Alternative drive options for circular looms

Abstract

Conventional circular looms employ a rotary electric motor to obtain circular motion of the shuttle and vertical motion of the shed forming mechanism required to complete a weaving operation. But, in order to convert the rotary motion of electric motor to the required motion, an intermediate mechanism such as belts and gears are used. This leads to additional power losses in the drive system and reduces the efficiency. This paper deals with the proposal of a new drive system employing circular electric motors as well as various drive options to obtain the required motion. With this idea, the need for the intermediate mechanism can be eliminated leading to reduction of losses and improvement in efficiency. A comparison between the existing and proposed drive system has also been dealt. © 2015 IEEE.