Can Management

Card Cans or Drawing Cans have to be typically identified with either colors or a colored thread wound around it for count identification.

As the Technology moved forward, none of the can makers worked on putting up a small LCD display showing the count of the sliver packed into it.

LCD display cost less then a Dollar , however, makes the can a more smarter entity in the spinning block. The LCD could have a numeral entry under it and it could either be remote entered with the count or press entered.

A further generation of can will any case have a motorized system, which will drive it to the lazing bay automatically on getting packed . It will also show the Number of meters of sliver or kgs of sliver packed into it , so at any given time the work in process is fully controlled.

All it needs is a Infra Red control points which will guide it to the destination from the control room.

Spinning will be control room managed, where the production chief manages most inputs on a screen and gets a visual display in real time of all the machines and quality graphs . The maintenance chief gets the error reports of machines and power consumption in real time.

Future of Spinning needs to be redefined. However, unless the industry pushes the machine makers to factor these demands, it will never happen in short time.

Composite Spindles

Last week, I was travelling and within my many international flights,  I was thinking if the Engine of the aircraft now had carbon reinforced blades and the seats were now changed from Aluminum to Carbon reinforced composites and so was the body. The whole thing  made the plane more lighter and increased the fuel efficiency by 25%. How is that the Spindle in the Ring Frame was not a potential target of carbon reinforcement.

Studies show that 40% of the total power in a Ring Frame comes from the weight of the spindle. If spindle weight can be reduced from 1 kg to 600 gms ,the power consumption will drop to half.

All it takes is a carbon composite of Spindle with the Aluminum and you have a power saver spindle. Same applies for Drums in a winding machine. Both are power guzzlers.

The composite industry is also not mature enough to target large volume products. It is working on high value applications like wind mill blades, air craft application, formula 1 car body applications etc. However, all those areas, where there is large volume, the composite industry is missing out. All of them take pride in putting up pictures of Airbus, Formula Cars , Wind Mill Blades and get infantile pleasure. All these applications have very low volumes and make little business sense. The real meat in composites is in rotary applications, whether spindles of Textile or Drilling Equipments or Drums etc etc.

The generic product manufacturers have very little capability of making composites. Textile Machine makers have always been oblivious to factoring new technologies, till the whole world already was into it.

I recently wrote to a carbon fibre maker in US to help me develop a carbon fibre composite for textile application and after the first email, he never got back to me. The suppliers also have very limited knowledge on the application areas.

Nevertheless, it is the future of rotary equipment's and fuel saving.

Legacy of Steve Jobs.

Steve Jobs left us today, but perhaps will go into the history books as another college drop out, who created a Legendary Global Brand in computers and consumer electronics.

Only in my very last blog " Carding machines...." I had written about when the Textile Industry will start thinking like iPad and iPhones and now I have to come back and salute this extraordinary person who changed the whole world of computers . If only Textile Industry had the visionaries as that of the " Apple", we would have been into another world by now.

Last week, I was at ITMA and the owner of a large Textile machine maker commented that I was now a owner of a company and I should wear a proper business suit, as I was dressed in a T shirt and Trousers. I told him, has he seen " Steve Jobs" ever in his life time wearing a Suit , even when he was launching his products globally. Or had he seen Bill Gates wearing a suit or lately Obama in suit. He agreed and confirmed that perhaps, he was not concurrent.

The fact is that the whole Textile Industry is non concurrent. Because we still believe that the 18th century suits are suitable for 21st century. Conventionally yes, but if you are " Apple" then you are miles ahead of your time.

The " i " in Apple meant two things, first, it was " me " and second it was " Eye" . "Me the visionary". It outclassed itself in the computer world to consumer electronics and the music industry.

The fact remains that in Textiles, there are umpteen such opportunities which are available, but we don't have an " i " here.

I was telling " Muller " at the show that their Ribbon Dyeing machine was an excellent example of a yarn dyeing machine. Wherein the yarn got dyed, dried and wound in one single operation and with speeds of 20 meters per minute and several hundred yarns being wound at one time. The productivity was good enough. It needs no boilers, water which is one third of the conventional vessel and much lower power and a dryer, which is not a power guzzler. A wonderful integrated yarn dyeing machine.
" Muller" told me that yes, they did work on yarn dyeing machine , but did not succeed in marketing.

This is where " Apple " was legendary . iPad is simply an extension of laptop with touch screen. " Muller " still does not have an " Apple " in it to see that opportunity.

Whatever be the case " Steve Jobs" needs to be saluted for the way he outclassed the competition. The design and deliverable s of each of its product lines was unique , though the applications were as regular as other available products.

I only hope that there are visionaries in the Textile area, who get motivated out of " Steve " and bring something extraordinary to the market.

Carding Machines : Stick It On The Wall !

Carding machines were designed with the large cylinder and more cylinder and yet more cylinders to get the channelization ( Parallel) effect and a sliver form. In case of synthetic Fibres, actually there is no lint or short fibres ( Minimal) and hence carding would be generally construed as the operation of hank reduction and sliver formation.

Actually, it does not need this arrangement anymore for synthetic yarn manufacturing.

The whole Carding operation can be condensed with the Air Chutes of blow room and the output will be a sliver condensing out as an icecream filling the cans.

The Cylinder does not need to be this huge. In the Chute exit there can be multiple small cylinders running one after another, which would channelize the fibres and get the desired hank. And at the exit there will be a condenser filling the slivers into a can.

The number of chute outlets can be anyway increased to as many as you wish. The number of small cylinders can be 2 or 3 and will be only as big as say 12 to 16 inches both in diameter and width . These cylinders will be planted on the wall as the fibre exits . One has to conceive the idea same as what happens with spinnerittes for Polyester and Nylon fibres.

The chute will act like a manifold wherein the desired level of fiber with vacuum suction ideally gets pumped into the cylinders, which are sticking to the wall . And on repeated combing with the cylinders, the output is then condensed and slivered out.

This will be a huge saving in power as the new cylinders will work only with 0.5 HP motors , and huge saving of space as the cylinders will stick to the wall and hence no floor space required. No operators required as the system will work on automation. Each sliver will have a certain fixed length so that at the desired length , the can exits and new can enters. The filled up can moves into the lazing bay . The cost of making such a carding machine will be 10 times less then the conventional card and the operational cost will be fractional of the current cost.

In place of card clothing changes, perhaps the whole cylinder can be changed every few years. The Maintenance will be easy, as one will be able to detach the cylinders and take them out at any time. The back area cleaning will be automatic by pneumatic suction.

As and when I get time, I will make a drawing and post it here. But this is the new machine for 21st century.

Repeatedly, I have written that machine makers are lazy thinkers and they can only incrementally improve on what is available. But never design something altogether new and revolutionary. The current machine was designed sometimes in the 18th century and was best suitable for slow sleep lap feeding. Where a large lap had to to move through a similar size drum, but when the lap itself got eliminated, where is the justification of still using large cylinders? The feed control gets the desired hank and combing via cylinders gets the parallel effect and then you simply condense and move it out. All it takes is a small cylinders doing the needful.

When will the Industry start thinking like iPads and iPhones and Smart solutions. The world has moved so much ahead.

No Copying of my design allowed without my due permission.

Polyester spun waxed or Incompetent Technicians.

How much an Industry works like a fool can be seen from the simple fact that even the best of the technologist working in the mills don't try to recall the basic chemistry that they learnt at High School.

I was yesterday looking at the imports into US on spun yarns and interestingly all the polyester spun yarn imported for knitting has the Term : " Polyester spun waxed for knitting "

If one has learnt his basic textiles correctly, then he knows that wax is a paraffin compound and actually has no lubrication effect whatsoever on polyester. In fact wax will not even stick to polyester spun or filament yarns . If wax works for cotton does not mean that it is also the lubricant for polyester.

Polyester is basically " Petroleum" converted into fibre and all man made fibers , the only lubricant is white oil with additives for anti splash, cohesiveness and heat dissipation.

The filament Industry religiously uses the white oil based lubricants, however, when it comes to the spun yarn Industry, the concept of lubricants is not matured. All cotton spinning variables are generally extended onto other fibre substrates without any thought on the basic chemistry of the polymer.

Interestingly wax is non water soluble and generally needs ether or benzene for washing out. The same polyester after knitting, when goes into dyeing, now will have undissolved wax which will inhibit the dyeing process and is one of the cause of shade variations. Though to my mind, wax will actually never get picked up at the yarn application stage itself, so one generally does not get these problems of undissolved wax in dyeing. In cotton dyeing, one of the biggest challenge is to dissolve the wax, before dyeing. The inner wax inside the cotton fibre is a major inhibitor in the dyeing process.

In the spun yarn Industry, while the cotton is subjected to Moisture Regain and maximized with water content to profit by selling water on yarn prices. The polyester spun yarn industry has been slow in realizing that there is hidden profit, when they oil the spun yarns via lubricators against waxing. All it takes is a small lubrication device to be installed on the winding machines and it does the needful.

The result is that the yarn is well lubricated, hence the yarn hairiness automatically improves , the performance on knitting machine then can be guaranteed to bring about higher speeds. These mill then can charge a premium for such a lubricant and profit double by selling oil at price of yarn .

I have made some oils which show remarkably performance on polyester and its blends and will soon launch globally.

Head Vs Heart, Management Attributes of West Vs East.

The over riding decision in case of an Eastern Business is something which points to the Socialistic pattern of economy. Where as the Western Business, the decision making largely engaged in shareholders wealth maximization.

Most Managers in Asia would take a decision, which would favor the social well being of individuals and teams, then the best interest of the organization. Say, if an employee is marginally contributing to the organization and can be best eliminated, the managers in the East would do it as the very very last priority and await that somehow the employee leaves the organization on his own self. Where as in the West, without blinking his eyes, the manager would sack the joker out.

Whenever decision influencing the personal welfare of people in the organization is concerned, most managers try to play Robin Hood in the Eastern World. Where as in the Western World, it would be take it or leave it policy.

The major reason being the environmental influence of these managers. Most in the East, grow up seeing poverty and hardship lives, for the lowest strata of the society and hence take oversight of weakness on almost all issues of productivity , quality etc. But this then creates a very mediocre organization in terms of its deliverable. In India, the Trade Unions took major advantage of this weakness and became so strong that they were never bothered about productivity, quality or discipline. Many an organizations closed down as they could not handle the conflicts with these trade unions.

In short, any oversight of people skill finally results into creation of a Bad Apple, which then goes in to spoil the whole basket.

The best results are achieved by giving 3 clear chance to the defaulters and after that the person is shunted out.

East works with the Heart and West works with the Head.

Double Pick Yarns

In case of making of Twill fabrics, one of the easisest ways of inserting two picks into the fabric would have been Double Pick Yarns, then inserting two picks , one after another.

The Double Pick Yarns can be easily made on a doubling machine , however, will require some special cutting on the drums to ensure that the two yarns are laid side by side on the cone. It should in no way wrap up with one another. In case of precsion winders, it would need two seperate slots on the guide finger , laying two yarns onto the cone at the same time side by side.

The Double Pick Yarns will then Double the Production in weaving and there will be a fully new kind of product which will now be available in the market.

Both the machine makers and the Industry will have to reorient itself, if they want to innovate and see the fruits of lateral thinking.

Anti Fungal Yarns

The new technology of compacting copper or silver into the extruded man man madee fibres has bought about a unique product of Anti Microbial, Anti Fungal and Anti Inflammatory fabrics. Incase of natural yarns, these are blended in a certain proportion or twisted .

Though , the yarns are now available for quite sometime, interestingly the trade has till not exploited these functional values into their product offerings. One still does not see in the markets garments with microbial resistance or under garments with fungal resistance.

The while Children Garment Industry could have actually been steered into this new development. The Under garment business by preference will choose only such yarns and the Hospital wear will be automatically microbial resistance wears. Towels will have no other choices, but to use such yarns. Socks will be anti fungal and handkerchiefs will be antimicrobial.

None of the Brands has traveled into this new space and quickly captured the innovation for their USP.

One still has to also wait and see that how effective these anti fungus, microbial and inflammatory properties are with respect to washing and usage over time.

SSM : Paradise Regained

Last year during this time, I wrote about SSM and its sliding numbers.

But this year, SSM has regained its legendary position in the winding machines segment.

The annual report talks on sales improvements in China, Bangladesh and India. Also on the advantages of cost now flowing in with manufacturing migration to China.

It is not so clear to me, as of now which segment of the market has SSM regained, but it does show that Stahle has proven to be a better investment against my predictions last year. The air covering machines should be the next best contributor to the bottom line.

On the other product range, except for soft package winders, the machines may not really be sustainable at the price levels, it is pitching in the global space. But , if prices do become rational factoring the China cost, perhaps, a much larger volume can be captured.

One product, which SSM is missing is the filament assembly winder. This could be the future for composites and Industrial yarns.

Anycase, well done SSM.

Orphans Get Commented on Eyes , Nose Lips ! Paid Ugly Duckling is also Cute.

This is a story on companies, which choose to sell their products on credit.

When I use to work in Silvasa, there was this certain behavior of companies, who would immediately find quality problems with the supply as soon as the goods were unloaded. The results was that the supplier was now trying to convince the customer for all the specifications. Yet the user would give him all such cosmetic issues that the supplier had no answer. Say a truck of POY landed with a texturizer. He would then find problems with the running of the POY, spin finish, broken filaments, etc etc.

However, where ever the customer bought POY with advance payment, the yarn much worst then the credit supplier was still ok.

Many a times, this was a deliberate attempt by the company to postpone the payments of the supplier. But also many a times, ,it was the incompetence of the user to run the yarn.

The more the incompetence, the more the user would resist the supplier and find umpteen issues with the quality.

On the other side, there were technical managers, who would say, get any yarn under the sun to us and we will run it. We know, how to run.

The same story happens to one and every product which is given Free For Evaluation process to a buyer. Even the best of the product is then commented for silly cosmetic features and usually rejected or poorly rated. All because the seller gave it free for Trial. If only the same customer would have bought the product, he finds all the value in it. Never ever make a mistake of giving anything free for Trials. No matter, how small and insignificant value it carries. The process of ownership has to be defined from the very first day, otherwise it will remain an Orphan and most likely kicked out.

The story is all about selling on Credit. A credit product is like an orphan, it has no mother , no father in the new company. It gets commented on Eyes, Ears, Nose lips etc. Whereas the same customer, if he pays upfront and gets the worst quality, yet finds the product, very nice and upto his standards.

Paid Ugly Duckling is also cute.