Emil Brll GmbH & Co. Holzstr.

1 D73650 Winterbach

Eckhard Sonntag, Joachim Bolze, Hans-Dieter Weber, Emil BRLL GmbH & Co, Dornbirn/Austria conTEX: friction disks of the new generation conTEX:

1/4
10/2005

conTEX: friction disks of the new generation

Eckhard SONNTAG, Joachim BOLZE, Hans-Dieter WEBER Emil BRLL GmbH & Co, Austria; www.broell.com

key-words friction disks, texturing, ceramic, PU, nanoceramic

The successful development of an innovative friction disk requires a comprehensive analysis of the factors influencing texturing. Customization to industrially relevant requirements is, however, only possible in the real industrial texturing business. With conTEX, BRLL has developed and produced a system of hard friction disks where the combination of the positive texturing qualities of ceramic disks AND polyurethane disks has been excellently realised: besides the gentle textile treatment advantages of the PU disk and many year lifetime, conTEX allows, due to its unique tribological and thermodynamic qualities, sustained performance improvements of over 20 % of productivity.

Introduction BRLL develops and produces key active and passive yarn contacting components. For texturing this is mainly between the drafting points before the heater and after the texturing aggregate (W1/W2): in particularly the twist stop, all yarn guides in the twisting zone, as well as the disksystem of the three-axis-false-twist-unit /1,2/. Friction disks have a dominant position in false twist texturing today. Within the last few years, not least driven by the Asian market, there has been a trend away from full ceramic disks back towards soft disks of polyurethanes (PU). Driving factors were the universal applicability of soft disks in conjunction with maximum protection of the filaments (small amount of fiber abrasion = snow). Reduced lifetime and drifts in output quality (by swelling and progressive wear of the soft PU disks) were consciously accepted for lack of alternatives. After several years of development BRLL introduced conTEX, an adaptable friction-disksystem. at ITMA 2003 /3/. With the help of pilot customers we have further refined this product. With every request for a textured yarn conTEX is being further developed. In the meantime, we have a system that permits justice to be done to today's and future specifications with regard to quality, lifetime and performance demands. The special attribute: conTEX allows customized adaptions. So sturdy solutions for PP, Nylon, PA6, spun-dyed materials,

PET, trilobal fiber cross-sections etc. could be worked out.

Qualification Friction is a quality of the whole system - not just the material. The friction required for twisting is influenced by the interactions between disk and rotating filament bundle. Essentially these are the geometric factors, the topographies, the properties of the spin finish and the texturing parameters. The relevant parameters and their relationship to each other can be represented, in simplified terms, in a three axis system (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Texturing parameters and its relations to friction.

Eckhard Sonntag, Joachim Bolze, Hans-Dieter Weber, Emil BRLL GmbH & Co, Dornbirn/Austria conTEX: conTEX: friction disks of the new generation

2/4
10/2005

Emil Brll GmbH & Co. Holzstr.1 D73650 Winterbach

The production manager knows of the POY specific adjustments of these control variables and he/she expects that these settings do not change during the production process and are reproducible at any time. Our key competencies lie in the understanding and the possibilities of specific manipulation of the surface and geometry of wear-resistant system components for high performance machines. The harder, and therefore more wear resistant, the surface of a friction disk, the more important becomes the topography: The Young's modulus of a PET thread is strongly temperature-dependent: while at 20 degrees Celsius it is approx. 3,500 MPa, it sinks to a third (1,200 MPa) at 100 degrees Celsius. The Young's modulus of polyurethane lies in the same region being approx. 700 to 2,000 MPa /4/. So on a PU disk a load dependent equilibrium roughness is established within a few hours or days. This roughness is dependent on the texturing parameters and is not uniform in time and space. Different topographies in the thread path direction can occur even within the disks of an aggregate. The disk surface newly adapts to every new adjustment. After a few months running time the geometry is already so strongly altered that PU disks must be replaced (Figure 2).

The Young's modulus for conTEX exceeds that of PU by more than 100-fold. Accordingly the life time of this hard disk is higher. The associated high hardness, however, depends first of all on an exact adjustment of the topography which won't change over years of life time. We have succeeded to so calibrate the qualities of conTEX that even withstrong antiadhesive qualities a high friction been achieved. This contradictory quality profile is patent protected /5/.

Technology Through the nanoOxide-metal-ceramic the appearance of conTEX is neither white nor black but more silver-matt-grey. The optimum roughness values lie under 0.5 micron, measured in Ra. So the surface is relatively smooth. A comparison of typical roughness appearance of disks after four-weeks use show the following SEM pictures (Figure 3).

Figure 2: Change of surface roughness from new to used PU-disk. Strong smoothening effect inbetween 4 weeks.

Figure 3: Comparison of surfaces. PU after 4 weeks running time, ceramic and conTEX after 1 year running time.

Eckhard Sonntag, Joachim Bolze, Hans-Dieter Weber, Emil BRLL GmbH & Co, Dornbirn/Austria conTEX: conTEX: friction disks of the new generation

3/4
10/2005

Emil Brll GmbH & Co. Holzstr.1 D73650 Winterbach

Comparing the measured roughness values to the respective friction coefficients one recognizes that conTEX approaches that of PU. Low roughness values guarantee a low fiber abrasion and along with that a low number of capillary breaks at high strength and elongation. The posibility of "smoothness" without corresponding "inferior roughness" (low friction) is very clearly shown in this development. Although conTEX naturally doesn't reach the frictional values of PU, in relation to its roughness it nevertheless surpasses every ceramic disk on the market in its false twisting capability (Table 1).
Cice 1,3 7 0,22 Cerasoft 1 4,7 0,2 PU used 0,7 4 0,4 conTEX 0,4 2,5 0,23

Ra-Value [m] Rz-Value [m] Friction Coefficient FC [-] Ra/FC = "false twist capability" Rz/FC = "false twist capability"

The high electrical conductivity of conTEX permits the complete of tribo-electricity - another novel feature of this system. In comparison with PU there are no geometric deviations with conTEX in diameter or spacing due to wear, topographical orientations or by swelling. The running-in of hard disks is exclusively dominated by the wetting time of new disks with the preparation and not, as is known, a result of wear and tear. A change from S- to Z-twist can be accomplished at any time without loss of productivity. conTEX has now run successfully for 1-2 years on MPS and AFK1 in continuous operation. Up to now, no changes in texturing qualities have occurred. Our analyses of the surfaces of disks which have meanwhile run between 7,000 and 10,000 working hours show no changes.

0,17
0,03

0,20
0,04

0,57
0,10

0,58
0,09

Table 1: False-twist capability expressed as specific roughness/friction-relation for different friction disks.

The chemistry of the surface and its topography are so aligned that a remarkable self cleaning effect can be obtained with conTEX. Even the smallest quantities of water based preparation on the POY are sufficient to keep the conTEX disks selfcleaning. This is especially true for color changes of spun dyed yarns. A welcome quality as one does not need to dismantle the disks and clean them separately. Moreover, the notorious glazing qualities of fully ceramic disks are completely eliminated. Debris (snow) consists by halves of Oligomeres and spin preparation. The antiadhesive quality of conTEX has the advantage that the preparation carried by the yarn remains essentially on the filament bundle and is not consumed by the friction disk (Figure 4).

Profitability For economic requirements the maximum possible delivery speed at minimal rejections is in first place (= productivity). By the very sensitive tuning of the thermodynamic qualities of the material composition, an additional advantage can be obtained for conTEX from the high cooling performance of the disks. In combination with a super broad disk geometry (conTEX XL) improved performances of an unexpected extent (greater than 25%) are therefore possible (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Comparison of available conTEX designs. Figure 4: Change of contact angle due to different wetting behaviour of conTEX and a solid ceramic disk. The following tables compares a 76f24 set yarn for automotives under the cited settings. The investment in conTEX XL for the given stacking at 30% improved performance has been amortized within 4 weeks (Table 2).

Eckhard Sonntag, Joachim Bolze, Hans-Dieter Weber, Emil BRLL GmbH & Co, Dornbirn/Austria conTEX: conTEX: friction disks of the new generation

4/4
10/2005

Emil Brll GmbH & Co. Holzstr.1 D73650 Winterbach

PES 76f24 set (automotive) with Standard Barmag MPS HTI, Type 8 spindle PU conTEX XL DTY [dtex] 84 85 Stacking 1-4-1 1-5-1 D/R [-] 1.66 1.66 Unitens T2 [cN] 43 45 T2/T1 [-] 0.95 1.08 Tenacity [cN/tex] 42.5 42.4 Elongation [%] 22.4 22.0 Crimp [%] 20 20 Speed [m/min] 1000 1300 Snow no no Dye Affinity ok ok exp. life time [months] 6-9 years

Literature /1/ SONNTAG, E., WEBER, H.-D.: Advanced ceramics engineered for high-speed texturing, Chemical Fibers Intern., 1/1997, 74-76. /2/ SONNTAG, E; WEBER, H-D.: Development of components designed for filament processing, Aachener Textiltagung 27./28.11.2002 /3/ Company Brochure 2003-2005 of BRLL: Texturing,

Table 2: Productivity increase with conTEX XL. Comparison of settings and texturing results for an automotive yarn.

/4/ http://www.fbv.fh-frankfurt.de/mhwww/KUT/ 212Kennwerte-2.htm /5/ DE 100 02 253

conTEX is the only hard disk which is suitable for micro fibers < 1 dpf. The surface is so gentle on the yarn that, for example, filament break levels at the lowest limit of textile technology can be reached (Tables 3, 4).
PES 65 f 204 with TMT ATF 12 F/V PU Disk Dimensions [mm] 52x9 DTY [dtex] 68.6 stacking 1-6-1 Speed [m/min] 650 T2 [cN] 18.0 T2/T1 [-] 0.58 Tenacity [cN/tex] 42 Elongation [%] 21.6 T.R. Crimp [%] 8.1 Broken Filament no exp. life time [months] 6 - 12 conTEX 52x9 68.9 1-7-1 650 18.0 0.60 40 20.7 8.2 no years

Contact: e.sonntag@broell.com

Table 3: Comparable results for micro filaments on a TMT frame with PU and conTEX.

PA6 70f72 with FK6M-80 Disk Dimensions [mm] DTY [dtex] stacking Speed [m/min] T2 [cN] T2/T1 Tenacity [g/den] Elongation [%] T.R. Crimp [%] Dye affinity PU 52x9 69.4 1-5-1 600 30.3 0.7 5.1 26 7.7 o.k. conTEX 52x9 69.0 1-7-1 600 37.0 1.2 5.1 27 9.4 o.k.

Table 4: Comparable results for texturing Polyamide 6 filaments on a FK6 frame with PU and conTEX.