FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates in general to textile machines. Particularly the present invention relates to a method and apparatus to avoid process/product mix-up through an improved process identification system for spinning preparatory machines. Still particularly, the present invention relates to an electronic apparatus and method for process identification and an loT enabled wireless network communication system to monitor the process through online.

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. Normally, in a spinning mill, different types of materials are processed in different machines at the same time.

In the existing art,“Colour coding system” is the most commonly used method for identifying the different materials. For example, from raw material to finished product, same colour of containers are used to identify a particular process. For this method, more number of containers in different colours are required in each department. Alternatively, colour bands and labels are used as identification means in the plain containers especially cans with white in colour in spinning preparatory machines. The conventional colour coding system requires manual operations, extreme care, high investment and more storage space. Also, the existing methods are not suitable for the operators with colour blindness. Although the drawbacks are recognised by various machine manufacturers, no fool proof system for process identification has so far been introduced which would satisfy all the requirements by the mills.

A patent application WO2018051362A1 filed by the applicant discloses a process and product identification system for spinning preparatory machines. Said process identification apparatus comprising a decoding and encoding arrangement, a driving arrangement, said decoding/encoding device comprises a control unit, plurality of sensing means, decoding/encoding device with a driving means and said control units are connected with wireless communication network system. Said process identification apparatus, is mounted in the delivery zone of the spinning preparatory machines. The containers with transponders are decoded and encoded with process data and said containers are monitored by electronic receivers mounted in the creel zone of the spinning machines. The data from all control units and electronic receivers are sent to Internet of things (loT) enabled wireless communication system.

The above system uses pneumatic or hydraulic operated pistons to move the encoding device. The constructions of encoding and decoding apparatus have not clearly explained. The working method and said encoding and decoding devices are not disclosed. The present invention in addition with existing invention is aimed to clearly describe the method and the functionality of the electronic identification system for spinning preparatory machines.

OBJECTIVE OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide an Apparatus and method for process identification system for the spinning preparatory machines

It is another object of the present invention to provide an encoding apparatus in the delivery area of spinning preparatory machines. It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a decoding device in the creel zone of spinning preparatory machine to monitor the containers and thereby the process.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide an Internet of things (loT) enabled wireless communication network system to monitor the process in spinning preparatory department.

It is still further object of the present invention to provide a hand-held device to manually read the data encoded in the electronic tags.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the main aspect of the present invention, a Process identification system is developed for spinning preparatory machines. The spinning machines normally comprises a delivery zone, drafting zone, a creel zone and a control unit. Said process identification system comprises an encoder apparatus mounted in the delivery zone a decoder apparatus mounted in the creel zone a hand-held device wherein said encoder apparatus and decoder apparatus are wirelessly connected with Server,

The encoder apparatus is mounted in the beam mounted in the delivery area ofthe spinning preparatory machines. Said encoding apparatus consists an outer Box, a control unit, a sensing means, an encoder unit in an encoder case, a distance measuring sensor, a linear motor, a wireless communication module and an alarm device. Said Encoder unit is connected with the control unit and said control unit is connected with Display unit which is mounted in the spinning preparatory machine. The decoding apparatus comprises an outer box, a display unit, a set of signal lamps, an alarm device, an electronic tag reader, control unit and a wi-fi module device.

According to the method of working of the Electronic process identification system, the encoding process comprising the following steps. The encoder apparatus is activated when the reserve Can with electronic tag is entered the coiler zone. Then the entry of Can is sensed by the ultrasonic sensor to confirm the presence of Can. Then, the distance between the encoder unit and the Can is measured using the distance sensor and the information is transferred to the control unit. The control unit activates the Coiler motor and rotates the Can at 10 RPM. Presence of Electronic tag is sensed by the encoder during this slow rotational movement. Once the Tag is identified, the control unit activates the linear motor and moves the encoder unit towards the Can and encoding the desired data on the Tag. Once the encoding process is done, the coiler motor is enabled to rotate at regular speed. At the same time, the encoder unit is moved to its original position. Meanwhile, the encoded data details are transmitted from control unit to the loT server through wi-fi module.

According to another method of working of the Electronic process identification system, the decoding process comprising the following steps. The decoding apparatus are mounted in the creel portion of the spinning preparatory machines. While feeding the Cans in the creel portion, the electronic Tags in the Cans are read by the Tag reader provided in the decoding apparatus and the _. decoded data is compared with the stored data and the results are transmitted to the control unit. If the read data does not match with the stored data, the error status is indicated by Indication lights and the alarm device such as buzzer is activated to enable a warning signal. Also, the fault is transmitted to Server through the wi-fi module and the data will be displayed in the user interface devices. The information such as process code, operator code, machine, date and time encoded in the electronic tag are displayed in the screen of Decoder apparatus and the production details are displayed in the user interface devices.

According to still further embodiment of the present invention, a hand-held device is provided to each operator to scan the Tags and to find the process details of the particular can. Said hand-held device comprises a handle portion and a display portion wherein the handle portion comprises a control unit, battery and a tag reader whereas the display portion consists a display unit.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects, features, and advantages of certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be more apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1a to 1f depict spinning preparatory process sequence known in the existing art.

Figure 2 depicts a spinning preparatory machine with process identification system in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 3 depicts the process identification system in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 4 depicts the block diagram of process identification system with wireless communication system in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 5a and 5b depict an encoding apparatus mounted in the delivery portion of spinning machines in accordance with the present invention. Figure 6 depicts a block diagram of the encoding apparatus in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 7 depicts the flow chart which describes the working method of encoding apparatus in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 8a and 8b depicts the decoding apparatus in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 9 depicts a block diagram of the decoding apparatus in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 10 depicts the flow chart which describes the working method of decoding apparatus in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 1 1a and 1 1b depicts a hand-held device to read the transponder in accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention.

Figure 12 depicts a block diagram of the hand-held device in accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention.

Figure 13 depicts the display representation of process identification system in accordance with the present invention

Persons skilled in the art will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and may have not been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figure may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure. Throughout the drawings, it should be noted that like reference numbers are used to depict the same or similar elements, features, and structures.

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.

Figure 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 (1 b), lap forming (1 c), combing (1d) and roving (1 f) 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 (1 b) 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 (1 c). 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 (1 d) 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 material into the cans (502) and the cans (502) are supplied to roving machines (1f). In roving machines (1 f), 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.

Figure 2 describes the process identification system (11) mounted on a spinning preparatory machine (1e) according to the main aspect of the present invention. The machine (1e) comprises a delivery zone (501 ), reserve cans (502) drafting zone (503), a creel zone (504) and a control unit (505) with an embedded display which is mounted in the drafting zone (503) of the machine (1e). The process identification system (1 1) comprises an encoder apparatus (12) and a decoder apparatus (51). Said encoding apparatus (12) is mounted in the spinning preparatory machine (1e) preferably at delivery zone (501 ). The decoder apparatus (51) is mounted preferably in the creel zone (504) of the machine (1e). The empty Can (502) is placed on the feeding area as reserve can. The containers (506) from previous process are scanned and placed in the creel portion (504) of the machine. The existing data in the transponders (507, 508) are decoded and the new data is encoded on the tags provided in the containers through the encoding apparatus (12) provided in the process identification apparatus (1 1 ).

Figure 3 describes the process identification system (11 ) mounted in the delivery zone (501 ) of the spinning preparatory machine (1e) in accordance with the present invention. The encoder apparatus (12) is mounted in the beam (509). The can changing apparatus (510) is also mounted on the beam (509). When the can in the coiler zone (511) is filled with desired quantity, it will be replaced by a reserve can by the can changing apparatus (510). When a reserve can is moved to the coiler zone (511), the control unit (505) operates the encoder apparatus (12) and the desired data is encoded in the transponder (507) mounted in the Can.

Figure 4 is a block diagram of process identification system (11) in accordance with main embodiment of the present invention. The Encoder apparatus (12) consists at least an Encoder unit (16) and it is connected with the control unit (14). The control unit (14) is connected with Display unit (505) which is mounted in the machine (1e). Said control unit (14) also comprises a wireless communication means (28) and said wireless communication means (28) transmits the data to the loT server (71). Said server (71) transmits the compiled information to user interface devices. The decoder apparatus (51) is directly connected to the loT server (71) also to transmit compiled information to user interface devices. Said user interface devices are preferably a Computer (72), tablet (73) or mobile phone (74).

Figure 5a and 5b describes an encoding apparatus (12) of the electronic process identification system (11) mounted in the delivery portion (501) of spinning preparatory machines (1e) in accordance with main embodiment of the present invention. According to the main embodiment of the present invention, the encoding apparatus (12) is preferably mounted in the delivery area (501) of spinning preparatory machines (1e) as shown in Figure 3. Said encoding apparatus (12) consists a box (13) and said box (13) is split into two portions (13a, 13b). The back portion (13a) is used ^' to mount the control unit (14). A sensing means (15) and an encoder unit (16) are mounted in the front portion (13b) of the box (13). The sensing means (15) is utilized to determine the presence of Can (502). Specifically Figure 5b describes the encoding apparatus (12) according to the main embodiment of the present invention. Said encoding apparatus (12) consists an outer Box (1 3), a control unit (14), a sensing means (15) and an encoder unit (16). Said encoder unit (16) is mounted in a case (17) and said case (17) is covered by the side covers (18a, 18b). A sensing means (19) disposed inside the case (17) is utilized to measure the depth distance of can (502). The transponders (507) mounted in the Can (502) is sensed by the encoder unit (16) mounted inside the case (17). The box (1 3) contains a wall portion (20) to separate the box into two portions (13a, 13b).

In referring more detailed with Figure 5b, a driving means (21 ) is mounted in the wall (20) and said driving means (21 ) is preferably a linear motor (21 ). Said driving means (21) consists a screw rod (22) and the encoder case (17) is movably mounted in the screw rod (22) using a nut (23). A guide rod (24) is mounted in the wall portion (20) and a linear bearing (25) is movably mounted in the case (17) to guide the encoder unit (16). The front portion (13b) is covered by the sheet (26) and said sheet consists a slot (27) wherein it allows the encoder unit (16) to move to and fro. The sensing means (15) is mounted in the sheet (26) and it senses the presence of container (506). The control unit (14) is mounted in the back portion (13a) of the box (13). A wireless communication module (28) is connected with the control unit (14). An alarm device (29) for example Buzzer is mounted inside the box (13) and connected with the Control unit (14). Said control unit (14) is preferably a microprocessor.

Figure 6 is a block diagram of Encoder apparatus (12) according to main aspect of the present invention. The sensing means (15) to sense the presence of Can (502), the encoder unit (16) to encode the desired data in the transponders (507), the sensing means (19) to measure the depth distance of the Can (502), the driving means (21 ) to move the encoder unit (16), the wi-fi module (28) and the buzzer (29) are connected with the control unit (14). Said control unit (14) is connected with the main control unit (505) of the spinning machine (1e). The wifi module (28) is used to transfer the data from encoder apparatus (12) to the loT server (71).

Figure 7 is a flow chart that describes the working method of the encoder apparatus (12) according to the main embodiment of the present invention. When the Can is entered in the delivery area of the machine, the sensing means (15) senses and confirms the presence of Can and sends signal to the control unit (14). The distance between the encoder unit (16) and the Can is measured by the sensing means (19) and the information is sent to the control unit (14). The coiler motor drive is enabled and the Can is rotated at 10 RPM by the coiler plate. The control unit (16) also activates the driving means (21) and moves the encoder unit (16) towards the Can and the encoder unit (16) starts sensing the Electronic tag. When the Tag is sensed, the coiler motor is stopped and the desired data is encoded on the Tag by the encoder unit (16). Once the data is encoded, the coiler motor starts rotating at regular speed. The Encoded details are sent to the loT server (71) through wi-fi module (28). After completion of encoding process, the driving means (21) rotates in opposite direction and moves the case (17) to its original position.

Figure 8a and 8b describes the decoding apparatus (51) of the process identification system (1 1) according to the main aspect of the present invention. Said decoding apparatus (51) comprises an outer box (52) and the front portion of the box consists a display unit (53). The upper portion of the box consists a set of signal lamps (54, 55). The side portion of the box (53) consists an alarm device (56) for example a buzzer which is connected with the control unit (58). Referring more specific to Fig - 8, the control unit (58) is mounted at the inner portion of the box (52). An electronic tag reader (57) is mounted at the side portion of the wall and it is connected with the control unit (58). A wi-fi module (59) is mounted inside the box and connected with the control unit (58). The back portion of the box is covered by the sheet (60).

Figure 9 is a block diagram which describes the working of decoding apparatus (51) of the process identification system (11) according to the present invention. The decoding apparatus (51) is mainly operated with the control unit (58) and the display unit (53), signal lamps (54, 55), Buzzer (56), Tag reader (57) and wifi module (59) are connected with said Control unit (58). The tag information is sent to the server (71 ) by the Control unit (58) through the wi-fi module (59).

Figure 10 is a flow chart which describes the working of decoding apparatus (51) of the process identification system (11) according to the present invention. The decoding apparatus (51 ) is normally mounted in the creel portion of the spinning machines. When a Can with electronic tag encoded with necessary data is entered into the creel zone, the decoding apparatus senses the presence of the Can. If an Electronic tag is detected by the tag reader (57), the data is sent to the control unit (58). The Control unit (58) evaluate the received data and compare it with the stored data. If the read data matches with the stored data, the control unit enables a positive signal, for example Green light indication. The green Indication light (54) is energized by the signal transferred from control unit (58).

If the read data does not match with the stored data, the control unit enables a negative signal, for example Red light indication. The red Indication light (55) is energized by the signal transferred from control unit (58). Additionally, an alarm device (56) is activated to enable a warning signal. The data is transferred to wifi module (59) and the wi-fi module (59) transmits the data to the loT server (71). Each data read by the tag reader (57) is displayed in the display unit (53). The data shall also be viewed in any of the user interface devices and the faulty material handling shall be identified immediately. Figure 11a and 11 b discloses a hand-held device (61 ). in accordance with another aspect of the present invention. Said hand-held device (61 ) comprises two portions such as handle (62) and display (63). The handle portion (62) is used to hold the hand-held device (61) and to mount a set of electronic components such as control unit (64), power supply means (65) such as batteries and a control switch (66). The display portion (63) comprises a display unit (67), and a tag reader (68).

As shown in Figure 12, the power supply means (65), control switch (66), the display unit (67) and the tag reader (68) are connected with the control unit (64). This hand-held device (61 ) shall be used to identify the containers. If a particular Can is unable to identify, the hand-held device (61 ) shall be used to read the data stored in the electronic Tag. Based on the information stored in the Tag, the material in the container shall be processed.

Figure 13 discloses the display representation of process identification system (11 ) in accordance with the present invention. The information such as process code, operator code, machine, date and time are displayed in the screen. The operator has to enter the operator code and to check the process code. The machine code is normally a fixed value and mostly it is not changed. The date and time are taken from the system. The data fed in the display are converted in to electronic signals and encoded into the Electronic tag.

In view of the present disclosure which describes preferred and best modes for providing process identification system for spinning machines. Modifications and variations would present themselves to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of this invention. Any modifications and variations coming within the meaning and range of equivalency are considered within the scope.