FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present 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 apparatus and method for process identification and an loT enabled wireless network communication system to monitor the process through online especially for spinning preparatory machines.

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, a greater 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.

Another Indian 201941011630 filed by the applicant as a patent of Addition for the above patent application discloses an apparatus and method for process identification system for spinning machines. Said patent application discloses an encoder apparatus which is mounted on the delivery portion of the machine and said encoder uses the driving arrangement of the machines to rotate the Cans. The encoder is identified when the containers are rotated using the machine driving arrangement. Also, this system is connected with the machine’s control unit to collect and communicate the desired data. Though the system is successful, the permission from machinery manufacturer to implement the changes in their machines.

The present invention as a patent of addition is aimed to clearly describe the method and the functionality of the electronic identification system for spinning preparatory machines which could solve the disadvantages in the existing technology.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to the main aspect of the present invention, a process identification system for spinning machines, said spinning machine comprises a delivery zone, reserve cans, drafting zone, creel zone and a control unit characterized in that, said process identification system comprises an encoder apparatus with a stand arrangement and a Container driving arrangement. Said stand arrangement consists a box and the bottom portion of said box is provided with a holder, a rod is mounted in the front portion of the coiler zone using the base plate. Said encoding apparatus consists an outer Box, a control unit, a sensing means, an encoder unit, a case, a sensing means, a linear motor, a wireless communication module, an alarm device and a display unit. Said box is split into two portions wherein the control unit and the display unit are mounted in the front portion the sensing means and the encoder unit are mounted in the back portion of said box.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the container driving arrangement is mounted in the delivery zone to rotate the Cans. Said driving arrangement consists a main plate, supporting plate, drive motor, drive shaft, V- panel, plurality of pulleys, drive belts and a control box.

According to the method for operating the process identification system for spinning machines, said process identification system comprises the following steps. When the can is entered in the delivery area of the machine, the sensing means senses and confirms the presence of Can and sends signal to the control unit. The distance between the encoder case and the Can is also measured by the sensing means and the information is sent to the control unit. The driving motor rotates the Can and the control unit also activates the driving means and moves the encoder case towards the Can and the sensing means starts measures the distance between the Can and the encoder case. When the Tag is sensed, the driver motor is stopped and the desired data is encoded on the Tag by the encoder unit. After completion of encoding process, the driving means rotates in opposite direction and moves the case to its original position. Once the data is encoded, the encoded details are sent to the loT server through wi-fi module.

According to yet another embodiment of the present invention, the containers consists at least an Electronic tag and said Electronic tags are Radio Frequency Infra-Red RFID tags, Near field Communication NFC tags, active RFID or active NFC tags. The details such as machine code, process code, operator code, date and time are entered manually in the display unit by the operator and the details are used as encoding data in the Tag.

OBJECTIVE OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages of the existing process identification system in the spinning preparatory machines.

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 yet another object of the present invention to provide an encoding apparatus and external Container driving arrangement to rotate the containers in the delivery portion of the machines.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide transponders to the containers for materials in spinning preparatory machines.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a decoding apparatus in the creel zone of spinning preparatory machine to monitor the containers and thereby the process.

It is still further 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.

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

Figure 2 depicts the encoder apparatus and Container driving arrangement of the process identification system in accordance with the main embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 3 depicts the arrangement of encoder apparatus in accordance with the present invention. Figure 4a and 4b depict the encoding apparatus mounted in the delivery portion of spinning machines in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 5 depicts a block diagram of the encoding apparatus in accordance with the present invention.

Fig 6a and 6b depicts Container driving arrangement of the process identification system 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 8 depicts the concept of process identification system in accordance with another embodiment of 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. The terms and words used in the following description and claims are not limited to the bibliographical meanings, but, are merely used by the inventor to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the invention. Accordingly, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that the following description of exemplary embodiments of the present invention are provided for illustration purpose only and not for the purpose of limiting the invention as defined by the appended claims and their equivalents. Features that are described and/or illustrated with respect to one embodiment may be used in the same way or in a similar way in one or more other embodiments and/or in combination with or instead of the features of the other embodiments.

Fig - 1 and 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 comprises a delivery zone (501 ), reserve cans (502) drafting zone (503) and a creel zone (504) and a control unit (505) which is mounted in the drafting zone (503) of the machine. The process identification system (11 ) comprises an encoder apparatus (12) and a decoder apparatus (51 ). Said encoding apparatus (12) is mounted on a stand arrangement (31 ) in the spinning preparatory machine preferably at delivery zone (501). A Container driving arrangement (41) is also mounted in the delivery zone (501 ) to rotate the Cans. The decoder apparatus (51) is mounted preferably in the creel zone (504) of the machine. The empty container (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 (11).

Fig - 3 describes the encoder apparatus (12) of the process identification system (11 ) mounted in the delivery zone (501) of the spinning preparatory machine in accordance with the present invention. The encoder apparatus (12) consists a stand arrangement (31) and a drive arrangement (41). The stand arrangement (31 ) consists a box (13) and the bottom portion of said box is provided with a holder (32). A rod (33) is mounted in the front portion of the coiler zone using the base plate (34) provided in the bottom portion of the rod (33). The base plate (34) is rigidly mounted on the machine platform (35) using fastening means.

Fig - 4a and 4b describes an encoding apparatus (12) of the electronic process identification system (1 1 ) mounted in the delivery portion (501 ) of spinning preparatory machines (1e) in accordance with main embodiment of the present invention. Said encoding apparatus (12) consists a box (13) and said box (13) is split into two portions (13a, 13b). The front portion (13a) is used to mount the control unit (14) and a display unit (30). A sensing means (15) and an encoder unit (16) are mounted in'the back portion (13b) of the box (13).

Fig - 4b particularly describes the encoding apparatus (12) according to the main embodiment of the present invention. Said encoding apparatus (12) consists an outer Box (13), 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 (13) contains a wall portion (20) to separate the box into two portions (13a, 13b). A driving means

(21 ) is mounted in the wall (20) and said driving means (21) is preferably a linear motor. Said driving means (21 ) consists a screw rod (22) and the encoder case (17) is movably mounted in the screw rod 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 back 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. The control unit (14) is mounted in the front portion (13a) of the box. 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. The display unit (30) is mounted in the front wall portion (13a) of the box and connected with said control unit (14).

Fig - 5 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). The display unit (30) is used to feed the necessary data which are to be encoded in the transponders (507). Said display unit (30) is also connected with the control unit (14). The wi-fi module (28) is used to transfer the data from encoder apparatus (12) to the loT server (71).

Fig - 6a and 6b describes the Container driving arrangement (41) of the process identification system (11) according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention. Said driving arrangement (41) is mounted in the coiler zone of the spinning preparatory machines. The container driving arrangement

(41 ) consists a main plate (42), supporting plate (43), drive motor (44), drive shaft (45), V- panel (46), pulleys (47a, 47b, 47c), drive belts (48a, 48b) and a control box (49). The bottom portion of the main plate (42) is mounted on the machine platform (35) using fastening means. The Supporting plate (43) is mounted on the upper portion of the main plate (41). The drive motor (44) is mounted on the supporting plate (43) and the V-panel (46) is mounted on the other side of the supporting plate (43). The drive shaft (45) is mounted at the edge portion of the V-panel (46) and the drive pulley (47a) is mounted over the drive shaft (45). The driven pulleys (47b, 47c) are mounted on other end of the V-panel (46) and connected with the drive pulley (47a) through driving belts (48a, 48b). When the motor (44) is 'ON' the drive pulley rotates the driven pulleys (47b, 47c) and thereby rotates the Can (502). The control box (49) is mounted on the support plate (43). Said control box (49) consists the necessary electrical and electronic components which are required to control and drive the motor and other components.

Fig - 7 is a flow chart that describes the working method of the encoder apparatus (12) according to the main embodiment of the present invention. The details such as, machine code, process code, operator code, date and time are entered in the display unit (30) by the operator. When the can is entered in the delivery area of the nhachine, the sensing means (15) senses and confirms the presence of Can and sends signal to the control unit (14). The distance between the encoder case (17) and the Can is also measured by the sensing means (15) and the information is sent to the control unit (14). The driving motor (41) rotates the Can (502) and the control unit (14) also activates the driving means (21 ) and moves the encoder case (17) towards the Can (502) and the sensing means (19) starts measures the distance between the Can (502) and the encoder case (17). When the Tag is sensed, the driver motor (41) is stopped and the desired data is encoded on the Tag by the encoder unit (16). After completion of encoding process, the driving means (21) rotates in opposite direction and moves the case (17) to its original position. Once the data is encoded, the encoded details are sent to the loT server (71) through wi-fi module (28).

Fig - 8 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 a display unit (30), an Encoder unit (16) which are connected with the control unit (14). Said control unit (14) also comprises a wireless communication means (28) and said wireless communication means (28) transmits the data to the server (71). Said server transmits the compiled information to user interface device. The decoder apparatus (51) is directly connected to the loT server (71) also to transmit compiled information to user interface devices. 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 (62), tablet (63) or mobile phone (64).

According to the main aspect of the present invention, the data such as machine number, operator number, date of production, time of production, process code and other process details shall be encoded into the electronic tag (507, 508) such as transponders. Said Electronic tags shall be a Radio Frequency Infra- Red (RFID) tags, Near field Communication (NFC) tags, preferably active RFID or active NFC tags.

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.