Textile product innovations in the LEISUREE.FASHION sector have been extremely promising. At one of KARL MAYER’s 80th anniversary celebrations, an unusual, stretch fabric for shapewear brands was being produced on an MJ 52/1 S. This fabric is lighter and more feminine than normal fabrics, creates transparent and opaque effects and, with its relief-like, superimposed design, is reminiscent of lace. A dense fabric with a light, two-way-stretch ground produced by the jacquard bar and the stitch-forming ground bar at the rear was also being produced on the MJ 52/1 S. Valentina Krel is currently working on customer trials involving the production of pre-made-up items directly on the machine.

Knitting elastane in the ground is nothing new, but there was little demand for it on the volume-oriented market of the past and also meant that the yarn feed had to be modified. A high level of technical know-how is important. Valentina Krel, who works in textile product development at KARL MAYER, discovered during the course of processing trials that lightweight elastane cannot currently be processed because it is not strong enough.

Valentina Krel said that, “If our expectations of the trials are met, we will step up our product development in the LEISUREE.FASHION sector significantly. Our customers have already signalled that they are very interested in this.” Her job means that she already has a perception into the machine’s applications and has many new ideas.

The production machines must also be very flexible and KARL MAYER’s LEISUREE.FASHION is exactly that. This multibar jacquard raschel machine produces stretch and non-stretch all-over lace and tapes, as well as light, elegant lace creations catering for the trend towards Chantilly lace. Completely new products, which come somewhere between classic lingerie lace and complex sportswear fabrics, can also be produced.

The configuration of the guide bars on this machine is mainly responsible for the versatility of the machine. The MJ models have one jacquard bar and three ground guide bars for optionally processing elastane, one of which works the stitches.

Processing elastane with very high yarn counts in both the ground and pattern bars requires further knitting trials to be carried out in order to be able to fully utilise the speed potential of the machine.

The boundaries between the different types of clothing are being increasingly broken down, in the fashion world. Garments featuring an unusual hybrid mix of styles are generating good business for textile companies. They are striking on the street and keep machine developers busy.