For Contamination Removal And Control

India has been an Agricultural economy and despite the giant leaps that we have made in industrialization and a liberal global contemporary outlook, agriculture still remains a major source of wealth and employment generation. However, since most of the cotton that we produce and the practices that we follow are not mechanical, contamination still remains an issue. We are producing 100% cotton grey yarn from Indian cotton and it does contain contamination like hair, jute, colored threads, plastic etc. We are using best of Indian cotton as it has much better hand feel, fabric appearance as well as uniform dye pick up. However, since the major concern of buyers regarding Indian cotton is contamination, we have to focus more on contamination. A lot of thought has gone into reducing contamination and our present process involves the following:

Bale Management System

We have been using a comprehensive bale management system wherein each and every bale is tested with latest Uster equipment and categorized accordingly. Thus out of our stock of cotton, which is always 6-8 months, we have fixed a mix of such categories so that not only the mixing is homogeneous but also with a fixed mixing there is consistency in quality over a long period of time. This bale management has given excellent results in terms of consistency.

Batch Process For Manual Picking Before Blow Room

We were earlier using manual picking. It was a comprehensive process and 110 workers were assigned to this. However, it was a monotonous job and despite our best efforts in terms of music system, incentive punishment scheme, multi level monitoring etc., results were not consistent. Sometimes workers would work well but sometimes the results would not be as good. We thought over it and applied group dynamics. Now we have divided these workers into 4 groups. There are 4 big tables made of steel mesh and the cotton passes over these. Workers in their respective groups stand on both sides of the table. There are following benefits of this system:

- Due to mesh, heavy particles and dust, dirt etc. Are separated and fall off. However, cotton is rolled softly and there is no fiber rupture in the process.

- These 4 separate groups are told to remove different sizes of contamination in descending order. That means 1st group removes the bigger contamination, while 2nd group picks up smaller ones, the 3rd, still smaller particles and the 4th the smallest. One benefit of it is that the workers' eyes get trained to look for contamination of certain size only. Thus the 4th group develops that sensitivity, looks for smallest particles only and finds them too.

- Another benefit is that if the earlier groups miss out on contamination that they are assigned to pick, next group will bring out to the notice of supervisor in the spirit of competition. There are incentive/ punishment schemes on and also a regular competition amongst these groups.

Quantum Clearers

We had Uster quantum clearers earlier on few machines only, while now we have these add-ons on almost all the winders. Thus we are better equipped technologically to control contamination. These quantum clearers are more advanced technologically than Siro Clearers.

Thus going through the above-said, one can see that it is a judicious mix of man and machine, efforts and technology to achieve the desired results. The results in terms of contamination control, not only in terms of number but sheer consistency also is excellent.