Guide to CSIRO Pt.3/12

The CSIRO project begins with enthusiasm and "sure can do" attitude" after all "we are CSIRO" look what we done so far. I also had a personal high as I have just accomplished a CSIRO patent in CTM. The group leader BVH just created a position for my "on going employment" after I demonstrated my abilities. It was a proof positive that "I can do"and can come to the grips with a complex technical project. The Worsted Combing is very technical and challenging machine. A critical part of Australian wool production.

The Worsted combing project headed by BVH started well and as a prerequisite to this please read: "Young user Guide to CSIRO (part 2)" (actual insight, innovation and hands on work was done by Dr.Kirby and myself )

Most clothing made from most valued wool fibre to a cotton t-shirt is combed. This work will not discuss cotton comber - a simplification in mechanism, but wool comb used in the upper end of most expensive garment fibre preparation.

The Wool Combing machine is manufacturing  by NSC Sclumberger in France and is slowly becoming the only manufacturer of this very important process of fibre preparation. in 1988 it was to be challenged successfully by my self as an employee of CSIRO Division of Wool technology - and that challenge occurred from "not knowing much about a comb" to world wide CSIRO patent on the "retraction mechanism" in combing. I advised CSIRO that we had a fundamental break through in "mechanism development" but I was ignored. NSC Sclumberger designers immediately saw the potential and in 1996 onward their combs were fitted essentially with technology developed by myself in Geelong - Australia. In 1996 NSC Sclumberger exhibited "their" combs at ITMA ( International Textile Machinery -trade fair )

The cam design used at the hart of the combing mechanism is as old as the wheel, probably was a wheel that didn't work well and this was what BVH in his simplistic guise of group leader has ask to be accomplished. The height of use of cams was accomplished in 19th century in France with invention of many automatons or robots mimicking human operation such as hand writing. Worsted combing in a rectilinear comb is an automaton reproduction of human operation. 

This is a high speed video of fibre combing...( units are milliseconds ). It shows Front comb (see my simulation and analysis ), nipper jaw (clamp ), circular comb and apron retraction in motion ( also see the outline of R&D in "Young users Guide to CSIRO pt2"). Apron retraction is occurring in background as set of withdrawing roller. 

I have risen to the challenge and created a new class of "cams" derived with aid of emerging PC CAD/CAM system in 1989-1992. I will in this series explain in detail why they were new and how it was simply "handed over" with no return to CSIRO. I also reserve the right to call them "Sokolov cams", they are simple and fit within "Encyclopaedia of Mechanisms" [1] (also see my post: "Worsted Combing - Rise of Computing ") .

The lead graphics shows the only externally visible cam of 12 cams that control the motion of the worsted comb ( see: "Cam linkage motion analysis -Front Comb" ). Side by side is actual comb next to the computer model of my first assignment " shorten the retraction motion" ( only showing 2 actions of 3 required to provide motion of the apron; cam provides arm pick up and dwell, crank provides apron rocking motion and chain provides overlapping motion - this composes the apron mechanism ).

There are 3 cams that were used in my invetigations of apron retraction. They were: my CSIRO patent and 2 provided by NSC.. NSC80 was standard cam, NSC60 was a single surface provided after NSC Sclumberger discovered that CSIRO Geelong had a successful high speed trials. It also created doubt in mind of BVH - this was only resolved with time, 20y later Sokolov cams are current technology in NSC Sclumberger comb. This simulation was created to show that my technology can be compared directly with NSC Sclumberger. Motion due to cam was timing, motion due to crank was tuft spread and motion due to gears-chain was spread of the tuft and overlap with next combing cycle. In this cam shape is important in how it acquires the tuft using a withdrawing rollers - engage the fibre ends.

This story part is the ingenious new cam design after 250 years and its simplicity. The technology of cam design advanced on from what is known as "German cam design" and "conjugate cam" [1]. This technology is not only beneficial to worsted combing but it can benefit any place where cams are used - namely automotive industry to produce a more efficient cam design without flaws of "cam bounce". It is also valuable in creating a multi path encoding without worrying about wear or keeping the follower on track. It also allows something very new - dampening elements to be utilized in controlling the spring operation.

Most notable of all is that it is simple idea - but then all good ideas are simple once they are known. Enjoy this simple publication and perhaps you may find use of my cams in your application.

How it works: There are 2 cams, one supplying a desired motion to a follower and second cam produces Dx=0, or zero motion in the spring, the sum of the two cams adds up to a Circle a most efficient cam as its derivatives are scaled by amplitude and rotational speed - so the system is dynamically inert and can be damped - it is that simple.

And This is how it worked on my CSIRO modified comb 1990.

And this is "what it is not" - it is a conjugate cam much similar to a captive cam which all suffer from wear and need to be adjusted constantly. 

And this is "what it is not" a Desmodronic drive as used in Ducati racing motorcycles. It is more of a captive cam that suffers from wear and as many Ducati owners know have a problems or regular and costly adjustments. What is notable here is that the ends of desired motion is controlled by two cams producing a captive motion. In my design the ends are compensated with a single spring, reducing wear and allows a dampening element to be added. A much simpler compact design.

My mistake was made when I used words like "desmodromic" and "conjugate" like cams to describe my innovation. And given my design background BVH simply ascribed that to my professional training. From that point of view it was not valued by CSIRO. It was freely shared whith NSC Sclumberger who could not wait for 1995 ITMA to retrofit "their combs" with this technology. Physical processing group up to the combing project spent 20+ years balancing the roller on the card to produce what they called "Ultra high speed card", now not used by the industry, however my components are fitted to most new NSC Sclumberger combs. My cam technology will be shared across other industries, while balancing the rollers on card was a technique already mature and only an application.

Like I said earlier all new technology is simple once it is known.

This figure represents first of "Sokolov" cams to be designed - retraction mechanism on the worsted comb. To explain how it works - two pivot points produce a desired motion. The first pivot follows the surface of a cam delivering the desired motion - the second pivot follower delivers zero spring deflection and makes the system dynamically inert by producing a near eccentric circular motion.

This Figure in 1992 predicted the spring deflection in a PB29L Sclumberger comb. In my solution I aimed to have that Dx=0, dynamically inert used only for wear compensation. In a sokolov solution dx=0 but requires two cams to operate; one to deliver fibre performance and two to keep dx=0. That is now the standard in comb machine design.

In this 2015 cataloug picture of a NSC Sclumberger comb one can see follower offset of the cam surface allowing second surface to be employed in processing the dx=0 requirements to make the retraction spring dynamically inert for higher operating speed range , essentially the comb is gradually improved  since 1992. That technology was the key to mechanical improvement post 2000 the IT component of the comb has improved.. 

I suggest that a prerequisite is to read my previous posts series "Young users Guide to CSIRO" ( part 1-2). There are 12 parts in which I will examine how the project unfolds and how it fitted in background of CSIRO management expectations.

In part 2 of "Young users Guide to CSIRO", I have outlined the worsted combing as an operation and how it fits into production of fine yarn. I also outlined how I planed the project in broad topics and how Dr.Kirby and I achieved success. Here I have described how CSIRO gained a Patent and IP on bases of new cam species ( I will refer to now on as "sokolov cams") and analytical theory that got us there.

Here is a short video of what combing looks like through a lens of a high speed camera.

Mechanics of Combing - Apron retraction mechanism

This publication will cover the Apron mechanism retraction cam and its dynamic analysis. It simply covers; " what does it take to revers engineer the NSC technology" AND "how do I know that I was successful?".

In part 2 of this series I have outlined front comb motion, but there were many other mechanisms covered in a combing operation: apron retraction, front comb, shovel plate and others that I will cover in later publication. (see 2. Mechanics of combing - predicting theoretical motion of components and my publication also see Front Comb animation

After a while it dawns of people that there is real leg work that needs to be done. 

Thank you for reading this post. 

Discussion:

Since Dr.Kirby and I did not have largest from BVH such as spending - I was forced to developed technology that would allow my ideas to be developed at low cost. One of those technologies was the 3D CAD/CAM and now 3DPS to make components and test their varsity. 

Here is a model of the NSC Sclumberger comb in its original form,

One can see that from my work bench that it has always been about cams - This picture shows the number of cams tested using my non-intrusive method of prototype design that I developed. This picture was taken in my living room at home as Dr.Kirby and I were putting in 70h/ week to secure our positions and discoveries. Something that is always under the threat by particular personalities of those that claim to have given us the ideas and that we only worked on "their vision" in team CSIRO. That any result is simply the product of our training.

This is a "worsted comb" testing and encoding rig - it was designed to test load cells and digitize the cams. It was also used in my Masters as a fibre clamping test rig. This was decommissioned recently after 25y of usage and replaced by new digitizing technology alos built at CRD. ( there will be a separate post on this topic ). But here is the cam shape that it collected ..CRD22stroke cam.

The dot represents the closest approach to the nipper jaw - clamped fibre. It is "Sokolov" cam as it requires a "conjugate" cam - once again my fault for inappropriate naming of the new cam species. Its derivatives and design was driven by Fourier analysis and fit - something new in world of cam design also developed by myself - spaning Fourier signal analysis with cam design. I publish more on that topic.

Here is a diagrammatic comparison between NSC Sclumberger cam made in 1992 NSC60 cam ( reduced retraction by 20mm). Superimposed was a Sokolov cam also made to retract 60mm - a dynamically superior cam. I did this to show all the dynamic properties in comparison. At time NSC made this cam Dr.Kirby and I were retracting the apron at 22mm.

A future post will shoiw all of the dynamic derivatives showing a superior performance of CSIRO cams over the NSC Sclunberger cams - I think NSC panicked and wanted to show BVH that they can shorten the stroke distance - it was a ruse and BVH fell for it. It was understandable as BVH who was physicist with a PhD in Cryptographic X-ray diffraction study of Silicon crystal was now operating well outside his knowledge base ( I had a read of his PhD ).  I must admit it was also skirting the limits of my knowledge of mechanical engineering - but I had good grounds to know that I was moving with new innovation. My innovation skills was why I was hired by CSIRO - good initial decision.

Comb is a complex mechanism but no so complex once I brought down the new emerging technology to solve. 

Refrences: Consider Reading my other posts..

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