WEAVING MATS

Coir mats are made on handlooms, power looms or frames with or without brush available in a range of colours, sizes and designs. The brushing qualities of coir doormats and their ability to keep the dirt away make the product a unique one. Mats are available in plain(solid colour), natural and bleached, available with woven or stencilled design and bevelled patterns for use in interior or exterior fronts.

Coir mats are manufactured and supplied in various sizes. Popular and stock sizes are

Size No               Inch                 Cm

0.                           12"x21"       33x55

1.                          14"x24"       35x60

2.                          16"x27"       40x70

3.                          18" x30"       45x75

4.                          20"x33"        50x85

5.                           22"x36"         55x93

 The most popular and widely used coir mats manufactured with the aid of frames are,

 Corridor Mat 

 Sinnet Mat

 Mesh Mat

 Rope Mat and 

 Coir Mats with brushes are made mainly on looms and they are

 Fibre Mat

 Rod Mat

 Rod inlaid Mat

 Creel Mat

 Carnatic Mat 

 Loop Mat etc.

 Mats manufactured by other processes are, Rubber tufted mats

 P.V.C Tufted mats 

 Matting mats 

 General Procedure For Weaving.

 The warp yarn prepared on a chain beam is placed at the back of the loom. The yarn from the chain beam after passing over the back rest beam or chain rest beam is drawn through the heddle eyes and dented through the dents of the reeds attached to slay. This is then passed over the waist beam or front rest tied to a rod and attached to a wooden roller (tension beam/cloth beam) using pieces of rope. The take up of the woven fabric is affected by operating the ratchet wheel at one end of the wooden roller. By doing so the woven mat is uniformly taken up. There is another ratchet wheel fixed on the chain beam and by detaching the catch on the ratchet wheel, the necessary length of warp from the chain beam can be released.

Corridor Mat 

Corridor mat is also known as Hollander mat or Dutch mat. This is one of the mats that is woven without the help of a loom. It requires a wooden frame in which iron rods can be kept vertically through grooves cut on rails to the thickness of the iron rods. The iron rods temporarily function as warp. Based on the length of the mat the rods are arranged on the frame determining the number of rods required for a particular length as per the ends per foot of each quality of mat. The number of ends per foot generally followed in the industry is 14/15 and 18/19. After arranging the rods, the weft yarn is passed in between the rods by hand alternately from one end to the other and is turned back. This process of winding the yarn is continued until the required number of weft required for a particular width of mat is wound. For mats having designs coloured threads are

wound on the iron rods according to the designs. After completion of winding of yarn on one side, the frame along with the iron rods is turned to the other side so that the yarn can be wound on the latter portion of the iron rods. The process of winding the yarn on the iron rod is done similarly to with above case. The winding of yarn is done in this also as was done in the case of the other half. Now the iron rods with yarn wound over it is removed from the frame and placed in a pressing device. 

 The press consists of two iron rails out of which one is moveable by turning a handle. On the rails, small iron nails are fixed in such a way that the distance between the two iron nails equals the distance between the grooves cut on the wooden frame to erect iron rods vertically to weave the yarn. This helps the iron rods to be placed comfortably in the press while pressing. The iron rods with yarn placed on the two rails are subjected to pressing by turning the handle which causes the movable iron rail to move closer to the fixed rail to press the yarn to the required width. Now the iron rods are removed one by one and it is then drawn roping yarn through the holes from where the rods are removed. All the iron rods are removed like this and the rope yarn is passed in. While passing the roping yarn through the holes at the extreme ends a single thread of coir yarn is also passed in along with the roping yarn. So that the protruding ends of the thread can be utilized to prevent the weft threads of the mat at 4 corners from being loosened or removed while in use. The mat is then removed from the press and the 4 corners of the mat are made intact by taking the protruding threads suitably to interlace with the weft in

 the mat.

SINNET MAT 

 This is also known as Chain Mat. The mat is made by braid or plait guiding it in an even zig-zag manner with interspace-giving patterns followed by stitching. The braids used are generally 9 ply and 11 ply. The length of the braid required depends upon the size and the pattern of the mat to be produced. 

A flat table upon which nails without heads are fixed according to the size and pattern of the mat required. Starts with the braid is put from one corner and is guided around the outer portion of the nails for one round then it is guided to the inner side of the nails to form a second layer followed by stitching with the outer layer wherever required. Having completed the required number of layers for the border as described above, the braid again guided through the inner part of the mat through the nails to form the required pattern.

MESH MAT

This is a non-brush doormat produced with the help of a specially designed wooden frame. The size of the frame is made to the size of the mat to be made. The warp yarn is guided in between the nails in the length way and width way perpendicular to each other. There must be 4 layers of warp-two in length way and two in width way alternately. There will be 4 coir yarns crossing each other at the intersecting point. The mat is made by tying together the 4 coir yarn at the crossing point of warp layers with a special knot. A finer variety of coir yarn with the help of a needle is inserted through the mesh and circled over the warp yarn at the point of intersection in such a way that the stitching yarn should cross at the rear side of the mat. For getting designs, coloured yarn is used for tying.

A rectangular frame made out of 4 wooden planks upon which nails without heads are fixed at equal distances. The nails on one side of the frame are parallel to the nails on the opposite side of the frame. There should be 15 nails per foot. Usually for No-1 size the number of nails would be 17 and 30 in width way and length way respectively. Similarly, for the No.2 size, the number of nails is 20 and 34.

Having completed the tying according to the pattern, the mat is taken out of the frame. The edges of the mat round are finished by stitching with a coir braid of a suitable type or by a special braiding with 8 ends of coir yarn or finished with lace work

.