From the Sector

Montex Maschinenfabrik – the key site for the manufacturing of Monforts finishing machines in Austria – has celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2022.

Located in St. Stefan, in the centre of Austria’s Lavant Valley in Carinthia, the advanced manufacturing hub was founded by Monforts in 1982.

“From the outset, we have specialised in all aspects of machine production, including high-precision sheet metal working, laser cutting and welding, and the pre-assembly of machines and components, , along with a well-organised quality management and spare parts service,” says Montex plant manager Gert Hanzl.

“We work very closely with the Monforts research and development team in Mönchengladbach, Germany, to take the latest new ideas through testing and prototyping, in readiness for future series production,” Hanzl says. “We are fully exploiting the many new possibilities in the continuous development of design and manufacturing methods. The respective electrical switch cabinets for the machines are delivered just-in-time from Monforts in Germany according to our production schedules.”

While there is standardisation in series-produced Monforts machines, Montex is also increasingly called upon to construct bespoke machines with unique designs, according to the special needs of customers in technical textile or special textiles, he adds.

The core Monforts machine range, including the industry standard Montex stenters, along with relaxation dryers, Thermex dyeing ranges, Monfortex compressive shrinking ranges and Montex®Coat coating units is built at the Austrian site.

Fibre Extrusion Technology Limited (FET) of Leeds, England has installed a FET-200LAB wet spinning system at the University of Manchester which will play a major part in advanced materials research to support sustainable growth and development.

This research programme will be conducted by The Henry Royce Institute, which operates as a hub model at The University of Manchester with spokes at other leading research universities in the UK.

The Henry Royce Institute identifies challenges and stimulates innovation in advanced UK materials research, delivering positive economic and societal impact. In particular, this materials research initiative is focused on supporting and promoting all forms of sustainable growth and development.
These challenges range from biomedical devices through to plastics sustainability and energy-efficient devices; hence supporting key national targets such as the UK’s zero-carbon 2050 target.

FET-200 Series wet spinning systems complement FET’s renowned range of melt spinning equipment. The FET-200LAB is a laboratory scale system, which is especially suitable for the early stages of formulation and process development. It is used for processing new functional textile materials in a variety of solvent and polymer combinations.

In particular, the FET-200LAB will be utilised in trials for a family of fibres made from wood pulp, a sustainable resource rather than the usual fossil fuels. Bio-based polymers are produced from biomass feedstocks such as cellulose and are commonly used in the manufacture of high end apparel. The key to cellulose and other materials like lyocell and viscose is that they can be recycled, treated and fed back into the wet spinning system for repeat manufacture.

Established in 1998, FET is a leading supplier of laboratory and pilot melt spinning systems with installations in over 35 countries and has now successfully processed more than 35 different polymer types in multifilament, monofilament and nonwoven formats.

Renaissance Textile in Laval, France has successfully started up a complete textile recycling line, delivered, installed, and commissioned by ANDRITZ Laroche, part of the international technology group ANDRITZ.

The ANDRITZ textile recycling equipment enabled Renaissance Textile to become the first French recycling platform dedicated to industrial end-of-life textiles. The project aims to produce new fibers from the collected post-consumer apparel, which will be used to weave new recycled fabrics in the end.

The new 12,000 m² plant is equipped with a complete tearing line whose design is the result of close collaboration between R&D specialists from ANDRITZ Laroche and Renaissance Textile, as well as customized trials carried out jointly by the two parties at the ANDRITZ technical center in Cours, France.

The new clothing produced based on this type of circular economy model thus reflects the social and sustainability commitments of Renaissance Textile in terms of decarbonizing the textile industry, the fight against global warming, autonomy in raw material sourcing, and promotion of local staffing, particularly for people who have been unemployed for a long time or are seeking to enter the labor market for the first time. By 2025, for example, Renaissance Textile plans to create no less than 110 direct jobs.

Orbus Exhibit & Display Group® has continued its substantial and longstanding relationship with digital print technology provider Electronics For Imaging, Inc., choosing the premium-quality capabilities of the EFI™ VUTEk® FabriVU® 340+ soft signage printer to meet surging demand for dye-sublimation soft signage graphics. The new printer now running at Orbus’s Las Vegas facility marks an important milestone for EFI, as it is the 300th EFI VUTEk FabriVU printer installed worldwide.

Orbus is North America’s top trade manufacturer of soft signage and flag graphics for tradeshow exhibits, promotional displays, experiential retail and corporate interiors. The company is one of the largest users of EFI soft signage printers worldwide. The newly installed FabriVU 340+ model joins two additional FabriVU printers at Orbus Las Vegas. The company has its fourth FabriVU printer at its headquarters facility, along with a pair of high-volume EFI industrial printers used exclusively for dye-sublimation production.

The upgraded performance comes courtesy of the VUTEk FabriVU 340+ printer’s new, eight-printhead, CMYK x 2 array, along with new electronics for reliable and consistent premium-quality output of exhibit graphics, backlit graphics, retail fixture wraps, front lit graphics, block-out banners and fabric interior decor. A flag printing kit on the printer easily handles porous media in high-penetration applications by collecting inks without touching the rear side of the media.
 
As with all VUTEk FabriVU printers, it prints both transfer paper and direct-to-fabric.

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.

DiloGroup will be attenting India ITME 2022 (December 8 – 13, 2022), an exhibition for the textile industry, which offers a central forum for dialogue within the textile production sector, including textile machine building, fibre production, ancillaries and accessories. For DiloGroup this event is a good oppportunity to inform customers and interested parties about new developments aimed at improving production technologies with a focus on needlefelts.

Focal points of the development work are:

1. Intense Needling:
   The development efforts of DiloGroup aim at producing nonwovens by “intense needling” instead of water entangling, even for light nonwovens made of fine fibres for the medical and hygiene sector with an area weight of 30 – 100 g/m². This would result in a reduction of the environmentally relevant production costs; per annum to about 1/3 to 1/5 of current.
2. “Fibre Pulp Recycling”
   Fibrous material in nonwovens and particularly used clothes can be successfully recycled, if staple length can be conserved in the tearing process. In the classical tearing process, staple lengths are dramatically reduced and therefore these fibres can only be used as base material for inferior uses in thermal or acoustic insulation or in protective textiles, transportation or protective covers etc.
   When recycling textile waste in the context of the collection of used clothes, the so called “filament-saving” tearing using special tearing machines and methods must be used to produce fibres with longer staple lengths which can be fed to a nonwoven installation. Hence product characteristics can be better specified and controlled.
3. Additive nonwoven production
   The additive production method of the “3D-Lofter” is especially suited for automotive parts with differently distributed masses. It is also suited for uses in the sector of apparel and shoe production.
4. “IsoFeed”-card feeding
   In the field of card feeding, the “IsoFeed” method offers great potential for a more homogeneous card feeding at the same time reducing the variation in cross-machine fibre mass distribution and thus the fibre consumption while conserving the end product quality.

BTMA member Sellers Textile Engineers is marking its 110th anniversary this year with the introduction of a new concept in carpet shearing, as the essential final step in ensuring tuft uniformity and ‘just new’ freshness in finished carpet rolls.

The company has for many years offered two options in the construction of its shearing cylinders – the first, namely the ‘strap-on’, incorporates spiral blades bolted to the cylinder body and the second, known as the ‘caulked-in’, includes spirals which are fixed very securely in a machined groove within the machine.

The new Sellers’ Hybrid Shearing Cylinder combines the benefits of both, resulting in an improved cut and finer finish, in addition to longer repeatable finishing and increased rigidity.

“The Hybrid Shearing Cylinder has all the advantages of the ‘strap-on’ spiral blade to provide a sharper and cleaner cut, along with enhanced rigidity which significantly lengthens the intervals between the necessary regrinding of the blade,” explains Sellers Director Neil Miller. “We currently have six Hybrid Shearing Cylinders operating in the field and the earliest, which has been installed in both No1 Head position, where the majority of the shearing operation and heaviest cut is performed, and also in No3 Head, where the sharper cutting angle has resulted in a much improved surface quality.”

Sellers shearing machines have led the field in carpet finishing for many decades, enabling the leading manufacturers to stay competitive by enabling the highest quality of finish to be achieved economically and efficiently.

The latest advanced features of these machines include a load cell tension control drive system, an automated touchscreen for easy operator control and fault diagnosis, an enhanced cleaning system including cylinder and blade separation and fully controllable pivoting beds. Further options include thickness monitoring, seam detection and metal detection systems.

“The Hybrid Shearing Cylinder will become standard on our latest machines and also be made available for retrofitting, to provide significant benefits to our existing users,” says Miller. “All of our equipment is designed, manufactured, assembled and tested at our plant in the UK, and as one of the few remaining European engineering companies to make all of our components in-house – with now over a century of accumulated know-how – flexibility in design allows our finishing solutions to be targeted to specific customers and their product requirements. Aligned to this is a lead in process control systems which ensure the accurate control, reliability and repeatability of the processing parameters on all of our machines.”

Sellers remains committed to providing complete finishing solutions for all carpet, tile and artificial grass products. Its range includes machines for tufted secondary backing, both conventional, powder and extrusion lamination, Wilton and Axminster products, artificial grass and foam lines, coating lines for bitumen, PVC, PU and other polymers, as well as shearing for all carpet products.

Ongoing developments on the company’s coating and drying lines have resulted in improved guiding and product tension control as well as dryer efficiency, reducing heat loss and optimising energy use. These include a re-design of the fan pressure boxes and impingement nozzles to increase airflow efficiency, modulating gas burners and introducing easy clean, accessible filters.

In addition, the proven dual zone system has been enhanced, giving a temperature differential of up to 80°C between top and bottom zones. Dryers can be heated by either gas or steam and operation and access have been simplified with controls via touchscreen and PLC.

An extensive range of ancillary equipment is available to provide maximum flexibility to cover product requirements, for both new processing lines and as upgrades to existing equipment.

“Carpet manufacturing is now based on well-established, tried and trusted processes and it’s rare for new innovations to be introduced into this sector,” says Jason Kent, CEO of the British Textile Machinery Association. “The new Sellers Hybrid Shearing Cylinder can provide a competitive edge for manufacturers which is currently being proven in the field. It’s one of a number of new innovations the company is planning to showcase at next year’s ITMA exhibition in Milan.”

Together with the Johann Jacob Rieter Foundation, the Rieter Group is supporting a new Endowed Professorship for Industrial Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the ZHAW School of Engineering. The Professorship is dedicated to teaching and research in the field of industrial applications of Artificial Intelligence and will be announced later this year.

The new Endowed Professorship will be established at the Center for Artificial Intelligence (CAI) of the ZHAW in Winterthur. It will focus, in particular, on the application of machine learning methods and knowledge-based systems in connection with processes in production and service.

For Rieter, the commitment is related to the implementation of its technology leadership strategy. The contribution of the Johann Jacob Rieter Foundation to sponsoring the Professorship is in line with the Winterthur Cluster Initiative. The increasing digitalization of production processes opens up new perspectives for Winterthur as a business location.

Building Expertise in the Field of Industrial AI
The Endowed Professorship will serve to build expertise in the field of Industrial AI and will oversee a group that will focus on teaching and research pertaining to trustworthy machine learning. This involves, for example, the deployment of artificial intelligence with the aim of optimizing production processes in relation to the use of raw materials and energy, and making expert knowledge more readily available.

In addition to research, for the purpose of knowledge transfer, the new professorship will also be active in teaching, in the bachelor's degree programs in Computer Science and in Data Science, in the Master of Science in Engineering, and in continuing education.

The annual commitment of CHF 300 000 over a period of six years will be financed equally by the Rieter Group and the Johann Jacob Rieter Foundation.
“The use of artificial intelligence in industry is becoming increasingly important, especially with regard to the potential of data for evaluation and control of complex processes. The support of the Johann Jacob Rieter Foundation and the Rieter Group will allow us to further expand AI research in the field of industrial applications,” explains Prof. Dr. Dirk Wilhelm, Director of the ZHAW School of Engineering.

“The use of Artificial Intelligence will make a significant contribution to automation and process optimization, and thereby advance sustainability in the textile industry. This makes it an important element of the leading technology that Rieter offers,” emphasizes Rieter CEO Dr. Norbert Klapper.

“The Smart Machines cluster is growing in importance,” says Thomas Anwander, member of the Foundation Board, and adds: “The Endowed Professorship for Industrial AI at the ZHAW aims to promote Winterthur as a technology location by pooling locally available strengths in mechanical engineering and Industry 4.0.”

RF5 SMMS 3200 nonwovens line is scheduled to be commissioned in the fourth quarter of 2022, and will be the first Reicofil 5 (RF5) line operating in Africa.

PFNonwovens is one of the most innovative nonwoven companies in the world, and continues to grow its footprint in the US, Europe and Africa. PFN wants to set a new benchmark of high-quality and innovative products for the Southern African markets with this purchase.

Markus Mueller, Sales Director of Reifenhäuser Reicofil and Key Account Manager for PFNonwovens, adds: “Since 2018, Reicofil has been delivering RF5 lines to support the global hygiene industry across four continents. The hygiene industry values the consistent product quality provided by RF5 and the key product performance properties it delivers at lower basis weights helping to drive industry sustainability goals. With an energy requirement of 1-1.2 kilowatt hours per kilogram produced, Reicofil 5 manages the conversion from raw material to nonwoven more efficiently than any other technology on the market. We are very pleased that after many years of partnership cooperation with PFNonwovens, we are now able to establish this technology at their South Africa location and look forward to our further collaboration to serve the hygiene and medical market in the whole region with top quality products.”

• Free trade deal boosts export potential

The time is right for Swiss textile machinery companies to grow their export business with Indonesia – one of the world’s top 10 textile producers. A free trade agreement between the two countries came into force in 2021, and market analyses show that there is scope for a significant increase in business in textile and textile machinery sectors.

This was the background to a successful symposium in the Indonesian capital Jakarta last month when Swiss Textile Machinery Association members presented their products and innovations to an invited audience of 200 delegates from Indonesian textile companies.

The symposium audience was welcomed by Philippe Strub, of the Swiss Embassy in Indonesia; Ignatius Warsito, from the Indonesia Ministry of Industry’s Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Textile Industry branch; Anne Patricia Sutanto, of the Indonesian Textile Association (API); and Ernesto Maurer, President of the Swiss Textile Machinery Association.

Swiss companies taking part were: Stäubli, Zeta Datatec, Loepfe, Saurer, Benninger, Rieter, Bräcker, Jakob Müller, Maag, Uster and SERV.

The presentations were followed by panel discussions with speakers, and there were also networking opportunities at the companies’ exhibition tables.

Also taking part in a panel at the event was Testex, the independent Swiss organisation which provides testing, certification, OEKO-TEX® and other labels for the textile industry. Discussion focused on the relevance of innovation in textile technology to sustainability and ‘saving the planet.’  

Recent years have seen an acceleration in trade relations between Switzerland and Indonesia, which in 2008 was classed as one of eight priority countries for economic development cooperation by SECO, the Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs, with a joint economic and trade commission established the following year.
Collaboration was heightened further in 2018 with a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) for Indonesia with Switzerland and the other EFTA countries. This more extensive form of free trade agreement was accepted after a popular referendum, and ultimately came into force in November 2021.

Trading between the two countries is supported by SERV, the Swiss export risk insurance organisation. This insures export goods against political and commercial risks and facilitates credit.

Cornelia Buchwalder, Secretary General of the Swiss Textile Machinery Association, said the Indonesia Symposium was ideally-timed, right after the CEPA came into effect: “With the free trade agreement in place, there is even greater potential for the development of trade between our countries,” she said.

“Business in textile and textile machinery is actually below the relative market shares for the sectors, so this stronger cooperation is probably overdue. It was a successful symposium, with enthusiastic participation from Indonesian textile companies, so we are optimistic about future export prospects for Swiss textile machinery.”