Rapier Rod Weaving Machine Saurer 400 with digital Jacquard Machine II: Weaving – Starting

The Rapier Rod Weaving Machine Saurer 400 uses a rapier rod that inserts the weft thread from one side only. This allows for a much faster weaving speed. This particular weaving machine was built in 1982 by Bourgoin-Jallieu/France, Saurer Diederichs S.A. It was used to mass produce raw fabrics for technical purposes and outer garments between 1982 and 2008.
Today it is a working exhibit at the LWL-Industriemuseum TextilWerk Bocholt. It is used to make miner’s cloths and towels for creative projects and the shop. In 2013 the museum combined the weaving machine with three digital Jacquard machines by the Swiss company Stäubli. The Jacquard machines enable the museum to weave patterns and lettering with up to three colours into the cloth.
The digital and electric Jacquard machines are the successors of the mechanical ones. Just as their modern counterparts and basically every computer, the historical Jacquard machines used binary code to translate and implement the pattern within the weaving process.
In this recording you can hear one of the weavers starting the machine. It springs into action almost instantly. Unlike their mechanical predecessors, however, electric Jacquard machines are hardly audible. The dominant and rather loud sounds are issued by the weaving machine itself, the rapier rod, its motor and the movement of the warps.
Sound Recordist: Kathinka Engels
Photographer: Kathinka Engels