Introduction to Blowroom

Introduction
Blow room is the first step of yarn production in spinning mills. A section
in which compressed bales are opened, cleaned and blending or mixing
to form uniforms lap of specific length is called Blow room section. The
cleaning efficiency of blow room is 40 to 70%. This is the first section of
spinning line for spinning of cotton yarn.

Functions of blow room

1. Opening the compressed bales of fiber and making the cotton tuft a
small size as far as possible.
2. Detecting the metal objects and fire in fiber
3. Cleaning the fiber by removing the dust, dirt, broken seeds etc. and
other foreign materials from the fibers.
4. Mixing and blending of different classes or grades of fibers
5. Removing foreign fibers and plastic contaminations
6. Uniform feeding to the next stage.
Machines used in a Blow Room Line
Blowroom Line for cotton (Rieter)
Blowroom Line for cotton (Trutzscler)
Principle of Opening and Cleaning
• Opening: Opening is the first operation in the blow room carried out to
the stage of Flocks. ln the-blow room and to the stage of individual
fibers in the cards.
In the stages of the opening, machines with an opening function have
the task of separating clumps of fiber into smaller ones. The sizes of the
clumps, and of the teeth that deal with them, are progressively
reduced. In general terms, grasping clumps of fibers with sets of teeth
and dragging the clumps across another set of teeth or grids perform
the opening function.
• Cleaning: With cotton, there are often seed coat fragments attached to
them. It is difficult to remove some of the extraneous matter without
vigorous mechanical action and without adequate opening. Every time
a clump of fibers is divided, a new surface is exposed from which it is
relatively easy to remove the loose unwanted matter (trash).
Working Principle of Unifloc/BDT/Automatic Bale Opener
• In this zone, basic function is to open the fiber from the bale where
fibers are at very compressed and disoriented state. The opening
device has to penetrate into the bale and pick up the tuft of fiber
during releasing from different bales simultaneously. The size of fiber
package is converted from 200 kg to 10 gm/tuft in this zone. The
machine moves to cover maximum bales. Generally, roller with toothed
disc is used for opening device. No beating action but picking is
performed here.
• As shown in figure, rotating opening rollers fitted with toothed discs
are made to traverse a line of preassembled cotton bales, the toothed
discs plucking tufts from each bale as they move from bale to bale. The
toothed discs give a gentle opening to prevent or minimize the fiber
breakage while producing smaller tuft sizes at higher production rates
than the mixing bale opener.
Technical data:
• Traverse speed: 10~18
m/min
• Speed of take-off
roller: 1400~1800 rpm
• Nominal take–off
depth: 2.5~3.5 mm
Working Principle of Metal &
fire detector/ SP-EM
The electronic Metal Separator
SP-EM helps to protect the
cleaners and cards from metal
parts at the interface between
bale work-off and
mixers/cleaners. Since, in the
process, the material transport
is performed by the
downstream machine, it is free
of exhaust air and requires no
filter capacity. In order to
reduce fire damage, the
machine is equipped with
sensors. They are connected to
the installation control.
Working Principle of CL-P/Pre-Cleaner
In this zone, basic function is to open the fiber tuft to smaller size
and to clean the tuft removing big size of trash but smaller size of
impurities which are trapped between fibers is not removed here.
Gentle beating action but no picking is performed here.
The system comprises two rotating beaters with rods or flexible
pins projecting from its surface and a series of grid bars
positioned below the beater. The system is used as a first cleaning
stage for cotton tufts with high trash content and therefore
receives tufts from the automatic bale opener.
The large tufts which cannot get lost through the grid system,
follow a spiral path around the beater to the outlet and make
contact with the projections (pins) on the rotating beater surface
several times. The tufts are then struck against the grid bars to
eject coarse trash particles.
Technical data
• Diameter of beater: 700~800 mm
• Speed of beater: 400~800 rpm
• Grid bar setting: 2.5~3.5 mm
Working Principle of MX-U/Multimixer
In this zone, main function is to blend the raw
material of different quality to equalize and
even the mean quality of delivered material.
Because natural fiber generally remains in
variation in quality.
The system employed in this zone as shown
in fig. comprises six vertical chambers in
sequence. The technology of outlet is
implemented in such a way that material is
taken up by rotating rollers evenly from every
chamber and delivered after mixing.
Therefore, mixing takes place
homogeneously at the inflow and outflow
position.
Technical data:
• Storage volume per chamber: 1.4~2.6
• Storage capacity per chamber: 40~80 kg
 Fig: Universal Mixer MX-U (courtesy of Trützschler)
• Speed of opening roller: 1000~1200 rpm
Working Principle of CL-C3
In this zone, basic function is to open the
fiber tuft to smallest size and to clean
the tuft to the greater extent removing
even smallest size of trash and dust
which are trapped between fibers.
The system comprises 3 rotating beaters
with carding saw tooth wire projecting
from its surface with different gradual
point density and a series of grid bars
positioned below the beater. The system   Fig: Cleaner CL-C3 (courtesy of Trützschler)
is used as a last opening and cleaning
stage for cotton tufts in the blow room
and therefore receives tufts from the
coarse cleaner and opener.
Importantly, the beater speed should
progressively increase from beater 1 to 3
(for example 900, 1100, 1400 rpm).
Hence, the mean tuft size is decreased
from 1 mg by the first beater to 0.7 mg,
0.5 mg by the second and third beater.
Cleaner CL-C3
Unifloc Cleaner (Rieter): Beater / Grid Bar Airflow system
The Unifloc single-beater system takes advantage of
the small tuft size that can be produced by automatic
bale openers. The pin projections from the beater
surface are smaller and greater in number, and the
objective is to make contact with all tufts. It is
claimed that, as well as removing the heavy
impurities of sand, dirt, and fine trash, working on
small tufts enables the removal of dust particles.
With these systems, curved plates are fitted above
the beaters to control the number of spiral passes —
usually a minimum of three times. The tufts are
accelerated, decelerated, and turned over during
each pass. The angle of the grid bars and the space
between them can be adjusted so as to optimize the
amount of impurities removed and to minimize any
removal of fiber.
The beater speed range is 400–800 rpm, with a
diameter of 750 mm and a working width of 1.6 m;
production rates are up to 1200 kg/h.
Working Principle of Step Cleaner
Step cleaners perform opening on
large tufts by the actions of opposing
spikes and with grid bars. Located
below each beater is a series of
points for removing coarse trash
particles. These units are used for
the opening and further cleaning of
scoured wool prior to carding. The
inclined multiple-beater cleaner may
have from three to six beaters,
depending on the amount of opening
required and/or the quantity of
impurities to be removed from the
material. Step cleaners may also be
used in cotton cleaning lines, but,
with the move toward mini-tuft size
and the use of automatic bale
openers, they are no longer part of
the specification for a modern cotton
spinning plant.
Porcupine Beater
Vertical Opener or Crighton Opener
• The rapid revolution of the vertical beater shaft,
heavier beating of the striker in cotton against
grid bar, centrifugal force and gravity combines
effectively to open the cotton and remove the
heavier major trash particles from it.
• Due to opening of cotton tufts, heavy dust, dirt,
sand particles, seed bits & other Vegetable
particles, short fibres and other foreign impurities
are extracted and passed through the spacing of
the grid bars, surrounding the beater.
The factors affecting the efficiency of this machine
are,
i) The beater speed (400 to 900 RPM): Opening
action is increased by increasing the speed of the
beater.
ii) Setting between beater blade & grid.
Working Principle of SP-FP
The black arrow indicates the direction
of the fiber mass flow as shown in
figure. The 3 CCD camera that give
high but uniform illumination with two
fields. The cameras detect the
distorted colors or contrasts
generated by the polarization in light
polypropylene and transparent or
semi-transparent PE foils. On
detection of a contaminated part of
the fiber mass, a combination of a
compressed air nozzle beam and
speed sensor are selectively activated
to blow the contaminated part of the Fig: Basic variant SP-FP (courtesy of
fiber mass from the fiber channel into Trützschler)
a waste suction unit. Therefore, the
fiber mass is screened to be free of
material contaminants.
Cleaning Efficiency
Cleaning efficiency of the machine is the ratio of the trash removed by the
machine to that of total trash fed to the machine, expressed as percentage.

Let,
Total wt. of fiber in a lay down = 20,000 kg (100 bales)
Trash = 4% of total wt. = 800 kg
Trash removed = 2.8 % of total wt. = 560 kg
So, cleaning efficiency will be 70 % according to the formula.
Basic Parameters to be Considered in Blowroom
• No. of opening machine
• Types of beater
• Beater speed
• Production rate of individual machine
• Fiber micronaire
• Size of the flocks in the feed
• Type of grid and grid setting
• Position of the machine in the sequence
• Amount of trash in the material
• Temperature and relative humidity in the blow room