ANALYSIS OF OPTIMUM BRAIDING PROCESS PARAMETERS ON A TUBULAR BRAIDING MACHINE USING DESIGN OF EXPERIMENT

Abstract

Bandung Regency is one of the centers of home based industries producing various types of ropes such as macrame ropes, shoelaces, and prusik ropes. The manufacturing process generally employs conventional braiding machines with a trial-and-error approach. This condition leads to inconsistent product quality, particularly in terms of tensile strength, which does not always meet the required standards. The objective of this study was to identify the key parameters of the braiding process, analyze their effects on product quality, and determine the optimum combination of parameters to improve rope tensile strength. The methodology employed was the Design of Experiment (DoE) with the Taguchi approach. The investigated parameters included core count, take-up rate, and yarn count. The analysis of S/N ratio and ANOVA revealed that all three parameters contributed to tensile strength, with the most significant effect attributed to core count (35.70%), followed by yarn count (28.94%) and take-up rate (22.18%). The optimum parameter combination was determined as (core count: 9, take-up rate: High, and yarn count: 8). The confirmation test under this setting resulted in a tensile strength of 2.219 kN (226.29 kg). Although the effects were not statistically significant (F-table > F-value), the practical trend indicated strong relevance in improving rope production quality.