Since being launched in 2010, almost three million Uster Quantum 3 yarn clearers have been put into operation at spinning mills worldwide. The unit introduced better contamination control, smart limits and quality alarms to isolate exceptions to consistent quality, all of which significantly boosted productivity.

At an online press conference on March 4^th, the Swiss company introduced its successor, the new Quantum 4.0 clearer which has been developed to offer a greater diversity in the fibres and yarns being manufactured.

Intelligent sensors

The Quantum 4.0 enables this via Smart Duo, which allows easy switching between the sensors for capacitive measurements of fibre mass and those for optical measurements of fibre diameter.

The capacitive and optical sensors work intelligently in tandem through an innovation called Cross Clearing, which locates and eliminates hidden defects with a double check, in which the main sensor’s signal is supported by the assistance sensor. This deals with issues such as unnoticed fluff events, which might otherwise cause breaks downstream.

Today’s market trends show strong demand for compact yarns and here, spinners can trust Quantum 4.0 to deal with any quality issues. The density feature, for example, protects mills from substandard cops caused by ring spinning malfunctions such as blocked compacting zones, or twist problems.

The Smart Duo has the advantage of monitoring yarn density continuously and after every splice.

“No matter where density variations originate, be it compacting, different twist levels due to slip spindles or otherwise, Uster Quantum 4.0 takes care of it – and this is a real technical innovation,” said Uster product manager Katrin Hofer.

Material mix-ups

A further valuable addition is the Blend Mix-up option, which enables mills to identify mix-ups of different types of raw materials. Developed in response to demands from customers, it detects any wrong raw material in greige and white yarns, to prevent barré effect in fabrics.

“Cop mix-ups can happen in mills, since differences are hardly visible to the human eye, but Quantum 4.0 stops the problem before it becomes an issue, thanks to significantly improved hardware and software – all underpinned by Smart Duo,” said Hofer.

The higher processing power of the new sensors brings additional benefits such as the enhanced Continuous Core Yarn option, which detects both missing and off-centre cores continuously. 

A deeper analysis of polypropylene (PP) and foreign matter is also possible. A new PP classification gives users the overview of polypropylene content, while the Advanced FD classification now shows extra classes below the 5% lines. Both these features add to the value of the contamination function, together with Total Contamination Control (TCC).

Prevention pays off

As well as identifying defects at winding, preventing defects at source is also possible with the clearer’s new Quantum Expert. Thanks to additional analytical features, the Uster Quantum Expert enhances process control and prevention of defects, through Total Contamination Control, Ring Spinning Optimization and the RSO 3D Value Module.

These latest innovations in the new clearer protect spinners from claims and waste, but enabling business success is the real purpose of Quantum 4.0. The latest clearing technologies work with Uster’s unique data analysis to enable flexible data-based decisions using Application Intelligence.

“Failure prevention is the key to success and tackling issues at source is the way to do it,” said Hofer.

Secure and user-friendly

No matter how much data – in terms of quantity and different parameters – is collected for analysis, Uster Quantum Expert can manage the complexity, while remaining intuitive.

A central Smart-Limit button enhances flexibility, since operators can adjust all available smart limits with a single tap, based on the unique Yarn Body concept. Each individual limit can be simply fine-tuned as preferred.

Users benefit from both the established Quantum workflows and the new customer-centred user interface with a 16:9 touchscreen on the 7th generation control units.

www.uster.com