This issue of SITRA NEWScovers the following topics:

Page no.PRODUCTIVITY AND COSTS

Productivity growth registered by the spinningmills during the last 5 decades 1

TECHNICAL NOTES

Idle spindle analysis in a spinning mill 4

ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK - Series 4 6

CONSULTANCY SERVICES OFFERED BY SITRADURING NOV. – DEC. 2013 10

STAFF NEWS 11

TRAINING PROGRAMMES 14

ABSTRACT OF A TECHNICAL ARTICLE 15

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SITRA News

Productivity growth registered by the spinning millsduring the last 5 decades

Productivity - both labour and machine - plays a crucial role in decidinga mill’s profitability. SITRA studies over a period of 5 decades showthat mills maintaining high labour and machine productivity alwaysperform better than other mills even during adverse trading conditions.It is largely determined by the level of modernization and condition ofmachines, work assignments, quality of raw material, etc.

Since inception, SITRA has been playing a vital role in helping mills toimprove their labour and machine productivity by conducting inter-millstudies, fixing benchmarks and under taking mill level consultancyassignments. This note traces the productivity growth registered bythe mills as well as the changes in the productivity norms during thelast 5 decades.

A. Productivity (up to ring frames) growth registered by the mills

The productivity (in terms of HOK up to ring frames) growth registeredby the mills during last 5 decades is given in Table 1 and Figure 1. Thefigures were taken from SITRA’s productivity surveys up to the year2008 and for the remaining years, productivity data from CPQ studieswere considered.

During the last 5 decades, the productivity up to ring frameshad registered a compounded growth of 3.6% per year.

During the 60s, the productivity growth was high at 6% peryear (compounded). But in the subsequent 10 years (70s),the growth was at a slow phase with the mills that participatedin the surveys registering a low growth of 2% per year.

In the 80s, however, the growth had increased to 4% per yearand in the 90s, it was 4.5% per year. However, during the last

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decade, the growth in the productivity had registered a setbackwith the mills recording a growth of only 3% per year.

Table 1 Average total HOK up to ring frames (adj. to 40s)(1959-2013)

Figure 1 HOK (up to ring frames); Industry avg. vs. Norms

B. Changes in productivity norms up to ring frames during thelast 5 decades

It is the top 10% productivity mills in the industry that shape thedirection and set the productivity growth trajectory of the rest of themills, in terms of technology, work assignments and best practices.With the exception of the norms fixed in 1959 and 1964 in which thework assignments taken were according to the 1956 and 1962 industry-wide work assignment agreements, all the later norms have beenbased on the performance of the top 10% productivity mills participating

Year Total HOK Year Total HOK1959 116.4 1990 37.7 1962 95.8 1994 33.3 1966 78.8 1998 29.2 1970 62.7 2002 23.5 1974 60.5 2006 20.2 1978 55.0 2008 20.1 1982 49.7 2010 18.8 1986 42.7 2013 17.3

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in the SITRA’s productivity surveys. The norms were upgraded fromtime to time, depending on the actual increases registered by themills participating in the inter-mill studies on productivity. SITRA normsrepresent the standard mill and provide useful benchmarks for mills toimprove their productivity performance. So far, the norms have beenupdated 10 times, as shown in Table 2 and Figure 1.

Table 2 Changes in the productivity norms up to ring frames overthe last 5 decades

An analysis of the norms given in Table 2 reveals the following:

- The revision of norms over the last 50 years has been almostperiodical i.e. once in every 5 years.

- During the last 5 decades, a substantial revision in HOK wasdone in 1970 i.e. from 75.6 HOK in 1964 to 41.4 HOK in 1970.The next highest revision in HOK was about 20% which wasseen in 1992, 2004 and 2010.

- Between 1959 and 1970, the drop in HOK was substantial at4.7 HOK per year. During the last 4 decades (i.e. since 1970),however, the drop in HOK was almost uniform at about 0.7 HOKper year.

- On the whole, the drop in HOK up to ring frames during the last50 years was about 85% - from 88 in 1959 to 12 in 2010- i.e., atthe rate of 1.5 HOK reduction per year. The substantial drop inthe HOK also indicates that during the last 5 decades, the labourproductivity had recorded a whopping increase of over 600%,i.e., a compounded growth of 4 % per annum.

Department HOK adjusted to 40s carded count

1959 1964 1970 1974 1979 1984 1992 1996 2000 2004 2010

Mixing & blow room

3.6 3.7 3.1 3.1 2.5 2.3 2.3 2.2 1.9 1.4 0.8

Cards 8.1 6.5 2.8 2.8 2.5 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 0.2

Draw frames 2.3 2.8 1.7 1.7 1.6 0.9 0.9 0.7 0.7 0.7 0.3

Fly frames 11.2 11.7 4.4 4.4 3.3 3.3 3.3 2.7 2.1 1.8 0.9 Ring frames 62.8 50.9 29.4 27.3 26.4 21.5 15.5 13.9 12.3 9.1 9.8

Total 88.0 75.6 41.4 39.3 36.3 30.0 24.0 21.5 19.0 15.0 12.0

Prodn./spl./8 hrs. (g) (adj.to 40s)

64 64 70 77 77 89 89 90 95 105 110

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- Production per spindle in ring frames plays an important roledeciding the HOK of a mill since higher the production rate,lower will be the HOK with the given work assignments. Duringthe last 5 decades, the highest increase of 16 % in the productionrate was witnessed in 1984 i.e., from 77 g in 1979 to 89 g in1984.The next highest increase in the production rate was 10%which was seen in 1970,1974 and 2004.

- Like HOK, the production rate also did not witness any upwardmodification during every revision. It was stagnant in 3 revisions(1964, 1979 and 1992).

- Five decades ago, a 30000 spindle standard mill, manufacturing40s carded yarn, would have employed about 640 operativesper day up to ring frames whereas as per the 2010 norm, thestandard mill will employ just 150 operatives per day, i.e. areduction of almost 75%.

C. Productivity norms for very hi-tech mills

In the 2010 edition of ‘SITRA Norms’ publication, productivity normsfor very hi-tech spinning mills have also been included.

- HOK up to ring frames (adjusted to 40s carded count) : 9

- Production/spindle/8 hours (adjusted to 40s carded count): 115 g

- D.ShanmuganandamLiaison and Consultation Division

Idle spindle analysis in a spinning mill

In a mill having 60,000 spindles a snap study was taken on a particularday to assess the extent of idle spindles and its statistical significance.eighty spindles were found idle in one round of the snap study. Themill norm for idle spindles = 0.1%.

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= 80 ± 3 SD

= 80 ± 27

= 53, 107

The mill norm for idle spindles is 60. The number of idle spindles of 80is within the statistical limits of 53 and 107.

Hence, the mill can conclude that the extent of idle spindles observedis statistically not higher than the mill norm.

- Dr. K.P.ChellamaniSpinning Division

Artificial neural network for the prediction of lowstress mechanical and surface properties

of air jet yarns

SITRA has conducted a study to predict the low stress mechanical &surface properties of air jet yarns of different linear densities from processvariables.

30s, 40s and 60s carded yarns were spun on MJS 802 using 100%polyester fibres of 40 mm length and 1.0 denier. The process variablescovered in the study were: i) Delivery Speed (D.S.), ii) Main Draft Ratio(M.D.R), iii) First Nozzle Pressure (N

1), iv) Second Nozzle Pressure

(N2), v) First Nozzle to front Roll Distance (N1 to F Roll Dist.), vi) Over

Feed Ratio (O.F.R.).

The entire experiment was divided into 3 phases. In the 1st phase, 3counts with varying levels of D.S. and M.D.R. (each at 3 levels) wereproduced keeping the other four process variables constant. In the 2nd

phase, 3 counts with varying levels of N1 and N

2 pressures (each at 3

levels) were spun and in the 3rd phase, 3 counts (same as that producedin 1st and 2nd phases) with 3 different levels of N1 to F. Roll distance

ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK

Series 4

6

Phase Yarn count Process variable (1) Process variable (2) Total no. of trials

I

3

(30s carded , 40s carded and

60s carded)

Delivery speed (mpm)

3

(140, 180 and 220)

Main Draft Ratio

3

(26.8, 35.7 and 45.0)

27*

II

3 (30s carded ,

40s carded and 60s carded)

N1 pressure (kg/cm2)

3

(2.0, 2.5 and 3.0)

N2 pressure (kg/cm2)

3

(3.5, 4.0 and 4.5)

27**

III

3

(30s carded , 40s carded and

60s carded)

N1 to F. Roll dist. (mm)

3

(39.0, 40.5 and 42.0)

Over Feed Ratio

3

(0.96, 0.97 and 0.98)

27***

Grand Total 81

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4. Output neurons = 55. Learning cycles = 50,000

The inputs to the net were : i) delivery speed, ii) main draft ratio, iii) N1

nozzle pressure, iv) N2 nozzle pressure, v) N

1 to F roll distance, vi) over

feed ratio and vii) yarn count. The outputs of the net were the five yarnproperties under consideration (ie, flexural rigidity, compressionalenergy, abrasion resistance, hairiness & coefficient of friction).

The available process data consisted of 81 sets of input-output pairs.Of this, 75 sets were used for training the net and the remaining fortesting. In the case of testing, only input parameters were fed to thenet and the output values from the net were compared with the targetedoutput (determined experimentally).

For the six testing data, the experimentally determined and predictedvalues of the 5 yarn properties under consideration are given inTable 2.

Table 2 Actual and predicted values of flexural rigidity,compressional energy, abrasion resistance, hairiness and

coefficient of friction.

The correlation between actual and predicted values of the four yarnproperties is shown in Figures 1, 2, 3 & 4.

A high correlation of 0.998 was obtained between actual and predictedvalues of flexural rigidity. The correlation coefficients for the otherproperties are also high at i) 0.904 for compressional energy, ii) 0.932for hairiness and iii) 0.974 for coefficient of friction.

Testing sets (Ts)

Flexural Rigidity

(X 10-3 cN.cm2)

Compressional Energy

X 10-3 gf.cm/cm2)

Abrasion resistance (No. of cycles to break

the specimen)

Hairiness

(3 mm and above Hairs / 100 m)

Co efficient of friction (µ)

-

Actual Predicted Actual Predicted Actual Predicted Actual Predicted Actual Predicted

1 7.892 7.360 2.458 2.480 363 303.4 113 82.8 0.25 0.254

2 2.076 2.253 2.252 2.291 80 101.0 138 102.9 0.24 0.237

3 7.321 7.281 2.145 2.254 274 283.3 23 21.7 0.23 0.227

4 4.457 4.457 2.352 2.328 194 198.6 16 20.5 0.23 0.228

5 4.546 4.561 2.350 2.339 227 211.3 98 85.5 0.22 0.216

6 2.293 2.509 2.235 2.232 122 110.20 143 159.7 0.21 0.213

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Figure 4 Actual and predictedvalues of coefficient of friction

Figure 3 Actual and predictedvalues of hairiness

Figure 2 Actual andpredicted values of

compressional energy

Figure 1 Actual and predictedvalues of flexural rigidity

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Hence, the proposed ANN model could be considered as suitable forthe prediction of low stress mechanical and surface properties of Airjet spun yarns from process variables for yarns of different lineardensities.

To be continued…- K.P.Chellamani & M.K.Vittopa

Spinning Division

MEDICAL TEXTILES - 11 S.no. Type of study No. of mills

Consultancy services offered by SITRAduring Nov. - Dec. 2013

1. A note on the functioning of the textile unit 12. Machinery valuation 13. Energy Audit 14. Study on compressed air system 15. Evaluation study of flourescent tube 16. Harmonic study 17. Study of input / output norms for the

consumption of flame retardant chemicalsused in the production of protective garments 1

8. A study on the water consumption of soft flowfabric processing machines (while bleachingcotton / blended knitted fabrics) 1

Besides the above major consultancy studies, SITRA alsooffered solutions to two adhoc problems in the area ofengineering & chemical process. Sixteen instruments werecalibrated and 245 accessory samples were tested.

OVERSEAS CONSULTANCY ASSIGNMENT

The Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, hadrequested SITRA to study the functioning of a textile unit (NSTT)at Chad. Subsequently, SITRA had deputed two of its seniorscientific officers, Mr.J.Sreenivasan and Mr.P.Subash, to NouvelleSociete Textile du Tchad (NSTT), Sarh in October 2013.

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Meetings attended

Dr. Prakash Vasudevan, Director, visited Myanmar from 5.11.2013 to9.11.2013 along with an Indian Textiles delegation led by Ms.MonikaS.Garg, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Textiles and representatives fromthe Ministry, Industry and Research Associations..

Dr. Prakash Vasudevan, Director, attended the following meetings:

(i) the eighth meeting of PAMC under Research & Developmentscheme of the Ministry of Textiles, Government of India held on26th November, 2013.

(ii)the following meetings held at the Office of the TextileCommissioner, Mumbai on 15th November, 2013:

- meeting of evaluation & approval committee of Technology Missionon Technical Textiles (TMTT) and to review its progress.

- ninth meeting of the Project Approval and Monitoring Committee(PAMC).

- fifth meeting of the Technical Committee under Mini Mission-II ofTMTT

Dr. K.P.Chellamani, General Manager - Projects, attended the followingmeetings:

- the Purchase Committee meeting of the “COE–Indutech” at P.S.G.College of Technology, Coimbatore on 11th and 26thNovember 2013,6th and 19th December 2013.

- served as an examinar for the viva-voce examination of Mr.S.Viju,Ph.D scholar of Anna University, Chennai held at P.S.G. College

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of Technology, Coimbatore on 15th November 2013.

- the Board of Studies (BoS) meeting conducted at Bannari AmmanInstitute of Technology, Sathyamangalam on 16th November 2013.

- the meeting on “Techno Economic Feasibility of R & D projects”held at National Jute Board, Kolkata on 9th December 2013.

Dr. K.Sajjan Rao, Head, Training division attended the meeting of theempowered Committee of Integrated Skill Development Scheme (ISDS)held under the chairmanship of Secretary (Textiles) on 11th December,2013, at Ministry of Textiles, Udyog Bhavan, New Delhi.

Mr. S.Sivakumar, Head - In-charge (Textile Chemistry), attended theProject Approval and Monitoring Committee (PAMC) meeting held atThe Office of the Textile Commissioner, Mumbai on 26th November2013.

Papers published

1. Dr.Prakash Vasudevan and Dr.K.P.Chellamani, “TechnicalTextiles: SITRA’s Contributions”, Texfair 2013 – Souvenir, SIMA,December 2013, pp. 28 – 45.

2. Dr.K.P.Chellamani, D.Veerasubramanian and R.S.VigneshBalaji “Surgical face masks: Manufacturing methods andclassification”, Journal of Academia and Industrial Research (JAIR),

November 2013, Vol.2, Issue 2, pp. 320 – 324.

3. Dr.K.P.Chellamani, D.Veerasubramanian and G.PannerSelvam “Thermal characteristics of hospital bed linens – a sensitivescience”, Journal of Academia and Industrial Research (JAIR),November 2013, Vol.2, Issue 2, pp. 374 – 377.

4. Dr.K.P.Chellamani, D.Veerasubramanian and R.S.VigneshBalaji “Tensile and tearing strength of woven fabrics: some studies”,Asian textile Journal, November 2013, Vol. 22, No. 11, pp. 70 – 74.

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5. Dr.K.P.Chellamani, R.S.Vignesh Balaji and J.Sudharsan“Antibacterial properties of allopathic drug loaded polycaprolactonenanomembrane”, Journal of Academia and Industrial Research(JAIR), November 2013, Vol.2, Issue 2, pp. 341 – 344.

6. Dr.K.P.Chellamani, R.S.Vignesh Balaji and J.Sudharsan“Quantitative and qualitative requirements of cotton in the 12th Fiveyear plan period”, Journal of the textile association, November -December 2013, Vol.74, No.3, pp. 140 – 149.

7. D.Shanmuganandam “Mills periodic analysis of techno-commercial performance”, Indian Textile Journal, December 2013,Volume 124, Issue 3, pp. 48 - 52.

Papers presented / Lectures given

Dr. K.P.Chellamani, General Manager - Projects, delivered a lectureon “Antimicrobial meditech fabrics developed by SITRA” at the Nationallevel workshop on “Antimicrobial evaluation of medical textiles products”conducted at SITRA, Coimbatore on 12th December 2013.

SITRA Officers visit Guntur

Wih an aim to explore the possibilities of working out anarrangement wherein SITRA’s services may be utilised by thespinning mills in the Guntur belt, SITRA Director along with twosenior staff of SITRA visited Guntur. A meeting was held with theManaging Directors / Chief Executives of textile mills representingthe Andhra Pradesh Spinning Association which yielded somefruitful discussions. SITRA team also visited a couple of mills inthe region to have a first hand idea of the specific needs of themills in the region.

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SITRA’s 62nd International training programme and 33rd

Management Development Programme

The valedictory function of SITRA’s 62nd International trainingprogramme, which commenced in October 2013 and attended by thirtytwo participants from 16 countries - was held on December 3, 2013.The participants were sponsored by the Ministry of External Affairs,Govt. of India, under its sponsoring scheme ITEC (Indian Technicaland Economic Co-operation) and Colombo Plan. Seven youngexecutives representing various units attended the MDP which washeld concurrently along with the ITP. Dr. Prakash Vasudevan, Director,SITRA presided over the valedictory function and distributed coursecompletion certificates to the participants.

Awareness training programme

One spinning mill in Kerala availed SITRA’s services for impartingtraining to its trainers towards creating an awareness of the importanceof higher production, better quality, lower waste, proper planning, rightwork methods etc. The programme was intended to sensitise thetrainers to effectively discharge their role and functions and achieveimprovement in the mill’s working. A total of 20 trainers attended theprogramme.

Fitters training programme for BC, MBC and DNC candidates

To upgrade the skills of fitters towards managing new technologies inshuttleless weaving machines, a fitters training programme wasorganised. Theoretical and hands-on practical training on the

HOKTRAINING

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mechanism of hi-tech weaving machines and their maintenance wereoffered during the one month programme. Totally, 22 fitters took part inthe programme.

Pre-employment training and retraining programme for textileworkers

Three out-station mills and two local mills availed SITRA’s trainingservices for their workers. In all, 104 operatives were trained in 6 batchesfor the tenting jobs in ring spinning and auto cone winding. The trainingprogrammes were conducted in Tamil in 4 mills and in Kannada in 1mill.

CHARACTERIZATION OF THE CONVENTIONAL AND ORGANICCOTTON FIBRES(K. Murugesh Babua, M. Selvadassa and R. Somashekarb,The Journal of The Textile Institute, 2013, Vol. 104, No. 10,1101–1112)

The characterization of conventional and organic cotton fibres tounderstand the differences between them is presented in this article.Cotton fibres were characterised for surface morphology, surfacechemical composition, surface elemental composition and internal fibrestructure. The study results have shown that, both the cotton fibreshave typical morphological features, such as ribbon shape rolled in ahelicoidal manner around the axis and more-or-less bean-like cross-sections. The FTIR–ATR spectra analysis reveals no major change insurface chemical composition between conventional & organic cottonfibres. Based on MALD–TOF mass spectrum analysis, it was observedthat surface chemical composition of the conventional and organiccotton fibres is similar. The detectable waxy acids and alcohols presentin conventional cotton fibres were also observed in organic cotton fibres.The surface elemental composition of both the cotton fibres was

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analysed using X–Ray–Fluorescence spectrum (XRF). The resultsshowed that heavy metals are not detectable. Further, organic cottonfibres were found to have a relatively higher percentage of metals likeFerrous Iron (Fe), Potassium (K), Aluminium (Al), Magnesium (Mg)and Phosphorous (P).

The internal chemical composition and architecture of cotton fibreswere analysed using FTIR spectrum and WAXS (Wide Angle X-rayScattering) diffraction scattering data. It was inferred that organic cottonfibres have a higher proportion of representative groups compared toconventional cotton fibres. The fraction of I

á and I

â cellulose present in

the conventional and organic cotton fibres revealed that the Iâ cellulose

dominates in both the cotton fibres. The conventional cotton fibreshave slightly higher fraction of I

â cellulose as compared to organic

cotton fibres. The crystallinity of both the cotton fibres was determinedusing the WAXS diffraction data and it was found that crystallinity issame for both the fibres.

- R.S.Vignesh BalajiSpinning Division

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New Instrument at SITRA

CoE Medical Textiles Lab

Field emission Scanning Electron Microscope(FeSEM)

SITRA’s COE Medical Textile testing facility has recently beenupgraded with FeSEM facility to image samples of textile,biological, bio-medical, food, etc. The instrument has the abilityto magnify images up to 10 million times.

Applications

FeSEM allows performing morphological, chemical and analyticalstudy of the following materials:

a. Fibre, yarn and fabric (surface morphology, diameter,fracture, design, etc).

b. Biological and bio-medical (solid and liquid samples)(surface morphology at nano level, diameter, elementalanalysis, orientation, etc).

Mills are requested to contact the Medical Textiles Division, SITRAfor their requirements. The contact details are

The Head, COE Medical Textile Division,

SITRA, Coimbatore 641 014.Telephone: 0422 - 4215349Email : coemed@sitra.org.in

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MEDITEX - 2014Medical Textiles Expo & Conference

Meditex expo

This expo will be held at SITRA from Feb. 28th to Mar. 2nd 2014.The expo provides a cost effective and accessible opportunity forentrepreneurs and management professionals with a wide rangeof options in medical textile machinery and technologies, basedon which, they can excercise the right choice in procurement.

Seminar on “Emerging investment trends in the medicaltextile industry”

On 28th Feb. 2014 at 10.15 A.M. the experts will discuss ontechnologies, machinery, products, processes, standards,regulations, marketing, finance & Government support.

Seminar on “Personal protection & occupational safety fortextile mills workers”

On 1st March 2014 at 2 P.M. the experts will discuss on the followingtopics:

- respiration and ear related problems- sleep and musculoskeletal disorders- peventive measures- usage of personal protective equipment

Those interested in participating in the expo and the seminarsmay contact the Medical Textiles Division, SITRA. The contactdetails are

The Head, COE Medical Textile Division,

SITRA, Coimbatore 641 014.Telephone: 0422 - 4215349Email : coemed@sitra.org.in

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