Weft inserting rapier guide mechanism for a shuttleless loom

A rapier mechanism mounted on the lay of a shuttleless loom and movable adjacent the lay reed, said mechanism comprising rapier means including an elongated rod, reciprocatory motive means interconnected with the outer end of said rapier means by a pivotal connection which reciprocates along a straight line which diverges at a slight angle from the reed of the lay for inserting and withdrawing said rapier means into and out of a wrap shed, adjustable means for determining said slight angle, swivel means disposed in the path of movement of said rapier means and having a mounting base secured to the lay in spaced relation to the reed and a swivel unit arranged to swivel about a swivel axis which is fixed relative to the reed and transverse to the path of movement of said rapier means, and low friction means having a plurality of pairs of rollers rotatably mounted on said swivel unit and the axes of rotation of each pair of rollers being disposed at approximately 90.degree. to each other said rollers being engageable with said rapier means for guiding the reciprocatory movement thereof so that the inner end of said rapier means moves away from said reed during the initial part of a rapier inserting operation and toward said reed during the final part of a rapier inserting operation, the axes of rotation of the rollers of each pair of said rollers being disposed in common planes respectively which are generally parallel to the plane in which said swivel axis is disposed and said pairs of rollers being spaced axially along said rod.