COMBING MACHINE

ANUSRI DEB
Lecturer, STEC
 COMBING MACHINE:

Combing is a process which is introduced into the spinning of finer and high-quality yarns from
cotton. It is carried out in order to improve the quality of the sliver. The carded materials (sliver)
contain certain amount of short fibers, neps, fine kitty and leaf particles. Short fibers are a
hindrance to spinning of finer counts where the number of fiber in the cross section of the yarn is
less. The short fibers cause thick and uneven places in the yarn length and the yarn looks hairy.
Apart from this, very short fibers do not contribute anything to yarn strength. Short fibers below
a certain pre-determined length can be easily separated out by using comber machine.
 WHAT IS COMBING?

Combing may be defined as the removal of short fibers, neps and remaining
impurities of card sliver by using comb with the help of knives, brushes and
rollers .
Combing is a process by which the quantity of short fibers and
remnant fragments of impurities present in a carded or drawn sliver are
minimized to give a clean sliver, having more of a rectangular staple
diagram, with the vast majority of the constituent fibers in a straightened
and parallel state .
Combing, therefore, makes possible the spinning of yarns of fine counts with low
irregularities and a cleaner appearance .
 OBJECTS OF COMBING

1. To remove short fibers below a pre selected length.

2. To remove neps.
3. To remove impurities.
4. Formation of sliver having maximum possible evenness.
5. To make the fiber straight and parallel.
6. To produce a combed sliver of definite weight per unit length (65-80
grains/yd).
 MAJOR MANUFACTURERS OF
COMBER:

1. Marzoli Spa, Italy

2. Laxmi Machine Works Limited
3. Toyoda Textile Machinery, Japan
4. Rieter Machine Works Limited, Switzerland
5. Zhejiang Huahai Group, China
6. Jinwei Textile Machinery, Co. Limited.
 M A C H I N E U S E D F O R L A P P R E PA R AT I O N

1. Conventional system –
i. Sliver lap m/c.
ii. Ribbon lap m/c.

2. Modern System –
1) Super lap former
SLIVER LAP FORMER M/C.
 FEATURES OF SLIVER LAP FORMER

1. Each sliver passes through a hole in the guide plate placed at the back of the
machine.
2. Then the slivers are guided over a table which brings them together in the order
in which they lie in the lap.
3. The slivers are then passed through 3 or 4 pairs of drafting rollers.
4. Due to the draft in the drafting zone the fiber become straight and individual.
5. After drafting the lap sheet passes over two pairs of calendar roller which
compress it into a sheet and wound on a spool.
6. Considerable pressure is applied to the spool in which the lap is wound so that
a long length of compressed lap can be obtained
RIBBON LAP FORMER MACHINE
 FEATURES OF RIBBON LAP FORMER
MACHINE

• The machine description and material passage of ribbon lap machine is

mentioned below:-
1. The lap from the sliver lap machine is creel here. This lap is unwound and
fed to drafting rollers.
2. Ribbon lap machine is actually used to increase wt. /unit length and
uniformity of the lap obtained from sliver lap machine.
3. In ribbon lap machine 6-8 laps are fed. They form a web of same width but
more thickness then doubling and drafting is done.
4. Two wooden fluted feed rollers are used to unwind the lap.
5. Generally 3 over 3 or 4 over 4 drafting system are employed in this machine.
6. After drafting the lap is emerged out in web form passes via deflector plate’s
web tables and calendar rollers.
7. Here 2 pairs of calendar rollers are employed to compress the lap.
8. Thus comber lap is obtained and it is rolled on a spool bobbins Two fluted
rollers are responsible to obtains a compact lap bobbin.
SUPER LAP FORMER M/C
 F E AT U R E S O F S U P E R L A P F O R M E R M A C H I N E :

Features:
 Three sliver creel for one m/c.
 Every creel can accommodate 20 cans of sliver.
 2 over 3 or 3 over 3 drafting system.
 After drafting the web are led through the calendar roller and finally made into lap.
 Separated indicator and stop motion for all rollers.
 Fully automatic doffing
 ADDITIONAL FEATURES OF
SUPER LAP FORMER MACHINE

1. Auto weight per unit length adjuster

2. Auto doffing for full laps
3. Auto stop motion
4. Doffing
5. Sliver breakage
6. Lapping
7. Auto lap carrying device
8. Lap length measuring unit
9. Indicating light for fault location
PASSAGE DIAGRAM OF COMBER
MACHINE:

Top nipper
PASSAGE DIAGRAM OF COMBER
MACHINE:
.
•Firstly, lap is guided by lap roller. Then lap is fed by feed rollers. The feed roller helps to move forward the lap
sheet by a small amount of 4.3 – 6.7 mm. When the lap sheet moves forward the nippers are opened and get
ready to receive the feed.

• As soon as feeding action gets completed, the top nipper plate starts to lower on the bottom nipper plate.
These nipper plates help to grip the lap sheet firmly during the combing action.

• Now combing action gets started. The lap sheet comes into contact with the bottom comb mounted on the
rotating cylinder. The saw teeth of comb sweep the lap sheet. It carries away the material which is not gripped
by nipper plates .
• The nippers open again and move toward detaching rollers meanwhile detaching rollers have returned part of
the previously drawn-off web by means of reverse rotation. In the course of the forward movement of the
nippers, the projecting fibre fringe is placed on the returned web (piecing).
• The detaching rollers start to rotate in the forward direction again and draw the gripped fibres out of the web
held fast by feed rollers.
• Now upper comb comes into action and combs the trailing part of the fibres fringe.
• The brush cylinder helps to remove the impurities from the bottom comb and ejects them into an extractor that
carries the noil away to a collecting filter system.
Technical Data of a Comber machine:

No. of combing Head→8, No. of Delivery →1

Lap Weight → 700-1200 gr/yd
Nips / min → Maxm 450
Feed /nip → 4.2-6.0 mm
Drafting System → 3 over 3 or 3 over 5
Noil → 8-25 %
Draft → 9-20
Sliver Hank → Maxm 0.24 Ne, Minm 0.16 Ne
Production →Upto 80 kg/hr.
 BASIC PRINCIPLE OF COMBER /
SEQUENCE OF A COMBER MACHINE

1. Lap feeding by feed roller

2. Lap nipping by the top nipper
3. Combing by the cylinder comb
4. Nipper opening and forwarding of bottom nipper
5. Detaching roller backward movement /web returning by detaching
roller
6. Piecing
7. Detaching roller forward movement
8. Combing by the top comb
9. Top comb withdrawn
10.Waste extraction by brush roller
A. LAP FEEDING BY
FEED ROL LER

The feed rollers S move the sheet W

forward while the nippers Zo & Zu are
held open .
B. LAP NI PPI NG BY THE
TOP NIPPE R

The upper nipper plate Zo is lowered

onto the cushion plate Zu so that the
fibers are clamped between them.
 C. COMBING BY THE
CYLINDE R COMB

The combing segment mounted on

rotating cylinder sweeps its needle or
saw-teeth through the fiber fringe (B)
and carries away thing not held by the
nippers .
D . N I P P E R S O PE NI NG AN D
FO RWA RDI NG OF B OT TOM
N I P PE R

The nippers open again and move

towards the detaching rollers.
 E . D ET ACHIN G R O L L ER
B A C K WA RD MO V EM EN T/
WE B R ETU RNI NG B Y
D ETA CHIN G R O L L ER
Meanwhile the detaching rollers A have
returned part of the previously drawn of stock
(web v) by means of a reverse rotation so that
the web protrudes from the back of the
detaching device .
 F. PI ECI NG

In the course of the forward movement of

the nippers the projecting fiber fringe B is
placed upon the return web V
G. DETACHING ROL LER
FO RWA RD MOVEMEN T

The detaching rollers begin to rotate in the

forward direction again and draw
the clamped fibers out of the sheet W held
fast by the feed rollers S (Detaching ) .
H. COMBING BY THE TOP
COMB

Before the start of the detaching operation , the

top comb F has thrust its single row of
needles into the fiber fringe , As the fibers are
pulled through the needles of the top comb
during detaching , the trailing part of the fringe
is combed thus making up for the inability of
the cylinder combs to reach this part of the
fringe.
 I. TOP COMB
WI THDRAWN

As the nipper assembly, is retracted, the

nippers open for the next feeding step . The
top comb is withdrawn. A new combing
cylinder begins.
J. WASTE EX TRACTION
BY B RUSH ROLLE R

The combing cylinder rotates continually

and the combing segment is therefore
brought into the vicinity of a rapidly
revolving brush mounted below the
cylinder comb. This stripes the combing
segment of fiber impurities , neps etc. and
eject them into a aspirator that carries the
noil away to a collecting filter drum.
WHAT IS DEGREE OF COMBING/NOIL % ?

• The short fiber ,neps or impurities extracted during combing are called noil.
Now the amount of noil extracted from the lap during combing which is
expressed in percentage is called degree of combing.
• Therefore ,Noil% = {(lap wt – sliver wt) / lap wt} x 100
 TYPES OF DEGREE OF COMBING

• Half / Semi comb – noil % upto 9

• Ordinary comb – noil% 10-18
• Fully comb – noil extraction above 18%
• Double comb – noil% above 18% in first combing and 7% in second combing
 FACTORS OF DEGREE OF COMBING
OR NOIL EXTRACTION:

1. Yarn Count: For coarser count, less degree of combing and for finer count,
higher degree of combing is selected .
2. Yarn Quality: For good quality of yarn, the amount of noil should be present
in limited range. To increase the yarn quality, degree of combing should be
increased upto 25%. After passing 25% yarn quality becomes steady .
3. Amount of short fiber in the comber lap: If the comber lap contains a high
amount of short fiber, a high degree of combing becomes necessary to get a
high amount of noil extraction for good quality yarn .
4. Production Cost: Higher degree of combing removed higher noil % where
production becomes slow at the same time the production cost become higher.