Sewing machine needle

Construction

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.

Size codes

More than a dozen modern 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. Most sewing machine needles will have packaging that gives both numbers in its size description— that is, the size numbers 100 and 16 always occur together (as either 100/16 or 16/100). The order of these numbers has no significance, and the length of all sewing machine needles has been standardized and does not require a separate code.

The design features of the needle bars of domestic sewing machines mean most will accept any needles of these sizes

Types

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

Singer number and color codes

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

Kenmore color codes

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

Schmetz Color Codes

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