“Such companies are typically manufacturing very expensive carpets made in a myriad of patterns and if faults are allowed to occur they can be very expensive to mend,” says Brian Hicks, managing director of Eltex of Sweden, the developer of the technology. “If all goes to plan – and all the testing results are very exciting so far – we will be unveiling the latest version of the Eltex EYE at ITMA 2019 in Barcelona, Spain, from June 20-26th.”

The latest advanced tufting machines, he explains, put significant limitations on the space that is available for yarn fault detection systems, and the Eltex EYE is very comprehensive, with each yarn individually controlled for a 100% detection of every tufting yarn break and end out.

“Unlike scanning inspection systems, we are monitoring each individual yarn position in real time,” says Mr Hicks. “As a consequence, we have concentrated on the further miniaturisation of our sensors. Our sensors are usually fitted between the feed rollers and the needles and based on the well proven piezoelectric principle. Their special compact design already enables them to be fitted on machines with gauges as dense as a tenth of an inch.”

All of the data from the sensors is processed by a master control unit which provides stop and warning light indications to the extremely user-friendly operator terminal in response to any detected yarn fault.

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Eltex reports major gains with its first generation Eltex EYE in the carpet and artificial grass manufacturing sectors in recent years.

“We have been cementing our position in this industry over the past few years and I believe that the system we introduce at ITMA 2019 will take yarn fault detection to a whole new level of security and quality assurance for tufters,” Mr Hicks says.