Chapter 04

Drawframe
Introduction:

From a purely commercial viewpoint the drawframe is of little significance – it usually

contributes less than 3% to the production costs of the yarn. However, its influence on quality,
especially yarn evenness, is all the greater for this. Furthermore, if the drawframe is not properly
adjusted, yarn strength and elongation will also be affected.

Tasks of Draw Frame:

Equalizing:

One of the main tasks of the drawframe is improving evenness over the short, medium and –
especially – long term. Card slivers fed to the drawframe have a degree of unevenness that
cannot be tolerated in practice, and slivers from the comber contain the „infamous“ piecings;
these must be obscured. It should be noted, however, that short-wave sliver evenness is not – as
sometimes assumed – the sole criterion for evaluating the performance of the drawframe. It is
true, for example, that unevenness over short lengths can be noticeably reduced, e.g. by very
narrow setting of the rollers of the drafting arrangement, but this is often associated with
deterioration in other quality parameters of the yarn, particularly strength.

Parallelizing:

To obtain an optimal value for strength in the yarn characteristics, the fibers must be arranged
parallel in the fiber strand. It is mainly the drawframe‘s task to create this parallel arrangement. It
fulfills this task by means of the draft, since every drafting step leads to straightening of the
fibers. The value of the draft must be adapted to the material, i.e. to several fiber parameters,
mainly:

 the staple length;

 the mass of the fibers;
 the volume of the strand;

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 the degree of order (parallel disposition).
It will be clear that the draft cannot be high on a machine directly following the card (if possible,
not above 8), but thereafter can increase from machine to machine.

Blending:

In addition to the equalizing effect, doubling also provides a degree of compensation of raw
material variations by blending, which occurs simultaneously. This result is exploited in
particular in the production of blended yarns comprising cotton/synthetic or synthetic/synthetic
blends. At the drawframe, metering of the individual components can be carried out very simply
by selection of the number of slivers entering the machine. For example, to obtain a 67: 33 blend,
four slivers of one component and two of the other are fed to the drawframe. Of course, these
slivers must have the same hank.

Dust Removal:

Dust is steadily becoming a greater problem both in processing and for the personnel involved. It
is therefore important to remove dust to the greatest practical extent at every possible point
within the overall process. Unfortunately, dust removal can only be carried out to a significant
degree when there are high levels of fiber/fiber or fiber/metal friction, since a large proportion of
these very small particles (dust) adhere relatively strongly to the fibers. Such friction arises
especially on the card and the drawframe; in the latter case, mainly owing to the drafting
operation. The drawframe is therefore a good dust-removing machine. On high-performance
drawframes equipped with appropriate suction systems, more than 80% of the incoming dust is
extracted.

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Operating Principle:

Figure 1: Sectional view of a drawframe

Four to eight card or drawframe slivers (see Fig. 1) are fed to the drafting arrangement (3). A
feed roller pair (2) is located above each can (1) to enable the feeding step to be performed in a
controlled manner without false drafts. In some cases (seldom) a simple deflection bar is
sufficient. The feed roller pairs are mounted in a creel frame or table and each is positively
driven. The slivers running into the drafting arrangement leave it, after a draft of 4 to 8, as a web
lacking significant cohesion. In order to avoid disintegration of the web, which would otherwise
be unavoidable at the high operating speeds currently in use, it is condensed into a sliver
immediately after the drafting arrangement. This sliver is then (for example in some makes)
guided through a tube (4) via a passage (6) of the tube gear into a can (7), in which it must be
laid in clean coils with optimal utilization of the space in the can. To enable the can to take up as
much material as possible, the sliver is compressed by passing it through calendering rollers (or
discs) or grooved discs (5).

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 Drawing: A process in short-staple spinning in which the slivers are blended, doubled, leveled
and drafted by passing the slivers through a series of pair of rollers each roller moves faster than
the previous one.

Doubling: The process of combining two or more laps, slivers, rovings or yarns into one. This
term is not restricted to the combination of two units only.

Drafting: The action of reducing the thickness or linear density of the feed material by drawing
is known as drafting. The feed material may be sliver, lap, roving etc.

Operating Device:

Creel (Sliver feed):

In particular, the creel must be designed so that:

 false drafts are avoided;

 the machine stops immediately when a sliver break occurs;
 sliver breaks can be dealt with easily, comfortably and safely.

Requirements:

The drafting arrangement is the heart of the draw frame and thus the part which exerts the most
decisive influence on quality. The requirements placed on the drafting arrangement in general are
correspondingly high:

 simple, uncomplicated construction;

 stable design with smooth running of the rollers ;
 a mode of operation producing a high-quality product even at high running speeds;
 high degree of flexibility, i.e. suitability for all raw materials, fiber lengths, sliver hanks, etc.,
that might be processed in the short staple spinning mill;
 optimal control over the movement of the fibers during the drafting operation;
 high precision of both operation and adjustment;
 rapid and simple adjustability of roller spacings and draft levels;

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 ease of maintenance and cleaning;
 optimal ergonomic design.

Basic Principle of Roller Drafting:

The basic idea of roller drafting is an extremely simple one. It is that if a sliver is first passed
through the nip of one pair of revolving say, six time as fast as the first, the issuing sliver must be
six times as long and six times as thin. The draft in such cases would be six.

S1, S2, S3 = Roller setting> Effective length (S1> S2> S3)

Figure 2: Principles of roller drafting system

V1, V2, V3 and V4 = Surface speed of the back, middles and front roller
𝑉2 𝑉3 𝑉4
Individual drafts = 𝑉1, 𝑉2, 𝑉3

𝑉2 𝑉3 𝑉4 𝑉4 𝑆𝑢𝑟𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑟𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑟

Total Draft = 𝑉1 × 𝑉2 × 𝑉3 = 𝑉1 = 𝑆𝑢𝑟𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑟𝑜𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑟

Influence on the draft:

In all types of drafting arrangement, the factors that affect the draft are:

Factors dependent upon the fiber material:

 mass of fiber in the strand cross section;
 degree of order of the fibers (parallel disposition);

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 shape of the cross section of the fiber strand;
 compactness of the fiber strand;
 adhesion between the fibers dependent upon
o surface structure,
o crimp,
o spin finish,
o compression of the strand;
 fiber length;
 evenness of distribution of fiber lengths (staple form);
 existing twist in the fiber strand.

Factors dependent upon the drafting arrangement:

 diameter of the rollers;

 hardness of the top rollers;
 pressure exerted by the top rollers;
 surface characteristics of the top rollers;
 fluting of the bottom rollers;
 type and form of fiber guiding devices, such as pressure rods, aprons, condenser etc.;
 clamping distances (roller settings);
 level of draft;
 distribution of draft between the various drafting zones.

Elements of drafting arrangements in short staple spinning generally:

i. Top Rollers
ii. Bottom Rollers
iii. Top Roller Pressure

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 Top Rollers:

The top rollers are not positively driven. They can be either one-piece rollers (spinning
preparation machines) or twin rollers ( roving frames, ring spinning machines). Ball bearings are
used almost exclusively in the roller mountings. The thick coating forming the roller surface is
made of synthetic rubber. An important characteristic of this coating is its hardness. Soft coats
surround the fiber strand to a greater extent than harder ones and thus guide the fibers better. On
the other hand, they wear out more quickly. A soft coating is therefore used where good
guidance is necessary, i.e. where few fibers have to be moved with high draft levels (e.g. at the
front rollers of the ring spinning machine). Where this is not required, harder coatings are mostly
used. Hardness is specified in terms of degrees Shore. The following ranges are defined:
 soft: 65° - 75° Shore
 medium: 75° - 80° Shore
 hard: above 80° Shore
Normally the diameters of top rollers are between 25 and 40 mm.

Maintenance of the top rollers:

Since the coatings wear out during spinning, they must be reground from time to time. This is
done periodically in accordance with a predetermined schedule, using grinding discs or rollers
that remove material from the coating in very, very small layers.
If the thickness of the coating has been reduced to a defined minimum, i.e. if it has become too
thin to provide adequate elasticity under pressure, then the old coat must be removed and a
replacement must be glued onto the core.

Top Roller Pressure:

To clamp the fibers, the top rollers must be forced at high pressure toward the bottom rollers.
This pressure (loading) can be generated by means of:

 Loading by means of dead weight (now obsolete)

 spring weighting (the most usual form);

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  pneumatic weighting (Rieter);
 hydraulic systems (hardly used);
 magnetic weighting (was used by the former Saco Lowell company).

Nowadays only spring weighting and pneumatic weighting are used. The first is very
uncomplicated, robust and easy to handle when dealing with machine faults; the second is in
some cases more regular, and allows easy and quick changes of roller weighting exactly
according to requirements as well as partial unloading during longer machine stoppages. It also
avoids the need to adjust the weighting to a new roller diameter after roller grinding, which is
sometimes necessary for spring weighted systems.

Figure 3: Top roller

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 Bottom Rollers:

Figure 4: Fluting of the bottom rollers; a) axial flutes, b) inclined flutes (spiral flutes), c) Knurled
fluting

Bottom rollers are made of steel and are mounted in roller stands or in the frame by means of
needle, roller or ball bearings. They are positively driven from the main gear transmission or by a
separate drive. In order to improve their ability to carry the fibers along, they are formed with
flutes of one of the following types (see Fig. 4):

 axial flutes (a),

 inclined flutes (spiral flutes) (b),
 knurled fluting (c).

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Knurled fluting is used on rollers receiving aprons, to improve transfer of drive to the aprons.
Other rollers have axial or, increasingly, spiral fluting. The latter gives quieter running and more
even clamping of the fibers compared with axial fluting. Rolling of the top rollers on spiral flutes
takes place in a more even manner and with less jerking. The diameter of the bottom rollers can
lie in the range of 20 - 90 mm, but normally diameters between 25 and 50 mm are used. A
drafting arrangement includes three to six such rollers. In long machines (e.g. ring spinning
machines) the bottom rollers are made up by screwing together short lengths. Distances between
the rollers of the drafting arrangement are usually adjustable and can then be adapted to the fiber
lengths.

Types of Drafting arrangement used on drawframes:

Forms of drafting arrangement Processing is carried out almost exclusively in two drafting
zones. In extreme cases the break drafts lie between 1.05 and 2.5, but usually they are between
1.25 and 1.8. Extreme total drafts lie between 3.5 and 12 but the normal total draft lies between 5
to 8. In many modern drawframes the draft is no longer adjusted by exchanging gear wheels but
by simple setting of variator or stepping drives. The adjustment may be continuous or discrete
steps.

i. Conventional 4 over 4 roller drafting systems

ii. 3-over- 4 roller drafting arrangement
iii. 3-over- 3 roller drafting with pressure bars
iv. 4-over- 3 roller drafting with pressure bars
v. 5-over- 4 roller drafting arrangements

Suction systems for the drafting arrangement:

One of the tasks of the drawframe is dust removal. Release of dust occurs almost exclusively in
the drafting arrangement and this should be totally enclosed so that dust does not pass into the
surrounding atmosphere. The dust-laden air must be extracted by suction (as shown in Fig. 5 for
the Rieter machine). Each roller of the arrangement has an associated cleaning device (scraping
bar and suction tube) so that fly and fibers tending to adhere to the rollers can also be carried

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away. In addition, on the Rieter drawframe the scraping bars are lifted from the top rollers
intermittently. Trash collections therefore pass into the dust removal system. The air extracted is
passed via tubes directly to filters within the machine and then into the exhaust ducts of the air-
conditioning system or directly into those ducts. Filters within the machine are cleaned manually
or by a wiper. This latter arrangement has the advantage not only of easier handling but also of
constant suction pressure, resulting in constant cleaning efficiency.

Figure 5: 4-over-3 drafting arrangement with suction system

Roller Setting: In a draw frame it is necessary to space the rollers a certain distance apart. The
distance from the centre of one roller to the centre of another is known as the Roller setting.

Principle of roller setting:

i. Longer staple length wider setting and vice-versa.

ii. Bulk of the material- Higher the bulk of the material wider the setting and reduce
gradually

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iii. Speed of the drafting elements- higher the speed wider will be the setting though
same draft is used.
iv. Degree of compactness- Higher the degree of compactness wider the setting.
v. Fiber surface character- For harsh or rough type of cotton setting will be higher as
they do not pass easily.
vi. Type of roller- For the same cotton and same condition wider setting is used for
metallic roller than rubber coated roller.
vii. Amount of draft already done- Increased gradually due to fiber parallelization.

Factors in determination of roller setting:

i. The staple length of the cotton: The roller setting must e slightly greater
than the staple length of cotton so that fibers are not griped by two pairs of
rollers at the same time. If this is not done, the fiber will break down.
Approximate setting for the four-roll drafting system recommended by the
Shirley institute for cotton are as follows:
3 4
Front zone= Effective length + 16 𝑡𝑜 16 𝑖𝑛𝑐ℎ
6 7
Middle zone= Effective length + 16 𝑡𝑜 16 𝑖𝑛𝑐ℎ
10 11
Back zone= Effective length + 16 𝑡𝑜 16 𝑖𝑛𝑐ℎ

ii. The bulk of the material being fed: If the bulk of the material is increased
for the same staple length the distance must be increased. Otherwise the
frictional resistance to drafting known as the drafting force may become too
high. This would cause the top rollers to slip and introduce irregular.

iii. Frictional Properties: If the frictional properties of the fibres are higher for
the same staple length and bulk the roller setting may need to be increased for
the same reason as at (ii).

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 iv. Draft Used: Roller setting is also influenced by the amount of draft already
given. If there is higher draft the setting should be closer but if there is lower
draft the setting may be wider.

Besides these the setting also depends on

a. Roller diameter = If the diameter is increased the area of contact and control is increased
hence little wider setting is necessary.
b. Fiber surface chateristics
c. Type of roller etc.

Drafting Wave: The irregular motion of short fibers, wave like formation in the sliver between
pairs of roller is called Drafting Wave. The main causes of Drafting Wave are:

 Short fiber.

 Nip to nip distance is greater then fiber length.

 Wider roller setting.

 High percentage of short fiber.

 The size of the draft

 Multiple inputs or doubling

 Roller and drafting zone setting

 The degree of parallelism, length and fineness of fibers in the input material
 The count of the input material

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Distance between two rollers that is Roller setting:

Roller slip: If the top and bottom rollers are not in contact with one another but are separated
by the thickness of the sliver the top roller is therefore driven by the bottom one through the
cotton if the top roller is properly set up it turns freely in its bearing and its surface speed is
same as that of the sliver. The slip therefore occurs between the bottom roller and slivers.
When the friction between the rollers and the cotton is insufficient to draft the slivers in the
middle zone.The sliver slip backwards on the bottom roller and consequently all the slivers and
the top roller move at a lower speed than the bottom roller. This kind of slip is called roller
slip.

Factors that affect the roller slip:

i. Bulk of the fibres

ii. Nature of the fibres
iii. Centre to centre distance of two pair of rollers
iv. Degree of orientation of the fibres in the material
v. The amount of draft between the two pairs
vi. Condition of the rollers including hardness of top synthetic covering
vii. Speed with which the drafting is taking place
viii. Amount of weighing on the top rollers

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Reason of roller slip:

i. If the top and bottom rollers are not in contact

ii. When the friction between top and bottom rollers and the cotton is insufficient to
draft the slivers
iii. This effect is most pronounced when the parallelism of fibres has not been achieved
at the first and second drawframe
iv. It is also most pronounced for coarse slivers, say for those coarser than 0.17 Ne hank,
because the bulk material between the rollers is too great for the fibres to be drawn
forward by the rollers
v. Irregular motion of the second top roller which is on by the two major drafting forces
of varying magnitude in the second zone

Autoleveller

Definition: Autoleveller is an additional device which is meant for correcting the linear density
variations in the delivered sliver by changing the draft of the drafting system, according to the
feed variation.

Reasons for sliver hank variation in the spinning preparation process are:

 The most important reason is the irregularity of the card feed material
 Drafting waves in the drawing process
 Periodic variations due to defective rotational parts in the machines
 Incorrect drafts
 Missing sliver in the drawframe feed material (very low possibility in modern D/F)

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Effect of doubling and drafting on sliver irregularity:
In the spinning preparation, correction of these variations is normally undertaken by equalizing
or levelling or averaging effect through doubling at the draw frame. There is only a small
possibility that all thin places, and separately, all thick places of slivers will coincide during
doubling. Rather, they will tend to be distributed and hence to compensate each other. However,
doubling has some limitations:

Fig.6: Equalizing effect by doubling

i) Doubling can average out only short-to-medium term variations, not

long-term variations.
ii) Doubling cannot correct periodic variations when repeatedly occur
side by side.
iii) Doubling can only reduce the coefficient of variation value of any
occurring variation by the root of the total number of doublings. At the
input to the drawframe, the following law of doublings can be applied:

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17
However, the doubling of fibre assemblies is undertaken primarily to introduce some
parallelization between the fibres and to achieve good count constancy between bobbins. It
offers, however, no possibility of drastically reducing the CVm value.

Autoleveller to minimize count variation of yarn

Object / Purpose: The reason for the application of autolevellers at cards and draw frames is to
maintain the absolute sliver fineness that ultimately reduces count variation in the yarn to such
an extent that it cannot negatively affect the appearance of the finished product. The alternative
names for auotoleveling include: autoregulator, leveler, draft-o-matic, servo-drafter etc.

Function: An autoleveller measures the sliver thickness variations and then continuously alters
the draft by servo-controlled drafting system so that more draft is applied to the thick places, and
less draft to thin places with the result that the sliver delivered becomes more uniform. Besides
an improvement in product appearance, autoleveling can also contribute to better productive
efficiency, fewer end-breakages in subsequent processes, less waste, and constant process
condition.

Classification: Autoleveller may be classified into three main groups according to the basic
principle of operation:
a. Open loop;

b. Closed loop and

c. Combined loop (use of two or more separate control loops to correct a single process).

Open Loop Autolevellers:

Feature: The open loop control principle can be used for the correction of fairly short-term
variations. It is represented in Figure, where the solid lines indicate the flow of fibres through the
machine, and the broken lines represent the flow of information in the autoleveller unit. The
control unit compares the measurement signal with the reference signal (mean output count
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required). The control unit accordingly increases, leaves unaltered, or decreases the speed to the
back or front rollers of the process to give the required draft just when the measured material has
reached the point at which draft is applied.

Fig. 7: Schematic diagram of open loop control system.

Most of the autoleveller drawframes are working on the principle of OPEN LOOP control
system.

Closed Loop Autolevellers:

This system is used for the correction of long-term and medium-term variations. The control unit
compares the measurement signal with the reference signal and then determines the output of the
regulator which provides the variable speed to the process to give the required draft.

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 Fig .8: Schematic diagram of closed loop control system.

Most of the earlier card autolevellers are closed loop autolevellers. But the latest cards have
sensing at the feed rollers and as well as at the delivery calendar rollers. Hence, both closed loop
and open loop systems are being used in such autolevellers.

Scanning the mass of infeed slivers:

Figure 9: RSB leveling principle

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 Figure 10: The Scanning System

Scanning of mass deviation is performed by the grooved scanning disc and the associated
pressure disc (Fig. 9; Fig. 10). The signals are scanned at short, constant intervals, giving very
exact values of the mass deviations of the infeed slivers. Determination of mass deviation by the
pair of rotating scanning discs of the Rieter RSB scanning system is almost frictionless, thereby
enabling the sensor device to employ high working forces, and thus to scan slivers with different
bulk very accurately. This is especially advantageous if the individual cans (6 to 8) of infeed
sliver are stored for different lengths of time before use. In this case the volume ratio of slivers
often differs quite characteristically from can to can.
The leveling process:

Using the metered signals, the leveling processor calculates a value of rotation – on the basis of a
special logarithm – for the servo drive. This value is forwarded to the drafting system drive
exactly when the scanned sliver piece arrives at the drafting point in the main draft zone. The
synchronization of the mechanical parts, the drive, the electronics and the software is therefore
very decisive. High-performance drawframes with the appropriate devices and corresponding
synchronization deliver a sliver with outstanding short-term, medium-term and long-term
evenness.

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Advantages of using autoleveller:
 All kind of variations (short-, medium- and long-term) are corrected.
 Count CV% of yarn will be consistent throughout the lot that is a vital factor especially in
knitting.
 Less thin- and thick places in the sliver as well as in the yarn, so strength CV will be low.
 Ring frame breaks will come down, hence

 Low number of piecing that results low number of cut in yarn clearer at winding machine
 Pneumafil waste in the spinning machines will be less
 Fluff in the spinning section will be less, therefore yarn clearer cuts in winding machine
will be less
 Labour productivity and machine productivity will be more
 High workability in warping, sizing, and weaving,
 Good fabric quality because of lower number of thick/thin and fluff in the yarn

Technical data of a high-performance drawframe:

i.Delivery speed [m/min]: up to 1 100

ii. Production per delivery [kg/h]: up to 400
iii. Deliveries per machine: 1 or 2
iv. Doublings: 4 to 8
v. Draft: up to 12
vi. Delivery hank [ktex]: 1.25 to 7
vii. Waste [%]: 0.1 to 1

viii. Pneumatic roller pressure

ix. Sliver quality monitoring system

x. Can linking system

xi. Doffing automatically

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 Causes of Draw Frame efficiency loss:

i. Roller lapping.
ii. Sliver breakage.
iii. Doffing.
iv. Schedule maintenance.
v. Quality test.

𝐷𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑙 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑘

i. Actual Draft = × 𝑁𝑜. 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑜𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 [𝐼𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚]
𝐹𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑙 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑘
𝐹𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑙 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑘
ii. Actual Draft = 𝐷𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑎𝑙 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑘 × 𝑁𝑜. 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑜𝑢𝑏𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 [𝐷𝑖𝑟𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑠𝑦𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑚]
𝐷𝑟𝑎𝑓𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 (𝐷𝐶)
iii. Mechanical Draft = 𝐷𝑟𝑎𝑓𝑡 𝐶ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒 𝑃𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑜𝑛 (𝐷𝐶𝑃)

Problem-01: Input and output sliver grain/yard are 75, 77 and doubling is 8. Find out the back
zone draft of that drawframe if front zone draft is 4 and wastage percentage is 0.5.

Problem-02: Find out the production in ld/shift of draw frame from the following data:

Delivery roller speed : 600 m/minute; Doubling- 8:1; draft: 8; feed sliver weight: 60 grains/yard;
no. of drawframe:4, no. of delivery per frame:2, efficiency:90%.

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