Latest sensor technologies in textile machineries to boost efficiency
A seminar was held on ‘Advanced Sensors and Controls Used in Textile Industry’ at Bangladesh University of Textiles on May 17, 2022 hosted and organized by the Department of Textile Machinery Design and Maintenance.
In the seminar, Volker Harmann Muller, the Sales and Service Director of PLEVA – a multinational well-known machine manufacturing company – gave an enlightening presentation on application of latest sensor technologies in textile machinery.
Among others Afzal Hossain, Managing Director, Confidence Kima Limited; Dr. Shaikh Md. Mominul Alam, Dean, Faculty of Science and Engineering, BUTEX; Tanjheel Hasan Mahdi, Asst. Professor, TMDM, BUTEX; Anupom Mondol, Asst. Professor, TMDM, BUTEX; Ariful Haque Ashik, Asst. Professor, TMDM, BUTEX; Tarik Reza Toha, Lecturer, TMDM, BUTEX were present.
The session started with the presentation of Avishek Das Gupta and Faria Tasneem. Both are a student of the 44th Batch of the Textile Machinery Design and Maintenance department. They talked about the two research papers published by the department of TMDM. After that, the main segment of the seminar began.
Volker Muller started his presentation by discussing the high-tech weft straightening system of the stenter machine. He discussed the sensors that are used to control the skewing and bowing in the fabric. Correcting the weft straightness is important as in textile processing after the stenter the fabric goes into the garment-making process. So, if the weft direction is not corrected in stenter, there is a very little option of correcting this fault further. If the buyer finds skew and bow fault in the finished garments then they might suggest two actions:
1. Propose to buy the garment with less cost which can result in financial loss
2. Send the fabric for resurrecting. Processing the fabric again in the machine may incur huge cost
In stenter, the two bend rollers is called the bowing roller. It corrects the bowing fault in the fabric. There are also three parallel rollers which are called the skew rollers. The amount of bowing and skew allowable are settled in the control panel. The bowing rollers move up or down to control the bowing of the fabric and skew rollers move forward or backward to control the skewing.
After processing, a sensor measures the bowing and skewing available in the fabric and shows it on the control panel. If the skewing and bowing is not under the allowable limit, then the fabric is processed again. After the process, the fabric passes another sensor that indicates how much skewing and bowing remains in the fabric.
Also, Muller discussed exhaust humidity, fabric and air temperature measurement in the stenter machine. Heat setting of the fabric is done in stenter machine to provide dimensional stability of the fabric. Humidity and temperature in the heat setting zone of the machine can greatly impact the finished fabric quality. Moisture and temperature sensors made by PLEVA is used in this section to measure and control the exhaust humidity and temperature. Furthermore, He presented the measurement and control system of the stenter in the heat setting section.
After stenter machine, Muller presented the dye pick-up measurement system by PLEVA in the Pad Dry Machine. In the pad dry machine, the fabric is first passed through a dye bath, where the fabric is immersed in the dye bath and two squeezing roller control the pick-up percentage of dye liquor in the fabric. The dye pick-up percentage is predetermined. So, to maintain the required pick-up %, the pick-up of the fabric is measured just after the pad bath by sensors. If the required pick-up % is achieved then the fabric is passed to the drying section. If not, squeezing pressure or immersion time is adjusted to get the required pick-up %.
He also presented the moisture control system in the dryer machine. The moisture is first measured by the sensor. According to the measurement, the fabric speed and the temperature inside the dryer is controlled.
Furthermore, the sensor application in the sizing machine was also discussed in the seminar. The sizing process is done on yarn to increase the yarn strength as they do not break during the weaving process. In the sizing machine, sensors are used to measure the size pickup % of the yarn. Sensors are also used to measure the temperature and humidity inside the machine to ensure proper size pickup %.
Excess water consumption was discussed in this seminar. A huge amount of water is used by every textile unit. Every textile engineer must reduce the water, and energy consumption in the textile industry to make the textile sector most sustainable.
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Holocene Smart Technologies Co., Ltd
