Machine Gauge Explained From E12 To E36

Gauge Is Needles Per Inch

An E28 machine carries twenty-eight needles in every inch of working width. That number fixes the needle spacing, and therefore the guide spacing, the sinker spacing and the trick plate slot pitch. Change the gauge and every one of those elements changes.

The piezo guide range on this catalogue is listed from E12 to E32. The long bars statement records the highest gauge produced as E36, which is 36 slots per inch.

How To Measure It When The Plate Is Gone

Mark one inch on the needle bar with a steel rule and count the needles inside the mark. Do it at three or four places across the width and take the average. On fine gauges, count over two or three inches and divide, because a single inch is easy to miscount.

Cross-check against the old part. A trick plate slot pitch and a guide unit spacing are the gauge expressed as a dimension.

Coarse And Fine Gauges Behave Differently

Coarse gauges take heavier yarn and thicker elements, and they are more tolerant of small setting errors. Fine gauges are the opposite: the elements are thinner, they deflect more easily, and the tolerance between a working machine and a machine dropping stitches is much narrower.

That is why a fine gauge machine needs its locating parts — trick plates, separators, needle covers — inspected as a matter of routine rather than only when something goes wrong.

Gauge Alone Is Not Enough

Gauge fixes spacing, not form. A separator pin still needs a thickness, a hole count and a length. A needle cover still needs an overall length. A piezo guide still needs its type code. Each category page on this site states what that category is selected by, alongside the gauge.