The share of technical knitted fabrics manufactured on circular knitting machines is steadily increasing, partly due to the rise in economical production. Customer-specific solutions are gaining popularity, with new challenges facing technical textiles manufacturers, such as new requirements with regard to wear, loads and workability of yarns.

Groz-Beckert, a leading provider of industrial machine needles, precision parts and fine tools, as well as systems and services for the production and joining of textile fabrics, will exhibit its latest customized solutions at the upcoming Techtextil trade fair for technical textiles and nonwovens which will be held in Frankfurt, next month.

The company will also present its high-quality needles and system parts for circular, warp and flat knitting segments.

Major constituent parts in the implementation of such solutions are the knitting components needles, system parts and cylinders. For the manufacture of technical articles, these components must work in optimal alignment and perfect harmony. Groz-Beckert as a manufacturer of needles, system parts and cylinders, offers these system solutions from a single source.

Warp knitting is surely the most successful knitting technology for manufacturing technical textiles and has helped shape this growth market. The technical options provide for great flexibility in product design. Different fabric weights and features combined with a wide variety of materials at high production speeds lead to deep market penetration in almost all areas of technical application.

Only the steady development of the loop-forming and yarn-guiding parts of the machines makes it possible to meet these requirements. In addition to machine builders, more and more customers are interested in finding specific solutions for the optimal production of their wares. This has prompted interesting developments in Groz Beckert's portfolio of needle and system parts, where the reduction of wear and friction when processing high-performing fibres often stands front and centre.

At the Techtextil 2017 in Frankfurt, the company is looking forward to presenting a unique warp knitting machine equipped with a selection of different warp knitting modules. As well as providing detailed insight into the working method of the modules, the exclusive exhibit will offer space for discussion.

According to Groz-Beckert, nowadays, flat knitting technology is drawing increasing attention in the field of technical textiles. This cross-sector interest has been piqued by high flexibility, short setting periods, and by being the only loop formation technology capable of manufacturing real 3D knitted fabrics without making-up. Many Groz-Beckert products are already being successfully used in this field.

But as a producer and development partner, this poses new challenges for them, too. These new flat-knit products, for example, have little in common with traditional knitting. New technical yarns with very different properties, from highly elastic and abrasive to metal and carbon, call for new ideas to measure up to the higher requirements.

Moreover with smart textiles and the emerging interest in new branches of industry for flat knit fabric, it has led to high demand at flat knitting machine manufacturers for new knitting applications and suitable machines.