Miles of Fabric Take a Spin with Color

There Are No Second Chances

In the world of fabrics, textile manufacturers get only one pass at dyeing a web of fabric. In order to ensure reliable, consistent, high quality production of fabric, color manufacturers worldwide rely on highly automated AIRFLOW based dye-houses.

Modern machines dye webs of fabric 1,500 meters long and 1.5 meters wide. Fabric is placed into machines through “feeder windows” and prepared for dyeing. A reel in the upper portion of the plant moves the material steadily through a nozzle into the air flow chamber while it is shaped into a tube. Without touching anything, airbrush like nozzles then spray the fabric with the dye chemicals while it is suspended in the air flow chamber. The fabric continues to move through the air flow machine until it attains the appropriate color.

No PLC!

The control electronics responsible for monitoring the dyeing process (e.g. temperature and pH value) and providing the appropriate dyeing chemicals at the correct time have evolved over the years. Conventional air flow plants rely on programmable logic controllers (PLCs) to perform the tasks associated with dyeing a web of fabric. Some manufacturers of dyeing machines are now using industrial bus systems with their PLCs to simplify wiring and reduce costs. While some wiring reduction is typically achieved, bus systems still use expensive and unreliable PLCs, complicated software, and antiquated maintenance systems. Companies are now overcoming these limitations by using LonWorks technology, a fourth generation control system.

THEN Maschinen-und Apparatebau GmbH, a manufacturer of highly automated textile machines, is known for their technological leadership in the textile industry. The company recently converted its own machines from PLC-based controllers to a LonWorks based system.

Evolution You Can See

The new AIRFLOW machine introduced by THEN has many distinct improvements from its predecessor. Previous machines required up to four lines per sensor or actuator. LonWorks based sensors and actuators on the new machine are networked with a free topology, twisted pair cable, reducing the number of electrical and electronic components from 1,500 to 200. By eliminating complex, sequential programs in PLCs, the LonWorks solution divided software into many small parallel functions that are processed in individual nodes. Overall, software development was reduced from 26 to 12 weeks. The local intelligence provided by Neuron Chips allowed THEN to design in several new self-test mechanisms. The new LonWorks based machines can be remotely diagnosed by modem decreasing maintenance and repair costs. Errors can be pinpointed to the sensor or actuator where a failure is occurring. And the service technician can get right to the problem, reducing repair time.

For example, the aging of a valve seal can be tracked and monitored through a predictive maintenance algorithm built into the network.

Tickled Pink

THEN’s customers also benefit from the new Airflow-AFS piece goods dyeing machine; the machines are more user friendly than ever before. Machine operators now direct the process using a touch screen software application connected to each individual component in the plant.
The quality of fabrics processed on the new machines has been greatly increased for many reasons. The process is more gentle on the fabric, treatment time is decreased, and the intelligence capabilities allow a dyeing process to be completed even if interruptions occur. The net result is the number of second-quality goods produced has been slashed.

Because of the direct access capability that LonWorks has provided, machine operators now receive better support from the manufacturer. The added intelligence capabilities allow for faster system upgrades and adjustments that couldn’t be done before.

And perhaps the biggest advantage the customer has seen is the decrease in cost of a very expensive piece of equipment as well an increase in availability. The new generation AIRFLOW machine developed by THEN has lowered the system price by ten percent!

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