In-Depth Analysis and Defect Reduction for Ethiopian Cotton Spinning Industry Based on TQM Approach

Competition is truly global. Higher product quality is required for a company to become more competitive both locally and in international markets. Any textile company basically competes on its reputation for quality, reliability, and capability of processes and costs of quality and delivery. Currently, most of textile industries in Ethiopia are suffering from quality-related problems due to high process variations. These problems include poor performance of manufacturing products in the export market, insufficient qualitative raw material supply, customer dissatisfaction, low productivity, and poor utilization of the resources. These problems led to the manufacturing of low-quality products with a high cost, and because of this, most of the Ethiopian textile companies in the country are not competitive and profitable. The main objective of this study is to examine the existing traditional models of quality and to introduce an improved and emerged quality measuring system based on a methodological approach by using six sigma total quality management tools and analyzed by STATA 14.0 software. The analytical findings show that the application of total quality management (TQM) programs, tools, and techniques has been expanded beyond the traditional quality concepts and has improved the acceptable quality level of the product by 57.96% with a low cost

Evaluation of water flow in cotton yarn and fabric assemblies for capillary evaporative cooling

AbstractIn cotton yarn bundles and fabric layers, wicking and rate are accounted as crucial indigenous liquid transportation properties, playing a significant role in temperature reduction on their surfaces and being used to extend the food and agricultural storage life. In this article, manual test methods are described to measure water wickability and wicking rate of cotton yarn bundles and plain weave fabric layers. These methods described the water flow through the in-plane surface of yarn bundles and fabric layers oriented in either vertical or horizontal lines without external force. The wicking lengths and wicking growth rates in both untreated and treated cotton yarn bundles and fabric samples in either in-plane vertical or horizontal orientations were compared. The highest to lowest wicking length and rate were found in the treated yarn bundles, treated fabric layers, untreated yarn bundles, and untreated fabric strips, respectively. The wicking height and length obtained in untreated yarn bundles and untreated fabric layers was lower than the Kraft paper. The higher wicking and rate values indicate a considerable potential for liquid water migration. The results indicated that treated yarn bundles and fabric layers that are oriented horizontal direction are the best options for constructing capillary evaporative cooling

Review on Conductive Polymer Composites for Supercapacitor Applications

The rising demand for energy storage systems with high power density, rapid charge/discharge capabilities, and long cycle life has pushed extensive research into advanced materials for supercapacitor applications. There are several materials under investigation, and among these materials, conductive polymer composites have emerged as promising candidates due to their unique combination of electrical conductivity, flexibility, and facile synthesis. This review provides a comprehensive analysis of recent advancements in the development and application of conductive polymer composites for supercapacitor applications. The review begins with an overview of the fundamental principles governing electrical conductivity mechanism, applications of conductive polymers and the specific requirements for materials employed for these devices. Subsequently, it delves into the properties of conductive polymers and the challenges associated with their implementation for supercapacitors, highlighting the limitations of pristine conductive polymers and the strategies employed to overcome these drawbacks through composite formation. In this review, conductive polymer composites and their applications on supercapacitors are explored, and their advantages and disadvantages are discussed. Finally, the electromechanical properties of each conductive polymer composite are elaborated

Connecting surface-mounted electronic elements with amber strand metal-clad conductive fibers by reflow soldering

Electronic yarns contain electronic components which are fully embedded into the conductive yarn’s structure before manufacturing smart textile garments or fabrics. To accept comprehensively the electronic textiles, it is essential to integrate the electronic components into/onto the conductive textile yarn without compromising the quality of the textile substrate. Therefore, one of the solutions is to create flexible and stretchable conductive yarn that contains a small surface-mounted electronic component embedded in the fibers of the conductive yarn. The purpose of this research work is to manufacture and subsequently evaluate the physical and electromechanical properties of amber strand (Toyobo’s p-phenylene benzobisoxazole fiber zylon) yarns with embedded surface-mounted device components. Using a benchtop reflow-soldering machine, the surface-mounted device component was successfully inserted into the amber strand conductive yarn. Then the developed electronic yarn was coated using thermoplastic polyurethane for encapsulation purposes. Furthermore, reliability tests of the electrical and mechanical properties of the electronic yarn (tensile strain and washing) were carried out. From the results it can be seen that the developed thermoplastic polyurethane encapsulated electronic yarn had a tensile strength of 37.38 N with a 4.1 mm extension. Furthermore, the relationship between the strain and washing action on the electrical resistance of the developed electronic yarn was experimentally investigated. The analytical finding shows that mechanical stress and laundry washing had a significant influence on the electrical resistance of the electronic yarn

Investigation the electrical resistance and thermal behaviour of surface mount device integrated stainless steel electronic yarn

The emergence of intelligent textiles in recent years has highlighted the importance of e-textiles (electronic textiles). Electrically conductive textiles can be found in the form of fabrics, yarns, or fibres textile structures. The electronic yarn (E-yarn) was manufacturing by incorporated tinny surface mount electronic device (SMD) into textile conductive yarn. This paper deals with the electrical resistance and thermal properties of SMD LED embedded stainless steel (SS) E-yarn. The relationship between the current voltage curve and total electrical resistance of the electronic yarn was investigated experimentally. In addition, the analytical finding shows that, as the supply voltage increase, the electrical resistance of conductive yarn significantly increased and the surface temperature of both the SS conductive yarn and E-yarn had increased. Furthermore. From the test result, it can be confirmed that, this electronic yarn was suitable to be used for resistive heating elements and use for possible application in wearable e-textiles heating and a new way of energy saving

Study the effect of laundry on the electrical resistance of silver coated vectran conductive yarn for the application of e-textile

Electronic textiles are an early developing hybrid system and require new standards of reliability and permanence for the application of smart wearable textiles. The washing durability of e-textiles is one of the most important aspects of their reliability and maintenance. The standards must meet the requirements for both textile and electronic components of e-textile products. In this paper, the effects of laundry washing on the electrical resistance of silver-coated Vectran (SCV) conductive yarns which are used for the application of wearable e-textile products is studied. Several factors, such as mechanical, thermal, chemical, and other stress do damage to the tiny coated silver particles on the surfaces of SCV conductive yarn during the washing process. The structural changes of SCV conductive yarns were investigated and analyzed by using FTIR and DSC machines. Various peaks observed before and after washing in the SCV conductive yarn were analyzed. The analytical finding shows that the electrical conductivity of SCV conductive yarns was severely affected by repetitive and cyclic laundry. Increased electrical resistance from 0.84 Ω to 1.9 Ω per 0.3 m gauge length after 25 washing cycles was observed

Development of stainless steel yarn with embedded surface mounted light emitting diodes

The integration of electronic components in/onto conductive textile yarns without compromising textile qualities such as flexibility, conformability, heat and moisture transfer, and wash resistance is essential to ensuring acceptance of electronic textiles. One solution is creating flexible and stretchable conductive yarns that contain tiny surface-mounted electronic elements embedded at the fiber level. The purpose of this work was to manufacture and subsequently evaluate the physical features and electromechanical properties of stainless steel yarn with light-emitting surface mounted devices (SMDs) embedded in it. The SMDs were successfully integrated into a conductive stainless steel yarn (SS) by inserting crimp beads and creating a bond through hot air soldering machines, resulting in what we call an E-yarn. The relationship curves between gauge length and electrical resistance, and the relationship curves between conductive yarn elongation and electrical resistance, were explored experimentally. The results of the analysis demonstrated that E-yarn had a lower tensile strength than the original electrically-conductive SS yarn. The effects of the washing cycle on the conductivity of the E-yarn were also investigated and studied. The results showed that E-yarns encapsulated at the solder pad by heat shrink tube still functioned well after ten machine wash cycles, after which they degraded greatly

Electro conductive textile yarn and their possible application in wearable heating textile

The emergence of intelligent textiles in recent years has highlighted the importance of e-textiles (electronic textiles). Electrically conductive textiles can be found in the form of fibers, yarns, or textile structures. The hybrid conductive yarn was manufactured by incorporating stainless steel and copper metallic yarn as a core into the polyester sheath around. This paper deals with the mechanical and electrical properties of hybrid conductive yarns. The analytical finding shows that mechanical stress had a significant influence on the electrical resistance and heating behavior of the conductive yarn. Furthermore, the effects of conductive yarn structure and applied input voltage on the heating behavior of the conductive yarn were investigated. The experimental result shows that the temperature of the yarn increases markedly with an increase in applied voltage. This stainless steel conductive yarn was suitable to be applied as resistive heating elements as well as used for bio potential electrodes