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Stenter Pin Bar Care, Repinning and Replacement Parts

A stenter pin bar is the row of hardened pins, held in a pin block on the stenter chain, that pierces the fabric selvedge and carries the fabric through the drying chamber at a set width. Con-Pap-Tex supplies replacement stenter pin bars, pin plates for repinning and pin blocks, so worn bars can be renewed before they spoil the fabric.

What Does a Stenter Pin Bar Do on the Machine?

A stenter pin bar holds the fabric edge while the chain pulls the cloth through heat. Two chains, one on each side of the machine, run along rails that open out to the set width. Thousands of bars sit end to end on each chain, and every bar carries a short row of pins. At the entry, a brush or wheel presses the selvedge down onto the pins, and the fabric then stays pinned until it leaves the delivery end.

While the fabric is on the pins, it is dried, heat set or finished at the width the rails dictate. That is why a stenter can correct width, control shrinkage and straighten weft lines in one pass. All of that depends on one simple thing: the pins must enter the cloth cleanly, hold it firmly and release it without damage. Pin bars that are bent, blunt, loose or dirty cannot do that, and the fault shows on every metre of fabric.

Why Do Stenter Pin Bars Wear Out?

Stenter pin bars wear out because they work in heat, under tension and against abrasive, often wet and chemically treated fabric, on every turn of the chain. Wear is not a sign of a bad bar. It is the normal life of a part that pierces fabric millions of times. The common causes are:

Pin tips go blunt: Each entry into the cloth rubs the tip. Blunt pins push the yarns aside instead of piercing, and the fabric rides on top of the pins.
Pins bend: Fabric jams, folded selvedges, seams and a badly set entry brush bend pins sideways. A bent pin tears the edge or misses it.
Plating wears through: Bars are hardened and hard chrome plated to resist wear and corrosion. Once the plating is worn through, the base metal corrodes and roughens.
Deposits build up: Finishing chemicals, softeners, resin and lint bake onto the pins and the block in the hot chamber, so the pins become short and thick.
Blocks and fixings loosen: Heat cycles every day make the block and its fixing points work loose, and a loose bar tilts or sits low on the chain.

Wear of this kind builds up slowly. Most mills notice it only when the selvedge starts to come off the pins or the edge shows torn holes.

How Should Stenter Pin Bars Be Looked After?

Stenter pin bars last longest when they are kept clean, checked on a fixed routine and changed in planned batches instead of one at a time in a breakdown. A simple care routine looks like this:

Watch the selvedge at the entry on every shift. The edge should go onto the pins evenly along both chains, without lifting or tearing.
Clean the pins and blocks at each planned stop. Remove lint and baked deposits with a brush suited to hardened pins, never a tool that bends them.
Walk each chain slowly at a planned stop and mark every bar with bent, missing or blunt pins, cracked blocks or loose fixings.
Straighten lightly bent pins only where the plating is intact. Pins that are badly bent, cracked or worn short are repinned or the bar is replaced.
Keep a stock of replacement bars and pin plates for your make, so marked bars can be changed at the next stop.
Record how many bars were changed and where. A cluster of damage in one zone points to a cause at the entry, not to the bars.

A care routine of this kind is ordinary preventive maintenance. It costs a few hours at planned stops and saves the fabric rejections that worn bars cause.

Repin or Replace: What Is the Right Choice?

Repin when the pin block is sound and only the pins or the pin plate are worn. Replace the complete bar when the block itself is cracked, distorted or worn at its fixing points, or when the bar no longer sits true on the chain link.

Condition of the Bar	Usual Decision	Part to Order
Pins blunt, bent or missing, block sound	Repin	Replacement pin plates
Pins clogged with deposits, otherwise sound	Clean, then judge again	None, or pin plates if pins are worn
Plating worn through, pins rough or corroded	Repin	Replacement pin plates
Block cracked, broken or distorted by heat	Replace the block	Pin blocks
Bar loose or tilted although the block is sound	Check the link and fixings first	Chain link parts if the link is worn
Many bars worn along the whole chain	Replace the set in planned batches	Complete pin bars

Repinning keeps the block and renews the part that wears fastest. The stenter repinning page explains how it is done in the mill, step by step, and which parts are needed. When the whole bar is finished, the stenter pin bar replacement page shows how to identify and order a bar that matches the chain.

What Causes Stenter Pinning Problems?

Most stenter pinning problems come from the parts around the pin bar, not from the bar alone. The pins can only hold what the feeding system puts onto them, and they can only run true if the chain and the drive run true. The table lists the faults mills see most often.

Pinning Fault	Likely Cause	First Check
Selvedge comes off the pins	Blunt or bent pins, or the edge reaches the pins too narrow	Pin condition in that zone, the cloth guider and the selvedge feeler
Torn or enlarged pin holes	Bent or rough pins, too much width stretch	Pin condition, width setting and overfeed
Edge pinned on one side only	Feeler or guider fault on that side	Feeler switch and guider on the affected chain
Uneven pinning depth along the edge	Pinning brush worn or set wrong, bars sitting at different heights	Brush setting, loose or low bars
Pin marks or holes far into the fabric	Edge fed too wide onto the pins	Guider setting and selvedge width
Fabric skewed or bowed after the stenter	Left and right chains not in step, uneven overfeed	Chain wheels, drive and overfeed on both sides
Fabric lifts off the pins in the chamber	Too little overfeed tension on knits, worn pins	Overfeed setting and pin condition

A fault that appears all along one chain usually comes from the feeding or the drive. A fault that appears only where certain bars pass comes from those bars or from the links that carry them. The stenter chain link bottom parts page explains how a worn link shows up in the pin line.

Replacement Parts for Stenter Pin Bars and Stenter Chains

Con-Pap-Tex manufactures, exports and supplies spare parts for stenter machines, and has supplied pin bars and pin plates for the last 25 years. Pin bars are hardened and hard chrome plated, and pin blocks are pressure die cast in aluminium alloy. The range covers pin bars listed as 44 pin and 72 pin, and bars for all makes of stenter machine.

Pin holding parts: Complete pin bars, pin plates for repinning, and stenter pin block replacement parts.
Chain and drive parts: Chain link bottom parts and chain assemblies, chain wheels, gear box parts and shafts.
Fabric feeding parts: Overfeed parts, feeler switches and cloth guiders.
Clips: Stenter clips for pin and clip chains, cast from special alloy aluminium.
Other spares: Jigger, folding, rotary printing and other textile machinery spare parts for the rest of the processing mill.

Every part, grouped by what it does and what fails on it, is listed on the stenter pin bar spare parts page. Parts are supplied to suit Artos, Dhall, Harish, Harish Supra, Yamuna, Hi-Tech, S.M., Montex, Swastik, Bruckner, Babros, Ambika, Primatex, Krantz, Bharat Eng, Monforts, Wakayama, Famatex, Stenmech Lucy and James Farmer Norton stenters.

If you are choosing a pin type or a pin density for a new fabric, the stenter machine pin bar site covers pin types, plates and selection by fabric.

Why Order Stenter Pin Bars from Con-Pap-Tex?

Con-Pap-Tex is a group company promoted by the KEW Group, set up as a separate company to concentrate on equipment and spare parts. It is promoted by experts and technocrats with more than 30 years of experience in textile, technical textile, jute, carpet and other industries.

Own premises in Ahmedabad: The company works from its own premises of 1850 square metres in the industrial city of Ahmedabad, with CNC machines, lathes and assembly stations.
Inspection at every stage: Parts are inspected at every stage of production against international standards and customer specifications, and the company follows ISO standards.
Dispatch after approval: Parts are dispatched only after customer approval or inspection of the manufactured product.
Export experience: Con-Pap-Tex exports to 15 countries and also supplies machinery manufacturers as an OEM supplier.

The KEW Group has won national and international awards for quality manufacturing. Its complete stenter machine is shown on the group’s main site.

What to Send for a Stenter Pin Bar Quotation

A replacement pin bar is quoted from the bar you already run, so a complete enquiry avoids a second round of questions. Send the following:

The stenter make and model, and whether the chain carries pins only or pins and clips.
A clear photograph of one bar from the top and from the side, with a ruler beside it.
A sample bar or pin plate, if a special type is in use.
The number of pins on the bar, counted on a good bar.
Whether you need complete bars, pin plates for repinning or pin blocks, and how many.
The fault you see on the fabric, if the order follows a pinning problem.

Send these details through the contact page and the replacement parts will be offered to suit your machine.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Often Should Stenter Pin Bars Be Inspected?

Stenter pin bars should be watched at the entry on every shift and inspected bar by bar at every planned stop. The shift check catches a selvedge that lifts or tears. The stop inspection finds the bent, blunt or missing pins and the cracked blocks that cause it. Mills running abrasive or chemically finished fabric usually need shorter intervals than mills running plain cotton.

When Is a Stenter Pin Bar Too Worn to Repin?

A pin bar is too worn to repin when its block is cracked, distorted or worn at the fixing points, because new pins on a bad block still sit at the wrong height or angle. In that case the block or the whole bar is replaced. If the block is sound and only the pins are worn, repinning with new pin plates is normally enough.

Why Does the Selvedge Keep Coming Off the Pins?

The selvedge comes off the pins when the pins cannot grip it or when the edge reaches the pins too narrow. Blunt and bent pins are the usual cause in one zone of the chain. If the fault runs along a whole side, check the cloth guider, the selvedge feeler and the pinning brush on that side before changing bars.

Can Worn and New Pin Bars Run on the Same Chain?

Worn and new pin bars can run on the same chain if the new bars match the old ones in height, pin count and fixing. Mixing is normal when bars are changed in batches. A new bar that stands taller or shorter than its neighbours will mark the edge, so always order replacements to the same type and measure a good bar first.

How Do I Clean Deposits Off Stenter Pins?

Clean stenter pins at a planned stop with a brush that removes lint and baked finish without bending the pins. Work along the row, not across it. Hard deposits that a brush cannot lift mean the pins have been running dirty for a long time, and the bars in that zone should be checked for wear and corrosion once they are clean.

Which Details Identify a Replacement Stenter Pin Bar?

A replacement pin bar is identified by the stenter make and model, the pin count, the length of the bar and the way it fixes to the chain link. A photograph with a ruler and a sample bar or plate settle the rest. If the chain carries both pins and clips, say so, because combined chains use their own bar type.