FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to spinning industry. Particularly, the present invention relates to spinning preparatory department. Still particularly, the present invention provides a weight measuring apparatus for the containers and a method to measure the weight of each and every container in the spinning preparatory department using loT based data communication system.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The spinning preparatory machines such as carding, lap formers, combing machines, draw frames and speed frames are involved in a process to remove the short fibres and impurities present in the raw cotton, parallelise and converting the fibres in the form of thin strand of fibres so called sliver or roving. The sliver materials are filled in the containers for a predetermined length for example 100 to 5000 metres. The container is preferably a ‘Can’. Once the predetermined length of material is reached, the filled Can is replaced by an empty Can either by manually or by using an automatic can changing system. The delivered containers with material are stored in a particular place and then fed into other machines for further processes.

Normally, various types of materials are processed with different raw materials, different fineness and density with various process parameters in an everyday operation of spinning mills. The raw material such as natural and synthetic fibres or in a combination of. both used for yarn manufacturing. The natural raw material most commonly used in spinning mills is Cotton which has various changing phenomenon like colour, staple length, short fibre content fineness, strength etc,. The synthetic staple fibres such as Polyester and Viscose are most commonly used in spinning mills either individually, blended together or blended with cotton fibres. The process parameters such as linear density, short fibre removal percentage and process speeds are varied depending upon the end product required. Therefore, in a spinning mill, different types of materials are processed in different machines at the same time.

The amount of fibre material stored in a container is depending on the size of the containers. The diameter and height of the Cans vary depending on the type of machines used in the department. Also, the weight of the fibre strand such as sliver varies depending on various parameters such as linear density and length of the sliver per Can. Apart from that, the sliver material stored in the containers are fed into further processing machines for processing as feed material. Therefore, the weight of the material stored in a container reduces gradually and exhausts over a period of time, for example one hour to two days.

Now a days, it is difficult to measure the weight of the materials processed in the entire spinning preparatory department. It is impossible to measure the weight of each and every container manually. Therefore, the floor managers use a manual random estimation method to measure the weight of the material which is not accurate. Also, it is important to maintain uniform mass per unit length of the fibre strand delivered from spinning preparatory machines. The fineness, uniformity of yarn is based on the weight per metre of the sliver material. So, production of sliver material with uniform mass per unit length and minimum coefficient of variation (CV%) is the major factor the spinning preparatory machines.

At present, the sliver weight is measured manually at frequent interval and cross checked with the standard parameters. If there is a deviation in the weight per unit length (Tex), it will be adjusted manually. This method is not accurate and there are many chances for weight variation. At present, no technology or systems are available to overcome the existing problem. Several atempts have made to measure the weight of material while processing in the machines. For example, a Chinese patent application 109943925 discloses a cotton fiber smashing and weighing device for spinning production. The device comprises a weighing box. Walking wheels are installed at the bottom of the weighing box. A weighing plate is installed at the botom of the weighing box, the structure of the weighing plate is similar to a wagon balance, after the cotton fiber is placed into the weighing box, the weight of the cotton fiber can be directly weighed, After the smashing operation, a drying warm air machine can be turned on to dry the coton fiber, weighing, smashing and drying are integrated, operation is facilitated, and the production cost is saved. But, this invention was developed for opening fibre materials but not to measure the weight of containers.

Indian patent application 201944022101 describes a filling level management of a fiber flock store. Said prior art relates to a machine in spinning preparation for processing fiber flocks, having a fiber flock inlet, a store, a fiber flock outlet and a machine frame, wherein the machine frame is mounted on at least four support points on a foundation, and a travel axis is defined by a connecting line from the fiber flock inlet to the fiber flock outlet. At least one load cell for measuring a filling level of the store is provided between the machine frame and the foundation. This invention was aimed to measure the weight of moving fiber flocks along with the machine weight, which may not possible to get the exact results.

Patent application WO2019201575 discloses an operating method for spinning mill installation. Said feeding installation comprises a receiving device and a feeding device. The feeding device is designed to weigh fibrous material of a predetermined quantity in a cyclical manner and then to deliver said fibrous material to the receiving device. This method is used to measure the weight of feed material but the not the delivered material.

Therefore, the present invention is aimed to overcome the disadvantages present in the existing art. The present invention provides a weight measuring apparatus mountable in containers in spinning preparatory department and an loT based data communication system to measure the quantity of material available in the spinning department in a particular time.

OBJECTIVE OF THE INVENTION

The main objective of the present invention is to provide an apparatus to weigh the material stored in spinning container and a system to collect data about the quantity of material available in each container.

Other objective of the present invention is to provide an electronic weight measuring apparatus with sensing means to measure the weight of material available in the container.

Yet another objective of the present invention is to provide a wireless communication system in each weight measuring apparatus mounted in the container.

Still another objective of the present invention is to provide a cloud based data communication and storage system to collect and retrieve the data from each weight measuring apparatus.

Still further objective of the present invention is to provide a system to collect the data from each container and the machine control units, evaluating the weight of material to find the mass per unit length, comparing the values with the standard values, transmitting the derived results to the user interface devices and to warn the user in case of any deviations in the mass per unit length in any containers produced from ary machines.

According to the various objective of the present invention, the weight of the material can be weighed using loadcells which shall be mounted in the bottom portion of the Containers. Alternatively, Infrared distance measuring sensors shall be used to measure the height of the holding plate of the container and the unit height shall be converted in to unit Mass. Alternatively, the height of the holding plate shall be measured using an electronic tape and the unit length shall be converted as unit Mass. Alternatively, Flexi sensors shall be used to measure the compression ratio of the spiral spring mounted inside the Containers and the bending movement shall be converted into unit Mass. The data collected by the weight measuring means shall be transferred to the cloud storage system through wireless communication devices. The cumulative data will be displayed in the user interface devices and a warning system is enabled to intimate the weight variation to the floor managers immediately.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The following presents a simplified summary of the invention in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the invention. This summary is not an extensive overview of the present invention. It is not intended to identify the key/critical elements of the invention or to delineate the scope of the invention. Its sole purpose is to present some concept of the invention in a simplified form as a prelude to a more detailed description of the invention presented later.

According to the main aspect of the present invention, a weight measuring apparatus is mounted in the spinning containers. Said container comprises an outer body, a circular metal plate in the bottom portion, plurality of wheels mounted in the metal plate, a spring arrangement with a top plate, a bottom circular plate and a spiral spring, said circular bottom plate consists a triangular plate and strings. The weight measuring apparatus is mounted in the container, said apparatus consists a control unit and a weight measuring means, said weight measuring apparatus is connected with the user interface device through a server. Said load cells are connected with the control unit. Said Control unit consists a wireless communication means and a power supply means such as battery and said control unit transmits the weight data to the main user interface device through the server.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, said weight measuring apparatus consists a control unit and an electronic height measuring tape. Said tape is retractably mounted inside the control unit and a height sensing means is mounted inside the control unit.

According to yet another embodiment of the present invention, said weight measuring apparatus consists a control unit a deflection sensing means such as Flexi sensor. Said Flexi sensor is mounted between two layers of the spiral spring and connected with the Control unit.

According to still another embodiment of the present invention, said weight measuring apparatus consists a control unit and a position sensing means such as Linear Variable Displacement Transformer sensor. Said sensor is mounted between two plates, and connected with the Control unit.

According to still further embodiment of the present invention, said weight measuring apparatus consists a control unit and a distance sensing means such as InfraRed sensor or Ultrasonic sensor. Said sensor is mounted in the metal plate and connected with the Control unit.

According to still further embodiment of the present invention, said weight measuring apparatus are connected to the server wirelessly through transceiver. The user interface devices are connected to the server such as cloud storage and with the weight measuring apparatus mounted in each container in the spinning preparatory department.

According to the method of working of weight measuring apparatus in the spinning containers, said method comprises the following steps. A signal initiated by the user for example Floor manager using the user interface device and the signal is transmitted by the server to the control unit provided in the weight measuring apparatus mounted in each container stored in the department. The signals are transmitted to each control units through the transceiver and the weight measuring process is initiated. The weight of material stored in the container is measured using the weight measuring means. The quantity of material stored in the container is evaluated and the weight is converted into kilograms in the control unit. Then the data is transmitted to the server through transceiver. The transmitted data is collected from each container stored in the department and the desired data is derived using the web application software. The derived data is transmitted to the user interface device to display the results. If the weight is exceeded than the standard limit, a warning signal is initiated in the user interface device. Also, the corrective action command is sent to the machine to control and maintain uniform mass per unit length of the delivered fibre strand in spinning machines.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAIWNGS

The invention will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above, will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein:

Fig - 1 depicts, a spinning preparatory department with various machines according to the existing art. Fig - 2 and 2a depict a Container according to the existing art.

Fig - 3 and 3a depict a weight measuring apparatus mounted in the container according to the main.embodiment of the present invention.

Fig - 4, 4a and 4b depict a weight measuring apparatus mounted in the container according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Fig - 5 and 5a depict a weight measuring apparatus mounted in the container according to yet another embodiment of the present invention.

Fig - 6 and 6a depict a weight measuring apparatus mounted in the container according to still another embodiment of the present invention.

Fig - 7 and 7a depicts a weight measuring apparatus mounted in the container according to still further embodiment of the present invention.

Fig - 8 depicts a block diagram which describes the method of working of the weight measuring system according to the main aspect of the present invention.

Fig - 9 depicts a flow chart which describes the method of working of the weight measuring system according to the main aspect of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of exemplary embodiments of the invention as defined by the claims and their equivalents. It includes various specific details to assist _, in that understanding but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary. Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope and sprit of the invention. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions are omitted for clarity and conciseness.

Fig - 1 describes the spinning preparatory machine sequence in accordance with the existing art. The raw material for example cotton is available in the form of bales. The bales are opened and the impurities like seed, leaf bits are removed in opening and cleaning machines at Blow room and the cleaned cotton fibres are sent to spinning preparatory department. The preparatory department consists Carding (1a), drawing (1b), lap forming (1c), combing (1d) and roving (1f) machines. The raw material such as cotton fibres fed into the carding (1a) machines are opened, cleaned, parallelized and converted into a rope form so called ’sliver’ at the delivery zone (101) and stored into the containers (102). Plurality of carded slivers are fed into the drawing (1b) machines for parallelizing and blending. The delivered sliver is stored in the cans (202) through the delivery zone (201). The drawing cans are fed into the lap forming machines (1c). Plurality of drawing slivers are combined and formed as a lap (302) and wound on a spool. After a predetermined length is reached, the lap is replaced with an empty spool. The laps are fed into the combing machines (1d) and short fibres are removed by combing. The delivery zone

(401) in the combing machines helps to store the combed sliver into the cans

(402). In the draw frames (1e), at least 6 combed slivers are fed and converted as a single sliver. The delivery zone (501) in the drawing machines fills the sliver materia! into the cans (502) and the cans are supplied to roving machines. In roving machines (1f), the sliver material is thinned down and converted as

Roving by applying twist on the fibre strand. The roving machines contain at least 120 spindles per machine. Said roving machines requires at least one sliver can per one spindle and the sliver cans (502) are placed at the back portion (601) of the roving frames. The roving material is wound as bobbins (602) at the front portion of the machine through the aid of flyers (603). Once the predetermined length of the bobbins is reached, it is replaced by the empty bobbins and the full bobbins are supplied to the spinning department for further process.

Fig - 2 and 2a describe a spinning Can which is used in the spinning preparatory process for material handling according to the existing art. The Can

(.1) consists an outer body (2) which is preferably made up of polymer material.

The upper portion (3) remains hollow and the bottom portion (4) is covered with a circular metal plate (5). Plurality of wheels (6’, 6”, 6''') are mounted below the metal plate (5). A spring arrangement (7) is replaceably placed inside the Can

(1). As more specifically shown in Fig - 2a, the spring arrangement consists a top plate (8), a bottom circular plate (9) and a spiral spring (10). Said circular bottom plate (9) consists a triangular plate (11). The spring (10) is connected with top plate (8) and the bottom plate (19) and the height of the spring (10) is maintained at desirable unit length using the strings (12’, 12", 12'''). The strings

(12’, 12”, 12''' ) are connected with the top plate (8) using the pins (13’, 13”, 13''' ) and connected with the bottom plate (9) using the triangular plate (11). The fibre strand such as sliver materials are stored over the top plate (8) and the height and position of the material is maintained by the spring (10).

Fig - 3 and 3a depict a weight measuring apparatus (31) mounted in the container according to the main embodiment of the present invention. The weight measuring apparatus (31 ) preferably consists plurality of load cells (34) to measure the weight of the material in unit mass value for example kilograms.

Said weight measuring apparatus (31) is mounted in between the metal plate (5) and bottom plate (9). A control unit (32) is mounted in the bottom portion of the metal plate (5). The load cells (34’, 34”, 34''' ) are placed in between the plates

(33, 35) and the entire unit is placed between the metal plate (5) arid bottom plate (9). The load cells (34’, 34”, 34''') are connected with the control unit (32).

Said Control unit consists a wireless communication means and a power supply means (not shown) such as battery. When the weight is measured, the data from the control unit (32) is transferred to the main user interface device through the wireless communication means.

Fig - 4, 4a and 4b depict a weight measuring apparatus (41) mounted in the container according to another embodiment of the present invention. Said weight measuring apparatus (41) consists a control unit (42) and an electronic height measuring tape (43). Said control unit (42) is mounted on the metal plate (5). The tape (43) is retractably mounted inside the control unit and a height sensing means (not shown) is mounted inside the control unit to sense the height of the measuring tape (43). In this embodiment, the electronic height measuring tape (43) is used to measure the height of the top plate (8) from the metal plate (5) and the unit length is converted in to unit mass through the control unit (42). The converted value is transferred to the main user interface device through cloud storage.

Fig - 5 and 5a depict a weight measuring apparatus (51) mounted in the container according to yet another embodiment of the present invention. Said weight measuring apparatus (51) consists a deflection sensing means (53) and a control unit (52). The deflection sensing means (53) is preferably a Flexi sensor. Said sensor is preferably mounted between two layers of the spiral spring (10) and connected with the Control unit (52). When there is a variation in the load, the distance between the spring coil varies which results in change of bending angle of the flexi sensor. As a result, the resistance of the Flexi sensor varies and the variation is measured by the control unit (52). The resistance value is converted into unit Mass and the data is wirelessly transferred to the user interface device through cloud storage.

Fig - 6 and 6a depict a weight measuring apparatus (61) mounted in the container according to yet another embodiment of the present invention. Said weight measuring apparatus (61) consists a position sensing means (63) and a control unit (62). The position sensing means (63) is preferably a differential transformer still preferably linear variable displacement transformer (LVDT sensor). Said sensor is preferably mounted between two plates (64, 65) and connected with the Control unit (62). Said plates are mounted between the bottom plate (9) and metal plate (5). When there is a variation in the load, the displacement in the transformer varies which results in change of voltage. The variation in voltage is measured by the control unit (62) and the value is converted into unit Mass and said data is wirelessly transferred to the user interface device through cloud storage.

Fig - 7 and 7a depict a weight measuring apparatus (71) mounted in the container according to still further embodiment of the present invention. Said weight measuring apparatus (71) consists a distance sensing means (73) and a control unit (72). The distance sensing means (73) is preferably an InfraRed sensor or Ultrasonic sensor. Said sensor is preferably mounted in the metal plate (5) and connected with the Control unit (72). The. sensor (73) measures the height of the top plate (8) and the height in unit length is converted into unit Mass by the control unit (72) and said data is wirelessly transferred to the user interface device through cloud storage.

Fig - 8 describes a block diagram (81) which describes the method of working of the weight measuring system according to the main aspect of the present invention. User interface device (82) are connected to the cloud storage (83) and the containers (1) in the spinning preparatory department are connected to the cloud wirelessly.

Fig - 9 describes a flow chart to describe the method of working of the weight measuring system according to the main aspect of the present invention. A signal initiated by the user for example Floor manager using the user interface device (82) and the signal is transmitted by the server (82) to the control unit (32, 42, 52, 62, 72) provided in the weight measuring apparatus (31 , 41 , 51 , 61 , 71) mounted in each container (1 ) stored in the department. The signals are transmitted to each control units (32, 42, 52, 62, 72) through the transceiver (84) and the weight measuring process is initiated. The weight of material stored in the container (1) is measured using the weight measuring means (34, 43, 53, 63, 73), The quantity of material stored in the container is evaluated and the weight is converted into kilograms in the control unit (32, 42, 52, 62, 72). Then the data is transmitted to the server (83) through transceiver (84), The transmitted data is collected from each container (1) stored in the department and the desired data is derived using the web application software. The derived data is transmitted to the user interface device (82) to display the results. If the weight is exceeded than the standard limit, a warning signal is initiated in the user interface device (82). Also, the corrective action command is sent to the machine to control and maintain uniform mass per unit length of the delivered fibre strand in spinning machines.

This invention provides an loT based weight measuring system which could overcome the disadvantages in the existing art and provides various advantages. The quantity of material ori process in the department shall be measured accurately. The weight shall be measured on machine wise and process wise. The weight measurement shall be carried out at any time within short span of time.