Uster Technology has expanded its technology range, adding automated checking of the finished fabric at the final inspection stage to provide reliable control of contamination before the raw material reaches the fabric-making processes.
This solution is ideal for spunlacing – the process most widely used for medical and hygiene products – but also effective for many other nonwovens manufacturing routes.
The Spunlace process is a nonwovens manufacturing system that employs jets of water to entangle fibers and thereby provide fabric integrity.
The company has introduced its new Uster Jossi Vision Shield fibre cleaning system utilising the latest technology to pinpoint even the smallest amount of contaminants.
Many common and troublesome defects in nonwovens production are unrelated to contamination problems and can often be detected only at the final stage of fabric manufacture. These include overlap, undrawn filament and fibre bunching. Now, Uster Technologies is expanding the quality control options for the nonwovens industry.
The market for nonwoven products is forecast to continue its growth trend, through rising world population and innovative product development.
EDANA (the European Disposables and Nonwovens Association) predicts per capita consumption of nonwovens will almost double to 1.62 kg in 2020, compared to 0.96 kg in 2009.
Demand is especially strong in hygiene, personal care and medical applications – but these end-uses are among the most challenging for producers, with rigorous quality standards typically specifying zero tolerance for defects larger than 1 mm.
Quality managed, right from the start
Effective detection and elimination of natural and synthetic contamination is best achieved right at the start of manufacturing, when the fibre raw material is in loose stock form. For this, the Uster Jossi Vision Shield fibre cleaning system applies sophisticated sensors and latest-technology spectroscopes to pinpoint foreign matter in the cotton or man-made fibre raw material.
All kind of synthetics and even the finest scraps of white polypropylene are efficiently removed with the Uster Jossi Vision Shield.
Customers in super-sensitive application use two or even three Uster Jossi Vision Shield units in a row, for total confidence that the last and most minute fragment of contamination will be detected and eliminated.
Uster acquires EVS
Defects of other types can be eradicated at the end of the production line, following Uster’s successful acquisition of EVS, specialist in automatic optical inspection, announced 25 April, 2018. The deal adds a range of fabric inspection solutions to Uster’s quality control systems.
The EVS fabric inspection system is ideal for nonwoven applications, with its display of defect images showing type, size and location in the fabric web. The system draws a real-time defect map covering the full width or one slit – and real-time alarms are an important benefit to production staff. Software advantages include a video album to store and maintain quality records, and grading of inspected webs or slits according to predefined customer criteria. All reports can be exported to any computer in a common database format.
The typical configuration of the fabric inspection solution includes two camera lines, with both transmitted and reflective illuminations to cover the whole range of defects. Each inspection line is equipped with multiple cameras and covers the entire width of the web. The ideal number of cameras depends on the required resolution level of the defects.
