Main description (English)

Introduction Kotel carpets are one of the Bulgarian national symbols. They are known not only in the country but all over the world. Their production is kept till nowadays, although the number of people who produce them is rapidly declining. To help the cause of preserving traditions come modern methods such as digitization of patterns, development of electronic catalogues and their storage, engineering approaches and solutions for transformation of handmade patterns in manufacturing technologies, as well as other technological calculations. Carpet weavers have an intuition based on their long-years' experience to estimate looking at the pattern how many warp threads to take and how many weft threads to lay in order to become a desired figure. The main goal of the research was to put their knowledge and skills on a scientific ground. Experimental part The present work briefly describes the handmade carpet weaving technology. Based on its principles, a methodology has been developed to determine the number of threads corresponding to a pattern cell. By input parameters: pattern, linear density of warp and weft threads and density of warp winding, the size of the finished woven carpet can be calculated. In case of existing carpet sample, conversely, the pattern can be restored, and the material parameters calculated. Results An expert computing module based on Excel spreadsheets to automate the calculations has been developed. It is worked out in 2 versions, depending on the applied weaving method: by pairs or by single warp threads. Discussion Well-known formulas have been used to recalculate the linear density into diameter. The need for periodic crossing of neighbour threads during the fabric formation is also taken into account, in order to avoid the formation of large hollow windows (ajour?), which can reduce the strength of the carpet. Conclusion Proposed methodology can be used successfully because it has been validated through a large number of experimental tests conducted with patterns and materials from the production range of BG Nuance. Keywords: Kotel carpets, pattern, digitalization, automated engineering calculations. The result of this publication was obtained under the Project "Restoration and preservation of Kotel carpet production", funded by the Operational Program "Innovation and Competitiveness", cofinanced by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund, Project № BG16RFOP002-2.024-0041-C01.