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

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:

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

Remove yarn faults by the aid of yarn clearers.

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

Raheem Umer 05-NTU-043

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

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.

Raheem Umer 05-NTU-043

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 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.

Raheem Umer 05-NTU-043

 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

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

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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

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.

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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 (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

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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.

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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.

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 Scatter Plot

4- 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.

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.

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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:
o Are mainly short length ranges
o Occur in the whole intensity spectrum from low to high
o Should not be cleared, if possible, as they are possibly remover or neutralized in the
following process
- Foreign fibers and packing materials:
o Are spread all over the spectrum regarding the length as well as the intensity
o Must be cleared as soon as the limit to the disturbing foreign fiber is exceede
- Trash
o Usually consists of long and in some cases intensive faults
o 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.

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5- 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.

6- 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)

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