Modeling fiber arrangement and distribution during the roller drafting process

Abstract

During the spinning process, the roller drafting operation plays a significant role in attenuating the sliver to an appropriate linear density. In this study, the model of fiber arrangement was applied to simulating the roller drafting process in order to shed light on the sliver dynamic behavior in the drafting zone. The drafting process was operated from the high-velocity motion of the first accelerated fiber to the high-velocity motion of the last accelerated fiber. The proposed model showed that the simulated sliver attenuation processes were highly corresponded to the actual sliver attenuation results. In addition, the results revealed that the draft ratio, gauge length, input sliver linear density and accelerated-point distribution form had effective influences on the attenuation curves of sliver linear density, whilst the delivery speed scarcely had any effect. The fiber distributions of various forms were also investigated specifically and quantitatively from the fiber arrangement during the drafting procedure in real time. Furthermore, the sliver dynamic was also described by the mean and CV of fiber velocities within the drafting zone. The obtained simulation results demonstrated that the draft ratio, gauge length and delivery speed had a bearing on the mean velocity of fibers, while the CV of fiber velocities was significantly influenced by the draft ratio, gauge length and input sliver linear density. Besides, the distribution pattern has a valuable contribution to the mean and CV of fiber velocities. In consequence, the new drafting model was validated to be effective in quantizing the drafting process.