D1.

1 THE OBJECTIVE FUNCTION

The draw frame is designed to play important role in compensation of errors produced in
carding process. It is important to say that the heart of the draw frame is the roller drafting
assembly and the main objective task of the draw frame is the aligning and attenuation of the
sliver by roller drawing to improve orientation and straightening of the fibers of card sliver
because fibers are un-oriented and hooked in doffer web. But in the other machine like speed
frame and ring frame, the main task of roller drafting assembly is the attenuation of fiber strand.
Table-51: Objective functions of draw frame.

D1.2 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CARD & DRAW SLIVER

There are difference between card sliver and draw sliver in structural and quality concept. The
structural difference is illustrated in following Fig -132 and Table-52.

Card Sliver Draw Sliver

Fig -132: Fiber Arrangement in Card Sliver and Draw Sliver.

 Table-52: Difference between carded sliver and drawn sliver.

D2.0 WORKING OR OPERATING PRINCIPLE

Fig-133: Illustration of working principle of HP draw frame.[3]

The general operations that are involved in draw frame and their definition is stated below [2]:
1. Creeling: The operation, by which feed material is placed on the creel device of the feed side
of the machine and is prepared for operation, is defined “creeling”.
2. Drawing: The operation which involves the process of doubling and drafting of slivers is
defined as drawing. The process of several slivers combination (thickening of X-section) into
one sliver, is called doubling. The process of sliver attenuation (thinning of X-section) by
passing the slivers through a series of pairs of roller, each pair moving faster than previous one,
is called drafting. So, doubling is the thickening of X-section and drafting is the thinning of X-
section of the fiber starnd. Drawing= Drafting + Doubling.
3. Doubling: The process by which two or more fiber assemblies (e.g. slivers) are combined
into one is called “doubling”. For example, when 8 feed slivers are converted to one delivery
output sliver it is called 8:1 doubling. Sliver doubling takes place at draw frame and fiber
doubling takes place at rotor frame.
Doubling serves two purposes. It enables a. the reduction of sliver mass irregularity and b. the
reduction of sliver blend proportion irregularity (improves the degree of mixing or blending of the
fibers).
4. Drafting: The action of reducing the thickness or linear density of the feed material by
drawing is known as drafting. Drafting is the process of reduction of mass per unit length or
increase length per unit mass.
5. Leveling/Equalizing: The action of minimization of material variation in mass per unit length
in continual operation is defined as leveling.
6. Cleaning: The action by which dust and micro-dust are released from sliver by suction
system is defined as Cleaning.
7. Slivering (Sliver Formation): The action or mechanism by which the weak drafted
thiny and filmy fiber structure known as drafted web is transformed to strong and thicky rope like
fiber structure known as sliver is called sliver.
8. Coiling: The action or mechanism by which produced output material is deposited by coiling
or cycloidal rotation to produce package of fiber assembly (e.g. sliver) in stable form to avoid
disintegration of the material during usage in downstream process is called coiling.
9. Doffing: The action by which produced output material is replaced for downstream process is
defined as doffing.

DRAFT: DEFINITION
Draft is defined as “the ratio of reduction of weight per unit length of the fiber strand or
the ratio of increase of length per unit weight of fiber assembly”. Thus, the ratio of weight
per unit length of the input material to the weight per unit length of output material is defined as
the draft.

D4.3 DRAFT: CLASSIFICATION

 Fig-134: Classification of draft

PRINCIPLE OF ROLLER DRAFTING

Roller drafting: Drafting is the attenuation or thinning of X-section of the fiber stand. The
process of attenuating of a material by passing the material (e.g. slivers) through a series of
pairs of roller, each pair moving faster than previous one, is called roller drafting. During
drafting, the fibers must be rearranged as uniformly as possible by overcoming the cohesive
friction.
A roller drafting arrangement; 3 over 3 drafting system have shown in Fig-139. The principle of
roller drafting includes three sub principles - a. Principle of nipping, b. Principle of material flow
direction and c. Principle of drafting roller linear speed. The technology of these sub principles
is illustrated in Fig-140.
a. Principle of nipping: The fiber feed material are firmly nipped between the bottom steel
rollers and the top cot rollers. Because a defined force push the top rollers, mechanically or
pneumatically onto the bottom steel rollers. Lower nipping force will cause fiber slippage which
will lead to improper drafting.
b. Principle of material flow direction: The bottom rollers to be rotate clockwise by positive
drive and top rollers rotate anti-clockwise by passive drive to flow the material toward the
direction from feed to delivery i.e. B to A.
c. Principle of drafting roller linear speed: The surface /rotational speed increases from feed
roller pair to delivery roller pair in the direction of the material flow. Therefore, the drawing
tension will be active on fibers in the drafting zone and the fiber mass will be stretched and
distributed over greater length, i.e. the draft, takes place.
As the constant fiber mass is stretched and distributed over greater length, the structure of fiber
assembly is re-arranged and the size of fiber assembly is reduced and from the definition of
attenuation, attenuation occurs.
In this way, draft is defined as the ratio of the delivered length (L D) to feed length (LF), or the
ratio of the corresponding surface or linear speeds:
LD VD
Actual draft , D A= ∧Mechanical∨Technological Draft=
LF VF

Linear speed of Delivery Roller

¿
Linear speed of Feed Roller

Where, L=Length of unit mass, V = Surface speed of roller, D = delivery end and F = feed end.
The drafting arrangement illustrated above has two sub drafting zones, namely:
1. Name of draft zone: Back zone -B, 1. Name of draft zone: Front zone –A,
2. Name of draft: Break draft, 2. Name of draft: Front draft,
3. Expression of draft: DB = V2 / V3, 3. Expression of draft: DF = V1 / V2,
4. Distance of draft zone=B, 4. Distance of draft zone=A.

Fig-139: A roller drafting arrangement.

The total draft is always the product of the individual drafts and not the sum:
D Total=D1 × D2 × … … .× Dn ( 52 )

DRAFTING SYSTEM
“The system by which the drafting rollers i.e. top rollers and bottom rollers are arranged to
perform the drafting operation, is called drafting system.” The drafting system is the heart of the
draw frame and thus the part which exerts the most decisive influence on quality.

1. 4 OVER 3 DRAFTING SYSTEM (Modern drafting system):

In the spinning mill, 4 over 3 roller drafting system [Fig-146] is used with the pressure bar in the
modern finisher draw frame. (e.g. rieter RSB D45 & truetzschler TD 03).This is illustrated with
technical information [14]:

FEATURE:
1. A Fourth roller with lower loading act as the curve guide to facilitate the sliver formation.
2. A pressure bar ensures the firm guidance of material in main draft field and the curve
alignment permits the proper guidance of web to forward.
3. Top rollers are uniform in diameter
4. Front bottom roller is large in diameter.

Fig-146: Roller Drafting arrangement 4 over 3.

3 OVER 3 DRAFTING SYSTEM

This type of draft roller arrangement is widely used in the spinning machines and in the drawing
section this arrangement is used by rieter in the breaker draw frame, e.g. SB D- 11.[8]
1. Top rollers are uniform in diameter
2. A pressure bar ensures the firm guidance of material in main draft field.
3. Front bottom roller is large in diameter.
4. Simple in design, easy in operation and better in quality.

Fig-147: Drafting Arrangement 3 over 3.

4 OVER 4 DRAFTING SYSTEM

This type of drafting system is not used anymore in draw frame.
 Fig: 150: Drafting Arrangement 4 over 4.
D4.15 DRAFT: DRAFTING TOOLS (Different parts at drafting system)
Drafting arrangement is consist of:
1. Top Roll and 2. Bottom Roll
TOP ROLLERS
The top rollers are not positively driven. Ball bearings are used almost exclusively in the roller
mountings. The thick coating forming the roller surface is made of synthetic rubber. An
important characteristic of this coating is its hardness.
SOFT COATING IS DESIGNED FOR FRONT TOP ROLLER:
Hard top rollers, e.g. steel rollers (Fig - 144, a), give very high pressure in the center of the nip
line and produce small friction field along transverse direction. Hence, the outer layers can
escape the pressure. The situation worses when number of fibers reduce in fiber body. An
improvement of this condition is obtained by covering the roller with soft coating. Soft coats
surround the fiber strand to a greater extent than harder ones and produce better friction field
(Fig - 144, c).

Fig-151: Pressfit cot with helical groove Fig-152: Fluting of the bottom rollers;
a) axial flutes, b) inclined flutes (spiral flutes), c) knurled fluting.
Thus guide the fibers better. On the other hand, they wear out more quickly. A soft coating is
therefore used where good guidance is necessary, i.e. where few fibers have to be moved with
high draft levels (e.g. at the front rollers of the ring spinning machine). Where this is not
required, harder coatings are mostly used. Hardness is specified in terms of degrees Shore.
THE GRADE OF HARDNESS:
The following ranges are defined: u
Soft 65° - 75° Shore
Medium 75° - 80° Shore
Hard above 80° Shore
Diameter: Normally the diameters of top rollers are between 25 and 40 mm but normally
diameters between 34 and 38 mm are used.
MAINTENANCE OF THE TOP ROLLERS:
Maintenance of top roller is carried out in two points:
1. Grinding: The soft coatings wear out during spinning process, therefore, they must be
reground from time to time. This is done periodically with a predetermined schedule, usually
removing 0.1mm thickness. If the thickness of the coating has been reduced to a defined
minimum, then the old coat must be replaced with new one.
2. Lubricating: The top roller bearing to be lubricated periodically with a schedule for smooth
running of top roller to avoid damage and vibration and for this instruction manual of machine
manufacturer must be followed.

TOP ROLLER PRESSURE:

Top roller pressure play vital role in producing greater friction field for optimal drafting operation,
so top roller pressure to be optimized. To hold the fibers, the top rollers must be forced at high
pressure toward the bottom rollers. This pressure (loading) can be generated by means of:
a. Spring weighting (the most usual form);
Feature: uncomplicated, robust and easy to handle and required re-adjustment after coat
grinding
b. Pneumatic weighting (High performance):
Feature: more regular and exact pressure, allows easy and quick changes of roller weighting,
no required of re-adjustment after coat grinding
c. Hydraulic systems (hardly used):
Feature: This system damages the parts by producing rust.
d. Magnetic weighting (was used by the former Saco Lowell company):
Feature: Low performance, irregular pressure, difficult to handle and not allows quick changes
of roller pressure.
Application: The selection of top rollers depends on the material processed. For blends, the
following applies: select the top roller type according to the material with the highest portion of
the blends, and the best running performance. The top rollers are available for all Rieter® draw
frames as [8]:
Table-53: Selection characteristics of top cot rollers.
ColourRaw material Hardness Advantages
Gray CO carded, CV, PAN 83 Shore, Pressure and wear resistant, easy to buff
Black CO combed 75 Shore, Lowest tendency to lapping
Green PES 80 Shore, Antistatic characteristics
Brown Regenerate 67 Shore, Antistatic characteristics
Peach CO, CO/PES 72 Shore, Especially with Air-Jet-Spinning

BOTTOM ROLLER
Bottom rollers are positively driven and are made of steel. The bottom rollers are mounted in
roller stands or in the frame by means of needle, roller or ball bearings. In order to improve the
ability and efficiency of the bottom rollers to carry the fibers along drafting zone, they are formed
with flutes. The flutes are of the following types (Fig-152):
1. Axial flutes (a),
2. Inclined flutes (spiral flutes) (b),
3. Knurled fluting (c).
The diameter of the bottom rollers can lie in the range of 20 - 90 mm, but normally diameters
between 25 and 50 mm are used.

D4.16 DRAFT: ROLLER DISTANCE SETTING

The roller distance/spacing setting is generally known as the roller gauge. This distance setting
depends mainly on the fiber length. The fiber length considered for roller distance setting is:
1. 2.5% SL: The clamp length of longest 2.5% fiber by number - This length is obtained from
Digital Fibrograph™.
2. UHML: Upper half mean length- This length is obtained from HVI™.
3. L5% (n): The mean length of longest 5% fiber by number- This length is obtained from
AFIS™.

Fig-153: Principle of roller gauge

Key Original New Starting

Parameter Cotton Cotton allowance
AFIS Length
L5% (n) 42.4 mm 35.9mm
Front Zone (mm) 46.1 39.9 4 mm
Back Zone (mm) 47.1 40.9 5 mm
OPTIMAL ALLOWANCE:
The selection of the optimal roller distance allowance depends on the following three
parameters:[10],[12]
1. Fiber breakage: If the allowance is too short, then a higher proportion of longest fibers will be
caught simultaneously at the nip point of back and front roller. This will create fiber damage due
to increased tensions on the fibers.
2. Irregularity (In Term Of Floating Fiber): On the other hand, if the allowance is too long then a
greater proportion of fibers into drafting field will not caught by any nip point of back or front
roller. These fibers will float in uncontrolled manner and will create irregularity in the delivery
product.
3. Optimal Friction Field: Smooth separation of fiber during leaving from the back roll and
entering into the nipping line of front roll is the pre-condition of perfect drafting. Optimal friction
field is the indicator of the optimal separation of fibers within fiber assembly into drafting zone.
The fibers of different friction co-efficient and design of drafting assembly determine the optimal
friction field with different roller gauging.

Selection of Selection of optimal distance allowance

Fiber length Front Zone Back Zone
2.5% SL 8 – 10 mm 12 -16 mm
UHML 5 – 7 mm 10 – 12 mm
L5% (n) 1 - 2 mm 6-10 mm

D4.19 DRAFT: EFFECT OF DRAFT

Draft takes place between drafting rolls. Effect of draft on the fiber strand can be discussed in
terms of physical and quality terms:
1. Parallelization: Draft creates aligning and parallelization of the fibers in the sliver along the
fiber axis.
2. Straightening: Draft makes the straightening of the curl and hook fibers in the sliver.
3. Cleaning: Draft creates heavy fiber to fiber and fiber to metal friction. Thus elimination of
considerable amount of dust from the material takes place.
4. Attenuation (Thinning out): Draft creates the thinning out of the material thickness by
reducing mass per unit length, results in reduction of number of fibers in the cross section.
5 Irregularity: Draft increases the irregularity of delivered material than feed material. The
produced irregularity may be classified as CVm, imperfection and hairiness. A numerous study
was carried out to equationize the relationship between draft and irregularity. Summary of this
can be illustrated as below:[13]
2 2
CV Output=CV Input + a(D – 1)

Where, CVOUTPUT, CVINPUT = relative variances of irregularity of the output and input material,
respectively, a = slope of the line and D = applied draft.
Therefore, due to increase in draft raises the magnitude and amplitude of mass variation in the
fiber product.

DOUBLING: EFFECT OF DOUBLING

Doubling take place between the feed roll and doubling device. Effect of doubling on the fiber
strand can be discussed in terms of physical and quality terms:
PHYSICAL CHANGE
1. Equalization: doubling improves the short medium and long term unevenness of blending
fiber strand.
2. Blending: doubling provides blending or mixing of the fiber of same or different materials. So
sliver quality can be controlled by proper doubling.
QUALITY CHANGE
3. Irregularity: doubling leads to reduction of irregularity of the fiber package. The relation
between doubling and irregularity is shown by following formula:
100 a
CV min %=
√❑

Average CV % of Individual feed

CV % of Product feed =
√❑

D6.3 FIBER CONFIGURATION VS NUMBER OF DRAWING STAGES

IMPORTANCE OF HOOK FIBER ON NUMBER OF MACHINE PASSAGE
In a card sliver, the majority of fibre hooks are trailing hooks. But as the card sliver is deposited
into a can and gets taken out to feed a drawframe, it follows a ‘first-in-last-out’ principle and a
reversal of hook direction occurs. This is known as natural reversal of fibre direction. Because of
this natural reversal, most fibres (in the card slivers) entering the first drawframe have leading
hooks, which do not get effectively straightened out as we have just discussed. In addition, a
short staple combing machine (the comber) straightens out leading hooks effectively and trailing
hooks must be presented to a ring spinning machine (the drafting in ring spinning does not
straighten out leading hooks).

From this brief discussion, it is clear that to eliminate the hooks, leading hooks must be
presented to the comber and trailing hooks to drafting device of the ring spinning machine.

For these reasons, there must be an even number of passages between the short staple
carding and combing machines, and an odd number between the short staple carding and ring
spinning machines. This type of machine arrangement has shown in Fig-161.

In rotor spinning, the disposition of the hooks is of little significance.

 Fig-161: Effect of drawing passage on fiber configuration in ring yarn

D7.0 AUTOLEVELLING
The general aim of manufacturing everywhere is to create durable, faultless products primarily:
not to correct errors but rather to prevent them, especially and as far as possible at the start of
the process. In the spinning mill, the card is the effective start of the process, since the first
intermediate product, the sliver, is produced here. A relatively high degree of evenness is
required in this product. For various reasons, the card cannot always operate absolutely evenly,
for example, owing to uneven material feed. Spinning mills are therefore, forced to use
autoleveling equipment under highly varying circumstances. Different principles for autoleveling
can be selected depending upon the quality requirements and the operating conditions in the
individual mill. So, the material supply should operate with the greatest possible degree of
accuracy in any case, since degree of accuracy of feed material has a direct effect on the
delivery material (e.g. sliver) evenness. Virtually, all autoleveling devices use the possibility of
adjustment of feed speed; adjustment of the delivery speed is hardly ever used.

TYPE OF AUTOLEVELLING
a. Basis on length of leveling that can be performed by the autoleveler, the autoleveling is
classified as [7]:
1. Short Term AutoLevelling System: Regulating length 10 -12 cm
2. Medium Term AutoLevelling System: Regulating length above about 3 m
3. Long Term AutoLevelling System: Regulating length above about 20 m

b. In addition, basis on autoleveling controlling system that regulates the unevenness,

the autoleveling is classified as:
1. Open Loop Autoleveling System 2. Close Loop Autoleveling System
Technology of autoleveling by open-loop & close-loop system is illustrated in Fig-163.

Fig-163: Technical view of autoleveling system

A modern open-loop system of autoleveling [16] that is used in industry as recommended by
rieter® is illustrated in Fig-164 & Fig-165:
 Fig-164: The principle of Rieter AutoLevelling System [RSB]

Fig-165: –The principle of Rieter Scanning System [RSB].

D7.2 AUTOLEVELING: DIFFERENCE

A distinction should also be drawn between open-loop and close-loop autoleveling system is
illustrated in Table-50 & Fig-166 as:

Table-54: Difference between open loop and closed loop autoleveling system.

DRAFTING WAVE: PRINCIPLE OF DRAFTING WAVE FORMATION

A typical roller drafting device consists of multiple pairs of rollers, each pair moving at a
successively faster speed, attenuating the fiber strand. The distance between the two adjacent
pairs of rollers is set according to the length of the longest fibers to avoid fiber damage. For this
reason staple fiber having different length groups, the shorter fibers are not always controlled by
the drafting rollers due to out of nipping. These fibers are defined as “floating” fibers, and their
movement is unpredictable [2]. The undue movement of floating fibers, tendency to move in
bunches, causing periodic irregularity in “sinusoidal wave” form in the strand drafted, which are
called “drafting waves”.

D9.9 ADDED IRREGULARITY: THEORY OF DRAFTING WAVE

From the definition of drafting wave, the shorter fibers or floating fibers neither gripped by front
roll nor by back roll just immediately causes the drafting wave. Therefore, there are three stages
[2] to describe the theory of drafting wave.
1. At Start: Back Zone-The slower movement of the fibers.
2. At Middle: Middle Zone-the complex movement of the fibers.
3. At front roll: Front Zone-The faster movement of the fibers .

D9.12 FEATURE OF MODERN DRAW FRAME

LATEST DEVELOPMENT IN DRAW FRAME
1. Higher production rate: In view of production cost, higher production rate will reduce the
product’s cost. So a modern draw frame should have feature of higher production rate. High-
performance draw frames currently produce over 400 kg of sliver per hour at each delivery and
run at 1200 m.min-1.
2. Utilization of higher draft: Higher draft utilization keeping quality index better and bettering
the control of short fiber.
3. AUTO DRAFT: AUTO DRAFT optimizes the break draft for the autoleveller draw frame fully
automatically.
The break draft is decisive for yarn quality. The break draft is material-related and quality-
relevant. The degree of break draft has a major influence on evenness and strength of yarn,
number of imperfections and running properties of the spinning machine. Compared to this, the
total draft has only a minor influence on yarn quality. Furthermore, the total draft is specified by
the spinning plan and is therefore only variable within limits.
4. AUTOSET/OPTI SET: The main drafting point is decisive for the levelling quality. The self-
adjusting function of the AUTOSET automatically determines the ideal main drafting point. The
sensor scans the fed slivers and initiates a corresponding time-lagged levelling action point as
distance as soon as the material has reached the main draft zone (about 1000 mm away). This
time lag between measurement point and levelling action point determines the main drafting
point whose exact position depends, among other things, on machine settings, material
characteristics and ambient atmosphere.
5. AUTO leveling-SERVO DRAFT: In fact draw frame is itself a source of sliver irregularity.
High-performance draw frames currently produce over 400 kg of sliver per hour at each
delivery. Very large quantities of faulty sliver will be produced in the time that elapses before
discovery of the defect. It is therefore, understandable that leveling draw frames are a must for
every modern short staple spinning mill. Modern draw frame should have scope to elimination of
sliver irregularity. It is done by utmost developed sliver mass variation scanning, detection and
equalizing technology with the state art of design.
SERVO DRAFT i.e. high performance digital servo-motor provides highly dynamic
compensation of deviations of actual values from the target sliver weight.
6. AUTO CREEL: Creel rollers are now auto creel i.e. servo motor drived.
7. AUTO SUCTION: There is scope of removing dust from sliver by releasing the adhesion of
dust to the fiber utilizing fiber to fiber or fiber to metal surface friction characteristics. Pneumatic
suction technology is on the center of this concept. Suction over greater area and suction under
consistent rate is the requirement of the feature of the modern draw frame, e.g. “Frequency-
controlled Ecorized suction system” from rieter.
8. AUTO HELP: AUTO solution package for spectrogram analysis for rapid trouble shooting.
9. Automation: Automation is utmost necessary in the sense of reducing carrying cost and
quality improvement. Continual research effort made innovation of state of art of automation
technology. In the following area application of automation have the scope:
▪ Auto material transportation:

▪ Automatic can changer:

▪ Automatic monitoring system: Production Monitoring, Quality monitoring, Machine

Monitoring
10. Online quality control: The development in the field of online quality control technology
enabled the draw frame to deliver the product with higher productivity & quality, e.g. RQM-Rieter
Quality Monitor.
7. State of the art stop motion:
▪ Safety Stop motion

▪ Quality Stop motion

8. Larger can size: Larger can is used to avoid the piecing frequency and to increase the
productivity.
9. Improved top arm loading technology: Top arm pressure is the core technical point of
drafting technology. In this sense, quality quantity, consistency, working area and distribution
index of the top arm loading is the heart of drafting technology.
10. Fault Locating System: There are emitting light for indicating the fault location.
11. Reduction of gear drive system: Introduction of servo drives and belt drives reduced the
complexity of conventional gear drive system. As a result, a lot of drive –error dropped down.
12. Maintenance-friendly: To lower down-time for maintenance program the machine should
be modular designed to ease the maintenance work.
13. Modular design: Modern draw frame is built with modular design.