Fibre Preparation
Mechanical alignment acts on raw flax bundles to extract long strands from short waste. Hackling removes woody remnants known as shives and organizes the remaining stalks into parallel lines. This stage defines the length and cleanliness of the output, which determines the yield for subsequent spinning processes.
Each operator monitors the density of the strike to ensure the material feeds into the machine without snapping. Mechanical separation establishes the quality baseline for the entire batch.
Quality Standard
Grade specifications follow the physical length and uniformity of the output bundles. Mill protocols require inspectors to measure the average diameter of the cleaned stalks against historical benchmarks for yarn counts. Buyers verify this consistency through random sampling at the point of arrival to confirm the material matches the contract description.
Discrepancies between mill output and buyer requirements lead to price adjustments or rejections at the port. Verification depends on the visual inspection of the parallel orientation of the fibres within the bundle.
Production Boundary
Processing constraints dictate the efficiency of the line before the output moves to the drawing frames. Excessive force destroys the long-line potential by fracturing individual stalks into shorter pieces. Machine settings remain locked during a production run to prevent the variation of fibre distribution across a single lot.
Proper calibration allows the mechanical fingers to penetrate the bundle fully without damaging the core structure. Output quality rests entirely on the precision of the initial comb adjustment.
