Control ring and air drag effects on yarn balloon dynamics in ring spinning: a spring-mass modeling approach

Abstract Ring-spinning is one of the most commonly used processes to produce yarn but faces limitations due to friction in the ring/traveler system; innovations such as superconducting magnetic bearings have significantly increased spindle speeds to 50,000 rpm, leading to the necessity of continuing yarn dynamics research. Traditional models for yarn balloon dynamics involve complex formulations, but a spring-mass chain approach simplifies the analysis while maintaining essential behaviors. In this work, different effects were added to the spring-mass approach, such as air drag, contact with the control ring, and the flow of fibers through the yarn. The addition of the drag force leads to a three-dimensional yarn balloon in steady state. The contact between the control ring and the yarn balloon is modeled as a rigid body contact using a spring. Moreover, the distribution of the yarn tension was analyzed for different cases. The final steady-state solution worked as a point of equilibrium for linearizing the system and analyzing the natural oscillations. Additionally, the influence of fibers flowing through the yarn path was tested using the impulse-momentum equation, showing that the flowing material effect can be neglected.