Anyone lucky enough to see a state-of-the-art weaving loom at work will question how such a complex and delicate process can be so fast yet so precise. Well, that's in no small part down to Eltex of Sweden, a global business that has specialized in developing and manufacturing yarn sensors and yarn tension monitors since 1964. The Swedish company also supplies additional equipment designed for monitoring various processes in the textile industry. The sensors on show at DOMOTEX are suitable for weaving machines, warping creels, tufting, spooling and sewing machines as well as a variety of other production machinery.

Take Eltex EYE, for example, a system that has been developed to detect yarn faults on tufting machinery with the aim of optimizing quality and efficiency by driving down the need for repairs and downtime. Eltex EYE is available in two different versions. The yarn sensor in the "Compact" model is positioned between feed rollers and needles and detects 100 percent of missing yarns in the carpet. For the CoTS (Clamp on Tube Sensors) model, however, the yarn sensors are fitted on the tubes between the tufting machine and the creel. This ensures 100 percent of all yarn breaks and end outs are detected - for most types of yarn. The data captured by the sensors is recorded in real time and can be subsequently used for statistics and diagnostics.