By Mohan Rajanna, National Manager-Textile, Kluber Lubrication India P. LTD.
The concepts of sustainability and energy efficiency are gaining importance in the textile industry. More than ever, this industry is looking for ways to attain a lower energy consumption. This can be done by making machines more efficient, extending the lifetime of components as well as maintenance intervals. The added benefit of such measures is a reduction in operating costs.
Textile manufacturing involves various stages from spinning to garmenting, where machine elements like gears, bearings, chains, etc., are subjected to high load with extreme operating conditions. Lubrication of these machine elements plays a decisive role in reducing energy consumption, which is why selecting the right lubricant becomes crucial.
The use of high quality spindle oils in the spinning process will not only contribute to a smooth functioning of the spindles, but will also allow for extended relubrication intervals as well as reduction of energy consumption.
By virtue of their balanced formulation that imparts good oxidation resistance, thermal stability and anti-foaming properties Klüber products help to keep spindles clean and free of deposits.
With the high temperatures associated with knitting because of the high oscillation speeds and shear rates, the lubricant should not only have a good dampening effect but also should ensure optimum lubrication at the point of contact. The lubricant should ensure heat dissipation at higher RPMs and reduce wear at lower RPMs.
With specific test rigs developed by Klueber, we are able to determine the anti-tribo corrosion effect of lubricants by subjecting them to constant load and sliding movements. The oscillation wear test rig helps us evaluate the friction co-efficients and wear factors on test specimens helping us understand wear factors and wear protection of oil. Apart from this, our oils are subjected to various tests like corrosion protection, compatibility with different materials such as plastics, paints and electronic equipments.
For weaving and processing, gear boxes play a major role in reducing the energy consumption. The increase of gear efficiency harbours a frequently overlooked potential for increasing the efficiency of a machine as a whole. A very direct and effective way of increasing power transmission efficiency, which goes along with excellent wear protection, is a changeover from mineral oil-based to synthetic lubricants.
Synthetic lubricants, based on polyalphaolefin or polyglycol oils, have proven to reduce energy costs and in addition extend the service life of gears. The possible extent of efficiency increase, however, depends on the type of gears: while gears featuring a low percentage of sliding friction such as spur or bevel gears offer a relatively low potential, gears with a high percentage of sliding friction enable considerable improvements.
A particularly positive effect can be noted when worm gears are switched over to polyglycol oil: their efficiency has been increased by up to 35 per cent. In addition, their lifetime can be extended ten-fold. A conversion to synthetic oils offers an enormous potential for savings, especially in facilities where a large number of gears are operated – for example, in a weaving or processing unit.
The example in the box illustrates how several crores of rupees can be saved at an integrated textile manufacturing facility.
Tribological factors are decisive in attaining the maximum performance of a machine and its components. When choosing a lubricant for machine elements, design engineers should be aware of the various characteristics of lubricants and knowhow to use them. While, as a rule, synthetic special lubricants tend to be more expensive than mineral oils in terms of the sales price, they pay off after a short time when taking into account efficiency, change intervals, consumption and the longer lifetime of lubricated components. With such lubricants, machine manufacturers offer their customers the added benefit of lower operating costs.
The different processes involved in textile manufacturing make it imperative that the right lubricant is chosen for each application as they play an important role in reducing the downtime as well as energy efficiency. The changeover from mineral oil-based to synthetic oils is a simple and highly effective way of minimising wear and improving energy efficiency. Additional potential for improvement is offered by specific additives: such lubricants enable even longer machine life as well as lower energy consumption. The extent of optimisation possible depends on the textile unit’s set up.
The result is savings both in terms of financial resources and energy. Besides these savings, operators enjoy the benefit of a much better CO2-balance in their operations.