This Ramella carding machine was described as the ‘Rolls-Royce’ of carders by Juliet Miller, one of the owners of The Border Mill. It is used in the next stage of yarn production after the fleece has been sorted and washed. The size and efficiency of this machine is ideal for the numerous small batches that the mill processes.
The revolving drums of the carder are covered in fine needles which tease and encourage the fibres of the fleece to lie in the same direction.
Fleece is pulled into smaller pieces and fed into the carder via a small conveyor belt. Once the fleece has been passed around the drum, the long sliver of carded fleece is syphoned off and coiled into a large container – ready for drafting.
Click here for short video of the process – Border-Mill-Ramella-carding-machine
All photographs taken by a member of the F2F team and used with permission of The Border Mill.