Ultimate evenness testing: Total Testing Center

Feedback from Bangladesh spinners details practical benefits of USTER® TESTER 6, the sheer speed of which without compromise on quality is hailed by all the spinners.

Only two years since its launch, the ground-breaking new USTER® TESTER 6 is making a significant impact in Bangladesh. Ambitious and quality-conscious spinners are eager to participate in the rapid growth in export sales by the country’s textile producers. USTER® TESTER 6 is more than the ultimate evenness tester: it is also the gateway to wider potential benefits for mills, integrating data from other USTER® quality measurement sources to create a real Total Testing Center.

Bangladesh mills have been quick to recognize these extended advantages, and several USTER® TESTER 6 units are already in operation in Bangladesh, as well as in the rest of South East Asia, following its global launch at the Milan ITMA in 2015. The DTG exhibition stimulated even greater interest among visitors to the USTER booth.

At the 15th Dhaka International Textile and Garment Machinery Exhibition, held in city’s Bangabandhu International Conference Centre from February 8-11, USTER experts provided visitors with first-hand information on the USTER® TESTER 6. Ahead of the exhibition, existing customers from the Bangladesh spinning sector here provided detailed feedback on their experiences to date.

The best in testing

The sheer speed of the USTER® TESTER 6 – without compromise on quality – is hailed by all the spinners. The test speed of 800 m/min also provides highly reliable and extremely accurate results, thanks to the new Capacitive and Optical Sensors. Says Abdul Latif, Deputy General Manager of Divine Spinning Mills Ltd: “Hairiness testing at high-speeds of 800 m/min – also now including Hairiness Length Classification – requires relatively much less time for testing.”

Companies also report increased efficiency in quality management, with feature such as the graphical presentation of ‘timeline’ reports – analyzing the product with a long-term perspective and providing quality data over a pre-defined time. “We are able to analyze the product at a single glance,” says Khorshed Ali, Senior Manager Quality Control at Pahartali Textile & Hosiery Mills. Another well-appreciated quality analysis shows the total of pre-defined imperfection classes (neps, thin and thick places) graded by standard and sensitivity level, making it a valuable quality management tool.

In fact, the USTER® TESTER 6 can provide essential data for any parameter describing yarn appearance – taking in well over a hundred different factors – using its inbuilt yarn testing functions, as well as through connections with other USTER® testing and monitoring systems. This totally-integrated facility leverages the value of the information and provides practical insights into the entire yarn production sequence and downstream processes.

This enormous mass of data requires built-in intelligence to transform it into quick and easy-to-follow guidance for the spinner. Quality alerts provide an early warning of potential issues, allowing spinners to identify and remedy any faults likely to cause second-quality material. Objective guidance helps spinners to categorise quality levels, using the so-called ‘yarn grades’, while critical questions about a yarn’s performance in subsequent processes are answered by intelligent forecasting of fabric appearance, pilling resistance and overall ‘weavability’.

Immediate help for users in case of a quality problem on a spinning machine is provided by the Knowledge Based System (KBS). A single click on a spectrogram display – with no need for additional settings or inputs from the machine supplier – brings up the defective component on screen.

Extended support possibilities

Assistant Q is compared to an additional ‘employee’ arriving in the mill with USTER® TESTER 6. He is on duty 24/7, embodying 65 years of USTER application experience. He checks every measurement – whether from the laboratory and the online instruments. Where quality issues arise, Assistant Q offers a checklist of actions to solve the problem. “Assistant Q gives us a lot of ideas to solve any problems,” says Khorshed Ali at Pahartali Textile & Hosiery Mills.

The USTER® TESTER 6 is the key to accessing the Total Testing Center. As each additional Uster measuring system is connected to the Total Testing Center, the depth of knowledge and expertise held by Assistant Q increases. A major benefit already results from the integration of in-process information from the USTER® QUANTUM 3, which monitors 100 per cent of production at the winding machines. The Total Testing Center then takes spinning mills to the next stage, with detailed analysis of all the data and expert interpretation – giving practical advice and options for specific improvements. This allows quality and productivity criteria to be balanced, so that mills can make informed and risk-free decisions on every aspect of the yarn manufacturing process.

It is clear that spinning mills in Bangladesh are already well aware of the massive possibilities these benefits offer: “To us, the USTER® TESTER 6 is the best evenness tester ever and we intend it to become our Total Testing Center in future,” says Shafiqul Islam, Manager Quality Control at Akij Textile Mills Ltd. Other Bangladeshi spinners have also indicated that they plan to connect fibre testing systems and yarn clearers in future.

At DTG 2018, spinners could assess their options for a future with the Total Testing Center – or simply experience the world’s best evenness tester – on the USTER booth. “The possibility to manage the spinning mill with quality in mind, the range of new and unique features on top of unmatched reliability and accuracy of all functions as a yarn testing system convinced all our customers of the value of USTER® TESTER 6,” says AFM Zubair, Director within New Asia Ltd., USTER’s agent for laboratory systems and yarn clearers.

The Uster Group is the leading high-technology instrument manufacturer of products for quality measurement and certification for the textile industry. The Group provides testing and monitoring instruments, systems and services that allow optimisation of quality through each individual stage of textile production.