Steeger’s horizontal braiders have the most flexibility from a standalone machine. Horizontal braiders allow for “discrete piece braiding” and “reel to reel” applications. The Horizontal Modular platform would the choice for R&D customers or customers that may want multiple braiding heads within the 32 carrier and below category. This would allow all the flexibility of a horizontal unit plus the additional heads for patterns and product characteristics.

Our Allen Bradley IMC control system allows customers to have the software needed for recipe loading and storage, braid density entry along the length of your part, multiple segments entry, in addition to PPI, footage and RPM readout.

Our braiding team at Steeger will work with future and current customers through our lab to help dial in the braiding parameters that will guide you to a specific braider for your product. We work closely to ensure the product specs are met and record all parameters of the braiding process for quality assurance with the next braid run or machine purchase.

The Full Load Regular Pattern is known for having the most Flexibility. The braid angle for this pattern is lower when compared to the other patterns if all else is the same due to the configuration of the wires (1 over 2 under 2). The other two patterns cause the wires to interlock which can cause a larger bend radius.

All the patterns can provide full coverage if you simply increase the picks per inch. The Full Load Diamond Pattern would be the answer though because it uses twice the amount of material per bobbin as the Full load regular pattern if all else is the same. The half load is half the number of wires on the machine so the full load diamond provide more material simply because it is using twice the amount of carriers/bobbins.

The Full Load Regular Pattern. Hints the name Regular Pattern because it is the most used pattern. The reason for this is throughput. This pattern runs at 100% capacity of the machine whereas the other two patterns run at 50%.

The Half Load Diamond Pattern is known for providing flexibility along with great kink resistance. A lot of customers change from the Full Load regular pattern on a 16 carrier machine to a Half Load Diamond Pattern on a 32 carrier machine which is the same amount of wires (16) when they want to increase push ability, torque ability, compression strength and kink resistance along with still having flexibility.

Sometimes the answer is that you need more wires in the braid. You may just need a larger machine doing the same pattern but with more wires/fibers to increase coverage, strength, change braid angle, etc.

• You can increase density which will help with push ability by increasing the picks per inch.
• You can change your wire type/size for different performance. Maybe your stainless-steel wire needs to be spring temper instead of annealed for radial force strength. Or just by simply increasing or decreasing the wire size can add diameter to the braid or reduce diameter which will add to or take away the strength of the braid also.
• You can change your core size/type depending on whether or not you are looking for a specific Outside diameter or inside diameter. Sometimes certain core materials are hard to slide the braid off of and you need something that works better with the braid wire/fiber you have chosen.

• What levers can I pull on this design and what about this design cannot be changed? The answer to this question will narrow your possibilities.
• Can you change the material type/size?
• Should I add or take away wires in the braid?
• Am I concerned about braid angle or coverage or both?

A recommended machine maintenance schedule can be found in our SteegerUSA braiding machine manual. This schedule is based off of 24/7, maximum speed operation.

Yes, the maintenance on the braiding machines can be adjusted if they are not operating 24/7 at maximum speed. Our IMC Allen Bradley machines have a machine statistics menu that shows a total accumulated time for each of the machine states. These times can be used to best align with machine maintenance. Please consult with a SteegerUSA representative before making these adjustments.

There are numerous braid parameters that go into creating a braided product. Because of this it is hard to find a one size fits all solution for machine setup. The R&D Lab at SteegerUSA has many years of experience with different type products and can help guide customers towards a recommended setup that may only require some fine tuning for their specific product. Customers can reach out to Will Hughey, or Forrest Copeland at SteegerUSA and they will help with the machine setup.

Yes, SteegerUSA offers two different services for carriers. The first is a standard carrier refurbishment. The customer will send the carriers to SteegerUSA with detailed specs of their build, and SteegerUSA will fully disassemble, clean, and replace all parts on the carriers then send them back to the customer. The Lead time for the standard carrier refurbishment is 4-6 weeks from receipt of the carriers. The second is SteegerUSA carrier exchange program. This is a program that SteegerUSA offers to allow customers to receive refurbished carriers before sending their old carriers in for refurbishment. The customer will provide detail specs of the carriers build, SteegerUSA will use inhouse carriers, build them to spec and send to the customer. Once the carriers are received by the customer, they will return the old carriers to SteegerUSA will hold the carriers until the next PO receipt and refurbish the carriers and send back to the customer. The lead time for the carrier exchange program is 4-6 weeks upon receipt of PO. Crystal Cote at SteegerUSA can provide quotes and more information on this if needed.