ANALY SIS AND DESIGN OF JACQUARD DRIVE SYSTEM FOR TEXTILE POWERLOOM MACHINE

The Indian textile industry is one the largest and oldest sectors in the country and has a major share in the national economy. Powerloom industry in Maharashtra is more rapidly growing industry than in other states in India. Solapur is the home of Handloom and Power loom industry which provides employment to a large number of workers (approximately 100000). The jacquard drive system in a power loom is obtained by a chain drive system. In the present system, frequent chain failure and jerky power transmission is obser ved. Field visits are carried out in order to investigate the reasons of failure of the existing chain drive system. The chain drive fails due to long distance between shafts, swaying effect, misalignment between the axis of shaft and inadequate lubricatio n. Failure issues are responsible for the downtime and probable rejection of product due to interruption in weaving cycle. An alternative for jacquard drive is hence felt necessary in order to avoid/reduce the number of failures. The chain drive is hence studied in detail for the required speed reduction and types of gear pairs needed to replace the chain drive. Bevel gear drive system is selected from numbers of possible alternatives. The current work represents systematic attempt of redesign the jacquar d drive system for textile Powerloom. Radical design procedure is carried out in order to design the gear drive system. The analytical results are validated using numerical simulation. Proposed design of positive gear transmission system is manufactured wh ich has shown no failure over a period of one month in comparison to four failures for a chain drive system for the same period improving the system reliability.