YarnMaster Zenit

Today, a textile spinner needs to manufacture yarn to precisely meet the quality specifications and the laboratory equipment available in a mill should be capable of providing complete information on the material tested accurately and quickly. In case of fibre testing where the requirement is to test all the properties on each and every bale, Premier introduced two radically innovative equipment for fibre and yarn testing at ITMA, Birmingham.

aQura - Raw Material & Process Management System

The aQura provides the most reliable and accurate measurement of neps and short fibre content. With a statistically significant sample size of 5 to 10 g, the nep measurement provides results which are very stable and statistically reliable. The equipment provides nep results with a very low variability. Information on neps include classification based on size and categorisation into seed coat neps and fibre neps. The aQura comes with an optional add on module for determination of the short fibre content precisely based on the classical comb sorter methodology.

Raw Material and Process Management System

Conventional techniques for the measurement of neps and short fibre content are not accurate enough. The available nep measurement techniques use too small a sample size of about half a gram, which is statistically insignificant particularly when the incidence of neps is very low as in comber sliver. For the short fibre content, the manual comb sorter methods provided the relatively better estimate but they are too time consuming and subject to operator influences. The Short Fibre Index (SFI) provided by the high volume instrument is not a direct measurement but only an estimate (index).

In the Premier aQura, a patented high speed AMI - Aero Mechanical Individualiser gently individualises the cotton fibre sample, which are then attenuated and presented to a LASER sensor, which counts and classifies neps. The output of the nep module is a sliver. This automatically prepared sliver is placed on the feed device of the length module. The length module then prepares an end-aligned sample in a repetitive process of clamping and removal of protruding fibre ends. The prepared end - aligned sample is then fed to the measuring device for precise length estimates.

Applications: The nep content in cotton is significantly altered when it is processes in the blow room, carding and combing processes. Precise estimates of the nep content is very useful to determine the efficiency of the process. For instance, carding performance can be assessed by estimating the nep removal efficiency.

The nep content in sliver is usually an indicator of the condition of card wires. Decisions on wire grinding/replacement can be taken by periodic inspection of nep content in the sliver.

All neps present in the raw material and at different process stages do not show up as undesirable defects in the yarn and fabric. Depending on the count of yarn, there exists a critical nep size range which affects the final yarn and fabric appearance. It is therefore important to identify neps based on its size and maintain control on the appropriate size of neps.

ategorisation of neps into seed coat and fibre neps is helpful to focus corrective action to reduce neps. For instance, a higher proportion of seed coat neps might warrant an increased removal through extracting more flat strips. On the other hand, a higher proportion of fibre neps would require corrective action through a closer setting of card components.

Premier aQura provides classification of neps in terms of size as well as categorization into seed coat and fibre neps.

Accurate measures of Short Fibre Content (SFC) and other length parameters is used for taking several process control decisions as well as in raw material purchase.

· Rational Cotton Purchase considering also the Short Fibre Content
· Optimisation of Comber Noil Extraction levels
· Optimising Combing Efficiency
· Detection and elimination of Fibre Rupture

Premier aQura measures SFC and other fibre length characteristics from an end-aligned sample most suited for actual length measures reflecting the true distribution of the length of the fibres.
The reference length for determining the short fibres can be configured by the user. This is very useful to cater to the requirements for different countries.

The Staple diagram gives an idea of the distribution of fibres at different lengths as well as the uniformity of length of the fibres.

Q QualiCenter - Yarn Quality System for sliver, roving and yarn

The new generation evenness tester from Premier - the iQ QualiCenter - goes beyond mere evenness testing and provides total quality measurement and analysis of yarn, sliver and roving.
The iQ QualiCenter has the following salient features:

a. Two independent modules for simultaneous testing of yarn and roving/sliver.
Applications: The parallel measurement of yarn and roving/sliver saves not only the test time and manpower cost but quickens the correction process.
b. Nep Classification:In addition to the 'capacitance' measured 'nep' value, the system further classifies neps into Fibre Neps and Trash Neps.
Applications: The Fibre neps, which are detrimental to the fabric quality, need more attention than the trash neps, which is predominantly the seed coat type. The seed coat neps eventually falls off during subsequent processes or dissolved in chemical processing.
So, instead of attempting to reduce the 'total neps' spinners could pay attention to fly 'Fibre Neps'.
The classification of neps also helps choosing better raw material.
c. Automatic Count determination of Yarn and Roving/Sliver.
The iQ QualiCenter provides an automatic measure of the actual count (linear density) of the yarn, roving and sliver. This is achieved by a unique cutting, transporting, weighing and disposal mechanism. Yarn, Roving and Sliver to any desired sample length can be chosen for count estimation.

Applications: This facility avoids associated problems with manual wrapping method, like unintentional stretching of material by operators and not so precise length of material cut for the measurement. This also saves significant amount of time and material.

d. Simultaneous Evaluation of Hairiness Index & Hair Count.
The system simultaneously measures 'Hairiness Index' and the 'Hair Count'. With the hair count detectors, number of hairs longer than 3mm from the core yarn insteps of 1mm is detected.
Applications: Hairiness Index provides an overall hairiness behaviour of a yarn whereas the hair count distribution helps optimising processes especially compact spun yarn, singeing process, etc.

Along with the hairiness Index, spectrogram of hairiness is also provided by the system which helps detecting periodic hairiness faults.

e. Fabric Simulation with PREMIER CYROS is a fabric simulation system which can display/print the 3D appearance of woven or knitted fabric structures. Unlike other simulations derived from mass signals, the CYROS is a more precise reproduction of the actual fabric, as it is optically measured.

With the simulations, it is possible to pick up the process and product variations early and correct them.

f. The other salient features of iQ Qualicenter include:

- Improved capacitance arrangement for more accurate evenness measurement (Measures Unevenness, Imperfections, Cut lengths CV, Spectrograms, Variance, Length Curve, Diagrams, etc.) - Spectrogram analysis software SPOT for analysing the source of deviation and identifying the machinery components responsible (with a library of over 300 gearing plans of cotton, synthetic & worsted machinery).

Fig-2: iQ QualiCenter - Yarn Quality System for Sliver, roving and yarn

These new applications out of fibre and yarn quality evaluation place the spinner in a better position to achieve the desired quality with least cost.