| 11 Autoleveller in Draw-frame R. Chattopadhyay and A.K. Basu 1. Introduction The autoleveller is an online monitoring device in the spinning process. Today autoleveller has become an integral part of the spinning for the production of high quality yarn. The quality attribute that has influenced maximum is yarn count variation and blend consistency. Long thin places as well as winding breaks are also influenced significantly. Since sliver gets translated into yarn through repeated drafting, the mass variation seen in yarn would already exist in the mass variation of sliver. One may wonder the role of doubling on drawframe in suppressing irregularity in card sliver which is any way an integral part of the process. The doubling process has some limitations, such as * It cannot correct long term variation (variation produced from shift to shift) * The periodic variation is also difficult to supress and * Itcan reduce CV% only by the square root of total number of doublings. An autoleveller compensates these deficiencies of doubling process. 2. Location of autoleveller Variability in mass per unit length is an inherent characteristic of textile yarn and more so in the case of spun than filament yarn. Certain minimum variability is always expected and has to be tolerated. However, when this characteristic goes beyond a certain limit, it detracts the appearance of the fabric too much and demand reduction. Process control therefore comes into the picture. The extent of mass variability in a yarn is a function of unit length chosen. A yarn always show variability over a wide spectrum of length chosen. It is more if the unit length chosen is small and less if it is more. The question therefore comes variability over what length needs to be supressed. One can think of controlling the variability over the entire length spectrum or set priorities based on practical necessity. Controlling mass variability over 100 m of yarn length and beyond has been recognized to be extremely important. The spinning process is so designed that as one goes upstream the process, production Positions increase too much. As an example as we go from blow room to ring spinning, the ony Nodal Centre for Upgradation of Textile Education NCUTE |216 Advances in Technology of Yarn Production number of production positions required to balance 500 kg/h of blow room production would be as shown below (Table 1). Table 1, Number of production position required to balance one blow room production Machine Production per position No. of Production ns required Blow room Tn 1 Card ny ei 2 Drawframe 90 kg/h 6 Speed frame 450 g/splch 1150 Ring frame 27 g/splh 18,000 Therefore more number of units will be required if autolevellers are placed towards the end of the process i.e. speed frame or ring frame. Locating them in blow room (at lap formation stage) is also not feasible as control of ultra short term variation will be required to control yarn count variation since draft between lap to yarn formation is to the order of 4,60,000 to 36,00,000 considering two draw frame passages. Assuming one to one correspondence one can say one inch of lap will form 12 to 94 km of yarn or 100 m of yarn would mean fraction of an inch of lap. To design an autoleveller to control such short length of lap would need a very fast response action which may not be technically feasible. From the response characteristics of sensors developed, it becomes more appropriate to place them on card or drawframe. The choice between card or drawframe depends upon the spinning line and quality demanded. If one goes by number more will be required if one choose card than drawframe. 3. Classification The autolevellers are classified on the basis of «Spectrum of length variation it controls (i.e. short, medium, or long term) # Principle of operation (ie. open, closed or mixed loop) 3.1. Length variation Based on the control inertial range of the autoleveller which is dependent on the design of control system, the variation spectra has been divided into following. Short term 0.25-25m Medium term 25-25m Long term 25-250 m Very long term >250 m Today, with the improvement in the design of sensor with faster response, the short term levelling is effective upto 3 cm of sliver length. One must also be aware that short term autolevellers are capable of evening out the complete variance length spectrum that includ medium and long term variations. Medium term autolevellers are effective on medium and Nodal Centre for Upgradation of Textile EducationAutoleveller in Draw-Frame 217 Jong term variation, whereas long term autolevellers are effective only on long term variation, the short and medium term variations are left unattended. 3.2 Principle of operation wo basic design principles exist known as open loop and closed loop. However there exist many autolevellers where both the principles are used to control the entire mass variation spectra. 3.2.1 Open loop system : In an open loop system, the sensing point is located behind the controlling point. The sensor generates electrical signal which corresponds to the actual value of the parameter (i.e. sliver thickness) to be controlled. The measured signal is transmitted to a regulator which ‘compares it with a reference value in order to estimate the deviation from it. If the deviation exceeds the tolerable limit, the difference signal is amplified and after a necessary delay is. fed to an actuator which converts the signal into mechanical adjustment. As the controlling point is situated infront of sensing point, a suitable ‘delay’ is required to hold back the signal before the actuator is made to effect a change at the controlling point. This is to ensure the arrival of the defective material at the controlling point. The delay could depend upon the flow velocity of material and distance between sensing and controlling int. : The only serious drawback is that there is no self monitoring to check whether the effect brought in is giving right result or not. 3.2.2 Closed loop system In this case, the sensing point is usually located in front of the controlling point. The electrical signal emanating from the sensing point is integrated or averaged and compared with reference value. The difference signal is amplified and fed to an actuator to bring necessary adjustment of speed. The sensing point being in front of the controlling point it can self monitor the change it brings in so as to ensure that appropriate correction is made. The sensed material however leaves the corrective point by the time correction is initiated. Hence the correction remains ineffective on this part of the material. Further, when corrective is initiated, the material at that moment at control point may even be normal but gets corrected unnecessarily to an incorrect level. Similarly if the material being sensed and the incoming one at the control point are opposite in nature ie. thick - thin, or thin-thick, then because of control action, the thin portion becomes thinner or thick portion become thicker and thus it may worsen the situation. Therefore, principally it is not suitable for controlling short term error. The system can only work faithfully provided the incoming sliver irregularity follows the same nature as that of the one being sensed and hence suitable for long-term variation. 4. Autoleveller drawframe Adrawframe can be fitted with an autoleveller to control short and medium term variation. The principle on which it would work could be open loop, closed loop or combined loop. The production speed of a draw frame is pretty high. The response characteristics of the - e Nodal Centre for Upgradation of Textile Education218 Advances in Technology of Yarn Production ‘tterm : short sensor and inetta of the whole regulating drive system earlier did not allow YI censor control to be exercised even with open loop principle. Today with the develoP™ET non and actuator design, the correction length has been brought down to 3cm 7. Tength lies the operating speed. For system designed on closed loop principle, the Creag ‘or 10-20 between 5-10 m of sliver length (when correction is initiated = ‘main draft zor sliver length (when correction is initiated in break draft zone). se aiown ‘A schematic view of an autoleveller used Rieter (RSB-1) high speed draw frame, 16 in Fig. 1. Dalvery rater Levelled draw frame silver D> Delivery scanning roller Middleroller ‘Scanning roller ‘Signal Planetary converter yeat Sliver monitor Seno rive, Electronic memory ‘Setpoint stage Fig. 1. Autoleveller used on Rieter drawframe (RSB-1) The thickness of the entering sliver is continuously monitored at the machine entrance, by a pair of sensing rollers. One of the two rollers is movable and get deflected to a varying extent depending upon the variation in sliver thickness. These movements converted into electrical signal is stored into a memory. After suitable delay, the signal is sent for comparison with reference value already set and depending upon the nature (i.e. positive or negative) and extent of deviation, a draft change is initiated in the main draft field by altering the speed of the middle roller via a planetory gear train connected to a servo motor. The speed of feed roller and sensing rollers are also changed proportionately so that draft or tension in break draft zone and between sensing and feed roller do not get changed. The system thus ensures constant delivery speed. The autoleveller therefore works mainly on the principle of ‘open loop’ system. A ssystem based on only open loop principle has the potential limitation of not being able to detect a slow shift in mean value of sliver count and this necessitates to have a system that works on the principle of both ‘open and closed loop’ principle. Such a system is depicted in Fig. 2. It consists of. * amedium term regulation and * a short term regulation ‘Nodal Centre for Upgradation of Textile Education «“SSC CCCCCCECES ELLAND TS o o 6 ® » » D> Autoleveller in Draw-Frame 219 Constant ve (slvery) ‘Ausiary acho measuring Variable drive (feed) om Measuring tramp 3 Differential Control drive ar Constant tacho wee tf Blecronie f— circuits a) Motor tacho me Fig. 2. Short term drawframe autoleveller ‘The medium term regulation is accomplished following closed loop control system principle where an active pneumatic measurement at the sliver output acts as a sensing point and feed roller at the draft zone acts as a controlling point to make adjustment in draft. This is complemented by a capacitative measuring system at the sliver input for short term levelling and it works on the principle of open loop control system. By combing both open and closed Toop systems, both short and medium term errors are regulated. 5. Control point Ina drawframe with two zone drafting system the control can be exercised either in the front or back zone, through adjustment of draft. Adjusting draft in front zone by regulating the speed of middle roller is preferred. This is so since draft in front zone is high and the quality ofthe sliver is les sensitive tothe change in draft in front zone. While manipulating draft in back zone, the danger of draft falling in stick-slip zone of drafting exist which may correction length of sliver becomes cause generation of additional irregularity. Further the Jonger due to draft present in front zone. In a particular zone, the draft change can be brought about by either changing feed or delivery speed. A change in delivery speed would resulta change in production, hence feed role speed is always changed. Besides, there is an Additional benefit of accelerating or decelerating lower masses at lower speed. 6. Correction length When a sudden and sustained change in mass present in feed sliver passes through an autoleveller, the fault does not get corrected to the desired set value immediately. This is mainly due to inertia of the system which does not allow the response of the regulating system to be effective instantaneously. As a result the corrected portion of the delivered ‘ii Nodal Centre for Upgradation of Textile Education NEUTE220 Advances in Technology of Yarn Production 4 nm saat pat isknown as‘cor7ect Jue is ‘correction sliver gradually returns to set value. This partially corrected ant length’ (Fig. 3) and the time that elapses to reach this set va Fig. 3. Correction length The correction length depends upon Inettia of the regulating system and hence on its design Delivery speed Draft Extent of mass variatic Sense of change of mass i.e. whether ~ Normal level to lighter side or — Lighter level to normal side, Normal level to heavier side or Heavier level to normal side. +f sec to level a certain percent increase in mass varia t V,,/min, the correction length (!) would be = 100¥e 60 tween delivery speed on correction time and length for a given design is ion of sliver from set value rit is from Ifa system takes tion of a sliver that is being delivered al The relationship be! shown in Fig. 4. Correction time is highest at any delivery speed for the situation when the incoming sliver becomes lighter from normal thickness. A schematic representation of step change in mass of the sliver ig shown in Fig, 5. The associated change in draft and speed of roller required to correct such faults is also depicted in the same Fig. 4. To correct a change in mass from normal to lighter, acceleration of middle roller would be needed to reduce draft. Whereas going from lighter to normal would need deceleration to increase draft since the material Pes Lecome thicker. Acceleration process will take more time than deceleration, hence correction time will be more for normal to lighter situation. Now when sliver weight changes fro1 normal to heavier, draft needs to be increased which in turn would need slowing down e decelerating) middle roller speed. However when sliver starts becoming normal from hanes Graft needs to be decreased, which means enhancing (accelerating) speed of middle roller. In LN NEUE Nodal Centre for Upgradation of Textile EducationSee Cee eee ELL ELL LL pores Autoleveller in Draw-Frame 221 20 —»-25% Fa Sis ptt —0% 510 é E 8 0 ) 200 «300 «= 400 500 200 «300 «= 400 500 speed (nin el poet iin} Fig. 4. Relation between delivery speed and correction time and length this case deceleration from normal speed takes more time than acceleration to normal speed. Hence correction time becomes more when the sliver changes from normal to heavier side, Correction time is more when the change is towards lighter side, since in this case the speed inboth the phases i.e. acceleration and deceleration are above normal speed. The correction length is also correspondingly higher when the change in sliver weight is from normal to lighter than heavier to normal. With delivery speed, correction length also increases due to higher delivery speed and increase in correction time. 7. Testing of autoleveller 7.1 Correction of regulation The test procedure is described below «Produce 100 m of sliver with normal doubling (6 or 8) © Produce 100 m of sliver keeping one sliver off (ie. with 5 or 7 slivers) and then another 100 m with one extra sliver (ie. with 7 or 9 slivers), This will simulate a situation of light and heavy feed. + Each of the sliver produced, should be checked for count determination based on 5-10 samples If the sliver count, in the lighter and heavier feed cases do not deviate by +0.5% from the sliver hank obtained in normal doubling, levelling is correct. If not, adjustment would be required and carried out as per manufacturers instruction. 7.2 Under/over correction Following the same procedure, as stated in earlier section, determine average sliver count. The sliver count produced during normal, lighter and heavier feed should be compared. For over and under correction following result is expected. ‘Nodal Centre for Upgradation of Textile Education fox222 Advances in Technology of Yarn Production Normal Mass = | © Normal 6 Bn ‘Accleration Decolaration Decetaration, Accleration Fig. 5. Step change in mass unit length of sliver and corresponding changes required in draft and speed of roller Over correction < Under correction < cur dD ef . Delivered sliver with 5 or 7 doubling is heavier than normal sliver with 6 or 8 doublings Delivered sliver with 7 or 9 doubling is lighter than that with normal doubling Delivered sliver with 5 or 7 doubling is heavier than that with normal doubling. Delivered sliver with 5 or 7 doubling is lighter th sliver with 6 or 9 doublings : ca. ‘Nodal Centre for Upgradation of Textile EducationFRU e eee ee eee Autoleveller in Draw-Frav ‘Adjustment would be required as per the manufacturer's recommendation if the deviation ‘exceeds more than + 0.5%. 7.3 Correction time Feed one metre of extra sliver with tapered end in the feed direction along with rest of the slivers. Produce a sliver and take its mass spectra by Uster evenness tester. The three possible Situations are indicated in the Fig. 6. Figure 6(a) shows correct timing. Figure (b) shows late ‘vhereas Fig. 6(C) shows early timing. The reason for such behaviour could be that the ‘delay’ tesential for the autoleveller working on open loop principle is incorrectly set. It has to be adjusted. An incorrect leveling start will lead to sliver joints with long wave, whereas with correct levelling timing, a short wave deviation of #!/p sliver thickness would occur. lnvegularity % een \\ -25% shes 7 Sine é Shes leregulaity % + 25% Running direction through machine —> Irregularity % +25% 25% 7 slivers 6 Silvers Mass spectra of sliver by Uster evenness tester rst tr eerneeere ee peeeeeeeeee——— [Nodal Centre for Upgradation of Textile Education NEUTE224 Advances in Technology of Yarn Production 7.4 Efficacy of levelling can filling. ling. Collect following pieces of sliver from a can from five different stages of can * 10 pieces of 2 m long at any can filling stage 10 pieces of 3 m long at any can filling stage 10 pieces of 5 m long at any can filling stage Weigh these samples ie. 50 samples of 2 m, 3 m and 5m each. Calculate C Levelling action would be considered good if CV% 5m 0.6% CV% 3 mS 0.7% CV% 2m $ 0.8% -y% of their weight If the values are more, carry out correctness of regulation check and go for adjustment as per the manufacturers recommendation. 8. Location of autoleveller at drawing stage During spinning, the card sliver undergoes two drawframe passages most of the time. Between i able for autoleveller? Generally breaker and finisher drawing stage, which one will be more suit speaking it will be more appropriate to have an autoleveller atthe finish stage due to following reasons: ~ All prior sliver irregularities will be evident at the last passage = Doubling prior to levelling at breaker stage would already reduce irregularities to some extent, Hence less levelling work will be needed i.e. burden on autoleveller will be less and it will work more efficiently. ~ All faulty sliver placement even in the last draft passage will be levelled 9. Auto leveller location in spinning line. Some examples of location of autoleveller on card or drawframe is depicted in Figs. 7-10 Card (chute feed with medium cone to long term autcleveller) Breaker draw frame Breaker draw frame : I Draw frame (finisher) Sib hort farm Finisher draw frame with short term autoleveller (short) autoleveller co] Ring spinning Fig. 7. Autoleveller in carded yarn production line D ‘Nodal Centre for Upgradation of Textile Education mi : 2 (|Autoleveller in Draw-Frame Finer rotor yarn Coarse rotor Rotor yarn from 215 Ne yam 15°Ne rotor yarn, two passages on drawframe is essential. A short term autoleveller at finisher drawframe stage is suggested. 9.3 Ring spun blended yarn ‘The blended yarn could be of two varieties: carded blended yarn or combed blended yarn (Figs 9 and 10). For carded blend autoleveller card should be used for both the components fo ensure precision blend ratio. After blending two draw frame passages are given. A short term autoleveller could be used at the last drawframe passage. However as per authors’ experience for polyester /cotton blend autoleveller at drawframe does not bring out significant improvement. For high quality drawframe blended combed yarn, a short term autoleveller is essential for cotton component. This helps in producing an even lap for combing and theref significantly improve combing performance. For maintaining precision blend ratio, the man. made fibre component also needs tobe autolevelled. A short term autoleveller at draw frames stage prior to blending would serve the purpose. As combed cotton shows piecing waves, « SUT Nodal Conte for Upgradation of Textile EducationAutoleveller in Draw-Frame further autoleveller would be needed at the post combing stage. It is more appropriate to have a short term autoleveller at finisher draw frame stage, since all earlier errors will get evened out 9.4. Ring spun combed yarn In the production of combed cotton yarn two things are important for over-all yarn quality and process performance. These are production of = Uniform lap and = Uniform combed sliver ‘To ensure production of uniform lap, a short term autoleveller is to be integrated with card to produce uniform card sliver. Combing results in piecing wave which is periodic in nature. The irregularity thus generated can not be totally eliminated by doubling subsequently. The wavelength of this variation at the input to the following drawframe would be 12 cm long with a doubling of 4 at the comber. With todays autoleveller drawframe, which is capable of regulating variation upto 3 cm, one such drawfame at the post comb stage will be able to supress the variation (Fig, 11). Two drawframe passages may not be necessary. Card autoleveller (ST) I ‘Combing preparation Comber Drawframe autolevaller (ST) Ring spinning *ST Ghort term) Fig. 11. Autoleveller in combed yarn production line 10. A comparison between autolevelled and nonautolevelled yarn An experiment was conducted to study the influence of autolevelling on yarn quality. The yarn count was 32°Ne carded. The material was processed by the same sequence of machine keeping exactly same process parameters, The only difference being in one case the autoleveller attached to the drawftame was switched off. It led to the production of autolevelled and nonautolevelled yarn. The processing line had chute feed cards equipped with long term autoleveller. The results are shown in Table 2. Gan Nodal Conte for Upgradation of Tete Education REREE228 Advances in Technology of Yarn Production _ m cut One can identify an improvement in count CV% and variation in 1 my 3 ™ Seat an length. Rest of the yarn parameters shown in Table 2 improve marginally. TW ooo improvement in long thin places faults i.e TD,, Hy, Hz and hy, I; is also expected. also lead to significant reduction in winding breaks subsequently. Table 2. Quality of autolevelled and nonautolevelled yar Yarn Evenness Count CVm CVm CV Thin place/km ‘Thick place/km quality CV% (im) @m) (0m) ‘Type of yarn 40% 50% 435% 450% Non H7L 172 462 372 |. SOL. 168 p) 999 191 autolevelled yarn Autolevelled 11.38 13 38 31 27 136 2 10 12 yarn 11. How autolevelling performance gets negatively affected 1. Improper settings of autolevellers and large setting differences between autolevellers running on same mixing. If setting adjustment is required this should be practised on all the autolevellers together. Moisture content variation in part of the batch may lead to differential response especially with capacitating type of sensors used in autolevellers. Blend level variation in pre carded blended material may also lead to variation in response of the sensors leading to introduction of weight variation by the autoleveller itself. 4. Draft difference between autoleveller drawframer running on same mixing is also a disturbing factor. Variation of fibre density and fibre fineness also leads to different response by the sensors. Hence attaining mixing homogeneity in the blow room is also important. References 1. W. Klein, A. Practical Guide to Combing and Drawing, Textile Institute, Vol. 3, (1987). 2. Uster News Bulletin. No. 30/ Aug. 1982. 3. W. Friebel, and B., Wulfhorst, ‘New Regulating Concept for Short Staple Spinning’ Melli and Textile Berichte No. 2, p. 91-96 (1985). 4. On line Quality Control in Spinning and Weaving. Textile Progress Vol 17, No 1/2. 5. PR. Lord., WC. Sticky, and A.A. Marathe, ‘Continuous Quality Control in Modern Yarn Production’ Computers in the world of Textiles, The Textile Institute, Manchester, 1984, p.226. 6. Operation Manual, Rieter Spinning System, Drawframe RSB 1.