Assessment of the spindle head design solutions in view of yarn tension in balloon-less ring spinning

Abstract The paper presents the characteristics of nine designed and manufactured variants of spindle heads for balloon-less spinning, the shapes of which were developed on the basis of the solutions previously used by leading manufacturers of ring spinning machines and spinning spindles, represented by such companies as: (“Bigagli semi-worsted ring spinning frame. Royal Westa (Canada), Delpiano Company FD-104, Talleres Galan firm (Spain), Gaudino Company M-4707, Houget Duesberg Bosson CBY3, Wifama Company (Poland). The spindle heads included four original design variants made of wrought aluminium, allowing the possibility of shaping their teeth (notches) by extrusion using a hydraulic press. Then, the impact of these design solutions of the ring spinner spindle head (rosette), as represented by the head weight and the phases of the package formation (package base, body and head), on the yarn tension was analysed. The analysis involved the minimum and maximum tension values, as well as the tension amplitude. The conducted tests demonstrated that the tension value is influenced by both the weight of the spindle head and the phase of package formation. In addition, as the weight of the spindle head increases, both the yarn tension and the amplitude of the tension increase as well. Due to the fact that the increase in tension negatively affects the spinning process, the spindle head weight in the design solutions needs to be minimized. Studies focused on yarn tension in balloon spinning, whereas this study systematically evaluates spindle head geometry in balloon-less spinning. These findings provide design guidelines for minimizing yarn tension in industrial balloon-less spinning systems.