Mechatronics 12 (2002) 12251238

Active ribbon breaking in random winding of yarn packages

G. Durur, P. Bandara
*
School of Textiles and Design, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT Leeds, UK

Abstract The production of textile yarn packages by the random winding method using a grooved drum is prone to the basic problem of ribbon formation. Commercial winders of this type use several methods of ribbon breaking to reduce the problem to a tolerable extent. With simple instrumentation of the winder, it is shown that active ribbon breaking can be achieved under programmed control on a random winder to achieve better control of the problem, as demonstrated by the better unwinding characteristics of yarn packages produced. 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.

1. Introduction Textile yarns are usually wound into a suitable package form that is convenient for use in a variety of processes such as weaving and knitting. Most such packages are produced by winding many thousand meters of a single yarn on to a cylindrical or conical tube on a yarn winding machine. The winding operation involves the rotation of the tube to draw the yarn, and traversing the yarn in the axial direction of the tube so as to form the package. This action deposits the yarn in a helical path, which is reversed in direction at each end of the package. As the turns of yarn deposited by one traverse motion are held down by those deposited by the reverse traverse motion that follows, a stable package is produced, which has a crosswound appearance. Fig. 1 shows a cheese or cylindrical package as identied above. As the tube has no anges, the yarn can be removed from such a package by simply pulling it over one end of the package, while the package is held stationary.

Corresponding author. E-mail address: m.p.u.bandara@leeds.ac.uk (P. Bandara).

0957-4158/02/$ - see front matter 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. PII: S 0 9 5 7 - 4 1 5 8 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 0 2 6 - 0

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Fig. 1. Cylindrical cross-wound yarn package.

When the package is subsequently used as raw material to a textile production process, it is important that the yarn unwinds with uniform ease. In order to achieve this, the winding operation should maintain a constant level of tension in the yarn being wound, as well as achieve a uniform spacing between successive turns of yarn. The grooved drum type yarn winder, shown schematically by Fig. 2 is widely used in the textile industry. The main feature of the winder is the cylindrical winding drum, which has a continuous helical groove. The yarn package is driven by contact with the drum surface and the yarn being wound is guided by the groove under the winding tension given to the yarn. As the drum rotates, the groove provides the traverse movement to the yarn, so as to give the package its width. The surface speed of the package and hence the yarn winding speed remains practically constant as the drum speed is kept constant. Due to its mechanical simplicity, this type of winder is very reliable in operation and is commonly used in the winding of most types of yarn, except those having continuous laments which are prone to damage by friction. The wind ratio w is a useful parameter applicable to a random winder, dened as follows. w Np  Nd k

which can be written, assuming no slip between the drum and package, as wk Dd Dp

Fig. 2. Basic random winder.

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where Np is package rotational speed, Nd is drum rotational speed, Dp is package diameter, Dd is grooved drum diameter and k is the number of drum rotations required to produce a complete traverse cycle (i.e. a double traverse) of yarn. For a grooved drum, k is an integer, usually in the range 16. As seen from the above relationship, on a grooved drum winder, w gradually diminishes as the package diameter increases during winding. This has the eect that the circumferential spacing between the yarn turns of two successive double traverses has a continuous variation. As a result the yarn visible on the package surface seems to be randomly spaced with respect to one another. For this reason the grooved drum winder is often referred to as the random winder. The wind ratio may be as high as 12 at the beginning of winding a package, and could become 1 or less as the package diameter becomes large. The constantly diminishing wind ratio as indicated above causes a winding problem. Each time the wind ratio passes though an integer value, a double traverse nishes at the same position on the yarn package as where it started. So successive coils of yarns coincide with one another, and this eect persists till the package diameter increases suciently as further yarn is wound. This overwinding causes the package shape to distort as well as make the unwinding of the yarn from such places more dicult. The eect persists for longer as the package diameter increases. The overwound turns of yarn tend to form a hard band, and hence the problem is termed ribboning or patterning. Some noticeable ribboning occurs even when the wind ratio diers from an integer by one half, one third etc., but this eect is less severe, when compared to major ribboning corresponding to an integer value of wind ratio. There are several techniques applied on random winders to diminish the intensity of ribbon formation. These achieve ribbon breaking by causing a small amount of slippage of the package on the winding drum at frequent intervals thereby dispersing the yarn that otherwise tend to bunch together. However this mechanically eected action can be called passive, in that the moments of its application are simply periodic and not coincident with those when ribboning occurs. The eectiveness of ribbon breaking achieved is therefore not optimum. 2. Research objectives The research work reported in this paper was intended to investigate means of improving the eectiveness of ribbon breaking on a standard random winder by applying such action precisely at the times when ribboning actually occurs during winding. For this reason it was necessary to provide the winder with the capability of detecting the onset of major ribboning, whenever it occurred. 3. Experimental apparatus The detection of ribboning can be based on reading the rotational position of the package when the drum starts a double traverse. If the package rotational position

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were to be found much the same at each successive arrival of the yarn at the same reference position of traverse, then clearly there is overwinding of successive yarn turns which causes ribboning. A Schlafhorst Autoconer type GKN winding unit was modied [2] by the addition of several sensors and actuators to enable its control by a PC. An 8-bit shaft encoder was attached to the winding drum as well as to the package spindle. 8-bit resolution was found adequate to detect the rotational position of the grooved drum and the package for the detection of ribboning. On this winder, the drum diameter was 90 mm. The traverse length was 125 mm and the drum rotated 3 turns to produce one double traverse of the yarn (i.e. k 3). The package radius was sensed using a light, 25 mm wide roller carried on an arm attached to a conductive plastic track potentiometer, as shown by Fig. 3. An LVDT was mounted on the winder frame to provide a reading of the height of the package spindle. Since some pressure is maintained between the package and the drum using a weighted arm, the radius of the package at the driving point on the grooved drum is slightly reduced. The LVDT was calibrated to indicate this compressed radius. This basic winder is fully mechanical in operation and ribbon breaking is achieved by use of a clutch, which is used to briey disconnect the drive to the grooved drum every few seconds. At each power disconnection the drum and the package slow down a little. The re-engagement of the clutch accelerates the drum faster than the package so producing some slippage of the package on the drum. The ribbon breaking action is due to the resulting dispersal of the yarn that would otherwise bunch together. Since the ribbon breaking action takes place continually whether ribboning is present or not, this ribbon breaking action may be considered passive. Since the occurrence of ribboning could be detected by the PC according to the method indicated above, it followed that ribbon breaking action could be made to coincide with those intervals, under PC control. Two methods of investigating this

Fig. 3. Conguration of the modied winder.

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possibility were provided for. One of these was the replacement of the standard drive motor by a DC-brushless motor [1] which could be driven as to produce sharp changes of drum speed when so required, under software control. The other was to provide a package lifting arm attached to a geared stepper motor, which could be used to lift the package minutely o the drum at rapid intervals when required. Yarn winding tension could be set on the winder using a disc type tensioner. The actual tension level was set with reference to an electronic single yarn tension probe. This device had a range of 0100 g and a bandwidth of 2500 Hz. It provided an analogue voltage output, and was also used in yarn unwinding trials described later. All the above devices were interfaced to the PC for data acquisition and control purposes. These modications resulted in a random winder that oered considerable scope for its mechatronic control.

4. Experimental work and results The experimental work undertaken on the modied winder, and the results obtained were as follows. 4.1. Study of the rotation of the package on the drum The rotation of the package was of interest as the package was likely slip on the winding drum, possibly in a random manner, as the winding is done against the tension of the yarn being wound, with the drive to the package being provided by friction with the drum. The two shaft encoders provided on the winder enabled the tracking of the rotational position of the drum and the package at a fast rate so as to show any slippage present, as described below. In this study, a wool yarn of approximately 30 Tex (linear density in g/km) was used, which was wound at a speed of 450 m/min. At this winding speed each double traverse took about 140 ms. The reading of the shaft encoders by the PC, even with error checking to eliminate occasional incorrect readings due to electrical noise, took only about 1.7 ls per reading and allowed the above procedure to be satisfactory. The apparatus was rst used to study the winding process with no ribbon breaking applied. It quickly became apparent that by plotting the binary value of angular position of the package spindle at each successive start of a double traverse on the VDU of the PC, a characteristic diagram was obtained. This was found to be useful for following the progress of the winding operation and was referred to as the angle at double traverse (ADT) diagram. By rotating a package of constant diameter at the normal speed (i.e. a package on which no additional yarn is wound), a very regular dot pattern is shown by the diagram (Fig. 4). The dots correspond to the package spindle position at the start of over 500 successive double traverses. The inclination of the straight line formation of the dots depends on the particular value of wind ratio corresponding to the package diameter.

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Fig. 4. Rotation of constant diameter package with no drag (diameter 80 mm, wind ratio 3.4).

The constant vertical spacing between successive points on this diagram (this is the separation between a point and the one almost vertically below it, corresponding to the next double traverse) shows that the package rotational speed is highly constant. Even with some mechanical drag introduced on the package spindle by use of a light aluminium pulley and weighted cord, the pattern remained unchanged. Slippage took place only when the level of drag was increased to a level considerably higher than that corresponding to the normal winding tension. Theoretically, a small amount of loss of rotation seems possible due to the deformation of the package surface under the pressure maintained between the drum and the package [4], but the diagram shows that any such eect has no random character. When winding a package normally i.e. with its diameter gradually increasing, but with ribbon breaking measures still disabled, the slope of the lines gradually changes, as seen from Fig. 5.

Fig. 5. Winding of package at wind ratio 3.3.

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Depending on the actual value of wind ratio reached, the dots form a single peak or several of them. Where a single peak is seen, the wind ratio has an integer value at that package radius; where three peaks are seen, the wind ratio is an integer plus 1/3 etc. When the ratio is an integer, the ribboning that takes place is most undesirable (major ribboning). Ribbon breaking is mostly required at these intervals. Where the ratio is high, and not an integer, any ribboning that takes place (minor ribboning) quickly disappears. When the wind ratio descends to values such as 3 and 2, even minor ribboning tends to persist longer. 4.2. The eectiveness of dierent ribbon breaking methods It is actually major ribboning that causes signicant diculties with unwinding, and hence that requires dispersal. The moments of major ribboning can be detected by software using the package diameter and shaft encoder readings, and ribbon breaking can be eected actively as compared with the passive ribbon breaking normally applied. The scheme of detecting ribboning by software, and of implementing the ribbon breaking by the package lifting method described later, are given in the Appendix A. The ADT diagram was used as an aid to show the eect of the three dierent ribbon breaking methods tried out in this work. The basic method of interruption of the drive to the drum, as provided on the basic winder was the rst method tried. Next, the DC-brushless motor provided on the winder was used to introduce speed variations to the drum directly, during those intervals when major ribboning is detected. Finally, the drum was driven at a constant speed and the package lifting arm arrangement was used to lift the package o the drum surface repeatedly during intervals of major ribboning. The winding was carried out at a speed of approximately 450 m/min. Fig. 6 shows the variation to the package formation introduced by the use of the standard ribbon breaking arrangement using the clutch, at the wind ratio value of 3.

Fig. 6. Eect of normal ribbon breaking at wind ratio 3.0.

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Fig. 7. Eect of active ribbon breaking by uctuating motor speed at wind ratio 3.0.

Some dispersal of the yarn coils is evident from the diagram. The examination of the package showed this but the level of remnant ribboning was quite distinct. The drum was then driven directly by the motor, with the mechanical declutching action stopped. When major ribboning was detected, the motor was controlled by software to drop its speed to half its normal value for a brief period, and then back to the normal value for a longer duration. These actions were applied repeatedly till the wind ratio fell suciently below the integer value concerned. Fig. 7 shows the results of this method of active ribbon breaking. There is more eective ribbon dispersal, in comparison with Fig. 6, and this was conrmed by examining the package. However the operation was noisy due to the sharp speed uctuations produced by the motor, which was undesirable. The method of briey lifting the package o the drum surface using the lifting arm was then tried. The action was repeatedly applied, as with the previous method. The operation was much quieter, and the more eective ribbon breaking due to this method is shown by Fig. 8. Examination of the package showed the greater thinning out of the ribboning, that was achieved. 4.3. Evaluation of the ribbon breaking methods The ADT diagrams above provide a visual evaluation of the three ribbon breaking methods tested, indicating that active ribbon breaking by lifting the package provides greater eectiveness. As a yarn package is only an intermediate product in textile processing a more meaningful measure of the goodness of winding a package is the uniformity of unwinding tension obtained, when yarn is withdrawn under some specied conditions [3]. A number of similar yarn packages were prepared under the same winding conditions using each of the above three ribbon breaking methods. These were unwound using the apparatus shown by Fig. 9. The tension of the yarn during unwinding it at a

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Fig. 8. Active ribbon breaking by lifting the package at wind ratio 2.0.

Fig. 9. Apparatus for measuring unwinding tension.

speed of 480 m/min was recorded using a single yarn tension meter placed as shown in the gure. The unwinding tension arises from the rotation (ballooning) of the yarn as well as the movement of the yarn between the front and the back of the package. The yarn will experience an increased drag when it is removed from places where ribboning is present. The tension meter had a natural frequency of 2.5 kHz, and tension readings were recorded as 8-bit data values, to provide some 1 M readings per package. The leaf tensioner was adjusted to provide a minimum level of tension of the yarn. All settings of the apparatus were kept the same during this unwinding trial. The results obtained for each type of package were averaged, and were used to construct a histogram of withdrawal tension, as shown by Fig. 10. Unwinding

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Fig. 10. The results of unwinding yarn tension.

tensions vary over a range of values as can be expected. The graphs show that active ribbon breaking by lifting the package provided the lowest modal tension.

5. Conclusions The ADT diagram is a useful visual aid in the study of random winding of yarn by the grooved drum method. The studies carried out showed that no irregular slipping of the yarn package takes place under the normal winding tension values applied, despite the indirect (friction) drive applied to the package. The ADT diagram was particularly useful in studying the eectiveness of the three ribbon breaking methods reported in this work. As the standard ribbon breaking methods provided on random winders are not based on the detection of ribbon formation, it was felt that active ribbon breaking as described above would prove to be more eective. This was in fact found to be the case by comparing the unwinding tension measured on similar yarn packages produced by the three methods attempted. The standard grooved drum random winder will continue to be used by the textile industry due to its rugged simplicity and its suitability for use in automatic winders [5]. As the cost of microprocessor control has become relatively low, methods of active ribbon breaking similar to those reported here will prove to be useful in producing better yarn packages. The method of lifting the package o the drum for brief intervals was found to be the most eective for ribbon breaking, when used actively as described. This method has a disadvantage due to the increasing package radius as winding pro-

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gresses, as the lifting arm has to constantly follow the rising package arm position. In this work an arm attached to a geared stepper motor was successfully used to implement the procedure. This was eective, but a simpler mechatronic solution is desirable.

Appendix A Key to Symbols used in owcharts for software program: k y l rib drum rotations within double traverse (02) number of double traverses produced no. of double traverses for diagram (0500) variable to indicate stage of ribbon breaking (0 no action required) (16 stages of arm movement) lift_step, stop_step time duration of arm movements expressed in double traverses

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References
[1] DC Brushless Motor DM-20 and BRU-200 Servodrive. Electro-Craft Ltd., Fourth Avenue, Crewe, UK. [2] Durur G. PhD thesis. University of Leeds, UK, 2000. [3] Nobauer H, Baumeler M. Measurement of unwinding resistance of yarn packages using the package performance analyser. Textile Praxis International 1992;November:103440. [4] Osawa G, Koyama T. On the slippage between yarn-package and grooved drum during winding. J Textile Mach Soc Jpn 1972;25(6):T11323. [5] Rebsamen A. Modern package building. Textile Asia 1988;September:1306.