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Sewing machine needle


A sewing machine needle is a specialized needle for use in a sewing machine. A sewing machine needle consists of:

The majority of sewing machine needles are made of various grades of hardened chrome-plated steel, though certain specialty needles are coated with titanium rather than chrome.

More than twelve conventions exist for numbering the sizes of sewing machine needles, though only two remain in common use: the American (established and propagated by Singer) and the European (also called the "number metric" or "NM"). The European designation, established in 1942, is considered the uniform fixed size and corresponds to the diameter of the needle in hundredths of a millimeter at a non-reinforced point above the scarf. The following chart gives a comparison of the two systems. In both cases, a larger number corresponds to a larger, heavier needle.

The size of a given needle is often indicated with a pair of these numbers, e.g., "14/90" or "90/14" (the order of the numbers has no significance).

Most currently manufactured needles are designated according to "type", and fall into the following categories:

Singer colors and numbers its needles with the following system of codes to indicate the needle point type and shaft size:

Kenmore colors its needles with a different system of color codes which indicate the needle's size:

The colored band on some types of Schmetz needles indicates the needle type.

and needle parts


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