After close collaboration with Truetzschler, Pakistan’s Ibrahim Fibres is now successfully producing extra long polyester and lyocell fibres on optimised TC 30Si carding machines.

Ibrahim Fibres, located in Faisalabad, operates almost 200 cards – more than any other business in Pakistan – and has partnered with Truetzschler for over two decades. It produces a wide range of yarns for woven and knitted fabrics based on various blends of cotton, viscose and polyester in yarn counts ranging from Ne 8 to Ne 50.

It also produces around 1,200 tons of polyester staple fibre (PSF) per day on 240,000 spindles at four factories and consumes around 100 tons of it, with the remainder sold to other textile manufacturers.

Long fibres

Teams from Ibrahim Fibres often approach Truetzschler with fresh ideas and new expectations and recently set the challenge of producing top-quality yarns from unusually long polyester and viscose fibres. These fibres are used for luxury textiles, high-performance fabrics, fine bedding and advanced nonwoven materials. The end products benefit from the outstanding strength and durability of such fibres.

While processing short fibres is often problematical, these long fibres also present difficulties because they have a tendency to wrap or clog carding elements. Their length also makes them more tightly bound, which means they are more difficult to open.

 Experts from Truetzschler worked closely with partners at Ibrahim Fibres to explore potential solutions.

Ibrahim was looking to process 51mm polyester with 51mm viscose fibres and to enable this, Truetzschler engineers optimised a TC 30Si carding machine. The machine is specifically customised for manmade fibers and can process them more effectively due to its larger drum diameter, which results in a 14 % extended carding length. It also has 35% more active flats with one licker-in and its cylinder, doffer wire, flat tops and stationary flats are all designed for processing manmade fibres.

Collaboration

“Our technical teams regularly collaborate with Truetzschler’s R&D department to enhance production using Industry 4.0 principles, AI, and the latest technology,” says Ibrahim general manager of R&D Zafar Iqbal. “We’ve now developed a method for handling longer fibres that improves yarn consistency, end-product performance and cost efficiency, while reducing waste. Our ongoing partnership with Truetzschler continues to drive innovation and efficiency in our operations.

“The TC 30Si has user-friendly software and an intuitive human machine interface (HMI), making it easy to maintain with minimal adjustments. This card boosts productivity and reduces energy consumption, while also improving consistency and reducing defects.”

Based on the strong test results, Ibrahim has subsequently placed an order for eighteen new TC 30Si carding machines.

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