Creel System With Self-Positioning Bobbin Carriers
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing systems for connecting yarns from bobbins to a creel face challenges such as high costs for robotics, ergonomic issues with manual handling, yarn sagging and breakage, and difficulty in finding and connecting yarn ends, leading to inefficiencies and time uncertainties.
Innovation Solution
A creel system with devices that hold bobbins and align yarn ends for easy connection, featuring engaging elements and mechanisms that ensure proper orientation and proximity of yarn ends, allowing for automated and efficient tag ending without additional elements, and enabling horizontal transport.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If robotic arms are used to pick up and position bobbins on creel carriers, then automation and productivity are improved, but system cost and complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The bobbin carrier is designed with self-positioning features including engagement protrusions that automatically align with receiving recesses on the creel, and self-orienting mechanisms that ensure correct carrier orientation without requiring robotic positioning precision. The carrier essentially positions itself when placed on the creel.
Solution Approach 2:
The system is divided into independent modular components: the bobbin carrier with its specific engagement features, the creel with corresponding receiving positions, and the yarn end fixing members. Each component performs its function independently, simplifying the overall system while maintaining automation capability.
2Ease of operation
If bobbins are transported vertically on pallets or horizontally in carts, then delivery and storage are simplified, but yarn sagging and rolling off occur during handling
Solution Approach 1:
The bobbin is pre-mounted on the carrier in a horizontal orientation with the yarn end already secured to the fixing member before delivery to the creel. This preliminary positioning and securing of the yarn end prevents sagging and rolling off during subsequent handling operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The carrier acts as an intermediary device between the delivery system (pallet or cart) and the creel. It provides a stable mounting platform that maintains bobbin orientation and secures the yarn end, protecting against harmful effects during transport and positioning.
3Ease of operation
If the knot holding the bobbin closed is loosened to access yarn, then yarn end connection becomes possible, but yarns roll off the bobbin making it unmanageable
Solution Approach 1:
The yarn end is extracted and secured to the fixing member on the carrier before the bobbin is delivered to the creel. This extraction and securement is performed in advance, allowing yarn end connection while maintaining yarn stability during subsequent operations without requiring the bobbin knot to be loosened.
4Device complexity
If yarn ends are not pre-positioned and secured, then device complexity is reduced, but finding and connecting yarn ends becomes time-consuming and uncertain
Solution Approach 1:
The yarn end is preliminarily positioned and secured to the fixing member on the carrier before the bobbin reaches the creel. This preliminary action ensures that when the bobbin is positioned, the yarn end is already in the correct location for immediate connection, eliminating the time-consuming search process.
Solution Approach 2:
The manual search and positioning process is replaced by a mechanical fixing member that automatically holds the yarn end in the correct position. The fixing member provides a deterministic, repeatable positioning mechanism that eliminates time uncertainty.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for connecting successive bobbins, in which the yarns of the different bobbins on the creel are connected to each other and are thus presented as one long yarn to the subsequent process. The system includes a plurality of devices for transporting and positioning a bobbin with yarn for provision in a creel. The system also includes a creel system that further includes a plurality of receiving positions, each of the receiving positions adapted to receive one of the devices. The devices are provided with one or more engaging elements, and the receiving positions are provided with one or more engaging mechanisms for connecting to the engaging elements.