TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

BLOWROOM PROCESS

CARDING OPERATION

DRAWING

ROVING

RING SPINNING

CONE WINDING

WEFT AND WARP PREPARATION

SIZING

DRAWING-IN

ACTUAL WEAVING

FINISHING

WEAVING FAULTS

CONCLUSION
 FABRIC MANUFACTURING PROCESS

SECTION I (SPINNING DEPARTMENT)

THE SPINNING PROCESS (COTTON)

INTRODUCTION

Basically the main purpose of spinning is to convert the cotton fibers into a yarn. Cotton
spinning involves the final transformation of fibers into yarn. These fibers undergo a series of
preparatory process, to prepare the fibers for spinning. At every stage of the spinning process,
different automated machines are used. The main purpose of these machines as far as spinning
is concern, is to open, clean, mix, reduce the size of the cotton material progressively to single
strands of fibers which can then be twisted into a yarn.

STAGES OF COTTON SPINNING PROCESS.

 BLOWROOM PROCESS.
 CARDING OPERATION.
 DRAWING.
 RING FRAME.
 WINDING.

BLOWROOM PROCESS

Cotton materials after ginning are baled before transporting them to their required locations.
The cotton tufts are baled in order to transport a higher amount of the cotton material. The
cotton is also baled in order to save space. The Northern part of Ghana, Cote de Voire, Benin
and Niger serve as the main source of cotton for the Volta star textile Industry in Ghana. As
stated earlier, cotton materials obtained from these sources are baled for convenience of
transporting them. The blowroom process acts as a process for preparing the fibers before
actual spinning. Opening, cleaning and mixing are the main goal of the blowroom process. The
blowroom process aim at opening the cotton thoroughly and processing the tufts into individual
fibers. Series of machines are however mounted in the blowroom process in order to achieve
this purpose. Both heavier and micro impurities including leaves, seeds, dust and other non-
fibrous substances are removed at this stage. The plucker (bale breaker), condenser, Axi-flo,
Multi-purpose mixer, electromagnetic detectors, cleanomat contribute together in opening,
cleaning and mixing of the cotton tufts.

DESCRIPTION OF PROCESS

The first process in the blowroom process involves breaking or dividing the bales into tufts.
Cotton received in the form of bales is embedded with a lot of both natural impurities and
other impurities which enter the bale accidentally. The bale breaker literally called the Plucker
is the first machine to open the bales into tufts. The bales are arranged in a circular manner
around the Plucker which moves over the bales and plucks an amount of fiber constantly. The
Plucker is equipped with telescopic channels which lowers as the height of the bales decreases
in size. The Plucker is equipped with air suction which carries the tufts of cotton through
channels to the subsequent machine. The Plucker only opens up the cotton bales.

Plucker.

From the Plucker the cotton tufts are transported through pneumatic leads or channels to the
cleaning machine. The cleaning machine opens up the tufts and removes foreign substances in
the cotton fiber. At this stage a significant amount of the impurities are removed and they
include the seed coat, leaves, small stones etc. These impurities are drop from the machine into
a chamber where they are collected. The collecting chamber is beneath the machine. These
machines are however called the pre-cleaning machines. Tufts which are not well opened also
fall into this chamber. The tufts are further transported to the subsequent cleaning machine
which also removes impurities from the cotton fiber. The tufts are then send to the succeeding
device which detects fire or smoke, after which it sends signal for the whole system to stop
when it detects smoke or fire or metal which may cause damage to the machines. Metals are
collected or removed using an electromagnetic device. The cotton material at this stage is
subjected to two channels which intersect. Fibers containing metals fall through the channel
below and are collected in the Electronic metal arrester (EMA). Fibers which do not contain any
metallic substance bypass the channel below and are further transported to subsequent
operations.

The cotton materials are carried to the multi-purpose mixer. The purpose of the Multi-purpose
mixer (MPM) is to mix the cotton material thoroughly. Since the bales cotton was obtained
from different sources which might be different or vary in properties, there is the need to blend
or mix them homogeneously in order to get a uniform yarn. For the purpose of removing
minute or micro impurities the cotton material after blending is sent to another cleaning
machine. The blended cotton fiber is sent to the duster which removes minute dust particles.
The machine only removes dust particles.

CARDING OPERATION.

Carding involves converting the unparalleled blended fibers into a sliver. The machine use for
this operation is however equipped with special devices for the attainment of this purpose. In
the process of aligning the fibers natural impurities/foreign substances are removed.The
carding is equipped with devices including the rollers, grids, knives, cylinders and a large drum
with saw tooth cloth, coiler rollers. The machine has a cylinder with pins, to carry the long fibers
and another part called the Flats, picks the short fibers away as waste. The long fibers from the
cylinder, moves to the Doffer and comes out as Sliver (web-like, with slight twist).
DRAWING OPERATION

In draw frame this is achieved in two stages.. This is termed as First Passage and second
Passage drawing. Six slivers or eight slivers are fed to four or five pairs of rollers in drawing
them evenly in stages from the first pair of rollers to second and from second to third and from
third to front pairs of rollers. The operation of the two machines is similar, however the
strength imparted into the sliver differs from the first machine to the second machine. The cans
containing the sliver are arranged in six. The drawing machines impart twist into the yarn in
order to strengthen it. These slivers are deposited in to plastic cans of 48 inches in diameter
which are again fed to a similar draw frame again to obtain the desired parallelization.
ROVING OPERATION

Roving machine is a machine for drawing and twisting roves and twisting roves and winding
them on bobbin for the spinning machine. Draw frame sliver is presented to the roving frame
in large cans. Driven transport rollers are provided above the cans. These draw the slivers from
the cans and forward them to drafting arrangement.
The drafting arrangement attenuates the slivers with a draft. The strand delivered is too thin to
hold itself together and a strength imparting step is necessary immediately at the exit of the
drafting arrangement. This is performed by inserting protective twist. The turns are created by
rotating  flyer and are transmitted into the unsupported length of roving between the flyer and
the delivery from the drafting arrangement. The flyer itself forms part of driven spindle and is
rotated with the spindle.
RING SPINNING

The roving bobbins are inserted in holders on the creel. Guide bars guide the rovings into the
drafting system, where they are drawn to their final count. The drafting system is one of the
most important units on the machine, since it exerts a very considerable influence on the
uniformity of the yarn in particular. After the resulting thin ribbon of fibers, it leaves the
delivery roller, the twist necessary for imparting strength is provided by the spindle rotating at
high speed. In the process each rotation of the traveler on  the spinning ring produces a twist in
the yarn. The ring traveler has no drive of its own; it is dragged with spindle via the yarn
attached to it. The rotation of the ring traveler lags somewhat behind that of the spindle due to
the relatively high friction of the ring traveler on the ring and the atmospheric resistance of the
traveler and the thread balloon between yarn guide eyelet and traveler. This difference in
speed between the spindle and the traveler results in the thread being wound onto the tube.

CONE WINDING

In this stage, the yarn formed from ring spinning is cleaned and packaged on to cone cheeses
with the help of winders which are set to the kind of tex required. Humidity is till high in this
process. The average weight of cone is about 1.63 Kilos. After spinning, the yarn is tested in the
quality control room to check for Strength, Maturity and Required length.
These cone cheeses are sent to a small store where they are packed according to the tex grade,
awaiting to go to the next section of yarn to fabric stage.

SECTION II

WEAVING DEPARTMENT

INTRODUCTION

Weaving involves the interlacing of warp and weft yarns, where the warp yarns forms the
vertical yarns and the weft yarns forms the horizontal yarns. At the Volta Star Textile Industry,
only plain weave is constructed. At the weaving department two major operations take place
which involves the preparatory process and the actual weaving process.

PREPARATORY PROCESS

The yarns obtained from the spinning department must undergo some preparatory process
which both includes the warp and the weft. There are two main preparatory processes before
weaving and they include

 WEFT PREPARATORY PROCESS

 WARP PREPARATORY PROCESS

WEFT PREPARATORY PROCESS

Weft preparation involves the winding of yarns from cones unto quills. The Pirn winder is used
for unwinding yarns from the cones to the quills (serves as the weft package). Unwinding is
automatically carried out automatic pirn winders. The machine is automatic in the sense that
when a quill is filled with a yarn, an automatic device stop the rotation of the spindle, the full
quill is ejected, a new empty quill is automatically placed on the spindle and winding starts
again until the quill is full, and the process is repeated.
 Pirn winder

WARP PREPARATORY PROCESS.

WARPING AND BEAMING

The cones which are received from the spinning department are fixed on a track equipped with
quills where the cones are inserted. Each end on the cone passes through a tension device. On
the tension device is a weight and a disc. The yarn passes in between the two discs with the
weight on top of it. The weight gives an even tension to the yarn. The cones are loaded on to a
creel and drawn through a tension device and through poplin guides, which prevents the ends
from entangling together.

The warp beaming machine uses 545 cones for tex 30 yarn and 610 for tex 20 yarn. The warp
beaming machine winds the ends onto the warp beam, a process called warping. Expansion
combs are mounted on the machine where an end passes through a dent of the comb. For the
purpose of easy winding each end passes through each dent of the comb. Several yarns on
cones or cheeses are drawn from the creel and wound onto a beam, the process of which is
called beaming. There is a drum that revolves to wind the ends on to the beam.
SIZING

At the sizing section two main operations takes place. The required number of ends for the
width of the cloth is wound onto the weavers beam and the sizing solution is prepared at this
section. In getting the desired ends for the width of the cloth to be woven, six of the warp
beam are arranged and wound onto the weavers beam. For example, a six of 610 are arranged
to give 3660 ends on the weavers beam.

In the preparing sizing solution the viquor is first added to the water in a large container (vat)
equipped with a high speed stirrer. The stirrer makes the viquor soluble in the water. After 30-
45 minutes the colotex and other chemicals are added. The solution is then transported
through channels or pipes to a container, where steam is used to boil at 100C the solution for
about 30 minutes. After boiling, the size is transferred to the sow box or size vat. In the vat is
the silk roller, rubber roller and immersion roller. The yarns (ends) pass through the sow box
under the immersion roller, where the ends are emerged into the vat or solution. The yarns
then passes between the silk roller and the rubber roller where squeezing takes place. The
yarns are then dried using drying cylinders which are heated using steam. The yarns are then
leased to separate them. (Separation is done to cool the yarns).
DRAWING-IN

The drawing-in is a process of passing the warp yarns through the healds eyes and the dents of
the reed connected to drop wires. Each yarn passes through a dropper or a drop wire. It
automatically stops the loom when a warp yarn breaks. When an end breaks, the dropper drops
and its been triggered to a mechanism to stop the loom. Four shafts are used to produce a plain
weave fabric. This is because the ends are more and using two shafts will make the ends
crowded when passing it through the healds eyes.

ACTUAL WEAVING

Weaving is the interlacing of the warp and the weft yarns. During weaving, prepared weft
bobbins are place in a box. The shuttle carrying the bobbin traverses from one point of the
loom to another. When a weft package is exhausted, new bobbins are automatically inserted
into the shuttle for weaving.

FINISHING

After the weaving process, the woven fabric is sent to the finishing department. At the finishing
table, the woven fabric is inspected to check weaving faults in the fabric. Faults which can be
repaired are repaired and are then graded into first, second and third grades. The fabric is then
packed in bales.

WEAVING FAULTS

 Lashed in weft

 Slub

 Weft float

 Netting selvedge

 Temple marks

 Extraneous thread

 Netting

 Warp float

 Looped yarn

 Broken selvedge
  Incorrect warp end repair

 Smash

 Uneven pick

 Missing end

 Thick bar

CONCLUSION
In general, this trip provides hands- on training for students. It introduces student to the
practical aspect of what has been taught at school and exposes the students to technological
advancements.