Cortland Line Company uses nearly a century of braiding experience to craft the finest lines available: To build the best lines you must start with the best components. We choose only the finest UV resistant, high tenacity Dacron (so strong it's used for belting auto tires), premium Nylon, select denier Spectra fibers and a variety of materials specifically chosen for traits that make them the best for each application. Raw fibers are loaded on to "bobbins" then installed four to sixteen at a time on to our Patented Precision Braiders. Each braider is set to the ideal speed by our technicians. Our braiders are run slowly in order to lay down and lock in the fibers. This process takes longer and is more costly but creates a braid that it is more uniform and as a result stronger, rounder and tighter. Critical to successful braiding is maintaining the optimum number of "picks" per inch (ppi). The term pick describes where one fiber crosses another in the braiding process. Too many picks and the line will break easily on impact, too few and the braid becomes loose, stretchy and weak. Each type of line, each material and each individual application that the line is to be used for will require an appropriate number of picks per inch to perform correctly. The proper material, the number of strands, the correct tension and the number of picks per inch must be calculated for each type of braid. The ideal balance of properties makes the perfect braid. This translates into better performance and greatly reduced break-offs on the cast. After being constructed the raw braid is taken from the braiders and put into skeins or spooled on mill spools. Selected braid is then thermal set for controlled elongation, locking in the optimum amount of stretch for the material and its final use. Individual types of braid are specially treated with our environmentally responsible proprietary coatings and dyes. Some are waterproofed to shed water, reducing line weight and helping to keep hands dry in cold weather. Anti-rot agents and other specialized treatments are applied at this time to achieve the desired results. Colored lines are treated in our state of the art high pressure dying bath. Pressure in the bath opens the tiny pours in the braid allowing the colored material to flow deep inside creating finishes that are color fast and bright. Finished lines are then inspected and hand spooled by our employee-owners to assure that only the finest lines are given the Cortland label. |
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