Dyeing Process Control Method Of Conveyor Drive Rope-Like Fabric Dyeing Machine

Abstract

Disclosed is a method for controlling a dyeing process of a conveyor drive rope-like dyeing machine, which uses the number of cycles of circulation of fabric in a dyeing bath as a control unit for controlling the dyeing process. In other words, the entire dyeing process, including the speed of adding chemicals, the speed of heating/cooling, the time interval of holding temperature, and the time interval of rinsing with water, and the likes of the dyeing process, is controlled with the number of cycles of circulation of fabric as the control unit for a computer or a programmable logic controller to control the dyeing process.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a dyeing process of conveyor drive rope-like fabric dyeing machine, in which time interval or speed of treatments of chemical addition, heating, temperature holding, cooling, and water rinsing of the dyeing process are controlled with number of cycles of circulation of fabric in the dyeing machine as a control unit in carrying out dyeing of the fabric.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0014] FIG. 1 is a schematic view illustrating a cycle of circulation of dyeing fabric in a conventional dyeing machine.

[0015] FIG. 2 is a plot showing a typical dyeing process of the conventional dyeing machine.

[0016] FIG. 3 is a plot showing a dyeing process of a conveyor drive rope-like fabric dyeing machine according to the present invention.

[0017] FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing the conveyor drive rope-like fabric dyeing machine according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0018] The following descriptions are exemplary embodiments only, and are not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the invention in any way. Rather, the following description provides a convenient illustration for implementing exemplary embodiments of the invention. Various changes to the described embodiments may be made in the function and arrangement of the elements described without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

[0019] As shown in FIG. 4, the present invention provides a conveyor drive rope-like fabric dyeing machine, which comprises a fabric seam and circulation time and circulation cycle counter arranged at a proper location in a machine body of the conveyor drive rope-like fabric dyeing machine. Since movement of fabric from a rear end toward a front end is driven by a conveyor, a circulation speed of the fabric is synchronous with the conveyor. Thus, although circulation time of the fabric of each cycle of circulation is adjustable, a fixed speed and a fixed time period are adopted once selected and set. The present invention makes use of such a characteristic of speed being fixed and, through employment of a computer of a programmable logic controller (PLC), uses the number of cycles of circulation of fabric as a control unit for the dyeing process. This ensures, as mentioned above, shortening of dyeing time, no color deviation, no batch deviation, consistent fastness, and one hundred percent of reproductivity, and also improve product quality, improves production efficiency, lowers down manufacturing cost, saves energy and reduce carbon, and enhances environmental protection.

[0020] FIG. 3 is a plot showing a dyeing process of a conveyor drive rope-like fabric dyeing machine according to the present invention, in which number of cycles of circulation is used to substitute time that is used as the horizontal axis of the dyeing curve shown in FIG. 2 of a conventional rope-like fabric dyeing machine and a computer or a programmable logic controller is used to control the dyeing process. In other words, treatments of the dyeing process, including, in sequence, chemicals adding, heating, temperature holding, heating, temperature holding, cooling, water rinsing, chemicals adding, heating, temperature holding, cooling, and hot water rinsing are carried out with the number of cycles of circulation being taken as a control unit. This means the amount of chemical added each time, the temperature variation achieved in each heating or cooling operation, the temperature interval of temperature holding or water rinsing, and the likes are all controlled with the number of cycles of circulation as the control unit. In this way, the total time for a dying process may differ for different lengths of a piece of fabric subjected to the dyeing process. For example, for the same type of fabric, a 500 kg capacity dyeing machine that, in actual operations, would spend about half the time used for handling fabric of 500 kg in handling fabric of 250 kg, but provide exactly the same degree of dyeing and the same result of dyeing thereby achieving consistent reproductivity. This is a revolutionary innovation.

[0021] It can be appreciated from the above description that the actual dyeing effect obtained with the conveyor drive rope-like fabric dyeing machine is primarily and directly determined by the number of cycles of circulation of the fabric, not the length of time (namely an absolute relationship being had with respect to the number of cycles of circulation, while a relative relationship is had with respect to time). Thus, when the fabric speed in each tube or each batch of the dyeing machine is the same, if the time used is the same, then the number of cycles of circulation is less for fabric having a greater length and the number of cycles of circulation is greater for fabric having a shorter length. Thus, even though time is the same, the degree of dyeing is different and the result of dyeing is also different, leading to issues of tube deviation, batch deviation, inconsistent fastness, and inconsistent reproductivity. Thus, to have consistent result of dyeing for fabrics of the same type, the number of cycles of circulation must be identical regardless the actual length of fabric dyed. In other words, for fabric that is short, the time can be shortened correspondingly. This can shorten the time for the entire dyeing operation and since the number of cycles of circulation is the same regardless the length of the fabric, the degree of dyeing is the same and one hundred percent of reproductivity of dyeing can be achieved. Thus, there will be no need for re-dyeing due to tube deviation or batch deviation and inconsistency of fastness.

[0022] It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together may also find a useful application in other types of methods differing from the type described above.

[0023] While certain novel features of this invention have been shown and described and are pointed out in the annexed claim, it is not intended to be limited to the details above, since it will be understood that various omissions, modifications, substitutions and changes in the forms and details of the device illustrated and in its operation can be made by those skilled in the art without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.