Design and Development of a Semi-Automatic Handloom

Thesis submitted for partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of the degree of. Manohar Mahato at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Assam (India) for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy under my supervision.

Introduction to Handloom Weaving

Literature and product survey

Research Methodology

Conclusions and Future work

LIST OF TABLES

154 4.3 Mechanisms available with different loom movements Identification of critical features and potential risk of the loom.

Importance of the handloom sector

In ancient India, there were fine arts and crafts activities mentioned in the list of 64 Kala such as suchikarma - the art of needlework and weaving, sutrakarma - the art of playing with thread and turkakarma - the art of spinning with the spindle. Later, after independence, the government of India did not focus much on the handloom sector until the formation of 'The All India Handloom Board' in 1952 to propose a plan for the development of this sector, which in that period caused zero growth.

Merit and demerit of the handloom weaving

As mentioned earlier, weaving is the process of fabric formation in the loom. The path of the shuttle's movement varies continuously due to the changing shape of the shed.

Table 1.1: Number of weavers suffering from occupational health problems due to weaving operations: N=70.[4]

Scopes of design intervention

Research questions (RQ)

Research gap

A fishbone diagram is shown in Figure 1.3 to know all the influencing factors that contribute to the unhealthy living environment of weavers [13]. However, the introduction of modern techniques and economic liberalization have created serious problems in the handloom sector.

Aim and Objective

18 3) Design and develop a semi-automatic handloom based on identified semi-automatic handloom (in objective 2) using alternative materials and design to improve the manufacturing and assembly process, ease of packaging and transportation, and assembly of the loom improve, at the weaver's point.

Research Methodology

19 different systems of that subsystem are compared and only those compatible with the semi-automatic loom are approved with the required design input. This research is based on current survey of looms and available product information on semi-automatic looms in print and online.

Expected outcome from the research

Validation

Conclusion

Structure of the Thesis

22 automatic convertible loom, automatic loom converted from loom, and literature on accessories such as winding wheel, warp cab, seating system, jacquard, etc. Research contributions, research limitations and possible future research work are also mentioned in this chapter to further improve the handloom and thereby the handloom sector by improving the livelihood of a weaver and allied workers.

Literature Review and product survey

Contribution of Textile Industry to Indian Economy 2.1. Indian economy and manufacturing sector

Textile Industry

Worldwide textile and apparel market

Yarn pre-spinning process and spinning

Raw Cotton to Lint of cotton
Raw wool to wool yarn/worsted yarn

Fibre and yarn production capacity

Global position of India in Raw materials primarily used in the textile industry
Ginning, Spinning, weaving, dyeing, and finishing

Yarn
Dyes production capacity
Pre-weaving processes from yarn to weaving preparation

The current status of the manufacturing sector in terms of labor force and GDP is shown in Figure 2.1 in relation to other sectors in the Indian economy. India has the second largest spinning capacity in the world (after China), accounting for approximately 20 percent of the world's spindle capacity.

Table 2.2: Sectorial GDP share after liberalization[18]

Accessories of handloom / Semi-automatic handloom in traditional warping process

Winding wheel

Creel and Warping drum

The next way is to perform warping with bobbins, wooden rack and sectional warping drum to wrap warping into a warp tree.

Figure 2.13a: Warp entangle in manual warping Figure 2.13b: Traditional Warping method

Handloom products and their production

Clothing material (Salwar, kameez, etc.), suits, shirts, long fabrics (0.095 million households with handloom workers, i.e. 3.2% of the total number of households). Cloth of gods, Jataka stories, other early Pali texts, and calendered cloth in the Gupta Empire period show interesting details of weaving techniques before the 6th century BCE throughout history. In the middle of the seventeenth century, Banaras exported gold or silver zari textiles worldwide and was known for its best quality.

Common Handloom product

Cost of handloom product

The Marketing and Research Committee (First Meeting) January 1946 recommends that the Government of India employ Marketing Officers to promote the marketing of handloom products abroad at various locations across the globe. Standardization and uniform (ends and picks) quality of handwoven products is the biggest problem for exports in this decentralized sector. Standardization will be enhanced with uniform handwoven machines with standard outsourced items such as reeds and hardeners for repeatability and reproducibility of handwoven products.

Figure 2.24: Export of various Textile products

Present status of handloom weavers

Weaver and Weaver’s household

The average number of handloom weavers per household is only 1.22 among the total households that own looms in their house. 50.8% of handloom workers (weavers and allied workers) work full time and the remaining 49.2% work part time. The count does not show the number of handloom weavers divided by employment typology in table 2.18.

Table 2.15: Affiliation of weaver households (2545312) to various economic groups [1]

Type of weaving

Independent weavers and weavers working in cooperatives were found to earn slightly more than the weavers working under master weavers [49]. Five thousand five hundred and seventy eight looms are rejected out of the total looms in non-household units.

Traditional handloom weaving machine

Because of this, there is no color dilution like fly-shuttle handloom due to the presence of reeds, and the resulting interweaving of warp ends and weft picks regulated by the number of reeds. Double jacquard can be used for additional warp and additional weft design, as shown in Figure 2-39. An extra weft insertion device, such as Dipak Bharali's buta machine, shown in Figure 2-40, is used for the addition of the extra weft, but the shedding is still done via jacquard.

Figure 2.29: Wooden frame fly-shuttle handloom without jacquard at Handloom development research centre, Ambari, Guwahati

Semi-automatic handloom

Similarly, the main features of the Salvation Army loom lie in its synchronous take-up, take-up and terry movements. The structure of the frame is made of mild steel channels and angles in the new loom. Proposals for extending the project to Andhra Pradesh and Haryana are being considered.

Semi-automatic and automatic convertible handloom

95 From the literature and product review, it is found that the improved looms were not efficient for commercial use and also sometimes they are not affordable in terms of cost. Sley oscillating motion helps to reduce the tension of the upper rope connected between the picker and effort side of the 1st class lever. The load side of the 1st class lever passes through warp yarns, which can damage the warp thread in this loom [62].

Semi-automatic handloom converted from traditional handloom

Only paddle operated by hand; the remaining operations are performed automatically in the loom shown in Figure 2.48.

Take up gear mechanism

Jacquard

Handloom data

101 67.3% of pit looms and 32.6% of frame looms are with dobby/jacquard, which shows a necessity to design a handloom for decoration, as very low number of existing dobby/jacquard handlooms also causes low income. Pit looms with throw shuttle are used to make the best types of fabrics with different designs and textures like brocade, jamdanis, Patola and Himroos. Fly shuttle pit looms have been observed to be less productive than frame looms or semi-automatic handlooms [37].

Table 2.23: Distribution of Non-households by type of looms

Productivity in traditional handloom

A loin loom is a portable loom without any solid frame suitable for weaving various designs and textures. India has the largest number of looms in place for weaving fabrics, accounting for 64 percent of the world's installed looms. However, 98% of the looms are drawn by India's powerloom and handloom sectors, which mostly use outdated equipment and produce mostly low-value, unfinished fabrics.

Work-related musculoskeletal disorders of the weaver

In urban households it is 8.51 meters and 4.47 meters in rural households; the lowest productivity was found to be 0.63 meters in Assam [63]. In the last 50 years, there has been a 95% reduction in operating hours per standard unit produced.

Historical advancement of weaving technology

104 Soon power looms were powered by steam, and most of the wooden parts were replaced with iron. James Northrop, an Englishman, invented an automatic weft transfer system in 1889 that replaced the shuttle's weft pin without slowing down or stopping the loom. It is known that the power required for picking is proportional to the cube of the loom speed.

Disadvantages of Fly-shuttle handlooms

Limitations of Shuttle Looms Despite the relatively high speed and efficiency of a conventional picking loom, the productivity of these machines will continue to be limited as long as their basic designs involve the use of shuttle propulsion.

Handloom development efforts in India

By the early 1980s, power looms supplied one-third of the total textile needs in the country. The failure of the various methods used to protect the handloom sector is evident from this. Why did the state allow power loom interests to control the interests of the handloom department.

Government schemes for renovation/up-gradation of handlooms

₹ 110 80 as enrollment fee, rest premium covered by Government of India for weavers aged 51 to 59 years along with additional benefit of Siksha Sahyog Yojana. The following Table 2.24 shows the major program implemented by the Government of India and the State Government of Assam. The central government bears 90% of the cost of the loom and the state government takes full responsibility for implementation.

Table 2.24: Handloom program run by Government of India and State Government of Assam Handloom program run by Government of

Handloom Awards

113 Table 2.27: Selected bold seat components and design variables for the weaver's seat from. A seatback angle range of 110 to 120 degrees is better if the seat is subject to vibration, especially for operators who work long hours. The range of adjustable height of the seat plate should be 40 cm to 47 cm from the floor according to Indian anthropometric data [73].

Table 2.28: Indian anthropometric data of selected design variables for the seat of a handloom weaver

Research Methodology

Design Methodology

118 In the first case, various mechanisms such as lifting, lowering, etc., are added to the existing loom designed for more strength requirements. Since these looms are directly imitated/adapted, functionality is emphasized and human factors are neglected. A point to consider in this regard is the lack of seating arrangement for the weavers in these looms.

Preliminary findings from literature and product review

In the second case, the looms are adopted from power looms, eg, Hattersley pedal loom, Madanpura pedal loom, Nepal pedal loom and many such looms. These factors were studied in detail for existing looms and various possible alternatives were evaluated. These, combined with other desirable factors, provide specific criteria on which to base the design (these were not separated from the design concepts at this stage).

Design Brief

Structural aspects

The possibility of including auxiliary equipment/accessories such as several shuttle boxes, dobby and draw boy should be investigated.

Marketing aspects

Human factors

Interaction matrix
Product Brief
Feasibility study
Technology Readiness through Technology Readiness Level (TRL)

TRL evaluates an essential component of risk, i.e. the maturity of critical elements means readiness or ability to perform as part of a more extensive system of technology. After that, practical papers on product design at the Technology Readiness level are reviewed, such as case studies. Productivity was a key performance parameter in technology readiness assessment through the technology readiness level (TRL) scale.

Design and Development of Semi-Automatic Handloom

Concept Design
Structure Design

Concept-A: All-enveloping structure
Concept-B: L channel structure
Concept-C: Box frame structure / Modular knockdown type tubular structure Instead of tubular elements, the structure of the loom is constructed with sheet metal formed

Sub-system Design

Shedding mechanism
Picking mechanism - shuttle propulsion
Beat-up mechanism
Let-off mechanism
Oscillating Backrest
Temple motion

Total System design

Human factors
Operational aspects
Serviceability
Cost

Design conceptualization and Prototype Development

Reverse engineering of Shanti loom with L channel structure
Prototype design and development

In the case of the Jack and Lamb arrangement, this is the slow acting mechanism. In the case of the 7-wheel pick-up mechanism, it is more complex and costs much more. The new semi-automatic hand loom consists of the following motion mechanisms shown in table 4.3.