Full Fashion Hosiery Process
Full Fashion Nylon Hosiery
1. Full fashion knitting machine – 51 gauge, 30 section – automatic welt turning. Textile Machine Works, Reading, PA
2. One fixer, to two machines; one knitter to each machine
3. View of knitting floor – 45 gauge, 51 gauge and 60 gauge. In 1965, 66 gauge machines were added. Machines were 45 feet long.
4. 60 gauge needle bar. Sixty needles per 38 mm (approx. 1 1⁄2 inches) or 600 needles to the bar, 30 barsper machine = 18,000 needles per full fashion machine. Torrington Co., Torrington, CT
5. On the left, a pirn of 15 denier mono filament nylon 6,6. On the right, a pirn of 40 denier, 13 filament nylon 6,6. Fifteen denier used on the leg, 40 denier in the heel, toe and welt. 100 denier yarn (nylon, silk or rayon) 450meters long weighs 5 grams. DuPont Textile Fibers, Wilmington, DE
6. Lydon steam box used to “set” the greige stockings before seaming in order to improve handling for quality. Lydon Oven Co., Hackensack, NJ