CONE WINDING – INRODUCTION

WINDING
• The process of winding comes after the ring spinning department. Yarn wound on ring bobbins

cannot be put to good use in the subsequent processes therefore “the major purpose of winding

is to make a bigger package of specified length from short length ring bobbins”.

• On modern winders “the purpose of winding is the Clearing of yarn defects”. For this purpose

these winders are fitted with devices known as clearers which continuously scan the yarn and

eliminate the undesirable faults from it.

 JOINTS
• Normally conversion of smaller package into bigger package is associated with the joining of yarn ends. Every
joint of yarn is also considered as a fault because of its;
• Weaker strength
• Bigger diameter as compared to yarn
• Poor yarn structure and orientation of fibres

• Normally these joints are made due to following major reasons;

• If a ring bobbin is finished a new one must be introduced to continue the operation and this is subjected to joining of
the ends.
• During normal running if the process of winding is interrupted by the clearer due to cutting of a thick or thin place a
joint must be made to continue the process again.

• Every joint is a potential fault because of its weaker strength and bigger diameter. It can cause a break during
the weaving process and loss of efficiency or become visible in the fabric as a thick place. Number of joints
can be reduced by;
• Utilizing the full capacity of the ring bobbins
• Making a smooth and defect free yarn from the beginning so that cutting by the clearer is eliminated.
 LIMITATIONS OF MAKING BIGGER PACKAGE ON THE
RING FRAME?
• Theoretically it is possible to make a bigger package suitable for weaving like cone or cheese on the ring
frame but a practical limit is imposed by the following factors;
• If the size of the package is increased by increasing its diameter then this will increase the diameter of the balloon on
the ring frame and increase the yarn tension during the spinning process. That means high spinning speeds are not
possible on the ring fame and productivity of the process is reduced. Moreover processing of a bigger diameter
package on the ring frame means that its length should be increased which means ring frames will occupy more
space and air conditioning cost.

• Increment in package length will also cause the same sort of problems during spinning. At the bottom of the package
the size of the balloon will increase beyond the limits and impose a limit on the spinning speeds.

• Normally packages for high speed over-end withdrawal are cross-wound packages. Winding a cross-wound package
require high traverse speeds which are not possible on the ring frame. Normally traverse rate on the ring frame is
very slow and coils of yarn are almost parallel.
 LIMITATIONS OF MAKING BIGGER PACKAGE ON THE
RING FRAME?
• Clearing of yarn defects is not possible on the ring frame because any interruption in the spinning
process will cause loss of production and until now it is not possible to automate the end piecing
process on the ring frame.

• To rotate a bigger package of higher moment of inertia at very high speed on the ring frame will cost a
lot of electricity.

• Ring bobbins are costly as compared to cones in the winding. If some how we are able to make bigger
bobbins on the ring frame then still it would be very difficult to recover these bobbins from the weaving
mills.

• Control of package density on the ring spinning frame is not possible. Normally packages produced on
the ring frame are high-density packages. Some special winding packages like perforated cones for yarn
dyeing require less and even density winding which would be impossible to achieve on ring frame.
 WINDING DISADVANTAGES
• Winding process is a necessary evil in the spinning mills. Winding has following major
disadvantages;
• It is an additional process after the formation of yarn, which adds to the yarn cost.

• The machines require continuous supply of compressed air for different tasks, which means that heavy
duty compressors have to be installed for this purpose.

• Joints in the yarn are introduced which are potential faults of yarn.

• In high-speed winders yarn is abraded by friction with winding elements, which increases the hairiness
and imperfection index of yarn.

• Every joint in the winding results in yarn wastage. This twisted waste is known as hard waste and cannot
be reused. In processing of coarser yarn counts this waste is increased.
 IMPOROTANT DEFINITIONS
WINDING SPEED

• Winding is done by rotation of the package on which yarn is to be wound, further more it also require
distribution of yarn over the whole length of the package (Traverse). Therefore we can say that resultant
winding speed is the vector sum of two winding speeds, Vertical speed and traverse speed of yarn.

ANGLE OF WIND

• This may be defined as the angle between directions of yarn lay on the package surface and any plane
perpendicular to the package axis.

TRAVERSE TO WINDING RATIO

• It is the ratio between traverse speed of yarn and resultant winding speed it is equal to Sin of angle of wind.
 IMPOROTANT DEFINITIONS
WIND

• Wind is the number of revolutions made by the package during the time taken by yarn to make a traverse in
one direction across the package. Wind will therefore represent the coils of yarn laid on the package surface
per single traverse.

TRAVERSE RATIO

• It is the number of coils laid per double traverse of the yarn guide. It is twice the wind.

RIBBONING OR PATTERNING

• It is a winding of defect due to superimposition of coils of yarn on top of each other. During high speed
unwinding this causes sloughing off the package.
 TYPES OF WINDING
There are two types of winding

PARALLEL WINDING

• In this type of winding coils of yarn are almost parallel to each other because of very slow traverse speed as
compared to winding speed. This means that traverse to winding ratio is very low. This type of winding leads
to formation of a high density package that can accommodate more yarn per unit volume but it is unstable
and normally done on spools (parallel sided packages with flanges).

CROSS WINDING

• In this type of winding coils of yarn cross each other due to high traverse speed as compared to winding
speed. This means that traverse to winding ratio is very high. The density of this type of package is less but it
is stable for high speed over-end withdrawal.
 TYPES OF PACKAGES
1. Cone

2. Cheese

3. Spool

• Cone is usually prepared on winding machine.

• Cheese is mostly used on doubler.

• Spool is also used on some twisting machine.

• Cone, bobbin and cheese have over end withdrawl but spool has side end withdrawl.
 WINDING PRINCIPLE
1. Rotate the package so that it withdraws the yarn.

2. Continuously traverse the yarn to distribute it over the whole length of the package.

WINDING SPEED

• Speed of package withdrawn is the yarn pulled from the bobbin due to rotation of the package. It is acting in
the vertical direction.

• Traverse speed is due to the continuous movement of yarn along the package length.

• Resultant Winding Speed =

 FUNCTIONS OF WINDING MACHINE
GROOVED DRUM
ORGANS
• In Drum-Winding, it performs both basic operations i.e. Traverse and Package Withdrawl.

TENSION SENSOR
• It continuously checks the yarn tension and responds to any variation in tension by increasing or decreasing
tension on Tension Assembly.
CLEARER
• The function of clearer is to continuously scan the yarn surface and cuts in case of any quality defect or
process fault.
YARN TRAP
• It sucks the yarn end from the bobbin after a cut is made and prevents it from falling down.

WAXING ASSEMBLY
• It applies a thin layer of WAX on yarn. It is only used in case of winding some special yarn like Hosiery yarn.
 FUNCTIONS OF WINDING MACHINE
SPLICING ASSEMBLY
ORGANS
• It joins the two ends of the yarn (collected from Suction mouth & Retie pipe) after cutting the fault via
splicing.

SHUTTER CUTTER

• It cuts the yarn by striking at a metal plate.

TENSIONER

• It gives additional tension to the yarn being unwound from the bobbin.

SUCTION MOUTH

• It collects the yarn end from the package for splicing.

RETIE PIPE

• It collects the yarn end from the bobbin for splicing.

 FUNCTIONS OF WINDING MACHINE
ORGANS
GATE FEELER / YARN FEELER

• It detects the presence of yarn.

PRE-CLEARER

• It removes any foreign material attached to yarn.

CERAMIC GUIDE

• It gives path to yarn and is resistant to high speed moving yarn.

BALCON

• It is an advanced form of Balloon Breaker that retains the size of yarn balloon to an optimum size. It moves
downward as the yarn unwound from the bobbin so that the size of balloon remains same.
 WINDING DRUM
NUMBER OF GROOVES

• Number of grooves of a winding drum is defined as the number of revolutions made by the grooved drum
for one complete traverse. Number of grooves can be identified by the number of crossings on the drum.

2 Groove 2.5 Groove 3 Groove

 DENSITY OF WINDING PACKAGE
• Density of a winding package is the measure of its hardness or softness. It is mass of yarn wound per unit
volume. Density of a package depends upon the winding tension, Cradle pressure and angle of wind.
Maximum density is achieved with an angle of wind of 45 degree.

• Yarns with higher elasticity need a lower yarn tension/ drum pressure ratio in order to avoid subsequent yarn
retraction causing increased pressure to develop in the inner layers. On the other hand too low yarn
tension/drum pressure ratio may permit the yarn to slough off.

• Hardness of successive layers must gradually decrease from inside to outside of a package, otherwise bulging
may occur, i.e. soft inner layers may be squashed out at the ends of the package.

• Package dyeing requires a uniform low package density, particularly at the ends of the package, with the yarn
wound on perforated packages. The efficiency of wetting out a package is inversely related to package
density.
 DENSITY OF WINDING PACKAGE
DENSITY OF CHEESE PACKAGE

• Let M be the mass of the package then;

Density of the package (D) = M / Volume of package

Volume of the package = /4 (D2 – d2) L

DENSITY OF CONICAL PACKAGE

• Let M be the mass of the package then;

Density of the package (D) = M / Volume of package

Volume of the package = h/12 {(D12 +D1d1+ d12) – (D22 +D2d2+ d22 )}
 CONE ANGLE (CONICITY DEGREE)
• It is the taper angle of the cone.
d
 = Tan-1 (D-d)/2h

• Normally cones used for high speed over-end withdrawal have
h
initial tapering of 50 57’. If ultra fine counts (above 80/1) are to

be run then cones of 40 20’ are used. Dyeing packages are also
D
40 20’ packages.

• Additional tapering of cones is also possible on modern

winders. If cones are to be used for slow speed unwinding

(Knitting) taper angle can be increased.

 TYPES OF WINDERS (W.R.T. DRIVE)
1. PRECISION WINDERS

• These winders have a positive drive to the spindle on which package is mounted, and usually machines have
a reciprocating yarn guide traverse driven from the camshaft.

• Angle of wind decreases as the package radius increases but wind remains constant. By continuous change in
the angle of wind patterning or ribboning is eliminated.

• Speed of this type of winders is limited due to slow speed of traverse of the yarn guide.

• A separate cam driven traverse assembly needs continuous maintenance and imposes a limit on the speed of
traverse thus winding speed, normally parallel wound packages are wound on these types of winders where
the speed of traverse is slow as compared to speed of rotation.

• Continuous filament yarns are also wound on these types of winders in which surface contact of the drum
might damage the individual filament.
 TYPES OF WINDERS (W.R.T. DRIVE)
1. PRECISION WINDERS
• Precision winders are further classified into three types.

• Constant spindle speed

• In which speed of rotation of the package is kept constant. Increment of the diameter of the package causes the
increase of surface speed and thus the winding tension of the upper layers.

• Constant surface speed

• In which the rpm of the package are gradually reduced to keep the withdrawal speed of the yarn constant. Rate
of decrement of speed must be calibrated for different yarn counts because rate of increment of diameter is
different for different yarn counts.

• Combination yarn speed

• In which initially the package is rotated at a constant spindle speed until the yarn speed increases to the
required optimum; thereafter the yarn speed remains constant and the rpm of the package are gradually
reduced to keep the withdrawal speed of the yarn constant.
 TYPES OF WINDERS (W.R.T. DRIVE)
2. DRUM WINDERS
• In these types of machine the package is driven by the surface contact of the drum (package is negatively
driven) this ensures the constant withdrawal speed of yarn. Application of waxes and lubricants on these
types of winders is easier.
• In these type of winders, Wind continuously decreases with the increment of package diameter because
wind is the ratio between number of coils wound per minute and number of complete traverses per minute.
As the diameter of the package increases its rpm gradually decreases and thus the number of coils wound
per minute. Angle of wind remains constant because;
 = Tan-1 Horizontal speed (Speed of Traverse)/Vertical speed (circumferential withdrawl of package)
• If a fixed ratio between the vertical speed and horizontal speed of the yarn in not broken during the winding
layers of yarn will superimpose on each other leading to Ribbon winding.
• The major disadvantage of this type of winders is that ratio between horizontal and vertical speed (Tan) is
very difficult to break and chances of patterning are very high.
 TYPES OF WINDERS (W.R.T. DRIVE)
2. DRUM WINDERS
These winders are further classified into two types.
• FINGER TRAVERSE TYPE WINDING MACHINES
• In this case the yarn passes through a finger guide which is carried across the face of the package by a
traverse motion independent of the driving drum speed. This arrangement allows the rapid alteration
of the traverse speed to serve the anti patterning purpose. Traverse speed of the guide is limited due
to inertia considerations and machines needs frequent maintenance.
• GROOVED DRUM WINDERS
• These types of winders are most common in the spun yarn industry. In these winders both operations
of winding that is traversing the yarn and rotating the package are performed by a grooved drum.
• The package driving drum on the modern machines have a continuous spiral grooved drum around its
circumference in which the yarn runs as it passes on to the package. The yarn is retained in the
correct groove at the intersections by varying the depth of the groove at these places. These types of
winders have following major advantages over the other types.
• There are no limitations of speed and power, permitting a high winding speeds up to 1500 m/min.
• Reduced maintenance costs because of elimination of separate traversing assembly.
 TYPES OF WINDERS (W.R.T. AUTOMATION)
• Nowadays it is possible to completely automate the winding process but it also involves some complication.
On the basis of automation, winders can be classified into following categories.
1. MANUAL WINDERS
• These were initial types of winders in which all the driving drums were mounted on a single shaft, which
continuously rotates. In case of discontinuation of the process due to finished supply package a knot is
introduced manually and winding is started again. These winders cannot be fitted with electronic yarn
clearer because excessive cutting may lead to severe loss of efficiency.
2. AUTOMATIC WINDERS WITH SINGLE TRAVERSING JOINING ASSEMBLY
• These winders are fitted with a single traversing Knotter or splicer which goes to every spindle where it is
needed. These have low efficiency because simultaneous stoppage of winding heads means others have to
wait and loss of efficiency.
3. AUTOMATIC WINDERS WITH ONE JOINING ASSEMBLY PER WINDING HEAD
• In these winders yarn-joining assembly is separate for every winding head and every head is also fitted with
a feed magazine in which six supply packages can be fed at a time.
 TYPES OF WINDERS (W.R.T. AUTOMATION)
4. AUTOMATIC WINDERS WITH MANUAL BOBBIN FEEDING AND AUTOMATIC DOFFING

• In addition to the separate yarn joining assembly these winders are also fitted with auto-doffers and
collection conveyor belts at the back of the machine which automatically remove the take-up package from
the spindle when a specified length is reached and install an empty take up package from empty package
supply creel.

5. AUTOMATIC WINDERS WITH AUTOMATIC BOBBIN FEEDING AND DOFFING. (TRAY TYPE)

• Automatic bobbin feeding from the ring frames involves a lot of complications therefore these machines use
the most advanced computer control and mechatronics for automation. These are used for the ring frames
in which auto doffing is not fitted. Ring bobbins are collected in Large doffing boxes, which are dumped in
these machines.
 TYPES OF WINDERS (W.R.T. AUTOMATION)
In addition to winding heads these have following additional parts;
• A hydraulic hopper station for lifting the large doffing boxes and forward belt conveyors.
• A vibrating conveyor to convey single bobbins to the orientation station.
• Orientation station to ensure that no bobbin is inserted upside down on the bobbin pegs.
• Scissors and Pneumatically operated cutters with suction streams to remove the yarn residuals and
entanglements from bobbins
• Bobbin loading unit which continuously loads the bobbins onto pegs.
• Bobbin pegs which convey the bobbins to different stations on the machine and bring empty bobbins back
to winding heads.
• System of conveyor belts that carry the bobbin pegs to their respective stations.
• Yarn end-finder stations which collect the free end of yarn in suction stream by rotating the bobbin
mounted on a peg and insert this free end at the top of bobbin so it can be easily taken up as the bobbin
reaches the spindle.
• Deviators and residue detectors which divert the semi-wound bobbins back to winding heads and bobbins
with yarn residuals (Normally produced during end piecing by seed yarn on the ring frame) to separate
boxes.
• Empty bobbin collection ramps
 TYPES OF WINDERS (W.R.T. AUTOMATION)
ADVANTAGES

1. They cut the labor cost of the department by automating the process of bobbin feeding and package

doffing. Practically if the machines work at their best then only one worker is required for two machines for

only two major non-automated tasks.

• To free the yarn ends of those bobbins that are rejected by the end-finders due to sever entanglements.

• To remove those bobbins from the machine which trigger a quality alarm on the winding head and make it work

again.

2. Continuous manual handling of bobbins and take-up packages deteriorates the yarn quality especially in

fine yarns which is not done in these type of machines.

 TYPES OF WINDERS (W.R.T. AUTOMATION)
DISADVANTAGES

1. Because feeding of the bobbins is automatic therefore it is only possible to process one count at a time in
these machines which decrease their flexibility w.r.t. production and increase the number of changes. A
machine of this type can be fitted with max 2 feeding stations which means 2 yarn counts can be processed
at a time.

2. Because the feeding system is completely automated therefore no human surveillance is possible and any
mixing of bobbins of different counts in the doffing boxes of ring frame will lead to transfer of wrong
bobbins on the spindles.

3. These machines are very complex because of automation and require more maintenance and power. Any
maintenance task in the above mentioned additional parts means stoppage of the whole machine and loss
of production.
 TYPES OF WINDERS (W.R.T. AUTOMATION)
6. LINK WINDERS
• Automatic bobbin feeding and package doffing is a semi-automated process because full bobbins plucked
from the ring frames have to be manually fed to the winders. Latest advancement in the automation of
winding process is the development of link winders. These are called link winders because winding machine
is linked to the ring frame directly through conveyor belts. The process involves following steps.
• Auto-doffer of the ring frame plucks the full bobbins from the spindles at the completion of the doff and places them
on the empty pegs of the ring frame in upright position.
• Empty bobbins coming from the winding machines are placed on the spindles and spinning process is started again.
• Bobbins are then fed to the winding machine. Because these bobbins are placed in upright position by the auto-
doffer of the ring frame therefore Hopper, vibrating conveyor and orientation station are no longer required on these
machines. Some manufacturers Like Savio have given their own bobbin pegs i.e. bobbin pegs of ring and winder are
separate which means full bobbins have to be transferred from bobbin pegs of ring frame to the bobbin pegs of
winder by bobbin loader and empty bobbins vice versa.
• Bobbins on the pegs of winders are then fed to end-finders and then to winding heads for winding.
 TYPES OF WINDERS (W.R.T. AUTOMATION)
6. LINK WINDERS
ADVANTAGES

1. This completely automated process also reduces the labor required to bring the bobbins from ring to
winding in doffing boxes.

2. Because yarn of separate ring frame is run on separate winder linked to it therefore traceability of the
faulty ring machine is very easy. If clearers of one of winder registers more cuts than those running on the
same yarn count this means the root cause of the problem is in the ring linked to it. One step ahead Savio
have given SIS system (optional) in their Orion-I Link winders which points out even the faulty spindle of the
ring frame which triggers a quality alarm on the winder and makes the traceability of the fault even more
easier.

3. Ring machines giving low production are also traceable because production of the winding machine is a
direct function of the ring machine linked to it.
 TYPES OF WINDERS (W.R.T. AUTOMATION)
6. LINK WINDERS
DISADVANTAGES

1. These types of winders are very less flexible w.r.t. Production because a machine could only process that
count which is running on the spinning frame linked to it. Any redistribution of spindles in the winding
department is not possible and production of the ring frame must be balanced with the winding by
changing the winding speeds only.

2. Any maintenance of the winder means ring frame linked to it must also be stopped which leads to loss of
production, however this drawback can be eliminated by superimposing the maintenance schedules of
winding and ring department.

3. These machines are very less efficient because production of the ring frame and winder have to be
balanced in such a way that when a doff is completed on the ring frame the winder linked to it must be
stopped after finishing the previous doff.
 MODERNIZATION OF WINDING
MACHINES
• Winding machines have so far experienced the most frequent development in the spinning machines

because it is the most important department of the spinning. Normally finishing department of any industrial

unit is very important and most of the quality crosschecks are done in the finishing department. Basically

there are 3 GENERATION OF WINDERS;

• FIRST GENERATION of winders consisted of most initial drum winders without automatic yarn end

joining assemblies. All the drums were mounted on a single shaft and in an event of stoppage due to

finished supply package process can only be restarted by an operator. These were not fitted with

electronic clearers and their purpose was only to convert small length ring bobbins into bigger

packages. These are obsolete nowadays.

 MODERNIZATION OF WINDING
MACHINES
• Auto winders were the SECOND GENERATION of winders. These consisted of different parts like suction
mouth, retie pipe, tension assemblies, end joining assemblies etc. These parts co-ordinate and do their
respective jobs in the joining cycle in the event of discontinuation of the winding process. All the
moving parts were driven by separate cams which are operated pneumatically by solenoid valves and
pistons or by electromagnetic clutches and cycle shafts. Winding speeds have to changed by shifting of
the belts on the motor and drum pulleys and anti-patterning systems were not very effective. Examples
are E-7-II E-7/5-II by Murata, Autoconer 238 by Schelafhorst and Espero by Savio.

• THIRD GENERATION of winders makes use of most advanced electronics and computerized control of
winding operations. This revolution of electronics introduced some additional features to be added in
the winders to optimize the process and winding efficiency. Every movement of machine parts was
triggered by separate stepper motor, pneumatic cylinders or electromagnets, monitored by
photoelectric or ferromagnetic sensors and controlled by micro-controllers linked to a central control
unit.