A system for knitting process monitoring and fault detection on weft circular knitting machines

From the production manager point of view, the knowledge of how well a knitting machine is working during production is very important. This information allows the manager to schedule all plans and also to know the overall production level of a manufacturing plant. For this purpose there are many system information packages. One of the most important items for production is the number of faults occurred while producing a fabric, since it directly influences productivity. With this subject in mind, this paper presents a system with a special emphasis on surveillance of the knitting process in order to detect, identify and locate faults during production, by monitoring the yarn input tension. The system also provides the user with a valuable set of information related with production. Finally, the paper presents some of the techniques used to detect the faults.Fundação para Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) project POSI/SRI/39824/200