Maintenance of Weaving and Knitting Machine and Its Impacts on Ergonomics in Textile Industry
Md. Didarul Islam
Dept. of Textile Engineering,
BGMEA University of Fashion and Technology (BUFT)
Email: didarul.buft@gmail.com
Introduction:
Any activity such as tests, measurements, replacements, adjustments and repair are performed to restore or retain a part or equipment to a specific state in which that part or equipment can perform its required functions.
Schedule Maintenance: Repair and upkeep work performed within a set time frame.
Unscheduled Maintenance: Repairs are made after the equipment is out of order and it cannot perform its normal functions.
Maintenance is very important because of;
It elongate machine life and help the machines to run trouble-free.
Increase productivity and quality of products.
It reduce amount and complexity of machinery required.
Ensure the safety of the plant and employees
It improve or sustain the machine quality and life.
Instrument Used in Industry:
1. Combination tools/ Spanner:
It is commonly made of forged steel. The size of spanners denotes the size of the bolt on which it tin work.
Fig: Spanner
Function: Tightening and Loosening of Nuts and bolts.
Use: The spanner is a hand-held tool used to provide grip and tighten or loosen fasteners.
2. Socket ratchet set:
A socket wrench is a type of wrench that inserts into a socket to turn a fastener, typically in the form of a nut or bolt. The most prevalent form is the ratcheting socket wrench.
Fig: Socket ratchet set
Function: Tightening of nuts and bolts.
Use: Attaches to a ratchet to tighten and loosens nuts and bolts. Also works with torque wrenches and breaker bars.
3. Slide range:
They may consist of a slot, socket, pins, or moveable jaw for grasping the nut, alongside the balance of the tool serving equally a cause got applying pressure.
Fig: Slide range
Function: Tightening and Loosening of Nuts and bolts.
Use: Slide-in ranges has made them popular choices for kitchen remodels and installation in kitchen islands.
4. Monkey pliers:
Pliers are a hand tool used to hold objects firmly, possibly developed from tongs used to handle hot metal in Bronze Age Europe. They are also useful for bending and compressing a wide range of materials.
Fig: Monkey pliers
Function: Tightening and loosening of nuts and bolts.
Use: Pliers are a hand tool used to hold objects firmly, possibly developed from tongs used to handle hot metal in Bronze.
5. Bearing puller:
Bearing puller is a tool which is used to remove components such as bearings, gears and pulleys from a shaft or a recess.
Fig: Bearing puller
Function: To assist the opening of bearing from shaft.
Uses: The most common application is removing a caged set of ball or tapered bearings from a rotating shaft.
6. Pipe wrench:
A pipe wrench is any of several types of wrench that are designed to turn threaded pipe and pipe fittings for assembly (tightening) or disassembly (loosening).
Fig: Pipe wrench
Function: Tightening and loosening of pipe joint.
Uses: Pipe wrenches used in plumbing for gripping round (cylindrical) things.
7. Pipe cutting tools:
A pipe cutter is a type of tool used by plumbers to cut pipe. Besides producing a clean cut, the tool is often a faster, cleaner, and more convenient way of cutting pipe than using a hacksaw, although this depends on the metal of the pipe.
Fig: Pipe cutting tools
Function: For pipe cutting.
Uses: A pipe cutter is a type of tool used by plumbers to cut pipe. Besides producing a clean cut, the tool is often a faster, cleaner.
8. Heavy scissor:
Scissors are hand-operated shearing tools. A pair of scissors consists of a pair of metal blades. Heavy scissors to make your cutting easier.
Fig: Heavy scissor
Function: Cutting gasket and steel sheet.
Uses: Heavy-duty miter cutter makes cutting gaskets and trims for doors.
9. Oil can:
An oil can (oilcan or oiler) is a can that holds oil (usually motor oil) for lubricating machines. An oil can also be used to fill oil-based lanterns. An occupation, referred to as an oiler, can use an oil can (among other tools) to lubricate machinery.
Fig: Oil can
Function: Oiling of moving parts.
Use: Oil can also be used to fill oil-based lanterns and lubricate machinery.
10. Grease gun:
A grease gun is a common workshop and garage tool used for lubrication. The purpose of the grease gun is to apply lubricant through an aperture to a specific point, usually from a grease cartridge to a grease fitting or ‘nipple’.
Fig: Grease gun
Function: For greasing of moving parts of machine.
Use: A grease gun is a common workshop and garage tool used for lubrication.
11. File:
A file is a tool used to remove fine amounts of material from a work piece. It is common in woodworking, metalworking, and other similar trade and hobby tasks.
Fig: File tools
Function: For smoothing the surface.
Use: Woodworking, metalworking, to remove fine amounts of material from a work piece.
12. L-Key:
An L-shaped tool consisting of a rod having a hexagonal cross section.
Fig: L-Key
Function: To turn a screw (Allen screw) with a hexagonal recess in the head.
Use: Bicycle Repair, Furniture Repairs, Cars and Motorcycles repairing.
13. Viscometer:
A viscometer (also called viscosimeter) is an instrument used to measure the viscosity of a fluid and have a wide variety of applications, measuring these properties in a different substances and materials.
Fig: Viscometer
The SI unit of dynamic viscosity is the newton-second per square meter (N-s/m2).
Maintenance of pirn winding machine:
This is the process of transfer yarns from ring, bobbin, hanks etc. into a convenient form of package containing considerably log length of yarn. This simple transfer of yarn from one package (Bobbin) to another package (cone, spool, pirn) is called winding.
Fig: Diagram and parts of Pirn winding machine
Routine Maintenance activity on pirn winding machine
Every shift (8 hours):
General cleaning Is required. General cleaning is outside coverage cleaning. Such as cleaning the fly dust from the surface of the parts.
Once in a month:
Variable belt tension and speed checking-pirn build, transfer setting.
Once in three months:
Tensioner unit setting: Here this unit keep the tension remain on yarn so that it can be wound perfectly over the pirn package. Also, it helps to compact winding process. If the tensioner doesn’t work perfectly then it can be occurred various problems like yarn breakage, loose winding etc, which causes low quality product; even bottleneck also can be happened. To avoid all these problems Tensioner unit setting goes for maintenance once in 3 months.
Once in six months:
👉Gear box overhauling: Overhauling of a machine is defined as a process of general maintenance performed on a machine or other industrial equipment. The goal of overhauling is to keep the system in serviceable condition.Overhauling usually involves the following stages such as;
Inspection: First of all, the machine will be thoroughly inspected. Experienced maintenance crews perform an inspection on the overhauled machine under production conditions. It means, the machine’s performance is monitored while the machine is in use. Such a procedure allows to allocate any issues and perform the troubleshooting more effectively.
Disassembly: After the initial inspection, the piece of equipment should be taken apart. Disassembly is crucial for further check and the next steps of the overhauling process, such as repair. A skilled maintenance worker is capable of putting the machine down efficiently, indicating which parts of the equipment need to be replaced or repaired.
Repair: Depending on the issue, the machine is either repaired or certain damaged parts are replaced. This step once again proves how effective overhauling is as opposed to replacing the whole piece of equipment at once. Replacement of parts might take longer than a simple repair, as the spare parts might need to be ordered from a manufacturer.
Reassembly: Following the successful replacement of spare parts, reassembly of the whole mechanism is performed. Being one of the final steps, the reassembly is crucial for the functioning of the equipment. Certain skill is surely needed to perform reassembly, so it’s best handled by professionals.
Testing: The final step that concludes the overhauling process. Without testing it is naturally impossible to identify if the performed repair was effective. During testing the retrofit is either proclaimed successful or – less frequently – the process goes back to the starting point (inspection).
Once in a year:
Conveyor gear box overhauling (to do overhauling when the total machines are shut down).
Maintenance of high speed warping machine:
High speed warping also called Beam warping/Direct warping. In high-speed warping the yarn is wound parallel on the warping beam. All the yarns are wound at once and simple flanged beam is used. It is a very high-speed process and is used for making fabric of single color.
Fig: Diagram of High speed warping machine
Routine Maintenance activity on High-speed warping machine:
Every Shift:
General Cleaning
Once in a month:
Starting mechanism checking
Check Cone Hight unit and tension
V-reed, lease rod, V-belt tension checking and correction
Headstock assembly, warping drum and beam checking
Once in three months:
Oiling and greasing the full machine
Tension disc checking
Once in six months:
Replace package holder (If necessary)
Check Guide roller
Wax cleaning and checking the roller
Once in a year:
Full check the machine parts
For increasing the productivity, need to follow scheduling maintenance. Otherwise, fabric quality will be damage because of machine parts problem. Then the machine will be shut down for machine repairing. So, the company doesn’t full fill the task before deadline And day by day company reputation will be loses.
Sizing machine maintenance: Sizing is the process of achieve the warp yarn properties (smoother, strong and elastic), and applied a protective coating of a polymeric film forming agent to the warp yarns prior to weaving.
Fig: Diagram of Sizing machine
Routine maintenance: Routine maintenance refers to any maintenance task that is done on a planned and ongoing basis to identify and prevent problems before they result in equipment failure.
Bottom stainless steel roller and immersion roller condition checking.
Size trough gear box checking.
6. Once in 6 month:
Drive chain replace.
Storage vessel cleaning.
Cylinder changing.
Main shaft over hauling.
7. Once in a year: Insulation of steel pipes and alignment of creel.
8. Once in 2 years:
Size box over hauling.
Pneumatic cylinder over hauling.
Maintenance of weaving loom machine:
A loom is a device used to weave cloth and tapestry. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics may vary, but the basic function is the same.
Fig: Yarn path diagram of tappet loom
Routine Maintenance:
Routine maintenance refers to any maintenance task that is done on a planned and ongoing basis to identify and prevent problems before they result in equipment failure.
Let-off mechanism overhauling, Take up Mechanism Overhauling, Battery Mechanism Overhauling
7. Once in 2 Years:
Suction Box Overhauling
8. Once in 3 years:
Cloth pressing roll flannel cloth change
Shuttle jaw changing
List of Machine Maintenance of Knitting Machinery:
Maintenance of circular knitting machine: Circular knitting machine is widely used throughout the knitting industry to produce fabric. This machine can be used either as fabric or for making garments completely with fancy stitch. Normally latch needle is used in modern circular knitting machine.
Fig: Diagram of Circular knitting machine
Routine Maintenance:
👉Daily maintenance:
Cotton fluff on creel must be eliminated and keep cleaning on machine it’s no matter in day shift, middle shift or nightshift.
Check yarn storage device in case of occlusion caused by cotton during Succession.
Check automatic stop arrangement and gear protective cover frequently. Repair or replace it immediately when it is abnormal.
Check grease and oil way is unblocked or not during succession or patrol inspection.
Check the positive yarn feeders, should adjust it.
Clean speed disk and eliminate the cottons storing up inside disc.
Inspect tension of belt on actuator and transmission.
Inspect operation of tractive and spooler.
Check the fabric taken down system to make sure working in good performance.
Check the belt tension of driving system to smooth of machine driving.
👉Month maintenance:
Dismantle the cam boxes of machine and clear the yarn fluff on Cam Boxes.
Clean the dedusting fan and check the wind direction of fan.
Clear the yarn fluff from all electric devices.
Check the performance of all electric devices like auto stop device, safety alarm system, detector system.
👉Half a year maintenance:
Clean the needle and sinker thoroughly. Inspect needle and sinker. Replace if it is damaged.
Check the oil way. Clean fueling injection device.
Clean and inspect transmitting yarn device.
Clean and inspect electrical system.
Clear away the yarn and oil in motor and driving system
Maintenance of Flatbed knitting machine:
A “Flat” or V-bed knitting machine consists of 2 flat needle beds arranged in an upside-down “V” formation.
Maintenance: Needle groove must be clean, otherwise it will cause fabric thinning needle or road and other flaws. Eliminate needle slot fouling, you can use the back of the broken hacksaw to tick, such as a tick unclear, you can check again, to achieve clean so far, and then remove the brush with grease dust. Do not for the sake of convenience, the needle bed turned over and hit, so as not to damage the needle bed. Here the lubrication done by air nozzle.
Fig: Diagram of Flat bed knitting machine
Ergonomics: Ergonomics is the study of the relationship between a person and their work environment. The objective is to adapt to the workplace for the worker in order to decrease the risk of injury and improve the link between the worker and their environment.
Benefits of ergonomics:
Reduce potential for injury and ill health at work.
Improve performance and efficiency.
Increase usefulness of assets.
Improve work methods by motion study.
Avoidance of hazards.
Improve Employee engagement.
Aims of ergonomics:
To enhance desirable human values like health, safety, ease of use etc.
To improve the efficiency of operation.
To reduce worker compensation costs and provide more reliable workforce.
To utilize the skills of many disciplines, including, psychology, medical, safety, management and the employees or associates.
To classify difficult tasks and solve it by diversified ways.
To prevent fatigue and injury.
To change the work process, environment and work management as necessary.
To quantify high risk or problem areas.
To enhance performance and productivity
Types of ergonomics:
Three types of ergonomics:
1. Physical Ergonomics: Physical ergonomics is concerned with human anatomical, anthropometric, physiological and biomechanical characteristics as they relate to physical activity. This is the ergonomics domain we are most concerned with in the workplace, and most of the content on this site is very much focused on workplace ergonomics
2. Cognitive Ergonomics: Cognitive ergonomics is concerned with mental processes, such as perception, memory, reasoning, and motor response, as they affect interactions among humans and other elements of a system.
3. Organizational Ergonomics: Organizational ergonomics is concerned with the optimization of sociotechnical systems, including their organizational structures, policies, and processes
Principles of ergonomics: The main aim to design the workstation ergonomically is to prevent injuries by limiting the repetitive and undesirable movements. There are some fundamental ergonomic principles that should be followed at our workplaces.
👉Use Proper Tools: For every specific task being performed, there should be an appropriate tool which allows an individual to align their hands and wrists straight. One must practice the habit of bending tools rather than the wrist. The tool should be designed to fit into the hand comfortably. Inappropriate grip size will increase the risk of injury. Designing tools should be free from sharp edges, and should prevent from contact stresses like vibrations in hands.
👉Avoid Bad Postures: Job should be designed in a way that, it should avoid working with hands above shoulder height on a regular basis. Arms should be kept low and close to your body. Too much of bending and twisting of wrists, back and neck should also be avoided
👉Minimize the Repetitive Movements: The number of repetitive motions should be minimized by workstations or tasks redesigning. Use of Power-driven screw driver or tools with a ratchet device helps in reducing the twisting motions with the arm. Repetitive movements and musculoskeletal injuries should be eliminated by automation and redesigning of some tasks.
👉Use Safe Lifting Procedures: Avoid lifting of too heavy objects. To reduce the load, use a mechanical device. Workstation should also be designed by reducing or avoiding the overhead lifting of objects which minimize the back twisting while lifting. Try to keep the load close to your body and ensures good grip. Heavy and frequently lifted objects should be stored between knee and shoulder height not on the ground or above your head.
👉Take Proper Rest: Try to give rest to your muscles, legs and feet, if you are standing all day while performing the job and if you have sitting job profile, then stand up or walk around during your breaks to give your back a rest and to enhance circulation in legs.
Factors affecting ergonomic:
1. Climate:
Physiological demands are placed on an operator through the performance of a given job or task, the thermal environment (temperature and humidity) and the rate at which muscular fatigue develops. Build-up of fatigue means increasing the risk of accidents and injuries and also can distract operators from the task at hand. While basic metabolism rate is 1.0 Kcals/min, different body positions and movements require different calories. While sitting requires 0.3 Kcal/min, standing and walking require 0.6 and 3.0 Kcals/min, respectively. Type of work also decides calorie requirement. Sewing requires 1.0 to 3.5 Kcals/min, CAD operator requires 0.2 to 1.2 Kcals/min, while loading workers at finished goods warehouse requires approximately 7.0 Kcals/min.
2. Illumination:
Most sewing operations are visually demanding, requiring the precise stitching of thread into a fabric with which there is little or no visual contrast. Hunched working posture is also in order to see their work. Illuminating Engineering Society of North America (IESNA) recommends a value of 300 fc (foot candle) for visually intensive tasks with low contrast at the point of operation (POO). A pilot study conducted in the year 2000 among garment sewing workers, reveals that 45% of them faced pain in eyes. The best way to minimize the eye pain and reduce posture related injuries is to use needle lights.
3. Vibration and Radiation:
Vibration causes visual damage like blurring of subjects, resulting in undue strain on eyes. It also causes motion performance effects. If vibration frequency is above 20 Hz, it leads to nervous system disorder, if it 20 Hz – then spinal problems are detected and at less than 20 Hz, digestive complain happens. Machines with highest leakage of radio frequency electromagnetic fields were found in the readymade garment industry in plastic welding operation for carton strapping.
4. Work time/shift:
To result in optimum performance, the human circadian rhythm (8 hour work, 8 hour free time, 8 hour sleep) should be considered as normal. A sufficient number and length of breaks should be given. Recognized shift-work programs should be utilized (day- and night-shift alternating). Optimal temperature to work is 98.60 F ± 1.80 F (370 ± 100 C), which is the human core temperature. Rising of the core temperature means the worker will suffer from a heat disorder (heat stroke, heat exhaustion). If the heat and humidity levels rise above the comfort zone, energy is mainly diverted toward keeping the body cool.
5. Nature of work:
Static work is another situation where an unacceptable build-up of fatigue may occur. It is performed by the muscles in any activity that involves holding a position for a certain period of time. Some examples of static work are holding things with the hands (inspection), bending or leaning forward (picking up bundles by sewing operators), standing without moving or sitting in the position (thread trimming, spotting), working with the arms extended (inspection), etc. whereas some of the examples of dynamic efforts are materials handling (lifting, pulling, pushing and carrying)\
Impact of Ergonomics in Textile Industry
Positive impact:
The positive impact of ergonomics is improving productivity and safe health issues of worker.
Today most of us spend our working days carrying out repetitive activities in awkward postures. At first we will not be aware of this because it feels comfortable. If we do not sit properly, take regular breaks, and also use correctly positioned furniture and equipment, we become vulnerable to pain and discomfort. Injuries and muscle pain affecting the wrists, shoulders, neck and back are common problems for workers in the garment industry.
A minimum lighting level of 400 lx is recommended for all the three sections of the readymade garment manufacturing units. For sewing operations, additional task lighting is to be provided in the machine in such a way that the visibility of the needlepoint will be optimum. Lighting in the sewing section is to be planned functionally and the lights fixed at appropriate points to ensure optimum lighting at the work site. Noise control at the source can be ensured by regular maintenance, lubrication, and replacement of parts that produce noise in the embroidery machines. Use of earplugs/earmuffs by workers in the embroidery section can be made obligatory.
Workers exposed to high noise levels should be provided with ear protection or their working periods rotated so that they remain within the permissible limit of 4 hours’ exposure to 95.0 dB (A). Provision of local exhaust ventilation that uses suction, based on the principle of a vacuum cleaner, is to be encouraged in the cutting and stitching sections to remove dust from the air. The dust particles can be sucked through the ventilation duct provided in all the three sections of the readymade garment units.
The garment industry should focus and develop good working conditions to reduce the injuries created to their workers since there is ample room for ergonomic improvements in the clothing industry. With proper training and instruction, machine guarding, personal protective equipment and ergonomically designed work systems, garment workers can manufacture products in safe and healthy workplaces. By implementing this ergonomics factors in the industry the productivity and working environment can be improved.
Negative impact:
The negative impact of ergonomics is the risk of health issues and noise problem.
Without proper ergonomics, there is increased absenteeism and sick leaves which ends up reducing the productivity of the employees and eventually affecting the profitability of the company. For instance, an employee who is constantly experiencing back pain because of the office chairs will miss work on some days to seek medical attention which means that sometimes targets will not be met.
The risks for sewing machine operators have been linked to conditions such as poor workstation design and chairs, and organizational factors such as the piecework system. Factors such as repetition, force, posture, and vibration are associated with higher rates of injury.
Continuous exposure to high levels of noise over a period of time would result in noise-induced loss of hearing among the workers in this section. Improper maintenance of the machines also added to the mechanical noise
The productivity of labor-intensive garment industry is highly influenced by efficient use of human resource. Operations management based solutions for extension of human resources’ utilization levels may seem to increase productivity at first sight. However, heavy workloads and inadequately ergonomic working conditions can negatively influence health of the workers since the tasks in garment industry includes repetitive motions. Monotonous body postures during these motions negatively affect workers by causing work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Although companies may gain high efficiency by increasing utilization levels of workers, crucial health problems can occur in the long period if ergonomic conditions are not seriously taken into account. Furthermore, these problems not only cause work-related musculoskeletal disorders that result in high medical expenses for the company, but also employers will have to continue making a payment for the employees due to occupational health regulations. Therefore, employers must consider adequately safe and ergonomic conditions in the design of proper working environments.
Ergonomic Problems in Garment Industry
70% of sewing machine operators using foot controls report back pain
35% report persistent lower back pain
25% have suffered a compensable cumulative trauma disorder (CTD)
81% reported CTDs to the wrist
14% reported CTDs to the elbow
5% reported CTDs to the shoulder
49% of workers experience neck pains
Absenteeism increases as working conditions worsens
Loss of worker force due to injuries or high turnover is associated with working conditions
Hand sewing and trimming are stressful to upper limbs
Stitching tasks are associated with pain in the shoulders, wrists, and hands
Ironing by hand is associated with elbow pain
Garment assembly tasks are associated with CTDs of the hands and wrists
Foot operated sewing is associated with pain in the back
Conclusion:
In there we know about maintenance process of fabric machineries and how impacts of ergonomics on the textile industry. Ergonomics aims at preventing injuries by controlling the risk factors such as force, repetition, posture and vibration that can cause injuries to develop. These information will help us on our future life.
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Founder & Editor of Textile Learner. He is a Textile Consultant, Blogger & Entrepreneur. He is working as a textile consultant in several local and international companies. He is also a contributor of Wikipedia.
