TC2
The Loom For Creators
Witness the interplay of the warp and the weft – up, close and personal! The TC2 is a hand-operated electronic Jacquard loom. While the loom’s operations are completely computer controlled, its hand-weaving feature allows the user to closely monitor every single pick and thus enabling endless possibilities to experiment and innovate with absolute efficiency. With the TC2, any changes with regard to weave structures, designs, warp densities and weft materials can be made instantly. This is the reason that we call it a loom for creators, not manufacturers.
How it started off as a dream, and ended up as a dream loom! It was in the early 90s that Vibeke Vestby, then a weaving professor from Oslo (Norway), began toying with the idea of developing a Jacquard weaving loom based on computer technology. The Norwegian economy was booming and the government was encouraging research projects, particularly concerning traditional crafts with new technology. Vibeke sent in a proposal to develop a digital weaving loom, and after getting a go ahead, she partnered with Tronrud Engineering and began to develop the loom. It took four prototypes and five years of intensive research before the Thread Controller 1 (TC1) was born. Although the TC1 was in itself an ‘ahead of its times’ loom, DWN strived to build an upgrade. Based on its own research and valuable feedback from users, DWN finally rolled out the TC2 in 2012. The TC2 was more than an upgrade, it was a brand new machine that overcame all the challenges of TC1 and other contemporary looms.
We maximized our efforts so that you could minimize your efforts! With the TC2, you can go from an idea to a fabric in minutes! • Scan /create a design on the computer • Edit in a design program (Example - Photoshop) or any industrial Jacquard program • Open edited image in TC2 Loom Controller software • Click to connect the TC2 software to the loom • Start weaving! And how may this help your business? • Customized designs no longer cause delays • Woven hardcopies directly available for lab tests and finishing treatment experiments Sampling time becomes more efficient: • On a shaft loom, changing the number of shafts/treadles can take days, but on the TC2, it is instant! • As opposed to Jacquard looms, the TC2 has no repeats, i.e. you can sample for any Jacquard head • The TC2 optimizes work flow between various departments within an organisation and/or with the customer • TC2 enables product development in the design studio, i.e. liberate production capacity Yes, we do have it all figured out!
Which is the ONE for you? All good things come in threes - and so does the TC2. We term them as 2W, 3W and 4W looms (W reflects the horizontal placement of modules). You can select the loom size and module configuration based on your requirements of fabric width and fabric density. Consider the loom frame as a book shelf and the modules as a book, which can be arranged and rearranged based on the weaver’s needs. Each module controls 220 heddles and enables a fabric width of 14.5 inches and a fabric density of 15 epi. 2W loom • Modular configuration: 2 to 24 modules • Fabric width: 14.5” to 28” • Fabric density: 15 epi to 180 epi • Heddles controlled: 440 to 5280 • Loom Footprint: 48” wide x 59” deep x 60” tall 3W loom • Modular configuration: 2 to 36 modules • Fabric width: 14.5” to 43” • Fabric density: 15 epi to 180 epi • Heddles controlled: 440 to 7920 • Loom Footprint: 65” wide x 59” deep x 60 “ tall 4W loom • Modular configuration: 2 to 48 modules • Fabric width: 14.5” to 56” • Fabric density: 15 epi to 180 epi • Heddles controlled: 440 to 10560 • Loom Footprint: 78” wide x 59” deep x 60” tall
Because we all need help once in a while! The modular solution with interchangeable parts is developed to make the TC2 user-friendly and easy to maintain. And if need be, we send in highly-skilled technicians for service and support. The TC2 also has its own IP address! This means that our engineers may log on to the loom if it is connected to an open network. They can then perform checks, do diagnostics and assist the customer in detecting possible errors. The software and firmware can be updated though a built-in software command, so not even this will require assistance from us. And if you do have any questions – because we all have questions – we are right here. Be it “where is the power button?” to “what does every pixel is a thread mean?”
A common thread among weavers the world over We are currently global market leaders in the segment of Digital Jacquard looms and have sold our looms to educational institutions, R&D wings of the high-end textiles manufacturers and freelance designers/artists across Europe, USA, Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand and many countries in Asia. We launched the Thread Controller in 1995 and since then, we’ve had a long list of satisfied customers, many of them using the loom for R&D/product development, sampling and rapid prototyping, on-demand production, mass customisation or simply just to weave anything and everything that fancies their imagination. More recently, we have seen increased interest in the TC2 by textile manufacturers, researchers as well as companies working with newly engineered materials like technical and smart textiles.
Pepptimus Prime Heather Macali
Wool Prototypes for Clothing Katja Huhmarkangas
Digital Weaving Norway Tronrud Engineering AS Flyplassveien 21 N-3514 Hønefoss, Norway Tel.: +47 32 16 18 20 dwn@tronrud.no www.digitalweaving.no
Contact Persons: Vibeke Vestby - +47 909 57 586 Geetika Nautiyal - +47 909 64 969