Narrow Fabrics for Decorating

Vast market for narrow fabrics

Narrow fabrics like textile ribbons, belts or lanyards may be small elements, but often they are the distinctive feature of a product‘s design – just think about zippers, braids and loops on clothing, or about belts, straps and borders on bags and backpacks. They can also be processed to serve as waistbelts, suspenders, key lanyards, as leashes and collars for dogs, or as headstalls for horses. All these applications offer a wide range of options for finishing and promotional purposes.

Basically, narrow fabrics represent flat textile products, consisting of two thread systems with rectangular alignment (warp and weft directions). As the longitudinal threads (warp) are lifted and lowered periodically, a tunnel shape appears, and the weft thread passes through. The resulting cross of threads is called “interloop”. While the interloop is established, the number of warp and weft threads repeats itself again and again, resulting in the design repeat. The tightness of the textile depends on the number of woven threads. More threads within a certain area result in a tighter textile, with more sturdiness and durability.

Since March 2014, Güth & Wolf from Gütersloh (Germany) is printing on narrow fabrics with their digital ribbon printing system from ZIMMER AUSTRIA.

The systems from the COLARIS.NF family of digital printers can print on both sides of all kinds of narrow fabrics simultaneously, up to a width of 250 mm. Suitable dyestuffs are available for various kinds of textiles, like cotton, polyamide or polyester. ZIMMER AUSTRIA, with production plants in Klagenfurt and Kufstein (Austria) is the worldwide leading manufacturer of machines for textile and carpet finishing.