Saving compressed air in airjet weaving machine

Weaving mills can obtain considerable saving in energy costs by air mode software for achieving the shortest blowing time without any decrease in loom efficiency and performance, aver Prof SB Mhetre and Yadav Vishal C.

New Tsudakoma (ZAX 9100) weaving machine is having ´Air mode´ software for minimisation of air consumption. This software is used to control air consumption by controlling drive time of sub-nozzle valves automatically and is controlled by microprocessor. Air mode is having different cut off percentages. As fewer air consumption is our prime aim, we can go with increased air modes like 0,-1,-2,-3 up to -6. This will give considerable reduction in air consumption. However, as we go higher side to save air there will be chances of increase in filling problem and related damages to the fabric. There should be optimisation of ´Air mode´ for different sorts of fabric. This will give considerable reduction in compressed air without hampering the fabric quality (defects like loops, loose picks) and also help to maintain rate of filling stops.

This software is new one so therefore we need to go for optimisation of ´Air mode´ for different sorts, counts and widths. From this study we can save compressed air which will help to reduce cost of fabric production, thus achieving considerable cost savings which would be beneficial to company.

Previous studies on reduction for air consumption on airjet weaving machines Özer Göktepe and Orcun Bozkan conducted study

for reduction in consumption of compressed air by optimising loom parameter in weaving mill. For consumption of compressed air relay nozzle is a major factor which saves up to 80 per cent compressed air.

The study involves the effect of selvedge pattern, which is created by pneumatic tucking device. The principle of pneumatic tucking is based on holding and then tucking in the filling end into the next shed using air. Elimination of the tuck-in needle by use of the pneumatic tuck-in motion enables the loom to run much faster compared to mechanical tuck-in devices. Either single or multiple filling ends can be tucked-in at one motion. This study was conducted on Picanol and Dornier airjet weaving machine. Dornier loom was equipped with single holed relay nozzles while Picanol loom was equipped with multi-holed relay nozzles. The main aim was to minimise the air consumption by optimising some parameters of the relay nozzles and selvedge pattern. For this purpose, the effects of relay nozzle hole diameter relay nozzle blowing time, number of holes on the relay nozzle, and selvedge pattern on the pneumatic tuck-in mechanism were investigated. Experiments regarding relay nozzle diameter and selvedge pattern were conducted on the Dornier loom. On Picanol airjet loom optimisation of blowing times and number of holes on relay nozzles were carried out. In order to investigate the effect of relay nozzle diameter two of the Dornier LW airjet weaving machines were used. First loom was equipped with 1.4 mm single hole relay nozzle while second was equipped with 1.0 mm diametre relay nozzle. In total, 24 measurements of air consumption were taken by scaled flow meter on both weaving machines for a two-month period.

In second part of this work, blowing times of relay nozzles were optimised on the Picanol Omni plus looms. The looms were equipped with the relay nozzles having 19 holes. For optimisation, the blowing time of the relay nozzle was reduced drastically first, then increased periodically at 4-days intervals, for fine-tuning to determine the minimum blowing time that enables a problem-free weaving process. Then the average increase in air consumption with blowing time was measured to calculate the reduction in total air consumption obtained by decreasing the blowing times of the relay nozzles. After optimisation of blowing times, the conventional<