A loom is a device used to weave cloth. The earliest looms date from the 5th millennium BC and consisted of bars or beams fixed in place to form a frame to hold a number of parallel threads in two sets, alternating with each other. By raising one set of these threads, which together formed the warp, it was possible to run a cross thread, a weft, filling, between them. The block of wood used to carry the filling strand through the warp was called the shuttle. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics may vary, but the basic function is the same.

Weaving is done by intersecting the longitudinal threads, the warp, i.e. "that which is thrown across" with the transverse threads, the weft, i.e. "that which is woven".

Basic, crude, primitive, these are all the words that may spring to mind when one thinks of the humble backstrap loom. A description that obscures the fact that some of history’s most beautiful and complex textiles have been woven on this simple arrangement of sticks.

A back strap loom consists of two sticks or bars between which the warps are stretched. One bar is attached to a fixed object, and the other to the weaver usually by means of a strap around the back.

 

The warp-weighted loom is a vertical loom. The warp weighted loom is a vertical loom with an upper beam, the warp held taunt by weights (hence the name) and the weft beaten up toward the beam. It was used by most early European cultures and even survived into modern times in northern Europe.

Frequently, extra warp thread is wound around the weights. When a weaver has reached the bottom of the available warp, the completed section can be rolled around the top beam, and additional lengths of warp threads can be unwound from the weights to continue. This frees the weaver from vertical size constraints.

 

The drawloom, probably invented in Asia for silk weaving, made possible the weaving of more intricate patterns by providing a means for raising warp threads in groups as required by the pattern.

The drawloom was improved in Italy and France in the early 17th century by the addition of a type of mechanical drawboy, allowing the assistant to stand on the floor at the side of the loom and increasing the control of the cords. 

 

Handloom means a manually operated loom. The process consisted of interlacing one set of threads of yarn (the warp) with another (the weft). The warp threads are stretched lengthwise in the weaving loom. The weft, the cross-threads, are woven into the warp to make the cloth. 

 

A power loom is a mechanised loom powered by a line shaft, and was one of the key developments in the industrialization of weaving during the early Industrial Revolution. The first power loom was designed in 1784 by Edmund Cartwright and first built in 1785.

• Shuttle: The first-ever powered looms were shuttle-type looms. Spools of weft are unraveled as the shuttle travels across the shed. This is very similar to projectile methods of weaving, except that the weft spool is stored on the shuttle. These looms are considered obsolete in modern industrial fabric manufacturing because they can only reach a maximum of 300 picks per minute.

        

• Air jet: An air-jet loom uses short quick bursts of compressed air to propel the weft through the shed in order to complete the weave. Air jets are the fastest traditional method of weaving in modern manufacturing and they are able to achieve up to 1500 picks per minute. However, the amounts of compressed air required to run these looms, as well as the complexity in the way the air jets are positioned, make them more costly than other looms.

 

• Water jet: Water-jet looms use the same principle as air-jet looms, but they take advantage of pressurized water to propel the weft. The advantage of this type of weaving is that water power is cheaper where water is directly available on site. Picks per minute can reach as high as 1000.

 

• Rapier Loom : This type of weaving is very versatile, in that rapier looms can weave using a large variety of threads. There are several types of rapiers, but they all use a hook system attached to a rod or metal band to pass the pick across the shed. These machines regularly reach 700 picks per minute in normal production.

 

• Projectile: Projectile looms utilize an object that is propelled across the shed, usually by spring power, and is guided across the width of the cloth by a series of reeds. The projectile is then removed from the weft fibre and it is returned to the opposite side of the machine so it can get reused. Multiple projectiles are in use in order to increase the pick speed. Speeds maximize on these machines at 1050 ppm.