Optimization of Lubrication Amount for Sewing Threads

Sewing needle heating is a common problem for the sewing of technical and medical textiles. The hot needle causes burnt spots on fabric, breakage of the thread, and weak seam strength. Multiple ways are used in industry to cool the needle including compressed air, thread lubrication, and needle coatings. The most economical way of reducing needle heat is to use thread lubrication. This technique needs a lot of research because the bucket of lubrication installed on the sewing machine provides irregular amounts of the micro layer on the thread and there is no research showing how much should be used. In this research, different amounts of pre-lubricated threads are used to measure their impact on coefficient of friction, tensile strength, needle temperature, and overall performance of the seam depending on lubrication amount. The research work is focused on the disadvantages of irregular lubrication and finding optimized lubricant amount for better sewing performance with low needle temperature.