Comparative analysis of USTER Electronic Yarn Clearers

of last 10 years

Submitted To:

Mr. Zulfiqar

Submitted by: Raheem umer 05-NTU-043

Spinning E 8th Semester

Raheem Umer 05-NTU-043

Yarn Faults:................................................................................................................3
Electronic Yarn Clearing.............................................................................................4
Short history about the USTER yarn clearers..............................................................5
Brief Description of different models of Uster yarn clearers of...................................5
Uster Spectomatic...................................................................................................5
Uster automatic D...................................................................................................6
Uster Automatic C/W...............................................................................................6
Uster Polymatic.......................................................................................................6
Uster Peyer Clearer.................................................................................................6
Uster Quantum Clearer...........................................................................................6
Functions of the USTER QUANTUM CLEARER..............................................................7
• Triggering of alarms for exception events...........................................................7
Uster Quantum Clearer Parameters:..........................................................................7
1- Monitoring of Thick Places....................................................................................7
The capacitive measuring principle............................................................................8
The optical measuring principle.................................................................................9
2- USTER GRADES..................................................................................................10
3- USTER QUANTUM EXPERT with CAY...................................................................11
4- Foreign fiber clearing with USTER QUANTUM CLEARER.....................................12
5- Class Alarms.......................................................................................................14
6- Monitoring of the yarn joint process with the USTER QUANTUM CLEARER.........14

Raheem Umer 05-NTU-043

Monitoring of the yarn joint process with the USTER QUANTUM CLEARER

Yarn Faults:
The principles of the spinning process for short and long staple yarns remained the
same for many decades. Changes took place especially in the field of automation
and production quantity per production hour in order to reach the highest
production of yarn in a good quality at the least expenses for personnel, capital, and
energy. For this, big technological progresses in each process stage were essential

Despite this progress and many years of experience in spinning technology, it is still
not possible to produce a fault-free yarn straight off. Depending on the raw material
and state of the machinery park, there are about 20 to 100 events over a length of
100km yarn, which do not correspond to the desired appearance of the yarn. This
means, that the yarn exhibits a yarn faults every 1 to 5 km. these kinds of yarn
faults are places, which are too thick or too thin. Foreign fibers or dirty places in the
yarn are also counted as yarn faults

Yarn faults cause disruptions in the subsequent process stages, which affect
production and quality.

Yarn faults, which get in the woven or knitted fabric, can only be removed at very
high costs or not at all. Therefore, the yarn processing industry demands a fault-free
yarn from the yarn producer. The spinner has to fulfill these demands; otherwise he
could not sell the yarn covering his costs.

The spinner can fulfill these demands by a combination of two measures:

Raheem Umer 05-NTU-043

 1- Prevent the origin of yarn faults by adequate measures.

Remove yarn faults by the aid of yarn clearers.

The measures to avoid the origin of yarn faults are numerous and start with the
choice of the raw material, the maintenance of the machines up to the cleanliness
in the spinning mill. Well educated, motivated personnel and an efficient quality
management play also an important role.

Electronic Yarn Clearing

Yarn faults can be removed by following principle:

1- During the winding process from bobbin to cone, the yarn is completely
monitored for yarn faults with an electronic device , the yarn clearer
2- As soon as the yarn clearer detects a yarn fault, the yarn will be separated by
the cutter. The winding process is interrupted.
3- The yarn fault will be removed by the suction of the winding machine.
4- Ends, the upper yarn from the cone as well as the lower yarn from the
bobbin, are going to be combined again. The yarn joint is done by splicing
with a splicing device or knotting with a knotting device. The latter is only
used very rarely for special yarns. A good splice should not be realized by the
human eye. Present yarn clearer also monitors the quality of the yarn joint.

Raheem Umer 05-NTU-043

 5- The winding process continues up to the next fault or until there is no yarn on
the bobbin anymore

Short history about the USTER yarn clearers

In 1960, Uster technologies launched the first electronic yarn clearer, the USTER
SPECTOMATIC. With one single, central setting it could be determined, form which
size on a thick place should be cut. Once on the market, the demands for the yarn
clearer rose steadily. Since then, USTER technologies could always fulfill the
demands of the customers to their full satisfaction with innovative clearer models

Raheem Umer 05-NTU-043

Brief Description of different models of Uster yarn clearers
of
Uster Spectomatic
Uster Spectomatic was the first ever clearing device of the USTER Company. It was
able to measure the thickness of the running yarn only at that time. This yarn
clearer was introduced 1st in1960. This yarn clearing device was more like yarn
monitoring device equipped with the USTER Knotter.

Uster automatic D
Uster Automatic D was a type of yarn monitoring telling the thin places as well. This
device was basically for the coarser yarn which was easy to check for thin places.
This yarn clearing device was optional in getting data of the yarn. This was first
introduced in 1962 by uster with winding position control option.

Uster Automatic C/W

This model was introduced in 1977. It was made better then Uster Automatic D as it
was able to measure the Long Thick places as well along with the thin places. It also
had automatic adjustments to the different fibers.

Uster Polymatic
This was the famous Yarn Clearer patent by USTER co. in 1990. It was a complete
yarn clearing device giving the option of all SLT monitoring.

It has the following extra parameters which made it successful.

– Yarn count monitoring

– Yarn fault alarm
– Report Printer
– Event display

Uster polymatic was the most successful yarn clearer device which was just made
better by adding some parameters. Otherwise the Modern USTER Quantum clearer
is the basic Uster Polymatic.

Uster Peyer Clearer

Uster peyer clearer was the yarn clearer introduced by uster in 1996 with the
addition of foreign matter detection. This yarn clearer had the metallurgy as well as
the monitoring, was same as of uster Polymatic. This type had an improvement in

Raheem Umer 05-NTU-043

 software which gave Pearl Chain and Scatter Plott which made things easier to
understand.

Uster Quantum Clearer

This type was introduced in 1999. This is the latest model produced by the Uster co.
this clearer type is modified day by day by adding some parameters but this clearer
is the most compact form of clearer ever produced by Uster. It is still the
unbeatable in autocone winders. This is clearer is equipped with all the previous
clearer specialities and basic NSLT sensing.

Functions of the USTER QUANTUM CLEARER

The basic version of the USTER QUANTUM CLEARER can be expanded by several
features and options. The numerous functions of the USTER QUANTUM CLEARER for
a comprehensive yarn control can be summed up as follows:

• Monitoring and elimination of disturbing yarn faults

• Monitoring and controlling of machine functions
• Determination of quality parameters of the yarn
• Triggering of alarms for exception events
In order to define the functions, over 100 settings can be carried out at the USTER
QANTUM CLEARER. This stands in contrast to one single setting of the first clearer
generation.

One year after the introduction of USTER QUANTUM Clearer, uster technologies
developed the software “Computer Aided Yarn Clearing“CAY as an option to the
USTER QUANTUM CLEARER installation. The option is an easy-to-use tool to optimize
the clearer limits for yarns which are not yet available in the data bank

Uster Quantum Clearer Parameters:

1- Monitoring of Thick Places

In order to be able to monitor and to evaluate thick and thin places as well as
deviation from the desired yarn count, the thickness of the yarn must be converted
into a proportional electrical voltage. The course of the voltage is called yarn signal

Raheem Umer 05-NTU-043

In USTER QUANTUM CLEARER, the conversion is carried out either with the sensor of
the capacitive measuring principle or with the sensor of the optical measuring
principle. The sensor is part of the intelligent measuring head iMK, which also
consists of the electronic system to convert mass or diameter variation into an
electric signal.

The sensor must be able to monitor a yarn which runs with up to 120km/hr through
the sensor and to detect even very short faults. In order to achieve this, the yarn is
measured every 2mm

The capacitive measuring principle

Raheem Umer 05-NTU-043

The electrical measuring condenser (1) forms the sensor for the capacitive
monitoring of the yarn mass. This is done by two parallel metal plates, the
electrodes. In the space in between (2), the two electrodes build an electrical field
when putting on an electrical alternating voltage (3). If a yarn (4) is electrical signal,
the yarn signal (5) is derived. The change n the capacitance depends, besides the
mass of the yarn and of the dielectric constant of the fiber material used, on the
moisture content of the yarn.

With the capacitive measuring principle, the yarn signal corresponds to the yarn
cross-section yarn mass, respectively, which is located in the measuring field.
Changes of the yarn mass cause a portional change of the yarn signal.

The optical measuring principle

The infrared light source (1) and the photocell (3) represent the sensor for the
optical monitoring of the yarn thickness. The infrared light is scattered by a diffuser

Raheem Umer 05-NTU-043

 (2) in the light field and reaches the photocell (3). The photocell emits a tension,
which is proportional to the amount of light. If a yarn (4) is brought in the light field,
parts of the light will be absorbed by the yarn. The amount of light, which hits the
photocell, is smaller. From this change, an electrical signal, the yarn signal (5) is
deriver.

With the optical measuring principle the yarn signal corresponds to the diameter of
the usually round yarn, which is located inside the measuring field. Changes of the
yarn diameter cause a proportional change of the yarn signal

2- USTER GRADES
The USTER GRAES are a representation of yarn faults in real size. The percentage
increase the fault size is marked on the vertical scale and the length of the fault is
marked on the horizontal scale. This result in a linear diagram of the fault sizes.

Now it is possible to mark the clearing limits directly and to evaluate the effect of
the yarn clearing immediately. Furthermore, the size corresponds to the disturbing
faults of the textile industry of today.

Raheem Umer 05-NTU-043

Raheem Umer 05-NTU-043
3- USTER QUANTUM EXPERT with CAY
USTER QUANTUM EXPERT is a data collection and control system with it is possible
to monitor the quality and the production in the spinning mill. The focus lies
especially on the collection of quality data for the analysis and interpretation of the
process.

Data which is collected with USTER QUANTUM EXPERT can be transmitted to further
systems in order to generate long-term reports, statistics and so on. For this reason,
only a limited number of standard reports are available. Application-related reports
and diagrams provide a good overview. It allow the recognition of tendencies and
exceptions which affect the quality.

CAY stands for Computer-Aided Yarn Clearing and is software for the data system
USTER QUANTUM EXPERT. The software CAY makes it easier for the user to control
the production process with data of seldom-occurring yarn faults and foreign fibers.
With CAY it is possible to show thick and thin places in the yarn by their
classification by their classification points in the classification matrix. The resulting
scatters plot provides information about the frequency, location and size of the
events. With this tool the job of the quality management is made easier, as the
system registers faults in an early stage, so that measures against such faults can
be taken in time.

USTER QUANTUM EXPERT makes it much easier to find suitable clearing limits.
Furthermore, the systems offers further advantages like:

• Setting are visualized and their effects on the number of cuts are displayed
directly
• Various forms of representation, as e.g. the scatter plot or the density lines
are an aid for the choice of the clearing limit
• Clearing limits can be downloaded to the control unit at the machine in order
to avoid wrong inputs at the machine.
• For each pint in the scatter plot, the yarn fault can be simulated o the
computer screen. This can be shown as an individual fault or in a woven or
knitted fabric. Such simulations possible for thick places, thin places and
foreign fibers.

Raheem Umer 05-NTU-043

 Scatter Plot

1- Foreign fiber clearing with USTER QUANTUM CLEARER

Cotton can be contaminated with foreign material from the cotton field to the
spinning mill in different ways. Already during harvesting, materials like e.g. plastic,
human animal hair, feathers, strings, packing material, stems, leaves and oil
contamination can get into the cotton.

Raheem Umer 05-NTU-043

In the last 15 years, there have been intensive discussions about the foreign fiber
contamination of cotton.

USTER QUANTUM EXPERT provides the best possible setting to remove the colored
foreign fiber contamination in the yarn which has somehow made to pass through
the back processes.

It can be said: the longer a foreign fiber and the higher its color intensity:

• The more disturbing are the consequences in the FABRIC

• The lower is the number of this kind of faults in the YARN

As regular yarn clearing, it can also be said that foreign fiber clearing is a
compromise between quality and productivity

– Vegetables:
○ Are mainly short length ranges
○ Occur in the whole intensity spectrum from low to high
○ Should not be cleared, if possible, as they are possibly remover or
neutralized in the following process
– Foreign fibers and packing materials:
○ Are spread all over the spectrum regarding the length as well as the
intensity
○ Must be cleared as soon as the limit to the disturbing foreign fiber is
exceede
– Trash

Raheem Umer 05-NTU-043

 ○ Usually consists of long and in some cases intensive faults
○ Must be removed with respective clearing limits

USTER QUANTUM CLEARER, provides FD-channel (Foreign matter Dark) and FL-
channel (Foreign matter Light) for optimum clearing.

1- Class Alarms
It one wants to monitor repeatedly occurring faults which are not disturbing as a
single event but as a group of faults the winding position can be stopped with the
class-alarm

With the USTER QUANTUM CLEARER class-alarm according to the USTER CLASSIMAT
criteria, the user has a tool which operates according to the same criteria as the
USTER CLASSIMAT for the laboratory area. Seldom-occurring yarn faults are
detected, assessed and classified within the well know CASSIMAT matrix according
to length and mass deviations. This provides the user with complete information on
the yarn quality and allows him to make forecast for the subsequent process stages.

2- Monitoring of the yarn joint process with the USTER

QUANTUM CLEARER
The monitoring of the yarn join process by the clearer is carried out according to the
splicing or knotting process of the winding position. The individual steps are:

• Monitoring of the Upper thread (U)

Raheem Umer 05-NTU-043

 Double or even multiple yarn coming from the cone, has to be cut
U-channel with setting of U%
• Monitoring of the lower thread on MURATA machines (LY)
This function was introduced in order to be able to monitor double lower
yarns, when the “splice monitoring” is turned off.
• Monitoring of the joint size with the J-channel (on Murata SPL)
Joints with 3 ends caused by defect scissors have to be cut. Splices which are
visually too large, have to be cut as well

Raheem Umer 05-NTU-043