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Effect of Cleaning Point of Uniclean Machine in Blow room on Cleaning

Efficiency and Yarn Quality

Article · June 2011

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Effect of Cleaning Point of

Uniclean Machine in Blow room
on Cleaning Efficiency and Yarn
Quality

By:
Ujjwal G. Patil,
P.P.Raichurkar,
Sapan Mukherjee
 
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Effect of Cleaning Point of Uniclean Machine in Blow room on
Cleaning Efficiency and Yarn Quality
By: Ujjwal G. Patil, P.P.Raichurkar, Sapan Mukherjee

Abstract

The blow room is primary stage of spinning for producing smooth passage of raw material,
required for subsequent process. The effect of beater speed, grid bar setting and cotton trash
percentage upon Uniclean (B 11) has studied for quality characteristics of cotton. For good fibre
spinning requires efficient opening & cleaning of raw material. The beating point of uniclean
machine is depending upon trash content in cotton. By keeping this view, to change various
setting, Cleaning Intensity & Relative Amount of Waste of cleaning machine which affects fibre
rupture, cleaning efficiency, good fibre loss percentage in waste and subsequent yarn quality. For
PM (51% PIMA: 49% MCU-5) mixing the setting shows reduce good fibre loss is waste &
increases performance of blow room with improves yarn quality at same mixing.

Keywords: Cleaning Intensity, Relative Amount of Waste, Trash%, Degree of Cleaning.

Introduction:

The cotton textile industry contributes a highly significant position in the economy
of India. For today’s rapidly advancing textile industry and quality conscious international
market, the comprehensive information about the characteristics of lint cotton, which is the raw
material of the industry, is a direct need for producing quality goods at competitive costs by way
of reducing wastage and improving productivity level.
“Cotton” is raw material for the formation of yarn and fabric. In textile industry, variety of
cotton have purchased from different zone. These cotton properties like Length, Strength,
Fineness, Trash, Maturity etc. are different and depend on difference in cotton cultivation. As
cotton supplied to mills in the forms of bales and process starts from blow room.
With the passage of time and with the advent of new technologies high-speed machines
were designed having more opening and cleaning efficiency. In the past a typical blow room line
for the cleaning of cotton consists of four to six and in some cases even seven beating points.
The underlying idea was to open and clean the material slowly and gradually. But during the last
decade, the trend has shifted to minimize the number of machines in the blow room line. Now in
modern cleaning line only two to three beating points are available. This became possible only
due to the introduction of machines with higher degree of opening capabilities. Most of the
spinning mills in India are equipped with modern cleaning set-up in blow room.
Uniclean is used for excellence in opening and cleaning of cotton through the combination
of the action of saw tooth and beating action. In this machine, the material transfer on the surface
of beater passes through the air current.
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The basic purpose of blowroom is opening, cleaning, mixing of cotton without increasing
fibre rupture, fibre nep and broken seed particles and extracting more amount of trash without
good fibre loss. The reduction of trash content which is necessary for improving cotton grade and
unfortunately results in a higher nep content level. In this project, emphasis given on uniclean
m/c setting change with respect to Cleaning Intensity and Relative Amount of Waste at various
beater speed and grid angle.

Literature survey:
Cleaning Machine of Rieter line in blowroom
The cotton enters the beater chamber through an
in-let in free condition. Immediately, the typically shaped
beater spikes start acting on the cotton. The actual cleaning
takes place when the material is struck against the grid
bars. In the traditional beaters, this striking action takes
place only once because the cotton is passed ahead along
with the rotational direction of the beater itself. Whereas, in
Uniclean, like Axi-Flow, the cotton moves across the
beater length and hence, during its journey, the striking
spikes repeatedly strike it against the grid bars. The
impurities thus released, are ejected through grid bar
openings2.

The Uniclean machine cleans the microtufts in the first cleaning stage immediately after
the Unifloc A11. This enables machine output of up to 1400 kgs/hr to be achieved. Cleaning
is performed without nipping and is therefore very gentle to the fibres and at the same time
efficient. Varioset enables waste volume and waste composition to be adjusted optimally at
the push of a button.

Crossveiw of Uniclean machine with Varioset

setting:

The machine is operated under ‘Varioset Cleaning

Field’. Thus, with only two settings are processing can
be changed from gentle to intensive. This varioset
technique translates the desired operational
characteristics in to value of machine settings. Two
different values for – Cleaning Intensity (for speed of
beater) and Relative Amount of Waste (influencing grid
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bar angle) can be chosen while working a particular variety of cotton. The opening and
cleaning unit of Rieter blowroom line operate through Varioset Cleaning Field3.

In the cleaning field, the cleaning intensity (0.0 to1.0) is plotted against the relative
amount of waste percentage (1 to 10). The 110 number of points in the cleaning field
correspond to rotational speed and grid setting through which amount of waste can be
controlled. Tab.2.1. Relation between Beater speed and Cleaning Intensity:

Beater Cleaning Relative

Speed Intensity Amount of
( rpm) Waste This table shows the beater speed is
increases then cleaning intensity of the
480 0.0 0 material should be increases.

545 0.1 1

570 0.2 2

635 0.3 3

680 0.4 4

725 0.5 5

770 0.6 6

815 0.7 7

860 0.8 8

905 0.9 9

950 1.0 10

The beater speed is directly proportional to the relative amount of waste viz. grid bar setting &
its cleaning intensity. If relative amount of waste should be less then closer grid bar setting &
less amount of trash extract form raw material.

If relative amount of waste should be more then open grid bar setting & more amount of trash
extract with more good fibre loss from raw material (cotton).
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Setting of Grid bar with hydro cylinder between beater

The cleaning Intensity controls both the speed of beater &

compensatory setting of grid bars. Increasing the cleaning
intensity increases the trash remove in raw materials. The waste
rate changes the grid angle to remove more or less good fibre in
trash particles. The material is blown to the Uniclean & is
circulated seven times inside the machine by the hooks on the
drum. The clean fibres are sucked from the machine by
transportation fan. The optimum cleaning means maximum
cleaning performance, minimum loss of good fibres, a high
degree of fibre preservation and minimum nep generation1.

Relation between Cleaning Intensity & Beater speed is directly proportional,

Setting:

C.I. : 0.0 to 1.0.

Speed: 480 to 960 rpm at 1400Kgs/hr.

Tab. 2.2. Requirement of Cleaning Intensity for different trash % at different yarn producing.

Trash in cotton Applications Cleaning intensity

0.5 to 2,0 % Clean cotton fine combed

0.5 to 0.9
yarns

1.0 to 3.5% Ring spun carded yarns 0.6 to 0.9

1.5 to 4.5% Rotor yarns

0.7 to 0.9
Ne 10/1 to 24/1

3.0 to 6.0% and Rotor yarns

more 0.2 to 0.7
coarse counts

Above table shows Trash percentages increases to the cleaning intensity with
particular beater speed increases.
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Trash content will be raised then the relative amount of waste must be set higher,
Grid bar setting is open & light colour waste composition.

The higher the degree of opening, then higher the degree of cleaning. A very high
cleaning effect is always purchase at the cost of a high fibre loss. Higher roller speeds give a
better cleaning effect but also more stress on the fibre. Cleaning is more difficult if the
impurities of dirty cotton are distributed through a larger quantity of material by mixing with
clean cotton.

¾ CLEANING EFFICIENCY: It means the cleaning performance of cotton with extracting

trash from material. Cleaning efficiency of the machine is the ratio of the trash
removed by the machine to that of total trash fed to the machine, expressed as
percentage

Cleaning efficiency % = (Trash in feed % - Trash in Del %) x 100) / (Trash in feed

%)

Tab.2.3 Cleaning Efficiency percentage in modern Blow room lines:

% Trash in Cotton No. of beating points Cleaning

Efficiency (%)
5.1 and above 5 65
3.1 to 5.0 4 60
1.0 to 3.0 3 50

In modern Blow room lines, greater importance is attached to the opening rather than to
higher cleaning action; hence the cleaning efficiency will be lower at 50% to 65%. However, the
excess trash in chute feed is removed by the carding segments (Cylinder to Flats zone) on
modern high production cards. If the amount of trash is increase the degree of cleaning also
increases & performance of cleaning efficiency percentages increases4.

Tab.2.4 Combined Cleaning Efficiency (%) of Blow room and cards:

% Trash in Cotton Cleaning Efficiency(%) of Blow

room and Cards
2.0 to 3.4 92-96
3.5 & above 95-98

The following table 2.5 shows the degree of correlation between the various cotton fibre quality
characteristics and those of the yarns:
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Imperfection
Yarn and Breaking Breaking
Hairiness
Evenness Classimat Tenacity Elongation
Faults

Fibre length

Micronaire value

Nep, Trash, Leaf,

Microdust

Breaking
strength

Elongation%

Color/Reflectance

Good correlation Little correlation Significant correlation

Material & Method:-

1. Material Used:

Lint cotton samples with different setting of uniclean machine was been collected from
running material at Alok Industries Ltd in Unit-5, cotton samples has subjected to the AFIS
testing.
Spinning Process
Lint cotton with different levels of trash were been processed at Rieter blow room line with
Uniclean set-up, and following Cleaning Intensity & Relative Amount of Waste. After every
possible combination of above variables at Uniclean, setting samples from duct (Delivery of
machine, Chute Feed and card sliver) has collected and tested for the basic fibre
characteristics.

Atmospheric Conditions

The testing work was been carried out under the standard laboratory conditions, which have
maintained at 65+2% relative humidity and 27±2°C temperature.
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2. Method Used:

PLAN OF WORK

Mixing: PM (PIMA 51% + MCU5 49%)

Change setting of Uniclean machine:

1. Cleaning Intensity. (C.I.)

2. Relative Amount of Waste. (R.A.W.)

Samples: A B C

Cleaning Intensity 0.6 0.7 0.8

R.A.W. 6 7 8 6 7 8 6 7 8

Card Sliver Results A1 (AFIS Test) B1 C1

Yarn Stage Results:

(COPS& CONES)

1. UT5
2. Rkm
3. CMT(Classimat)

FINAL Results & to Implement 
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Above plan of work, we have taken 3 trials of particular setting i.e. 9 viz. Cleaning
Intensity (C.I.) and Relative Amount of Waste (R.A.W.) of Uniclean machine in blow room. We
collected particular setting samples of uniclean delivery, chute feed and card sliver. It has
checked AFIS results on AFIS instrument and it compares the results. Three samples setting
have fixed in uniclean machine and forward the material upto yarn stage. All yarn parameters
have tested on UT-5 (for U %), UT-4(for Rkm, Tenacity etc.) compare the regular setting results.

3. Experimental Work:

4.3. a. Fibre properties of PM mixing:-

SR. NO. VALUE

Mixing
PM (Pima – 51%: MCU-5 - 49%)
PROPERTIES

PIMA MCU-5 Average(PM)

Properties

1. Micronaire(μg/inch) 3.25 4.2 3.83

2. Strength ( gm/tex) 34.89 30.52 35.87

3. UHML (mm) 33.53 30.43 32.65

4. Uniformity Index 86.78 85.9 85.98 (Ratio)

5. SFI 6.1 6.7 6.33

6. Elongation % 5.9 6.3 6.14

7. Maturity Ratio 0.88 0.87 0.88

8. Rd value 78.5 81.8 75.09

9. Trash % 2.437% 2.840% 3.000%

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Result and Discussion:
Table: 5.1:
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Inference of Sample –A:

In above Tab.5.1 & its trends shows, at same cleaning intensity: 0.6 with different relative
amount of waste : 6, 7, and 8. At carding stage, AFIS report shows better results than another
setting i.e. C.I. : 0.6 and R.A.W.: 6. In this setting, the beater speed ( 725 rpm) and grid angle(
200) also decreases. Nep, Short fibre content should be reduces in the sliver. But in uniclean
machine, cotton has freely passed. At a time trash particle are not completely removed from this
setting. Therefore, this setting has fixed on uniclean machine and its materials are forward upto
yarn stage.

Table: 5.2
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5.1. Inference of Sample – B:

In above Tab.5.2 & its trends shows, at same cleaning intensity: 0.7 with different
relative amount of waste: 6, 7, and 8. At carding stage, AFIS report shows better results
of C.I.: 0.7 and R.A.W.: 6 than regular setting i.e. C.I.: 0.7 and R.A.W.: 8. In this setting,
the beater speed (770 rpm) and grid angle (300) also slightly open in setting. Therefore,
Nep, Short fibre content, small amount of fibre rupture and good fibre loss reduces in
material. So colour composition of waste should be darker in uniclean machine.
Therefore, this setting has fixed on uniclean machine and its materials are forward upto
yarn stage.

Table: 5.3
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5.2. Inference of Sample- C:

In above Tab.5.3 & its trends shows, at same cleaning intensity: 0.8 with different
relative amount of waste: 6, 7, and 8. At carding stage, AFIS report shows better results
of C.I.: 0.8 and R.A.W.: 8 than another setting. In this setting, the beater speed (815 rpm)
and grid angle (300) also open in setting. In this setting, NEP, Short fibre content reduces
in material at carding machine. But in blow room uniclean machine, amount of good fibre
loss and fibre rupture should be increases then colour composition of waste should be
lighter in waste chamber of machine. Therefore, this setting has fixed on uniclean
machine and its materials are forward upto yarn stage.
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At the above trends CI: 0.7, RAW: 6 has better results of AFIS Testing for PM (Pima-51% +
MCU-5- 49%) for 8.43 Tex (70s CW) count. Tab. 4.4 shows yarn results.

Yarn Results

M/C No. 11

C.I. 0.7 0.8 0.8

R.A.W. 6 7 (Regular) 8

Stages COPS CONES COPS CONES COPS CONES

U% 10.25 10.58 10.98 11.89 10.4 10.8

10mts Cv% 3.68 3.73 3.62 3.8 2.45 3.75

Thin -50% 3.5 5 8 10.5 8.2 8.3

Thick +50% 20.1 28.8 39.3 50 33.5 57.5

Nep +200% 121 169 128 198.4 129.8 192

Total IPI 144.6 202.8 175.3 258.9 171.5 257.8

Hairiness (H
value) 2.82 2.96 3.05 3.38 3.04 3.54

RKM (g/force) 27.56 27.99 26.14 27.4 27.46 27.87

CV% 8.1 9 8.8 9.8 9.1 9.4

EL% 4.35 4.67 4.35 4.85 4.56 4.72

CV% 9.1 9.8 9.9 9.3 9.5 9.8

Tenacity (
gm/tex) 220.4 228.6 209.6 219.24 218.8 223.6

CMT (Classimat) Results

7 class 0 0 0

8 class 0 0 0

4 class 9 10 9
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5 class 1744 2024 1828

16 class 1753 1820 1876

LONG Thick 10 11.2 15.5

LONG Thin 59 69.1 188

Total Faults 3575 3934.3 3916.5

Winding Cuts / 100 Km

Total Yarn Cuts 98 102 128

Nep Cuts 15 18 19

Short Cuts 46 62 51

Long Cuts 9 17 14

Thin cuts 1 1 3

F Cuts 21 23 30

Short Cluster
Cuts 2 1 2

Long Cluster
Cuts 0 0 1

Thin Cluster
Cuts 0 0 0
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Tab.4.4 and its trends shows, CI: 0.7, RAW: 6 has better results as compared to regular setting
CI: 0.8, RAW: 7 of the Uniclean Machine.

Conclusion: In this experimental work, the cleaning Intensity is directly proportional to the
beater speed of uniclean machine at particular relative amount of waste (Grid Angle). For the
given mixing C.I.:0.7/R.A.W.:6 (B) shows better results in project work & its setting have
implemented in the particular Mixing with improved quality & less good fibre loss in waste at
time of opening & cleaning of Raw Material(Cotton) of PM (PIMA + MCU-5) for 70s CW
count.

a. Improvement % of Yarn Quality:

Hairiness 16.38
Quality U% IPI Hairiness Rkm SYS Winding Classimat
% Cuts/100 Faults
Km
Rkm 3.21
U% 11.01%
%

SYS 4.09
IPI 21.66
% %
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Winding 3.92
Cuts/100K
m %

Classimat 14.06
fault
%

Reduce Increase
d Value d Value

References:

1.Rieter Manufacturing- Blow room manuals, Pag. No. 45.

2. Khare A.A. - Element of Blow room and Carding, Pag. No. 53, 55, 58.

3.Klein W- Modernization of Blow room, Pag. No. 14, 15.

4.Textile Research Journals – 2007, Evaluation of cleaning Efficiency in blow room.

5.Mr. Basu- Handbook of SITRA norms, Pag .No. 25, 26, 27,

6.www.textileworld.com – Internet.

7.www.wikipidia.com – Internet.

8.www.google.com, Information about Rieter Uniclean Machine – Internet.

The authors are associated with NMIMS MPSTME, Centre for Textile Functions, Shirpur

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