From the Sector

This month, the circular knitting machine manufacturer Mayer & Cie. is launching its upgrade kits for circular knitting machines that are already successfully in use by customers. With tailor-made packages, the company wants to give its users the opportunity to take advantage of technological progress in their existing machines. The aim is to improve the performance of the existing machines and to extend their service life. In addition to the machine-specific upgrade kits, the company now starts offering tailormade spare parts packages. They are intended to ensure machine availability and equip customers with spare parts for standard situations. In addition, they offer a degree of independence from possible failures in the supply chain and rising transport costs.

Longevity, a popular product property
“Longevity of our circular knitting machines is definitely a property that our satisfied customers mention regularly”, Mayer & Cie. sales director Wolfgang Müller says. The company estimates that up to 50 percent of all the circular knitting machines it has ever made are still around in the market somewhere.

Upgrades boost performance and value
Value retention, maintenance and upgrades for existing machines are a key issue for the company – and for the customers who successfully use existing Mayer & Cie equipment. That’s why the company recently launched customised upgrade kits to improve the long-term performance of machines.

Low budget, clear benefit
Compared to a new machine, upgrade kits are a low-cost investment that deliver clearly defined benefits. For example, an improved yarn guide ensures a significant increase in the plating reliability and output of the machine in question.

Most of the upgrade kits is machine-specific; the aforementioned yarn guide ensures a boost in productivity for the Relanit 3.2 II and Relanit 3.2 S. For S4 machines an optimised fluff blowing device can be the solution. It ensures that less fluff is knitted in and thereby improves the fabric quality. It also reduces downtimes that would otherwise be required for cleaning. Upgrade kits suitable for most Mayer & Cie. machines are the edge trimmer to open a fabric hose before the fabric’s rolling-up and the laying facility for high-quality hose fabric.

Spare part packages: Inside is what is required
In addition to individual upgrade kits Mayer & Cie. now offers spare parts packages. They too are customised for individual machines. When purchasing a machine, the customer can also order a small or a large spare parts package. Selected specially for the machine in question, it contains the most important consumables and spare parts.
The new spare parts packages also increase customers’ independence of supply chain failures and rising transport costs.

High-performance yarns now offer almost unlimited possibilities for replacing traditional raw materials in a vast range of technical applications. Often tailor-made, these filament yarns go way beyond the conventional idea of ‘textiles’ – finding new uses in sectors such as automotive, aviation, maritime, medical and construction, among many others.

Technical textiles are everywhere in our daily lives today, even if we may not always realize it. Some are in more obviously textile products, from sewing threads to artificial turf. But then, take cars as an example: modern vehicles are stuffed with parts made from sophisticated yarns. It’s common for producers of automotive parts now to send template material and requirement lists to Swiss Textile Machinery members, trusting their expertise and experience. Members operate development and testing centers with latest machine installations, where their experts devise customized solutions, as well as calling on the pure innovative spirit which is part of their DNA.

At the extremes
Technology drives applications beyond our current imagining in the case of Heberlein air splicers. Developed for a wide range of uses with high-strength technical fibers, they have no problems splicing aramid fibers up to 16’100 dtex, carbon up to 30’000 dtex, Dyneema up to 5’500 dtex, and glass up to 4’800 tex. Using compressed air, the splicers produce a tear-resistant, homogeneous splice of material without interfering knots.

Retech has the technology to achieve specifications for filament yarns, drawing and stretching fibers to perfection. Top heated godet rolls – many customized – are developed for high-performance fibers. Temperatures up to 400 °C can be achieved. Combining the right settings and wide speed ranges for each specific process results in unique end-products.

Fabric producers of high-end applications must avoid any quality risk. Yarn producers are well aware of this responsibility, so they use precision package winders for technical yarns, developed by Rieter’s subsidiary SSM. Taking yarns from ring twisting bobbins, its specialist finish winders can produce coarse-count technical yarns up to 50’000 dtex, offering a new level of flexibility and winding quality.

Lifestyle essentials
At first glance, motorists might fail to notice many of the technical yarns ‘hidden’ inside their cars. These products have functions such as providing stability with hardly any weight, or absorbing tensile forces at defined elongation. This kind of controlled elongation behaviour, for example, arises from the choice of textile material and the special construction of the yarns used.

Such specifications make twisting and cabling machines essential for the automotive industry. Saurer offers machines for the production of technical yarns made from a variety of feed materials in a very wide yarn count range. They are needed for vehicle products such as tire carcasses, toothed engine belts, seat belts, airbags and lorry tarpaulins.

Technical yarns also play a surprising role in our mobile devices. Tapping, scrolling and swiping are second nature for billions, with our phones and a plethora of other lifestyle essentials. Yet, how many people would know that the touch-sensitivity we take for granted on these screens is largely made possible by twisted glass fibers. Bräcker, part of Rieter’s components business, offers a selection of vertical sinter metal rings and nylon travelers for glass fiber twisting, so that mills can achieve high levels of productivity and quality.

Future unlimited
Automotive and communication technology are already important industries for Swiss Textile Machinery members, along with well-known technical textiles markets in sectors such as medical, transport and construction. Smart-wear is already noted as a field with significant potential. Naturally, members are constantly investigating other possibilities. Swiss textile machinery is already applied in energy (batteries), and plastics.

The Swiss Textile Machinery Pavilion will be at the Techtextil exhibition in Frankfurt, Germany, taking place from 21 to 24 June 2022.

• Innovation begins with creativity
• A pioneer of the manmade fiber industry

When the manmade fiber age began a century ago, a German company was responsible for the pioneering work involved. Barmag, established in 1922, was one of the world’s first companies to construct machines for the large-scale production of synthetic staple fibers. To this day, the leading manufacturer of manmade fiber spinning systems and texturing machines in Remscheid – a brand under the aegis of the Swiss Oerlikon Group since 2007 – has shaped technological progress in this sector; in future, with ever more innovations focusing on sustainability and digitalization.

Barmer Maschinenfabrik Aktiengesellschaft (Barmag) is founded in Barmen, located in the Bergische Land region, on March 27, 1922. The German and Dutch founders enter unchartered technological territory, one created as the result of a groundbreaking invention: in 1884, French chemist Count Hilaire Bernigaud de Chardonnet used nitrocellulose to produce the first so-called artificial silk, later known as rayon. The following decades see rapid development focusing on the search for synthetic textile fibers and their manufacturing technologies. As one of the first machine factories, Barmag battles its way through the eventful early years of the manmade fiber industry, the ‘Roaring Twenties’ and the Great Depression – and suffers the extensive destruction of its factories at the end of World War Two. Rebuilding is successful. With the unstoppable success story of purely synthetic plastic fibers such as polyamide, the company flourishes from the 1950s through to the 1970s, establishing sites in all international, for the textile industry at the time important, industrial regions and garnering prestige across the globe in the process. In the ups and downs of expansion, global competition and crises, Barmag reaches the very pinnacle of the market and becomes the preferred technological development partner for the manmade fiber industries in China, India and Turkey. The company has been a high-impact brand under the umbrella of the Oerlikon Group since 2007.

On the wings of innovation
Today, Oerlikon Barmag is a leading supplier of manmade fiber filament spinning systems and part of the Manmade Fibers Solutions business unit of the Oerlikon Polymer Processing Solutions Division. And our aspirations have not diminished: “The striving towards innovation and technological leadership has been, is and will always be part of our DNA”, emphasizes Georg Stausberg, CEO of Oerlikon Polymer Processing Solutions. In the past, this has been observable in such trailblazing innovations as the revolutionary WINGS generation of winders for POY in 2007 and WINGS for FDY in 2012. Currently, the focus of new and further developments is very much on digitalization and sustainability. Here, Oerlikon Barmag has – as one of the world’s first systems manufacturers – been implementing fully-networked smart factories for globally-leading polyester manufacturers since the end of the last decade. Within this context, digital solutions and automation are also helping to provide greater climate and environmental compatibility. This sustainability commitment is not only evidenced by the e-save label introduced for all products back in 2004: Oerlikon is endeavoring to also make all its sites carbon-neutral by 2030 and to acquire its energy exclusively from renewable sources. An ambitious target, whose achievement could be helped by the Oerlikon Barmag anniversary, states Georg Stausberg: “Innovation begins with creativity. And remembering the past provides plenty of motivation and inspiration for the future.”

Reifenhäuser Cast Sheet Coating - specialists for cast film, sheet extrusion and extrusion coating lines - will showcase a new production process for cost-effective film/nonwoven composites with an exceptionally low grammage at ICE (International Converting Exhibition) Europe. The leading international trade show for paper, film, and foil conversion and processing will be held at Messe München (Munich trade fair center) from March 15-17, 2022.

The Covid-19 pandemic and current supply shortages have exposed the dependence of companies on global supply chains. This situation is both a warning signal and an opportunity to boost and reorganize the local production of semi-finished products from the ground up. Reifenhäuser Cast Sheet Coating has now developed a trend-setting production process termed Ultrathin Coating, in particular for the sector of medical protective clothing. The process will permit customers to produce particularly lightweight film/nonwoven composites with greater cost efficiency and, as a result, more competitively. The patent-pending process has several advantages: It cuts film grammage by 66%; material consumption in the overall composite is reduced by 28%; and it slashes costs by up to 34% compared to conventional semi-finished products. Significant cost savings are achieved in various ways, for example, by replacing hotmelt adhesives, which reduces line maintenance to a great extent at the same time.

Mark Borutta, Sales & Marketing Specialist bei Reifenhäuser Cast Sheet Coating, erklärt: „Wir erleben derzeit einen nachhaltig wachsenden Mehrbedarf für medizinische Schutzbekleidung verbunden mit einer Rückholstrategie für lokale Produktionskapazitäten. Vor diesem Hintergrund erzielen Produzenten mit ‚Ultrathin Coating‘ einen schnellen Return on Invest und hohe Profitabilität – auch bei einer Produktion innerhalb Europas.“ Die Vlies-erfahrene Schwesterfirma Reifenhäuser Reicofil –führender Hersteller von Vliesstoffanlagen – hat die Entwicklung unterstützt.

Mark Borutta, Sales & Marketing specialist at Reifenhäuser Cast Sheet Coating, explains: "We are currently experiencing a sustained increase in demand for medical protective clothing combined with a return strategy for local production capacity. Against this backdrop, producers achieve a fast return on investment and high profitability with Ultrathin Coating - even when production is based in Europe." The sister company, Reifenhäuser Reicofil, an experienced and global leading manufacturer of nonwoven lines, provided their support to the development.

Even if manufacturers already produce medical protective clothing and prefer to handle the coating process internally in the future instead of importing the necessary composites, it is worthwhile to set up an in-house production facility. In either case, the investment in Ultrathin Coating usually pays for itself in less than 12 months. The lower material input also reduces the consumption of fossil raw materials and this in turn responds to the increased demand for more sustainable products.

Over 600 delegates from 58 countries subscribed to the latest VDMA textile machinery webinar on sustainable dyeing held on February 3rd, 2022 – a record since the monthly online series started in June 2020. The webinar, entitled ‘Resource-saving in Textile Processing – Continuous Dyeing and Washing’, involved the three companies Monforts, DyStar® and Goller.

In outlining the capabilities of Monforts Thermex hotflue lines for the Econtrol® continuous dyeing process, the company’s Textile Technologies Engineer Jonas Beisel observed that the current industry focus is very much on cleaner processes and products in accordance with the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) commitments of the major fashion brands, and with further regulations to be expected.

Cellulosics
Econtrol® is a continuous process for the dyeing of woven cellulosic fabrics that has already been well proven on the market, with over 150 Monforts Thermex lines already in operation at mills worldwide.

Reactive dyestuffs are fixed into the fabric in a one-step dyeing and drying process with a controlled combination of steam and air. The entire pad-dry process takes just two-to-three minutes at a temperature of between 120-130°C and a relative humidity volume of 25-30%.

Benefits
The Econtrol® pad-dry process has a number of immediate benefits. Compared to the common pad-dry-pad-steam process, no salt is used and no steamer is required for a separate fixation step.

Compared to the pad-dry-thermofix process, no urea is used and no smoke or deposits are generated, and unlike with the cold pad batch process, direct feedback of the dyeing results ensures no batching time is necessary and guarantees good reproducibility from the lab to bulk production.

Complementary services and systems
Complementing the Monforts presentation during the webinar, Bertram Seuthe, Global Business Development Manager at DyStar, outlined the importance of specific Levafix® /Remazol® reactive dyes and Dianix® disperse dyes for sustainable dyeing processes such as Econtrol®, Cadira® Continuous and CPB knit. In these processes Sera® auxiliaries are also employed for optimised wash-off results.

Guido Seiler, Area Sales Manager at Fong's Europe, also introduced the latest developments of the Goller brand for the washing process, which can reduce water consumption by between 10 to 20%, as well as reductions in both heating energy and waste generation, depending on the specific fabric construction and required shade.

Digitalization is a big story in the world of business. It’s all about change, making use of technology to transform attitudes and create new opportunities to grow revenue. At its heart is innovation, with new systems and intelligent use of data. In textiles, the entire value chain is going digital, as evidenced by the commitment of Swiss Textile Machinery Association member firms. Their story – presented here in six ‘chapters’ – spans industry sectors through spinning, weaving, finishing and nonwovens.

Cost savings and more
The process of digitalization in the textile industry today is continuous – faster in some segments than others – but noticeable everywhere. Automation is promising in many areas of finishing and making-up, where initial investments are being made. An example is folding of finished goods, previously a slow manual operation. Now, high-performance automatic folding machines from Swiss company Espritech deliver the potential for cost savings, unlocking new options for positive change at this most labor-intensive stage of production. For manufacturers in low-cost areas, the benefit results from its volume and is a simple financial one. In higher-cost segments, the application of this technology can be part of a completely new business model, taking production closer to the end customer.

Better process, better workplace
Pioneering in the field of digitalization embraces social responsibility along with the introduction of bold new technological innovation. That’s a commitment made by Uster, as it aims to shape future working practices in the textile industry in areas where its systems are applied. In fabric inspection, that means combining the strengths of human capabilities with the performance of Artificial Intelligence. Automatic defect classification with machine learning technology is the next leap in digitalization for fabric manufacturers, following on from automated detection of fabric faults, which is already well established in weaving and finishing mills. This will bring benefits in profitability for the manufacturer – as well as an improved working environment for their operatives, freed from repetitive tasks.

Information, flexible and fast
Access to data is critical in the digitalized world of textiles. It must be flexible, fast and secure, and available to all levels of the company – worldwide. Jakob Muller serves the narrow fabrics industry ideally with a digitalization portal, perfectly developed to provide essential production information. The portal is a browser-based production data acquisition system, with direct access to the machine controls. The system offers unique data monitoring and communication on a global framework. Digitized weave rooms present information 24/7 on desktops at the customer’s plant, as well as on tablets and smartphones remotely.

Making the most of it
Rieter takes advantage of latest digital technology to offer customers a unique experience. Their digital spinning suite helps spinners overcome their daily challenges and manage costs and efficiency more effectively. This all-in-one mill management system connects all the machinery, giving quick access to the right information and a holistic view, from bale to yarn. Users profit from full transparency, and are presented with recommendations based on long-standing experience and know-how. This is digitalization at its most practical, applied to allow spinners to make the most of their installed machinery.

Production, service, training – digital everything
As a solutions provider, Saurer puts digitalization at the core of business, integral to its technology offering to customers. Some latest examples include self-optimization of spinning machines, and a fully automated transport of cylindrical or conical cross-wound packages. These are automatically stored in an internal buffer system, for later feeding to subsequent processes. Of course after-sales service is also digital: the e-shop and machine information hub, together with the web-based training centre, ensure that knowledge is transferred to customers – turning employees into experts.

See the future system today
Autefa Solutions uses the concept of digital twinning, visualizing any real-world concept of a nonwovens line to make it easier for potential customers to grasp the idea. It’s also a big help for training and servicing needs. Most of all they digitalize important parts e.g. of a baling press line with perfectly interconnecting software tools. This is an excellent method for reducing commissioning times. Ordered bale presses reach technical readiness in the form of a digital twin, before they are commissioned in the real world. This typically halves the total time to get the line up and running.
Speaking on behalf of Swiss Textile Machinery Association members, André Imhof, CEO of Autefa Solutions Switzerland AG, says: “Making digitalization our friend opens doors for business model innovations, which is essential for our industry competitiveness. The approach is to digitalize everything that can be digitalized. We won’t stop.”

Fully integrated production lines from single source suppliers have increasingly become the norm in the textile industry and make complete sense in meeting today’s complex supply chain needs, according to TMAS – the Swedish Textile Machinery Association.

“Over the past few decades, textile mills have transitioned from consisting of collections of individual machines serviced and maintained largely by in-house mechanics as well as separate supplier companies for each part of the production line,” says TMAS Secretary General Therese Premler-Andersson. “Those in-house engineering service teams have diminished over the years, while the introduction of electronic drive systems in the 1980s and 90s also put an increased emphasis on the need for third party electrical engineers, operating separately to the machine builders.

“Subsequently, mechanical machines and electronic drive systems became much more integrated, and more recently, with the advent of digitalisation, entire production lines are becoming centrally controlled with remote, instantaneous connections to their suppliers for service and maintenance.

“In this context, the integration of machinery and automation specialists as single-source suppliers makes perfect sense, while partnerships between machine builders and their customers have never been more important.”

The recent acquisition of Nowo textile machinery from its previous owner, Brandstones Ab Oy, by TMAS member ACG Kinna, she adds, is a good example of this general trend.

Nowo, headquartered in Turku, Finland, designs, manufactures and exports high-end textile production machinery mainly for the fibre processing industry. At the end of the 1980s it introduced the highly successful Nowo Vac pillow filling system, which has been its best-selling system, alongside the Noworoll ball fibre machine, introduced in the 1990s.

Nowo’s machine range covers the entire production process from bale opening to weighing and filling, and complete production lines are tailored to the specific needs of customers. The company can also deliver individual machines such as bale openers, cards, cross-lappers, pickers, mixing devices, material silos, sucking devices, anti-static units etc. Seven patents cover the company’s technologies.

Founded in 1977, ACG Kinna Automatic, based in Skene in Sweden, specialises in customised and cost-efficient solutions for the production of pillows and quilts. All of its design, manufacturing and final line testing is carried out in Sweden and the reliability and longevity of its machines has earned it the trust of the world’s largest furniture and home decoration retailers and Europe’s largest manufacturer of pillows and duvets, among many customers.

• This E. Schneider will not stand for re-election at the 2022 Annual General Meeting
• Sarah Kreienbühl and Daniel Grieder proposed for election as new members of the Board of Directors

This E. Schneider has informed the Board of Directors that, after 13 years of membership, he will not stand for re-election as a member of the Board of Directors and Vice Chairman of Rieter Holding AG at the next Annual General Meeting on April 7, 2022.

The Board of Directors of Rieter Holding AG will propose Sarah Kreienbühl and Daniel Grieder for election to the Board of Directors at the Annual General Meeting on April 7, 2022.

Sarah Kreienbühl has been a member of the Executive Board of the Federation of Migros Cooperatives since 2018 and heads among other things Human Resources and Communications of the Migros Group. Before that, she spent 14 years at Sonova as Group VP Corporate Human Resources, where she was also responsible for Corporate Communications from 2012. Sarah Kreienbühl holds both the Swiss and French citizenship and graduated from the University of Zurich with a degree in psychology. With her expertise and extensive leadership experience, she will be able to make an important contribution to Rieter’s human resources policy as a member of the Board of Directors.

Daniel Grieder has been CEO of HUGO BOSS AG, based in Metzingen (Germany), since June 2021. He has been working successfully in the textile industry for more than 35 years: initially from 1985 to 2004 as an independent entrepreneur with his own sales agency, which worked for Tommy Hilfiger from 1997. He joined Tommy Hilfiger directly in 2004 and took on additional roles for PVH from 2010 to 2020. He most recently held the positions of Global CEO Tommy Hilfiger and CEO PVH Europe. Daniel Grieder is a Swiss citizen and studied at the Zurich School of Economics and Business Administration.

Korteks, one of the world’s biggest yarn producers based in Bursa, Turkey, has started the production of recycled polyester filament yarn in its production facility using a Starlinger recycling line.

With the new recycling facility, which comprises a total closed area of 17,000 m² and has a monthly production capacity of 600 tons, Korteks was able to reduce the production waste at its virgin PES yarn site to zero.

The Starlinger recoSTAR universal 165 H-VAC iV+, which is part of Korteks’ 10 million dollars investment in a new polymer recycling facility, took up operation in May 2021. It has a production capacity of 7,200 tons per year and currently processes clean in-house polyester fibers from production scrap together with washed post-consumer PET flakes at a ratio of 50/50. Korteks uses the polyester regranulate at a share of 100 % for its new polyester filament yarn line it is going to market under the name “TAÇ Reborn”. With this investment, the company has made an important step towards establishing a circular economy in the Turkish textile industry.

The Starlinger recycling line is the first of its kind in Turkey and is equipped with special components for filament yarn recycling. A RSC (Rapid Sleeve Changer) candle filter developed by Starlinger ensures finest melt filtration down to 15 μm. It has been specially designed for polyester recycling and reaches an output of 1000 kg/h. For continuous operation the filter elements are changed “on the fly” without interrupting production, which significantly limits melt loss.

The viscoSTAR SSP unit at the end of the recycling process guarantees consistent IV increase according to the first-in-first-out principle. This makes sure that the produced regranulate has the ideal properties required for filament yarn production. The technical configuration of the line does not only allow the processing of a polyester fiber/PET flake mix as input materials, but also 100 % polyester filament scrap or 100 % PET bottle flakes.

Korteks expects the recycling market in general to grow as there is increased acceptance for recycled products in the society, and predicts the need for recycling solutions also for other synthetic and natural fibers.

Zünd Connect compiles production data from integrated Zünd cutting systems into meaningful key performance indicators, such as cutter capacity, availability, and overall equipment effectiveness. Zünd Connect creates transparency and identifies areas in the digital cutting workflow with potential for optimization.

There are many ways to optimize digital cutting and ensure maximum productivity, which is the reason why Zünd now offers Zünd Connect, a monitoring tool that helps the user recognize this potential and increase productivity. Using Zünd Connect, the user can see at a glance when and, more importantly, why machine interruptions occur, how much time is spent in setup, and what the availability of each machine is.

The web-based monitoring tool gives the user access to cutter- performance data at a glance, any time of day. Reliable key performance indicators are available at all times to help users maximize productivity. The system records productivity levels over a freely definable period using Zünd Cut Center – ZCC (Version 3.4 or later) as data source. Data monitoring provides information users need in order to make informed decisions. This comprehensive overview of production data reveals connections that are often overlooked. Zünd Connect supplies valuable key performance indicators for assessing how efficiently cutting systems are working. To be able to improve cutter efficiency, potential areas of improvement must be uncovered and recognized. This potential lies primarily in the technology but also in the way it is being used.

Zünd Connect is available in a "Monitor" or an "Analyzer" version.