‘Spacers lead to saving in time and cost’

Textile mills spend a considerable amount of productive time on changing bobbin holders while moving from one yarn count to another. Using spacers helps save time and cost, says Mr Ravi Sam, director, Titan Paints and Chemicals, in an interview with Sudha Swaminathan.

You have claimed that you have redefined the bobbin holder. Can you elaborate?

The biggest challenge for the bobbin holder is to function smoothly in widely varying spinning conditions. Spinning mills will ideally need one bobbin holder which works efficiently giving the best yarn results. The manufacturers try to address the problem by giving several bobbin holders with different brake settings. This does not really solve their problems because whenever there is a change in the count spun, the mills have to either change the brake springs or buy a new set of bobbin holders.

As manufacturers, we do not advise the mills on self-changing of springs since it would alter the factory settings and affect the yarn results. Buying a new set is expensive. So, many times, the mills are forced to compromise. We have tried to address this problem by offering a bobbin holder with a variable and settable brake force.

How did you approach this problem?

We wanted to offer our customers a solution which will be simple yet tamper proof. The settings must be done in the mill itself without asking the help of the manufacturer. We wanted to give the power of adjusting the brake force to the user so that they can get the best results for their unique operating conditions.

How did you achieve that?

We have used spacers for adjusting the brake force. Spacers come in different thicknesses and with bright colours unique to each thickness. These spacers are normally of snap type. The top cup of the bobbin holder is depressed slightly and the spacer inserted, thereby increasing the brake force for a coarser yarn spinning. A thicker spacer would be for a still lower count of yarn. Hence depending upon the spinning conditions the mill can use the bobbin holders either without spacers or with a spacer of specified thickness.

You also talk of solid spacers. How is it different?

We primarily concentrated on making these tamper proof so that the settings have a high degree of visibility even from a distance. So the spacers come with bright colours. Any bobbin holder with a different coloured spacer than the others would immediately reveal to the spinning master that there is a different setting. However, for customers who like a higher degree of tamper proofing, we offer solid spacers which can be inserted only by taking out the bobbin holder and removing the special fastener and the hexagonal nuts. This implies that the workers will be able to change the spacers themselves, but it has to be preset by the maintenance department and given to them. This ensures the highest degree of tamper proofing.

What are the advantages of using spacers?

The advantages are considerable saving in time and cost during change in spin plan by a mill. The power of optimising the setting of the bobbin holder for the best yarn result is being transferred from the manufacturer to the end user. Lakshmi bobbin holders are therefore most user-friendly .