Oerlikon Neumag starts year of innovations with BCF S8
The BCF S8 production plant promises carpet yarn manufacturers greater punching power within a fiercelycontended market. Superlative spinning speeds, up to 700 filaments per yarn end, finer titers down to 2.5 dpf – the performance data and technological finesse of the new system already made an impression at its unveiling at the German DOMOTEX trade fair in January. At ITMA 2019 in Barcelona in June the tricolor version of the BCF S8 will be unveiled, which was showcased as a monocolor system at the DOMOTEX.
Visitors to the trade fair spoke of a ‘game changer’. “This shows that our customers have understood that the BCF S8 has considerable potential and represents a huge step forward”, comments Martin Rademacher, Head of Sales Oerlikon Neumag, thrilled by the across-the-board positive trade fair feedback in Hanover, Germany. With this technology innovation, customers are able to better cater to changing market requirements and can stand out in a highly-competitive industry despite increasing pressure on costs – regardless of whether with standard or niche products. For this, the developers targeted a new level of increased productivity and even broader product diversity. The BCF S8 aims to be the most efficient Oerlikon Neumag BCF plant.
This is being already underlined and supported by the performance figures, the results of tests and the operation of two pilot lines within the market: with up to 700 potential filaments per yarn end, the BCF S8 exceeds its sister system, the BCF S+ (400 filaments), considerably, guaranteeing finer titers down to 2.5 dpf at the same time. Furthermore, the process speed of the new Witras III-37 winder is – at 3,700 m/min – higher than ever before, permitting increased throughputs of up to 15 percent compared to predecessor technologies. Overall, this innovation offers a system efficiency of 99 percent as well as potential energy savings of up to 5 percent per kilogram of yarn.
Innovative – from straight yarn paths to large cooling drums
Numerous innovations have enabled these advances. To this end, one key element above all has been optimized.
The yarn path from the spinning system to the new, large cooling drum has been almost completely straightened. This yarn path, unique to the BCF market to date, ensures that the individual filaments are subjected to minimum friction, hence considerably reducing yarn breaks and optimizing the overall production process. Noteworthy here are the, for the first time, straight yarn inlet in the texturing head – guaranteeing superior yarn quality.
And the considerably reduced distance between the heating godet duo and the texturing head also has a positive impact on the texturing process. It ensures a more even twist to the yarn and reduces the compressed air consumption. The texturing chambers can be removed individually, which additionally shortens servicing times. The now closed units provide the best possible protection for the texturing jets and lamellar chambers. The cooling drum now has a larger, 800-mm diameter, optimally and gently cooling the filaments – also benefiting the yarn quality. Furthermore, the cooling drum is equipped with a V-groove for all polymers (PET, PA6 and PP) as standard. This ensures straight laying of plugs and improves crimp evenness. The standard system package now also includes the already-established RoTac3 tangling unit, which again significantly reduces compressed air consumption by around 50 percent.
Color separation on a new level
Multicolored carpets are becoming increasingly popular. The desire for considerably more flexible color mixing variants is growing. Oerlikon Neumag has shifted its focus to this and has developed a platform with the BCF S8 that now allows you to produce yarn for any degree of color separation – from mélange to strongly separated colors.
The core component in this process is the new, patent-pending CPC-T unit for even more flexible and more even color separation. In the CPC-T process, each color is compacted directly prior to texturing. This prevents unintentional merging of the individual colors in texturing or in the main tangling process.
More than 200,000 different color shades from three colors
CPC-T allows the production of more than 200,000 different color shades – all on the basis of just three different colors. This is made possible by the individually controllable air pressures for each color, which can be set in a range of between 0 and 6 bar. To this end, individual colors can be reproducibly accented in the carpet – for virtually unlimited color pattern diversity.
Completely new designed CPC-T: simplified accessibility
The CPC-T has not only been given a new design, it is now also located in a different place, directly above the texturing head. For operators, this means considerably better access and simplified thread-up. The process is becoming faster and more stable. And whenever production has to be changed over from mélange to monocolor yarns, the CPC-T can be very quickly replaced with the monoguide.
HMI-based process visualization system
Last but not least, an HMI-based (Human-Machine Interface) process visualization system supports the control of the BCF S8 using intelligent functions. “With such innovations, we want to open the door to a digital age of smart carpet yarn manufacturing – as already announced at the ITMA ASIA 2018”, emphasizes Dr. Friedrich Lennemann, Head of R&D Oerlikon Neumag.
The new BCF S8 is the first Oerlikon Manmade Fibers segment system equipped with an innovative human-machine interface (HMI) for intelligent controlling and monitoring. In this case, the interface between man and machine has been oriented on the daily requirements of users in BCF production. With its new ‘look and feel’, it supports intuitive operation and comes with smart features that simplify everyday work. To this end, the system offers – by means of a touch screen – direct access to important information, operating statuses and actual and target values at each take-up position.
A completely new ‘alarm philosophy’ also simplifies troubleshooting and malfunction analysis. Here, certain irrelevant error messages or messages on other follow-on errors can be suppressed using sophisticated filter mechanisms and not transmitted to the HMI system. As a result, the operator is able to acquire a better overview of the current status of the system and secure the planned operation.
