INA and FAG Products for Textile Machinery

The interplay of profound system understanding, global customer proximity and superior development and manufacturing expertise are the focus of Schaeffler Group Industrial’s presentation at ITMA 2007. A combined 160 years of experience in textile machines make the INA and FAG brands a leading development partner in this industry. Product innovations at ITMA will include individually developed twisting spindles, chuck shafts, stud type track rollers and optimized cylindrical roller bearings. Another central topic is solutions in the increasingly important field of direct drive technology that are developed together with INA Drives & Mechatronics GmbH & Co. oHG (IDAM).

Tailor-made twisting spindle
Low noise, extremely smooth operation and economic efficiency were in focus when developing a complete twisting spindle that was tailored to the specifications for the target market of Asia required by a German customer. In this case, Schaeffler Group Industrial’s global presence was a decisive factor for the company to become involved in the project. Application engineers, field service technicians and manufacturing facilities ensure that the proven competence and quality come to bear in situ in Asia. This results in considerable advantages in terms of time and logistics for the customer. In addition, Schaeffler Group Industrial offers comprehensive calculation and testing capacities for product development. In the case of the twisting spindle mentioned above, for example, structure borne sound measurement was carried out in order to systematically reduce noise and vibration. Imbalance of the incorporated tape tension pulleys was reduced by approx. 50 percent.

Chuck shaft and stud type track roller
The calculation competence of Schaeffler Group Industrial also played a major role in the construction of a chuck shaft for winding filaments for an Asian manufacturer of high-speed winders. The double row, preloaded bearing support was verified to render a calculated life of more than 50,000 hours with the help of the Schaeffler calculation program Bearinx©. In addition, the Bearinx© rotor dynamic tool was applied, which takes the orthotropic rigidity and damping effects in the bearings and damping elements as well as the gyro effect and all six degrees of freedom into consideration in the equation of motion. As a result, the natural frequencies, critical speeds and the effect of imbalance excitation at defined measurement points can be described. Thanks to the use of rotor dynamics in Bearinx©, it is possible to reduce the number of test loops and thus the development costs and selectively optimize the vibration behavior.

The development of new, customized stud type track rollers for a European weaving machine manufacturer largely benefited from the deployment of the Bearinx© program. Translated into the manufacturing process, the calculation laid the foundation for a stud type track roller that is precisely adjusted to customer requirements. With this system, the Schaeffler Group is now in a position to tailor stud type track rollers that are ideally adjusted to any particular customer application.

Cylindrical roller bearings
For FAG cylindrical roller bearings that are, for example, used in weaving machine gears, Schaeffler Group Industrial has developed new JP3 sheet steel cages and machined brass cages. The new design of the sheet steel cages considerably improves the oil throughput and thus reduces the bearing temperature. The improved geometry of the cage crosspieces has a positive effect on lubricant film formation. Designed for applications characterized by heavy vibration and high acceleration, the optimized machined brass cage also reduces the operating temperatures in the bearing. At the same time, its strength was increased and its weight reduced. Moreover, many of the cages can now accommodate one additional rolling element. For the customer this means higher load carrying capacity with unchanged installation space.

Direct drive technology
The trend towards direct drive technology will continue in the textile machinery industry. In addition to its bearings brands INA and FAG, Schaeffler Group Industrial also embraces the direct drive technology specialist, INA Drives & Mechatronics GmbH & Co.oHG (IDAM). Thus it is in a position to offer aligned tailor-made systems solutions that also integrate direct drive technology. The advantages of using direct drive technology in textile machines are plain to see: Gears or belt drives are not required. The integrated drive permits more compact designs. For the movement of axes this means high precision, dynamics, reliability, flexibility and economic efficiency. Possible examples are applications where the threads or webs have to be stretched with a defined force, or where rolls must be precisely positioned or synchronized relative to each other. Linear and rotary movements of high precision and high dynamics are potential direct drive technology applications as well.

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