The development history of textile machinery

Humans originally used natural fibers as raw materials to spin and weave fabrics, which predates the invention of writing (see World Textile History, Chinese Textile History). China already used a hand-spinning wheel to spin during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and by the Song Dynasty, it had invented a hydraulic spinning wheel with more than 30 spindles. In 1769, the Englishman R. Accrright (also translated as Richard Accrat) made a hydraulic spinning machine. In 1779, the Englishman S. Crompton (Samuel Crompton) invented the spinning machine. After being introduced to the United States, in 1828, the American J. Thorpe invented the ring spinning machine, which increased productivity several times due to the use of continuous spinning. The looms of the Warring States Period in China already used the principle of leverage to drive the heddle frame to complete the opening action with a pedal link. In 1733, the Englishman J. Kay (also translated as John Kay) invented the flying shuttle, striking the shuttle, making it fly at high speed, and the productivity of the loom could be doubled. In 1785, Englishman E. Cartwright (also translated as Edmund Cartwright) invented the power loom. In the same year, Britain built the world's first cotton textile factory powered by a steam engine. It was a turning point in the transition of the textile industry from handicraft industry to large-scale industrial production. The progress of human society and the increase of population have promoted the development of the textile industry, and correspondingly promoted the improvement of textile machinery. Energy reform (replacing human and animal power with steam power) laid the foundation for modern textile machinery.

The advent of man-made fibers at the end of the 19th century broadened the field of textile machinery and added a category of chemical fiber machinery. The growth of people's demand for synthetic fibers has driven the development of synthetic fiber spinning equipment to large-scale (the diameter of the spinning screw reaches 200 mm, and the daily output of a single spinning machine reaches 100 tons) and high-speed (the spinning speed reaches 3000-4000 m/min). The country with the fastest development of the synthetic fiber industry in the world has updated its equipment almost every 5 to 6 years, and the number of machines has doubled within 10 years. Spinning and weaving equipment in the past 20 years has made many local improvements to adapt to pure spinning of chemical fibers or blending with natural fibers, such as expanding the range of suitable fiber lengths for drafting mechanisms and eliminating static electricity on fibers. In dyeing and finishing, high temperature and high pressure dyeing equipment, heat setting equipment, resin finishing equipment and loose finishing equipment have been developed.

Human beings have been spinning and weaving with traditional methods for more than 6,000 years. So far, spinning and weaving machines designed according to traditional principles are still the main equipment of the world textile industry. But since the 1950s, some new process methods have been created, partially replacing traditional methods, producing textiles with much higher efficiency, such as rotor spinning, non-woven fabrics, etc. The new process method gave birth to new textile equipment, and the maturity and promotion of new textile equipment promoted the further development of the textile industry.