Robotics to rule textile & apparel manufacturing processes

They installed Textra, a transport system for roving bobbin transport, containing closed profile rails, curves and switches for guiding trolley rollers. Friction-drive motors drive the trolley trains. Bobbins are automatically transferred to the trains by a bobbin doffer on the roving frame. From here, they are taken to the storage area or the spinning machines with the help of the trains. The bobbins are then inserted in the roving frame creel, replacing empty tubes. A flexible link system makes transporting any roving yarn produced at any roving frame to any given spinning frame easy. The control system makes sure that the right roving yarn is delivered to the right spinning frame.

Autoflow was installed at Welspun for picking up packages of finished yarn. The Autoflow has a capability to manage and transport over 1,000 packages per hour with more than 20 articles simultaneously. These are then transferred to a palletiser or a carton picking system for shipping. Such automation helps clients maintain contactless material transport system, extremely short clearance time and zero chances of misdirection of the yarns. “Neuenhauser is already considering Industry 4.0 (also referred to as the fourth Industrial Revolution) for future developments. But we have only started,” Languis remarked.

On a similar note, Jurgen Brockmann, marketing expert and joint director of sales at Thies GmbH & Co KG stated, “For over ten years in the integrated machine world of Coesfeld, Germany, the tasks otherwise done manually in many dyeing factories are done by robots. Integrated robotics replaces hard manual labour. Personnel now only have a monitoring role in the ultra-modern textile dyeing plants of Thies. Loading, unloading and transporting the bobbin carriers; bleaching; dyeing; drying and precise dispensing and delivery of dyes, chemicals and solids – every single link in the process chain is automated.”

“It is no secret that yarn dyeing is an extremely complex process, and a great deal of work goes into achieving a world-class, right-first-time rate with regards to the finished goods. We need to minimise mistakes in the operating procedures and automate systems in such a way that the process can be carried out without hitches. We will have to address the entire dye weighing and dye delivery systems which, in most parts of the world, are carried out by hand. We try to remove errors from the equation by automating everything – from weighing to delivery. As a result of our technology, the number of factories where these process steps are automated is growing,” Brockmann claimed.