Jacquard weaving machine for plastic beach mats: computerized vs mechanical

A jacquard weaving machine for plastic beach mats is a loom that weaves hollow PP straws across a warp of yarn and lifts each warp end on its own, so the pattern is woven into the mat rather than printed on top of it. The jacquard is the part that decides which warp ends rise for every straw. On older looms that decision is read from punched paper pattern cards; on a computerized jacquard loom it is read from a digital design file. The XY-KTC series from Wenzhou Xiangyi Machinery is built around the computerized version and comes in eight weaving widths from 900 to 3000 mm. This guide explains how the loom draws a pattern, what changes when the paper cards go, and how to choose a model for the mats you plan to sell.

Key definitions

• Warp. The yarns that run along the length of the mat. Before weaving they are wound side by side onto a beam on a warping machine, and the beam is mounted on the loom.
• Weft. The material laid across the mat on every pass. On a beach mat loom the weft is a hollow plastic straw, extruded from PP raw material on a plastic straw extruder.
• Warp ends. The number of individual warp yarns across the loom. The XY-KTC models take between 184 and 632 of them, rising with the weaving width.
• Jacquard. The mechanism that selects, for every straw, which warp ends are lifted above it and which stay below. The order of those selections is the design.
• Maximum weaving width. The widest mat the loom can produce. It is the number in each XY-KTC model name.

How a jacquard loom draws a pattern

Weaving repeats the same short cycle thousands of times. The jacquard lifts a chosen group of warp ends and leaves the others down, a straw is laid across the opening between them, and the warp closes over it before the next selection is made. Wherever a straw passes over the warp, the straw shows on the face of the mat; wherever the warp passes over the straw, the yarn shows. Because the jacquard can choose differently for every single warp end on every single pass, the loom can weave flowers, borders and other figures rather than only plain stripes.

That freedom is also why the pattern source matters so much. A design is nothing more than a long, ordered list of lift decisions. Whoever runs the loom needs to store that list, change it when the order changes, and keep it intact through a production run.

Mechanical and computerized jacquard compared

A mechanical jacquard stores the design on paper. Every design needs its own set of punched pattern cards; changing to a new pattern means changing the cards by hand, and a torn card has to be remade before the loom can run that pattern again. The XY-KTC replaces this with a computerized jacquard: the design is a digital file, it is loaded from a USB stick, and the operator switches from one stored pattern to another with the buttons on the display built into the machine.

	Mechanical jacquard	Computerized jacquard (XY-KTC)
Where the design is stored	Punched paper pattern cards	A digital file on the loom
Loading a new design	Make a new set of cards	Load the file from a USB stick
Switching between designs	Change the cards by hand	Select the pattern on the built-in display
Wear and damage	Cards tear and must be remade	No cards to wear out
Cost of a new design	Cost of making the card set	No card set to make

For a mat maker the practical gain is speed of change: a new design becomes a file and a few button presses instead of a new card set, and there are no cards to store, repair or replace.

XY-KTC models by width

The main technical parameters below are copied from our catalogue. Wider looms carry more warp ends and generally run at a lower main shaft speed.

Model	Max. weaving width (mm)	Max. warp ends	Main shaft speed (r/min)	Power (kW)
XY-KTC900	900	184	80–130	1.5
XY-KTC1200	1200	248	80–120	1.5
XY-KTC1500	1500	312	80–100	1.85
XY-KTC1800	1800	376	80–100	1.85
XY-KTC2000	2000	408	60–90	1.85
XY-KTC2200	2200	456	60–80	2.25
XY-KTC2700	2700	568	60–70	2.25
XY-KTC3000	3000	632	50–60	2.25

The installed size and weight of every model are on the beach mat weaving machine page.

How to choose a loom

1. Start from the mats you sell. Pick the model whose maximum weaving width covers the widest mat in your range. If you sell several widths, decide whether one wide loom or several narrower looms suits your orders better.
2. Weigh width against speed. The catalogue shows the trade-off directly: the XY-KTC900 runs at 80–130 r/min, the XY-KTC3000 at 50–60 r/min. Wider is not automatically better if most of your orders are narrow.
3. Plan the warp. Every loom needs a warp beam prepared on a warping machine. Our ZJ-2000 winds up to 440 yarns onto a beam 900 to 2000 mm wide; ask us to confirm the warping set-up for your loom widths.
4. Plan the straw supply. The straws come from an LG series straw extruder: the LG55/2 makes two straws at a time and the LG55/4 four.
5. Check power and floor space. Each model's installed size and power are in the catalogue; the looms need between 1.5 and 2.25 kW.
6. Prepare your designs. Because patterns are loaded as files, collect the designs you want to weave and ask us how to prepare them for the USB upload.

Where the loom sits in the line

The loom is the centre of a plastic beach mat production line: straws arrive from the extruder, the warp beam from the warping machine, and the woven roll leaves for heat cutting, edge sewing and baling. If you are planning a new line or adding looms, send us an enquiry with the mat widths and output you have in mind.