Design, Fabrication, and Evaluation of a Village-Scale Yarning Machine

Abstract

A multi-stranded yarning machine was designed to produce a material comparable with the “tinagak” yarn. The prototype was fabricated using locally available materials at NARC, VSU, Baybay City, Leyte. Modification activities were done to improve some perceived problems in the mechanical timing device, locking mechanism, and clutching assembly. Mechanism of the spooling assembly was also improved to allow easy joining of the synthetic yarn in case it breaks during the operation.

The improved prototype can produce 2 continuous abaca yarns simultaneously with lengths of 1.2 kilometer by wrapping around the abaca fiber with fine synthetic yarn. The yarn produced is also automatically arranged in the spool while a timing device automatically releases the locking rod when the yarn reaches 1.2 kilometer long.

Evaluation showed that an unskilled operator produces yarn at the rate of 380 – 430 m/h at an efficiency of 80-95%. A neatly woven product comparable to “sinamay” was produced from the multi-stranded yarn at the Matalom Abaca-Based Integrated Project (MABIP), Matalom, Southern Leyte.