How Textile Mills Are Modernizing (1948)

but how the figlie the dress of our modern e you've is symbolic of a progressive textile industry producing many kinds of fabric fabric like the got lace work of this evening gown tough fabrics for the big industrial markets fabrics for volume sales to the cutting markets and fabrics for the great retail markets where they meet the critical eye of another modern Eve who picks and chooses to get the best quality at the lowest price to keep her buying is the problem of the mill man his is a problem of high quality production at lowest possible cost today the textile utley attacking this problem with scientific modernization of mill cereals and machinery this modernization begins with the production of raw fiber and continues throughout all textile production in the transportation of materials you've listed in the embossing of rayon in the dozens of production steps that lead to the finished product this is a report to you the textile industry on how textile mills are modernizing the report deals with the chief friends theory and processing techniques illustrated by the latest equipment in America's mills and laboratories let's look into them one at a time to see what they have to offer each mill man in the production of today's textiles first the clearly marked trend to modern mill conditioning putting the mill itself into condition for maximum production at minimum unit costs proper mill conditioning means first air conditioning for the control of humidity and temperature and for purification of air in the mill in installations such as an opening room of a cotton mill cleaning the air of lint fumes and dust will mean improved working conditions with good air conditioning combs turn out better tops and cleaner yarn without streaks the drawing of fibers is smoother and more compact and a cleaner Slifer is delivered air conditioning avoids daily spinning losses and reduces the number of ends down yarn winding is smoother and there's less chafing automatically controlled humidity means more pliable yarn less static and more pounds per day in the we've shed cleaned air reduces downtime by removing much of the dirt that collects in and around the loom and off quality dark shades and seconds can be eliminated in finished products but the biggest payoff of all comes because personnel feel better about their work there's no mill room fever here and morale is high modern mill conditioning also requires a new science the science of industrial lighting engineered light conditioning throughout the mill means bright pleasant surroundings it provides an even distribution of light without sharp shadows or disturbing glare with correct illumination there's less waste and working conditions are safer in certain types of very fine work special illumination makes the spotting of defects quicker and again because better seeing means better doing good light conditioning has a lot to do with employee welfare and contentment modern mill conditioning eliminates a lot of the strong arm technique of pushin and shuffling to modern materials handling in the mill means newer mechanised methods tiering with electric lift trucks puts to use the upper levels of storage space that formerly were wasted and it frees extra floor space for greater storage capacity modern mill transportation smoothes and speeds production flow the strong-arm method is replaced by electrical and mechanical muscle power modern materials handling has increased production by speeding up handling of the lap in this mill an overhead conveyor system carries laps from the picker to the card room keeping each card supplied with a new lap as soon as the machine is empty in the dye room of another mill an electrically controlled hoist speeds up the handling of warp beams before dying after dyeing the beam is raised by the hoist then it's conveyed to the drying stand a new electrically controlled blending line feeder system is one of many up-to-date methods of handling stock this overhead conveyor and storage system makes continuous processing possible by keeping a number of machines automatically and constantly supplied with fibre stock an excellent example of mill conditioning through modernized materials handling and finally mill conditioning means modern electric power distribution highly dependable electric power is generated at the powerhouse and then carried over transmission lines to the mill alert mill men are turning to modern unit substations for reliable low-cost distribution of mill power the unit substation shown here in scale model is a new self-contained package for carrying power to centralized industrial control units for your production equipment modern indoor control centers save floor space maintenance is less and it's flexible for easy expansion later on where low voltage power is supplied up-to-date switchgear withdraw out circuit breakers and adequate interrupting capacity protects both equipment and personnel lessons stops in production due to blow ups capacitors too will help you to increase the capacity of the lines in your mill the expert advice of your power supplier may mean real savings through the use of modern power distribution equipment thus mill conditioning includes air conditioning modern lighting up to date materials handling and better electric power distribution four basic steps in conditioning your entire mill for lower unit cost production power at the point of use is the second big trend in mill modernization on cards for example this means that you can apply electric motors where they will do the most good right at the machine itself compared with the old line shaft drive individual motor drive is cleaner and more flexible there is no jungle of belts to maintain starting is easier speed is more uniform and of course working conditions are safe with individual drive machines such as these knitters can be arranged to save floor area and the machines turn out a product that's a lot cleaner power at the point of use is also illustrated by this winder by replacing a single motor with two motors yarn tension became more uniform and winder speed was increased result output went up more than a third here's a rayon spinning frame powered by individual motors each bucket spinner has its own motor the rotor shaft of the motor is thus pintle another motor operates the go days and the pumps still another operates the Traverse motion the result is efficient machine operation and high production of uniform yarn even when there's some unbalance in the cake one promising example of the trend to power at point of use is the two-for-one twister shown here in the laboratory of the manufacturer this twister will apply two turns of twist forever and at the same time will increase spindle speed about twenty percent an increase in yarn output of one hundred and forty percent is possible an individual motor will be used on each spindle by slowing down the usual 14,000 RPM speed of the motor we can see the double twist to each single revolution of the motor and the spindle shaft the speed of all spindles will be electrically synchronized this tense ometer shows how closely tension and twist are automatically controlled within the machine so the two-for-one twister is a modern example of new mechanical design coordinated with the electric motors right where they're needed power at the point of use higher controlled speeds is another production and processing trend that affects almost all phases of the industry in spinning higher controlled speeds are being achieved by a pilot installation of an adjustable speed drive for spinning frames although final details of this drive are still in the developmental stage there is encouraging evidence that spinning frames will be able to turn out more yarn than ever before with a constant speed motor yarn tension varies of course limiting the speed of spinning but with the new adjustable speed control note how tension is constantly kept at its ideal maximum and the Machine always runs at the maximum safe speed for each phase of the spinning operation with this device spinning frames already in service can deliver more yarn per day at less cost here's a full fashioned hosiery knitter that illustrates the trend to higher controls speeds an electronic brain automatically regulates more than a hundred successive speed changes during the 45 minute knitting cycle and it controls these speed changes so closely that there's no hunting or overshooting and no bothersome gallop at every stage the fastest safe speed is provided and the finished product is very very well made the product that is another kind of knitting machine a circular knitter also is controlled electronically a push of a button at the start of the shift and the nylon stocking knitter automatically makes the welt with reinforcing yarns knits the sheer leg reinforces the heel with extra yarns then the foot and the toe a complete seen free stocking in 17 minutes and this goes on all day long automatically the operator simply comes around to collect the stockings and replace the yarn packages a new war / drive is another example of the trend to higher control speeds this drive will handle yarns of any fiber or filament no matter how delicate they are because speed is controlled electronically yarn tension is uniform for yarn speed is kept constant within one half of one percent throughout the door as the beam diameter increases yarn breaks are headaches in any man's mill constant tension reduces them so there aren't so many stoppages slasher drive can now be accurately controlled through the use of amplitude generators and a slasher control panel the day of depending on the old feel and guesswork is long gone automatic control of both tension and moisture means that the slasher can supply the we've shared with beams of even density wound with more uniform stronger warps warps with exactly the right moisture content here's another example of higher controlled speeds this fully automatic machine winds the standard 6 inch Traverse on cones and tubes at a rate of nine hundred to a thousand bobbins an hour and the Machine needs only one Operator the portable warp tying machine does its job in a third of the time required by hand twisting in and an eighth of the time required by hand drawing in it will tie warps for similar patterns but different colors just as easily as it will tie identical patterns the machine works directly behind the Loom so there's no need for removing transporting and resetting your weaving element and loom downtime is cut in a few minutes you're ready for the next loom in rug weaving electronic drive on an ax minster loom from its properly controlled speeds the wide ssin operate at its highest control speed when in production electronic drive means controlled acceleration and deceleration the result better rugs and more of the the need for higher controlled speeds brought about the development of this cotton loom that runs twenty-four percent faster than the older one it replaced but turns out forty percent more cloth this jump in production isn't due entirely to the jump in speed the Loom has larger diameter beam heads it uses a bigger filling package and you can count on it for long steady service this loom is equipped with an individual drive motor new completely enclosed loom drive motors are smaller but they deliver the same amount of power motors of this type include this one with a built-in flywheel shown here with the cover removed these motors may be equipped with a synthetically insulated cable that prevents shorts fire and production delay a significant development in the trend to higher production speeds is this new weaving machine it uses individual pics in the filling instead of the usual continuous filling no bobbin winding here very little wear on the warp and you get uniform filling tension a modern example of higher controlled speeds finer quality control is another important trend in today's textile making methods for better quality sliver less fly and an improved product there's the vacuum card stripper in this device there's no brush to touch the clothing the vacuum stripper has cut direct stripping costs and at the same time boosted output the modern pin grafter includes even the very shortest fibers as it levels out and reduces the fibers it will hold the uniformity of this 30s yarn closely to half account this finer control of quality can result in a saving of as much as thirty five percent in the final cost of the product the machine is used here for Worcester yarns but it will also handle synthetics or blends in knitting finer quality control requires correct tension as the yaw fed from the beam a new electronic beam LED off control for Treecko knitters has been developed to regulate warp tension this control perma tension in both hand operation and running operation in this application electricity does its work by feeling while in the weft straightener it does its work by seeing the photoelectric I just takes a steady look at the cloth going through the tender when it sees skew it sets it true and it will do this even when the tenders operating at top speed by eliminating skew it cuts down inspection time later on and it makes possible more accurate cutting and making up it takes over for the operators eyes and nerves and best of all automatic electric weft straightening adds value to the product finer quality control in inspection is also possible by using stroboscopic lights there's a lot of wear and tear on eyes when trying to inspect speeding cloth but with stroboscopic lights the weave appears to stand still and inspection is easy and accurate this equipment used here on a tender can be used for finer quality control of printed pattern material and in several other ways a modern batcher drive all electrically controlled keeps tension uniform during beam winding operations by keeping correct cloth tension this drive prevents crushing of the inner layers of cloth during the winding promotes smooth Roland's safeguards the texture and finish this new Die jig illustrates the trend to finer quality control consistent unvarying die work depends on consistent on varying tension in the cloth in this machine tension is closely controlled electrically then to check die in fabric colors and check them accurately and scientifically there's the spectrophotometer this instrument can detect and record more than 2 million different colors it measures colors mathematically and it does the job right the first time the spectrophotometer enables the mill to produce uniform colors in succeeding batches and repeat orders so there are likely to be complaints from customers it permits exact matching to international color standards and the answer is always graphically recorded still another instrument for finer quality control is the electronic tensile tester by compensating for instrument in cloth characteristics it gives a smooth test at a constant rate of stress so it's really accurate this accuracy is made possible by applying automatic electronic control to the pendulum type tensile tester for finer quality control of either fiber or roving and air orifice system of measurement is proving successful here is this instrument in a laboratory measuring by air pressure the thickness or thinness of a section of cotton roving finer quality control here as in many other processes helps the mill produce better textiles another trend the trend to new processing methods is getting a lot of attention from progressive mill men for example there's the new technique of infrared radiant heating infrared lamps are already doing a multitude of processing jobs setting starches drying rayons pre dying fabrics drying impregnation zeeeee dehydration in san fer icing drying thread after slashing carbonizing wool drying printed cloth curing dies a different type of heating dielectric heating is shown here in a twist setting operation no kinks allowed in these tire cords carefully controlled dielectric heat assures a smooth uniform twist this fast modern method heats clear through from the inside out note too that no special heating cans are needed you simply heat through the final wrapping and the package comes out ready for shipment and this is only one of several practical applications of electric heating nonwoven fabrics illustrate this trend to new processing methods for example this material is made by blending cotton and rayon fibers then bonding instead of weaving them then there's an entirely new and different process of making pile fabrics of great density and with long wearing qualities with this method flock is propelled electrically onto cloth backing that has been coated with adhesive the fibers hit the backing squarely and stick forming a thick durable pile plane pile fabric for shoes can be made by this process so can embroidery material automobile rugs and fabrics for other applications from the trend to new processing methods let's turn to the final chapter in this report continuous processing one of the most important production and processing trends in the textile industry range operation continuous processing with two or more machines operating in tandem as a common length of fabric moves through them without interruption the basis of efficient range operation is the electrical system of coordinating the relative speeds of individually powered units the range will accelerate quickly it will decelerate smoothly and run steadily with just the right fabric tension automatically maintained at each individual unit the electric drive will provide speeds as fast as processing techniques will allow a compensating gate is one of the most commonly used control devices for the coordination of range speed and fabric tension another type of automatic control uses the photoelectric I to scan a loop in the fabric or so-called soft motors can be used where the warp of the fabric is strong enough itself to act as a control dealt and thus slow down or speed up the motors for correct tension this is the principle of electrically coordinated adjust full speed range drive continuous processing for bleaching washing dying and soaping printing and plane finishing in actual range operation each length of fabric receives identical treatment so uniformly higher quality of product is assured the handling of material between machine units is done away with and in between losses are reduced continuous processing cuts down power and maintenance costs and production is increased more goods from the mills of America mills who are following these progressive production trends to tomorrow's textile mill conditioning for maximum overall mill production power at the point of use putting electric motors right where they're needed to increase machine production higher control speeds too closely coordinate each step in fabric making finer quality control to meet the growing demand for better text tones new processing methods to help solve old problems and create new markets and continuous processing the modern textile technique of mass production by range driven equipment these are the trends to the Future illustrated by some of the machinery and electrical equipment that will lower the cost and increase the production of textiles in America and throughout the nations of the world textos unlimited you