From the Sector

Over the past year, TMAS, the Swedish Textile Machinery Association, has been working with ClimatePartner on a corporate carbon footprint (CCF) mapping project with its member companies, as a natural step towards supporting a more sustainable textile industry.

Over half of the members of TMAS are participating in the project, which involves calculating each operation’s Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions in order to identify the current climate impact and areas where reductions can be made.

“Integrating climate action into strategies is becoming increasingly important in Europe and we have decided to take a pro-active role,” says TMAS secretary general Therese Premler-Andersson. “There is growing pressure from customers to be more transparant in this area and forthcoming legislation will soon make it necessary for all to take climate actions. TMAS members, however, recognise the benefit of taking action now, not least in terms of taking responsibility and demonstrating credibility.”

The CCF project’s scope examines all aspects of a business split into five areas:

• Facility Management (heating, electricity, water, cooling agents and waste disposal).
• Employee Mobility (commuting and company cars).
• Business Travel (flights travel by train, rental cars).
• Procurement (production, packaging and office materials).
• Logistics (inbound and outbound).

Primary data is being used wherever possible and emission factors originate from internationally recognised databases such as ecoinvent and GEMIS.

The ClimatePartner measurement programme is based on the guidelines of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (GHG Protocol), and factors in all greenhouse gases covered by the Kyoto Protocol. These are carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), nitrous oxide (N₂O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFC), perfluorocarbons (PFC), sulphur hexafluoride (SF₆) and nitrogen trifluoride (NF₃).

Each of these gases affect the atmosphere differently and remain in the atmosphere for different lengths of time. Rather than reporting on each gas separately, they are expressed as a CO₂ equivalent (CO₂e) for the sake of simplicity. A CO₂e is essentially a conversion into a ‘global warming potential’ value that enables the influence of different gases on global warming to be compared.

Textile companies could take full advantage of expanded print opportunities with EFI™ Reggiani textile solutions presented at the 8-13 December India ITME Exhibition in Greater Noida.

The EFI Reggiani TERRA Silver printer was shown at ITME 2022: a solution to enter the industrial printing segment with a short, smart and green process. The EFI Reggiani TERRA Solution eliminates the need for steaming or washing on direct-to-textile applications, using a greener, more efficient polymerisation process that takes place as the printed textile goes through the printer’s on-board dryer. As a result, users can achieve superior printing results while using less time, water, and energy.

The EFI Reggiani exhibit at ITME was also promoting:

•  EFI Reggiani HYPER printer, a scanning printer available in 1.8-metre, 2.4-metre or 3.4-metre widths that prints at up to 20 linear metres per minute peak speed, making it the fastest textile scanning printer on the market;
• Mezzera Concord, the continuous rope washing line from the specialist in washing solutions that transports fabric by overflow for tensionless running with an independent squeezing mangle for each channel;
• One of the industry’s broadest line-ups of high-end, superior-quality textile inks, including EFI Reggiani AQUA and EFI Reggiani Diamond reactive, IRIS dye-sublimation, ARIA direct disperse, FUOCO acid, and GEA and TERRA pigment inks; and
• Inèdit, recently acquired by EFI Reggiani, a developer of raster image processors (RIPs) and related software for digital industrial textile printing with their product portfolio that features proven, highly advanced workflow solutions for textile profiling, calibration, design integration and much more.

The UK’s new Business Secretary, Grant Shapps has visited the Henry Royce Institute’ hub in Manchester to seal the second phase of R&D investment in the institute of £95 million. Fibre Extrusion Technology Limited (FET) of Leeds, England had previously installed its FET-200LAB wet spinning system at the University of Manchester site and this proved to be a focus for the Business Secretary’s interest, as he discussed the project with FET’s Research and Development Manager, Mark Smith.

This wet spinning technology enables fibres to be derived from sustainable wood pulp to produce high quality apparel and trials are now underway to perfect this process. FET is a world leading supplier of laboratory and pilot melt spinning systems, having successfully processed more than 35 different polymer types in multifilament, monofilament and nonwoven formats.

During his visit, Shapps spoke of the investment programme as a means of reinforcing the UK’s standing as a leader in advanced materials research, development and innovation.

“R&D investment is a critical way to turbocharge Britain’s growth. Growing an economy fit for the future means harnessing the full potential of advanced materials, making science fiction a reality by supporting projects from regenerative medicine to robots developing new recycling capabilities, right across the country. Today’s £95 million investment will do just that, bringing together the brightest minds across our businesses and institutions to help future-proof sectors from healthcare to nuclear energy.”

The Henry Royce Institute was established in 2015 with an initial £235 million government investment through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the latest £95 million sum represents the second phase of the investment.

Opportunities being investigated by Royce include lightweight materials and structures, biomaterials and materials designed for reuse, recycling and remanufacture. Advanced materials are critical to the UK future in various industries, such as health, transport, energy, electronics and utilities.

Trützschler Card Clothing (TCC), technology leader in the manufacture of high-performance card clothings for textile yarn processing, is expanding its site in Neubulach, Germany. With the twelve-million-euro investment, the supplier for the international textile machinery industry is expanding its production, warehouse and office capacities. A groundbreaking ceremony will take place during the coming winter.

The new building will expand the warehouse and logistics area by 600 square meters, to make a total area of 2,800 square meters. In the optimized cube of the new hall, a modern warehouse system will double the storage capacity. There will also be a fully automated warehouse for coils for sawtooth wires. During the construction phase, logistics and shipping will be temporarily outsourced to Pforzheim-Büchenbronn.

The move into the new building is planned for 2024. TCC will also expand the range of services and the production intensity at the site, while optimizing the process flows. Trützschler intends to recruit the additional employees required within a short timeframe by hiring new staff and offering apprenticeships at the Neubulach site. TCC employs more than 130 people in Germany, with a further 220 people employed worldwide at locations in Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Turkey and the USA.

Overall, the production area will be expanded from 4,000 to 5,400 square meters. This will enable the process flows to be optimized. The office space will be increased to 1,000 square meters. An additional level of the building will provide modern workplaces for administration and sales.

The new building will also improve access and exit routes for truck traffic. This will provide considerable relief for the local neighborhood in terms of noise emissions and other factors. Good integration into the region is very important to Trützschler. All contracts for planning, construction and air conditioning technology have been awarded to local companies.

In the future, TCC will operate its production facility in Neubulach in a climate-neutral manner. This will contribute important progress toward achieving the ambitious climate goals of the Trützschler Group. The new production facility will meet the highest requirements for energy efficiency and climate protection. Heating is provided by process heat recovery and geothermal energy. In addition, the company produces green electricity via its own solar panels.

"By expanding our business here in Neubulach, we are strengthening our presence in this area and our leading global market position too," says Managing Director Peter Gäbler. The Trützschler Group SE is also investing in India to build a new site with over 100,000 square meters for the Spinning, Card Clothing and Nonwovens business units. "It is important to be close to the customer worldwide because our foreign companies make a significant contribution to the success of the Group," says Gäbler.

TCC achieved another record sales result in 2021. Demand for the technology components for carding fibers in spinning mills and for carding in nonwovens production has increased significantly. The steel sawtooth wires, which are wound onto coils and produced for customers around the globe, eventually get worn down by use in production processes – so it is necessary to replace them regularly. For this reason, further growth is expected in 2022 and beyond.

Monforts will be presenting its finishing technologies at the forthcoming Igatex textile machinery exhibition, which takes place from December 1-4 at the Lahore Expo Centre in Pakistan.

The importance of the textile industry to Pakistan’s economy cannot be overstated – it accounts for 60% of the country’s overall exports and some of its industry’s players are very major employers. In the year to June 2022, Pakistan’s textile exports climbed by 25% to a record value of $19.3 billion according to the country’s Bureau of Statistics, as security of deliveries – especially to Europe and the USA – worked in the country’s favour, in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent supply chain issues. It has a key role to play in quickly getting the country back on its feet after the devastation.

Monforts customers in the regions around the country’s three biggest cities of Karachi, Lahore and Faisalbad include all of the main players in the fields of home textiles and denim production, including Afroze, , Al Karam Artistic Milliners, Azgard-9, Crestex, , Gul Ahmed, Interloop, Liberty Mills, Lucky Textile Mills, Mustaqim, Naveena (NDL), Rajby Industries, Sapphire Finishing, Soorty, Style Textile and US Denim.

These companies rely on established Monforts technologies including Montex stentering equipment, Monfortex sanforizing units and Thermex dyeing ranges. The company’s Matex Eco Applicator minimum application system has also proved a big hit in recent years.

Monforts has also achieved considerable success in Pakistan with its Econtrol®* dyeing system  – an effective and established dyeing process. More than 40 Thermex continuous dyeing ranges have been installed in Pakistan in recent years and operator training on the Econtrol®* process by sophisticated technologists is an additional service.

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.

An immediate wash off is also unnecessary, allowing for flexible production planning. The process is suitable for pale to dark shades with very good fastness properties. Also waste water treatment is improved by this technology.

*Econtrol is a registered mark of Dystar Colours Distribution GmbH.

As part of an ongoing investment programme ensuring it remains at the forefront of advanced technology for carpet production, West Yorkshire, UK-headquartered Phoenox Textiles has recently installed a new two-metre-wide shearing line supplied by BTMA member Sellers Textiles Engineers.

Phoenox, which has been family owned since its foundation in 1954, develops original creative flooring design concepts for retail brands. Its products are sold through high street outlets, department stores and volume retailers across Europe and North America, in addition to substantial online and catalogue-driven business. All told, the company’s 24-hour parcel service dispatches some 3.2 million orders every year.

Operating from two manufacturing sites, Phoenox manufactures an annual 1.7 million metres of flooring in the UK. Over a combined area of 1,700,000 square metres, the two plants are equipped for tufting, backcoating, cloth printing and finishing along with automated cutting, sewing and packing.

In addition to the Sellers shearing line, other recent investments for the UK operations have included three new advanced tufting machines and a high-speed Sellers backcoating line equipped to handle widths of up to two metres and coat at six metres per minute. Washable and dyeable foams and eco-friendly applications in different weights are applied for many product areas.

The company’s state-of-the-art Chromo jet printing process line is meanwhile the only one of its kind in the UK, with its 256 jets making possible designs in up eight colours per pattern. With sustainability very much at the forefront of the company’s approach, Phoenox recycles most of its paste and inks and uses organic options wherever possible, as well as recycled water.

“We operate a piece dye colour cloth programme and can dye nylon and cotton with weights of up to 500kg per load, working with direct, organic, vat and reactive dyes,” says Mosley. “We also offer computerised and weighed commission dyeing. Computerised automated cutting machines and photocell pattern recognition enable us to cut at high speed in most cloth densities. With finishing and sewing though, it’s all about the detail, and our team have years of experience and hand-finish our products on traditional high-speed machines.”

The new Sellers Hybrid Shearing Cylinder can provide a competitive edge for manufacturers which is currently being proven in the field, including at Phoenox. It’s one of a number of new innovations BTMA members are planning to showcase at next year’s ITMA exhibition in Milan.

Dr. Harald Weber will become the new managing director of the VDMA Textile Machinery Association on 1 January 2023. The 44-year-old industrial engineer succeeds Thomas Waldmann, who has held the position since 1991 and will retire at the end of the year.

After completing his doctorate at the Technical University of Darmstadt and working as a lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences Mittelhessen (THM), Dr. Weber joined the VDMA in 2011. Since then, he has been responsible for the topics of technology and innovation in the Plastics and Rubber Machinery Association.

Dr. Janpeter Horn, Chairman of the VDMA Textile Machinery Association and Managing Director of August Herzog Maschinenfabrik, commented on the change of personnel: "From his previous work in the plastics industry, Dr. Weber has profound knowledge and experience in topics that are also gaining in importance in textile machinery manufacturing. Examples include recycling and the circular economy, as well as digitalisation and especially the communication standard OPC UA."

Dr. Horn added: "We combine our warm welcome to Dr. Weber with a big thank you to Thomas Waldmann. 30 years as managing director at the Textile Machinery Association also stand for constantly changing framework conditions. Mr. Waldmann has always had his finger on the pulse of the industry and, together with his team, has represented the special interests of the member companies: From technology policy to challenges of market access to the leading trade fair ITMA and the European association CEMATEX. ITMA 2007 in Munich was certainly a highlight. The executive board of the association wishes Mr. Waldmann all the best for the new phase of his life that is now beginning."

• Sales of CHF 366.8 million in the third quarter, CHF 987.4 million after nine months
• Order intake of CHF 226.4 million in the third quarter, CHF 1 095.8 million after nine months
• Order backlog of around CHF 2 000 million as of September 30, 2022
• Precautionary measures taken against potential energy crisis in Europe
• Financing of a Professorship for Artificial Intelligence
• Rieter site sales process on schedule
• Outlook 2022

Rieter recorded a significant increase in sales in the third quarter of 2022, reaching a level of CHF 366.8 million (2021: CHF 257.3 million). The measures introduced to increase sales and profitability in the second half of 2022 are taking effect and will continue to be implemented in a systematic manner. These include a close cooperation with key suppliers, the development of alternative solutions to eliminate material shortages, the enforcement of price increases, and the improvement of the margin quality of the order backlog.

The order intake of CHF 226.4 million in the third quarter of 2022 reflects the expected normalization of demand for new equipment compared to the record year of 2021, which was characterized by catch-up effects and the regional shift in demand. In addition, the well-known uncertainties and risks and the continuing extremely long delivery times at key manufacturers had a dampening effect on demand. Due to the slowdown in capacity utilization in the spinning mills, demand for consumables, wear & tear and spare parts also declined in the third quarter of 2022. Major orders continued to be recorded from Turkey, Uzbekistan, and China.

Rieter has a high order backlog of around CHF 2 000 million as of September 30, 2022 (September 30, 2021: CHF 1 562 million), which will guarantee capacity utilization in all three business groups until well into 2023 or rather 2024. The cancellation rate in the reporting period was around 5% of the order backlog.

Outlook 2022
Rieter anticipates weakened demand for new systems in the coming months. The demand for consumables, wear & tear and spare parts will depend on the capacity utilization of spinning mills in the months ahead.

For the full year 2022, Rieter expects sales of around CHF 1 400 million. The realization of sales revenue from the order backlog continues to be associated with risks in relation to the well-known uncertainties.

Despite significantly higher sales compared to the prior-year period, Rieter expects EBIT and net result for 2022 to be below the previous year’s level. This is due to the considerable increases in the cost of materials and logistics, additional costs for compensation of material shortages as well as expenses in connection with the acquisition in the years 2021/2022.

Rieter is presenting the latest innovations in its systems, components and services at the upcoming India ITME 2022 in Uttar Pradesh (India), taking place from December 8 – 13, 2022.

Autoconer X6
The automatic winding machine Autoconer X6 completes the Rieter ring and compact-spinning systems. The machine serves as the final quality assurance in the ring and compact-spinning process and is key to the performance of the subsequent process stages. The Multilink system with Multilot offers maximum flexibility to handle a different type of yarn.

The latest splicer generation OZ1 and OZ2 provides an optimum splice quality based on an open prism. With only two prisms spinning mills can splice the entire spectrum of cotton yarns as well as blends. They are also used for the splicing of cotton-based elastic core yarns in combination with the Elastosplicer. The splice zone exhibits an impressive elasticity in the fabric.

Compacting Solutions
The Rieter compacting devices include the COMPACTapron, COMPACTeasy and COMPACTdrum. Spinning mills can change quickly between ring and compact yarn and offer customers a broader product range.

Recycling Expertise from Rotor to Ring
Rieter offers solutions for the integration of recycled raw material into yarn production to help close the textile loop and make fashion more circular. Both rotor and ring yarns can be produced with a considerable amount of mechanically recycled fibers.

ESSENTIALorder
Based on existing customer information, the webshop ESSENTIALorder visualizes which Rieter machines andn systems are available inside each spinning mill. It therefore offers a personalized shopping experience and facilitates order management, enabling spinning mills to optimize their internal stock levels.

ROBOspin
The piecing robot ROBOspin reduces personnel requirements in the ring spinning section by 50%. The robot also attains productivity increases thanks to higher spindle speeds at equal or higher efficiency.

SSM NEO-FD
SSM is presenting NEO-FD, the assembly-winding machine for precision wound packages for twisting. It meets all requirements for efficient production. The machine features the auto-doffing option and the online back-pressure system for low and high package densities.

Temco CoolFlow Disc
Temco’s CoolFlow texturing discs offer longer lifetime thanks to a brand-new geometry and the latest polyurethane technology. The texturing discs now generate a disc surface that operates at a lower temperature, resulting in slower ageing and abrasion. Further benefits are more stable yarn quality, higher productivity, and an overall process cost reduction.

The identification of profitable new niche markets has been central to the success and continuous expansion of Germany’s Dolinschek, a leading knitting, dyeing and finishing specialist, located in Burladingen in Baden-Württemberg.

“There is so much more to textiles than just clothing,” says Theo Dolinschek, who runs the company with his brother Erwin. “We handle many different technical materials such as automotive components, geotextiles and wallcoverings, but also those for more unusual applications such as inlays for extractor hoods, cut protection fabrics and even wool felts which are employed as insulation on wind turbines.

“We have also recently started to produce compression stockings in a variety of colours, because not everyone wants them black, beige or skin coloured. The most important product areas for us now are in sportswear, corsetry and lingerie, as well as orthopedic and medical products, workwear and protective clothing, but in addition, many other technical applications.”

The Dolinschek brothers moved their business to the historic site of the former Ambrosius Heim textile company in Burladingen in 2001 in order to expand. At the time, the company – founded by their father in 1980 as a textile wholesaler before moving into dyeing – employed just 13 people. Within a year, the company had bought additional space at the site.

Now, with Theo in charge of technology and sales, and Erwin responsible for production, the company employs almost 100 people and operates on an integrated site of 35,000 square metres.

In 2005, a laminating department was established by the company and since 2012 investment in knitting machines has been ongoing.

“The further we went into vertical integration, the more of our own products we were able to position on the market and so we were also able to make ourselves more independent,” says Theo. “We have continued to develop and today we can produce high-quality fabrics for many fields, with 42 knitting machines, 36 dyeing machines, three stenter frames and many other production and processing machines.”

Dolinschek has also developed its own proprietary TMG dyeing machines which have subsequently been successfully sold to many other companies all over the world. There are currently 11 of these machines  in operation at the Burladingen site and around 45 installed at other companies.

For finishing technology, however, the company relies on Monforts, and has installed a new seven chamber Montex TwinAir stenter range with a Montex®Coat coating unit in knife execution, enabling the coating of dimensionally stable knitted fabrics with polyurethane or acrylate. Another unique feature is the Teflon-coated (non-stick) transportation belt through the system.

The Montex line is also equipped with integrated heat recovery and exhaust gas purification to ensure the most resource-efficient processing available on the market. The exhaust air goes from the Monforts heat recovery system into an existing air/water heat recovery system and then into an electrostatic precipitator.

Highly-intuitive Monforts Qualitex visualisation software allows all machine functions and process parameters to be assessed and controlled easily.