Development of a Laser Sensor-Based Size Control Unit to Produce High Quality Thin Silk

Abstract

A laser sensor-based size control system was devised to produce high quality thin raw silk. To test the effectiveness of the system, we made 10-denier raw silk using a unit installed in a homemade reeling machine, identifying this silk yarn as ‘A’. We also reeled the same size of raw silk using an automatic reeling machine with conventional size detectors, identifying this silk as ‘B’. For each raw silk, we computed the denier size based on 50 m of raw silk, which was identified as ‘1,’ as well as measuring its diameter using the laser sensor-based system developed here identified as ‘2’. The series of raw silk diameter recorded while being reeled with the homemade machine was named ‘A0’.
Statistical analysis of the measurements A0, A1, A2, B1 and B2 showed that there to be a significant correlation between A0 and A2. A comparison of A2 and B2 showed that the size control system developed as described in this paper is potentially useful for the production of raw silk with minimal size deviation. Furthermore, regulating the upper-limit of the raw silk size with this control system suggests that it would favor the production of higher quality raw silk.
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