New weft insertion machine for wind turbine market by Karl Mayer

Karl Mayer Malimo, the leading textile machinery manufacturer that specialises in technical textiles, has combined the key components of its RS MSUS-V machine with biaxial technology and developed a biaxial machine featuring weft insertion in line with the knitted courses to suit the market.

This new innovation is known as the Biaxtronic CO and compared to the conventional version, this new composite machine is said to offer an improved cost:benefit ratio and advantages in terms of its operation and maintenance.

The products made on this machine are also said to provide a different type of quality, making them suitable for the Chinese wind turbine market – Chinese manufacturers of multiaxial structures for the blades of wind turbines require a construction containing weft yarns that are not pierced during the knitting process.

As with all stitch-bonded biaxial textiles, the fabrics produced on the Biaxtronic CO are made up of zero inlays and weft yarns and, if required, an additional base web, such as a chopped glass strand mat or a nonwoven.

The two reinforcing yarn systems are inserted absolutely straight and parallel at angles of 0 and 90º and fixed in place by stitches. This is said to avoid variations caused by the construction, which lead to loss of strength and undesirable stretching with woven fabrics.

The weft yarns are not pierced or damaged. This enables higher strength levels to be achieved when using conventional materials. As well as that, new yarn combinations can be used for the same strength values, the company reports.

The Biaxtronic CO is available in working widths of 100", 101" and 102". The gauges available as standard are E 5, E 6, E 7 and E 10. The standard features also include the KAMCOS system, an N-drive with a maximum of three pattern discs, an operating interface with 12.1" touchscreen monitor, and a warp beam frame with one or two warp beam positions.

An electronically controlled yarn let-off drive is available for each mounted warp beam. The maximum flange diameter of the sectional warp beams is 32". The zero inlays are delivered via electrically driven delivery rollers from creels. The tried-and-tested MSUS system is responsible for weft insertion.

The knitting elements are also similar to those of a weft-insertion warp knitting machine, and include a compound needle and closing wire bar, knock-over sinker bar, zero inlay bar, counter retaining bar with support rail, and one or two ground guide bars for stitch formation. Every yarn is tied-in in a stitch at the knitting point to bond the structure of the textile.

The Biaxtronic CO combines the latest materials with complex design solutions, especially in terms of the drive technology and the weft insertion system. These optimised features enable this high-performance machine to reach speeds of up to 1,400 min-1 and to achieve maximum production rates of 6.5 m/min, the manufacturer reports.

The weft laying frequencies are also extremely high. The Biaxtronic CO produces top-quality products. In particular, the continuous transport belt for feeding the chopped glass strands under the yarn layers produces textiles with no faults. This system guarantees that the chopped glass strand mat and the weft layer are kept separate at all times.

Bangladesh’s DBL Group chooses Santex to accelerate growth

DBL Group, one of the largest and 100% export oriented vertical knit garments and textiles manufacturers in Bangladesh, is to continue its cooperation with Swiss knit fabric finishing machinery manufacturer Santex of Switzerland, in order to achieve its goal of becoming the country’s largest vertically integrated producer by 2016. With dyeing and finishing capacity of more than 50 tones per day, the company aims to rise to 100 tonnes per day by 2016.

Some of the fabrics produced by the company include single jersey, pique, fleece, terry, rib and interlock, made from fibres like cotton, viscose, polyester, rayon and elastane. DBL Group has strong business relations with the world famous clothing brands like H&M, Walmart, George, Esprit, Puma and others.

The cooperation between DBL Group and Santex goes back to 2001 when Santex delivered the first Santashrink and Santastretch Compactor for tubular form finishing.

Since then Santex has become a strategic partner for the finishing of knitted fabrics. In 2013 Santex also delivered two Santashrink Progress, six chambers, with Double Pad and Pin Frame for knitted fabrics in open width form.

The project was guided via Santex agent in Bangladesh – Aamra resources. This is the first phase of an extended expansion of DBL Group as part of the modern investment plan in the Color City project.

“The decision to buy again Santex was due to the excellent performance of Santashrink, especially lower energy consumption compared with the competition. Furthermore steaming and vibration chamber give a better relax and shrink results, quality is a major issue for DBL,” said Anwarul Azim, Technical Director of DBL Group.

During a recent ceremony in the head office of DBL Group in Dhaka, the whole management team under the leadership of Managing Director M. A. Jabbar, received an original Swiss bell from the president of Santex AG as a memento for the excellent relationship between the two companies.

Source: Knitting Industry

Latest Developments in Cold Pad Batch Dyeing

Benninger, the Swiss textile finishing and cord production machine ranges manufacturer, is offering its Küsters S-roller technology as a safe, reproducible dyeing method – the CPB (Cold Pad Batch) process. According to the company, the CPB process is becoming increasingly important, as it can be used to dye both short and long yardages of knitted and woven fabrics very economically.

The new Küsters S-roller technology with the very latest technical features combined with modern control equipment and electronics supplied by the Benninger mechanical engineering division is said to provide the technical process conditions that are expected of such a process today.

Complex dyeing process

Dyeing is a very complex process and influenced by a number of parameters, the company reports and dyeing results are now not only gauged by visual assessment, but also by technical measuring instruments that can determine these results accurately and precisely.

According to the manufacturer, correction of dyeing faults is time-consuming and expensive and furthermore, ecological sustainability demands are constantly rising, especially with regards to the consumption of natural resources, and are increasingly becoming a cost factor that affects decisions. CPB dyeing with reactive dyes is a cost-effective process with a very high level of reproducibility, the company reports.

Application system

Impregnation in the padder is the most important part of CPB dyeing, Benninger reports. There are also other factors affecting the process that also require consideration but cannot be directly influenced by a plant engineer.

On the surface, the demand for an application system for forced application is relatively simple, Benninger observes and it must be ensured that the dye can be equally and constantly applied across the entire width of the fabric after a short period of contact with the dye liquor. This is only possible if the squeezing pressure and the squeezing nip can be kept constant, the company adds.

This task becomes complicated when the properties of the material to be dyed have to be included in calculations. From a purely technical viewpoint, conditions are affected by different fibre and yarn thicknesses, absorbency, fabric tension, weft distortion, admission moisture content and liquor temperature, dye properties and errors such as dye migration at the selvedges during drying. For this reason the requirements to be met by an application system are complicated and can only be satisfied by the use of state-of-the-art control and instrumentation equipment.

Maximised reproducibility

The new Küsters / Benninger S-roller technology is said to ensure even liquor application over the entire fabric width, as well as deliberately different liquor application in the edge-centre-edge areas. The reproducibility is maximised by an electronic pressure system (patented) that ensures controllable line forces over the entire roller width. In addition, dyers have a higher level of flexibility that is said to offer decisive advantages, especially when dyeing knitted fabrics and stretch woven fabrics.

Higher-level technologies that ensure additional process safety from a technical viewpoint, such as tailing correction and the cleverly designed dosing system with the track-proven Contidos, as well as the new four-circuit cooling and temperature management, enhance the ease of handling of the dyeing padder and its reproducibility, according to the company.

With computer aided simulation, the flow conditions at various speeds and with various fabric qualities were tested to prevent so-called dead zones in the dyeing trough, and resulted in the development of the mini U-Flow. It was therefore possible to improve additional influencing factors to achieve optimum dyeing results, which also has positive effects on the dye consumption.