One Stage and Two Stage Vibration Isolators as Applied to High Speed Textile Spindles to Achieve Noise Reduction
Authors: Foster L. W. 
Published: November 2010

The operation of ring spinning frames in textile mills can create spinning room noise levels of 90 to 95 dBA. The spindle bobbin mechanisms (generally 300 to 400 per machine) which are operated at spindle speeds of 6,000 to 14,000 rpm are major sources of noise in this type of machinery. The rotating unbalance force in the spindle-bobbin mechanism creates high frequency vibrations in the spindle blade and in the spindle bolster which contains the bearings on which the blade rotates. The vibrations generated by the spindle bobbin mechanism and the bearings are transmitted through the spindle bolster to the rail structure of the spinning frame where they cause sand energy to be radiated. This paper describes the use of two types of elastomeric vibration isolators located between the spindle bolster and the rail to achieve reductions of vibration and noise levels associated with the spindle-bobbin-rail subsystem of spinning frames. The two types of elastomeric isolators employed are: (1) a single-stage isolator where a bonded elastomeric mounting of annular design is placed between the bolster and the rail, and (2) a two-stage isolator which incorporates an annular intermediate mass element between two annular elastomeric sections that provide the interfaces to the spindle and to the rail. The two stage isolator is a novel design for rotating spindle type applications and employs the classical two stage isolator principle to achieve greater attenuation of vibrations. While it has been known for some time that single stage elastomeric isolators provide an effective means of reducing vibrations and noise in textile spinning and twisting machines, recent emphasis on reducing machine noise levels has motivated increased effort to better describe and apply elastomeric isolators. The two-stage isolator concept has been employed in an attempt to achieve higher operating speeds and, therefore, higher productivity while keeping noise levels within acceptable limits. In order to demonstrate the degrees of noise and vibration reductions that can be attained using the two types of isolators in comparison with the non-isolated or hard-mounted spindle, tests were performed using a single oil base type spinning spindle with a full bobbin. The spindle-bobbin mechanism was mounted to a representative rail by the three mounting methods described previously and operated at speeds of 11,000 rpm and 14,000 rpm in a reverberation room. Octave band sound power level measurements and one-tenth octave band sound pressure measurements were made to compare the performance of the mounting methods. These measurements were made using six microphones at different locations and sampling their output signals at a high rate over an extended interval of time. One-tenth octave horizontal and vertical rail acceleration responses were obtained concurrently with the noise responses. These noise and vibration responses are presented and discussed in the paper. The results show that the elastomeric isolators provide significant reductions in rail vibration response levels in the spindle bearing vibration frequency range of 500 to 2000 Hz. The corresponding overall sound power levels for the two operating speeds when using one stage isolators were 8 to 18 dBA below the hard-mounted spindle condition. When using the two-stage isolator, the overall sound power levels for the two operating speeds were 9 and 20 dBA below the hard mounted spindle condition. The results demonstrate the importance of properly designing the mounting to tune the system for low noise responses while minimizing the impact on other operatonal criteria such as spindle static deflection and dynamic motion. A discussion of the isolator design parameter trade-offs is presented along with comments regarding the limitations of the testing and the constraints involved in predicting the noise level reduction to be expected for a whole spinning frame.