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EP-4737619-A1 - ROLLER CARD SYSTEM COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF CARDING ROLLERS BEING ARRANGED IN A ROLLER CARD CONFIGURATION

EP4737619A1EP 4737619 A1EP4737619 A1EP 4737619A1EP-4737619-A1

Abstract

Roller card system (1) comprising a plurality of carding rollers (2) being arranged in a roller card configuration. The roller card configuration is at least partly enclosed by at least one housing (3). At least one area (4) of possible fiber flight is defined within the housing (3) and the roller card system(1) comprises at least one sensor system (5) responsive to the fiber flight within the at least one area (4) of possible fiber flight.

Inventors

  • Kulka, Stephan
  • KÜHL, Norbert
  • MAIER, THOMAS
  • SCHLADER, Andreas

Assignees

  • LENZING AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20241104

Claims (13)

  1. Roller card system comprising a plurality of carding rollers being arranged in a roller card configuration, wherein the roller card configuration is at least partly enclosed by at least one housing, wherein at least one area of possible fiber flight is defined within the housing, wherein the roller card system comprises at least one sensor system responsive to the fiber flight within the at least one area of possible fiber flight.
  2. Roller card system according to Claim 1, wherein the at least one area of possible fiber flight is defined as the area where the highest fiber flight is expected at the intended maximal production speed.
  3. Roller card system according to Claim 1 or 2, wherein at least one area of possible fiber flight is located in the periphery of the main cylinder after the first worker at cylinder and before the first, second or third stripper at cylinder.
  4. Roller card system according to any of the Claims 1 to 3, wherein a plurality of areas of possible fiber flight is defined within the housing and wherein the roller card system comprises at least one sensor system responsive to the fiber flight within each area of possible fiber flight.
  5. Roller card system according to any of the Claims 1 to 4, wherein the sensor system is a light-based sensor system, preferably selected from a list comprising light sensors, light sensor arrays and camera systems.
  6. Online control tool for a roller card system according to any of the Claims 1 to 5, wherein the online control tool is adapted to receive at least one quality assessment parameter which is determined based on the measured fiber flight in an area of possible fiber flight, and to output at least one adjustment value for the adjustment of a quality affecting parameter.
  7. Method for providing at least one quality assessment parameter related to the operation of a roller card system, wherein the roller card system comprises a plurality of carding rollers being arranged in a roller card configuration, wherein the roller card configuration is at least partly enclosed by at least one housing, wherein at least one area of possible fiber flight is defined within the housing, and wherein the method comprises the step of measuring at least one measurement value representative for the degree of fiber flight within the at least one area of possible fiber flight and determining a quality assessment parameter based on the at least one measurement value.
  8. Method according to Claim 7, wherein the measurement value is measured with at least one sensor system responsive to the fiber flight within the at least one area of possible fiber flight.
  9. Method according to Claim 7, wherein the measurement value comprises a light intensity measured by the sensor system.
  10. Method according to Claim 9, wherein the sensor system is selected from a list comprising light sensors, light sensor arrays, camera systems or a combination thereof.
  11. Method for adjusting at least one quality affecting parameter of a roller card system according to any of the Claims 1 to 5, the method comprising the steps of determining at least one quality assessment parameter according to a method as claimed in any of the Claims 7 to 10, and adjusting the at least one quality affecting parameter based on the assessment parameter.
  12. Method according to Claim 11, wherein the adjustment is implemented as a closed-loop control system.
  13. Method according to Claim 11 or 12, wherein the quality affecting variable is selected from a list comprising a rotating speed of at least one carding roller, a fiber material feeding mass, a fiber material feeding speed, a fiber raw material property, such as a quality, or a nature of the fiber raw material, an average fiber length, a fiber length distribution, a fiber blend composition of the fiber raw material.

Description

Field of the invention The present disclosure relates to roller card system comprising a plurality of carding rollers being arranged in a roller card configuration and to methods for the operation of such roller card systems. Description of the Related Art A carding machine is a commonly used machine in the textile and nonwoven industry to transform staple fibers into a uniform web with a homogeneous area weight in cross and machine direction. The machines takes a heavy pre-web, opens the fibers and converts it into an even nonwoven web with a defined area weight. Especially in the nonwoven industry these machines are running at high capacities and high production speeds. These so called roller cards have a significant impact on the quality of the final nonwoven product. Besides an even weight distribution, the fiber opening achieved in the card ensures a homogeneous web appearance. Fibers commonly used on these machines are for example cotton, wool, PES, PP, PLA, viscose or lyocell fibers in different length and diameter or mixtures of such fibers. Depending on the final application other fiber types are processed as well. At many Nonwoven production lines the roller cards represent the bottle neck to further increase the capacities of the lines. This is especially true for production lines where one or several cards directly feed the entangling unit. In these lines the unbonded web receives no further treatment, no so called crosslapper or any other machine is influencing the web design before bonding. Typically the capacity of these lines is described by either the achieved production speed at a certain product weight or as by the mass of fibers consumed per hour per meter working width of the card (capacity). The maximum production speed or capacity is reached, when a further speed increase would decrease the quality of the final product so that it does not meet the requirements any more. Currently, the product quality is either assessed by judging the visual appearance of the final product or by camera systems continuously detecting the homogeneity of the nonwoven web somewhere downstream after the exit of the card. Other commonly used systems are continuously detecting product properties like web weight, web thickness and moisture content. Also known are camera systems that are installed directly at the outlet of the carding machine to detect the orientation of the fibers. There is a constant need to increase the production capacity of roller card systems, to optimize the quality of the nonwoven products produced on a card and to improve process stability. Summary When operating a roller card, a plurality of parameters are impacting the product quality and by this the maximally achievable capacity. The present inventors noticed that the amount of fiber fly in the carding machine is a good indicator of the process stability and often correlates with the quality of the nonwoven product being produced. The fiber fly is usually visible between the casing of the card and the rotating cylinders beside or underneath. The cylinders are usually referred to as breast roller(s), main cylinder, workers, strippers and doffers and can also comprise other rollers such as transfer systems or the like. All of these rollers are covered with so called card wires and rotate at speeds that can usually be adjusted individually. The fiber fly is depending on the machine design, for example roller diameters, the chosen card wire, direction of rotation, etc., but also on the machine settings, such as the rotation speed of the rollers or the material flow through the machine (which directly influences the capacity of the card). Further, the amount of fiber fly depends on the features and qualities of the processed fiber materials and also on the ambient conditions, especially the temperature and the humidity. Fiber fly can already be detected at low line speeds (and low capacities) and is increasing with an increase of the line speed (and capacity). Fiber fly can lead to unfavorable fiber aggregations in the form of bundles or longer tubes of fibers. Such tubes of fibers can collect at different places of the machine, very much depending on the machine design. Typical positions are at gaps of two or three rollers when their rotating directions and speeds fulfil certain requirements. The aggregations collect more and more fibers and at a certain point in time they get hooked and picked up by the wiring of a roller and end up as an agglomeration of fibers in the final product. These undesirable agglomerations create a disturbance in the homogeneity of the final product and are an important quality criteria. The less disturbances the better. With exceeding a certain number of disturbances, the produced materials have to be downgraded. To avoid fiber fly, some cards comprise suction systems that suck off excessive flying fibers. Nonetheless, this cannot completely rule out the formations of fiber agglomerations. According to curre