Mahlo presents sophisticated technology for straightening and process control system
Celebrating 70 years in the textile business, Mahlo of Germany had on display its latest modular straightening and process control system the Orthopac RVMC-15, which combines the functionality of a weft straightener with that of a process control system in one compact device. “The textile industry is fighting with increasing production and energy costs, declining profit margins, shorter production times as well as greater requirements on quality and flexibility, hence cost-efficient and quality-focused processes for sustained production are becoming increasingly important,” reasons Thomas Hopfl of Mahlo. Aiming to give the industry better quality goods, straight-thread products and saving of resources, all in a single step, the Orthopac RVMC-15 found many interested takers.
In woven fabrics, one of the biggest quality issues arise due to the skewing and bowing of the fabric. The Orthopac RVMC-15 automatically ensures a straight-thread product before and after the drying or fixing process and optimizes the processes all around the stenter. “This increases quality and saves resources and energy. In addition, the modular design of the system allows its flexible adaptation to all applications so standard requirements and highly customized demands are met with equal ease,” informs Hopfl. Online monitoring and regulation of all relevant parameters at the shop floor ensures that defects are picked up and corrections made in time.
The technology with integrated web distortion detection forms the basis of the modular design and additional intelligent sensors can be connected to the control system via a bus connection. The process parameters that can be measured, visualized, controlled and documented by means of special software packages include weft thread or course skew/skew and bow rollers of the straightener Orthopac RVMC, high moisture/squeezing pressure, thread or course density/over-feed, exhaust moisture/fan speed/flap opening, surface temperature/product web speed and dwell time, surface weight/over-feed, residual moisture/product web speed, stretch and shrinkage/over-feed and product width.
The flexibility of information for customized needs is one of the core edges that the technology has over other such machines in the market. “Individually modifiable combination displays of the measured values, entirely according to customer preference, facilitate easy monitoring of the complete process by the user,” says Hopfl. The company is represented in India by A.T.E. and the response for the technology has been on the increase. “The Indian textile industry was slow in adapting such high-end technologies in the past, but over the last decade the interested have been growing. In fact at ITMA we have been receiving many visitors from the region. This only goes to show the seriousness of the industry to meet global standards,” concludes Hopfl.
Navis TubeTex launches patented technology for ‘spirality’
Among the many technologies for knitting, a few companies with specialized application also made an impression at ITMA. Among them, Navis TubeTex, a leading supplier of high technology finishing machinery, launched a new patented technology for controlling spirality in knit fabrics. Also referred as ‘torque’, spirality is one of the most difficult challenges in finishing knit fabrics and the new SCS Spirality Correction System utilizes a specially designed correction chamber and sophisticated control parameters for the perfect solution. Jeffery T Dixon, Senior Director, International Sales shared that the response to the technology was very positive and few immediate bookings too happened including one from N.R. Group, Bangladesh, which officially sign the sales agreement for a complete line of Navis TubeTex machinery.
For any knit manufacturer, spirality poses a major quality issue as common problems associated with spirality are lay-up twisting, cutting misalignment, mismatched patterns, sewing problems, shifting side seams, garment distortions, and print or stripe movement after sewing. The new Navis TubeTex Spirality Control System (SCS) originally developed by Geo Energy Solutions P.C. is one of the most significant developments for finishing knit fabrics in many years. “This process absolutely fixes one of the most difficult problems faced by manufacturers and with machines running in production for over a year now, the technology has given its proven results,” shares Dixon.
Information for a given fabric’s spirality percentage, direction of rotation, and tubular width is fed into the system and the SCS’s control system, using sophisticated and proprietary algorithms, imparts the correct amount and direction of correction to control spirality. The correction chamber is designed to give correction to the tube with very limited friction to prevent any damage to the finished fabric. A ‘hole’ detection safety shut-off is included to prevent damage to the fabric or machine.
Some of the key advantages of using the SCS are controlled spirality to meet quality standards, spirality correction to less than 4% after processing, stable correction, works on all tubular knitted fabrics, efficient and automatic operation for correction and substantially reduces sewing and cutting problems from spirality. “We had a solution for most of the issues which affect quality in knits from stenters to compacting, and with the addition of this new technology, we can now offer a complete quality solution for knit production,” avers Dixon.
Also on display was a Pak-Nit e3+ tubular compactor, TM-100 open width compactor, Master-Nit II Relax Dryer and the N-Dura stenter.
