Abstract
The Queen’s Award was gained in 1967 for the development of commercially successful shuttleless looms for the weaving of narrow fabrics such as ribbon, tape and elastic webbing. Traditional conservatism in the weaving industry, coupled with the long life of existing looms initially hindered the diffusion of shuttleless looms. However these constraints to diffusion were relaxed as demand for narrow fabrics increased, capital investment displaced labour and environmental pressure favoured quieter, safer, less-harsh working conditions that were commercially realisable with shuttleless looms. A range of looms had been established by Bonas Bros.-Weavematic Looms, and were available from the late 1950s onwards. Particular emphasis was placed on the export market which was subsequently to account for a very large proportion of total sales.