Electric drives for textile finishing ranges

The continuous finishing of textiles with machines operated in tandem, or "in range," requires carefully coordinated, adjustable-speed machine drives. Electric drives, as compared to mechanical drives, generally offer several advantages, and are used predominantly on modern range installations. Of the electric systems, d-e drives are most generally suitable and most widely used, although a-c drives are used advantageously under certain circumstances. There are several types of co-ordination control that may be used on range drives, each type having certain advantages and disadvantages, depending on the basic type of range drive used. This paper gives general information on textile ranges, basic requirements of range drives, basic considerations in selecting drive equipment, comparison of electric and mechanical drives, description of various types of electrical drives and co-ordination control, and recommendations for selecting proper equipment for specific conditions.