PSM Ring Oil Feed Designs

Blocked PSM Rings – What this means to you:

What is PSM Material?

Porous sintered material is made up of iron powder to which additives and other alloying elements are added, prior to being pressed under very high pressures in forming tools to make blanks.

The blanks are then sintered at about 1300°C to chemically bond the metal particles into a structure of interconnected pores, which act as a permanent oil reservoir. The unmachined sintered and sized blank has a predetermined density and volume of pores with a maximum oil storage capacity.

The PSM material can be machined to most ring profiles and the subsequent heat treatment processing provides the rings with a high degree of hardness, strength and toughness, which means resistance to wear and abrasion.

The rings are then given a special surface treatment, which improves the smoothness of the surface of the rings without reducing the size or damaging the surface pores. This treatment reduces significantly the friction between ring and traveller and helps with a short running-in cycle.

Why PSM?

A traditional steel lubricated ring would provide only a limited amount of oil to the interface between the ring and traveller, which resulted in a poor quality lubrication system with less than satisfactory spinning performance. This oil supply is also unregulated and can result in excess oil being applied to the ring rail area and the potential for contamination of the production material.

PSM rings contain internal pores and microscopic pores, which cover the entire surface area. This allows the oil to travel from the wick system through the ring and onto all traveller bearing areas, to provide lubrication and reduce friction between the ring and traveller.

The spinning or twisting ring is essentially a bearing to provide a guide on which the traveller can run.
PSM rings were first developed by Eadie and have been widely used in numerous processes to produce the highest quality fibres and yarn. Eadie PSM rings have been adopted as the standard equipment by all major European machinery manufacturers.

PSM Life

PSM rings are designed and manufactured to provide an excellent performance over a limited lifespan, which can be extended with proper attention. Eadie provide a Care & Maintenance manual with instructions on how to look after our rings and allow longer usage. This manual can also be found at www.ekcl.co.uk

However after some time the ring pores will inevitably become blocked with debris from the fibre, the nylon traveller and oxidised oil. There are various ring cleaning services on offer but in our experience they provide at best a short-term improvement and the only recommended and cost effective solution is ring replacement.

Costs

Reduced traveller life = Increased annual consumption of travellers         = Increased running costs

Non regulation of the oil = Increased annual oil consumption                   = Increased running costs

Higher friction = More power to drive spindles = Increased electricity usage = Increased running costs

No lubrication = Traveller burning and breaking = yarn breakages             = Lost production and reduced quality

No lubrication = Poor running condition of traveller       = Reduced yarn quality

No lubrication  = Possibility of traveller flying out            = Potential operator safety problems

No lubrication = Reduced spindle speed                        = Lost production

We provide a free laboratory check on the porosity and condition of PSM Rings 
– Please contact us.