Why mechanical compact spinning is going to supersede pneumatic (vacuum / suction) compact spinning.

Introduction

Compact spinning was founded way back in 1999. Soon after in 2003, mechanical compact spinning was invented. But only right now, with new technology and better systems available, we see the mechanical side of compact spinning gain more traction among spinners. Until now, pneumatic compact spinning was widely adopted, only for spinners now to realize, that mechanical compact spinning is going to be the future. Why is that?

Well with the invention of mechanical compact spinning, a slow adoption process has started. But there weren’t as many functioning systems back then. Today, there are some, but only few which are perfected in functionality. This, and the urgend need for sustainability and less power consumption related to less co2 emissions are the fuel to the mechanical side of compact spinning. We are now in a fast process of adoption through spinning mills. It will not be long, until mechanical compact spinning supersedes pneumatic compact spinning and is making up for most of the market share in the ring spinning sector. Reasons for this are the higher demand for sustanability, the customer demands for tracking and tracing sustainable clothes and most importantly the release of a sustainability regulation law, which forces companies to prove and display transparently their production line and where and how materials have been manufactured. As soon as in 2024, big companies with many workers must meet the European Sustainability Reporting Standards and provide an ESG reporting for stakeholders to be informed about their sustainability values. For many reasons more and more ring spinners change their systems to compact spinning and they are very successful. It all started back in 1999 when compact spinning was invented. Mechanical compact spinning is solving the issues that all spinners equally have had in the last decade.

Problems in compact ring spinning:

– High energy consumption
– High emissions
– Inefficient maintenance
– Tremendous downtime
– A short lifespan
– No proper reuse of recycled materials

 

Mechanical Compact spinning advantages

Compact spinning enhances yarn values and significantly increases production volume in your business. To understand the principle of compact spinning, we have prepared the following pictures which demonstrate the reason for the greater yarn values in compact spinning. The main reason is the reduced spinning triangle before twisting the yarn, so that the tension of the fibre is equally spread among all fibers. This increases strength and elongation, leading to a production benefit. At the same time it reduces hairiness and of course in mechanical compact spinning we save on power consumption.

On the left side on this picture, you can see a regular ring spinning unit. The spinning triangle is rather wide, which leads to unequal tensions on the fibres while twisting it. This leads to higher hairiness, low tensile strength and low tear resistance.

On the other hand, on the right side, you can see the compact spinning system and the compact yarn. The Recompact unit features a compacting zone, which reduces the spinning triangle to a minimum during spinning. This results in equally applied tension to all fibres which leads to low hairiness, high tensile strengh and high tear resistance. The tension on the fibers is also moderate to low compared to the ring spinning unit, which causes high tension on the outer fibres on of the strand.

You can see the effect on the spinning triangle in detail in these pictures on a real machine (left side regular spinning, right side compact spinning):

 

Compact spinning yarn quality

We can recognize the difference in yarn quality at one glance, see for yourself:

 

Mechanical compact spinning and pneumatic compact spinning comparison

Further, we can compare the mechanical compact spinning system (Recompact as shown in the above picture) and their compatibility to ring spinning machines to pneumatic spinning systems. You see the comparison below.

Clearly, the mechanical compact spinning system has better retrofit characteristics than pneumatic compact spinning systems, it is very simple. The mechanical compact spinning systems can be used on almost any ring spinning frame and even be upgraded from older spinning systems. Where as pneumatic compact spinning systems can more often than not only be upgraded on retrofit machines and no new machines. The suction is very complex. Apart from these convincing facts, the biggest disadvantage of pneumatic systems is their energy consumption, expensive spare parts, lattice aprons and the intensive maintenance time to keep the system clean and running. The only advantage that is left on pneumatic systems is the slightly higher yarn performance only on fine counts <100 Ne.

 

Cost benefits in compact spinning

There used to be a time when the market paid an extra up-price for compact yarn. This is not the case today anymore on the yarn markets. But why should a spinner invest in compact spinning technology? We think, profits are better invested in a system that saves you money and makes you more profit. And not letting additional power, workforce or material costs consume your profits right away. We like to be reducing the risk of the investor significantly and make it possible for them to cut costs with compact spinning and make more profit and produce more volume. It is an upgrade, an investment which is going to pay you. It pays off itself and pays you from then on. Why wouldn’t a spinner want more profit, less manpower, better quality and higher production volume? We will not go into depth, because we already researched on the matter in another article you can find here. Click the link to get to know everything about the system we offer: Recompact 3.T – Mechanical compact spinning at the same cost level as conventional spinning | Swinsol AG

However, back to the article. Through the latest compact spinning system, you save costs on the following positions:

1. Personnel costs
2. Machine downtime
3. Material costs
4. Additional energy / power costs

The savings on costs are very significant and can be compared to other compact spinning system. The higher the labour costs, the more significant the savings for your latest Recompact 3.T unit. Clearly, the recompact unit can not be beaten in price, efficiency and longevity. This is due to the level of innovation and the perfectly working controlled traversing system. You can see a summary of the costs for each system below:

Controlled traversing principle in compact spinning – automatically switch the roving path

Controlled traversing is a principle known from regular spinning. In order to extend the lifetime of cots and aprons, the channel or roving path is changed in intervals. The mechanical compact spinning unit Recompact has this innovative feature build in. This means you can travers the roving between 3 channels and control the behaviour and loss of quality in the yarn at any given time. We adopted this sytem because of the simplicity and the extended lifetime while reducing workforce and labour costs. The principle works like demonstrated in the graphic below:

Conclusion

Compact yarn clearly outperforms regular yarn by providing more tensile strength, lower hairiness and a higher tear resistance. These iprovements are possible by eliminating the spinning triangle in the compacting zone. This further leads to an equal distribution of tension to the fibre strands. As a result, the yarn needs a lower twist but still produces a higher strength because it is more dense and compact and less hairy. Overall this leads to a significantly higher output achieved through fibre elongiation.

Also, because of the rising energy prices, pneumatic compact spinning is losing significant amounts of market share. This trend has just started and is not going to end anytime soon. Spinners are in search for optimization and realize they can cut down on unnecessary power consumption.

Productivity is always a factor and it means more profit in the long run. If you are in the spinning business, you should consider upgrading from ring spinning to compact spinning.

If you also want the latest technology in the field, contact us at info@swinsol.com.

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We leave you with a final reminder of the differences in compact spinning and pneumatic spinning: