Stronger than Steel

Man-made fibers such as polymer monofilaments (polyamide) have fantastic properties that allow the creation of new, sophisticated products, such as airbags, climbing ropes, functional clothing or medical products. Achieve compliance for these products with modern quality assurance.

The highly demanding performance requirements of polyamide yarns require meticulous manufacturing and tight quality control. Precise and consistent fiber thickness, as well as strict compliance to the perforation size of the fabric is mandatory. The finest polyamide yarns have a thickness of 0.03 mm, or a yarn count of around 10 dtex.

Continuous quality assurance
A METTLER TOLEDO customer has equipped their in-process control stations with ID30 industrial weighing PCs, XS precision balances and barcode readers. The METTLER TOLEDO Statistical Quality Control software solution FreeWeigh.Net®, running on the ID30, ensures consistent product quality and enables optimizing the manufacturing process.

Basically, the operator unwinds a sample of 25–100 m of the yarn, weighs it on an XS precision balance and extrapolates the reading to 10,000 meters. The result corresponds to the yarn count in dtex.

Full traceability
“FreeWeigh.Net^® software helps us assure constant product quality,” says the quality manager, “because it allows us to check individual reels of filament in our spinning lines, each of them including a number of spinnerets.” “We can now identify which spool a filament, with a yarn count value of X, came from,” adds the IT project manager. “This traceability gives us absolute compliance with ISO 9000 and helps us ensure constant high quality.”

Purchasers of the yarn products receive a manufacturer’s certificate with every delivery specifying the yarn count value in dtex.

The customer benefits from

• assured product quality
• improved operator efficiency
• optimized production process through documentation of all relevant in-process control data
• reduced costs through automatic and electronic reporting

FreeWeigh.Net^® SQC

• Statistical methods for analyzing and controlling process variance
• Qualitative and quantitative production data acquisition
• Production planning, product data management and test planning
• Online multi-language support
• Open client server architecture
• MS SQL database
• Ethernet networking
• SAP interface

ID30 industrial weighing PC

• Stainless steel housing
• IP69k protection
• Serial, parallel, USB and Ethernet
• Up to three analog and digital scales
• Up to 64 I/Os
• TFT flat screen
• Windows^® operating system

XS1003S Precision balance

• Capacity 1,010 g, readability 1 mg
• Graphical display with touch-screen operation
• FACT: Fully Automatic Calibration Technology senses temperature changes and adjusts the balance using built-in reference weights.
• Stainless-steel weighing pan with draft ring or draft shield