Starfish

Starfish computer program is a simulator. It models key elements of production & processing of cotton
circular knitted fabrics & it calculates their expected performance. When they have to develop a new product with defined levels of weight, width, & shrinkage most companies start with educated guesswork, proceed to trial & error knitting and finishing trials, and finish with a product which may or may not be close to the target after a few attempts. With STARFISH a development trial can be simulated on computer in 5mins. If it does not produce right performance, a dozen further trials can be simulated in another five minutes. If required performance is physically possible, STARFISH will show you how to do it inside an hour with no charge for materials or processing.

Starfish know-how comes in condensed, abbreviated form in an on-line Reference Manual. It is also available in expanded, detailed form as a three-day training course when the middle management team can sit round the table together & find out how to help each other to focus on what is important in controlling the manufacturing operation; exactly where they should be concentrating more time & effort; & where they are expending effort unnecessarily. When key factors which cause variability in product are pinned down, then business of producing consistently on specification becomes much more straightforward and much less frustrating. Starfish computer program tells you how to engineer products for a given performance & presents with manufacturing targets. Its know-how shows how to meet targets & how to maintain them consistently.
It is the faster, cheaper, more reliable way of doing product development. What is STARFISH? STARFISH is a simulator. It models the influence of the major variables in the production and processing of circular knitted cotton fabrics and calculates their effect on the final Properties of the finished fabric. Using STARFISH, the most appropriate combination of Yarn Count, Stitch Length and knitting machine necessary to deliver the desired combination of properties in the finished fabric can be discovered very rapidly, without expending valuable production time and materials. The STARFISH computer program has been developed from the results of a 24 year research and development project during which more than 5,000 different knitted fabric qualities have been commercially produced in mills throughout the world. The STARFISH prediction system is a major component of STARFISH Technology. Why is it called STARFISH? The name STARFISH is contracted from the phrase "START as you mean to FINISH". It embodies the principle that, in order to know how to produce a knitted fabric with the desired dimensions and performance, it is first necessary to have an accurate knowledge of the final finished product. In other words, it must be possible to predict what will be the dimensions and performance (weight, width, shrinkage) of any proposed fabric quality after dyeing and finishing, even though that particular quality has never been made before.

What is Starfish Technology?

STARFISH Technology is an integrated system of Product Engineering, Quality Assurance, and Application Know-how that can be applied to upgrade the performance of cotton circular knitted fabrics. It is a total manufacturing concept that provides a practical and cost effective system for the production of cotton knit goods. What can STARFISH do for you? STARFISH is the only knitted fabric engineering system that automatically takes into account the fundamental influence of both the fabric production and the wet processing and finishing operations on the properties of the finished "as delivered" fabric. This means that knitters, finishers, garment makers and retailers can use it with confidence to develop the appropriate knitting and finishing production specifications that will enable the required product performance specifications to be achieved. With STARFISH available knit goods producers can Rapidly develop new fabric qualities or optimize existing qualities easily and efficiently without recourse to expensive trial and error sampling. Optimize the development process and make direct savings in development time and costs. Rationalize their Quality Assurance systems & reduce overall cost of Quality Control. Optimize Process Management & Production Control Procedures & improve Product Quality & Consistency. Improve Customer Service. STARFISH Technology STARFISH Technology is an integrated system of Product Engineering, Quality Assurance, & Application Know-how that can be applied to upgrade the performance of cotton circular knitted fabrics. It is a total manufacturing concept that provides a practical & cost effective system for production of cotton knit goods. The name STARFISH is contracted from phrase "START as you mean to FINISH". It embodies principle that, in order to know how to produce a knitted fabric with the desired dimensions & performance, it is first necessary to have an accurate knowledge of final finished product. In other words, it must be possible to predict dimensions & performance (weight, width, shrinkage) of any proposed fabric

quality after dyeing & finishing, even though that particular quality has never been made before. It comprises 3 main elements: 1. Product Engineering 2. STARFISH Prediction Software enables accurate and 3. Reliable information about dimensions

Technical Information
Minimum System Requirements
Windows XP, SVGA monitor (800 x 600), 256 colours. 32 Mb RAM, 32 Mb hard disk space, Windows compatible printer, Windows compatible mouse or equivalent, Spare USB port.

Key features:
Fabric types
Plain Interlock Plain Single jersey Single Crosstuck (piqu) Six thread Crosstuck (piqu) 1x1 Rib 2x2 Rib (2/1 or 2/2 set-out) Double Crosstuck (piqu) Two thread fleece Ring-spun, carded Ring-spun, two-fold

Yarn types
Ring-spun, combed OE Rotor-spun, carded

Variations from standard yarn types can be accommodated via Calibration facility. Full range of normal yarn counts can be used.

Wet processing
Full range of commercial wet processing options is available, from old-fashioned jets & winches, through modern jets & continuous processes, to open width & tubular mercerizing. These are accessed either through 10 standard wet processing options, or via calibration facility. Depth of dyeing is modelled through 8 depth-of-shade options, from full bleach white to extra dark shades. Net process weight loss can be adjusted to match mill experience via Calibration facility.

Outputs: Knitting specification

Yarn type, yarn count (number), machine gauge, diameter, needles, feeders, speed, stitch length, course length, tightness (cover) factor, roll weight, knitting efficiency, waste, lot weight, rolls per lot, production rate per hour & per shift, weight & percentage share of ground & fleece yarns.

Outputs: Finished fabric properties

Course & wale densities, area weight & yield, fabric width (tubular or open or trimmed), length & width shrinkages, roll weight & length after dyeing & finishing, weight loss in processing.

Scope and facilities

Knitting machines database stores all your machines (& others if you wish) for speedy inclusion into any model. Machines can be sorted by name, by gauge, by diameter or by number of needles. Seek facility provides suggestions for yarn count, stitch length & number of needles to meet a particular weight and width, at defined maximum shrinkage levels. Calibration facility allows output of program to be tailored according to local processing conditions, by entering actual measured data for specific in-house qualities. Process calibrations can be saved to a Userdefined Process file for later retrieval & use with other models. All inputs & predictions visible and editable on-screen in four different views: View up to 9 fabric qualities simultaneously on one machine at a time (find the best stitch length). View a single quality on up to 9 machines simultaneously (develop a body-width range). View knitting productivity data, per quality and machine. View knitting/finishing specifications, per quality and machine.

Up to 9 different yarn counts & nine different knitting machines can be modelled simultaneously. Yarn count range 5 to 100s cotton count (Ne) or equivalent. Machine gauge 5 to 40 needles per inch. Machine diameter 5 to 60 inches. Machine speed 1 to 100 rpm. This program prevents entry of unreasonable data or impossible combinations. Useful warning messages are given when non-commercial qualities are entered. Operating units can be customized to suit user, e.g. inches or centimetres, yards or metres, ozs or gms, lbs or kgs. Units can be changed at any time-appropriate recalculations are made instantly. Individual models can be saved to a file for later use. Last Active model data is maintained on file at all times for a quick start at the same point where the last job was left. Default model profiles are maintained for rapid start-up of brand new models. Individual quality specifications, combining knitting & wet processing details, can be viewed & printed at will. All predictions & machine files can be sent to printer at any time, or exported to a text file. Extensive on-line Help is provided, including STARFISH Reference Manual of background know-how, containing a large amount of technical information not available in standard text books on knitting technology. STARFISH computer program is developed from results of a twenty-year research & development project during which more than 5000 different qualities of knitted fabrics were manufactured & processed, using full-scale commercial equipment, together with cross-checking of routine production in industry. Industrial checks showed that, provided fabric & processing are correctly specified (& especially after calibration) predictions provided by STARFISH are usually within one standard deviation of average measured values obtained from comparable fabrics in routine production.