process automation of dyeing factory - gyan datathe garment dyeing process involves various steps:...

Process Automation of DyeingFactory

Jagadeesh RajendranInstrumentation EngineerGyan Data Private LimitedChennai-600113 Indiajagadeesh@gyandata.com

Prakash RamamoorthyInstrumentation EngineerGyan Data Private LimitedChennai-600113 Indiaprakashramamoorthy@gyandata.com

About the ClientArihant Garments Pvt. Ltd., located in Ambattur hasmore than 20 years experience in garment dyeing. Thecompany does dyeing and washing of stitched cottonfabrics in sample or bulk quantity. Their service extendsto customers from various countries. Their expertise ingarment dyeing and interest in automation has driventhem to improve their dyeing process through automationof their existing systems.

MotivationThe garment dyeing process involves various steps:recepies for dye mixtures, control of water level,temperature, pH etc. Certain steps such as reactive dyepreparation, transfer of dye to the drum in which theclothes are processed, control of process during transfer &fixation of colour from dye to fabric, subsequent dryingetc were being done in manual mode. These manualinterventions not only require additional manpower butoffer little to no control over the process. This createsreliability and repeatability issues which can be overcomethrough automation.

ProblemThough machines were available in the market which offercomplete automation of the process, they wereprohibitively expensive and could only be sourced from

outside the country. In order to keep costs low, thedeveloped automation solution needed to be retrofit toexisting equipment. This posed a challenge as mostequipment currently used in dyeing houses neither hadsensors nor control mechanisms in place. Complicatingmatters further was the lack of chemical dispensing unitswhich would integrate seamlessly with the existing dyeingequipment

SolutionDevelopment of centralized controller with associatedsensors as a single solution was the key to provideautomation to existing dyeing machines. A high speedcontroller with a touch based user friendly interface wasbuilt which could execute multiple operations of thedyeing process at the same time. Realtime pH control fora wide range of pH values was also added via a sensor.

The program running screen

A chemical dosing system was also developed sporting asemi-automatic mode where the user could specify anddispense precise quantity of a chemical immediately.

Chemical dispensing screen

Since variations in the dye recepie and the fabric affectthe sequence of steps and the steps themselves of thedyeing process, a custom programming interface was alsocreated. This enabled users to create custom programmessimply by touching and selecting icons in the interface.Suggestions were also made to connect this developedsystem to a central server over the network in order toperform predictive maintenance and centralizedmonitoring of the dyeing equipment

The chemical dispensing tanks