WO2009099398A1

WO2009099398A1 - Method for the preparation of sample warp from a single thread and for the production of the woven fabric

Info

Publication number: WO2009099398A1
Application number: PCT/TR2008/000054
Authority: WO
Inventors: Erdinc Taskoparan
Original assignee: Gap Guneydogu Tekstil Sanayi Ve Ticaret Anonim Sirketi
Priority date: 2008-02-07
Filing date: 2008-05-23
Publication date: 2009-08-13
Also published as: TR200800804A2

Abstract

The invention relates to a denim fabric weaving method comprising the process steps of thread production, rope winding, rope dyeing and rope opening in the denim fabric production wherein, in the weaving process for any fabric, the fabric appearance is obtained by placing a single thread within the warp threads and patching the warp piece necessary for making the denim fabric having the desired sample width and length onto an existing weaving warp beam with suitable spacing.

Description

METHOD FOR THE PREPARATION OF SAMPLE WARP FROM A SINGLE THREAD AND FOR THE PRODUCTION OF THE WOVEN FABRIC

Technical Field

The invention relates to an innovative process that enables an easy warp thread trial in the denim fabric, or in general, the woven fabric production. The invention relates in particular to a very simple method that allows the placement of a single thread within the warp threads to obtain the appearance of fabric in the denim fabric production.

State of the Art

The weaving process is a process wherein the weft threads are passed perpendicularly and according to a certain design through thousands of weft threads that are arranged in parallel. The fabrics thus obtained are called "the woven fabrics", and these are used for more than half of all the textile products with their pronounced properties including high strength and dimensional stability, as the intermediate product as in the shirts, trousers or denim wears, or as the final product as in the bed sheets, tablecloths and curtains.

The weaving process, which was historically carried out in manual looms, is today performed at high speeds by virtue of the modern fully automatic weaving machines. As necessitated by the weaving technology, thousands of threads, which are parallel to each other and have the desired spacing (thread/cm), are wound in the warp preparation machines with a proper tightness onto the spools called warp beam having the full or half-fabric width arranged side by side with a length on the order of kilometers, and are placed as the warp beam into the weaving machine. Depending on the desired weft spacing (thread/cm) and the speed of the weaving machine (weft/minute), a warp beam remains attached to the weaving machine for hours or often for days, and it remains unchanged along the full fabric length. This is of course a desirable condition under the normal production circumstances where each machine stop is considered a loss, and sometimes the warps referred to as "jumbo warp beam" are employed to further improve this, in an effort to increase the efficiency of the weaving department.

However, it is always a preferable and also, due to its added value, often a desirable way to carry out the changes of the design and color or the thread type, with a view to address the unlimited demands of the human. For this purpose, it is extremely easy to perform the changes related to the weft thread in a woven fabric. Because the weft thread is individually placed between the warp threads. For this reason, the thread trial operations in the weaving process are commonly performed by means of the weft thread, with the warp thread remaining the same. The efforts to develop different fabrics by means of the change of the weft thread are common especially in the household textiles, shirting or similar applications. However, to work by means of only the change of the weft thread means to reduce the development field by half.

On the other hand, the situation is extremely different particularly for the denim fabric, which is also a woven fabric. The reason is that the denim fabric is a fabric established on the peculiar appearance of the warp thread and most of the time, the weft thread is not even visible on the fabric surface, as a result of the woven design/knit. In this case, the trial of different threads to achieve a difference in the appearance of the denim fabric is generally only possible by way of forming the whole warp beam, which in turn leads to serious restrictions with regard to cost and realization rate.

Today, there are available two different process flows in the denim fabric production, namely "the rope dyeing" and "the beam dyeing". Of these, according to the method referred to as "the rope dyeing", following process steps are sequentially performed to obtain the denim fabric:

Thread Production: The ginned cotton fiber, which is generally supplied in the form of bales, is opened and cleaned in the blowroom machine, after which the fibers are brought into parallel form as a band and strip, respectively in the carding machine and draw frame. If the thread is to be produced according to the open- end spinning technique, the slivers are fed into the open-end thread machine to be converted to the open-end thread, and said open-end thread is the classical thread for the denim fabric. During the recent years, the ring thread has also found a rather intensive use. In case of conversion into the thread by means of ring spinning, the slivers will need to be thinned once more in the flyer, to be brought into cord form. The desired ring thread is obtained by feeding the cords to the ring machine. During the recent years, the threads with special effects have also been preferred as a design element for the denim fabrics with high added value. Coreyarn threads, corespun threads and polyester threads are the demanded threads that provide added value by adding effects.

Rope winding: The threads that arrive in the form of bobbins from the spinning mills or the external thread producers are brought into rope form according to the desired number of yarns. In order to enable the threads that comprise the rope to remain in an untangled state during the subsequent processes and consequently, to allow them be unwound from the rope again in the form of parallel threads, "the cross threads" are placed at certain intervals in a manner perpendicular to the threads that comprise the rope.

Rope dyeing: The ropes are passed through the dye troughs according to the desired darkness and effect.

Rope opening: Each rope is wound onto a beam such that the threads will be parallel. At this stage, the cross threads are removed. However, in order to avoid the possible tangles also in the warp beam, new cross threads are placed between the warp threads.

Size application: The raw weaving beams are duplicated according to the desired warp spacing for the purpose of enabling a more effective size application, and these are subjected to the sizing solution in the sizing machine. The goal of the size application is to increase the resistance of the threads against the tensions they will experience during the weaving. The warp threads joined at the outlet of the sizing machine are wound in the form of weaving beams. Weaving: The warp threads having only the outer surface thereof dyed by means of indigo dyeing are woven in the weaving machine in a way to form a fabric with the weft threads, with the application of designs. In this way, the raw denim fabric is obtained.

Fabric Fixing: Raw denim fabric is passed in stretched state through the hot cubicles in the ram to be fixed according to the desired width.

Finishing/Compactor: The denim fabric whose width has been fixed is first subjected in a continuous manner to the burning process to remove its surface piles. Then the weaving design is subjected to the twisting process according to the twisting ratio envisaged depending on the weft thread twine, in order to enable the fabric to remain stable after the washing. Finally, the fabric is exposed to the pressing process by a felt that forms high pressure around a drum heated with steam.

Confection and Stone Washing: The denim fabric that has been subjected to the aforesaid processes is now a ready-to-use fabric. After this fabric is converted into the trousers- or jacket-type of dress by means of the confection process, it is washed in the stone washing machine with the abrasive stones and chemicals to abrade the indigo dyes on the outer surfaces of the warp threads and thus to obtain the blue-white appearance, which is the classical outlook for the denim.

Today, according to the invention in the patent document no. TR2002/01870 titled "Method for preparing the warp threads for weaving", in the production of the fabrics with or without design, the warp threads are wound onto the adjustable narrow beams with a width of about 30-60 cm, with an intensity that is equal to or higher than that in the weaving beam, according to the serial warp method. Once an amount of beams sufficient to form a lot has been wound, the beams are attached to a bar with no intervals therebetween, in order to obtain a one-piece beam. Depending on the requirement, said one-piece beam is delivered to size application, weaving, drawing-in room and transfer. During the size application, the threads unwound from separate beams included in the one-piece beam, which is placed on the stand, are passed through the separator plates, the tension adjusters assigned to each beam and the combiner card, and are delivered to the sizing trough and to the drying apparatus. The threads leaving the drying apparatus are passed through the separator card and the distributor card, and are conveyed to the sizing beam. The band is adhered on the ends of both threads, in order to connect together the new and the old threads in the sizing machine.

Also today, according to the invention in the patent document no. EP1303200 titled "The method and weaving machine for the weft with designs, and the production thereof, the weft with design consists of a first and a second weaving layer, which are woven to each other on the edges thereof. The weft has the colors and/or designs, which are formed via the spaced additions applied by means of the weft threads between the warp threads having the same color. To improve the appearance of the tassels, the warp threads along the lateral edge is made of a texturized twisted yarn comprising the chemical fibers.

Also today, according to the invention in the patent document no. EP1283915B1 titled "The unit and loom for forming the pile from the thread", a unit for forming the pile from the thread comprises a thread selection wheel having the equipment to hold a set of different threads arranged generally in a radial form, the means to drive the selected thread into one of a plurality of angularly separate positions in order to bring the same into the loading position, a puller for being attached to the selected thread at the loading position and pulling a predetermined length of the selected thread from the selection wheel, and a cutting mechanism to cut the selected thread so as to form a pile with a predetermined length. Such a pile forming unit is used preferably for feeding the thread piles to an Axminster carpet weaving loom. Some of said pile forming units are typically provided along the width of the loom, and said units pass traversely the whole width of the loom, in order to provide the thread piles for a complete row of the carpet. Each pile forming unit provides the piles for a significant number of weaving points, hence a significant reduction may be obtained in the bobbin hanger size. Like many other woven fabric manufacturers, the denim manufacturers perform their production with a number of weft variations, using a generally limited amount of warps, and encounter difficulty in developing different warps. Main reasons for this include the rather long time it takes to perform the warp trial, the high cost of the warp trial and the rendering useless of about 500 meters of warp in case of failure to achieve the expected sale at the end of the trial.

As a result, the need in the denim fabric production for the placement of a single thread within the warp threads to obtain the appearance of the fabric and the inadequacy of the existing solutions have made it necessary to provide an improvement in the relevant art.

Object of the Invention

In order to eliminate the disadvantages of the state of the art, the objects of the invention are as follows:

1- The total time for performing a warp trial is reduced from about two days down to 3 hours, using a single thread.

2- The cost per trial is reduced to an amount less than 100 YTL as opposed to the cost which would normally amount to 1500-2000 YTL each time, for an enterprise conducting 46 monthly trials on the average.

3- The costs accrued as a result of the destruction of the trial warp beams that are unlikely to be converted to a purchase order, or the storage costs in case such beams are kept are avoided.

4- According to the state of the art, a warp trial necessitates in the normal enterprises an approximately 500 meter-warp to be subjected to all the processes from the beginning through the end. Considering the hardship the enterprises frequently face in delivering the produced fabrics in a timely manner, the enterprises will enjoy an astounding relief without any additional load being imposed on their production. 5- Considering that the same client may forward the same demands or expectations to more than one fabric manufacturer, the enterprises capable of providing a much faster result will be one step ahead of their competitors, in which way the frequency of the conversion of the client expectations into the sales will increase. 6- The invention provides significant benefits by reducing the costs as well as shortening the trial periods.

The structural and characteristic features and all the advantages of the invention will be more clearly understood from the figures provided below and the detailed description written with reference to said figures, hence the evaluation must be made taking into consideration these figures and detailed description.

Detailed Description of the Invention

Said problem, which is briefly summarized above, seriously restricts the capacity of each enterprise, which mainly performs the production of the denim and gabardine fabrics, to conduct the trials. As a solution to this problem, it has been considered that the trial simulation would be possible for a fabric, having a width of 10 cm, which is a sufficient size to reflect the fabric properties, and a length of 1 m, which is again a sufficient size to reflect the fabric properties, and a totally new system has been formed sometimes by means of the additional apparatus for the machines in the "rope winding", "indigo dyeing", "rope opening" and "weaving" sections of a denim enterprise or sometimes by means of a new machine.

According to the new system, first the warp structure desired to be exposed to the trial is determined, and the trial thread bobbin (as a single bobbin) is sent from the spinning mill to the rope winding section. In the rope winding section, a rope with 339 threads whose winding process has just started is appended with a trial thread as the 340. thread, and is wound with the label "trial rope" so that it will be located, under normal conditions, to the rightmost part of the rope. Each rope to enter the indigo dyehouse has a number, and the rope winding section transmits the rope number of the trial warp to the indigo dyehouse and the rope opening sections, in order to prevent any confusion. While the trial rope present in the thread, which is indigo-dyed along with the other ropes in the indigo dyeing step under the normal operating conditions, is being opened in the rope opening section, the rightmost trial thread is easily distinguished and, is wound onto a separate bobbin, instead of the raw weaving beam, by means of a bobbin-winding machine capable of performing the winding in a manner synchronized with the speed of the rope opening machine.

The indigo-dyed trial bobbin is sent to the sizing room, wherein it is knotted next to one of the trial warp threads to the rightmost of one of the machines, which is running to provide a trial compliant with the actual production conditions, and its tension is released from the bobbin in a controlled manner. The sized trial warp is wound at the exit of the sizing process by means of an independent winding unit, which is also capable of synchronous winding with the beam winding speed, and is thus made ready for weaving.

The indigo-dyed and sized trial thread bobbin arriving at the weaving house is wound side by side according to the desired width or desired number of threads around a drum with a perimeter of 1,5 m, using a machine called "Windlass Machine" developed for this purpose.

Following the winding process, the threads (=warp) arranged side by side are adhered and secured to the drum by means of adhesive tapes, on both sides of the section formed as embedded on the outer surface of the windlass drum. In order to avoid damage to the threads, which will form the warp, during the cutting of the threads by scissors, the adhesive tapes are pressed manually by the flat bars placed thereon and the threads are cut while preventing the slide of the warp threads, hence a bundle of warp is obtained, which is 1,5 meters long and 10-20 cm wide.

In order to convey the sample warp thus prepared to the weaving machine in an undamaged state, it is wound by rotating a cylinder (=bobbin), that may be made of steel, plastic, paper or wood, in a balanced manner on the drum. In this way, a mini warp beam is formed. A weaving machine is determined, which is currently running with a warp spacing and card number desired to be tried and which is preferably coming towards the end of a warp beam fastened thereon, and said weaving machine is stopped. The warp amount corresponding to the number of warp threads (said number of threads being equal to the number of threads in the mini warp beam) to be assembled (patched) with the warp being woven in the machine is determined, and is cut for knot and thus separated. In order to mount (patch, knot) the sample warp at the proper location, that is, at the end of the warp attached to the machine, by means of the knotting machine, the warp of the fabric being woven is loosened and the front end of the sample warp is knotted with the warp on the weaving machine by means of the knotting machine.

In order to obtain the same tightness in all the warp threads, all the warp threads, including the part of the sample warp, are knotted at the end of a new warp beam. Thus, a full warp is obtained with a patched sample warp section.

In order to prevent the knots on the warp from causing the warp breaks during the weaving, the warp is wound forward without weaving, that is, without applying a weft, until the knotted section has passed through the frame and the card, immediately after which the weaving is continued at the normal tightness.

After the desired sample is woven at the fabric length, generally at a length of 1 meter, the machine is again wound forward until the knot sections have passed through the card, for the very important purpose of preventing the difference in tightness, and then the machine continues weaving with the warp it currently processes. At the end, the desired sample fabric piece may be cut and removed from the machine.

As seen, the trial for the desired warp is reduced to just one bobbin and to a weaving machine stop for about half an hour. All said processes are made simpler so that a worker may monitor them while he implements his own work, and it becomes possible to obtain the trial fabric by an half an hour work of three workers, without the need being left for an engineer or technician in the weaving house.

In the weaving process for any fabric, the fabric appearance is obtained by placing a single thread within the warp threads and patching the warp piece necessary for making the denim fabric having the desired sample width and length onto an existing weaving warp beam with suitable spacing. Said fabric is preferably gabardine, but it may be any fabric type. The fabric may also preferably be obtained from more than one threads, instead of a single thread.

The protective scope of this application is determined in the section of the claims, and the scope may by no means be limited to the description above provided only for exemplary purposes. It is obvious that a person skilled in the art may provide the innovation put forward by the invention also by using the similar embodiments and/or may apply this embodiment to the other fields used in the relevant art for similar purposes. Consequently, such embodiments would obviously lack the criterion of novelty.

Claims

1. The invention is a denim fabric weaving method comprising the process steps of thread production, rope winding, rope dyeing and rope opening in the denim fabric production characterized in that in the weaving process for any fabric, the fabric appearance is obtained by placing a single thread within the warp threads and patching the warp piece necessary for making the denim fabric having the desired sample width and length onto an existing weaving warp beam with suitable spacing.

2. The method according to Claim 1 characterized in that in the weaving process for preferably gabardine fabric, the fabric appearance is obtained by patching the warp piece necessary for making, from at least a single thread, the gabardine fabric having the desired sample width and length onto an existing weaving warp beam with suitable spacing.

3. The method according to Claim 1 characterized in that in the fabric weaving process, the fabric appearance is obtained by patching more than one warp pieces necessary for making, from more than one threads with different properties, the woven fabric having the desired sample width and length, side by side onto an existing weaving warp beam with suitable spacing.