Drives save time and money at carpet manufacturer

An ABB Automation Tech (Drives and Motors) product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Apr 10, 2001

A carpet manufacturer in Durham is saving time and money by installing ABB ACS 600 drives on its carpet looms, eliminating vibration and allowing engineers to set the looms up using a spirit level

A carpet manufacturer in Durham is saving time and money by installing ABB ACS 600 drives on its carpet looms.

Hugh Mackay Carpets contacted ABB Drives Alliance member Slater Drives Systems (SDS) when it decided to replace a simple motor using a direct-on-line (DOL) starter on one of its carpet looms.

The motor was double shafted, driving the loom through belts and pulleys from one shaft and with a braking drum on the other shaft to stop the loom.

Barry Dowson, maintenance electrician with Hugh Mackay says: "The DOL starters cause problems when we are trying to get the weft needle into the correct position on the loom, a process we call inching.

This can take up to 10 minutes to perform and needs to be done about 15 to 20 times over a 24-hour period.

Switching the motor on and off repeatedly to advance the weft needle in small steps causes vibration and a great deal of mechanical wear on the contactors, which eventually start to stick and need to be replaced.

On the larger looms, this can be up to £150 for each of the three contactors." The new system employs a 2.2 kW ACS 600 AC drive, incorporating ABB's Direct Torque Control technology.

This allows the motor to be controlled down to zero speed with full torque, eliminating vibration and allowing engineers to set the looms up accurately using a spirit level.

Barry Dowson explained: "The ABB drive with soft start allows us to precisely control the motor to get the loom in the correct position, eliminating the inching process, saving up to three hours production time a day.

The drive also provides regenerative braking, allowing us to eliminate the braking drums, which would fail and need to be replaced every few years, costing up to ?700." Eliminating the drum brake has also helped reduce the noise level produced by the loom.

Using the ACS 600 also means that the production speed of the loom can be altered quickly and simply.

Previously, the looms needed to be stopped and the pulley wheel changed manually whenever a new speed setting was needed.

This could take two hours to complete.

With the ACS 600, the speed can be set using a control box on the front of the loom and the new setting is ready in seconds.

The ACS 600 also provides much more precise speed control than the pulley system, able to control the motor to an accuracy of one revolution per minute.

SDS initially loaned the drive to Hugh Mackay Carpets to prove that the application would bring benefits.

SDS also sized the motor and drive, built and installed the panel, commissioned the drive and supplied and fitted the motor.

Barry Dowson added: "We have been very pleased with the service we have received from SDS.

We have only to call them and they provide us with immediate support.

We are installing another ABB drive on a different loom in February and want to put the system on all our Axminster looms in the next few years.".