Design of double teeth metallic card clothing for the high-efficiency carding process by computational fluid dynamics

Abstract

The design of metallic card clothing, which is one of the most important devices in the textile industry, has always been based on operational experience. With the development of types of fibers and the requirements for the quality of yarns, those principles concluded by engineers seem to be losing their efficiency. Recent research found that airflow played an important role in the card process, which means airflow should be carefully studied. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation greatly helps in the analysis of airflow because the gauge between carding elements is too narrow to put in any measuring device. In the present study, with the help of CFD simulation, the air around different carding clothing with varied tooth depth was analyzed. It was concluded that the carding efficiency improvement in card clothing with lower tooth depth may be related to more concentrated air velocity at the tooth tips. This resulted in more probabilities that fibers would get through the cylinder surface at the teeth tips, so that the fibers could be caught by flat-top needles more efficiently. With this assumption, a new generation of card clothing called “double teeth” containing two teeth in a single section has been invented. The new configuration design of card clothing was then applied in several spinning mills on an industrial scale for experiments. The results showed about a 30% improvement in production at the same quality level as conventional card clothing, which implied the usefulness of the newly applied principles related to airflow. Despite the difficulty in the study of the complex carding process, the new airflow analysis method has shown an optional and worthwhile way of thinking that could make a difference in future research in the textile industry.