Weavers

Weavers. Weaving is a process in which fabric is produced by interlacing lengthwise threads (warp) with crosswise threads (weft). From a hygienic point of view, weaving in the cotton industry is of greatest interest. Warp threads undergo preliminary preparation before reaching the loom. This preparation consists of the following operations: winding - yarn from bobbins is rewound onto large spools; warping - 400-600 threads are transferred to a warping beam; sizing or starching - threads are impregnated with a sticky substance - size (prepared from potato or corn flour), pressed and dried, which increases the strength of the threads and gives them a smooth surface, protecting them from friction; drawing into "heddles" and "reed". The heddle consists of two slats on which loops with holes in the middle - eyes - are strung; the number of heddles ranges from 2 to 20 depending on the complexity of the fabric. The reed is a solid metal comb that guides the warp threads and beats down the weft thread after each pass. The drawn warp goes to the loom, where fabric is produced by interlacing warp and weft threads. This is achieved by the alternating raising and lowering of heddles in a specific order; when some heddles and with them some warp threads are raised, the other threads remain in place, and a shed is formed between the warp threads, through which a shuttle carrying the weft thread passes. The shuttle flies back and forth due to blows from the picker; such passes (and therefore interlacings of weft threads with warp threads) the shuttle makes 200-240 times per minute. The resulting fabric is wound onto a cloth roller. Fabrics with the simplest pattern (2-4 heddles) are woven on simpler Platt looms. More complex fabrics (up to 20 heddles) are produced on "shuttle" looms; fabrics with complex patterns are woven on Jacquard looms, which have a device that allows each warp thread to be raised individually. Northrop looms have additional devices that allow bobbins in the shuttle to be changed automatically and the loom to stop when warp threads break. The finished fabric goes to measuring machines, is inspected for the purpose of removing (or marking) defects, and as gray fabric is sent to a dyeing or printing factory. Occupational hazards of individual professions. For winders and warpers, constant standing, strain of attention, and quick small movements during basic operations (tying broken threads) are characteristic. The main hazard for the sizer is high temperature and increased humidity. At workplaces, the temperature in cold weather can reach 32-35°C and higher, in summer it is even higher (40-45°C), relative humidity reaches 75-80%. Under such conditions, sizers have to periodically perform heavy physical work (moving and setting up warps). Measures to combat this - enclosing sizing machines with casings with poorly heat-conducting walls, with strong exhaust from the casings and from the troughs with size, supplying large amounts of fresh (in winter, heated) air to the room. The transfer and installation of beams should be mechanized. For workers in the drawing operation (two professions - drawer and creeler), uncomfortable body position (sitting on low benches, the drawer's body is slightly bent to the left), as well as strain of attention and vision are characteristic. The latter is particularly pronounced in the drawer, who every 3-4 seconds inserts the hook's cheek into the heddle eyes and then threads the thread drawn through the heddle into the reed teeth. When drawing each thread, the drawer carefully looks at the heddle eyes and then at the reed, i.e., each time shifts vision from the heddles to the reed. In addition to vision, attention is strongly strained here, especially when drawing warps with a large number of heddles. Artificial lighting until recently was carried out with bare electric lamps of 16-25 candlepower, which were suspended on the side on heddles and blinded the eyes. Natural lighting is also usually insufficient. As research by Ioffe, Egorov, Aranovich, and Bulygin has shown, there are many nearsighted people among drawers, and as length of service increases, the number of nearsighted people increases (according to Ioffe, people with 10 years or more of service give 95% of myopes). To improve the working conditions of drawers, significant improvements have been made in a number of factories in the USSR: old looms have been replaced with new ones, which makes it possible to hang heddles and reed higher and workers can sit on chairs of normal height with backs; for drawing into the reed, a special foot "passe" has been introduced, which facilitates the work of the left hand and eliminates the need to shift vision when drawing each thread from the heddles to the reed; on almost all factories, artificial lighting has been improved by introducing general lighting with "Universal" lamps and additional light sources have been installed at the drawer's workplace, enclosed in a metal casing in the form of a trough. The most radical measure for improving the drawing process is its mechanization, i.e., the introduction of special drawing and tying machines. The main functions of the weaver (weaveress) are changing the shuttle and bobbin, and eliminating thread breaks. One weaver serves 4, more rarely 6 looms; on Northrop looms, one weaver serves 16-20 or more looms. Occupational hazards of the weaver profession. Dust. The amount of dust in weaving halls is not particularly large, usually it fluctuates within 3-5 mg/m³; in rare cases, dust content reaches 8-10 mg/m³. The predominant component of dust (up to 80-90%) are particles of size, the rest is cotton fibers and their fragments. This dust itself probably does not cause special changes in the respiratory tract of weavers, some significance may have the contamination of dust with microbes or mold fungi; diseases due to this have occurred in England repeatedly, in the USSR such cases have not been observed. The fight against air dustiness in the weaving hall is carried out with the help of general ventilation (see below), further attention should be paid to the sizing process so that the percentage of size does not exceed 10-12 and that the size well sizes the warp. Meteorological conditions play a very large role in paper weaving. Due to the expenditure of a large amount of energy on the operation of looms, a large amount of heat is released, accordingly the air temperature in the weaving hall is always elevated: in winter it reaches 22-28°C and higher, in summer 32-35°C. In addition, production conditions require maintaining increased humidity in the weaving hall. The reason for the latter is the following circumstance: since the warp threads on the loom are subjected to strong tension and at the same time constantly rub against the heddle eyes and the reed, it is necessary to give them elasticity and the ability to slide, which is achieved by moistening the outer layer of size. The latter occurs when the air is saturated with a certain amount of water vapor. Usually in weaving halls, to ensure normal process flow, the relative humidity of the air is maintained at 70%, in England even higher - 80-85%. Thus, in paper weaving halls, there are the same meteorological conditions as in the main departments of spinning mills, i.e., elevated temperature and increased air humidity. In the fight to improve meteorological conditions in weaving halls, it is necessary to take into account the requirements of production, according to which a certain increase in air temperature and maintenance of high humidity is an obligatory condition. Research conducted to determine the optimal meteorological conditions for the weaving process showed that according to English data (Watt), the best productivity is obtained at 22.5-24°C with 75-80% relative humidity, according to NITI data - at 23°C and 70-75% relative humidity. These conditions are such that from a hygienic point of view - if enhanced air movement is also added - they are acceptable. Therefore, the main attention should be paid to reducing the air temperature while maintaining the required increased humidity. This is achieved by the same methods as in paper spinning, namely - best of all with the help of central ventilation installations with recirculation and humidification. Noise and vibration. In weaving halls, several hundred looms work, each of which produces about 450 strikes per minute; this creates an extremely strong noise, under which even loud speech is completely inaudible. The continuous movement of machine parts, in which strikes predominate, causes quite strong vibration of the floor. In the lower floors, the vibration is felt weakly; the higher the floor, the stronger the vibration. As a result of the effect of noise on the organ of hearing, hearing loss develops in weavers, which is more pronounced the longer the length of service. This is evidenced by the research of Malyutin (1896) and more recent Temkin (1927), who in the examination of 484 weavers of the Three-Gory factory found a decrease in the perception of whispered speech in 57%, and the higher the length of service, the more pronounced this decrease is.

The changes that develop in the organ of hearing in Weavers are a consequence of the simultaneous action of noise and vibration: in them, changes develop in the upper coil of the cochlea, which is characteristic of lesions caused by vibration (transmission of sound through bone). The question of combating noise and vibration in weaving factories has not yet found practical resolution. Here it is possible to require the proper selection of building materials and the layout of buildings in order to weaken resonance; since in one-story buildings vibration is expressed weakly, it is necessary to demand the construction of one-story buildings for new weaving factories, which is already being implemented in the USSR. -Until now, on most factories, so-called 'kiss' shuttles are used: when threading the eye of the shuttle, the weaver must each time produce suction with her mouth. In doing so, she sucks in a certain amount of fibers and dust. The replacement of these 'kiss' shuttles with shuttles of other systems ('non-kiss') on factories is being carried out weakly. This question will finally be resolved with the introduction of special devices on weaving looms, with which the change of the bobbin in the shuttle occurs automatically. -The position of the weaver's body is free-standing with frequent transitions from place to place. When threading broken warp threads, the weaver takes a very uncomfortable position-she has to bend over the loom, with a crossbar pressing on her abdomen-'chest piece'. For pregnant weavers, this moment is very unfavorable. Lighting. In the process of work, Weavers have moments that require significant visual strain, these are finding the end of a broken warp thread and guiding it into the corresponding heddle eye and reed. At other times, the weaver constantly watches the warp-watches to see if a thread has broken. According to legislative standards, the illumination of the workplace on weaving looms should not be below 50-60 lux when producing light fabrics. However, on many weaving factories, the situation is far from favorable: factories built in several stories are illuminated by side light through windows; looms standing in many rows and their attachments create great shading, as a result of which the looms in the middle rows are very poorly illuminated (while the illumination of looms closer to the windows is 200-250 lux and higher, the looms in the middle rows have an illumination of 5-10 lux). On many factories, one has to work almost year-round during the day with mixed lighting. In shed buildings with top lighting, the situation is much better. As for artificial lighting, in recent years there has been a turn for the better: the flat reflector bulbs, which were used until recently and were hung low over the looms, giving uneven illumination and sharp glare, have in recent years been replaced by 'Universal' or 'Luzetta' lamps, which give uniform and, with proper placement of the lamps, sufficient illumination. As research conducted by Engineer Trunkovsky (1929), the Institute of Labor Protection (1930), and the Obukh Institute (1931) has shown, when glare is eliminated and more uniform illumination is created within 50-60 lux, productivity increases by 2-5%, and the performance of operations requiring visual strain sharply accelerates (24-50%). In order to combat the harmful consequences of constant standing position and to reduce fatigue among workers, it is advisable to introduce regular short breaks. As research by the Institute of Labor Protection at the 'Red Textile Worker' factory in Serpukhov (1929) and the Ivanovo Institute of Organization and Labor Protection at the Malodmitrovsky factory (1931) has shown, the introduction of short breaks (2 times a day for 5-10 minutes) gave an increase in productivity and a reduction in defects among workers; the workers' well-being improved; in the hours following the breaks, compared to the previous ones, productivity always increased. -In the final operations carried out in the defecting room, a significant amount of dust is released (8-20 mg/m³ and more). In order to reduce the dust content of the air in the defecting room, attention should be paid to the sizing process and rational ventilation over measuring machines and at defecting stations. A good effect was achieved by enclosing the measuring machine in a solid wooden case (factories named after Kutuzov and Lapin)-the dust content of the air after the installation of the case decreased by 4-5 times. -For weaving in flax, wool, and silk productions, see the respective words. The rules on safety measures in mechanical weaving production were approved by the USSR People's Commissariat of Labor on 8/1 1926 (collection 'Legislation on Safety Engineering and Industrial Sanitation', 3rd edition, No. 1, 1930) (see also Spinning Production).