The equipment is fed by a loader, which has to deliver a precise amount of fibre blend in a given unit of time to guarantee accurate and continuous production of the required count. This necessity is the result of the continuity of production, which does not allow, while the machine is running, intervention to control or possibly correct the material count. The loader (Figure 1) takes material from the volumetric hopper, which is supplied by the storage boxes, and puts it into the pre-carding unit of the first machine.

Fig. 1 Diagram of the loader

The most widespread type of loader is the weighing loader, which guarantees weighing constancy over time. The fibre blend is conveyed upwards from the lower part of the feeding chamber by an apron covered with spikes (blending apron). The fibres that have become attached reach the top of the roller and fall into the hopper, while any left over are knocked off into the feeding chamber by a lattice. The fibres are made to fall onto the conveyor at regular intervals through the opening in the hopper, which has two filling speeds: a rather high initial filling speed, to keep production up, and a slower speed, for precision completion of loading; once the required weight has been reached, a diaphragm prevents fibres already falling from landing on the conveyor.
In the most recent models, this high-precision weighing loader is mounted on the loading cells and the weighing operation is computerised. The computer:

- sets and checks the weight of the material fed to the weighing unit, intervening automatically to make adjustments
- controls the unloading of the material onto the feeding conveyor, in synchronisation with the speed of the equipment
- automatically regulates weighing cycles
- automatically triggers, according to the quantity of material being fed, the second running speed of the blending apron.