Healds

HEALDS

This is a term applied to looped cords which are furnished with an eye in the centre and employed in looms for controlling the up and down movements of the warp threads. In the majority of cases there is a separate heald eye for each warp thread, and those healds which lift in the same manner are threaded on the same stave except in those cases where that would make the healds too crowded. In such cases the healds are divided on two or three shafts which may be tied together to lift as one if weaving conditions permit. Healds are formed by a knitting machine which is set to form the required number of heald eyes per inch on each stave, or in the case of spaced healds with the heald eyes arranged in the desired order on the stave. The yarns used may be cotton or worsted (see Hea'd Yarns). In knitted healds the eye is usually formed from the same yarn as the rest of the heald, but healds can be made with metal eyes. Metal healds are made of twisted wire galvanised or treated to be rustless, and formed with an eye in the centre for the warp thread and elongated upper and lower eyes for threading on flat steel bars that are secured to the heald staves proper at the top and bottom. Such healds are usually of the sliding type and eliminate the need for healds knit to pattern. Wire healds are also combined with knitting to give a prescribed number of eyes per inch.