Application of Computer in Textile Wet Processing Industry

Last Updated on 27/01/2021

Application of Computer in Textile Wet Processing

Fardous Wahid Anik
Department of Textile Engineering
Ahsanullah University of Science & Technology (AUST), Bangladesh
Email: anikabd7@gmail.com

Introduction:
In the global trade of textile material the efficient working of textile manufacturing and processing machines have great importance. The quantitative and qualitative product is produced by applying technically developed features in machineries which assist in increasing the trading of textile of particular industry but also assist their marketing growth.

The technical features developed in modern textile wet processing machineries by using automation, electronic controlling system & computer assistance. The application of computer controlling system in textile wet processing machines has the advantages:

Increase in quality and productivity of the processing material.
Process control parameters are controlled by it, also chances of breakdown in machine also reduces.

For an example if the dye solution level in the trough of the dye padder is reduced it is sensed by the pressure transducer which gives activation signal to the dosing pump of the dye liquor due to which the dye level is maintained and chances of colour variation in the batch decreases and continuous production can be obtained.

If we consider the application of computer in textile wet processing the application can mainly be categorized as bellow;

Applications of computer in testing equipment for textile wet processing.
Applications of computer in process machineries for textile wet processing.
Applications of computer in process management for textile wet processing.
Applications of computer in overall process management for textile wet processing.

A. Computer Aided Testing Equipment in Textile Wet Processing:
It is the engineering application of computers for the inspection of quality of the products. While designing a textile product, the requirements must be defined followed by development process and acceptance testing. CAQA includes measuring equipment management, goods inward inspection, vendor rating, attribute chart, statistical process control and documentation. These practices provide a set of processes and procedures that address the quality assurance requirements throughout the hardware or software production cycle from requirements specification through design, implementation and testing, to acceptance and deployment. The Computer Aided Quality Assurance should ensure tests and procedures are properly carried out and evaluated and if any modifications in the product are investigated when necessary, should generate technical and management system reports, produce statistical reports through relevant data, measures to improve the quality of fabrics by reducing cost and bringing about better utilization of raw materials. Specifications should be developed and standard practices must be used for evaluating materials, product characteristics, performance and quality. Sensors are used by continuous production machines to control the quality of the product. This ensures production of identical, high quality products, such as plain, plied and fancy yarns and standard or specialized fabrics. Few computer aided equipments are as bellow;

There are some testing equipments that are used in wet processing laboratory they are,

Spectrophotometer
Data color
Buffer Calculator
Different kinds of computer aided fastness tester.

1. Spectrophotometer:
Spectrophotometer usually used in textile to measure the efficiency of dyeing and k/s value ect.it is used in the quantitative measurement of the reflection or transmission properties of a material as a function of wavelength. It is more specific than the general term electromagnetic spectroscopy in that spectrophotometry deals with visible light, near-ultraviolet, and near-infrared, but does not cover time-resolved spectroscopic techniques.

Spectrophotometry involves the use of a spectrophotometer. A spectrophotometer is aphotometer that can measure intensity as a function of the light source wavelength. Important features of spectrophotometers are spectral bandwidth and linear range of absorption or reflectance measurement.

2. Datacolor:
In testing laboratory it can be used to match color recipe before going to bulk production. With increasing pressure for smaller production lots, shorter time to market and intricate blends, the only way to optimize time, recipe development and production is to have a broad knowledge base taken directly from dyers themselves. Datacolor process is a unique software solution that uses the knowledge of the experts in your company to help you manage dyeing recipes and entire processes. It automatically creates or specifies the best production recipe for any color, dyed on a specific fabric and for a particular customer.

3. Buffer calculator:
It is used to calculate the amount of acids/alkali required to maintain a proper buffer solution for the use.

4. Different kinds of computer aided fastness tester:
Fastness properties of fabrics should be tested accurately for the production. For that computer assistance are taken for better results. Few testers are as bellow,

AATCC Rotary Crockmeter, automated pilling (automated pilling Ici Pilling Testing Machine (TSE-A010)) and abrasion tester, automated percpirometer etc.

Many more applications are there in the testing lab of wet processing as an example to test the fabric quality there are few more computer aided machines.the application of computer is day by day increasing in various places with the improvement of technologies and almost everywhere computer assistance can be used for correct results.

B. Computer Aided Process Machineries in Textile Wet Processing:
In textile wet processing there are many pretreatments processes are carried out before sending the fabric to the dyeing and printing sections. As an examples singeing where optimum temperature required, scouring, bleaching, mercerization where ample amount of tension required which can be maintained by applying automation or computer assistance. After than that fabrics sent to dyeing and printing section.

For dyeing sections:
For dyeing procedure, the accuracy of process is required for a proper dyeing process there are some machineries which comes with computer assistance in the machine for a better performance. There are some dyeing machines which has softwares that work independently after the command that is made by the operator. Digital monitor with information of m;l ratio, chemical ratio, machine speed, temperature, pressure etc criteria can be maintained for better dyeing effect.

Computer match prediction for fluorescent dyes by neural networks:
Fluorescent dyes present difficulties for match prediction due to their variable excitation and emission characteristics, which depend on a variety of factors. An empirical approach is therefore favoured, such as that used in the artificial neural network method. In this paper, the production of a database with four acid dyes (two fluorescent and two non-fluorescent) is described, along with the large number of mixtures dyeings that were carried out. The data were used to construct a network connecting reflectance values with concentrations in formulations. The results show that, although time consuming, this approach is viable and accurate.

Datacolor:
During the bulk production accurate formulation of recipes datacolor also used.

Highly efficient ultraviolet photodetectors based on TiO2 nanocrystal–polymer:
Solution-processed inorganic/organic hybrid films based on anatine TiO2 Nano crystals and poly (9,9-dihexylfluorene) (PFH) are fabricated via a simple spin-coating method and characterized by atomic force microscopy, UV–vis absorption and photoluminescence spectra. The photodetector devices are made from hybrid TiO2/PFH bulk heterojunction films sandwiched between poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)–poly(styrenesulfonate) pre-coated ITO and Al electrodes. The device characteristics, including current–voltage (I–V) curves under UV illumination, spectral response, response time and bias dependence, are studied. The photovoltaic effect is observed and the photocurrent shows an increase with increasing TiO2 content from 2.5 to 11 wt%. The high UV photo-to-dark current ratio of 103, fast response time less than 200 ms and a responsivity of 54.6 mA W − 1 are obtained for the hybrid photodetector. The fast photoresponse is attributed to the enhanced interfacial dissociation of excitons. The overlap of the spectral response with the UV–A range (320–400 nm) and the low-cost wet fabrication method show their potential for environmental and biological uses.

Ultrasonic-assisted wet processing:
Ultrasound reduces processing time and energy consumption, maintains or improves product quality, and reduces the use of auxiliary chemicals. In essence, the use of ultrasound for dyeing will use electricity to replace expensive thermal energy and chemicals, which have to be treated in waste water.

Bubbling phenomenon, Ultrasound energy is sound waves with frequencies above 20,000 oscillations per second, which is above the upper limit of human hearing. In liquid, these high-frequency waves cause the formation of microscopic bubbles, or cavitations. They also cause insignificant heating of the liquid. Ultrasound causes cavitational bubbles to form in liquid. When the bubbles collapse, they generate tiny but powerful shock waves. We needed to agitate the border layer of liquid to get the liquor through the barrier more quickly, and these shock waves seemed like the perfect stirring mechanism.

Ultrasonic wave also can be used to increase the amorphous reasons in fabric to better the dye uptake.

For printing section:
This process can be divided into two parts one preparation part and two is to applying the print paste on the fabric.

Preparation:

Designing: It is done by as followings;

Photoshop:
Before the application of printing on fabrics there is a necessity of an appropriate designing which was used to be done manually now a days can be done accurately with necessary information like repeat size, number of colors etc. with the help of Photoshop.

Computer Aided Design (CAD):
CAD is an electronic system which is used for designing new products or part of a product or altering the existing products or replacing the entire product done manually. CAD is used by the designer to design different geometric shapes with the help of graphics software. The CAD system has been built up from the Graphical User Interface with NURBS geometry and boundary representation data via a geometric modeling kernel. The graphics system provided by the CAD allows designers to create electronic images that can be portrayed into two- or three-dimensional solid component which can be rotated or scaled or transformed as it is viewed.

Screen preparation: In the past the screen preparation was a quite a difficult task and was time consuming as well and accuracy was not achieved. Now a day’s glass fiber used as screen, and galvano, laqour screen etc. made by computer assistance.

Printing process:
Digital textile printing, often referred to as direct to garment printing, DTG printing, and digital garment printing is a process of printing on textiles and garments using specialized or modified inkjet technology. Inkjet printing on fabric is also possible with an inkjet printer by using fabric sheets with a removable paper backing. Today major inkjet technology manufacturers can offer specialized products designed for direct printing on textiles, not only for sampling but also for bulk production. Burnout effect can be brought or plasma technology, laser technology can be also used for printing.

C. Process Management in Wet Processing:
Computer Integrated manufacturing (CIM) uses computers to control the entire production process that involves engineering, production, marketing and all the support functions of a manufacturing enterprise. In the traditional business paradigm, the company is assumed as an island, i.e., an independent and self-operating entity. As a company is a part of a broader matrix of business systems composed of customers, suppliers, products and global information, it leads to integration along different axes, namely geographical and functional. Its main objective is streamlining the process of manufacturing and integrating it with all the other business functions such as financing, marketing and accounting. To eliminate the wastage, basic manufacturing functions as well as materials handling and inventory control can be simulated by computers. Nowadays there are many simulation software’s available. The elements of CIM system include manufacturing planning and control, manufacturing engineering, manufacturing processes and indirect elements such as sales order processing and finance and accounting. Manufacturing planning and control includes shop floor control, inventory control etc., Manufacturing engineering includes CAD/CAM, CAPP etc.; Manufacturing process includes robots, material handling systems etc.

Computer Aided Manufacturing:
This is the component of the CIM that directly deals with manufacturing operations. The computer systems are used by the manufacturers because they are accurate and also easily adaptable. They also provide easy access to data storage and cost effective, high quality production. CAM makes use of the computer-based software tools to assist the engineers for manufacturing or prototyping the product components.

Computer helps to compute how long a machine will work and what would be the amount of production that the machine will give by that time.
During the manufacturing there are automatic system which can identify the fault in process and can guide to solve the problems

Computer Aided Process Planning:
As process planning involves determining sequence of individual manufacturing operations needed to produce a given part or product, CAPP must be capable of understanding and analyzing the characteristics of the part of a product, possessing multiple knowledge about the tools and their characteristics, possess the capability of analyzing the inter dependencies between the part, the process involved, quality of the product and cost of the product.

D. Overall Process Monitoring & Managing:
Process monitoring is one of the most important part of synchronization of the process. In the textile industry, some of the complex activities such as process monitoring, management and planning makes used of knowledge based expert system, where human experts are scarce.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP):
ERP is the latest high-end solution provided by information technology for business application. Globalization has led to increase in competition and quality awareness and therefore it has become very important for the textile industry of Bangladesh to integrate itself with information technology to survive. To sustain competitive advantage, companies must re-examine and fine-tune their business processes to deliver high quality goods at very low costs. ERP is an integrated system that allows information to enter at a single point in process & updates a single shared database for all functions that directly or indirectly depend on this information. ERP solutions came into existence in corporate world due to various problems faced in Management Information System (MIS), Integrated Information System (IIS), Executive Information System (EIS), Corporate Information System (CIS), Enterprise Wide System (EWS), and Material Requirement Planning (MRP), Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP II). This paper deals with the functions of ERP, Necessity and benefits of ERP system. Challenges of aligning ERP with textile processes, taxonomy of textile ERP system, Development of ERP system, Existing ERP systems, ERP system providers, ERP system Implementation, simply to understand – ERP system organizes all of the company’s information into one centralized system, which is always available.

Through ERP in Wet Process We can make a synchronized relation between the production floor for monitoring and inventories, fabrics, dyes that are consumed and wasted and also the market conditions.

Conclusion:
People make mistakes – computers don’t; this is the main theme or reason that textile industries must use the assistance of computer, to have better and proper way of production. The use of computer is the demand of the developed technologies. In the last couple of decades, automation has taken place in all the processes involving textile manufacturing i.e. cotton ginning, spinning, weaving, wet processing and even to some extent in garment making, resulting in enormous gains in productivity and efficiency.

In our wet processing sector of textile, it is very important to have well prepared/pretreated fabric which is aided by the application of computer more precisely.
Another most important and can be called as the main part of dyeing process is to match the color or to have appropriate shade of color which also assisted by computer i.g datacolor, spectrophotometer etc.
And at last assuring the quality of materials also done by computer.

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Mazharul Islam Kiron

Founder & Editor of Textile Learner. He is a Textile Consultant, Blogger & Entrepreneur. Mr. Kiron is working as a textile consultant in several local and international companies. He is also a contributor of Wikipedia.