Checklist

Warp Knitting Spare Parts Stock Checklist

The point of a spares shelf is not to hold everything. It is to hold the things whose absence stops a machine, in the quantities that match how you run.

Tier One, The Parts That Touch Yarn

Sinker units, guide units and tongue units wear on every course. Hold enough to rebuild the worst section of a bar without waiting, not a full machine set.

On raschel machines, hold latch needles as a matched set rather than as loose spares, because mixing new and part-worn needles shows in the fabric.

Tier Two, The Parts That Hold The Setting

Trick plate units, separators and needle covers. These fail slowly and predictably, so they can be ordered on a planned cycle rather than held deep. Inspect them at every major stop and order against what you find.

Tier Three, Drive And Lubrication

Oil bellows in the layer counts your machine uses, with locking rings and oil stoppers. Ball bearings in the sizes fitted — 10x43, 12x43, 12x70, 18x60, 18x65, 25x85 and 25x110 are the sizes listed here. Flizers and sliders where the machine is known to wear them.

These are cheap relative to what they protect. They are the classic false economy on a spares shelf.

Tier Four, Patterning And Electrical

Piezo guides fail without warning and leave a permanent line in the pattern, so a mill running patterned goods holds them. Chain links and pattern discs are held against the patterns actually run, not against the whole catalogue.

Preparation Side

Yarn tensioners for the number of creel positions you run, one spare stop motion of each type fitted, and roller covering if your take-up rollers are recovered rather than replaced.

Record The References

The largest single saving is not in the stock, it is in the identification. Once a reference is confirmed against your machine, write it on the shelf label. The next order is then a reorder instead of a fresh identification with photographs.