Patent Description:
Ring spinning machines comprise a row of spinning stations arranged next to each other, each of which comprises a roving drafting arrangement, from which the processed roving is carried to a twisting device, from which the produced yarn is withdrawn and wound in a winding device to form a package on a tube placed on a rotatable spindle, thereby forming a bobbin, or, in other words, cop, i.e., a tube with a yarn package. If the yarn production is interrupted, e.g., owing to a yarn break, it is necessary to resume yarn production at a given spinning station. During the renewal of the spinning process at the spinning station, where, after the interruption of spinning, roving feed rollers of the drafting arrangement are stopped, or the drafting arrangement is working and the fibers from the roving are sucked into waste, etc., also the motion of a traveller on a flange of a ring is terminated, which is usually recorded by a sensor of the traveller motion. Subsequently, it is necessary to find the yarn end being wound on the package on the bobbin, unwind the yarn from the package, thread it through the traveller, a balloon limiter and a guide eyelet and finally bring the yarn end back between the end rollers of the roving drafting arrangement in such a manner that during the spinning resumption the yarn end is joined to the end of the roving and the spinning station is thereby prepared for the renewal of the yarn production. All these service operations are performed during permanent reversible vertical motion of a ring bench and a balloon limiter carrier, because the other spinning stations continue to produce the yarn. Various handling devices are used for handling a yarn end from the moment of finding the yarn end on a package on a bobbin till the moment of passing it to the means of the spinning station, such as the handling devices according to <CIT> or according to <CIT> and others. By their very nature, these are yarn end handling devices performing general motion in space.

<CIT> discloses a rotor spinning machine, which has multi-position machines with travelling service units. It is disclosed a transmission of processing parameters between travelling service units on textile machines.

<CIT> discloses a rotor spinning machine, in which parameters for optimum yarn splicing are set, on a batch change at a rotor spinning machine. The microcomputer for the splicer gives a basic setting for an optimum splicing action, and displays the splicing parameters before the splicing starts.

<CIT> proposes an automatic broken yarn repair at a ring spinner. The broken yarn end is detached from the winding cops by a stream of blown air with an intensity which is controlled according to the deg. of success in loosening the yarn end from the conical wound section of the cop. Preferably the blown air stream control is set by the yarn repair procedure for individual cops. In the event of a failure to detach the loose broken yarn end, the air stream intensity is increased on the second attempt, and then returned to the initial intensity on a third attempt. The success rate of the blowing actions is formed from a number of yarn repair procedures and, if it fails to achieve a nominal success rate, then the air blowing intensity is increased for subsequent yarn repairs.

Although, <CIT> might increase the succession rate of a single yarn repair procedure, it does not take into account that the service robot is a complex apparatus, where many other factors influence the succession rate. Furthermore, depending on yarn to be produced and on the spinning machine, the succession rate of the yarn repair procedure might be different. Last but not least, the energy consumption is not taken into account.

<CIT> discloses a service robot for renewed piecing of broken yarns in a ring spinning machine. First a special spindle braking device is used to stop an individual spindle. Instead of searching the broken yarn-end and detaching it from a winding cop, an auxiliary (external) yarn provided by a storage tube is used for renewed piecing. Therefore, one end of the auxiliary yarn is attached to a winder which is moveable about the spinning cop and subsequently wound around the cop. The auxiliary yarn is then threaded through the ring traveller, an antiballoon ring and the thread guide and into the zone of the output of the drafting arrangement. The spindle and thus also the cop is then driven again and the auxiliary yarn is brought into the path of the drawn roving yarn so that it is twisted with it.

<CIT> discloses a roving changing machine designed to change roving bobbins and joining roving under different spinning conditions. For this purpose, the roving changing machine appears to comprise stored control pattern data according to which a roving yarn feeding device, roving yarn joining device and the like of the roving changing machine are controlled. A suitable control pattern data set is apparently activated by sending information about spinning conditions of the base machine from a main controller to the roving changing machine. As information on the spinning condition the data number of a control pattern data is used.

The purpose of this invention is to provide a method of operating a service robot of a spinning machine and a spinning machine which saves energy, increases the efficiency of the service robot and of the production.

Another purpose of the invention is to provide a method of operating a service robot of a spinning machine and a spinning machine which configuration management of different service robots of the spinning machine or textile plants can be enhanced.

This purpose is achieved by a method of operating a service robot of a spinning machine and a spinning machine according to the independent claims. Dependent claims give advantageous embodiments.

More particularly, it is achieved by a method of operating a service robot of a ring spinning machine, which is displaceable along a row of spinning units of the ring spinning machine, each spinning unit comprising a spindle, wherein the service robot can be stopped at a specific spinning unit in order to perform a service operation at the spinning unit; the method comprising the steps of.

Preferably, it comprises the step of entering by an operator at the service robot or the ring spinning machine the yarn to be produced and/or a spinning program defining at least the yarn.

The method according to the invention further comprises the steps of.

Preferably, comprises the step of displaying statistics of success rate and/or energy consumption of the service robot.

Preferably, it comprises the step of transferring success rate and/or energy consumption of the service robot and the applied set of parameters to an internet server.

Preferably, it comprises the step of storing different sets of setting parameters for setting one or a plurality of.

It turned out that under certain conditions (e.g. depending on yarn characteristics and/or characteristics of the ring spinning machine and/or environmental conditions) the broken yarn end of spindle at an interrupted spinning station cannot be found or not be detached using a yarn search device as described herein. If the yarn-end finding and detaching operation is not successful, a spinning station may be out of production at least until next the doffing takes place. On the other side, if too much time is spent on the search and/or the detachment of a single broken yarn-end, energy consumption and overall efficiency of a service robot decreases significantly and so does the total performance of a ring spinning machine. Therefore, according to a variation of the present invention, which may also be viewed as an independent inventive concept, under certain conditions renewed piecing of broken yarn is performed using auxiliary (external) yarn, alternatively to searching and detaching the broken yarn-end from the winding cop. This allows resuming production of a spinning station even if the broken yarn end cannot be found and/or detached from a winding cop. Consequently, the energy consumption can be further decreased and efficiency of a service robot and a ring spinning machine be further increased.

Thus, according to a variation of the present invention, the method of operating a service robot of a ring spinning machine may comprise the step of initiating a renewed piecing operation using auxiliary yarn as described in <CIT> if the search time of a yarn search device of a yarn search robot exceeds a predefined max search time.

In case the search for the yarn-end is performed using multiple attempts (e.g. the attempts differing in negative suction pressure and/or belt speed and/or belt direction and/or contact pressure of the yarn search device from each other), alternatively or in addition, also a maximum number of search attempts per piecing operation may be set and used alternatively or in addition to the max search time.

However, renewed piecing by using auxiliary yarn increases the number of yarn-end finding operations in a downstream winding machine, respectively a plurality of down-stream winding machines. Thus processing of a cop that was pieced too many times using auxiliary yarn may critically decrease the overall performance of a winding machine (respectively a plurality of winding machines) due to the required additional yarn-end finding operations. The same holds true for the total number of renewed piecing operations using auxiliary yarn as performed on a whole production batch of a ring spinning machine. Thus, a supercritical application of renewed piecing using auxiliary yarn per cop and/or per production batch of a ring spinning machine may lead to the downstream winding machine(s) becoming a bottleneck of the overall production chain of a spinning mill. The maximum numbers of applications of auxiliary yarn for renewed piecing per cop and per production batch of a ring spinning machine will typically depend on the number, type and topology of the winding machine(s), respectively the yarn-end finding devices associated with the winding machine(s) as well as a plurality of other parameters. Such other parameters include e.g. the type and yarn count of the yarn to be produced, the number of cops per production batch of the spinning machine, the transport capacity of a conveyor line of an interconnected transport system installed between the ring spinning machine and a downstream winding machine or a plurality of downstream winding machines and the buffer storage capacity of an interconnected transport system installed between the ring spinning machine and a downstream winding machine or a plurality of downstream winding machines etc..

Consequently, the potential decrease of energy consumption and increase in production efficiency of a service robot and ring spinning machine due to the use of auxiliary yarn is conflicting with the potential decrease of the performance of a downstream wining machine arrangement. Hence a trade-off between the conflicting demands is required. Therefore according to variation of the method according to the present invention, the method according to the present invention may also comprise the step of storing different sets of setting parameters for setting one or a plurality of.

In accordance with this aspect of the present invention, a further variation of the method according to the present invention comprises the steps of the service robot of a ring spinning machine only initiating a renewed piecing operation using auxiliary yarn if the search time of a yarn search device of a yarn search robot exceeds a predefined maximum search time and/or the number of renewed piecing operations using auxiliary yarn on a specific cop does not exceed a predefined maximum number of renewed piecing operations using auxiliary yarn and/or the total number of renewed piecing operations using auxiliary yarn on all cops of a production batch of the ring spinning machine does not exceed a predefined maximum number of renewed piecing operations using auxiliary yarn per production batch (between two doffing operations) of the ring spinning machine. Thus, a highly efficient and steady production of a spinning machine and downstream winding machine can be obtained.

Preferably, the method comprises the step of storing different sets of setting parameters which parameters depend on one or a plurality of yarn count, yarn type, S-/Z-Twist as yarn characteristics.

Preferably, it comprises the step of storing setting parameters depend one or a plurality of characteristics of the ring spinning machine of.

Within the context of the present invention, a downstream winding machine is understood to include also arrangements that perform yarn-end searches in such winding machines.

Due to special circumstances (e.g. failure in a downstream winding machine or e.g. changes in certain environmental conditions) the setting parameters used by the service robot may have to be set or amended by an operator. Therefore a variation of the method according to the present invention comprises the step of entering by an operator at the service robot or the ring spinning machine one or a plurality of:.

These setting parameters may be determined based on information provided by a down-stream winder or a plurality of downstream winders.

Preferably, the method comprises the step of loading predefined sets of setting parameters to the memory.

Preferably, it comprises the step of down- or uploading sets of setting parameters from or to a server over the internet to or from the service robot.

Preferably, it comprises the steps of exchanging the service robot and transferring the applied set of setting parameters to the exchanged service robot.

Moreover the aim of the present invention is achieved by a ring spinning machine with a service robot, which is displaceable along a row of spinning units of the ring spinning machine, each spinning unit comprising a spindle, wherein the service robot can be stopped at a specific spinning unit in order to perform a service operation at the spinning unit; said ring spinning machine comprises.

Preferably, an interface is present for down- or uploading sets of setting parameters from or to a server on the internet to or from the service robot.

According to the present invention, the controller is adapted for monitoring success rate and energy consumption of the service robot and for changing at least one setting parameters of the applied set of parameters in dependency of success rate and/or energy consumption.

Preferably, setting parameters comprise parameters for setting one or a plurality of.

In a variation of the present invention, at least some of the setting parameters (e, f, g) also depend on characteristics of a downstream winding machine or a plurality of down-stream winding machines.

With the present invention, advantageously generally speaking energy can be saved (e.g. by use less negative pressure) and production can be increased.

The invention will be better understood with the aid of the description of an embodiment given by way of example an illustrated by the figures, in which it is shown schematically by.

Same feature have same reference numbers in different drawings.

<FIG> shows schematically a ring spinning machine <NUM> according to the present invention, which has a plurality of juxtaposed spinning units <NUM>. The spinning units <NUM> are located in a longitudinal direction x of the ring spinning machine <NUM> between a head <NUM> and a foot <NUM>. Head <NUM><NUM> and foot <NUM><NUM> of the ring spinning machine <NUM> may include bearings, drives, control, etc., which are necessary for the operation of the machine. As is further seen, for example, at two spinning units <NUM> shown schematically in <FIG>, each spinning unit <NUM> consists of a roving bobbin <NUM>, which is arranged above a drafting device <NUM>, and on which a roving <NUM> is wound. The roving <NUM> runs from the roving bobbin <NUM> via the drafting device <NUM>, where it is stretched, to then be guided to a yarn forming element via a yarn guide. A circumferential ring winds the finished yarn on a cops <NUM>. The cops <NUM> is placed on a spindle <NUM>. Along the ring spinning machine <NUM>, a service robot <NUM> moves, which drives in the event of a yarn breakage to a corresponding spinning station <NUM> and automatically fixes the yarn breakage. The individual spinning unit <NUM> can be equipped with spindle monitors or other sensors for monitoring the ring traveller in order to detect a yarn breakage. Alternatively or additionally, the spinning units <NUM> can be equipped with single spindle drives.

<FIG> shows schematically a service robot <NUM> according to the invention. The service robot <NUM> comprises a main controller <NUM> and a memory <NUM>, which can be part of the main controller <NUM> or be separated from it. The main controller <NUM> controls the operation of the service robot <NUM> for automatically fixing yarn breakage. The service robot <NUM> comprises.

The main controller <NUM> controls the operation (indicated by arrows) of the yarn search device <NUM>, the tube handling device <NUM>, the traveller thread device <NUM>, the yarn handling device <NUM>, the travelling and positioning device <NUM>, travelling and positioning device <NUM> and the spindle brake unit <NUM> according a predefined schema or program. All these parts of the service robot <NUM> use specific setting parameters during operation as seen in Tab. According to the present invention, as well shown in Tab. <NUM> these setting parameters for the service robot depend on specific yarn characteristics and on characteristics of the spinning machine <NUM>.

According to the present invention as seen in <FIG> different sets A, B, C of these setting parameters e, f, g for the service robot <NUM> are stored in the memory <NUM>. Each set A, B, C of setting parameters e, f, g is used by the service robot <NUM> for another spinning program and is necessary for the production of a different yarn or to run a different spinning program. In <FIG>, the number of sets A, B, C and parameters e, f, g is given by way of example only. It will depend on the operation of the service robot <NUM> and the spinning machine <NUM>.

As initial configuration (e.g. with delivery of the service robot <NUM>, during a maintenance or when updating the software of the service robot <NUM> over the internet from server <NUM>), it is possible to load different predefined sets A, B, C of setting parameters e, f, g into the memory <NUM>. Before starting the yarn production, an operator chooses at the display <NUM> or a display <NUM> of the spinning machine a specific yarn to be produced (or a specific spinning program defining the yarn). According to the chosen yarn to be produced or the spinning program, one of the different sets A, B, C of setting parameters e, f, g is applied to the service robot <NUM> for the use during the service operation of the service robot <NUM>.

Advantageously, during the service operation of the service robot <NUM>, the chosen setting parameters are not fixed, but could be adapted. The service operation continues then with the adapted parameters. Preferred parameters for adapting are the setting parameters of the yarn search device <NUM>, the tube handling device <NUM> and the traveller thread device <NUM> as given in Tab. As an example, the controller <NUM> can be continuously or discontinuously monitor the success rate and the energy consumption of the service robot <NUM> to form a statistic.

If the controller <NUM> detects a decreasing success rate of the piecing process of the service robot <NUM>, the controller <NUM> starts adapting the mentioned parameters. Based on a strategy on the influence of the parameter to increase the success rate the controller <NUM> will change these parameters in a first priority (e.g. suction pressure of yarn search device). The controller <NUM> sets these parameters in relation to the attempt of piecing, e.g. the statistic shows that a higher suction pressure of yarn search device increases the success rate for the second or any further attempt.

If the statistic shows a high and constant success rate, the controller <NUM> could adapt parameters which have an influence on the energy consumption by keeping the same level of success rate. If the success rate is decreasing due to adapted parameters having an influence on the energy consumption, the controller <NUM> could again adapt parameters for having a better success rate. Success rate and/or energy consumption of the service robot <NUM> or statistics of it can as well be displayed at display <NUM>, display <NUM> or at a dashboard of the spinning mil (not shown).

<FIG> shows schematically a system for connecting a spinning machine <NUM> to a server <NUM> over a network such as the internet <NUM>. Server <NUM> comprises a database <NUM> with different sets A, B, C of setting parameters e, f, g for the service robot <NUM> as seen in <FIG>, which setting parameters e, f, g depend on yarn characteristics and characteristics of a spinning machine as giving in Tab.

The spinning machine <NUM> having in this example a plurality of service robots <NUM>, which move along both side of the ring spinning machine <NUM>. Depending on the length of the spinning machine <NUM>, one side of the spinning machine <NUM> can as well be served by two or more service robots <NUM>. The spinning machine <NUM> comprises a main controller <NUM> and a memory <NUM>, which can be part of the main controller <NUM> or be separated from it. The main controller <NUM> controls the overall operation of the spinning machine <NUM> for production of the yarn as well as the service robots <NUM> (indicated in <FIG> by arrows). An operational control system <NUM> controls besides the spinning machine <NUM> other spinning machines of a spinning mil (not shown) and collects operational data from the spinning mil for displaying and analysis.

In this embodiment, it is possible to transfer settings from one service robot <NUM> to another service robot <NUM>, e.g. when the service robot <NUM> is exchanged by another service robot. This can be done by.

Furthermore, there are a number of various possibilities to exchange settings between service robots <NUM> or to save a given configuration of settings of a service robot <NUM>:.

<FIG> shows schematically a further variation of a service robot <NUM> according to the invention. The service robot <NUM> depicted in <FIG> comprises the components of the variation of a service robot according to <FIG> and described herein with respect to the variation of a service robot according to <FIG>. In addition the service robot of <FIG> also comprises:.

A store of auxiliary yarn <NUM> and a winder for auxiliary yarn <NUM> may constitute an auxiliary yarn piecing device. In order to perform a piecing operation using auxiliary yarn, also the tube handling device <NUM>, the traveller thread device <NUM>, the yarn handling device <NUM> and the spindle brake unit as described above may be applied.

Claim 1:
A method of operating a service robot (<NUM>) of a ring spinning machine (<NUM>), which is displaceable along a row of spinning units (<NUM>) of the ring spinning machine (<NUM>), each spinning unit (<NUM>) comprising a spindle (<NUM>), wherein the service robot (<NUM>) can be stopped at a specific spinning unit (<NUM>) in order to perform a service operation at the spinning unit (<NUM>); the method comprising the steps of
• storing in a memory (<NUM>, <NUM>) different sets (A, B, C) of setting parameters (e, f, g) for the service robot (<NUM>), which setting parameters (e, f, g) depend on yarn characteristics and characteristics of the ring spinning machine (<NUM>);
• choosing a specific yarn to be produced on the spinning machine (<NUM>);
• applying one of the sets (A, B, C) of setting parameters (e, f, g) to the service robot (<NUM>) according to the chosen yarn to be produced and the ring spinning machine (<NUM>) for use during the service operation; characterised by the steps of
• monitoring success rate and energy consumption of the service robot (<NUM>) and
• changing at least one setting parameter (e, f, g) of the applied set (A, B, C) of parameters (e, f, g) in dependency of success rate and/or energy consumption.