The loom carries one or more needle boards on a reciprocating beam, with a stripper plate holding the batt down as the needles withdraw and a bed plate supporting it from below. Stroke rate, advance per stroke, penetration depth and needle arrangement are the main settings. Lines usually run a pre-needler to tack the batt, then one or more finishing looms that needle from above, below or both.
Needle loom is at 900 strokes and 12 millimeters depth, and we're still short on CD tensile.
Also heard as
- needle-punch loom
- needler
- loom
Related terms
Needlepunch
Mechanical bonding in which barbed needles punch repeatedly through a batt, dragging fibers through and tangling it.
Barb
Small notch cut into the working blade of a felting needle that catches fibers and carries them through the batt.
Punch density
Number of needle penetrations per square centimeter of fabric, the basic dose of needling.