaining higher textile productivity.

An alternative in this respect is carbon fibre reinforced plastic, CFRP, the company believes. This innovative composite is increasingly employed as lightweight construction material by users in future-oriented growth markets, and also by Karl Mayer.

Efficient composite

Due to its mechanical properties, CFRP stands out from other plastics and metals. This composite is said to offer a high tensile strength and stiffness, as well as extremely low heat expansion along with a density of only 1.55 kg/dm³, making it the ideal material for many applications, for example for the manufacture of bars.

Components made from CFRP are said to have six times higher stiffness and up to eight times higher strength than aluminium. In this way, it is possible to reduce the component weight, at the same time achieving a high material rigidity and strength, the company reports.

More output and less energy consumption

As far as the Karl Mayer machines are concerned, CFRP is said to offer minimum thermal expansion, the capacity to reduce the bar weight, as well as high material stiffness and strength. These features ensure a considerable increase in productivity, according to the company, and the rotational machine speed could be increased by 30%.

This material also has previously unequalled temperature stability, thus, offering the chance to extend the temperature tolerance range to 14°C whilst ensuring a trouble-free operation. Temperature fluctuations, which formerly resulted in machine stops or in adjustments of the rotational speed, thus, leading to increased energy consumption, can now be ignored thanks to the CFRP technology, the manufacturer reports.

The vibration damping feature of CFRP is also said to ensure a consistently high quality of the products. Other important advantages resulting from the use of this composite are 16% less investment costs and 26% lower energy consumption of the air conditioning system, according to Karl Mayer.

www.karlmayer.com