Magnetic Ring-Spinning

Revolutionizing the Tradition

In today’s spinning technology, at least 4 types of spinning systems are commercially available. These are the tradi­tional ring spinning, rotor spinning, airjet spinning and friction spinning. Among them, ring spinning stands alone in providing high quality yarn suitable for any type of tex­tile end product. Other more recent systems enjoy much higher production speed than traditional ring spinning, but yarn quality restricts their use to only narrow ranges of tex­tile products. The primary technological limitation of ring spinning lies in the speed of the ring-traveler system. The traveler is a C-shaped thin piece of metal that is used for a limited period of time, disposed and replaced on a frequent basis. Three specific issues must be addressed to overcome this limitation:

· the dependence of the yarn linear speed (or delivery speed) on the rotational speed of the traveler

· the continuous need to stabilize yarn tension during

spinning and the dependence of this stability on the traveler speed

· the impact of traveler speed on fiber behavior in the spinning triangle

Research to date has only provided about a 15% improve­ment in traveler speed without affecting the traveler/ring contact thermal load capacity. Ring spinning is still at a production rate disadvantage of 15 to 20 times in compari­son with other spinning systems. Therefore, the challenge is how to break the traditional paradigm of ring spinning and revolutionize its principle in such a way that very high speeds can be achieved without sacrificing the traditional quality of ring spun yarns.

Our design approach is to totally eliminate the traveler from the ring spinning system and replace it with a mag­netically suspended lightweight annular disc that rotates in a carefully pre-defined magnetic field (See Figure below). By creating a non-touching environment of the rotating element for ring spinning, this system provides super high spinning rotation without the limitations of the current trav­eler system.

By replacing the traveler in ring spinning
with a disc that rotates in a magnetic field,
we hope to maintain
the high quality of ring spun yarn,
but at much higher speeds.

Magnetic Ring Spinning System Cross-section in the X-Z Plane

In the magnetic ring spinning system a bias flux is gen­erated from both permanent magnets across the air gap (shown in blue paths in Figure above), supporting the weight of the rotating disk in the axial direction. In case the floating ring is displaced from its central position, the permanent magnets will create a destabilizing force that at­tracts the ring even further away from the center. The con­trol system allows the current in the system to be controlled by feeding back information on the position of the rotor (obtained using four displacement sensors mounted radially to the floating ring) and adjusting the control currents based on this information. In simple terms, the control system re­duces the upper system current when the rotor is above the center position and increases the current when the rotor is below the center position. The total magnetic force will tend to bring the floating ring to its central position. We have now constructed the first prototype (See Photo below) and are optimizing its performance. The system was mod­eled using Simulink, to test how it performs. And the yarn balloon was analyzed using this model (See next page).

Contributing Graduate Students: Sherief Abo-Elenin, Rabab Farouk Gangumalla Yamshi Reddy, Jayendra S. Dabahde (Auburn).

 

Industry Interactions: 4 [Unifi, Velcro, Milliken Research Corp, Maschinenfabrik Rieter AG]

Academic non-NTC Interactions: 2 Project Web Address:

http://www.eng.auburn.edu/~fhady/Magnetic-report-2002.pdf

Patents:

1. Magnetically Elevated Ring Spinning System has been as­signed disclosure number AU#02-035 on 23 Sep 2002. See http://ott.auburn.edu/ringspinning.htm if bad link, try instead reference #3.

2. A Ring Spinning System for Making Yarn Having a Magneti­cally-Elevated Ring serial number PCT/US03/30317; filed on 23 Sep 2003.

For Further Information:

3. http://ott.auburn.edu/pdf/RingSpinningFlyer.pdf

4. El Mogahzy and Chwning, Fiber-To-Yarn Engineering (Book-in-Press) (2000), El Mogahzy, Beltwide Proceedings, 1997, 1999, 2000, and El Mogahzy, EFS Research Forum, 1995, 1998, and 1999, Stalder, Textile Asia, 1991, Lord, EFS Research Forum, 1998.

5. Y. El Mogahzy, and F. Abdel-Hady, New Spinning Technolo­gies in the Context of the Role of Fibers, Annual Textile Insti­tute Conference, Cairo, Egypt (March 2002).

6. Development of Magnetically Elevated Ring Spinning System, submitted to Textile Res Journal, Dec 2003.

Faissal Abdel-Hady, a Research Assis­tant Professor of Textile Eng-neering at Auburn since 1998 and an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Ain Shams (Egypt), earned a B.S in 1975 and an M.S. in 1981 there and a Ph.D. in 1988 at Ecole Nationale Su­perieure des Mines de Saint Etienne (France), all in mecha-ical engineering. Faissal then was a manager in indus­trial software for Hicon France. His re­search interests include thermal analy­sis. stress simulation, automatic con­trol and mechatronics, mechanical components, CAD/CAM for filament wound structures, dynamic signal processing and software development. S00-AE6, F01 -A02 *, S01 -AE32, F04 -AE01* fhady@eng.auburn.edu

(334)-844-5471 http://www.eng.auburn.edu/~fhady

Yehia E. El Mogahzy, an Associate Pro­fessor of Textile Engineering at Auburn, joined the faculty in 1986 when he re­ceived a Ph.D. in fiber and polymer sci­ence from NC State. He also holds a M.S. in textile engineering from Alexan­dria University (Cairo). Yehia's research interests include statistical analysis, quality control, fiber-to-yarn engineering and physical/mechanical properties of fibers, yarns and fabrics.

F92 -A02, M92 -A01*, I95-A11, F96 -A03, F99-A13*, S00-AE06, F01 -AE02,

S01 -AE32*

yehiae@eng.auburn.edu

(334)-844-5463

Faissal Abdel-Hady, leader; Yehia El Mogahzy
(Auburn Textile Engineering)