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Sinning–twisting machine
The twisting of a fancy yarn can also be accomlished using a machine that combi
nes the two rocesses, ring and hollow sindle. In this case the first oeration
is carried out by the hollow sindle, receded by the core and effect yarn feed
ing grou. Below the hollow sindle, which holds the binding yarn, is located th
e ring sindle, which winds the yarn directly and the twists are loosened as an
effect of the relative seed between the first and the second stages. Indeed, th
e ring sindle cannot rotate as fast as the hollow sindle and while this result
s in a softer yarn, the rate of roduction will inevitably be lower, given that
the bobbin will also have to undergo a subsequent winding stage. When the machin
e is fed with yarns rather than rovings, it becomes an out-and-out twisting mach
ine (Figure 103).
Fig. 103 Twisting machine When the effect is obtained by a roving, the machine m
ust also effect drafting; this is why it is called a sinning-twisting machine (
Figure 104) 107
Fig. 104 Sinning-twisting machine with drafting line The fed material is the ro
ving (1) on sools, which is drawn by the laminating unit (A). The core yarns (4
) are fed by the cylinders (C) and reach the exit from the drafting-laminating u
nit, where they are united with the effect yarn at oint (D). Cylinder (5) is us
ed for elastane, for the ossible roduction of stretch fancy yarns. The binder
yarn, ositioned in the hollow sindle (E), stabilises the effect yarn, and the
yarn, via the control cylinder (H), is then collected on the lower sindle (F),
where the ring system evens out the twists. Using the handle (G), the oerator c
an sto the sindle to reair breaks or relace the binder yarn ackage. Fancy y
arns can also be created by feeding more effect yarns, made u both of sliver in
cans and of rovings on sools. In this case, the machine has two drafting lines
(Figure 105), indeendently controlled, that make it ossible to achieve a vast
range of colour effects and constructions.
Fig. 105 Sinning-twisting machine with two drafting lines 108
Technical features of sinning-twisting machines
counts roduced: 2-24 Nm roving count: 0.5-5 ktex ring diameter: 90 mm or 115 mm
(deending on the count) max. seed (hollow sindle): 12,000 rm max. seed (ri
ng sindle): 8,000 rm effect: continuous or discontinuous
109
WORSTED WOOL SPINNING Scouring of Greasy Wool
Comosition of a scouring line
Greasy wool is generally sulied in large lums (sometimes entire fleeces) wher
e fibres are entangled, mixed with waste roducts or bunched and ket together b
y yolk and hardened mud. In these conditions, greasy wool cannot be scoured sinc
e the big lums cannot be roerly cleaned; fibres can be cleaned only after bei
ng searated, i.e. when the mass of fibre is “oened”. Furthermore, when lums a
re oened and dust removed from the material fed into the scouring vats, the eve
nness of the fibre is increased and the efficiency of scouring imroved. In orde
r to reduce the dimension of large lums of greasy wool, the material contained
in the bales is “lucked”, i.e. it is searated into smaller ieces, coarsely bl
ended, “oened” and “beaten”; after that, the fibre mass is more oen and cleane
r since bigger and heavier imurities (earth, dung, etc.) entangled with the fib
re mass come to the surface and can be searated and eliminated. After that, gre
asy wool is “scoured”, with water and detergents, to eliminate yolk and suint an
d then “dried” to let the water evaorate, as excessive water hinders the roer
rocessing of fibres. The drying rocess is carried out in two stages to allow
(between one stage and the other) further oening and blending of the lums, gra
nting a constant degree of moisture in the fibres. The scouring rocess of greas
y wool includes the following stages (Figure 106): • re-oening, by means of a
bale lucker, for baled material, or rough oening, by means of an automatic fee
der, when fleeces have already been oened or when fibres are loosened, • rough
blending of fibres in secial blending boxes • oening and beating, by means of
the “a1” automatic feeder and the “a2” beater, • scouring, in secial scouring v
ats, “b1.1 ÷ b1.5”, each one followed by a air of “b3” squeezer rollers fed by
the “a3” automatic feeder and by the “a4” weighing table,
Fig. 106 – A comlete scouring line
110
• re-drying “c1” , in the drier, • oening and reblending, by means of the “c3”
intermediate automatic feeder assembled after the “c2” a conveyor system, • fin
al drying, in the “c4” dryer, • oening and final reblending, by means of the “d
1” beater.
Pre-oening
The bale oener (Figure 107) includes the “To” two-section horizontal conveyor o
n which the greasy wool bales are loaded; the bales ass from one sector to the
following one and are turned uside down and are artially divided into big tuft
s of wool. The “To” conveyor conveys the fibre mass very slowly towards the “Ti”
slant aron; it is covered with large-diameter sikes which are bent in the dir
ection of the feeding material, and the aron moves faster. The wool, suorted
by the sikes of the “Ti” slant aron, is brought uwards; the bigger tufts of m
aterial are driven back or their dimension is reduced thanks to the action of th
e sikes of a leveller or overflow roll (“R”) which rotates anticlockwise. The
osition of the “R” cylinder can be automatically adjusted to calibrate the oeni
ng and the evenness of the fibre mass. The “S” cleaning roll rotates clockwise a
nd its sikes knock back (on the horizontal conveyor) the lums of wool left bet
ween the sikes of the leveller roll, which is therefore always ket clean and e
fficient. The combined action of the “leveller” and the “cleaner”, besides adjus
ting the quantity of material, oens the greasy wool with adjustable intensity a
nd reares it for efficient beating. After the leveller, the wool slis off the
sikes of the slant aron (which are now bent downwards) heled by the sikes o
f the “Sc” beater roller, which turns clockwise a lot faster than the “Ti” rolle
r. A small quantity of waste is also searated from wool at the icking oints.
Fig. 107 – Bale oener The available working widths are 1,000, 1,600 and 2,000 m
m; the average outut with a 2,000 mm width is arox. 1,500 kg/h for finer wool
s. The feeder described on Figure 108 can be used successfully when the material
fed into the machine is mainly comosed of already oened or loose fibres. The
feeder, besides ensuring more delicate fibre handling, does not force the fibres
onto the cleaner roller. In this case, in fact, the cleaner is no longer needed
since the leveller is relaced by an oscillating comb (“P”) which revents fibr
e winding and which, like a leveller, knocks back the wool lums conveyed
111
without touching the sikes of the slant aron, thus making the dimension of lum
s as uniform as ossible. The oerating width and the outut are similar to the
bale oener.
Fig. 108 - Automatic feeder
Blending
The wool batch is usually made of many lots of different origin; a artial oeni
ng of the material allows the blending of multi-origin greasy wool, making u a
wool batch of the desired comosition. The comosition of the batch is determine
d inside secial “blending rooms”, containing min. 100 bales; the blending rooms
are filled from above, in horizontal layers, with wool coming from the bale oe
ner or from the automatic feeder. The blending rooms are unloaded by icking the
material in vertical layers, with carriages or icker cylinders, which ensures
a minimum degree of evenness for the blend fibre mass.
Oening and beating
Listed here are the oerations to be carried out before sending the greasy wool
to the blending rooms and to the scouring vats: 1. oening, to further reduce th
e dimension of the big lums of wool and to additionally searate fibres to make
the cleansing action of the scouring rocess even more effective, 2. “beating”,
to eliminate the heaviest contaminants (waste), which would otherwise absorb a
rt of the scouring liquor thus making the rocess more exensive The wool can be
oened by means of an automatic feeder (Figure 108 and “a1” shown in Figure 106
) while for the beating stage after the blending feeder, it is ossible to use a
multile slant oener-beater (Figure 109 and “a2” in Figure 106; this unit incl
udes 3 siked drums inclined 30° ÷ 50° with resect to the horizontal lane), or
a horizontal oener-beater with 2 drums. On the slant oener-beater, the seed
of the beater rollers is increased from the first roller to the last one; severa
l mote knives (“c”) are laced between the rollers; the mote knives can be reci
sely adjusted as well as their oerating sace. The “G” lattice under each cylin
der is made u round bars searating the wool from the substances that ass thro
ugh the saces (arox. 1 cm).
112
Fig. 109 - Slant multile oener-beater The wool asses into this oener-beater
with no retaining device; the wool is conveyed from the entry to the end all thr
ough the machine only thanks to the thrust generated by the sikes covering the
beater rollers. All along the ath, the material is rogressively oened and bea
ten as a consequence of the continuous shocks against the lattice bars. In the h
orizontal 2-drum oener-beater, the feeding drums bring the fibres to a first dr
um covered with taered sikes, which have round tis to minimise the tuft stay-
time. Wool is then oened and beaten by the sikes of a second drum similar to t
he first one. The further oened and beaten wool is knocked off outside the mach
ine by the centrifugal force and the air flow generated by the rotation of the s
econd drum. Under the drums, a mesh searates the wool from waste, which is then
evacuated by means of a suction fan and conveyed to filters or to secial stora
ge comartments. The sikes are big and have a frustrum shae with rounded-off r
ims; the sikes are fitted on bars screwed on the rollers to allow easy removal
for cleaning and maintenance uroses. Some machines feature a self-cleaning act
ion carried out by the round bars of lattices, which (thanks to a neumatic-cont
rol reeated cross motion) touches some inner containers and two series of guide
s on the machine sides. The absence of wool retaining devices greatly hels res
erve the dimensional stability of the fibres. Dust is eliminated by means of sev
eral secial suction devices laced under the lattices, which convey heavier was
te to a worm conveyor at the bottom of the machine for final evacuation. The oe
rating width and the outut data are similar to the bale oener.
113
Weight check
Since the liquor ratio of scouring vats must be constant, the weight of the mate
rial must be checked accurately before assing to the scouring oeration.
Fig. 110 - Automatic feeder with weighing conveyor The machine used for checking
weight includes: • an automatic feeder similar to the revious one (“a3” in Fig
ure 106), • a “T” weighing conveyor (Figure 110 and “a4” in Figure 106), which w
eighs the wool at very short and regular intervals. The desired wool weight is o
btained by means of a weighing system; every time the weight varies, the system
automatically sends an inut command, which adjusts the seed of the feeder conv
eyors, as a result achieving the reset weight.
Oening degree
Once the greasy wool has been oened and cleaned, it is necessary to find a corr
ect roortion between the waste removed and the fibres lost during the successi
ve scouring stage. For examle, an inadequate oening rocess with inefficient r
emoval of broken fibres, fragments and brittle fibres from the inside the wool l
ums, will generate a great quantity of dust in the carding room, where these ma
terials are searated from fibres. A satisfactory degree of oening is reached o
nly when wool is erfectly suitable for assing to the carding rocess, i.e. whe
n the only fibres breaking are those that will certainly break during the cardin
g rocess.
Scouring
During the scouring stage, an aroriate stirring of the liquor is articularly
imortant to allow an efficient removal of the “dirt” even if the stirring may
lead to fibre entanglements and felting. The main urose of scouring is the rem
oval of wax, suint and waste contained in the greasy wool; scouring should be ca
rried out in such a way to revent wool felting and the consequent breaking of f
ibres, to avoid the reduction of the fibre length, and to avoid an increase in t
he waste quantity during carding, drawing and combing oerations. 114
The otimisation of the huge quantities of water necessary for scouring the grea
sy wool is obtained through the alication of the rincile that the bath can c
arry out a detergency action until the degree of “dirt” contained in the scourin
g liquor is lower than the degree of “dirt” contained in the material to be scou
red. The scouring of the greasy wool is carried out in 4 ÷ 5 successive scouring
vats (b1.1 ÷ b1.5 in Figure 104) where correct circulation of the scouring liqu
or is maintained; thanks to this method, water consumtion can be otimised in r
elation to the scoured/greasy wool yield (the water consumtion ranges from 6 ÷
8 litres of water er kg of greasy wool with yields exceeding 70%, to 12 ÷ 15 li
tres er kg for yields below 50%) Scouring vats Greasy wool is scoured inside s
ecial vats with the following features: • the bottom of the first two scouring v
ats (b1.1 and b1.2 in Figure 106) has the shae of two truncated yramids with r
ectangular base turned uside down and laced side by side. (Figure 114.). At th
e bottom of the vats there are two worm conveyors that take the sludge to the ce
ntre of the scouring vat, inside draining its. At the bottom of these draining
its there is valve which constantly discharges sludge and solid contaminants wi
thout removing too much water. The rotary seed of the worm conveyor is variable
and can be adjusted according to the tye of wool and to the quantity of “dirt”
to be removed; • the lower art of the other three scouring vats (b1.3, b1.4 an
d b1.5 in Figure 106) has the shae of two yramids turned uside down and lace
d side by side, with rectangular base (Figure 115); at the bottom of each scouri
ng vat there is an oen-flow drain valve with automatic timer control (for exam
le 5 seconds every 4 minutes);
Fig. 114 - Longitudinal section of the second scouring vat in the scouring range
115
Fig. 115 - Longitudinal section of the third scouring vat in the scouring range
• in the first art of each unit there is a diving drum (the first cylinder on t
he left in Figures 114 and 115) which dis the wool into the scouring liquor and
revents it from floating on the liquor; • in the uer section of each unit th
ere is a mobile aron, with diving teeth and blades, featuring a recirocating m
otion, and taking the material into and out of the liquor while feeding it throu
gh the rocess vat (Figures 114 and 115); • in the final art of each scouring v
at there is a small high-seed aron, taking the material into and out of the li
quor, which allows a regular feeding of the squeezing ress (the air of cylinde
rs shown on the right of Figures 114 and 115); • in the middle of the scouring v
ats there is a erforated grid (the dotted line in Figures 114 and 115) searati
ng the uer art of the vat (where the wool is scoured) from the lower side (wh
ere the sludge accumulates) to revent “dirt” articles from being recirculated
by the mobile aron; • at the end of each scouring vat there is a squeezing res
s including a air of cylinders (the lower cylinder is chromium-lated while the
uer one is coated with a square roe made of nylon or rubber to grant the ro
er hardness) which exerts a ressure on the wool equal to 15,000 daN (“b3” in F
igure 106). The squeezing of the fibre mass, assing from one unit to the other,
imroves the elimination of “dirt”, revents the contamination of the downstrea
m liquor section and facilitates the soaking of the fibres when they lunge into
it; • on one side of each unit there is a settling tank for recovering the liqu
or from the overflow box of the scouring vat and the liquor squeezed by the res
s (Figure 116); each vessel is also equied with an overflow box. A um for re
circulating the settled and re-filtered liquor connects the vat to the initial
section of the corresonding scouring vat and to another vat (described below).
Fig. 116 – Partial side view and front view of the settling trough of a scouring
vat.
116
The scouring rocess In the ast, greasy wool was scoured by hand, near water co
urses (streams or rivers), by soaing and lunging it into the water inside a co
ntainer where wool was stirred, by means of sticks, to generate the foam and the
emulsion of non-soluble substances, without excessively owerful movements to
revent the felting effect. At more or less regular intervals, the wool was remov
ed from the container and hand-squeezed to eliminate dirty water and foam. The m
echanisms of modern scouring vats reroduce the movements of hand scouring; in f
act, the motion of the arons has relaced the motion of the sticks and the res
ses that squeeze the wool relace the human hands. Nowadays, a scouring range (L
eviathan) includes 5 (sometimes 6) vats (Figure104); the first vat (“b1.1”) is u
sed for eliminating earth articles, the second and the third vats (“b1.2 and b1
.3”) for thoroughly scouring the wool; the fourth and the fifth vats (“b1.4 and
b1.5”) for rinsing the clean wool. In the re-scouring stage, the wool fibres ar
e searated from earth articles and dung; the efficiency of this first stage al
so deends on the liquor temerature, which is ket at aroximately 35 °C to av
oid excessive temerature variations occurring when wool is transferred to the s
econd scouring vat, which could lead to fibre entanglement or felting. This re-
scouring stage, before the real scouring, entails the use of an additional vat b
ut reduces the quantity of surfactants and alkali to be used in the subsequent v
ats. In the second and in the third scouring stage, wool is actually scoured a
lying the scouring methods exlained above, using surfactants and Solvay sodium
carbonate. These scouring stages must be erformed at a temerature that liquefi
es (or almost liquefies) the yolk allowing its emulsification; a temerature of
aroximately 60 °C favours a quite fast formation of small sheres of yolk, aro
und which surfactant molecules adhere. It is worth remembering that an excessive
ly low temerature does not allow a thorough scouring while an excessively high
temerature can generate wool felting and/or formation of hardly recoverable fib
re entanglements. The quantity of sodium carbonate must be carefully controlled
to avoid the deterioration of wool; in the second scouring stage the concentrati
on can also slightly exceed 1% since a thin wax coat still rotects the wool fib
res. The correct quantity of surfactant to be used is that which determines the
required absortion level as well as the stability of the emulsion and the dise
rsion of articles. By visually checking the foam it is ossible to determine th
e otimum efficiency of the surface active agent and of sodium carbonate. The “d
irt” adhering to the wool fibres immersed in the scouring liquor (aroximately
10 seconds) absorbs the water and swells quite raidly, reaching a diameter thre
e/four times bigger than the fibre (Figure 117). The dirt could sontaneously di
serse and emulsify through a slow and unreliable rocess, which rarely ensures
the desired effect. Conversely, dirt can be removed thoroughly through correct s
tirring and agitation of the liquor and a suitable seed of the ress rollers. A
high efficiency of the “dirt” removal can be achieved with a stirring action de
termining a relative seed (ranging between 10 and 16 cm/s) of the liquor with r
esect to the wool, while the eriheral seed of the squeezer rollers (ranging
between 4 and 12 cm/s) generates, in the roller ni area, a water flow favouring
the removal of “dirt” from fibres.
117
From the second scouring stage, the greasy substances are recovered by heating t
he bath to arox. 90 °C to break the emulsion of grease and detergent, and by s
ubsequent centrifugation. The clarified roduct (lanolin, rimarily cholesterol
esters of suerior fatty acids) is used as a base for emollients in cosmetics an
d for medical uroses by the harmaceutical industry. In the fourth and fifth s
couring stage, the temerature decreases, resectively to 55 °C and 45 °C to re
vent fibre felting. Thoroughly scoured fibres are unrotected and can felt at hi
gher bath temeratures. The higher the temerature of the water in the last vat,
the faster and the more cost-efficient is the subsequent drying oeration. Figu
re 118 shows the liquor exchange between the scouring vats: • the first vat rece
ives the scouring liquor, suitably cooled down, from the fourth and fifth vats a
nd drains it off through the overflow which eliminates the excess liquor from th
e settling trough; the liquor Fig. 117 – Absortion and swelling coming from the
settling trough is artly recycled of the “dirt”. and sent to the scouring vat,
• the second vat receives the liquor from the third vat which drains and recycl
es the water like the other vat; the liquor from this vat is heated and sent to
a centrifuge. The liquor from the centrifuge has lost its non-soluble fat (lanol
in), searated by centrifugation,
Lanolin recovery
Fig. 118 – Examle of liquor circulation between the scouring vats • the third v
at receives the liquor from the fourth vat, drains it through a drain valve and
recycles it like the revious vat; the liquor taken from the settling trough of
this vat flows into the second vat,
118
• the fourth vat receives the liquor from the fifth vat or fresh water (or both)
, and drains and recycles it like the revious vat; the liquor taken from the se
ttling trough flows into the first vat, • the fifth vat receives fresh liquor wh
ich is drained and recycled like the revious vat; the liquor of this vat flows
into the first vat. After the scouring rocess, the residual grease must not exc
eed 1%. Some scouring grous have two settling troughs (Figure 119) laced at th
e sides of each scouring vat; these settling troughs have the same caacity as t
he scouring vat. A recirculation um recycling the settled and roughly filtered
liquor connects alternatively these troughs with the initial section of the cor
resonding scouring vat. During the roduction cycle, when one vat is being re
ared and is therefore by-assed, the other one receives the squeezing liquor fro
m the resser and sends it again into the scouring vat after a rough filtration;
when the “dirt” contained in this vat reaches the maximum accetable level, the
vat is by-assed and the second vat starts working. When the liquor is recycled
through the second vat, the first one is drained off, rinsed and filled with fr
esh liquor; this system therefore allows a non-sto scouring rocess also during
liquor changes.
Fig. 119 – Scouring vats with two side settling troughs
Drying
Purose of drying On exiting the scouring range, the wool is wet (moisture conte
nt arox. 55% ÷ 60%) and must be dried so that: • the lums can take their natu
ral swollen asect (with fibres moderately attached or entangled) and ass throu
gh the carding rocess without breaking, • the elimination of vegetal substances
during the carding rocess can be facilitated since an excessive degree of mois
ture would make them softer and similar to the other fibres, • otimal oiling co
uld be obtained, by allowing the oil to sread uniformly over all the fibres.
119
The residual quantity of water contained in the material on exiting the dryer is
generally 12 ÷ 15 % of the wool weight. The higher is the content of vegetal ma
tters, the lower must be the quantity of water contained; for clean, fine and ex
tra-fine wool, the water contained can reach the maximum value to ensure higher
flexibility of the fibres during the carding rocess.
Belt-tye dryer The mostly used dryers are the belt dryers where water evaorate
s through the circulation of hot air, by suction or comression, forced erendi
cularly through a fibre layer arranged on a horizontal conveyor belt. The water
content that can be evaorated inside these dryers is about 10 ÷ 15 kg er squar
e meter er hour with an energy consumtion of 250 kJ er kg. The belt dryer (Fi
gure 120) has an insulated metal comartment; inside the comartment a nonsto c
onveyor belt carries the material. The conveyor belt features erforated sheet m
etals for the assage of the hot forced air.
Dam air exhaust
Loading
Unloading
Fig. 120 – Side view of a two-module belt dryer The air fed to the dryer is take
n from outside through the material entry and delivery doors (Figure 121)
Outside
Fig. 121 – Plan of the belt dryer: the arrows indicate the air inlet areas. “T”
stands for temerature controller. 120
Inside the comartment, arranged on the sides, there are two metal walls making
u the ducts for air recirculation and two air filters (Figure 122, “1”); the ve
ntilation fan is ositioned on to of the machine and the heating sets are arran
ged on the two sides of the aerothermal chamber to ensure the otimal balancing
of the air circuit (Figure 122, “2”).
Fig. 122 – Aerothermal chamber: cross section (1), longitudinal section (2) The
recirculated air is filtered by a suction fan, heated through the heating sets a
nd uniformly distributed on the material to be dried; the airflow from above re
vents the formation of referential aths. With this oerating method the hot ai
r is homogeneously blown on the whole surface of the conveyor belt, taken symmet
rically on the bottom and recirculated through two side tunnels; the slight vacu
um on the surface of the conveyor belt ensures the stability of fibres on the be
lt desite the intense ventilation. The air seed can be adjusted in order to al
low easy assage of the lums arranged on the conveyor belt. To avoid saturation
of the chamber air, some air is evacuated through the exhaust ie while the su
ction air fed to the fan is sent onto the heating sets to reach the temerature
level set on the temerature controller. Thanks to the modular design of the dry
er, the dimensions must be roortional to the required roduction caacity: eac
h single module is 3,250 mm long while the conveyor belt is 1,300, 1,600, 2,000,
2,500 and 3,000 mm wide.
Feeding the dryer Three asects must be carefully considered to achieve roer d
rying and grant regular residual moisture of the fibre mass after drying: a) qua
ntity of water, b) regular feeding, c) non-sto feeding
121
a) The quantity of water The ress must eliminate most of the water included in
the wool leaving the last vat of the scouring range; the dryer must only elimina
te the residual water, since it is more cost-efficient to remove the water mecha
nically than by evaoration. An increase in the ressure force of the squeezer c
ylinders of the ress reduces the quantity of water to be evaorated, but the be
nefits beyond the values reviously indicated are insignificant. It has been ver
ified that the temerature of the water affects the removal of a greater quantit
y of water during squeezing: the hotter the water, the greater the quantity of w
ater eliminated by the ress. Probably this is due to the reduction of the water
viscosity following the temerature increase. The evenness of the material to b
e rocessed is articularly imortant for ensuring the best ossible working con
ditions for the ress; in fact, the material on the edges of emty areas is wett
er than the material in uniform areas. b) Regular feeding Besides the uniformity
of the ress feeding, also the condition of the wool layer fed to the dryer is
very imortant; it must uniformly cover the conveyor belt at all the oints. In
fact, the air inside the dryer tends to ass through the emty areas with no coa
ting or through thinner areas, thus decreasing efficiency and drying uniformity.
c) Non-sto feeding The material fed to the dryer during a set eriod of time m
ust have a uniform weight otherwise the drying could result in wool that is scar
cely uniform (Figure 123) leaving the dryer with an unbalanced moisture content.
Fig. 123 - Effect of feed variation on residual moisture
Fig. 124 - Effect of the feed control on residual moisture;on the left: no contr
ol, on the right: with control
The introduction of the “weighing belt” and checking the quantity of greasy wool
fed into scouring range has generated a significant reduction of variability in
the moisture content of the fibre mass leaving the dryer (for examle, the CV%
has assed from 10 to 23 % to a CV ranging between 2 ÷ 5 %; Figure 124)
122
Control devices Metal robes, laced on the delivery side of the drying unit, ar
e used for controlling the dried wool moisture content (which must be uniform an
d redetermined); these robes measure the electrical caacity or resistance flu
ctuations, which vary according to the quantity of water contained in the fibres
. It is however worth remembering that these measures are generally affected by
the level of cleanness of the wool and by the ossible resence of soluble salts
. The control device shown in Figure 125 (Moisture meter) calculates and determi
nes the average moisture content in the material by means of four electrodes, ea
ch one carrying out 600 measurements er second, which determines the electrical
resistance of the material when the current dros through the element. The meas
urement is carried out with a +/- 1% accuracy even when moisture values are very
low (aroaching zero).
Fig. 125 - Moisture meter
A controller (Figure 126) can be added to the revious control device; the contr
oller generates a signal that is used for checking one of the arameters affecti
ng the rocess: the energy to be sulied to the dryer (through steam or gas val
ves) or the quantity of material fed (through the feeding seed).
The drying rocess The water is homogeneously eliminated from the fibre mass (Fi
gure 106) starting with a first drying (re-drying) stage carried out inside a “
c1” dryer. The artially dried mass is then conveyed to a “c2” conveyor belt and
exosed to the action of a “c3” automatic feeder, which blends again the layer
of fibres fed. The wool is then further dried (final drying) in the second “c4”
dryer, and oen-beaten in a “d1” oener-beater. A) Pre-drying In a three-module
dryer, the temeratures in the three different zones can be the following: • a
rox. 80 °C in the first module, • arox. 120 °C in the second module • arox.
70 °C in the third module, and the dwelling time of the wool inside the dryer sh
ould be about 90 seconds.
Fig. 126 - Examle of drying rocess control 123
B) Oening and blending The material leaving the re-dryer is led to the feeder
by a conveyor belt or by a neumatic device, which slightly blends the more or l
ess wet fibres. The automatic feeder connecting the re-dryer to the final dryer
is similar to the ones already seen (Figure 127), i.e. it is characterised by a
n oscillating comb, which adjusts the evenness of the material fed and a large-d
iameter doffer roller, which revents fibre winding. C) Final drying The final d
ryer is similar to the revious one but includes two modules where temeratures
can be: • arox. 45 °C in the first module, • arox. 65 °C in the second one.
The dwelling time of the wool inside the dryer can be arox. 80 seconds while t
he air seed is adjusted in a Dryer similar way to the revious one. A quality c
ontrol to measure the moisture content of the wool must imeratively be carried
out at the exit of this dryer (following the rocedure reviously indicated). Fi
g. 127 – Automatic feeder connecting the two dryers D) Final oening Before ass
ing the scoured and dried wool to the carding rocess, the material must be oen
ed, beaten, dusted and blended by means of an oener-beater (Figure 128) equie
d with 3 or 6 rollers (deending on quantity of imurities) oerating at the se
ed of 300 revolutions er minute. The rollers are covered with large-size cone s
ikes with rounded-off tis (these sikes are fixed since there is no need for c
leaning them); the rollers are also equied with doffer blades. Waste articles
are searated by grids laced under the rollers, made of small bars with a very
articular shae, for examle triangular, easily adjustable from the outside by
rotating them around their longitudinal axis, which allows the modification of
the sace between them (Figure 129); The grids can be cleaned by means of comre
ssed air jets. Fig. 128- Multile slant oener-beater
Dryer
124
Closed
Oen
Dirt and waste falling below the grids is taken out by a worm screw and exhauste
d by means of a fan from the bottom of the grids
Fig. 129 - Grid
Oiling At the exit of the oener-beater, fibres can condense and consolidate att
racted by the scales now freed from the yolk; they can attract or reject each ot
her deending on the electrostatic charges generated on their surface due to the
friction between them or with other bodies. To be rid of these roblems, and th
erefore to facilitate the subsequent rocesses, the wool leaving the oener-beat
er undergoes the so-called “oiling” rocess, which lubricates the fibres by sra
ying on them an oily emulsion soluble in cold water. The oiling device includes
a number of nozzles, arranged next to each other along the whole oerating width
; each nozzle srays a jet of emulsion on the dried wool that is roortional to
the thickness of the fibre layer as indicated by a tracer. The oil can be a ble
nd of derivatives of natural fatty acids and olyoxyethylenates (anionic and com
atible with anionic and non-ionic roducts) which, besides featuring a high fib
re/fibre and fibre/metal lubricating ower, can be easily eliminated with cold w
ater. The oil can be used alone or combined with another liquid featuring anti-s
tatic characteristics; in this case, the emulsion could be the following: • 20 ÷
25 % oil, • 10 ÷ 15 % anti-static roduct, • 70 ÷ 60 % water to be srayed on t
he wool (2 ÷ 3 % of the weight of the material to be oiled).
Carding
General remarks
Through the carding rocess, the washed, dried and oiled tufts of wool made of r
andom and entangled fibres finally become a “card sliver” where fibres are strai
ghtened and aligned along the longitudinal axis of the sliver. This oeration is
carried out with a “card”, a machine which rocesses the fibres by means of a s
eries of cylinders and rollers whose surface is covered with needles, i.e. the c
ard clothing. The interaction between the material and the needles of two oosi
te cylinders, rotating in oosite directions and at different seeds, takes la
ce mainly according to the following scheme:
125
1. tufts are searated so that some fibres remain on the needles of one cylinder
and some on the needles of the oosite one. The stretching of the tufts genera
tes a reduction of their section and establishes the conditions for a certain qu
antity of fibres to be distributed on a greater surface; when this oeration is
carried out reeatedly, the fibres searate from one another; 2. fibres are tran
sferred from the needles of one cylinder to the needles of the oosite one. The
formation of the card sliver is carried out through the following stes: first
of all the fibre mass is disentangled (oened) so that each fibre can searate f
rom the others. After that, the fibres are arranged (condensed) in the form of a
thin continuous web, which is then transformed into a sliver. During these oer
ations the material is selected and cleaned, i.e. very short fibres as well as f
oreign articles are eliminated from the fibre mass, which is then also artiall
y blended. The above mentioned rocesses must be carried out taking care that th
e fibre length is left unaltered.
Interactions between clothing and fibres
To understand the behaviour of the fibres subject to the action of needles on tw
o subsequent cylinders, and running in oosite directions and at different see
ds, it is necessary to analyse carefully the various interactions between the ne
edles and the fibres. Interactions of the wool carding rocess rior to combing
are mainly “carding” and “striing” and, in some articular cases, also “lifting
”. For the sake of straightforwardness, it is worth considering the following as
ects concerning the geometrical shae and the motion of the needles: • the need
les can be simly inclined (a), or curved with a hook (b) or sawtooth-shaed (c)
and for each needle we can determine a “convex” and a “concave” side (Figure 13
0); • the needles are “inclined in the same direction as the roller” when the co
nvex side comes before the concave side, with reference to the rotation directio
n (Figure 131); • the needles are “inclined oosite to the roller direction” wh
en the convex side follows the concave one, with resect to the direction of rot
ation (Figure 131);
a) inclined needle
Fig. 130 - Different tyes of clothing: b) curved needle (flexible) c) sawtoothl
ike wiring (rigid)
126
• two needles (“AC” and “BD”) catch a lum of fibre by their resective C and D
tis (Figure 134) and exert their action along the CD direction; the force exert
ed on the fibres by the tis generates a stretching effect; furthermore these fi
bres exert an “Af ” force on the needles, which at any instant is equal or contr
ary to the revious one, thus also subjecting the fibres to flexural stress.
Fig. 132 Interaction between the needles and the fibres
Fig. 133 Inclination of the needles
The carding unit
Descrition A carding unit is the smallest set of cylinders carrying out the act
ions reviously exlained. The carding unit (with 4 carding oints) includes the
following elements (Figure 133a): • “T”: the drum, covered with needles incline
d in the direction of rotation. The drum is the carding device. • “L1”, “L2”,“L3
” and “L4”: worker cylinders, covered with needles inclined in a direction oos
ite to the rotation direction. The worker cylinders retain the material to allow
the carding action. Fig. 133a Carding unit. 127
• “S1”, “S2”, “S3” and “S4”: strier roller, covered with needles inclined in t
he direction of the rotation. The strier rollers ass material from the worker
cylinders onto the drum. They artially blend the material. • “I”: intermediate
roller, covered with needles inclined in the direction of rotation. The interme
diate roller transfers the fibres onto the drum. • “X”: the comber roller, cover
ed with needles that can be more or less inclined in the rotation direction. The
comber roller moves slowly and, besides carrying out a further carding action,
takes u the material coming from the drum and “condensed” on the roller clothin
g. A card can include many carding units. Since a task of the carding rocess is
to form the card sliver, the ultimate carding unit being the one used for formi
ng the web (which becomes the sliver after a condensation rocess), it is equi
ed with (Figure 133b): • “P”: comber roller, covered with needles inclined in th
e direction oosite to the rotation direction. The comber roller allows the for
mation of a web of fibres (besides being also a carding element), • “”: oscilla
ting doffer comb, which detaches the web of fibres from the “P” comber roller. F
ig. 133b – Ultimate carding unit In some cases (Figure 133c), the ultimate cardi
ng unit can also include (between the last carding oint and the comber roller):
• “V”: fly roller, covered with long and flexible needles, inclined in the dire
ction oosite to the direction of rotation. The fly roller raises the fibres to
the to of the needles of the “T” drum. Oeration of the ultimate carding unit
The interaction of the material with the needles (Figure 134)… • of the “T” drum
and of the “L1, …., L4” worker cylinders allows the “carding”, i.e. allows the
oening of tufts down to single fibres and, as much as ossible, the straighteni
ng and arallelisation of the fibres, • of a worker cylinder and the corresondi
ng fly roller allows the fibres to be transferred from the worker cylinder to th
e fly roller,
Fig. 133c Ultimate carding unit with fly roller
128
• of the strier roller “S1, ……, S4” and of the “T” drum allows the fibres to b
e transferred from the strier roller onto the drum, • of the “T” drum and of t
he “P” comber roller allows the combing and “condensing” of the fibres, i.e. the
overlaing of fibres. This leads to the formation, on the clothing of the comb
er roller, of a web that is consistent enough to be icked u and transformed in
to a sliver; the web is removed from the “P” comber roller by means of the “” d
offer comb. When the carding unit is also equied with a fly roller, the intera
ction of the material with the needles of the “T” drum and of the “V” fly roller
allows the fibres to come to the surface of the drum needles; this movement is
associated with an entanglement and a disarrangement of the fibres, which artly
lose their arallelism.
Fig. 134 Oerating rincile of the ultimate carding unit For the sake of simli
city, in order to describe the interactions between the fibres and the needles o
f the clothing on the different cylinders, we will refer to the cross sections o
f the cylinders and to the tyical needles found on the different card clothings
. A) Drum lus worker action The drum and the worker cylinder rotate in oosite
directions; in the zone where they interact with the material, the needles move
in the same direction; the rigid needles of the drum move faster than the rigid
needles (sometimes flexible) of the worker cylinder, VT > VL. As a result, need
les “1” and “2” (Figure 135) of the drum and of the worker cylinder turn in the
same direction with such a seed that V1 > V2 and therefore needle “1” turn at t
he seed (V1 V2) > 0 with resect to “2”. This means that the needles “1” and “2
” after touching at osition III continue to move rightward but, after some time
, needle “1” recedes needle “2”. The needles of the drum are inclined in the di
rection of rotation while the needles of the worker cylinder are inclined in the
oosite direction. The tis of the needles of the two clothings are very close
to each other so that the needles of the worker cylinder can retain the art of
the material rotruding from the drum clothing; in a few words, each tuft broug
ht forward by the needles of the drum, is hooked and retained by the needles of
the worker cylinder Fig. 135 Carding action 129
The tuft is subjected to a stress force which overcomes the friction between the
fibres and develos a recirocal sliding of the fibres, as a result oening the
tufts, which therefore disentangle and divide into smaller tufts; some of them
ass onto the needles of the worker cylinder while others follow the motion of t
he drum. During the oening of the tufts, the fibres are stretched and artially
arallelised. The reetition of these actions generates gradually smaller tufts
until each single fibre is comletely searated from the others (Figure 134). T
he action described above constitutes the “carding” rocess. After a certain tim
e, the clothing of the drum and of the worker cylinder are filled with fibres an
d must be cleaned. B) Worker lus strier action Thanks to the interaction betw
een the needles of the worker cylinder and the needles of the drum, the tufts on
the needles of the worker cylinder are subject to the action of the rigid needl
es of the strier roller. The worker cylinder and the strier roller turn in t
he oosite direction so that, in the zone where they interact with the material
, their needles move in the oosite direction; the seed of the strier roller
is far higher than the seed of the needles of the worker cylinder, VS > VL. Co
nsequently, needle “2” of the worker cylinder and needle “3” of the strier rol
ler (Figure 136) move in oosite directions and the seed of needle “3” is much
higher than the seed of needle “2”, V3 > V2. The seed of needle “3” with res
ect to needle “2” is therefore equal to the sum Fig. 136 Fibre transfer of the t
wo seeds: (V2 + V3). The needles of the worker cylinder are inclined oosite t
o rotation direction while the needles of the strier roller are inclined in th
e direction of rotation. Thanks to the higher seed of the needles of the stri
er roller and to their osition converging towards the worker cylinder, the clot
hing of the strier roller icks u the fibres from the clothing of the worker
cylinder; in this way, the needles of the strier roller “stri” the clothing o
f the worker cylinder. Since the needles of the worker cylinder and of the stri
er roller do not move along a linear ath but along a circular one, the long tu
fts undergo an additional carding action since they are icked u by the needles
of the strier roller while they are still retained by the ones of the worker
cylinder; therefore, the transfer of the fibres on the needles of the strier r
oller is accomanied by a slight stretching and artial arallelisation C) Stri
er lus drum action The tufts icked u by the strier roller are fed to the d
rum. The drum and the strier roller rotate in oosite directions. As a result
, in the zone where they interact with the material, the needles rotate in the s
ame direction; furthermore, the seed of needles of the drum is higher than the
seed of the needles of the strier roller, VT > VS. Consequently, needle “1” o
f the drum and needle “3” of the strier roller rotate in the same direction (F
igure 137) and the seed of needle “1” is higher than the seed of needle “3”, V
1 > V3. 130
The seed of needle "1" with resect to needle "3" is therefore e equal to: (V1–
V3) > 0. The needles of the drum and of the strier roller are inclined in the
direction of rotation. The needles of the drum hook and ick u the fibres that
emerge from the needles of the strier roller. Also during this transfer, the f
ibres are slightly straightened and artially arallelised. The fibres icked u
by the strier roller from Fig. 137 Fibre transfer the worker cylinder and tra
nsferred onto the drum do not reaear on the drum exactly where they were icke
d u since in the meantime the drum has covered a greater distance than the one
covered by the worker cylinder and by the strier roller. For this reason, duri
ng the carding rocess fibres are alto artially reblended and tufts are further
oened. After the first treatment carried out by the drum-worker-strier, the
fibres are conveyed to the other worker-strier sets, whose needles are increas
ingly near the drum needles; the rogressively more owerful carding rocess and
the fibre transfer are carried out with the same methods as mentioned before (r
eference is made to the first worker-strier set). The number of worker-strie
r sets varies from four to six. D) Drum lus comber action The comber roller rot
ates in oosite direction with resect to the drum, therefore, during interacti
on with the material, its rigid needles and the needles of the drum rotate in th
e same direction; the seed of the drum needles is remarkably higher than the co
mber roller needles, VT > VP. AS a result, needle “1” of the drum and needle “5”
of the comber roller rotate at such seeds that V1 > V5 (Figure 138) and, there
fore, the seed of needle “1” with resect to the seed of needle “5” is equal t
o: (V1 – V5) > 0. Needle “1” of the drum is inclined in the direction of rotatio
n, on the contrary to needle “5” of the comber roller, which is inclined oosit
e to the direction of rotation; therefore the osition of the fibres on the drum
clothing, the directions and the seeds of the drum and of the comber roller ar
e such that the needles of the comber roller hook u and drag the fibres seized
by the needles of the drum, thus determining a carding action similar to the one
occurring between the drum and the worker cylinder. The fibres, which are not h
ooked u by the needles of the comber roller enetrate inside the Fig. 138 Cardi
ng action drum clothing and, after a certain time, fill it u; for this reason,
the clothing must be eriodically cleaned. The wastes including short tufts and
imurities falling under the comber roller and under the drum.
131
E) Comber lus doffer action The fibres are removed from the needles of the comb
er roller, in the form of web using an oscillating doffer comb (Figure 139) The
needles of the comber roller move slowly while the doffer comb carries out a ver
y quick oscillation touching the needles of the comber roller; the web is taken
u as the comb moves downwards.
comb
web
F) Secial case: carding unit with fly roller In the following, we describe the
interaction between the drum and the fly roller on a carding unit equied with
a fly roller. During the carding rocess, a art of each fibre on the drum Fig.
139 Doffer comb enetrates inside the drum clothing; in order to allow transferr
ing these fibres onto the clothing of the comber roller, the fibres are raised t
o the tis of the needles of the drum by the action of the fly roller whose flex
ible tis enetrate inside the drum clothing. The direction of rotation of the f
ly roller is oosite to the drum, therefore in the whole area of interaction wi
th the material, the two clothings move in the same direction (Figure 140); the
seed of the fly roller is higher than that of the drum, VV > VT. Consequently,
needle “1” of the drum and needle “4” of the fly roller move in the same directi
on; the seed of needle “4” is higher than the seed of “1”, V4 > V1. The seed
of needle “4” with resect to needle “1” is equal to (V4 – V1) > 0. The needles
of the fly roller are inclined in the direction oosite to rotation so that the
y can raise the fibres on the tis of the drum needles, without hooking them; in
fact, the fibres raised by the needles of the fly roller cannot be transferred
onto the clothing, which cannot retain them and, Fig. 140 Fibre raising therefor
e, they remain on the ti of the drum needles, ket by adhesion with the fibres
still artially inserted in the clothing. The air vortex generated by the seed
of the needles of the fly roller (u to 30% higher than the one of the drum need
les) may scatter the fibres; to revent this, a collector cylinder is laced und
er the fly roller (or sometimes above), whose needles seize the fibres and trans
fer them again onto the drum clothing. After the fly roller, the fibres raised o
n the drum needles are subjected to the action of the needles of the comber roll
er (Figure 141). A secial carding action takes lace since the fibres are arran
ged on the tis of the drum clothing conveying them; fibres are therefore not fi
rmly held by the needles, which retain them only thanks to the weak friction whi
ch is generated between them; these conditions only exose the longest tufts to
the stretching action, which hook to the needles of the drum while the others tr
ansfer Fig. 141 Formation of the directly on the clothing of the comber roller,
which retain the fibres fibre web by overcoming the weak friction stress contras
ting the transfer. 132
Figure 139 shows the faster drum (on the right), whose needles are inclined in t
he direction of rotation, conveying the fibres arranged on the tis of its needl
es, without seizing them comletely. These fibres are transferred onto the cloth
ing (on the left) of the slower comber roller, whose needles are inclined in dir
ection oosite to rotation, thus forming a web of fibres.
Tandem card
General remarks The washed, beaten and oiled wool is sent to secial carding roo
ms through a neumatic system. It remains there for the time necessary to allow
a roer distribution of the oiling substance into the fibres and also to meet t
he secific roduction schedule. The efficiency of the carding oeration strictl
y deends on the washing oeration mode; in fact: - a high moisture content of t
he material can generate undesired fibre winding on the clothing of the cylinder
s (“fibre bands”) with ossible formation of hardly recoverable fibre entangleme
nts (“nes”), - an excessive residual quantity of grease dirties the clothing ca
using a consequent bad running, - an excessive removal of grease increases the t
endency of the fibres to take u static charges to such an extent that they cann
ot be neutralised comletely by the anti-static agents added to the oiling subst
ance.
Comosition The so-called “tandem card”, which features 2 carding units, is used
for fine or average-quality wool carding (u to 22 micron), whose vegetal subst
ance content can even exceed 12%; the carding machine is comleted by several de
vices to feed and oen the material and by another carding unit, known as “re-c
arding unit”, receding the other two carding units and several “deburring” cyli
nders (Figure 142). The additional 6 carding oints on the re-carding unit drum
, are used for a reliminary disentangling of the wool lums to imrove the effi
ciency of the subsequent carding ste and limit the wear of the clothing of the
other carding units. The deburring cylinders extract the substances of vegetal o
rigin (“burrs”), i.e. the residues of wild thistles. The card sequentially and s
imultaneously • reduces the dimension of the tufts fed into the card, • isolates
and straightens the fibres of each single lum in the material feeding directio
n, • searates the fibres from adhering vegetal substances, • overlas the fibre
s to form a web of even thickness, • transforms the web into carded sliver.
133
Fig. 142 – Tandem card with re-carding unit and deburring cylinders
Card oeration In order to analyse the card oerating rincile thoroughly, a nu
merical value will be attributed to the ti seeds of the different cylinders; t
hese values, referring to single secific cases, are therefore indicative and mu
st be considered reference data only. A) Formation of the web The web is reare
d by an automatic feeder which arranges, on an endless conveyor belt, a steady q
uantity of material er length unit, which is fundamental for a homogeneous dist
ribution of fibres on the carding devices. Figure 143 shows a (balanced) gravime
tric feeder, suitable for rocessing longer fibres since the material is unloade
d by means of secial rakes avoiding otential winding roblems. The small mater
ial mass of constant weight, which is unloaded from the balance and droed onto
the endless conveyor belt, is then sread on the belt by means of a “comacting
table” (in some cases it is also ossible to use a cylinder) allowing the forma
tion of a web of consistent thickness.
Fig. 143 – Gravimetric feeder
B) Web feeding The endless conveyor belt, “F”, ushes the web constantly to the
feeder cylinders “A”, which turn at the same seed (VF = 1.2 m/min) and take it
to the oener roller “R” (Figure 144).
134
The “A” feeder rollers, covered with steel needles fixed on bronze rings or with
a sawtooth wiring, with teeth inclined in the direction oosite to rotation, a
ct as a griing device and ensure a regular and controlled feeding of the card.
They also act as a retaining device allowing the oener cylinder “R” to divide
the material into smaller tufts without breaking the fibres. C) Tuft oening The
inclination of the needles of “A” cylinders allows web retention while the rigi
d needles of the oener cylinder “R”, inclined in the rotation direction and tur
ning at a seed higher than the “A” needles (VR = 11.8 m/min), enetrate the web
and ick u the tufts; as a consequence of the stretching, the front free ends
of the fibres (making u head of the tufts), straighten and become arallel (Fig
ure 144). As soon as the tuft is released from needles “A”, it is dragged forwar
d by the “R” oener cylinder. The “head” of the tuft is made u by the fibres ha
ving an end deely inserted in the “R” needles while the remaining art (“body”
or “tail” of the tuft) includes fibres, more or less entangled, floating on the
“R” needles. Figure 145 shows the solution adoted with the (reviously illustra
ted) tandem card, to feed and divide the web. Worth noticing is that in the tria
ngular sace distance between the feeder cylinders and the oener, the “uncontro
lled” fibres can be icked u by the needles of the oener (also irregularly) in
“bunches” or “blocks”.
Fig. 144 – Feeding and oening the web To coe with this roblem, the tufts are
oened by a small “L” worker cylinder, covered with rigid needles inclined in th
e direction oosite to rotation which, turning at a seed of VL = 2.7 m/min, o
ens the eventual bunches or blocks of fibres and reduces their sizes. The “A2” c
leaner roller includes a cylindrical brush (this tye of clothing is called “Tam
ico”) rotating anticlockwise; the brush sends back on “R” any material eventual
ly deosited on the needles of the uer feeder roller after being retained by t
he needles during the oening ste. 135
Fig. 145 - Feeding and oening of the web (side view)
The fibres on “L” and “R” are transferred onto the “T” intermediate roller, cove
red with rigid needles inclined in the direction of rotation and revolving at th
e seed VI = 27 m/min, which transfers the fibres on the “T.A.” re-carding drum
. The “R.T.” collector-conveyor is a cylindrical brush, rotating at the seed VR
T = 33 m/min, which recover the fibres droed by the “T” intermediate roller th
at would be otherwise lost. Figure 146 shows a solution adoted in the ast to f
eed and oen the web; the “R” oener roller, is followed by an “I” intermediate
roller, as described above. The three airs of feeder roller (the intermediate o
ne is not covered with needles but has longitudinal grooves) ensure an excellent
evenness of the material fed since they do not allow the “R” oener roller to
ick u the fibres irregularly, i.e. in “bunches” or “blocks”; in fact, the secon
d air of cylinders, featuring a seed about 10 Fig. 146 – Feeding and oening o
f the web times higher than the seed of the (alternative solution) revious ai
r of rollers, erforms a remarkable drawing action on the fibre mass, which star
ts being oened straight away. The third air of cylinders, similar to the first
one, whose seed is about the two thirds of the second one, comact the web mak
ing it more even, and reduce the ossibility that the oener roller icks u the
fibres irregularly. Whatever the solution adoted, the breaking of the web into
tufts is carried out irregularly and at random; the result deends on the VR/VA
ratio and on the thickness of the web on “F”. D) Wool deburring A artial debur
ring (elimination of the vegetal substances contaminating the fibres) can also b
e carried out inside the oener as well as the removal of other foreign matters
contained in the fibre mass that could damage the clothing of card rollers; this
oeration can be carried out with a deburring roller rovided with “E” tabs and
the contiguous “B” collector (Figure 145). The “E” deburring unit includes a ro
ller covered with longitudinal blades (or radial tabs) rotating in a direction o
osite to the “R” oener roller at such a seed that there is the assage of a
tab er every 2 mm of revolution covered by the oener (1500 ÷ 2000 rm). Every
time a tuft contaminated with vegetal imurities or other foreign matters reache
s the web surface and asses near the longitudinal blades of the deburring rolle
r (deburring oint), it is reeatedly beaten by the blades. The articles stri
ed are taken to the “B” collector and conveyed outside the card by means of smal
l blades driven by a belt running along the roller (across the machine) while fi
bres remain hooked on the needles and are therefore dragged further by the oene
r roller. However, the elimination of vegetal substances through the deburrer on
the oener roller (and of the comber rollers of the carding units) is not thoro
ugh enough; for this reason the card includes other rollers secially designed t
o eliminate burrs.
136
The most common solution is the use of rollers with Morel clothing. These roller
s erform a owerful action on vegetal substances on sufficiently oened tufts,
where fibres are not excessively entangled. Therefore, when using Morel clothing
s, the elimination of the burrs must be carried out after the tufts have been o
ened by re-carding drum and/or a carding unit. A first deburring ste (Figure 1
47) is carried out with the “R1” roller with Morel clothing, (VR1 = 165 m/min) a
nd with the “E1” roller with radial tabs laced between the re-carding unit and
the first drum of the tandem card. The needles of the “R1” roller have a traez
oidal shae and are arranged Fig. 147 - Double deburring with Morel clothings so
that a ga of about 0.8 ÷ 1.0 mm is created between two adjacent needle rows; w
hile the main art of the fibres ass between this sace, bigger vegetal substan
ces (whose height exceeds the ga width) do not ass over the rollers and float
above them and above the needles. The “I1” cylindrical brush, (a detail in Figur
e 147), which rotates at the seed VI1 = 99 m/min, transfers the fibres from the
“T.A.” roller (VTA = 49 m/min) to the “R1” roller while the “E1” finned roller
stris the burrs from the web and takes them to the “B1” collector. From the “R1
” roller, the fibres are transferred to the needles of a second “R2” Morel rolle
r, (VR2 = 329 m/min), with adjacent “E2” deburring roller, by means of another “
I2” cylindrical brush (VI2 = 272 m/min) and finally are transferred onto the nee
dles of the first drum, by means of an “I3” conveyor roller (VI3 = 456 m/min) co
vered with curved needles (flexible) inclined in the direction of rotation. A la
st deburring oeration can be carried out following the same method as before, b
etween the first and the second drum (Figure Fig. 148 - Clothing of the 149), by
means of the “R3” Morel roller, (VR3 = 240 m/min) , the “E3” deburring roller w
ith its “B3” collector, the “I4” cylindrical brush cylindrical brush, (VI4 = 158
m/min) and the “I5” conveyor roller (VI5 = 312 m/min), covered with curved (fle
xible) needles, inclined in the direction of rotation. E) Carding As reviously
said, the interaction of the material with the needles of the drum, of the worke
r cylinders and of the strier rollers included in a carding unit, determines t
he searation and the drawing of the fibres.
Fig. 149 - Deburring with Morel clothings 137
This oeration, which starts in the carding oints of the re-carding drum and f
inishes in the last carding oint of second drum (Figure 150 a, b, c), is carrie
d out with the same methods illustrated for the carding unit. The main role of t
he card is to subject the wool on the drum to the carding action of a certain nu
mber of worker cylinders; the other actions carried out by the machine are less
imortant and mainly concern the loading and unloading of the material from the
drum.
Fig. 150a Pre-carding unit
Fig. 150b First drum
Fig. 150c Second drum
The carding rocess can be schematised as follows: 1 – when the fibres conveyed
by the drum aroach the strier roller, they are art above it and art insert
ed in the needles of the drum inclined in the direction of rotation, 2 – when th
e fibres ass under the strier roller, covered with needles inclined in the di
rection of rotation, they are ushed more deely inside the clothing of the drum
which rotates faster, but after having assed it, they rotrude again beyond th
e needles with the fibres that have just been transferred from the strier roll
er, 3 – in the contact area between the drum and the worker cylinder nothing ha
ens since the fibres are only on the clothing of the drum because, if the stri
er roller has correctly carried out its action, there are no fibres in the cont
act area on the worker cylinder, 4 – as soon as the fibres enter the contact are
a between the drum and the worker cylinder, they are ushed against the needles
of the (slower) worker cylinder, that are inclined in a direction oosite to ro
tation, and seized in the same way as by the needles of the drum. As for the wor
ker cylinder needles, it is worth noticing that: • if they are correctly ground,
they will enetrate the tuft and seize the fibres thus reventing them from win
ding on the clothing of the drum, • if they are too far, only the ends of the tu
fts will be seized and the carding action is not carried out on all the fibres,
5 – the real carding action starts when the tuft is icked u by the needles of
the worker cylinder; the art of tuft seized by the needles of the drum moves fo
rward and the fibres are stretched. When fibres stretch, they tend to enetrate
inside the needles of the drum and sli along the needles of the worker cylinder
, until they hit an obstacle, for examle one single fibre wound around the need
le. As the stretching increases, the fibres slide around the needles until they
are comletely drawn; the tuft is searated into two arts whose dimensions dee
nd on the structure and on the initial shae of the tuft. The fibres that cannot
slide break; for this reason it is very imortant to rotect the needles from t
he rust that remarkably increases friction with the fibres, 138
6 – immediately before the searation, the fibre ends of the art of tuft icked
u by the clothing of the drum are owerfully and very quickly stretched throug
h the needles of the worker cylinder. The fibres seized by the needles of the wo
rker cylinder, turning at a lower seed, are subject to the action of the needle
s of the drum. Considering all this, it is ossible to say that the wool fibres
icked u by the worker cylinder are carded more thoroughly than those retained
by the drum. Due to the drawing carried out by the drum, the fibres rotrude fro
m the needles of the worker cylinder, and are transferred on the clothing of the
strier roller, and additionally straightened before reaching the contact area
of the two rollers. In order to understand the function of the strier roller,
it is sufficient to see how the card would oerate without it. The fibres, conv
eyed by the worker cylinder, are icked u by the drum before the contact area,
thus the carding action would be anticiated, leading to fibre entanglement. The
function of the strier roller is therefore bring the fibres back onto the dru
m so that they can be subjected to the action of the worker cylinder without ent
angling. E1) Analysis of drum-worker-strier interactions The clothings of drum
, worker cylinders and strier rollers of the three carding units (recarding,
first and second units) can be: - rigid, - the strier rollers of the re-cardi
ng unit can be cylindrical brushes, - the worker cylinders of the second drum ca
n be covered with curved needles (flexible) - etc. For every solution adoted an
d aart from the carding unit considered, the tuft icked u by the “T” drum is
conveyed to the first “carding oint”, near the first “L1” worker cylinder (Figu
re 151). The carding oints are the ni oints on the aths of the tis of the n
eedles of the worker cylinders and of the drum; the distance between the needles
can be adjusted and ranges (in the forward direction) from some millimetres in
the re-carding unit to some tenths of a millimetre in the second drum, resultin
g in a gradual and regular carding. The head of the tuft is deely introduced am
ong the needles of the “T” drum and, therefore, goes beyond the line of the card
ing oints without being subject to the action of the needles of the worker cyli
nder while the body of the tufts, which rotrudes from the needles of the drum,
is retained by the needles of “L1”. As a result, the body of the tuft is seized
by the needles of the two clothings and the faster seed of the “T” drum with re
sect to the “L1” worker cylinder, makes it enetrate more and more deely into
the drum needles; the stretching exerted on the tuft disentangles and straighten
s the fibres in the direction of rotation of the “T” drum thus making them aral
lel and carding them. From osition “c” to osition “c’ “ of the needles of the
worker cylinder, the fibres of the body of the needle are disentangled and the o
nes whose end is introduced among the needles of the drum are unwound and straig
htened (Figure 150 shows the “sawtooth” wires of the worker cylinder sketched wi
th a “curved shae” to better evidence the osition of the “c” oints).
139
Considering the faster seed of “S1” with resect to “L1”, the strier roller c
arries out a stretching action on the fibres, which, therefore, are straightened
and artially made arallel. The sulementary stretching is carried out when t
he fibres are ositioned at oints “h” and “k” of the worker cylinder (resectiv
ely found on the tangent to the trajectories of the needles of the two cylinders
and on the retaining angle corresonding to 90°), which vary according to the “
L1” and “S1” diameters; beyond the “k” oint, the needle is no longer caable of
retaining the fibres since the retaining angle is greater than 90° and there is
no more stretching action. The worker cylinders in the other carding oints wor
k like this and the more owerful the action, the smaller is the distance betwee
n the needles of the worker cylinder and the needles of the drum. In the last ca
rding oint of the first and of the second drum, the worker cylinder has no corr
esonding strier roller; in order to avoid oor carding results, the worker cy
linder must be rotected with a hood reventing it from icking u the fibres be
fore they reach the interaction area of its needles with the needles of the drum
. Furthermore, considering that this worker cylinder is laced near the vertical
lane tangent to the drum surface, it must be necessarily followed by a cylinde
r that brings back on the drum the fibres which would certainly escae from its
needles; the fibres therefore remain in the sace between this cylinder, the wor
ker cylinder and the drum. During the carding action, the high seed and the hug
e quantity of needles of the drum entail a friction and a scoring of the fibres,
which causes the searation of foreign articles, thus cleaning the material. T
he centrifugal force and the ventilation generated by the rotation of the drum k
nock off a certain quantity of released imurities under the card; these imurit
ies are mainly eliminated at the cylinder of the comber roller. The artial blen
ding of the fibres is carried out in the carding oints where the tufts are fed
in different blend stes; the more owerful the blending, the higher the number
of carding oints. We can schematise the seeds of the drums (which generally do
not exceed 1000 m/min), of the cylinders and of the strier rollers of the dif
ferent carding units as follows:
Fig. 151 The drum-worker – strier assembly on the 2nd drum
The acute “retaining” angle, corresonding to “c”, oints out the caability of
the needle of the worker cylinder to retain the fibres; the action terminates on
osition “c’ ”, where the angle becomes a 90° angle. Beyond this osition (for
examle, in c’’ osition), the needle is no longer caable of retaining any fibr
e. The fibres are excessively entangled and their end has not yet introduced int
o the drum clothing or they are insufficiently introduced, they are seized by th
e needles of “L1” and brought back to the same carding oint by the “S1” strie
r roller.
140
• re-carding unit: VTA = 49 m/min • 1st drum: VT1 = 750 m/min • 2nd drum: VT2 =
750 m/min
VL = 6 m/min VL = 25.6 m/min VL = 25.6 m/min
VS = 14 m/min VS = 143 m/min VS = 149 m/min
E2) Analysis of drum-comber interactions The straightened and arallel fibres le
aving the last carding oint are more or less deely inserted into the needles o
f the drum; the direction of rotation and the slant of the needles of the first
“T1” drum and of its “P1” comber roller (Figure 152) allows a owerful carding o
f the material.
Carded fibres Carded fibres
Combed fibres
Fig. 152 – 1st drum-comber roller
Fig. 153 – 2nd drum-comber roller
At the second drum, the carded fibres fed by “T2” hit the needles of the “P2” co
mber roller and ass onto its needles where, thanks to the seed difference, the
y gather and form web (Figure 153). Since the rotation of the cylinders is a non
-sto rotation, the stacking and the overlaing of the fibres on P2”, i.e. the
web formation, is carried out on a regular and non-sto base. In order to allow
the comber roller to regularly extract the fibres on the drum, the revious card
ing actions must have comletely stretched and arranged the fibres as shown in
osition “f ” between the needles of the drum (Figure 154); each fibre must be th
erefore ositioned in the sace between two adjacent rows of needles so that the
extraction from the clothing can be carried out without tear or break. In fact,
due to the high relative seed between “T” and “P” and also to the considerable
size of the last one, as soon as the head of a fibre is retained by the “P” nee
dles, the fibres turn uside down (Figure 155) ositioned across many rows of “T
” needles, as shown in osition “f1” (Figure 154) i.e. the still hooked fibre ca
nnot unwind raidly and smoothly and is subject to a owerful stretching action
which may break the fibre.
Fig. 154 Fibres on the drum.
141
The fibres that do not break on the “combing oint” (which corresonds to the ta
ngent oint of the trajectories of the tis of the needles of the drum and of th
e comber roller) after running off the “P” needles - ass again (folded) through
the carding oint where they wind around themselves or break for the same reaso
n illustrated above. the loose imurities, or the imurities adhering to the fib
res, escaed to the revious carding action; the eliminated imurities simly fa
ll in the lower section of the card. The seeds of the comber rollers (which gen
erally do not exceed 80 m/min) of the two carding units, can be the following: •
1st drum: VP1 = 69 m/min • 2nd drum: VP2 = 50 m/min E3) Secial case: the effec
t of the fly roller The action of the fly roller is necessary to convey the stra
ightened and arallel fibres leaving the last carding oint, which are more or l
ess deely inserted in the drum clothing, to the ends of the drum needles to fac
ilitate their extraction by the needles of the comber roller. The needles of the
fly roller enetrate the saces between the two rows of needles of the drum and
raise the fibres, in the form of small “slivers”, u to the tis of the needles
. The hooking of the fibres by the comber roller is favoured by the airflow gene
rated by the drum, which, running along Fig. 155 Turning a fibre the ath betwee
n the fly roller and the comber roller, makes uside down the front tis float a
nd rotrude outside the clothing. Considering that the fibres are now on the ti
of the clothing of the “T” clothing, by means of the “V” fly roller, the “P” co
mber roller owerfully combs the back tis of the fibres (Figure carded 156). fi
bres Here are the stes of the interaction between the fibres and the needles of
the drum and of the fly roller: - in the ga before the contact area between th
e fly raised fibres roller and the drum, no action is carried out since the fibr
es lie among the needles of the drum, - in the contact area, i.e. in the sace w
here needles enetrate, the fibres are simly ushed forward since the seed of
the fly roller is higher than the drum seed; the motion is not hindered until t
he combed fibre hits the needle of the drum in front of it and fibres this must
take lace when the needles of the fly roller are leaving the needles of the dru
m and the fibres, which would otherwise be squeezed Fig. 156 The effect of the a
gainst the needles of the drum and knocked out fly roller of its clothing. 142
The easier the release of the needles of the fly roller from the fibres, the smo
other and better levelled their surface. The comlete effect of the action of th
e fly roller is therefore to drive the fibres on the backside of the receding n
eedles of the drum, and raise them to the needle tis. The ratio between the se
ed of the fly roller and the seed of the drum must be accurately adjusted since
if the seed of the fly roller is: • slightly higher than the seed of the drum
, its action could be insufficient to drive the fibres on the backside of the ne
edles in front of it and, therefore, to raise them roerly, • too high with res
ect to the seed of the drum, the needles of the fly roller could drag the fibr
es and knock them out of the drum. E4) Final remarks The effectiveness of the co
mber roller action mainly deends on the accuracy of the fly roller action as we
ll as on the grinding and on the inclination of its needles. During the rotation
, the last comber roller delivers the fibre web formed on its clothing to the ac
tion of the doffer comb which carries out a quick oscillatory movement, arox 2
,000 ÷ 2,500 oscillations er min (generally they do not exceed 3,200 strokes/mi
n) some centimetres wide. The teeth of the comb slightly touch the needles of th
e comber roller and remove the web formed on their tis. During the downward mot
ion, the doffer comb with its fine teeth, drags the fibres downwards and far fro
m the needles of the comber roller; this is ossible since the friction with the
fibres inserted in its teeth is sufficient to remove the art still inserted in
the clothing of the comber roller. During the raising motion, the fibres are le
ft behind thanks to the gravity and to their adherence to the fibres making u t
he web; in the meantime, the comber roller moves away and therefore, during the
following downward oscillation, the comb erforms its action on another area of
the surface. A air of reversing rollers, with the same seed of the last comber
roller (or slightly higher), forces the web through a condensing funnel roduci
ng a sliver. The most common oerating widths available for tandem cards are 2,5
00, 3,000 and 3,500 mm; the roduction varies according to the count of the fibr
es making u the sliver and to the oerating width, and ranges between 100 ÷ 100
0 kg/h.
Card with double comber
In order to increase the card outut by 50 ÷ 100 %, with the same oerating widt
h, the following solutions have been imlemented: • unloading and formation of t
he web from the drum with two comber rollers of the same diameter, equied with
a collector device and with automatic introduction of the two webs effected by
the two comber rollers, in the ost-carding drawframe (Figure 156), • increase o
f the oerating seed of all the rollers, in articular increase of the drum se
ed, in order to reduce down to the minimum the resence of the fibres inside the
card and therefore reduce the mass of fibres recirculated on the drum.
143
Here are the main technical features of the above-mentioned cards: • oerating w
idth ranging between 2,500 and 3,500 mm, • drum seed, u to 1,500 m/min, • see
d of the comber rollers, u to 100 m/min, • doffer comb, 3,200 strokes er minut
e, • deburring cylinders, 2,000 rev/min, • count of the sliver roduced (g/m), 2
500 mm 3500 mm without drawing unit 20 ÷ 45 28 ÷ 65 with drawing unit 18 ÷ 30 22
÷ 42 • outut (kg/h) 2,500 mm 3,500 mm 18 micron 230 320 22 micron 320 450 Tem
erature and moisture conditions in the carding rooms must be as follows: Moistur
e Temerature 65 ÷ 75 % 22 ÷ 26 °C
Fig. 157 Card equied with double comber roller
Post-carding la drawing frame
General remarks The slivers released by different cards (4 ÷ 6) running in aral
lel (Figure 158) are usually doubled and drawn in a la drawing frame, also call
ed ost-carding la drawing frame.
Fig. 158 Tandem cards working in arallel with ost-carding drawframe 144
In ost-carding la drawing frames the fibre web leaving each single card, after
condensing in the funnel assembled before the reversing roller, is deviated by
90° by means of secial guides; the fibre web is then conveyed onto a conveyor b
elt and arranged erendicularly to the direction of the material flow, on which
it overlas the slivers coming from the other cards and is finally sent off to
the drawing frame. The use of the la drawing frame offers a great advantage: an
excellent reduction in the quantity of “curls” ossibly forming on the tis of
the fibres during the carding rocess; in fact, after the interaction between th
e drum and the comber roller of the card, many fibres making u the card sliver
feature a “curl” end, or “tail” (along the direction of the forward movement of
the sliver); the curl aears when the fibres conveyed by the drum are icked u
and wound around the needles of the clothing of the comber roller and are thus
transferred onto them. This advantage is counterbalanced by a drawback: the runn
ing seed of the cards must be adjusted to a slower seed since all the slivers
feeding the la drawing frame must run at the same seed. In order to ensure a u
niform count of the sliver leaving the drawframe, at the exit of the cards, near
by the formation zone of the card sliver, there is a sensor signalling to the dr
awframe the resence of the corresonding sliver; when one of them is not resen
t, due to a sliver break or card sto, the drawframe does not sto, but automati
cally changes the drawing values so as to kee the count of the sliver unchanged
. It is ossible to reduce the roduction stos caused by the standby time of th
e cards, due to machine malfunctioning or maintenance of the drawframe by using
two drawframes in the following way (Figure 159): • the carded sliver, coming fo
r examle from 5 cards, is conveyed in grous of 2 and 3 to the two “A” and “B”
drawframes resectively, • should the “A” drawframe sto, the two slivers fed ar
e sent to the “B” drawframe, which automatically changes the draw value, Fig. 15
9 Double after-card drawing unit • should the “B” drawframe sto, the conveyor b
elt, on which are arranged three slivers, reverts the direction of its motion an
d sends the slivers to the “A” drawframe, which changes the draw value.
Comosition A la drawing frame (Figure 160) includes the following comonents:
1. a conveyor belt with a bending device for each card (Figure 161), 2. a double
belt inclined conveyor, which brings the card sliver to the height of the drawi
ng head, Fig. 160 After-card la drawing frame
145
3. a condensing funnel, which contains the edges of the sliver and determines th
e width of the material entering the drawframe (Figure 162), 4. a drawing aggreg
ate, 5. an automatic collecting can for the sliver roduced. A) Drawing aggregat
e The drawing aggregate of a la drawing frame includes the following comonents
(Figure 163): • a feeder including a rubber-coated roller ressing two grooved
rollers, • a fibre control device including two airs of toothed rollers (called
“controllers”, Figure 164), • a delivery device including a rubber-coated rolle
r ressing on two grooved cylinders, one large and one small. The “controllers”
include a series of toothed lates arranged at an equal distance maintained by m
eans of sacer rings (Figure 163); the accurate assembly of the toothed lates a
llows a erfect intersection of the teeth of each single cylinder with the teeth
of the nearby cylinders
Fig. 161 Sliver guide
Fig. 162 Condenser funnel
Fig. 163 Drawing aggregate
Fig. 164 Controller
The toothed lates are assembled on rollers with the teeth inclined in the direc
tion oosite to the rotation and therefore in the direction oosite to the flo
w of the material which must be drawn.
Combing
General remarks
The carded sliver coming from the card or from the la drawing frame undergoes t
he combing rocess in order to: • eliminate short fibres, • arallelise fibres,
• eliminate vegetal substances still contained in the fibre mass 146
The combing rocess is carried out in three different stages: 1. rearation for
combing or re-combing, 2 combing, 3. ost-combing; The drawing frames are used
for carrying out stes 1) and 3) while combing machines are used for ste 2) fo
r wools featuring for examle a 21 micron count; in this case, the rocess shown
on Figure 165 could technically be alied.
Autoleveller DRAWFRAMES
COMBING MACHINES DRAWFRAMES Autoleveller
Fig. 165 Combing cycle of 21-micron wool
Prearation for combing
Before assing the material to the combing machine, it is necessary to straighte
n and start arallelising the fibres to avoid the elimination of the “short” fol
ded or curled fibres contained in the carded sliver, and to avoid the breakage o
f fibres roduced by the owerful arallelisation action; all these actions are
the objectives of the rearation stage for the combing rocess. The drawing of
the carded sliver carried out on the la drawing frame after the card, reduces t
he quantity of curls generated on the “tail” of the fibres during the carding r
ocess; for their comlete straightening, other drawing oerations have to be car
ried out in sequence on the fibre tail and head alternately (with reference to t
he sliver leaving the card). Everyday ractice has shown that a correct comromi
se between the number of drawing oerations to be carried out and the quantity o
f “blousse” generated inside the combing machine is reached after 3 drawing ste
s after the la drawing frame; in this way two stretching and arallelising acti
ons (drawing) are carried out on both fibre ends (tail and head) of the carded s
liver (Figure 166). 147
Fig. 166 – Action of the fibres during the drawing oerations
Each single drawing ste is accomanied by a suitable number of sliver doublings
; this makes the ortion of material fed to the drawframe more regular and makes
u for the irregularities of each single sliver. The draft and doubling values
are selected according to the characteristics of the material to be rocessed, t
he machines to be used and the roduction schedule. Indicatively, the number of
doublings ranges from 4 ÷ 8 while drafting vary from 4.5 ÷ 6.5; in this way the
fibre mass behaves as a filter and allows a more efficient straightening of the
fibres.
Intersecting drawing frames
The drawframes traditionally used for rocessing wool slivers and controlling th
e fibres in the draft range, include a bar with steel needles which, by intersec
ting, enetrate the fibre mass (from above and below) and drive it near the draf
ting cylinder. In this way, the distance between the needles, occuied by the fi
bres, is the same along the whole length of the needles (Figure 167) and this r
ovides a steady ressure on the fibres and therefore a uniform control of the fi
bres subjected to drawing. The above mentioned control device is called intersec
ting unit. The needles are laced on steel bars forming the combs whose side end
s (fins) are driven by the machine transmission (Figure 168). The intersecting d
rawing frames most frequently used in this stage of the rocess are the single-h
ead tye, and their combs can be driven by a belt or by rotating flanges. Also t
raditional screw-tye drawframes can be successfully used; they grant an excelle
nt control of the fibres but a low roduction outut due to the lower fibre
Fig. 167 Comb needles feeding ratio.
Fig. 168 Comb with end tabs
148
A) Comosition An intersecting drawframe includes the following comonents: • a
feed rack which arranges the slivers taken from the cans on a flat horizontal co
nveyor and sends them to the feeding cylinders of the drawing unit, • a drawing
unit including: a) two grooved feeding cylinders acting as fibre nier, b) a do
uble set of intersecting combs (“needle range”) with the centre line ositioned
on the oerating surface on the contact areas between the feed and the drafting
cylinders. The combs are driven so that the higher needle range is searated fro
m the lower one, on the feed side, to facilitate the entry of the material into
the control device. The combs intersecting at the exit force the fibres through
the needles with a consequent stretching and arallelisation action during the d
rawing, c) drawing cylinders, usually including 1 cylinder coated with rubber on
2 grooved cylinders, • a device collecting the sliver in a can or reel. The dra
wframe used for carrying out the third drawing ste collects the sliver on 1 or
2 reels er head (to limit the sace needed to feed the combing machines, which
require from 20 to 24 doublings each): the collection device imarts a false twi
st to the sliver in order to wind it with a suitable tension for roer winding
onto a reel. B) “Screw-tye” drafting head (Figure 169) Inside the “screw-tye”
drawframes the tabs of the combs engage in the threads of big worm screws (“scre
ws”, Figure 170) whose rotation allows the forward motion of the combs on a hori
zontal lane, one comb behind the other, towards the drafting cylinders. Every c
omb reaching the end of the stroke near the drawing cylinder, is lowered (if it
belongs to the lower draft range) or raised (if it belongs to the higher draft r
ange) driven by two rotating cams (Figure 170), fixed at the ends of the screws,
which engage it into Fig. 169 - Screw-tye drafting head the threads of the two
“return screws”. The rotation of the return screws is such that the comb is dri
ven back to the beginning of the needle range, where it is reositioned in the w
orking area by two other cams, arranged at the ends of the return screws, which
ush it in the oosite direction. The return screws usually have a itch greate
r than the other screws so that, with the same number of revolutions, each comb
can carry out the backstroke more raidly; in this case, every second, the numbe
r of returning combs is lower than the working combs.
Fig. 170 - Screw and cams 149
During the whole cycle, the combs are ket arallel to each other and to the nee
dles erendicular to the direction of the material flow. The efficiency of the
fibre control is so high that, still today, the screw-tye drawframe is consider
ed a sort of benchmark for the other control systems; one of the limits of this
machine is the low outut caacity due to the imossibility the combs reaching h
igh seeds due to the comlicated motions and mechanical stresses. To calculate
the seed of the combs the following alies: Va (m/min) = N/min * D (m) wher
e: Va = seed of the combs (m/min), N/min = number of combs assing through a
certain oint in a minute D = distance (itch) between one comb and the followi
ng one (m); considering that near the screws, the combs are hit by the cams, the
result is: comb nis itch (mm) of the screws --------------- x ---------------
------------------------min number of starts of screws Va = -------------------
------------------------------------------- (m/min) 1,000 The screw itch is equ
al to 18 mm (occasionally 22 mm) and the thread has two starts; the screws featu
re maximum 1,000 revolutions er minute and considering that the cams hit the tw
o combs at each revolution of the screw, the maximum number of comb nis er min
ute will be 2,000 (one ni every 0.03 seconds). The maximum seed of the combs o
f the screw-tye drawframes is 18 m/min (22 m/min with a 22 mm itch), which is
also the maximum eriheral seed of the feeding rollers. C) Drafting head with
rotating flanges (Figure 171) In the drawframes equied with rotating flanges,
the motion of the combs is generated, for both needle ranges (lower and higher),
by the rotation of two flanges rovided with radial grooves which drive the com
bs by their end tabs; therefore, the combs follow the ath of these grooves on t
wo airs of fixed side shoulders. In this case, the non-sto horizontal dislace
ment and the ulse vertical motion of the combs on the screw-tye drafting head
are relaced by a uniform rotation thanks to which the mechanical stresses of th
e involved devices are reduced to the bare minimum.
Fig. 171 – Drafting head with rotating flanges (cross section). 150
In these drawframes (Figures 171 and 172) the combs rotation is driven by means
of two airs of grooved flanges, “A1, A2” and “B1, B2”, featuring a uniform rota
tion while the two airs of fixed cams, “C1, C2” and “D1, D2”, drive the combs a
nd force them to carry out an almost linear motion in the working area as a resu
lt taking a osition that determines the correct intersecting of the needles. Th
e bending of the material between the feeding rollers and the drawing cylinders
favours the enetration of the comb needles and therefore increases fibre contro
l. D) Chain drafting head (Figure 173) The same oerating rinciles of rotating
flanges drawframes also aly for chain tye drawframes; the difference lies in
the fact that in this case the combs are driven by two double chains arranged o
n the sides of the drawframes. Both ends of the combs are rovided with a in en
gaging the chains (Figure 174), and rofiled dogs jut out on the right and on th
e left end alternately; the rofiled dogs are rovided with bushes guiding the c
omb. The bushes follow the ath created by two airs of grooves on the sides of
the drafting head, determining the orientation of the combs in the different os
itions taken during the combing cycle. The three chains are the non-extensible t
ye and feature secial coulings for the ins of the combs; they are driven by
means of a toothed wheel laced on the same side as the
Fig. 172 Rotating flanges drafting head
Fig. 173 Chain drafting head feeding cylinders, while a toothed driving inion i
s arranged on the exit side; the draft is therefore generated by the return chai
n and not inside the working area, where the combs are driven in such a way that
a steady itch of 8 mm between them is guaranteed.
Fig. 174 Comb motion control 151
The inclination of the needles (Figure 175) allows the steady intersecting of th
e combs into the material for erfect and consistent control of the fibres roce
ssed, as well as a reduced distance between the last oerating comb and the draw
ing unit for better control of short fibres. E) Electronic autoleveller Deendin
g on the different cases, the first or the second rearation drawframe can be e
quied with a draft autoleveller allowing the Fig. 175 - Needle inclination sam
e count of the sliver also in case of ossible variation of the material volume
due for examle to the sliver running out or to the slicing of a sliver with an
other. The oeration mode of the electronic autoleveller is quite simle (Figure
176): • a mechanical feeler detects the volume oscillations of the material fed
(Figure 177), • a transducer sends the information received to an electronic me
mory, • when, along its way to the machine exit, the material detected by the fe
eler enters Fig. 176 - Electronic autoleveller the draft range, the memory sends
the information to the feeding servomotor (to synchronise the draft correction
with the sensing time), • the motor changes the rotation seed according to the
information received by changing the feeding rate and consequently the draft val
ue. The extreme intervention seed (equal to 0.002 sec) ensures a erfect adjust
ment also at very high drawframe feed rates. Fig. 177 – Mechanical feeler
152
F) Final considerations In icture 165, the signs near the machines indicate how
the material leaves the machine: “V11” stands for a sliver collected in a can,
“B11” stands for a sliver wound on a reel; “B22” indicates that the two slivers
are wound into two distinct reels. The flow of the sliver leaving the unit is to
tally controlled to avoid ossible false drawing. The entry/exit side of the sli
vers into/from the drawframe may be also integrate oiling devices: the oiling de
vices at the exit side feature a nozzle drowned into the sliver while the oiling
devices at the entry side feature a sraying comartment, between the feeding r
ack and the drafting head, where the slivers are overlaed before entering the
machine.
Combing
General remarks Through the combing rocess, the card sliver is stried from re
sidual foreign matter as well as from fibres shorter than a re-set length. Duri
ng this oeration all the fibres are straightened and arallelised with resect
to the longitudinal axis of the sliver, that at the end of the rocess is theref
ore called combed sliver. The high degree of arallelism of the fibres and the r
eduction in the number of short fibres in the combed sliver remarkably reduce th
e bulkiness and the hairiness of the sliver, and increase the evenness of the ya
rn during the following rocesses. The combing wool waste, called noils, is blen
ded with other materials and used in the carded sinning cycle; the combing wast
e of inferior quality is instead destined for the felt industry.
Hand combing To thoroughly understand how combing machines carry out the combing
rocess, it is worth mentioning how wool was manually combed in the ast. This
rocess included three main oerations and recisely: 1. introduction of the fib
re tuft in the comb; 2. combing of the head of the fibre tuft; 3. extraction and
combing of the tail of the fibre tuft 1) Introduction of the fibre tuft in the
comb (Figure 178). The “” comb was fixed to a wall with the needles tis direct
ed uwards; the comber took a tuft of fibres and inserted it on the comb so that
the fibre tails rotruded from the side of the comb in front of the wall.
Fig. 178 Introduction of the tuft
153
2) Combing of the head of the fibre tuft (Figure 179). An “m” mobile comb was th
en reeatedly assed on the tuft retained by the “” comb, taking care not to br
eak the fibres. As a result, short fibres and imurities were searated from the
“” comb needles.
Fig. 179 - Combing of the tuft head 3) Extraction and combing of the tail of the
fibre tuft (Figure 180). The comber, after seizing the head of the tuft, extrac
ted it from the “” comb forcing the fibres on the needles to slide. As a result
, the short fibres and imurities of the tuft tail remained on the “” comb need
les.
Fig. 180 - Extraction and combing of the tuft tail The cleaning of the two “” a
nd “m” combs from noils was carried out manually. The main roblem of hand combi
ng lies in the fact that the combed material still included some imurities due
to a small area of the tuft not subject to the action of the comb needles. The f
ront art of the tuft was combed by the “m” comb and the rear by the “” comb. E
ven if the needles of both combs were extremely thin, there was always a small a
rea of the tuft that the needles of the “m” comb could not enetrate since it wa
s too near to the “” comb; furthermore the “” comb needles did not exert any a
ction since they did not touch this area of the tuft during the extraction; as a
consequence, this area was never combed and eventual imurities were not elimin
ated.
Mechanical combing Three comonents were used in manual combing: the hand and tw
o combs. The hand acts as a griing means while the combs rocess the head and
the tail of the tuft. Mechanical combing is carried using linear combing machine
s which reroduce the actions of hand combing; the comb is still the combing mea
ns while the hand of the “combing roller” is relaced by different griing mean
s. Linear combing machines work first the head and then the tail of the fibre tu
fts and include: • a nier, retaining the tuft, • a circular comb, acting on th
e tuft head,
154
• a linear comb, acting on the tuft tail, • a nier, extracting the tuft from t
he machine Figure 181 shows the four different ositions assumed by the comonen
ts of a linear wool combing machine. The drawing on the to left side shows the
closed nier, made u of two jaws, and the circular comb, which starts oeratin
g on the head of the tuft. The drawing on the bottom left side shows the oen ni
er and the head of the combed tuft held by the other nier (i.e. the extracti
on cylinders) leaving the combing machine while the lowered linear comb starts o
erating on the tail of the tuft. In a few words, a linear combing machine oera
tes as follows: Fig. 181 Combing of the head A la of fibres, formed by 20-24 an
d of the tail of a tuft slivers artly arranged one beside the other and artly
overlaed, is fed by the feeding cylinders (not shown in the ictures). The fib
res are laid between the “a1” grooved late and the “a2” searating aron, which
, together with the “a3” needle bar make u the “A” feeding gill. The head of th
e la is retained between the “t1” and “t2” griers of the “T” nier. A certai
n length of the la remains free and is enetrated by the needles of the combs o
n the “1” sector of the “P” circular comb (Figure 180, to left). While “P” rot
ates, the combs of the “1” sector – whose needles which are thinner in the firs
t rows (sorting area) and thicker in the last ones (finishing area) are inclined
in the direction of the material flow – clean and comb the tuft (head) while th
e “A” gill carries out a return stroke of adjustable “V” width. During this moti
on, which reares the feeding of the following tuft, the la of fibres slides b
etween “a1” and “a2” and stos since it is retained by the “T” closed nier (Fi
gure 181, to right). When the “A” gill moves towards the oen nier, the fibre
la follows its motion and the following tuft is resented to the comb; the “a3
” needle bar lowers and its needles enetrate the “a1” and “a2” saces searatin
g the short fibres. After the last “1” needle row has combed the head of the tu
ft, the “S” extraction cylinders (including the “s2” grooved cylinder and the “s
3” sleeve sliding on the s1 grooved cylinder) which have aroached the circular
comb, catch the head of the tuft and the “R” linear comb lowers and enetrates
it with its needles. At this moment, the “T” nier oens, the “A” gill moves fo
rward and the tuft tail, ulled by the extraction cylinders (which rotate and os
cillate thus drawing back from “P”) is searated from the la and combed by the
needles of the “R” linear comb (Figure 181, below left).
155
The “s1” and “s2” cylinders are owerfully ressed one against the other to gran
t a erfect niing of the tuft; furthermore, during the aroaching oscillation
of the circular comb, they rotate in the direction oosite to the material flo
w direction to draw back the reviously combed tuft; this motion is necessary to
overla the tuft to the already combed one and ensure a good evenness of the co
mbed sliver. Once the tails of the tuft have been combed, the “T” nier closes
in order to retain the newly fed tuft, the “A” gill, which has moved comletely
forward, returns along the “V” section with the “a3” needle table raised, the “R
” linear comb raises, the “S” extraction cylinders reare to rotate (to draw ba
ck the material) and move (to aroach “P”) and the circular comb, which has alm
ost comleted one revolution, aroaches the tuft rotruding from “T” with its f
irst needle row (Figure 181, below right). The tufts of combed fibres arranged o
n the “s3” sleeve, with the head overlaing the tail of the receding tuft, for
m a thin web which, condensed into a sliver, is finally conveyed to a collection
can.
Linear combing machine with double combined motion The linear combing machine (w
ith double combined motion of the extraction rollers and of the nier-holder ca
rriage and the feeding gill) features a curvilinear oscillation to let the gri
ing oint of the fibres run a ath corresonding to an arc of circumference with
its centre on the axis of the circular comb (Figure 182). This motion takes la
ce while the circular comb works on the tuft rotruding from the nier; this al
lows a more gradual action of needles on the fibres of the tuft head, with the s
ame number of revolutions. The stroke of the nier determines a reduction of th
e stand-by times (a art of the aroach movement to the extraction rollers take
s lace during the head combing) and this allows an increase in the seed of the
circular comb, and therefore in the outut rates, under the same oerating cond
itions. The arameter determining the length of the fibres to be eliminated is t
he “gauge” of the combing machine, which is the distance between the niing oi
nt and the oint where the extraction rollers gri the head of the tuft, i.e. th
e “minimum distance between the nier and the extraction rollers”; the gauge al
so affects the outut caacity of the machine since the quantity of noils roduc
ed during the rocess strictly deends on its value. Fig. 182 - Combing machine
with double combined motion 156
A) Oerating rincile Figure 183 shows the ositions of the main comonents of
a double-motion linear combing machine during the two combing stes: - 1st ste;
combing of the head of the tuft, carried out by the circular comb while the osc
illation between the feed system and the extraction rollers is synchronised; - 2
nd ste; extraction and combing of the head of the tuft, carried out by the extr
action rollers and by the linear comb while the material is fed for the followin
g oerating cycle. The combing machine works as follows: a) – while the extracti
on cylinders are at their maximum distance from the nier (Figure 183, to), th
e sorting section of the circular comb starts working on the material rotruding
from the closed nier which oscillates towards the extraction rollers, togethe
r with the attached feeding gill (head combing); during the action of the two la
st needle rows of the circular comb (finishing sector) while the nier continue
s its motion, the extraction rollers start their oscillating aroach to the ni
er which simultaneously oens, b) – once the oscillation of the nier and of t
he extraction rollers has come to an end, when the distance between them is equa
l to the gauge (Figure 183, below), the end of the fibres (tuft head) ositions
on the sleeve of the extraction device, above the end section of the revious tu
ft, and is catured by the extraction rollers; simultaneously, the linear comb o
scillating together with the nier lowers and its needles enetrate the materia
l. At this oint the nier oens and two motions are started: Combing the tuft
head 1) the extraction rollers rotate forward and withdraw from the nier so to
extract the fibres forcing them through the needles of the linear comb (tail co
mbing), 2) the feeding gill moves forward in synchronism with the extraction rol
lers and feeds the material for the following cycle. Towards the end of the rota
tion of the extraction rollers, the nier starts the return stroke thus determi
ning a further extraction of the tuft favouring the searation of longer fibres.
At the end of the two abovementioned motions (after combing the tail), during t
he backward oscillation, the nier closes in the same oening osition and take
s a new tuft, starting a new cycle after the end of the oscillation.
Extracting and combing the tuft tail
Fig. 183 - The two stes of tuft combing
157
While these motions are carried out, the extraction cylinders rotate in oosite
direction and draw back a art of the combed tuft, which is made to adhere onto
the sleeve thanks to a vacuum action; in this way, the head of the following co
mbed tuft is ositioned above the tail of the revious one granting an excellent
bonding of the web as well as its uninterruted consistency. B) Feeding system
Before assing through the lates of the feeding gill, the la goes through the
re-feeding system including a grooved cylinder with an uer roller coated with
rubber to ensure the correct gri of the fibres also for sustaining greater loa
ds. The lates, through which the la slides, converge towards the exit so that
(by steing towards the nier) the material fed is comressed and rogressivel
y condensed. The evenness of the material thickness, along the whole oerating w
idth of the linear comb, ensures a regular control of the fibres on the whole cr
oss section of the la, during the combing of the tuft tail with a consequent re
gular degree of arallelisation and cleanness of the material. C) Nier The ni
er, together with the feeding gill, carries out one oscillating motion towards
the extraction cylinders to create a more favourable condition for rocessing th
e material. The advantage of the forward motion of the nier, in the direction
of the circular comb, lies in the fact that it is carried out towards the end of
the combing of the tuft head i.e. during the action of the last needle rows of
the circular comb, which feature a higher needle density, and determine a combin
g seed (given by the eriheral seed of the circular comb minus the forward s
eed of the nier) that is lower than the seed of the circular comb, with a con
sequent reduction of the “whilash” of its needles on the fibres during the ene
tration stroke; as a result, the fibres are less subject to stress and strain. I
n other words, we could say that the forward motion of the nier accomanying t
he rotation of the last rows of needles of the circular comb determines an incre
ase in the combing time giving a longer and more regular combing of the head of
the tuft (as if the area of the circular comb covered with needles was greater,
thus entailing a reduced break of the fibres and a better cleaning). The finer t
he count of the fibres to be combed, the more imortant this is. To revent fibr
es from escaing the nier during the tuft head combing, the uer jaw of the n
ier is equied with two toothshaed tis in the fibre retaining area (Figure
184); the front one forces the tuft downward, towards the circular comb, and re
sses the fibres together with the rear bar on the head of the lower jaw. Further
more the tension undergone by the fibres during the circular comb action favours
their insertion between the nier jaws, with a consequent imrovement of the n
i er gri, which revents (also in case of big batches) the tearing of fibres b
y the circular comb, esecially the finest ones.
Fig. 184 – The nier jaws
158
The ressure exerted on the whole length of the nier must be uniform and its i
ntensity must avoid a shearing effect on the fibres (for examle 8-9 daN/cm) To
obtain good cleaning of the fibres, the distance between the nier and the need
les of the circular comb must be the shortest ossible (usually, 0.5 ÷ 1.0 mm) T
o revent the fibres of the tuft head from escaing the needles of the circular
comb, a small brush is fixed on the uer grier of the nier to force the tuf
t downwards (Figure 183). D) Linear comb The linear comb must lower one instant
before the extraction rollers start their rotation; in case of delay, i.e. if th
e extraction has already started, the combing of the rear side of the tuft will
be inadequate. A nier blade under the tuft head revents the head from lowerin
g during the downward stroke of the linear comb, due to the action of the very t
hick needles. During the circular comb action, the nier blade is ositioned ju
st a little backward at the end of its oerating area and stes forward to kee
the head of the tuft raised, at the height of the ni oint of the extraction ro
llers (Figure 183). The linear comb is cleaned at every oerating cycle by a se
cial brush rovided with two bristle rows to enlarge the oerating surface. E) E
xtractor The extraction rollers carry out an oscillation towards the nier in s
ynchronism with the oscillation of the nier. The extraction rollers feature a
helical groove, which allows a gradual gri of the tuft and a reduction of the
ressure between them; this groove, besides reventing dangerous bending, grants
a longer life of the sleeve on which the combed web is arranged. To reduce the s
leeve wearing, it is ossible to adjust the oerating time and the intensity of
the ressure between the extraction rollers (the ressure should be maximum duri
ng the tuft extraction and minimum during the return of the rollers). The ressu
re exerted on the extraction rollers is 1,600 N; due to the effect of the fibres
wedging into the helical teeth, the force exerted on them during the extraction
stage is equal to 2,200 N (during the backlash it is aroximately of 600 N). D
uring the rotation of the extraction rollers determining the withdrawal of the c
ombed tuft, an air suction oening retains the tuft tail to reare the overla
ing of the revious tuft with the next one. The vacuum must kee the tail of the
tuft adherent but it should not be excessively high so as not to also attract n
oils. F) Formation and collection of the combed sliver On the sleeve of the extr
action device, the outgoing fibre web is controlled by means of secial blowers
and collected into a vat for condensing; the sliver obtained is conveyed to the
criming device or to the double conveyor belt and sent to the coiler. The doubl
e conveyor belt is generally used when oerating on fine wools while the crimin
g device is used for imroving the comactness of the fibres. .
159
The criming device includes two comacting rollers, a criming comartment and
a collection sihon. Inside the criming comartment, featuring an adjustable 50
-60 mm width, the material is comressed and the fibres are forced to take the
reset waving, which increases the comactness. The sihon acts as a receiver bet
ween the criming device and the coiler and grants a non-sto collection of the
sliver. G) Noil discharging device A circular brush removes the material accumul
ated among the needles of the circular comb and transfers it to the collection c
ylinder, coated with a card clothing, from which it is removed by means of an os
cillating comb. A vacuum device acts in the front area of the circular comb, wit
h an oening laced between the circular comb and the circular brush, while a se
cond oening allows vacuum dedusting in the rear side of the circular comb when
it does not hold the tail of the tufts. The dust is conveyed to a filtration box
while the noils are collected into a secial container on the same side of the
collection area of the combed sliver (Figure 184). H) Feed and collection system
s The volume of material entering and leaving the combing machine should be enou
gh to grant maximum autonomy to the machine; this is why the reels and the cans
should be big enough to reduce the loading and unloading times to a minimum. Fig
. 184 – Noil collection The feed racks of the reels allow maximum 24 doublings,
and feature four airs of longitudinal rollers arranged on two levels (two on ea
ch level) to unwind the reels (Figure 185). Each air of rollers is equied wit
h searate control to set a different rotation seed, which ensures a regular an
d comlete unwinding of the reels with different diameters. Also the can racks (
2 slivers er can) allow max. 24 doublings (Table A).
Fig. 185 - Combing machine fed with reels of sliver
160
TABLE A
Characteristics
doublings (cans or reels ) loading caacity throughut seed circular comb oera
ting range linear comb oerating range gauge n° g/m nis/min mm mm mm 24 500 ÷ 6
00 200 440 460 28 ÷ 36 gill feeding nier-circular comb distance extraction rol
lers diameter sleeve size nier oscillation extraction rollers oscillation
Characteristics
mm mm mm mm mm mm 4 ÷ 10 0,2 ÷ 2.0 28/25 540x580x3,5 38 54
Linear combing machine with fixed nier Figure 186 (the arrows and the numbers
indicate the directions, the orientations and the widths, in mm, of the motions
of the different comonents) shows the comlete schematic of a linear combing ma
chine with fixed nier where the linear comb does not oscillate towards the ext
raction rollers (for this reason, it will be also referred to as “fixed comb”) b
ut only erform the enetration and exit motion from the tail of the fibre tuft.
This means that every time the gauge is changed, the osition of the fixed ni
er must be adjusted and there is no need to adjust the linear comb, the cleaning
brush, the nier blade and the gill; in brief, near each osition of the fixed
Fig. 186 - Linear combing machine comb, it is ossible to oerate in the with f
ixed nier maximum safety conditions also with minimum differences and therefor
e reach the maximum cleaning efficiency of the material. A) Oerating rincile
The linear combing machine equied with fixed nier oerates as follows: a) th
e circular comb, with closed nier and extraction rollers far from the nier,
combs the head of the tuft while the gill moves backward (Figure 187), b) the ni
er oens and the gill moves forward, the extraction rollers aroach the nie
r and catch the head of the tuft, the linear comb lowers, the nier blade moves
forward (Figure 188) The extraction rollers, drawing off the nier, comb the t
ail of the tuft since the fibres are forced through the needles of the fixed com
b. When the extraction rollers gri the head of the tuft, they hold the tail of
the reviously combed tuft and extract the sliver, with the ends of two adjacent
and overlaing tufts, through a rotation roortional to the feed length. 161
Fig. 187 - Combing of the head of the tuft
B) Feeder The adjacent and overlaed wool slivers forming a comact la with un
iform thickness, are ushed forward by means of a re-feeding device including 3
rollers, one ressure roller and two feeding rollers, rotating uniformly, which
ensure a steady control of the material (Figure 186). The V-shaed gill grants
a regular condensation of the la and ensures a uniform feed (Figure 189). Durin
g the feeding ste (Figure 188), the “a3” needle table is lowered so that the fi
bre la moves together with the “A” gill towards the nier; when “A” starts the
backstroke, “a3” raises and searates from the fibre mass which, held by the cl
osed nier, stands still while the two “a1” and “a2” lates slide on it. Once “
A” has come back, the “a3” table lowers and the la is ready for the next tuft f
eeding.
C) Nier The nier is in a fixed osition, erfectly aligned with the circular
comb and kees a steady combing angle for any gauge value; this grants a good i
m act evenness of the circular comb with resect to the tuft. To avoid ossible
floating of the fibres on the circular comb, the nier is equied with a seci
al brush which sinks into the tuft. Nier “1” has a lower “1a” jaw; the materia
l is squeezed on the ti of the lower jaw by means of the uer “1b” jaw. The di
stance between the ti of the “1b” jaw Fig. 188 - Combing of the tail of the tuf
t and the needles of the 2” circular comb is adjustable. After being fed, the la
rotrudes beyond the nier by a distance equal to the gauge (reresented by t
he distance between the ni oint of the nier and the ni oint of the extract
ion cylinders, Figure 188) With the same feed (load), the quantity of noils gene
rated by the combing machine change according to the number of slivers forming t
he la; to be recise, it can increase (decrease) in an inversely roortional m
anner with resect to the number of slivers fed.
162
In case of small quantity of slivers fed, the arrangement could result in a non-
uniform organization and the nier could exert different ressures on the whole
surface of the la; in this way, some fibres (also the long ones) could sli of
f under the action of the circular comb and reach the other noils. D) Circular c
omb The “2” circular comb, featuring a non-sto rotation, acts on the section of
material rotruding from the nier; the circular comb is rovided with a certa
in quantity of combs with different needle density. The first thin rows of needl
es (the “2a” sorting section in Figure 188) which is almost the same for any Fig
. 189 -Feed gill tye of wool combing, re-oen and searate the material while
the other denser needle rows (“2b” finishing section) are interchangeable for co
mbing different tyes of wool and arallelising the fibres. The small bars with
needles are arranged on a 264 mm arc. The material treatment starts when the ni
er catches the la by its “1a” and “1b” griers; the “2a” and “2b” needles of
the comb are introduced into the art of la rotruding from the nier, they a
rallelise the fibres retained by the nier and remove short fibres, which can m
ove freely, and imurities. The circular comb carries out one entire revolution
er each combing cycle of a tuft (tail and head). To obtain maximum efficiency f
rom the action of the circular comb, the ti of the “1b” grier of the nier m
ust be ositioned as near as ossible to its needles; furthermore, both the numb
er of combs and the needle thickness must be the greatest ossible. A big circul
ar brush cleans the circular comb to reare the biggest ossible contact surfac
e between the needles and the fibres and facilitate the comb cleaning (Figure 19
0). The action of the big brush can be synchronised through a timer to generate
the control function with variable frequency according to the cleaning level req
uired. Fig. 190 - Circular comb with brush The head of the fibre tuft sinks into
the needles of circular comb by means of a secial sinking brush (Figure 187).
163
E) Linear comb The “3” linear comb oscillates only vertically with no other hori
zontal motion since it is not attached to the nier nor to the feed gill; for t
his reason it is imerative that the “3” linear comb starts working at the end o
f the feed gill forward motion, just one instant before the extraction rollers s
tart moving and combing the head of the tuft to be rocessed. A secial brush fe
aturing a continuous forward and backward motion cleans the linear comb (Figure
186). The needles of the linear comb act as a filter for the material which, the
refore, releases short fibres and imurities which searate from the material al
so because they (caught and drawn by the extraction cylinders) sli off the la
and owerfully adhere to other fibres on which the imurities and the short fibr
es are left. The “8” nier blade ensures regular combing of the tail of the tuf
t; it is ositioned very near to the row of needles of the linear comb (Figure 1
88) to revent the fibres from lowering during the downward motion and escaing
the action of the needles. The nier blade also drives the tuft end to the ni
line of the extraction cylinders. F) Extractor The extractor (Figure 188) includ
es a “4” lower grooved roller which moves the “6” sleeve on which the “5” uer
grooved roller exerts a certain ressure (extraction rollers); the already roce
ssed tufts (making u the combed web) are laid evenly on the sleeve. The “7” rol
ler features a smooth surface and by exerting a certain ressure, it arranges th
e fibres and discharges the static electricity acquired by friction during the
rocess. The extraction rollers have two different rotation modes: 1. one rotatio
n is direct and contributes to the stretching and to the removal of the tuft fro
m the la, 2. the other one is oosite to the direct one and drives back the tu
ft, to eliminate the free sace between the combed tufts, whose ends overla, li
ke roof slates. While the nier oens, the extractor oscillates and takes the e
xtraction cylinders near the left end of the gauge. The inverse rotation of the
extraction cylinders slightly withdraw the combed tuft; in fact, the oscillation
of the extractor creates some free sace between the tuft and the combed tuft a
nd it is consequentially imossible to collect the web; the inverse rotation of
the extraction cylinders determines the overlaing of the ends of the combed tu
fts and the formation of a continuous web. G) Formation and collection of the co
mbed sliver An adjustable-comression criming device granting the right consist
ency and tensile strength facilitates the next rocesses (Figure 191): two rolle
rs feed the comression room and the fibre rolling can be adjusted by means of t
he ressure table of the criming device; a detecting system controls the level
of the receiving tank and stos the machine in case of break of the outcoming sl
iver. Figure 192 shows the linear combing machine equied with fixed nier and
can feed-system (two slivers er can). Table B contains the main technical data
. 164
Fig. 191 - Criming device
Fig. 192 - Linear combing machine with can feed-system (two slivers er can)
TABLE B
Characteristics
Doublings (cans or reels) Gill lattice width throughut seed circular comb oer
ating range circular comb needle arc gauge 1 of 2 re-feed (diam.) no mm nis/mi
n mm mm mm 24 400 260 460 264 66 gill feed feed-nier distance extraction rolle
rs diameter circular comb diameter circular brush diameter nier-gill-blade
Characteristics
mm mm mm mm mm mm 4 ÷ 10 280 28/25 195 200 90 fixed
mm 25 ÷ 40 extraction rollers oscillation
Post-combing
The slivers emerging from the linear combing machines are made of tufts whose fi
bres are tied to the fibres of the tufts nearby only by means of the friction ex
isting between their overlaing ends; for this reason, these slivers: • are oo
rly comacted (desite the criming device of the combing machines), • the secti
on is highly irregular, due to the manner they are worked by the combing machine
s To find a solution to these roblems, the sliver coming from the combing machi
nes must undergo two doubling and drawing stes inside two intersecting drawing
frames called “can emtier drawframe” and “finisher drawframe”; the latter is ge
nerally equied with an autoleveller. The finisher drawframe includes a device
to collect the combed sliver, the “tos”, in reels or bums (the content of a ca
n, vertically squeezed and reduced to the dimensions of a reel). It is ossible
to carry out the automatic change of cans with the formation and the “arallelis
ation” of the bums (Figure 193): the cans are changed by means of a rotary lat
form which takes a full can and relaces it with an emty one, transferring the
full can from the working osition to the ress to form and the bind the bum. T
he cans can also be changed using a conveyor serving several machines (Figure 19
4). The conveyor removes the full can, ositions the emty one without stoing
the oerating cycle, and takes the full cans to a single ress, which resses an
d binds the bums. 165
1. Emty can loading 2. Full can unloading 3. Conveyor 4. Bum ress 5. Hoist fo
r bum unloading 6. Conveyor for bum bales 1. Drawframe exit side 2. Rotary la
tform 3. Bum ressing 4. Bum conveyors.
Fig. 193 - Bum delivery
Fig. 194 - Bum delivery with mobile conveyor
Table C shows all the technical data of the drawframes with the different drawin
g heads
TABLE C
Characteristics Feed rack Incoming load max Heads er machine Automatic delivery
: cans or reels Slivers er can Slivers er reel Combs er head Width with needl
es Length with needles Needles intersecting in the oerating range Needles rotr
uding from the combs Drawing rollers – ressure roller Free drawing range (feed
roll. – first comb) Free drawing range (last comb – drawing roller) Feed ratio M
ax. throughut seed with can exit Without autoleveller With autoleveller Max th
roughut seed of reel exit single double Drawing Max outgoing load Pitch betwee
n the oerating combs Head feeding rollers Feed ressure roller ositions g/m no
° n° n° n° n° mm mm mm mm mm mm mm m/min m/min m/min m/min m/min m/min m/min g/m
mm mm mm Chain 12 1 1–2 1–2 1 88 200 ÷ 270 200 11,6 ÷ 13,6 32/66-80 30 ÷ 50 100
500 450 400 400 350 3,84 ÷ 12,16 30 ÷ 50 30/62,5 75 Rotating Flanges 12 200 ÷ 3
00 1 1–2 1–2 1 52 + 52 275 130 Screws 12 1 1-2 1-2 1 82 o 66 200 185 18,5 o 16,5
30/66-80 24/27 ÷ 85 18 o 22 230
30/62,5-75 35 ÷ 110 27 ÷ 42 80 500 (350)
230
3,24 ÷ 12,00 8 66 80
4,20 ÷ 11,50 9 o 11
166
TABLE D shows the values of the main adjusting arameters of the combing cycle u
nits. A +/5% max tolerance for the combed sliver count (“to”) is allowed.
TABLE D
Unit Te g/m A Ce g/m S Tu g/m 20 20 32 32 20 30 30 8 6 4x2 24 6 5 160 192 128x2
480 180 150 6,0 6,0 5,0 6,0 6,4 32 32 20 30 30 25 450 450 385 260* 450 275 1 1 2
1 1 1 864 864 924 45** 810 413 75 75 70 90 70 70 1 1 1 14 1 2 648 648 647 567 5
67 578 Vu m/min N° of Exit Elem. Pt kg/h η % N° of Units Pp kg/
Card 1° step 2° step 3° step Combing mac ine Can emptier Comb. Finis er
* nips/min ** T eoretical reference production wit 9 % of noils
Blending and Recombing
General
remarks
T e blending process is carried out w en processing slivers made of: • grey wool
of differentorigin or materials
of different nature (wool-acrylic,
wool-polyes
ter, etc) to omogenise
t e mix, • material dyed wit t e same colour, to armon
ize t e colour s ades, • materials dyed wit differentcolours, to obtain t e so
-called mélangé colours
• different materials dyed wit different colours, for s
pecial applications.
T e recombing process is necessary
to: • eliminate te colo
ur clusters and t e fibre entanglements from t e slivers, formed during t e dyei
ng process,
• blend fibres of different more deeply origin, even raw fibres, to
improve t e eliminationof s ort fibres still contained but aboveall to elimina
te impurities from synt etic or man-made fibres to be blended wit t e wool.
167
T is process,
w ic is very expensive and carried out only on materials to be us
ed for ig quality products, features four different stages (Figure 195) and pre
cisely: 1. blending 2. preparation to recombing 3. recombing 4. post-recombing
BLENDER
DRAWFRAME COMBING MACHINES
DRAWFRAMES Autoleveller
Fig. 195 – Recombing
cycle of 19-micron wool T e blending process is carried out
by blenders. T e recombing preparation usually includes only one drawing step c
arried out
inside an intersecting drawframe since
t e fibres are already paralle
lised.
T e recombing process
is carried out wit
combing mac ines similar to t e
mac ines used during t e combing stage; in t is case a smaller quantity of noil
s (2% ÷ 10%) aregenerated.
Post-recombing consists oftwo drawing steps:
one is
carried
out wit t e can-emptier
drawframe
and t e ot er one wit t e recombing
finis
er drawframe, w ic features t e same functions as explained in t e combi
ng c apter.
Sliver
blending
T e combed
sliver packed
in reels or bumps is subjectedto t e blending process,
w ic prepares an omogeneous mixture by eliminating t e differences of t e c a
racteristics unavoidably existing between different
batc es of similar materials
(and, in some cases, also in t e same batc ). W en blending fibres made of diff
erent
materials, t e operation is often repeated
many
times obtain a sliver w
to
it omogeneously distributed components; t e same
appens w en blending combed
slivers dyed wit two or more colours to obtain t e “mélange” effect. 168
T e blenders
is a special type of drawframe made of two parallel drawing eads a
ndof a t ird drawing ead, t e so-called “reducer”, arranged perpendicularly to
t e previous ones (Figure
196). T e operation is carried out in two different s
teps: first of all te material is pre-drawn in separated
massesby means of two
defelting parallel eads; t etwo webs exiting t e two drawing eads, are devia
ted by 90°, overlapped or furt er drawn by t e reducing ead. Fig. 196 - Blender
T e two defelting
(drawing) eads are of t e “intersecting”
screw-type (distanc
e between t e combs: 11 mm) w ile t e reducing ead features a drawing range con
trolled by rotating and intersecting
disks (Figure 197) From a tec nical
point o
f view, t e screw-type ead is t e most suitable one to carry out t e pre-drawin
g since it allows reduced free drawing ranges and features excellent defelting p
roperties.
Fig.
197 – Reducing ead As far as t eoutput rate is concerned, t epresence of
t e screw-type eaddoes not reduce t e potential productivity of t e mac ine s
ince,
by effect of t e double consecutive drawing, it is possible
to work wit t
emaximum delivery speed (300m/min) of t e blended sliver wit out going beyond
t e maximum feeding rate of te screw ead. Fig. 198 – Feed rack A) Feed rack T
e blender is fed wit reels w ile te unwinding stageis carried out t roug ad
justable-speed unwinding rollerswit non-stop speed c angers (Figure 198). T e
rack allows 24 doublings
and eac position features a ”knot-stop”
ring;
w en t e
sliver breaks, t e mac ine stops by mass contact of t e rollers w ic convey t
e slivers to t e rack conveyor. By adding a “bower-type” structure, t e blender
can be fed alsowit cans or bumps (Figure 198). B) Web-guide conveyor T e webs
coming out of t e two defelting eads are deviated by two special web-guide conv
eyors
onto t e delivery conveyor, w ic is perpendicular
to t e defelting eads;
t e two webs overlaps and feed t e reduction ead (Figure 197).
169
C) Oiling deviceT ere are t ree
spray-oiling points:
one is near t e feed of t
e two defelting eads and te t ird one is betweent e two webs on t e delivery
conveyor (Figure 197); in t is last oiling
point
te oil quantity
spread on t e
material ranges between 1% and 4% of t e weig
t. T e way t e oil is spread on t
e material is crucial since any drip from t e spraying nozzle
must imperatively
be avoided to prevent sliver areas possibly generating t ick places.
Preparation to recombing
Before
subjecting
t e slivers
coming out of t e blender to t e combing action of
t e combing
mac ines furt er doubling and drawing operations
are carried out to
improve t e fibre
blending as well as t e evenness
of t e slivers
and reduce t
eir count to t e most
suitable value for feeding t e combing mac ine. T e drawfr
ame
used is t e “c ain” or “rotating
flanges”intersecting drawframe equipped wi
t a two-sliver exit per eac can (usually, t is is called “reducing” drawframe)
.
Recombing
T e recombing operation entails a furt er combingstep, w ic is similar to t e
one
carried out after carding. T e operation in t is case is less powerful t an
t e previous
one and determines
a reduced formation of noils
ic , anyway, dep
(w
ends on t e gauge). T e recombing process
is necessary
w en t e transferand pac
kage
(in reels or bumps)
as well as t e action
of t
e dyeing liquor of t e tops
as damaged or felted t e material; in t is case t e fibrous diagram needs to be
regularized to avoid irregularities or difficulties during t e spinning stage.
Post-recombing
T e sliver comes out of t e combing mac ines wit “tail on ead” overlapped tuft
s, i.e. c aracterized by great section irregularity. To avoid
t is inconvenience
two doubling and drawing operations are carried out t roug intersecting “c ain
” or “rotating flanges”
drawframes,
called “can-emptier” and “recombing finis er
” respectively.
T e finis
ing drawframe is often
provided wit autolevellerto g
rant t e evenness of t e sliver count
also
w en t e draw or t e feed loadc ange
s wit in a certain time. Table E s ows t e main adjusting parameters of t e mac
ines of t e recombing cycle.
170
TABLE E
Unit Te g/m 25 30 15 30 30 A Ce g/m 600 180 360 180 150 6 6 S Tu g/m30 15 30 30
25 Vu m/min 350 280 260* 290 350* N° of Exit Elem. 1 2 1 1 1 Pt kg/ 630 504 48
** 522 525 η % 60 75 94 70 70 N° of Units 1 1 8 1 1 Pp kg/ 378 378 361 365 368
Blender Reducer Combing mac ine Can emptier Recomb. Finis er
24 6 24 6 5
20 12
* nips/min ** T eoretical reference production wit 9 % of noils
Electronic
autoleveller
T is system is used for ac ieving an automatic adjustment wit two different cri
teria of speed variation: • feed rate variation,for all autolevelling
standard
applications • variation of t e delivery speed w en t e mac
ine requires
steady
feed rate like in case of linkage wit ot er mac ines wit t e same t roug put s
peed (for example, in t e after-card drawframe combined wit a set of cards). T
e first system, previously
analysed, is most frequently used in t is process sta
ge. Its operation
is sc ematised
in Figure 199: a mec anic feeler detects t e t
ickness of t e material fed, te variations are transformed into electric signal
s and sent to a control unit w ic , wit a suitable delay corresponding to t e p
assageof t e material from
t e feeler to t e drawframe,
determines t e variatio
n of t e feed rate and t erefore
of t e draft. T e electronic autoleveller does
not set definite limits tot e possibility ofadjustment but in relation to t e
correct detection and to t e speed limit of t e intersecting comb ead, t e suit
able adjustingrange applicable varies between – 25% and + 25%. Itis also possi
ble to store t e maximum
and minimum drawing limits beyond w ic t e mac ine
no
longer complies wit t e tec nological operating conditions allowed for eac mat
erial.
T1: Delivery speed transducer T2: Feed rate transducer T3: Detecting transducer
TA: Feed feeler M1: Motor of t e draw cyl. M2: Motor of t e feed cyl.
Fig. 199 – Electronic autoleveller 171
Spinning
General
remarks
T e spinning process includes all t e operations necessary totransform t e comb
ed sliver (“tops”), blended and/or recombed, into a yarn of t e desired count an
d twist. Spinning includes t e following processing stages: 1. preparation for s
pinning, 2. spinning. T e preparation for spinning
stage can be divided
into two
different cycles:
• low preparation, • ig preparation. T e mac ines used for
carrying
out t e low
preparation
progressively reduce t e sliver count and impro
ve t e evenness t roug a series of doubling and
drawing operations. T is proces
s includes 4 drawing steps on drawframes (w ic can be reduced to t ree for yarn
s ≤ Nm 40). Surveys of production control inspinning departments reveal t at t
e number of yarn breaks on looms decreases
w en t e pre-spinning
stage also inte
grates
a fourt drawing step. T e mac ines performing t e ig preparation for t
e spinning process transform t e sliver, obtained wit doubling and
drawing ope
rations,
into a roving t roug combined drawing and rubbing-finis
ing actions. T
is process stage is carried out on a rubbing-finis ing mac ine.
Preparation for spinning
Low preparation For t e low preparation stage, it is possible to use all t e int
ersecting drawing frames analysed previously (screw, c ain androtating-flange t
ypes); t ese mac ines are furt er integrated wit drawframes w ose draft range i
s controlled by: • intersecting rotating disks, • Herisson /barrel cylinders wit
elastic nip, • cylinders
wit elastic nip T e control
system w ic is best sui
ted can be establis
ed by carefully analysing t e c aracteristics
of t e fibres
but above
all, t e quantity of fibre to be processed, i.e. t e number of fibres,
w ic , during t e drawing step remain int e draft range. T e drawframes featur
ing a drawing control system equipped wit Herisson cylinders combined wit barr
el cylinders
and elastic nip
are particularly
suitable for t e fourt pre-spinni
ng
step w en yarns finer
t an Nm 40 ave
to be produced. T e main tec nological
c aracteristic of t is drawframe
is t e possibility of carrying out a delicate b
ut powerful control
of t e fibres by distributing
t em and
ac ieving t e best sl
iver evenness, t us remarkably reducing t e number of t in places during spinnin
g.
172
A) Drawframe
equipped wit intersecting rotating disks T e drawing ead equipped
wit intersecting rotating disks (Figure 200)includes t ree pairs of rollers (
“controllers”)
coated wit teet inclined in t e direction opposite to rotation,
w ic intersect and rotate in t e same direction as t e material flow; t e disk
s are self-cleaned byt e intersecting action. T e structure of t e controllers
excellently affects t e fibres and grants a good feeding capacity
of t e drawfra
me as well asno limits fort e maximum lengt of fibres; t e first two
pairs of
rollers of tis drawframe ave large and identical diameters w ile t e t ird pa
ir, next to t e drawing rollers, as a smaller diameter.
Fig. 200 – Disk-type drawing ead
Differently from t e comb system w ere t e material, in t e draft range, is cont
rolled
by means
of spikes
moving
at t e same
feed speed of eadequipped
t e wit
disks,t e speed of t e teet tips
of t e controllers is ig er t an t e base
speed; t is allowst e speed oft e control device to be varied wit in a certain
range. To c eck t e fibres witout causing
eventual problems to t e material, t
e different
points of t e teet of t e controllers must operate at speed values
wit
in t e feed and draft (exit)
values. Usually
t e standard quality diagram o
f t e perip eral speeds of t e controllers in t e different positions is t e fol
lowing: 1.05 ÷ 1.15 between t e V1 speed (t e speed of t e first pair of control
lers) and t e Va speed (t e speed of t e feeding cylinders)favours a good evenn
ess; a ratio ranging from 0.90 to 0.92 between V2 and V3 (t e speeds of t e ot e
r pairs of controllers)
provides an anti-rolling effect since it allows
good rel
axation
of t e fibres making it consequentially easier for t e teet to release
t e material.
V3 External ø
V’3 Base ø
Positions of t e draft controllers
In special cases, for very long fibres and/or for fibres t at tend to wind aroun
d t e cylinders, t e quality diagram could be represented as follows:
173
V3 External ø V’3 Base ø
Positions of t e draft controllers
T eperip eral speed of t e teet , w ic islower t an t e feed speed, determine
s te relaxation
of fibres t at decreases t eir compression at t ebase of t e t
eet of te controllers and exerts
an anti-rolling
action, w ic s ould beappli
ed as muc as possible near t e draftrollers. T e drawframes equippedwit inte
rsecting rotating disks used during t e pre-spinning stages are “multi ead” draw
frames and precisely:
• 2- ead drawframe: to process 2 slivers (one sliver per ead) collected in 2 ca
ns(one sliver per can), • 4- ead drawframe: to process 4 slivers (one sliver
pe
r ead) collected
in 2
cans (two slivers
per can) Table F indicates
t e tec nica
l data of t e single- ead or multi- ead drawframes equipped wit intersecting ro
tating disks.
TABLE
F
C aracteristics
Heads per mac ine Automaticexits: cansor reels
Slivers
per can Slivers per ree
l Controllers
per ead Widt coated wit teet Pitc of t e controllers Projecti
on of t e teet Feed twin-rollers Draft rollers – pressure roller n° n° n° n° n°
mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm m/min m/min mm 1 1-2 1-2 1 6 255 5/7/9 30/66 ; 80 40
/66 ; 95 220 30/33 ÷ 70 100 320 ÷ 400 3 ÷ 12 40/40 25/66 ; 75 30/66 ; 80 230-270
28-70 33-70 75 300 400 5.73 ÷ 12.07 40/40 25/66 ; 75 30/66 ; 80 230-270 28-70 3
3-70 75 300 400 5.73 ÷ 12.07
Intersecting rotating disks
2 2 cans 1 6 103-170-200 3 4 2 cans 2 6 110-130 2.6
a) b)
Gauge Free
draft range (last toot – draft roll.) a) b) Max mec anical feed rate
Max mec anical delivery speed a) b) Draft
B) Drawframe
wit draft control t roug
Herisson/barrel
cylinders wit elastic n
ip T is drawframe, used only w en t e fourt passage of preparation-to-spinning
is required,
features a draft range (Figure 201) controlled by two pairsof cyli
nders wit elastic nip and a Herisson
cylinder featuring needles or toot ed disk
s (Figure 202), arranged near t e draft rollers.
174
Fig. 201 - Drawing ead wit Herisson/barrel cylinder control wit elastic nip
Fig. 202 –Herisson cylinder wit toot ed disks
Fibre control during t e drawing stage is carried out by means of a linear/curvi
linear system: t e former by means of elasticnip of long fibres and t e latter
by means of t e action of t e needlesor of t e spikes on s ort fibres near t e
draft rollers. T e elastic nip from t e barrel cylinders between t e feed and t
e Herisson cylinderprepares and retains t e material during t e action
of t e H
erisson cylinder. T e assembly of t e barrel cylinders must allow t e sliding of
long fibres already retained by t e draft
rollers but also t e retention of t e
materialto make t e fibres sink into t e spikes of t e Herisson
cylinder. Cons
idering t e operating conditions oft e barrel cylinders wit elastic nip (Figur
e 203), for correct fibre control t e material must run perfectly aligned wit in
t e elastic zone of t e rubber to grant t e uniform distribution of t e fibres
(as explained ereinafter). T e ardness and
t e elasticity of t e rubber of t e
barrel
cylinders affect t e fibre nip, w ic - in turn determines a variation o
f
t e material tension
between t e barrel cylinders
and t e Herisson
cylinders t
us modifying t e sinking of t e fibres into t e spikes
of t e latter.
Fig. 203
– Fibre control systems wit barrel
cylinders wit elastic nip T e sinking degre
e of t e materialdetermines t e fibre control, w ic must be suitably adjusted;
in t e case of sort fibres, t e controlmust be improved to generate a deeper
sinking (and on t e contrary reduced in t e case of longfibres). A greater tens
ion of te material creates deeper sinking
and favours t e control and t e
evenn
ess of t e sliver delivered w ile a slig ter tension remarkably reduces t e poss
ibility generating windings. T e fibres must not float above t e spikes of t e H
erisson cylinder; t ey must sink deeply into t e roller. T e Herisson cylinder d
ivides t e material into as many smaller slivers as t e number of spikes (minus
one)all along t e production sc eme; t is condition facilitates t e staggering
of
t e fibres between one sliver and t e ot er one but, at t e same time, makes
t eir sliding difficult. 175
T e larger t e quantity
of spikes, t e more regular t e draft and t e smaller t
e slivers into w ic t e material is divided; basically, t eneed for a ig num
ber of spikes is reduced quite substantially by staggering t e spike rows of t e
controllers, so t at t e fibres do not run along a linear pattern but are force
d to slide between t em. T e fibre control exerted by t e Herisson cylinder impr
oves in proportion
to t e number of spikes on its circumference
due to t e reduc
tion of t e nip between t e fibre retaining point and t e next one in t e drawin
g stage. T e diameter of t eHerisson cylinder affects t e good performanceof t
e system since it reduces t e freedraft ranges wit no winding risk for t e ma
terial.
Two different
types
of clot ing are available for Herisson cylinders:
•
t e standard clot ing wit round needles,
• t e spiked disks clot ing, w ic giv
es t e same tec nological results. T e second solution is t e most frequently us
ed since it allowseasier cleaning and simpler replacement of t e damaged spikes
. C) Drawframewit draftcontrol by means of elastic nip rollers. T is drawfram
e, used only w en a fourt preparationstep is required, features a draft range
controlled by means of two rollers wit elastic nip and an apron on t e bottom g
uide rollers (Figure 204). T e apron grants t e uniform feeding of fibres and re
presents an efficient solution to prevent possible
fibre winding in t e case of
direct
contact wit t e cylinders. W ile in t e previous system t e performance
of t e elastic nip only affects long
fibres and lets t e fibre mass sink into t
e Herisson cylinder,in t is case t e elastic control
is essentially based on t
e autolevelling
of t e fibres,
w ic starts wit t e deformation of t e rubber c
ot of t e barrel cylinderw en t e material passes onto it. T is deformation
exe
rts a reactionpressure t at compresses t e material, modifying t e bonding fric
tion between
t e fibres,
more or lesspowerfully, according to t e elastic
degre
e of t e rubber; t is ensures a smoot feeding of t e fibres also wit t e slidi
ng of t e longest fibres already gripped by t e draft rollers.
Fig. 204 - Drawing ead featuring barrel cylinders wit elastic nip 176
T e rubber section
of t e barrel cylinders wit elastic nip is tinner in t e mi
ddle so t at t e reaction forcing intensity is proportional to te “x” t ickness
of t e cross
section of t e material, as a result
compressing t e material (Fig
ure 203). T e use of rubber cots of different ardness
and elasticity allows an
adjustment of t e fibre compression proportional
to t e fibre diagram and to t e
free draft ranges
applied.
Table G s ows t emain tec nical data of t e drawfra
mes used for t e fourt pre-spinning step wit two different draft control syste
ms.
TABLE
G
C aracteristics
Heads
per mac ine Can automatic exits Slivers
per ead
Slivers p
er
can T ickness wit Herisson needle roller Herisson clot ed widt T ickness wi
t Herisson disk roller Barrel sleeve for elastic control Feed load Feeding cyli
nder Draft roller – pressure roller Gauge
Free draft range (last spike /grip – d
raft roller) Mec anical feed rate Mec anical delivery speed Draft n° n° n° n° ne
edles per square cm mm spikes per square cm mm ø g/m mm mm mm mm max m/min max m
/min Herisson-small barrel cylinders 4 2 1 2 27/32 100 14 ø 36 x 125 50 25/66-75
175-265 23 ÷ 113 40 300 3.55-7.96 small barrel cylinders/apron 4 2 1 2
ø 36 x 125 25 30 30/66-80 135-270 38 ÷ 60 50 350 7.91-11.72
T e mec anical draft autoleveller Generally, one of t e drawframes used for low
preparation to spinning
features a mec anical autoleveller
for t e draft. Placed
between
t
e drawing ead and t e feed creel,
t e mec anical autoleveller applie
s t e mec anical feedback principle, i.e. t e draft is adjusted (as for electron
ic autolevellers) according
to t e incoming count variations, as detected t roug
t e variation of t e feeding speed. T e adjustment range
vary from –20% and +2
0% wit a tolerance of +/- 1.5% wit respect to t e weig t of
five meters of del
ivered sliver. T e mec anical autoleveller as a feeler at t e entry
side and is
connected
to a lever system
t at amplifies t e variations, w ic - t roug a me
c anic memory - sends t e feeler data to a doublecone variable-speed drive.
177
T e feeler is made of a pair of vertical-axes pulleys; one pulley features a fix
ed groove w ile t e ot er one as a mobile groove. T e movable roller is pressed
against
t e fixed roller by applying a force of about
2000 N. T e feeler is int
erc angeable
and can be adjusted in relation to t e different dept s of t e groo
ve wit respect to t e feed loads and to t e type of
material, in order
to trans
late t e weig t discrepancies into a variation of t ickness. T e mec anical memo
ry is a disk in constant rotation wit special t readed pegs
on its edge; t e pe
gs can move into
and out of t e disk, as a result storing t e weig t variations
detected by t e feeler.
Fig. 205 - Mec anical draft autoleveller T e operating mode of t e mec anical au
toleveller is t e following (Figure 205): t e mobile pulley moves rig t or leftw
ard depending on t ematerial mass t at can be smaller or greater t an t e refer
ence stored
value. T e
movement, driven t roug “G” and “L” sliding blocks conne
cted to
t e lever mec anism of t e feeler, pus es t e pegs into
or pulls em ou
t
t of te mecanical memory. W en t e material passes
from t e feeler
to t e draw
ing, t e mec anical memory rotates by t ree-fourt
s of a
turn; t e “R” detection
rollers, wit reference
to t e position of t e pegs, s ift t e apron on t e var
iable-speed
drive t us generating a variation of t e feed speed t at is perfectl
y sync ronised wit t e feeler and t e drawing operation. 178
T e memory speed, w ic setst e operating time of t e drawing process, can be a
djusted accordingto t e mac ine gauge. W en t e speed increases, t e system ten
ds to influence
t e detection intervals, t us reducing t e feeler accuracy propo
rtionally. T e maximumfeeding speed allows a correct operating mode oft e mec
anical autoleveller, w ic can range between 40 ÷ 45 m/min; in case of ig er sp
eed, moreefficient systems are preferably employed to improve accuracy and rapi
dity. Hig preparation
Hig preparation equipment
includes a finis er
rubbing fr
ame, w ic gives t e sliver its size and t e co esion
suitable for t e optimum e
xecution oft e following spinning operation. In t e most common finis er rubbin
g frames, t e drafting components are positioned on avertical
axis to keep t e
material as aligned
as possible duringt e process, w ic , consequently, can be
carried
out at ig er speed to grant t e same product
quality. T e vertical fini
s er rubbing frame features a modular structure wit 2 drafting units and double
rubbing action(Figure 206) working separately and autonomously; t e modularity
grants t e mac ine non-stop operation also w en one or more units are not worki
ng. Since a rubbing drafting
unit works on 2 rovings simultaneously, eac module
produces 4rovings, w ic arecollected, in pairs, on 2 bobbins. Fig. 206 - Ver
tical finis er rubbing frame T e winding and cross distribution of 2 parallel ro
vings for eac bobbin tube is carried out by a fixed bobbin older rail and two
oscillating roving-guide
twisters (performing a false twisting) (Figure 207). T
e system applies t e following operating principle: a drafting unit featuring an
elastic nip control system reduces t e size of t e sliver fed after
t e fibre b
onding and after t e transformation of t e sliver into a roving. T e sliver is t
ransformed into a roving by means of a double rubbing drafting system made of tw
o couples
of elastic sleeves, w ic feature analternated crossmovement (simula
ting
and friction) as well
as a rotation in t e direction
of t e material flow.
T e difference between t e various vertical finis er rubbing frames mainly
lies
in t e different assembly of t e drafting unit and t e formation of t e bobbins
wit deposition strokes and winding cross passages of t e roving on small tubes
suitable for t e different counts. Fig. 207 - Bobbin formation
179
A) Drafting unit T eelastic nip control of t e fibres inside t e drafting unit
can be carried out t roug twodifferent systems and precisely: a) an apron driv
en by te guiding rollers, wit cylinders respectively coated wit barrel or cyl
inder-s aped rubber cots ensuring elastic control,and small cylinders to create
small free draft ranges suitable for processing s ort fibres (Figure 208). T is
system is employed to prepare Nm 2 ÷ 6 fine and extra-fine rovings and forproc
essing fine counts; b) two guiding rollers coated wit barrel or cylinder-s ape
rubber cots for elastic control (Figure 209). T is system is used for processing
rovings of all counts but in particular for coarse Nm 0.8 ÷ 4.5 ones as well as
for greater feed loads (up to 18 g/m). T e driving gear of t e a) drafting unit
involves
a 1.05 pre-draft between
t e feed and e intermediate control rollers
t
, wic relaxes and stretc est e material for t e drawing process carried out b
y t e draft rollers. During t e drawing step, t e fibres are controlled in two i
ntermediate zones (Figure 210): in t e first zone, only long and medium-lengt f
ibres are controlled
(approx 40 ÷ 50 % of all fibres) wit
a powerful retaining
action oft e fibre
mass. T e second zone controls all t e fibres and grants, t
anks to t e ig er elasticity of t e rubber cot, easier slide to t e fibres alre
ady retained by t e drafting rollers. T anks to t e possibility of reducing t e
free draftrange to a minimum, t e number of floating fibres is remarkably reduc
ed (less t an 10% of t e fibre diagram); t is ensures
good results of evenness f
or materials
wit s ort fibres. On t
e basis of t e operating conditions
of t e
straig t and barrel rubber cots wit elastic nip, we can see t at (Figure 211):
Fig. 208 – Control wit barrel elasticcontrol rubber cots
Fig. 209 – Control wit straig t elasticcontrol rubber cots
• t e deformation of t e straig t rubber cot wit elastic control occurs by rela
xingt e rubber retained at t e edges of its bus wit respect to t e t ickness
of t e material processed; it slig tly
envelops t e material on t e edges
(wit
a lower
intensity wit respect to t e Sampre rubber) and t erefore t e evenness
of t e control greatly depends on condensation
degree and on t e cross section o
f t e material,
• t e deformation
of t e barrel
rubber cot
wit elastic control
allows t e rubber to wind t e material; t erefore, wit t e same
number ofrubbe
r cots,
t is system ensures better control of t e fibres wit respect to t e str
aig t rubber cot system wit elastic control,
180
• t e rotation of t e elastic-control
roller
wit straig
t rubber cot is effecte
d by t e pressure
applied on t e edges of t e bus on t e relevant roller; t e m
otion is t erefore independent
from t ematerial and interferes very littlewit
its cross section,
• t e rotation of t e elastic-control
barrelcylinder w ic
takesplace
t anks to t e contribution of t e fibre mass and wit reduced contac
t wit t e relevant driving roller.
Considering t e operating
conditions detailed above, as well as t e process
appl
ied, we can state t at t e barrel cylinder exerts a greater control in t e case
of smallfeeding loads (t e “a” type is more suitable) and finecounts, w ile t
e straig t roller is more suitable for greater feeding loads (t e “b” type is mo
re suitable)
and, t erefore, for coarse and medium counts and for conventional
p
rocess. T e maximum loads,
wit medium count fibres
(21÷23 micron), are t e foll
owing: 1- 8 g/m for t e a) type, 2- 15 g/m, wit proportional reduction of t e f
ibre count for b) type.
Fig. 210 – Fibre control zones
Control system featuring a barrel cylinder wit elastic control
Control system featuring a straig t cylinder wit elastic control
Fig. 211 – Comparison
between fibre control systems wit in t e draft range B) Do
uble rubbing
unit T e rubbing sleeves are drivenby two s afts: one for rotation
and t e ot er one for alternated oscillation. T e double rubbing process is car
ried out by means of
two pairs of sleeves, assembled
in series on t e vertical r
oving pat
and sync ronised. T e gauge between
t e two rubbing
ranges is crucial
since t e rovings must move forward so t at t e nips of t e first and of t e se
cond
range are summed and t e maximum action of t e second range coincides wit
t eaction of first range; t e travel of t e second range must not be reversed o
n t e rubbing point of t e first range (Figure 212). 181
Fig. 212 - P asing of
t e two rubbing ranges T e following diagram
represents t
e relation between t e feed speed of t e material
(m/min) and t e rubbing per me
ter (strokes/m) and t e oscillation speed of t e sleeves (strokes/min):
(strokes/min) V1 (strokes/min) (strokes/min)
V2(M/min)
182
Table
H s ows t e tec nical data referringto a finis er rubbing
frame equipped
wit different elastic stroke systems of t e fibres during t e drawing process.
TABLE
H
C aracteristics Drafting and rubbing modules Bobbins per unit Rovingsper unit M
ax. rubbing strokes
Total rubbing strokes Recommended counts Max. mec anical spe
e Max bobbin weig t Feeding cylinder – pressure cylinder Drawing cylinder – pres
sure cylinder Gauge Free draft range (last. nip – draft cylinders) Draft ratio n
° n° n° strokes/min mm m/min daN mm mm mm mm Apron 6 – 8 – 10 – 12 12 – 16 – 20
– 24 24 – 32 – 40 – 48 2200 23 up to Nm 6 250 5 35 – 45 25/45 - 55 100 ÷ 190 25
÷ 45 5.28 ÷ 25.14 Two rollers 6 – 8 – 10 – 12 12 – 16 – 20 – 24 24 – 32 – 40 – 4
8 2200 23 from Nm 0.8 295 6.8 32/32 – 60 30.32/48.15 – 60 115 ÷ 220 33 ÷ 58 6.22
÷ 29.64
Ring
spinning
T e objectives of ring spinning are • to t inout t e roving and give it t e des
ired count, • to impart a specific twist to t e yarn so as to give t e yarn t e
desired resistance• to collect t e yarn into a package (i.e. t e bobbin) for si
mpler storage and andling. T e working principle of t e ring spinning frame T e
ring spinning
frame
operates as follows (Figure 213): 1. t e bobbins (“1”), com
ing from t e finis er rubbing frame, are suspended on t e feeding rack above t e
spinning frame, onebobbin for eac two spindles, 2. t e rovings (“2”), unwound
tangentially from
t ebobbins,are pulled by t e feeding cylinders of t e draft
ing unit (“3”) w ere t ey are t inned out, 3. once t e fibres leave t e exit rol
lers of t e drawframe,
t e forming yarn (“4”), pulled by t e revolving spindle,
passes
t roug t e yarn guide
(“5”), inside t e anti-balloon
ring (“6”) and insi
de t e traveller (“7”),
t en is twisted and
wound on t e tube
(“8”) placed on t
e spindle (“9”). T e yarn twists since, w en winding on t e small tube on t e ro
tating spindle, it makes t e traveller (“7”) rotate aroundt e ring (“10”), wit
a movement concentric to t e spindle (Figure 214); at eac turn of t e travelle
r around t e ring, t e yarn makes a twist in t e segment of yarn between t e dra
fting cylinders and t e traveller. T e winding of t e yarn ont e tube can be ac
ieved since t e traveller movement is elped and driven by t e yarn; t erotati
on speed of t e traveller is lower t an t e tube (spindle) speed due to t e fric
tional force generated
w en sliding
on t e ring (and, to some extent, also to t
e resistance of t e air to t e motion of t e yarn between t e yarn guide and t e
traveller).
183
T e distribution of t e yarn on t e tube, allowing t e formation of t e bobbin,
takes
place by means of t e alternated vertical stroke of t e rings, arranged on
a orizontal rail; t e stroke reversal points are not fixed but move continuous
lyupward. T etravel of t e rail is always steady; t e rail
begins to move near
t e base of t e tube and stops after reac ing (t roug
t e continuous upward s
ift of its stroke reversal points) t e top edge of t e tube. A) Roving feeding T
eroving feeding system, toug being a quite simple device, can greatly affect
t e number of defects of t e yarn; in particular, ift e roving unwinds incorre
ctly, possible “cuts” or even breakage could occur. T e structures used
(Figure
215) consist
of equipped
wit
supports anging on rails, one be ind
t e ot er, a
long t e wole lengt of t e spinning frame; t ey are equipped wit a brakingde
vice, w ic prevents t e bobbin from rotating too quickly. B) Drafting unit T e
drafting unit can be equipped wit different types of fibre control devices and
precisely: • t ree-cylinder
fibre control device wit double apron (Figure 216,
top) for yarns
wit medium and medium-fine counts, • four-cylinder
fibre control
device wit double apron (Figure 216, bottom) for yarns wit fine
and very fine
counts wit ig evenness, resistance and elastic properties. T e fibre mass en
tering t e draft range is made of a slig tly resistant fibre sliver since it con
tains only few fibres; for t is reason t e friction is reduced to a minimum.
Two
rotating aprons
grant a suitable control; t e upper apron compresses t e materi
al against t e lower apron.
2 1
3
4 5 6 10 7
9
Fig. 213 - Ring spinning diagram
Usually, t e upper deliverycylinder is some millimetres a ead wit respectto t
e lower
one; as a result t e fibre nip point
is moved slig tly a ead and te si
ze of t e spinning triangle
(as detailed ereinafter) is reduced, along wit t e
number of breakages of t e forming yarn. Fig. 214 – Ring and traveller 184
Fig. 215 - Single control ring spinning
frame C) T e spindle drive system T e sp
indle can be driven using one of t ese t ree systems: • by means of small belts,
• by means of a tangential belt, • by means of a sectional tangential belt
Fig. 216 – Drafting unit
T e small belts drive ensures t e uniformity of t e number of revolutions of t e
spindles
and, t erefore, t e twisting evenness. Furtermore, in case of belt br
eak, t e replacement is more rapid. Wit respect to t e tangential belt, t e use
of belts driving groups of spindles (sections) represents an advantage: it gene
rates less
noise, requires
less energy and allows an easierreplacement of t e b
elts. T e benefit of t e tangential belt
lies in t e fact t at t ere are no cyli
nders and pulleys
under t e mac ine; t is
creates less air turbulence, generally
associated wit less maintenance.
In t e small belts drivesystem, a belt drive
s 4 spindles on eac side of t e spinning frame; t e belt t erefore commands 8 s
pindles (Figure
217) driven by a pulley. On a tangential belt system, a belt dri
ven by te mac ine
motor slides tangentially on t e internal part of t e spindle
s of bot t e mac ine sides (Figure
218A); a great
quantity of tensioners
are t
erefore necessary to ensure t at t e belt as t e same tension on eac spindle.
185
It is also possible to use two belts, one for eac side oft e spinning frame (F
igure 218B); t is grants a better rotation uniformity of t e spindles, above all
on spinning mac ines incorporating a great number of spindles. On t e tangentia
l sectional belt system,
one belt usually drives 24 spindles on eac side of t e
spinning mac ine; t e belt t en moves 48 spindles (Figure 219A) driven bya pul
ley in case of single-control spinning mac ines (one single s aft drives t e spi
ndles of bot sides) or 48 spindles (Figure 219B) driven by two rotating pulleys
in case of double-control spinning frame (two s afts, eac one driving t e spin
dles of a singleside). In all cases, a suitable number of tensioners must be pr
ovidedto keep t e belts tigt. D) Yarn guide T e yarn guide is exactly placed a
bove t e spindle, lying on t e spindle
axis line; it must grant t e most suitabl
e distribution
of t e twists
on
t e yarn so as to limit
possible breakages durin
g t e spinning
process.
W en t e yarn is
wound on t e bobbin, t e yarn guide mov
es toget
er wit t e ring rail, yet wit a s orter travel; as s own in Figure 22
0,
t e motion of t e yarn guide guarantees t at t e balloon formed by t e yarn w
ile twisting is kept under control. An excessive variation of yarn tension woul
d lead to poor evenness and an increased number of breaks. E) T e balloon contro
l ring (anti-balloon
ring) T e distance between e ring and t e yarn guide coul
t
d cause t e formation of: - a
large balloon,
wit consequent space problems, - a
long balloon, w ic could c ange its s ape and create consequent
unevenness (co
llapse of t e balloon) leading to possible yarn breakage.
T ese
problems
could b
e reduced by increasing
t e winding tension of t e yarn t roug
a eavier travel
ler; t is is not t e best solution since
t e increase in t e yarn
tension is dir
ectly proportional
to t e increase in t e number of breaks. T e best solution co
uld be t e installation of a balloon control ring (Figure 221) allowing a divisi
on in smaller parts, t us giving more stability and reduced yarn tensions. Fig.
218 – Tangential drive belt
Fig. 217 – Small drive belts
186
A
Clearly t e anti-balloon
rings allow ig speeds
wit long spindles by keeping t
e yarn tension wit
in acceptable limits; te friction of t e yarn on t e ring s
urface can cause t eformation
of unwanted airiness
and te loss of s ort fibre
s (flying fibres).
W en t e
yarn is wound on t
e bobbin, t eanti-balloon
ring c
arries out te same (but s orter) travel on t e ring rail; t e sync ronised moti
on between t e ring rail, t e anti-balloon
ring and t e yarn guide grants a stea
dy control of t e balloon during t e w ole bobbin formation process (Figure 222)
.
B
F) T e control system of t e ring rail T e control system of t e ring rail Fig.
219 -Sectional tangential belt can be: • a gravitational
control
system: w en o
nly t e rail upward motion is controlled by t e system w ile t e downward motion
is by gravity (usually t is system is applied on single-control
spinning mac in
es, Figure 223A),
• a positive control system: w en bot t e upward and downward
motion of t erail are controlled (Figure
223B). G) Dividers Yarn breakage main
ly occurs in t e spinning triangle w ere t e material made of a few fibres still
loosely bound- is powerfully stretc ed. In case of breakage in tiszone, t e
free part of t e yarn winding
around t e spindle can interfere wit t e neig bou
r spindles and cause furt er breakages; t is problem can be eliminated by insert
ing between t espindles some dividers made of plastic or aluminium s eet, w ic
are fixed to t e rail and t erefore
follow its travel. H) Fibre suction after t
e drafting unit Considering t at, in case of yarn break, t e roving feeding
doe
s not stop, aspecial air suction system is placed at t e exit side of t e draft
cylinders. T issuction system, (called “Pneumafil”) performs t e following tas
ks: • picks upt e fibre sliver from te drafting system and avoids possible ent
anglements wit yarns or possible furt er breakages, •prevents fibres from scat
tering in t e spinning room, • limits t e winding of t e outgoing material on t
e draft rollers.
Fig. 220 - Yarn guide
Fig. 221 Antiballoon ring 187
Fig. 222 – Sync ronised motiondiagrams of te ring rail, of t e anti-balloon ri
ngand of t e yarn guide. I) T e traveller T e traveller
allows t e twisting and
t
e correct delivery of t e yarn on t e bobbin.
T e take
up speed of t e yarn,
w ic corresponds to t e difference
between t e perip eral speed of t e bobbin a
nd t e perip eral speed of t e traveller, isequal to t e perip eral speed of t
e delivery
cylinders of e drafting unit. T e difference between
t spindle rpm an
d t e traveller rpm, wit in a specific unit of time, gives
t e number ofcoils d
eposited on t e bobbin wit in a specific unit of time. T erefore, wit t e same
spindle
speed, t e traveller rpm
increases along wit t e bobbin
diameter w ile
t e number of coils wound on t e bobbin decreases.
T anks to t e centrifugal for
ce generated, w en t e traveller rotates t e ig contact pressure
between t e F
ig. 223 - Driving system of t e ring
and t e traveller creates
uge friction for
ces t at ring rail generate eat; t e traveller can reac temperatures exceeding
200
÷ 300 °C since its small mass does not allow a quick transfer of t e eat t
o t e air orto t e ring. For tisreason, significant improvements in ringspin
ning canbe ardly acieved wit t e materials currently available, since t e sp
eed of t e traveller as apparently reac ed its maximum limit (approx. 33 ÷ 35m
/sec for steel
travellers and 45 ÷ 47 m/s for nylon-glass fibre travellers). T i
s
is w y t e traveller
used for producing a specific type of yarn must feature t
emost suitables ape, mass, material, finis and cross section.
To
reac t e
ig est speeds, t e s ape of t e traveller must correspond
to t e s
ape of t e ri
ng.
T is creates a very large contact surface, w ic facilitates eat transfer;
t e surface must also be very smoot to granta low barycentre. T e flat profile
must allow space enoug for t e yarn since t e friction between t e yarn and t
e ring could increase t e yarn airiness and consequently t e formation of flyin
g fibres. 188
T e mass of te traveller determines t e friction force between t e ring and t e
traveller,
t eballoon size and consequently t e take up tension of t e yarn. I
f t e mass of t e traveller is very small, te balloon will be sufficiently larg
e, t e take up tension will be limited and t e bobbin will be soft; on t e contr
ary, a eavy traveller will determine an increase in te take up tension and a g
reater number of breaks. In a few words, t e mass of t e traveller must be stric
tly proportional
to t e yarn mass (count and
resistance) and to t e speed of t e
spindle. T e structure of t e bobbin A) T e s ape oft e bobbin T e tube is usu
ally made
of paperboard, plastics
and as a conical s ape similar to t e spindle
tip; t e yarn is wound on t e tube leaving a free space (10 ÷ 13 mm)at bot en
ds. A full bobbin (Figure 224) consists of t ree different parts: • t e “H2” tap
ered base (kernel),
• t e
“H1”cylindrical part at t e centre (yarn package or bu
ildup),
• t e “H” cone-s ape
upper end A bobbin is wound starting from t e base
to t e tip by overlapping t e various
yarn
layers frustrum-like;
except for t e
kernel,
t is gives
a conical s ape to t e material from t e edge of t e kernel t
o t e tip of t e bobbin.
KEY ABCDEFBobbin tying tread(0.5 m) Windings wound w en t e ring rail raises (
2.95 m) Windings wound w en t e ring rail lowers (1.18 m) Tying start Bobbin for
mation start Reserve on t e spindle
H – Bobbin cone = 60 mm L – Tube lengt = 260-280 mm MACHINE TECHNICAL DATA Ring
diameter : 51-55 mm Run-out lengt : 4.14 mm Winding ratio 1:2.5
Fig. 224 – Bobbin structure
Eac step of t e bobbin formation consists essentially of t e overlapping of a m
ain yarn layer wit a cross-wound
tying layer. T e main layer is wound during t
e slow upward travel of t e ring rail; t e yarn coils laid one next to t e ot er
provide t e bobbin build-up. T e cross layer, made of distant
coils
inclined do
wnwards,
is formed during t e quick downward travel of t e rail. T is system kee
ps t emainlayers separated, in order to prevent t em from being pressed one in
side t e ot er (t us resulting in a quite difficult or almost impossible unwindi
ng of t e yarn). T e ratio between t e number
of yarn coils wound on t e bobbin
during
t e upward travel of t e rail and t e number of yarn coils wound during
t
e downward
travel usually range between 2:1 and 2.5:1 (Figure 225);
for t is re
ason
t e rail must raise slowly (A) and lower quite quickly (B). W en unwinding
t e bobbin at ig speed (D) t esimultaneous unwinding of many coils could lead
to entanglements of t e yarn (t is does not occur in “C” case).
189
Fig. 225 – Effects of t e cross-winding ratio T e yarn wound on t e bobbin durin
g eac upward and downward travel of t e ring rail is called “run-out”; to facil
itate successive unwinding, t e lengt of t e run-out ranges from 3 to5 m and i
s smaller for coarse yarns and greater for finer ones. T e travel of t e rail is
considered sufficient w en it is 15÷18%
larger t an t e ring diameter.
T e stru
cture of t e bobbin
is t e result of t e
continuous motion
of t e winding point
of t e yarn
on t e bobbin affected by
t e ring rail. T e rail
travels up and dow
n along t e vertical axis to form te main layers, and on t ecross axis (wit a
n upward progressive increment) to omogeneously distribute t e yarn on t e bobb
in (Figure 226).
Fig. 226- Diagram of t e ring rail motion T e increment value, i.e. t e space b
etween te two subsequent upward travels of t e ring rail (winding cycles), dete
rmines t e forming bobbin diameter wit respect to two different parameters: t e
run-out and t eyarncount. To obtain bobbins of a given diameter it is necessa
ry to consider t at t e incrementis inversely proportional
to te yarn count (N
m) and directly
proportional to t e lengt of t
e run-out; in ot er words,
after
establis
ing t e diameter
of t e bobbin, wit t e same yarn count,
w en doublin
g t e run-out
lengt , t e increment must also be doubled or, wit t e same run-o
ut lengt , w en doubling t e yarn count (Nm) t e increment value must be alved.
190
T espindle speed T e yarn
tension, during
t e bobbin formation, increasesdurin
g t e upward travel of t e rail i.e. w en t e bobbin
diameter decreases;
t e inc
rease is quite remarkable (almost doubled)
and eavily affects
t e number of bre
akages. To granta steady tension of t e yarn and reduce t e number of breakages
to a minimum, t e spindle
speed during t e upward travel s ould bereduced (and
increased at during t e downward travel). T e following diagrams s ow
t e vario
us possibilities
for controlling t e spindle speed wit respect to t e bobbin st
ructure; t ey range from a total lack of control(always t e same spindle speed)
to asteady control (variable spindle
speed). T e most suitable c oice is given
by t e best proportion between t e ig er cost and t e greatest benefits obtain
ed in terms of total breaks
KEY 1 - Bobbin start 2 - Bobbin end 3 - Speed of t e spindles 4 – Bobbin build-u
p 5 - Bobbin tying V – Operating speed
KEY 1 - Bobbin start 2 - Bobbin end 3 – End of kernel formation 4 - Bobbin build
-up 5 - Bobbin tying VR – Bobbin build-up speed VIS – Kernel formation speed (bo
bbin start).
191
Average take up speed (18 m/min)
KEY 1 – Bobbin start 2– Bobbin end 3 – Kernel end 4 – Bobbin build-up 5 – Bobbi
n tying 6 – Speed of t e spindles VR – Bobbin build-up speed VIS – Kernel format
ion speed (bobbin start).
192
T e spinning geometry After leaving t edrafting
unit, t e material
assumes diff
erent inclination
angles w en passing t roug t e yarn
guide,
t e anti-balloon r
ing
and t e traveller, t at are placed far from
eac ot er and are not
aligned;
t is pat
determines te spinning geometry, w ic greatly affects te yarn struc
ture. T e parameters
t at mainly affect te spinning geometry
are t e number
of
breakages and t e evenness of t e yarn, t e binding of t e fibres and t e airin
ess. Toobtain t e maximum spinning yield, t e positions of t e various componen
ts of t e spinning unit must be carefully defined (Figure 227).
Fig. 227 – Values determining t e spinning geometry
193
A) T e spinning triangle T e yarn twists, generated byt e traveller, climb up t
e yarn, in t e direction opposite to its motion,
to t e nip point
of t e draft
cylinders.However, t e twists never reac t is point since t e fibres of t e sl
iver, at t e exit of t e drafting unit, must unite and only afterward t eycan g
et t e twist. For t is reason, after t e drafting unit delivery rollers, t e fib
re mass takes te s ape of a triangle (“spinning triangle”) w ere fibres are sti
ll untwisted. T e greatest number of breaks occur in t is weak zone, were fibre
s do not ad ere to one anot er because of t e tension
transmitted by t e balloon
. T e size oft e spinning triangle depends on t
e spinning geometry and on t e
position
reac ed by t e twists on t e yarn; a s ort spinningtriangle (Figure 22
8A) asa smaller weak zone and will provoke fewer breaks; t e fibres
at t e sid
es of t e triangle are more inclined. All t e fibres move but it appens t at so
me fibres on t e sides do not twist Fig.228 - Spinning triangle wit ot ers and
get lost (flying fibres) or
ad ere to t e ot er fibres only
by one end,
w ile t
e oter end extends from t e yarn body t us generating t e so-called airiness.
On t e contrary, a long spinning triangle (Figure 228B) generates a larger weak
zone and consequently a ig er number of breaks,
yet it allows t e side fibres
of
t e triangle
to better ad
ere to one anot er t us generating a softer yarn wi
t reduced airiness. B) T e inclination of t e drafting unit T e angle of t e d
rafting unit determines t e sizes of t e spinning triangle: • a small
angle (Fig
ure 229A) corresponds to a longer section of t e fibre sliver ad ering on t e dr
aft cylinder and, consequently, a “long” spinning triangle, • a wide angle (Figu
re 229B) corresponds to a s orter section of t e fibre sliver ad ering on t e dr
aft cylinder and, consequently, a “s ort” spinning triangle.
Fig. 229 - Inclination of t e drafting unit
C) T e inclination of t e yarn wit reference to t e yarnguide T e yarn guide a
cts as a brake in relation to t e twist transfer and to t e tension generated on
t
e yarn; t e first is a negative effect t at inders t e twists from reac ing
t e spinning triangle wit a consequent increase in breaks and a reductionof t
e twists on t e yarn (resulting in a less condensed and resistant yarn), w ile t
e second effect is positive as it reduces t e tensile stress on t e weak zone o
f t e spinning triangle.
194
Fig.
230 - Inclination of t e yarn wit reference to t e yarn guide Furt ermore,
te yarn guide acts as a limiter of t e vibrations generated by t e balloon, w
ic rarely moves in a regular manner. A reduced yarn angle wit reference to t e
yarn guide (Figure
230) allows t e twist to reac
t e spinning
triangle more of
ten
but also wit a more powerful
tension, w ic limits t e positive effect of t
e twist;also vibrationsreac t e spinning triangle more easily. A wider
yarn
angle wit reference to t e yarn guide allows t e elimination of all
t e above-m
entioned problems. Ring spinning wit controlled-balloon spindles T e main featu
re of controlled-balloon
spinning (Figure 231) is t e particular s ape of t e sp
indle tip w ic , aving t e yarnwound on it for a given lengt , reduces
t e bal
loon and limits t e tension of t eyarn near t e spinning triangle. T e decrease
in t e spinning tension
reduces t e number of yarn breakages, or allows ig er
spinning speeds
wit t e same number of breakages.
In case of spinning mac ines
equipped wit a balloon control device, t e yarn guide is always placed along t
e spindle axis
and its position is fixed to allow t e correct functioning of t e
spindle. T e yarn tension can be modified between t e draft
cylinder and te sp
indle tip by varying t e
inclination of
t e spinfinger; t e more inclined e sp
t
infinger, t e smaller t e tension of t e yarn between t e yarn guide and t e dra
ft cylinders.
Fig. 231 - Spindle wit spinfinger 195
Condensation spinning T e condensation principle is based on t e airstream
used
for parallelising and condensing t e fibres
to reduce t e size of t e spinning t
riangle
and obtain a yarn wit reduced airiness and improved
evenness and stren
gt . T e fibre condensation process is carried out on t e draft cylinder; t e va
cuum created inside t e perforated draft cylinder allows t e generated airstream
flowing
from outside into t e cylinder t us condensing t e fibres on its surfac
e wit out modifying t e geometry (Figure 232).
Fig. 232 – Condensation ring spinning frame T e weig ing arms carrying t e press
ure cylinders also include a extension consisting of two Sampre barrel cylinders
wit elastic nip, w ose axes are inclined wit respect to t e material feed axi
s (Figure 233). In brief, a pressure roller and a front roller
wit inclined axe
s
act on eac perforated cylinder; t e nip area makes up t e condensation zone w
ere t e fibres are condensed by t e airstream. Drawn by t e fixed suction devic
es inside t e perforated cylinder, t e air stream penetrates into t e cylinder.
A special air conveyor (Figure 234) above t e condensation
pat of t e fibres (o
ptional) and t e particular s ape of
t e slot of t e vacuum insert (Figure 235)
drive t eairstream and produce a s ift on t
e Fig. 233 - Sampre
rollers lateral
fibres
t at favours t eir condensation
wit t e central
wit inclined axes ones
.
T e elastic-nip rollers stretc
t e long fibres w ic remain in contact wit t
eir surface, retained by t e draft cylinders since t e bundle of parallel and c
ondensed
fibres mustrotate continuously around its axis (in ot er words, along
t e condensation pat , t e vacuum action must always be more powerful t an t e f
ibre tension).
Fig. 234 - Air conveyor
196
Fibres are
t us condensed,
i.e. gat ered in a smallersection, w ic , besides re
ducing
t e size of t e spinning triangle, keeps all t e fibresparallel one to t
e ot er before
twisting
(Figure
236). Tec nical features of t e ring spinning f
rame Table I s ows te main tec nical features of a ring spinning frame Fig. 235
– Vacuum insert wit slot Fig. 236 – Spinning triangle
TABLE
I
C aracteristic Automatic unloading Drafting unit Draft Max gauge Free draft rang
e (cont-deliv. roller) 3 rollers 4 rollers Free draft range (feed cyl. -cont) 3
rollers 4 rollers Draft cylinders/pressure
roller 3 rollers 4 rollers Spindle ga
uge Rings Spindles Tube lengt Yarn count Max. spindle speed single-control doub
le-control yes 3 or 4 rollers more t an 26 max 222 26 19 117 88 40/50 35/50 75 4
2 ÷ 51 up to 1056 220 ÷ 260 40 ÷ 140 16,000 82.5 48 ÷55 up to 960 240 ÷ 280 30 ÷
60 16,000 75 42 ÷ 51 up to 672 220 ÷ 260 40 ÷ 140 16,000 82.5 48 ÷ 55 up to 624
240 ÷ 260 30 ÷ 60 16,000
mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm n° mm Nm rpm
Flow
diagrams for preparation for spinning and spinning processes W en defining
t e flow diagram of preparation for spinning processes, two crucial
objectives m
ust be carefully considered: 1st– t e sliver evenness, 2nd – t e drastic conden
sation of slivers according to te final count. For fine (Nm 40 ÷ 70) and extra
fine (> Nm70) yarn production, t e equipments ould include a drawframe fort e
fourt pre-spinning step in preparation
of t e 3rd objective – setting of t e sl
iver evenness in consideration of t e subsequent fine adjustments wit out doubli
ng stage.
197
Valuable raw materials are used in t e preparation stage; t e processed
slivers
feature fine counts and a few fibres per segment; for t is reason
t e operations
must be carried out wit utmost precision and uniformity; t e fourt drawing st
ep allows intimate
control of t e fibres, a ig number of doublings and a bette
r sequencing
of t e various drawingsteps.
Flow diagram no.1– Output rate: 500
kg/ of Nm 40 wool yarn
(Table
J) T e t ird drawing step wit disk ead, after t
wo drawing steps wit c ain
ead, grant good results as well as minimum maintena
nce interventions and ig operating speeds (Figure 237). Autoleveller
DRAWFRAMES
FINISHER RUBBING FRAME (wit two lower cylinders) Fig. 237 – Preparation for t e
spinning cycle of medium-coarse wool yarns
TABLE J
Unit Te g/m 25 28 14 7 Nm 1.9 A Ce g/m 200 112x2 56x4 7 Nm 1.9 S Tu g/m 28 14 7
0.526
Nm 40 N° of Exit Elem. 1 2 4 2x24 1x576 Vu m/min 400 400 375 231 23.8Pt k
g/ 672 672 630 349.9 20.6 η % 75 75 80 72 94 N° of Units 1 1 1 2 26 Pp kg/ 504
504 504 503.9 502.6
1st step1 sliver in 1can 2nd step 2 slivers in 1 can 3rd step 4 slivers in 2 ca
ns Finis er rubbing frame 2 rovings in 1 bobbin Spinning frame Yarn wound on bob
bin
8 4x2 4x4 1 1
7.14 8,0 8,0 13,31 21
Finis er rubbing frame: 24 eads Spinning mac ine: 576 spindles 198
T is flow diagram can be also prepared wit a 2- ead c ain drawframe, wit an el
ectronic
autoleveller
on eac
ead (Figure 238),
suitable forprocessing medium
and lig t weig t slivers. T e autoleveller on t e drawframe t at carries out t e
second drawingstep for t e preparation
to spinning (Figure 239) allows: • a go
odcontrol of t e evenness of t e slivers during a process closer to spinning, •
t e autolevelling of slivers draft wit fewer fibres and t erefore more accurat
ely.
Fig. 238 – Two- ead c ain drawframe wit electronic autoleveller
DRAWFRAMES
Autoleveller
FINISHER RUBBING FRAME (wit two lower cylinders)
Fig. 239 – Preparation
for t e spinning cycle of medium-coarse wool yarns (wit
autoleveller in t e 2nd drawing step)
199
Flow diagram no.2 (Figure 240) Output rate: 315 kg/ Nm 70 wool yarn (Table K) A
utoleveller
DRAWFRAMES
FINISHER RUBBING FRAME (wit lower apron) Fig. 240 – Preparation for t e spinnin
g cycle for fine and extra-fine count wool yarns
TABLE K
Unit Te g/m 25 22 11 5.5 4 Nm 3 A Ce g/m 175 88x2 44x4 33x4 4 Nm 3 S Tu g/m 22 1
1 5.54 0.333 N° of Vu Exit m/mi Elem. n 1 320 2 4 4 2x24 320 300 206 229 17.8 P
t kg/ 422.4422.4 396 197.8 219.6 8.8 η % 75 75 80 80 72 97 N° of Units 1 1 1 2
2 37 Pp kg/ 316.8 316.8 316.8 316.4 316.3 315.4
1 step
1 sliver in 1can 2nd step 2 slivers in 1 can 3rd step 4 slivers in 2 cans
4t step 4 slivers in 2 cans Finis er rubbing frame 2 rovings in 1 bobbin Spinn
ing frame Yarn wound on bobbin
st
7 4x2 4x4 6x4 1 1
7.95 8 8 8.25 12
23.33 Nm 70 1x576
Finis er rubbing frame: 24 eads Spinning mac ine: 576 spindles;
200
In t e case of
standard output rates, t is diagram could include
a screw-
ead dr
awframe
for t e first
two drawing steps (Figure 241); in
t is case, t e control
of t e evenness
of t e slivers is carried out by a mec anical autoleveller (Tabl
e L) mec anical autoleveller
DRAWFRAMES
FINISHER RUBBING FRAME (wit lower apron) Figure241 – Preparation for t e spinn
ing cycles for fine or extra-fine wool yarns wit screw ead drawframes
TABLE L
Unit Te g/m 25 22 11 5.5 4 Nm 3 A Ce g/m 175 88x2 33x4 22x4 4 Nm 3 S Tu g/m 22 1
1 5.5 4 0.333 N° of Vu Exit m/mi Elem. n 1 107 2 4 4 2x24 107 150 206 229 Pt kg/
141.2141.2 198 197.8 219.6 8.8 η % 75 75 80 80 72 97 N° of Units 3 3 2 2 2 37
Pp kg/ 317.8 317.8 316.8 316.4 316.3 315.4
1 step
1 sliver in 1can 2nd step 2 slivers in 1 can 3rd step 4 slivers in 2 cans
4t step 4 slivers in 2 cans Finis er rubbing frame 2 rovings in 1 bobbin Spinn
ing frame Yarn wound on bobbin
st
7 4x2 3x4 4x4 1 1
7.95 8 6 5.5 12
23.33 Nm 70 1x576 17.08
Finis er rubbing frame: 24 eads Spinning mac ine: 576 spindles; 201