From the Sector

For more than 50 years, vehicle manufacturers have relied within their model development on Autoneum’s measuring systems for vehicle acoustics. With ATLAS, Autoneum has now added another particularly powerful device to the portfolio: Thanks to the efficient and reliable measurement methodology, noise-reducing vehicle components and materials can be analyzed and developed faster and with a significantly lower need for resources in the future.

With the ongoing electrification of vehicles and trends like autonomous driving, future car generations will no longer be used solely for transport – remote working and recreation will equally play a key role. This requires a vehicle interior that is as noiseless as possible. In order to identify and insulate potential internal and external sound sources already in the pre-development of new models, car manufacturers around the world rely on Autoneum’s highly specialized measurement tools. The newly launched ATLAS – short for “Airborne Transmission Loss Analysis System” – measures the acoustic insulation and transmission loss of components such as carpets, inner dashes and floor insulators. This allows customers to assess noise-reducing parts within minutes and select acoustic components tailored to their needs.

ATLAS sets new testing standards in this regard. While developers previously had to analyze the NVH behavior (noise, vibration, harshness) of interior parts using material samples of around one square meter in size, ATLAS makes this process faster, cheaper and more environmentally-friendly. It enables measurements of small samples with a diameter of no more than ten centimeters, which substantially decreases the amount of material used. Thanks to its four highly sensitive microphones, only two trials are required to collect precise and valid test data, making the system developed at Autoneum’s research center in the Swiss city of Winterthur especially suitable for quality assurance and repeatability of the results obtained. Users also benefit from time savings of up to 50 percent compared to the previous testing standard.

Autoneum’s measurement systems represent the global industry standard and are used successfully by vehicle manufacturers, automotive suppliers and research institutions alike. The Company is therefore not only making a significant contribution to the mobility of the future with its noise-reducing products, but now with ATLAS as well.

• Due to the short-term increase in demand from Chinese customers, Lenzing AG is breaking new ground. For the first time in the history of Austria, a local company is sending goods that are 100 percent produced in Austria directly to China by train.

Vienna – The Lenzing Group stands for the ecologically responsible production of specialty fibers made from the renewable raw material wood. Due to the high demand from Chinese brands and retailers for sustainably produced fibers, Lenzing delivers fibers from the two Austrian production sites Lenzing and Heiligenkreuz directly to customers in China by train for the first time.

Austria's first complete train with goods exclusively “Made in Austria” will leave the Vienna South Terminal towards China on August 20, 2020 at 11 am. The train is loaded with Lenzing fibers and provided by NUNNER Logistics. In strict compliance with the COVID-19 protective measures, Leonore Gewessler, Federal Minister for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology, His Excellency Xiaosi Li, Ambassador of the People's Republic of China in Austria, Stefan Doboczky, CEO of the Lenzing Group, Thomas Kargl, Board Member of the ÖBB Rail Cargo Group, Erwin Cootjans, CEO Nunner Logistics and Erich Hampel, Chairman of the Board of the B&C Private Foundation, took part in the departure ceremony.

The train, which started at Vienna, brings 41 containers with TENCEL™ branded Lyocell and Modal fibers with a total value of EUR 1.8 million directly to customers in China. On its 16-day trip to Shanghai, the train covers a total of 10,460 kilometers and passes seven countries: Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Belarus, Russia, Kazakhstan and China. “With this new transport route, we can meet the high demand from our customers for sustainably produced fibers more quickly. Thanks to train transport, the urgently needed fibers arrive at our customers in China twice as quickly as by sea freight,” says Stefan Doboczky, CEO of the Lenzing Group. Lenzing has had very good experiences with rail transport for a long time when it comes to delivering the renewable raw material wood to its plants. Almost 70 percent of the wood processed at the Lenzing site is already delivered by rail. “Our declared goal is to shift more freight traffic to rail. Rail is the only way to combine climate goals and economic interests and thus transport growth. That is why we are happy to be part of this unique project for our long-standing customer,” says Thomas Kargl, Board Member of the ÖBB Rail Cargo Group. “Transporting goods by rail to China is possible. And this train from Vienna to China is an integral part of climate protection. Because we want to support the shift from road to rail, especially in freight transport. Today's train is the first step – I am convinced this train will set an example”, says Leonore Gewessler, Federal Minister for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology.

Rester Oy, which is developing the plant in Paimio, recycles companies' end-of-life textiles, and Lounais-Suomen Jätehuolto Oy (LSJH), which will hire a production area at the same facility, processes households' end-of-life textiles. The plant will process 12,000 tonnes of end-of-life textiles every year, which represents about 10% of Finland’s textile waste.

The textile industry’s end-of-life textile problem is intolerable. Natural resources are increasingly used to manufacture products, but these materials are lost at the end of their life cycle. About 100 million kilograms of textile waste are generated annually in Finland alone. Reusing this material could reduce the textile industry’s carbon footprint and significantly reduce the use of natural resources.

Rester Oy and LSJH will drive the textile sector towards a circular economy and begin processing textile waste as an industrial raw material. The Nordic countries’ first industrial end-of-textile refinement plant will open in Paimio in 2021. The 3,000-square-metre plant is being developed by Rester Oy, which recycles companies' end-of-life textiles and industrial waste materials. LSJH, which processes households’ end-of-life textiles on its production line, will hire part of the plant.

Outi Luukko, Rester Oy’s board chair, says, “The processing plant will begin a new era of textile circular economy in Finland. As industry pioneers, we are launching a system change in Scandinavia. The transition of the textile industry from a linear model to a circular economy is essential, as virgin materials cannot sustain the current structure of the textile industry. And why should it, when there is so much recyclable material available?”

From the perspective of Rester Oy’s main owner, work clothing supplier Touchpoint, the circular economy plant not only represents resource efficiency, but is also necessary from the perspective of the entire life cycle of a responsible work clothing collection.

Luukko adds, “Finding a local solution to a global problem is a huge leap in the right direction and raises Finland's profile as a pioneer of circular economy."

The future plant will be able to process 12,000 tonnes of end-of-life textiles annually, which represents about 10% of Finland’s textile waste. Both production lines produce recycled fibre, which can be used for various industrial applications, including yarn and fabric, insulating materials for construction and shipping industries, acoustic panels, composites, non-woven and filter materials, and other technical textiles, such as geo-textiles.

LSJH is piloting a full-scale refinement plant

LSJH has launched a pilot production line for processing households' end-of-life textiles. Unfortunately, consumers' end-of-life textiles are heterogeneous, making them a challenging raw material for further processing. Before processing, the textiles are sorted by material into various fibre classes using optical identification technology developed by LSJH and its partners. This ensures the quality of the raw material and the resulting fibre products.

Jukka Heikkilä, managing director for Lounais-Suomen Jätehuolto, explains: “On the basis of the experiences gathered from the pilot project, Lounais-Suomen Jätehuolto is preparing a full-scale refinement plant in the Turku region. As soon as 2023, the plant will process Finnish households' end-of-life textiles. The project involves all waste treatment plants owned by Finnish municipalities.”

Paimio has ambitious goals for circular economy companies

Rester’s initiative aims to create a circular economy cluster in Paimio that combines the processing and reuse of end-of-life textile fibres. Paimion Kehitys Oy, which is owned by the City of Paimio and the local association of enterprises, supports the development of circular economy companies in Paimio.

Mika Ingi, managing director for Paimion Kehitys Oy, says, “We want to step out of our traditional municipal role and create significant added value for everyone taking part. That is why we are involved in the development of a new modern service model based on ecosystem thinking. We are piloting the textile cluster, followed in the coming years by clusters focusing on plastic, construction, and energy. The aim of our service is to support and help develop new profitable business by bringing circular economy companies and their potential customers to innovate together."

The foundation stone of the processing plant was laid today (18 August 2020). The processing plant will begin operations in February 2021.

• World’s largest viscose producer well on track for all of its five mills to be EU-BAT compliant by 2023

Two more Sateri mills in China, Sateri Jiujiang and Sateri Jiangxi, have received verification of compliance to the emissions limits set out in the European Union Best Available Techniques Reference Document (EU-BAT BREF) on Polymers. This brings the total number of EU-BAT compliant mills to three of five, accounting for over 60 per cent of Sateri’s overall fibre production capacity. In April this year, Sateri Fujian was the company’s first mill to be verified as being EU-BAT compliant. Verified by independent consultant Sustainable Textile Solutions (STS), a division of BluWin Limited (UK), the parameters of the EU-BAT BREF assessed included resource utility efficiency, wastewater discharge and air emission. As a highlight, STS’ assessment concluded that the energy intensity and air emission of Sateri Jiujiang and Sateri Jiangxi were well under EU-BAT norms for viscose production. Considering the EU-BAT energy requirements limit of 30GJ/MTf, the mills were each saving about 1,100 kg CO2/MT of fibre production.

The mills also followed local requirements for controlling ecological impact for viscose production, and there were no gaps identified against EU-BAT. Sateri Jiangxi is a 16-year-old mill and the company’s first and oldest, while Sateri Jiujiang was acquired and expanded in 2015. Said Allen Zhang, President of Sateri, “For three of our five mills to meet the EU-BAT emissions limits in such a short span of time is a testament to our continued investment in best-in-class technologies. This applies to all our mills – regardless of whether they are existing, acquired, or newly constructed ones – as we aim to achieve a high level of sustainability performance across all our operations.”

The company is well on track for its remaining two mills, Sateri Jiangsu and Sateri China which were acquired and newly-built in 2019 respectively, to comply with EU-BAT’s recommended emission levels by 2023.

• Rieter protects its innovations and products with patents and registered designs.

The company takes consistent action against patent and design infringements. In mid-July 2020, in a legal dispute, the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court of the People’s Republic of China ruled in favor of Rieter Ingolstadt GmbH (Germany).

Rieter machines stand for outstanding quality, high operational safety, excellent performance and user-friendliness as well as unique design. In order to benefit from these characteristics, competitors copy the successful Rieter machine concepts and even adopt the coveted Rieter design.

Rieter protects its innovations by means of patents and registered designs. The company takes consistent action against companies that infringe Rieter patents or designs and copy products or machines. In 2018, Rieter registered design infringe-ments by Shenyang Hongda Textile Machinery Co., Ltd. in relation to double-head draw frames, and decided to file a lawsuit against the Chinese company.

In mid-July 2020, the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court of the People’s Republic of China determined that the double-head draw frames JWF1316 and JWF1316T of Shenyang Hongda Textile Machinery Co., Ltd. are similar to and fall within the scope of protection of the design patent concerned. The defendant Shenyang Hongda Textile Machinery Co., Ltd. was sentenced to compensate the plaintiff Rieter Ingolstadt GmbH for financial losses and expenses.

In the joint project "AeroFurnace" funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), the consortium, consisting of the Bavarian Center for Applied Energy Research e.V. (ZAE Bayern) as joint coordinator, the furnace manufacturer FCT Systeme, and SGL Carbon has succeeded in improving the thermal insulation properties of a new composite material by up to 120 percent compared to commercially available felt-based carbon materials. This enabled the project partners to move into a new quality level of thermal insulation in high-temperature industrial applications and pave the way for more energy efficient thermal insulation.

Dr. Gudrun Reichenauer, coordinator of the joint project and head of the work group Nanomaterials at ZAE Bayern: "In this project, we have been able to make the latest findings from the world of nanomaterials accessible to the market through intensive cooperation and thus set new standards in the field of thermal insulation materials."

Dr. Thomas Kirschbaum, project manager at SGL Carbon: "In furnace simulations at the partner FCT, we have already been able to demonstrate what the new material can do: Depending on the temperature program, up to 40 percent of the required process energy can be saved with the new thermal insulation material. The potential of the new material is great." This prediction will be reviewed under real conditions in a demonstrator component in the second half of 2020 as part of the still ongoing BMWi project.

Dr. Jürgen Hennicke, project lead and head of R&D at FCT Systeme: "As a leading manufacturer of industrial vacuum or inert gas high temperature furnaces, the new generation of insulating materials enables us to create furnaces with a more favorable ratio of usable space to external dimensions, thus offering customers improved cost efficiency and productivity".

Based on laboratory samples in plate form it has already been demonstrated that the production of the new material can be represented by technically simple processes and is in principle well scalable. However, there is still a long way to go before the product is ready for serial production.

The third largest share of final energy in Germany is used for the generation of heat in industrial processes (22.6 percent). In many industries, e.g. in the steel and ceramics industry, energy-intensive high-temperature processes run above 1000°C – these alone require almost 50 percent of the industrial process heat. Suitable thermal insulation materials can significantly reduce energy demand while maintaining the same usable volume.

• ECOSENSOR™’s new references combine high-performance and innovation to empower people with the possibility to live life naturally both for mind and body.
• The new range is woven from certified ingredients, a completely traceable production process and highly certified suppliers               

"A New Eco high-tech force of Nature", a bold claim, a daring attitude and true facts. ECOSENSOR™ by Asahi Kasei has concentrated all its key values into a Nature-driven and high-tech fabric collection that respects the environment and human being.

Sustainability, active climate control, exquisite touch and extreme performance co-habit the textiles: the collection is made of wovens and knits where the main technology is represented by GRS - Global Recycle Standard certified polyamide and polyesters, sometime combined with ROICA™ recycled stretch yarns and dyed and finished with Oekotex Standard 100 certified processes and/or by BlueSign® partners’ companies.

But there is much more than it meets the eye.

Behind the new collection is a great story of sustainability.

"Our international team strives to innovate with a human-based approach to research and develop solutions that meet high-performance standards as well as the transparency and traceability of both the ingredients and the supply chain", says Mr. Hashimoto, Senior Managing Director of Asahi Kasei Advance, the global materials innovator and manufacturer.

Indeed, the company has set the high bar all its suppliers and partners must match. Such criteria include: thoroughly transparency and traceability of both materials and production, corporate responsibility at all levels and a strategic commitment granted by influential certifications such as GRS - Global Recycle Standard for recycled ingredients and processes, as well as Bluesign® and OekoTex Standard 100 certifications, which focus on environmentally-friendly impact of the dyeing and finishing processes.

The human, environmentally-friendly and cutting-edge imprint of ECOSENSOR™ ultimate collection reflects a vision for a more responsible way of fabric manufacturing.

A new force of nature, because story telling truly must match the story making.

• Italian creativity merges with Chinese technological innovation to create a new capsule collection
   

A new era is born in the world of denim, Paolo Gnutti and Advance Denim will combine their skills to create capsule collections for both the US and Asian markets.

These collections will combine Paolo Gnutti’s artistry and Advance denim’s technological innovation to create “magical” inspiration that is with the reach of all brands.

Advance Denim has the distinction of being the oldest denim manufacturer in China and has dedicated its efforts since day one around the core beliefs of innovation , service , quality and people. These core beliefs are the foundation of their day to day focus of becoming a world leader in denim. They are also  committed to making the most sustainable denim possible and they are constantly investing in the infrastructure and systems that will help them to reach aggressive sustainability goals . Sustainability is important but Advance Denim has always been true to denim and strive to produce innovative high-quality products that exceed the needs of the market

“We are looking forward to Paolo bringing his Italian artistic aesthetics to our denim.” Said Ms. Amy Wang, General Manager of ADVANCE DENIM. “ We believe it is the combination of eastern and western design and culture that have never been offered to our customers before and will take Advance Denim to a whole new level. It is our goal to also offer these high quality designs at a competitive price from our Vietnam facility.” conclude Ms. Wang.

Paolo Gnutti, a life time dedicated to denim innovation and creativity, bases the creation of his collections following  precise themes and  stylistic contaminations. He uses indigo bases which are completely transformed thanks to the use of flocks, 3D prints, colored foils and metallic effects.

Paolo Gnutti has the ability to conceive ground breaking fashion, thanks to his incredible creativity and visionary irreverent combination that ushers in a new concept of  fashionability to the denim world.

“ My passion and my professional exploration lead me to acquire the skill needed to develop unforgettable and unique textile concepts” said Paolo Gnutti “ I’m trilled to begin this collaboration with Advance Denim. I feel that we need a new challenge in our denim world, a new era of true globalization; we will create a capsule collection that will reach all customers, from premium to the mass market.”

A new era begins, based on the evolution of the  market and the search for innovation and inspiration that is both technically performance driven and accessible to all brands.

• Tata Communications announces its financial results for the quarter ended June 30th, 2020

Commenting on the results, A.S Lakshminarayanan, MD and CEO, Tata Communications, said, “We have started this new financial year with strong performance amidst an uncertain and unpredictable economic environment. Digital is increasingly defining and shaping the experiences in this new world. It will become even more strategically core as businesses look to adopt new ways of working and transform how they operate, and how they engage with their audiences and with each other. We continue to be a key partner for our customers as they look to now focus on business recovery, acceleration, and growth.
Our new proposition, Secure Connected Digital Experience, is aimed at enabling customers to adopt new digital working models by providing a holistic ecosystem of solutions that are suited for this digital-first environment and are built for the long term. We’re seeing good interest in the market for these solutions. We remain focused on our strategy to deliver profitable growth and to be a preferred digital partner to our customers.”

Commenting on the results, Pratibha K. Advani, Chief Financial Officer, Tata Communications, said, “We have registered another quarter of strong growth. Data portfolio, which has been the key driver for our business, recorded a double-digit growth of 10% YoY with robust margin expansion of 460 Bps.

Enterprise business has also shown a healthy increase in the quarter, on the back of strong growth in India as well as the international markets, with India growing by 6.7% and international by 8.3% YoY. We continue to drive cost efficiencies in our business and with every successive quarter, we are improving our financial fitness.

Highlights

• Strong growth in Data business; revenue grew by +10% YoY on the back of robust performance across all segments, despite an uncertain economic environment.
• Data EBITDA was at INR 975 crore; up +32.4% YoY on the back of margin expansion of 460 Bps YoY led by cost efficiency initiatives.
• Due to lockdown and remote working, we are witnessing increased bandwidth usage and higher collaboration traffic. Enterprises have upgraded their capacities and are consuming more data to support this work model. Consequently, our India enterprise business grew by 6.7% YoY and international enterprise business grew by 8.3% YoY on the back of strong demand. This has led to increase in both revenue and profitability.
• Consolidated revenue was at INR 4,403 crore; growth of +5.6% YoY on the back of strong growth in Data business.
• Consolidated EBITDA at INR 1,042 crore; increase of +26.2% YoY and margin expansion of 390 Bps on the back of strong profitable growth in data business and focus on cost efficiencies.
• Consolidated PAT at INR 258 crore as compared to a profit of INR 77 crore in Q1 FY20; growth of +236% YoY.
• CAPEX for this quarter was INR 372 crore as compared to INR 342 crore in Q4 FY20.

*Please read the attached document for more information

Following the successful commissioning of two new Monforts Montex wide-width stenter lines and additional environmental management equipment at its plant in Germany, GtA – Society for Textile Equipment GmbH – is aiming to be the first textile finishing company to become entirely CO2-neutral in the manufacture of all of its products by 2025.

GtA is a partner company to Germany’s large-format digital printing fabric leader, Georg and Otto Friedrich GmbH, which has has this year been able to considerably expand its portfolio due to the new Monforts lines.

Headquartered in Gross-Zimmern, close to Frankfurt, Georg and Otto Friedrich GmbH and its partners in Germany have an annual production of 37 million square metres of warp knits for a range of end-use applications, including garments, automotive interiors and technical textiles, but increasingly with a concentration on digital printing substrates.

Fault-free textiles

A new standard in pure white, 100% clean and fault-free textile substrates has been demanded by this market in recent years due to the rapid growth in digitally-printed banners and billboards – often referred to as ‘soft signage’.

The substrates of choice for digital printing are 100% polyester warp knits which are resilient and allow excellent take-up of inks, and vibrant colours and clear and precise images to be achieved with digital printing techniques. The knitted construction also has the advantage of elasticity, which is a plus in terms of flexibility for installers.

Critically, the warp knitted fabrics have extremely smooth surfaces which is becoming increasingly important due to the general move away from PVC coatings which were the standard in the past.

It was to finish these fabrics for Georg and Otto Friedrich GmbH as well as providing such services for many other customers, that the GtA plant in Neresheim, Baden-Württemberg, was established in 2015.

The purpose-built plant on a greenfield site was initially equipped with a fully-automated, 72 metre long Monforts installation comprising a washing machine integrated with a 3.6 metre wide, seven-chamber Montex stenter. The line quickly went from single to double shift production and then to 24/7 operation  to meet demand.

Expanded widths

Building on the success of this installation, GtA has now installed two more Montex stenter lines – both in expanded working widths of 5.6 metres and purpose-built at Montex GmbH in Austria.

A six-chamber Montex unit is combined with a washing machine to guarantee the purity of the substrates, while a five-chamber line is integrated with a wide-width coating machine. This new coating capability at GtA has led to a number of new additions to the Georg and Otto Friedrich DecoTex range for digital printing, including wide width fabrics with flame retardant, antimicrobial and non-slip finishes.

The new Montex stenter lines benefit from all of the latest innovations from Monforts, including the Smart Sensor system for the optimised maintenance planning of key mechanical wear components on the stenters. A comprehensive overview of the condition of all parts at any time is now available for operators within the highly intuitive Qualitex visualization software.

With Qualitex, all article-specific settings can be stored and the formulations for thousands of treatment processes called up again at any time. Individual operators can also personalise their dashboards with the most important machine functions and process parameters.

Environmental commitment

GtA is run by a seasoned team of textile professionals led by Managing Director Andreas Niess.

“We have received excellent service from Monforts from the outset and we were happy to place the order for these two new lines as part of our ongoing cooperation,” he says. “With all of the latest Monforts advances in technology we are fully in control of all production and quality parameters with these lines, as part of our significant commitment to innovative environmental technology.”

The GtA plant, which operates in near-cleanroom conditions, has also been equipped with proprietary technology to fully exploit the Monforts air-to-air heat recovery systems that are now standard with Montex stenters.

“Around 30 per cent of our investment volume at the site goes to energy-saving measures and we are sure that this commitment is worthwhile,” Mr Niess says. “As an example, our integrated heat recovery system fully exploits the waste heat from the process exhaust air and the burner exhaust gases of the Monforts stenters, allowing us to achieve an exhaust air temperature of  between 30 to 34°C, compared to what would conventionally be between 140 to 160°C. Another focus has been on exhaust air purification technology and here too, the latest technology has been installed with integrated heat recovery elements.”

This, he adds, saves 52% of the energy that would normally be used – equating to 5,800,000 KwH per year. The necessary audits for energy-efficient companies are also carried out annually.

In addition, GtA has purpose-designed the automatic chemical mixing and dosing systems that feed the padders for the key treatments that are carried out on the fabrics through the stenters.

The company is going further, however, in its pursuit of clean production and raw materials.

"We want to be an asset and not a burden on our immediate environment and therefore do not use any additives containing solvents," Mr Niess says. “We were the first to use fully halogen-free flame retardant chemistry, and we use bio-based, finely ground alumina products for the washing process instead of surfactants. PES polyester yarns made from recycled material are also increasingly used and the latest additions to our raw materials portfolio, the RC-Ocean products, are made from recycled sea plastic.

“We are now planning a combined heat and power plant for the production of electrical energy and heat and we will also build a photovoltaic system that converts solar radiation into electrical energy. GtA wants to be the first textile finishing company to be CO2-neutral in the manufacture of all of its products by 2025. The complete heat supply and heating for the 13,000 square metre production hall, as well as the office building and the hot water supply for the domestic water, is already energy-neutral. We are convinced that this commitment will pay off in the long term and our positive business development proves that sustainability and business profitability are perfectly compatible.”

In addition to the products for Georg and Otto Friedrich GmbH, GtA  offers its manufacturing capacities for other customers as a contract service.

All products are manufactured in accordance with Öko-Tex Standard 100, product class 1 and the company is also involved in the research and development of new sustainable manufacturing processes, in cooperation with many regional universities and funding project partners.