Air-Jet Insertion Pressure vs Weft Stop Economics

The formula

This is the expression the tool evaluates. Every term is named underneath, with the unit it must be supplied in.

How the result is derived

Step by step, from the values you type to the figure on screen.

1. The 12 inputs are read from the form on every keystroke: Working Pressure, Reference Pressure, Stop Rate at Reference, Stop Reduction per 0.1 bar, Air Consumption at Reference, Consumption Exponent, Compressed Air Cost, Insertion Rate, Running Efficiency, Time Lost per Stop, Loom Contribution per Minute and Looms in Fleet.
2. Each value is checked against the accepted range in the input table below. A value outside its range stops the calculation rather than producing a misleading figure — the results blank out and a message appears.
3. The validated values are substituted into the expression above, which resolves Net Benefit per Loom Hour together with every supporting figure in one pass — no value is carried over from a previous entry.
4. The supporting outputs — Stop Rate at This Pressure, Stops Avoided, Extra Air Cost, Value of Stops Avoided, Air Consumption and Fleet Annual Benefit — come from the same pass, so they always describe the same case as the headline figure.
5. Results are rounded for display only. The full-precision value is used throughout the chain, so reading a rounded intermediate figure back into the tool by hand can shift the last digit.

What each input means

Where to read each value on the floor, the unit it must be in, and the range the tool accepts.

What the tool returns

The headline figure and every supporting value it is built from.

Worked example

The tool loads with this case already solved — the Net Benefit per Loom Hour shown above is its answer. Change one value and the difference from this baseline is the sensitivity of the result to that variable.

How to use it

1. Work through the input groups in order — Pressure & Stops and Costs & Fleet. The defaults are a realistic case, so you can change one value at a time and watch what moves.
2. There is no calculate button. Every figure recalculates as you type or drag, which is what makes this usable for a what-if sweep rather than a single answer.
3. Read Net Benefit per Loom Hour in the dark results panel — that is the headline figure, expressed in /h.
4. Check the supporting rows underneath (Stop Rate at This Pressure, Stops Avoided, Extra Air Cost, Value of Stops Avoided, Air Consumption and Fleet Annual Benefit) before acting on the headline — they are where an implausible input usually shows itself first.
5. Reset to defaults returns every field to the reference case, which is the quickest way to check whether a surprising result came from the tool or from an input you had changed earlier.

Where this is used

• Process planning — establishing Net Benefit per Loom Hour before a trial is booked, so machine time and material in Machine Performance & OEE are committed against a calculated figure rather than an estimate.
• Costing and quotation — Net Benefit per Loom Hour is an input to the cost sheet, and quoting from a worked number rather than a remembered one is what keeps a margin intact.
• Troubleshooting — when the floor result drifts from plan, entering the measured values (starting with Working Pressure) shows how much of the gap in Net Benefit per Loom Hour each variable explains.
• Teaching and study — the accepted ranges bracket normal Machine Performance & OEE practice, so moving one variable at a time shows the shape of the relationship rather than a single answer.

Assumptions and limits

• Stop reduction is modelled as linear in pressure, and it is not — the relationship saturates, so beyond the pressure that reliably lands the weft on the far side, further increases buy nothing but air, and this model will keep promising savings that do not exist. Fit the sensitivity over the narrow range you actually operate in and re-fit it when style or yarn changes. Excess pressure also has costs outside this calculation: weft breakage at the nozzle, selvedge waste from over-travel, and accelerated nozzle wear. The fleet figure assumes every loom runs the same style at the same pressure all year, which no shed does.
• Every input is bounded to the range normal practice occupies (Working Pressure 2 to 9 bar, Reference Pressure 2 to 9 bar and Stop Rate at Reference 0 to 30 per 100k picks, and so on for the rest). Those bounds are guard rails against typing errors, not a claim that the formula fails one unit outside them.
• The calculation is deterministic: the same inputs always give the same result. It carries no allowance for machine condition, operator skill, ambient conditions or lot-to-lot material variation unless an input above explicitly represents one.
• Nothing is sent anywhere. The maths runs in your browser, so the numbers you type never leave the page.

Questions people ask